Banished: The Brute and Fat Dog

New and Untested

The Brute

I know they look almost identical, but the one on the left is my new cheap 'n cheerful suitcase from Ross.   I bought it the other day for our upcoming trip to Montana.  It replaces the bag on the right, which is smaller but two and a half pounds heavier.

 I call the heavy suitcase "The Brute".  It's so sturdy that I could throw it under a jet and it'd probably survive. But  the cost of all that reinforcement is weight.  They don't tell you that in the luggage store when you're giddy about a trip to Paris.  You buy what they say is going to last a lifetime (except the company already went out of business and the handle broke). And you pay a lot of money.

The last time I used The Brute was when we went to Chicago in the spring, and I vowed never again.  I've put in my time with that bag, hauled it on trips to Europe, Canada, the East Coast, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.   It rolls fine, but there are times when rolling isn't an option, and then I just want to throw it.   In fact, I did throw it once,  off a train.  Jerry, standing on the platform, was wide-eyed.  It missed him, and nothing inside broke.

After I bought the new suitcase--and it was Senior Discount Day at Ross. so I saved $6.50--I got obsessed with the idea of finding a smallish totebag that would sit on top of it so I could pull the whole works, piggy-backed.  This is the kind of thing you get fixated on if you travel very much: chasing a better, lighter, more convenient, velcro'ed, zippered arrangement.

Fat Dog

I have a tote, actually a "weekender," that matches The Brute.  I think of it as Fat Dog, at least when I pack it (Jerry took it to Romania with everything he needed for a week, and it was surprsingly light).  I have to embrace it like an overweight legless dog and haul it  that way down the long concourses from plane to Passport Control,  everyone else sprinting past me.  This pisses me off and makes my back ache.

New tote

I had in mind something lighter and smaller than Fat Dog.   I found a Baggalini tote on Amazon that sits squarely on top of the new roller bag, with a pocket on the back that fits over the roller bag handle.  The new tote is dark gray with fushia lining, which gives it a certain panache Fat Dog lacks.  I'm in love with it.  We're not leaving for another week and a half, but I've got it packed and ready to go.  There's even an elastic loop to stick my lipstick through.

Next year, we're going to be traveling for a solid month, and I'm already hot on the trail of a larger carry-on tote with wheels that I can roll from the plane to Passport Control and then lift on to my roller bag.  I found one online, another Baggalini, but I want to see it before I commit.

Does the quest for a perfect bag ever end?