Getting ready for the trip to Texas

     Now this should have been posted yesterday but I'll give you a quick overview of trip preparation.  Everybody travels a little differently and has different packing skills and necessities.  I generally have my suitcase always at the ready.  When I get home, everything gets washed and then repacked.  Of course there are the times when one might take some time off and hopefully, if you're a road warrior, you do take some well needed time off.  Times like this would have been my last two weeks of vacation over the holidays to spend time with my family.  This is the only time that the items in my luggage may find another place of residence.  I make every effort to keep everything centrally located for ease of packing but sometimes items may stray.  I started gathering my necessities two days prior to today so that I could go over what I had and find what I may have missed.

     Since I perform service repair, some of my needed items include more then just a change of clothes and toiletries.  I have separate work clothes, safety gear and tools that have to be considered as well.  Dealing with different facilities and different equipment also require several kinds of troubleshooting cables and software.  At times I must even pack some replacement parts or modules that may be needed as well.  Today my suitcase weighed in at 50.5 lbs, just over the usual airline limit.  Delta let me slide on that, so status does make a difference at times.  Hilton now lets you check-in a day in advance so I took advantage of this to select the room I wanted to stay in.  Also I checked in through the Delta app on my iPhone, which I can use it for my boarding pass or print it out at the kiosk when I drop off my luggage at the airport.  

     I also take some time to check that I'm not carrying anything that won't get through TSA.  On occasion, I will get the little bottles of water in first class and stick them in my carry-on backpack.  These are not allowed to go through TSA screening.  I have been flagged on many occasion by forgetting about them.  Since this bag goes with me even when I'm not working, I need to stay mindful that I didn't inadvertently placed a forbidden item inside.  Even a seasoned traveler can slip up from time to time.

     Now that the packing is taken care of, it's time to get some sleep because 2:30AM comes pretty quick.  With having some bad weather in the area plus a little over an hour drive to the airport, I want to be alert for my 6AM flight.  I can always snooze on the plane.

Next up is my first trip of the New Year...