An Unintended Treasure Trove

Putting Scottsboro in Storage. How to Avoid Losing Your Luggage

In a small Alabama town called Scottsboro, there is an enormous and very successful business built on the woes of travelers who have lost their luggage. Unclaimed and lost bags end up here, and the treasures inside are sold for fun and profit. You should check out their website, and then you should make it your ambition that your bags never see the inside of this place. Your goal as a traveler should be very simple – to put this business out of business.

Let’s talk about how to avoid losing your luggage, and keep your valuables out of pictures like this:

Lost luggage
The results of lost luggage. A thriving business built on misfortune.

Tempting fate is never wise, but I’m declaring in front of God, country and American Airlines it’s been almost thirty years since I’ve permanently lost a piece of luggage. For those of you keeping score at home, that dates back to when I was a teenager. My dad and I were Continue reading “Putting Scottsboro in Storage. How to Avoid Losing Your Luggage”

runbag

Packing It In: How to Pack a Suitcase

Most people who spend their lives within a few inches of the eyepiece of a camera are acquainted with the term “run bag.” They know how to pack a bag, and they know how to pack a suitcase. Depending on what your particular job is, a run bag will have different items in it, but its purpose is pretty easy to convey. A run bag contains the essential tools you need to do your job when your job changes on short notice. It’s what you carry when you know you gotta run.

I was a reporter for almost fifteen years,and one of the tools of the trade was knowing how to pack a suitcase. Jin that same vein, though, was how to have the tools I needed on-hand when we would, as my assignment desk editor liked to say “switch gears.” I never left the house or the office without my run bag, and Continue reading “Packing It In: How to Pack a Suitcase”