JillFlorio

Common late checkouts are until noon or 1 pm. It’s a decent freebie for the asking…

A little-used feature at hotels are the free late checkouts. Just because your official checkout time is 10 or 11 am, doesn’t mean you have to hurry on those lazy layover days. Simply call the hotel office and ask if you can have a free late checkout. Then you can leave the hotel and have a great breakfast, see the sights…and THEN come back and pack up. Common late checkouts are until noon or 1 pm. I call that a SWEET freebie!

Watch your laptop. Nail it down. At least back the thing up. Laptop theft in coffee shops is increasing.

In a disturbing new trend, crooks are snatching laptops right from the hands of cafe-going travelers.

According to the The San Francisco Chronicle article linked above, the Bay area is the major “hot spot” for this type of activity, although they mention Berkeley coffee shops are also at risk.

I’d suggest that any hip, urban center full of coffee shops and laptop people will only attract more of this unwelcome attention. Think New York, Seattle, Bellevue, Ann Arbor, Austin, Boulder. Coffee towns. Maybe your own town.

Will a laptop leash help? Maybe. Or enjoying your notebook at a coffeeshop with a friend, buddying up at cafe tables? Probably more so on that one. I’d suggest keeping your eyes open - not disappearing into your Internet world - and not going alone (if you can help it).

Lastly, and always important to do - back up your laptop. And keep the backups somewhere safe. It’s not the law, but it’s still a REALLY GOOD IDEA. If your precious laptop does get snatched, you at least will have your irreplacable data.

Stinky air passengers at large. Maybe even you. Gotta pass gas on the plane?

When you travel enough, you will eventually find yourself seat-belted next to a smelly troll. Someone with an Air Flavor. Could be the flavor of farts, feet, halitosis, or just plain old BO. Ugh.

I hate this. Can’t people shower before a flight? Wash their smelly clothes in a hotel sink or something first?

Have you ever been stuck next to a bad-smelling passenger?You can always try to change seats…although, admittedly, you are in a small confined area, breathing recirculated air. I’ve heard of flight attendants placing opened coffee packets in seat pockets around the offender. Hey, whatever helps!

Just don’t light a match to cover the smell. A plane recently landed because a woman in flight was found lighting matches (which are illegal to bring in planes) to cover the scent of her gas.

There is probably an argument here for ponying up for Business and First Class seats. Usually people paying full fares keep their clothes and bodies clean, and maybe brush their teeth. Maybe. But there’s no telling who is going to be gassy that day (it could even be you).

Remember, Beano is your friend.

Get live stock quotes from your cell phone.

Poking around my obligatory USA Today (free with my hotel room) and noticing I can check stock prices over my cell phone if I wanted.

I’m not a “play the stocks” guy. I understand we have a few mutual funds and have a few environmentally green stocks on the side, but I don’t check on such things. Not my interests, really.

But if I WAS on a business trip and I cared, it’s nice that I could just use my cell, anywhere I have a signal, and see live quotes.

USA Today says to send a text message to 4INFO (44636) with: Stock Ticker (Dell) or Fund trader (AGTHX).

Have fun.

DAN WRITES: You can easily eat healthy hotel morning meals that won’t encrust your arteries, with a bit of care. Yoga and exercise while traveling certainly won’t hurt either!

After writing about hotels and the low carb diet, I have been asked to discuss low fat eating tips for business traveling. You can easily eat healthy hotel morning meals that won’t encrust your arteries, with a bit of care. This article describes common low fat hotel food options.

I also wanted to add that it doesn’t take much exercise to keep your heart tuned up - 20 minutes of even mild walking is helpful. I like to take a walk after a meal, if I can take the time. I do try to get out there, whether at home or on the road.

Yoga and simple stretching is another tip to keep your heart happy and healthy. Business travelers can become pretty Type A after a while. Travel is actually stressful! Yogic breathing and gentle stretching movements keep me both mentally and physically limber.

This enjoyable yogic chick-lit novel has three parts - the Pre-India, India and Post-India sections. The best part, and the bulk of the story, lies in protagonist’s India travels…in all their poverty-stricken, rotten-corpse-floating-in-the-Ganges glory.

Amanda, a part-time yoga instructor/part time guidebook author, is sent by her dragon-lady publisher to India in search of enlightenment. She ultimately finds the problem with packaging enlightenment into a “Dummies” book is that spiritual paths don’t run on deadlines.

Amanda jumps both feet first into India, fortunately befriended by an ex-pat, barefoot Sadhu (renunciate spiritual seeker). They travel across the Sub-Continent together, sleeping under mosquito netting on questionable mattresses, poling up the filthy Ganges and watching cows eat garbage in the streets. There’s an odd mix of the holy and the grotesque. The author’s voice seems genuine; she transports us with her to an honest view of India.

Amanda’s comic-desperate journey takes her from one promising enlightenment guru to the next. Each spiritual master takes a different tack on “The TRUTH”…hard core yoga, loss of individuality (who is the *you* who is asking about your truth?), strict ashram work schedules (her job is shoveling cow dung) and even ashrams with no leader (where the main activity, at least for Amanda, is sleeping in). Amanda finally backpacks in to an ascetic in a mountain cave who might actually possess the truth…and is suddenly, painfully sent home.

I found the India segment fascinating - I could have traveled with Amanda and Devi Das stumbling for enlightenment for years. Following her back to the states was a lot less fun.

The denouement was a bit of a let-down after all the colorful traveling and exotic misadventures. Back home, I sensed Amanda missed the sacred chaos and strange purity of her quest. I missed it too.

Amanda DID find what she was looking for, in a sense, and so did her publisher. And it’s really all we can hope for ourselves.

Overall, this was a fun read with some, ahem - enlightening moments, and a sort of “lite” version of the bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Recommended for chick lit fanciers who don’t mind a little meat in their beach reading.

Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel

I just bought an RV. I’m doing lots of research about the lifestyle, and am thinking of grooming on the road, while I travel, to help pay expenses. Traveling Groomer? Why not?So I took Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle, Barry Houseknecht’s online course to get introduced to the concepts, the language and the nuts and bolts about RVing.

This is a SuiteU course, so it was a natural to enroll (this being the sister program to Suite101). If you are thinking about moving to the RV lifestyle, start with this great beginner’s course. My research has shown most of the websites dedicated to RVing assume you already know the jargon and are currently on the road.

Here’s my short review of the Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle course:

Houseknecht’s course is pleasant to read - he never talks over the beginner’s head. The four lesson chapters lead the student through choosing the right kind of RV (did you know there are three classes of motorhomes and a whole smörgåsbord of trailables?), going to the dealer, getting your rig ready, staying in touch with the world (mail forwarding, Internet access, cell phones and GPS) and how to get started finding work on the road.

From a newbie’s perspective, I was glad to have this course; I felt less intimidated by everything I needed to know. There are a few simple course assignments and quizzes to get through, along with links to helpful resources.

Altogether, this RV course should get anyone from the RV Dreamer/Wannabe stage to their first trip on the road. I’d like to see a follow-up, more advanced course to teach me about holding tanks, best RV parks, cooking on the road, and all the numerous, day-to-day details of living the life, so to speak.

Do you bring your dog on your RV excursions? Do you think you would use the services of a groomer while at the RV park? Start a discussion below and let me know what you think.

And by all means, give Barry’s course a look-see if you are thinking of getting an RV.

Featured Course:
Introduction to RVs and the RV Lifestyle