School started for the kids in my neighborhood. This time of the year reminds me of essays I had to write about what I learned during the summer. I no longer have to write these essays, but I’m still learning. The latest batch is from my recent travels. Hopefully, you can benefit from my mistakes.

I’m not the best traveler and sometimes think I’m jinxed. As you may recall from an earlier post, I lost my ATM card right before my trip to Dallas. This month, I lost my driver’s license before heading to Seattle. I wasn’t pleased with myself because I didn’t renew my passport. It expired two months ago. This left me without a valid photo ID. I imagined the worst when going through airport security, but things worked out well. I had to go through an extra security check with TSA, but that line was considerably shorter so I think I came out ahead.

Lessons learned:

• Check that you have your driver’s license the night before.
• Don’t let your passport expire even if you don’t plan on traveling overseas.
• Check your wallet for new cards that may have remnants of rubber cement (which nicely binds with other cards such as your driver’s license).

Yes, as you may have guessed I had the driver’s license all along. It was stuck to the back of a new card. I failed to remove all the rubber cement.

I wasn’t the only one who lost something. On the return flight from Seattle, my luggage got lost. It ended up on an earlier flight to Los Angeles. It wasn’t until the customer service rep started the paperwork did I realize I could’ve made her job easier.

Lessons learned:

• Know the make/model/color of your luggage and dimensions. “Basic black about yeah big” probably matches 92% of bags lost any day.
• If you make a packing list, keep a paper copy with your carry on luggage.
• When telling the airline the contents of your luggage, start with common items like blue jeans or running shoes otherwise you may get some interesting looks. (Yes, I started with a portable laptop desk, 15 ft green CAT 5 cable)

I was tired from traveling; I opted to take a cab from the airport. As luck would have it, I got the cabbie from hell. Actually, I can’t confirm that since I couldn’t find his license posted in the cab. I wasn’t the “long fare” he hoped for and he started speaking loudly in an animated way in a language I didn’t understand. I just decided to sit back and answer his questions when needed while he drove like a maniac. When he wanted to know specifically where to go, I directed him to the police station. Talk about an attitude adjustment;-)

Lessons learned:

• Police stations make a great drop off point.

If you decide to create a packing list, I’ll let you in on the one item that made me a star with many attendees – duct tape. I’m not talking the big jumbo rolls for household or automotive jobs, but the tiny duct tape rolls that retailers like REI sell. They come in handy when people are trying to tape down notebook power cables and extension cords.