Hospital Stay - Not Your Standard Vacation Travel

For those who have been wondering why I haven't been posting: two main reasons.  First, I had surgery for cancer (got it all!) and have been recovering.  Secondly, I have not had much in the way of  inspiration for articles to write.  Some friends have promised guest articles but I have yet to receive them (sometimes life gets in the way). I have been depending on those articles and comments in the comments section to help in getting information out and generating ideas for articles.  I did get some off-line feedback from a friend to focus a bit more on the positives of travel vice the frugal aspect so I will try to work that in.  There's so much gee whiz, neato stuff about travel that can be focused upon.

 I'm limited to carrying no more than 4 kg (ten pounds) for the next month so I won't be using my pack for any pack vacations.  Our last kid in the house just graduated high school and my wife and I will celebrate 37 years of marriage this week so I plan to "go someplace" in celebration.  It will most likely be regional travel but I hope to generate an article about that.  I did a quick check of a state park a couple hours away and the frugal versus the medically responsible has already given me much to wrestle with.  I have accumulated great camping gear and could outfit a nice stand-alone off-grid site for weeks at a time.  The gear has some weight to it and I am limited to ten pounds lifting.  A tent camp site there costs $26/night.  A lodge room there with all the amenities costs $100/night.  I should add that my wife thinks we're too old to tent camp anymore.  I believe you can guess how this is going to end.  To make it worse, if I was camping on my own, I'd stealth hammock camp for free.  One thing this experience with cancer has taught me is to take time for vacation with family and friends.  I have been self-employed the past seventeen years and worked as an investigator for more than a quarter century.  Those work conditions can suck up all your time and at the end of the day, upon reflecting upon my life, I have concluded work accomplishments should not outweigh life accomplishments which include recreation.

 I do have a few observations from my time staying in the hospital.  Yes, it is a stretch to say my hospital stay is travel related but I did travel from my home state to another for the surgery.  We had reserved a room on the hospital campus for my wife to stay (me too when not in the hospital) and got the optional "room with kitchenette" thinking my wife would be able to cook her own ethnic food while there.  My thinking was "home food" would reduce her stress by having something familiar and cooked just the way she likes it.  We packed some food in addition to a Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar for her to take to the waiting area for lunch during my surgery.  The Mr. Bento is a well designed thermal lunch kit with sections for soup, rice, veggies, and dessert or other meal items.  She said it worked well for the circumstances we had envisioned for its use.  But, let's go back a little bit before the Mr. Bento mention.  When we got to the guesthouse (hotel) room, we quickly discovered there was a stove, microwave, and refrigerator, but no pots or pans and no dishes.  Fortunately, I prefer to use our own cooking and eating utensils and had packed a nice Embark mess kit I use for solar cooking and my Fozzils dinnerware.  So, lesson learned, bring your own or at least ask the reservations clerk about cooking equipment if you reserve a room with kitchenette for any travel.

Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar

 

I brought my "second string" sleep mask and earplugs with me in case I got a roommate at the hospital.  My reasoning for not taking the best I had was that I was not truly in control of what was to occcur during my stay and I did not want to lose them.  The rooms at the hospital are configured for two patients per room.  I was fortunate the first night that I did not have a roommate.  I was in pain and the annoyance of a roommate would have made my night just that much more miserable.  I was assigned a roommate the second day and I quickly learned I would pay for my strategy of using standard earplugs instead of the better ones I recommended earlier in this blog.  My roommate had the ability to talk loudly on the phone one minute, and immediately fall asleep when not talking.  His particularly loud gurgling snoring while asleep could cut right through the earplugs I brought.  Fortunately for me, I was discharged late that evening.  

 

So I brought minimal travel gear with me but what I did take, other than the earplugs, served us well.  Travel gear, in my opinion, should have use for other than just vacations.  That's it for now.  Hope to have some articles in the near future. Make some comments.  Send me some guest articles.  Participate please.  OK?

Will be out of pocket for the next week or so due to surgery.  One of my friends has committed to writing a guest article or two, just not in the next week or so.  Wish me luck!

Please check in periodically.  Things  going on in my life that must be attended to.  If I get any guest articles in, I'll post them.  And I'm pondering  what my next article(s) will be. 

Even more of my favorite travel gear

Some of my favorite travel gear (in no particular order). 

Fozzils:  Foldable plate, cup, and bowl origami-style.  Weighs around four ounces and folds flat.  You can use the plate as a cutting board when unfolded.  My wife thinks I’m silly to have this but it has utility if you decide to buy some things at the grocery while traveling and want to prepare it on something other than a paper towel .  It will definitely be a conversation starter.   

Sheet soap:  Dry sheets of soap.  Container with fifty sheets weighs under four ounces.  I use a few sheets for laundering clothes in the sink at travel lodging at the end of the day.  Hint:  remove the dry sheets to be used before your fingers get damp.    I’ve used ‘em for bigger loads in a washing machine as well.  Just put ‘em in on top of the clothes before water is added to the machine.

Scottevest:  My day bag alternative.  First time buyers get a discount.  This is an expensive clothing item but well worth it in utility and quality.  Mine has 22 pockets including hidden pockets.  Put items you would typically pack in a day bag or second carry-on bag and your pockets at the airport and just send your vest through the X-ray.   Some museums and other venues in Europe (most likely elsewhere nowadays because of bombers) won’t allow you to carry a day bag into the area and you have to place it in a locker before entry.  No problem with this vest.  Just put your stuff in it instead—it even has room for a bottle of water or your favorite beverage.  The one I have is black and I believe that could be a bit uncomfortable in warm/hot weather.  Just so happens I have a travel vest with far fewer pockets I purchased a couple years ago in Germany that is sand colored so it reflects heat away from me much better than a black vest would.  But I have been spoiled by the number of pockets in the Scottevest.  I also had a sand colored mesh fishing vest I purchased in Korea decades ago.  I turned the mesh vest inside out and my wife sewed it into the German vest as a liner.  Now I have double the pockets but not as many as the Scottevest.  The utility of a travel vest is well worth getting one.  Zipped up, this vest is a pickpocket's nightmare or serious challenge.

Recon Wrap:  A Recon Wrap is a tube of special wicking material that can be easily folded to make a multitude of head coverings like a beanie, helmet liner, etc.  It only weighs one ounce  and comes in black, olive drab, and beige.  I have two—a black one and the olive drab.  I really like it and have given them as gifts.  

Security Flashlight:  This Streamlight flashlight only weighs three ounces with two AA Engergizer lithium batteries installed.  It has three settings:  intense bright (and it’s really, really bright), strobe, and regular.   I carry this flashlight as a nonlethal weapon.  The strobe disorients during a confrontation and the flashlight can be used as a kubotan if your adversary gets more aggressive.  It’s just the right size to carry in pocket or hand and serves all the duties of any standard flashlight as well. 

I'm still waiting on my guest article inputs and am quite busy earning a living this week so until I can provide something of more substance, here's Some more of my favorite travel gear.

Some of my favorite travel gear (in no particular order). 

Kiva Packable Tote:  One of the things I found out in Germany is that some stores don’t offer free plastic bags to put your purchases in or if they do, the bags can’t handle too much weight.  So I got a Kiva packable tote.  It weighs just four ounces, holds  about fifteen liters, is fairly rugged and waterproof,  and fits in your pocket. I got the plain 'ol black one--I was around during the hippie days but I never got into flowers as a design of choice.    It actually serves a good purpose when traveling and you find it necessary to make a purchase at the grocery shop.  Gearhead stuff……I suppose so, but it still has my recommendation.

Cocoon Pillow:  Nice inflatable pillow weighing four ounces and is a little smaller than a softball when compressed and placed in its bag.  So it takes up very little space.  Opens up to a nice sized pillow good for travel or camping.  Each side of the pillow has a different material:  one fleece-like, one nylon-like.  Very comfortable. This pillow is part of my travel sleeping kits.


SteriPen:  A great water treatment option when traveling in countries or areas with questionable water quality.  I have a chronic medical condition so I must be careful to get safe drinking water.  This does the trick and the weight of the pen with batteries is only seven and a half ounces (pen and case).  There are lots of youtube videos on use.  One downside is that it makes the water safe to drink. It doesn’t change the taste of the water so if your water tastes icky before making it safe, it will taste icky after you make it safe.  I use a two step method by making the water safe with the SteriPen and then filtering the safe water through a bottle with an integrated carbon filter.  Best of both worlds that way.