Tag: travel

It’s another week of travel for me, starting early this morning. This is another crazy trip, and yes, I did this to myself. However, I am taking note this time and I’ve already declined and refused a few things for 2017 to try and avoid these trips.

My week:

• Tues am – Fly to DC, get prepped.
• Wed – Speak VS Live
• Thur – Speak in the am at VS Live, catch a late afternoon flight to Orlando. Arrive after midnight.
• Fri – Work a bit, then help Andy Warren with getting ready for the 10th SQL Saturday Orlando. Ten!!!!!!
• Sat – Speak, SQL Sat Orlando, twice.
• Sun – am flight home. I’ll be likely doing a few chores on Sun, maybe helping my daughter practice some volleyball or do homework (or both).
• Mon – work, then fly to Las Vegas in the early afternoon
• Tue – Speak at IT/Dev Connections twice.
• Wed – Speak at IT/Dev Connections. Catch evening flight home.
• Thur – Try to get back to normal. For a week.

I head to the PASS Summit on the 24th, so not a lot of time to try and establish some normalcy at home and work. I have to find a way because I turn around and have two work trips in Nov and two more in Dec, plus a Christmas vacation with the family.

For 2017, I’m planning less, so we’ll see if I learn anything.

A couple years I was looking for a new laptop bag. I settled on the Everki Versa, which I’ve been using on my travels for 2015/2016. It’s been quite a few, which you can see on my speaking CV.

I decided to write a long term review of the bag, since a friend was recently looking at the eBags Pro laptop bag. I have to admit, that one looks good, but I wanted to stop and evaluate what I thought of mine.

Warning: lots of pix, and a little long.

Tl;dr: I like the bag, and love the sunglasses case.

The Front

Here’s my bag. It’s got a souvenir mini-bat next to it for scale. I got that from SQL Saturday 403 in Louisville.

When you look at it, there’s a small front pocket (on top here) that doesn’t have a closure. However, it has a magnetic catch, so it’s useful for putting stuff in and it won’t fall out. Here’s what I put in it.

I keep a small Redgate notebook and pen, and will stuff boarding passes in there. I also drop my phone in here when I’m going through airport security. The magnet is strong enough to keep stuff in, but not annoying when I need it. A view of my stuff back in.

Behind this is a small zipper pocket. I tend to keep pens, a small screwdriver, and a sharpie in here. My passport also lives in here.

My wallet often goes in here when I travel, since it’s big. There are a few random other items, business cards, misc small stuff goes here. I don’t use this a lot, but I know I’ve got pens and the passport here. Here’s the pocket from the side.

Next, there’s a small zipper pocket on top. If you look at the first picture, it’s the zipper at the top of the picture. I drop quick things here, like my keys when I travel and my car ticket.

This is a small pocket, so I also can drop headphones in, but I keep this stuff in there. Extra lip balm, change, headphone earpieces, gum, and a small flashdrive. Easy to get to.

Side Pockets

There are two side pockets. One is supposed to be for a water bottle, but it’s small. If I had one annoyance, it’s that there isn’t a decent water bottle pocket.

This is a 24oz bottle, small compared to the ones I usually carry and refill, but none of those will fit here. There is a loop to keep this from falling out. There’s also a small mesh pocket in here where I have a travel LED flashlight.

That is the left side (when I’m carrying). The right side is more important to me and has a few things inside.

This is my tech power pocket. In here I have these things:

Two batteries, two cords, and US wall and car adapters. This lets me get to these things quickly on the go.

Inside

The main pocket for me is the center one. Here it is open, and you can see there’s a few things. There is a little divider, but I often find myself pushing it down when I shove stuff in. Not super useful, but if has a few pockets where I can organize.

I love the orange. It really makes things easier to find. I’m not sure I’d get a bag without the orange inside (unless is were hot pink or neon yellow).

What’s inside?

Here’s what’s inside. At the bottom of the picture, I have two pencil bags that my kids no longer use. These are handy for keeping things. One is a presenter bag with video adapters, presenter remote, an SSD for VMs, and wireless HDMI. The other has misc stuff, like microUSB power, a couple batteries, watch charger, misc cords, and a few other things I’ve picked up. I carry a 3ft HDMI cable, my power adapter, a spare set of earbuds, a 3 outlet power plug (with USB), a worldwide power adapter, batteries, a mouse, and a deck of playing cards (thanks to Ike Ellis).

In the mesh zipper pocket above, I have 3 zip loc bags. One has spare US currency, one has spare Europe currency, and one has a few meds (aspirin, allergy stuff, Nyquil). This is where things go in and out all the time.

There also is a laptop pocket in the back. This is against my back, but is nicely padded. You can see my leather tablet case and a scarf in here.

What’s nice is this opens wide. I’ve only done this a couple times for airport security since many of them still want my laptop out. So, I just pull it.

My laptop is about Surface Pro sized, and the leather case holds a mini keyboard inside the pocket. It can hold the Z Canvas keyboard on the tablet.

There’s a separate pocket to the inside of this pocket. My scarf, hat, and gloves live here, since I’ve forgotten those items on trips and it’s a pain to go buy new ones. Here’s the tablet/laptop.

I used to carry a 13” laptop in here fine.

The Back

There are two straps on this one, but more importantly, a pass through for a roller bag handle.

This is required for me. I’m often just dealing with carry on luggage and want my bags secured together. Slipping a handle through here works well. However, I can get the straps in. They quickly unclip.

I’ve only stuffed them through a few times. It’s not overly helpful, but it has been nice on some small planes to secure them when the bag is under a seat.

The Hard Case

The other day I was heading to San Antonio and forgot my prescription glasses case. I couldn’t find it. So, I grabbed my glasses and dumped them in here:

This is my favorite feature. This is a small zipper pocket on top of the backpack that has a hard formed shell. You can see it from the inside pocket here. It’s the ribbed case, and it’s hard, like a hard case shell. No changing shape here. Perfect for glasses.

That’s what I put in there. Here’s the contents:

I carry driving sunglasses and a super cheap pair to run in. My spare earbugs go in, and usually crackers or a protein bar in case I need it. I’ve added my other glasses at times, and I don’t worry about them getting broken, or more likely, bent. Having that hard case is excellent.

The Traveling Bag

How has this worked while I’ve had it? It’s been one of the best bags I’ve had. It’s not too heavy (though not light), and carries lots of stuff. It’s easy to fit in overheads, and I haven’t run into a plane that it doesn’t get overhead or under the seats, even small, 30-50 person jets.

I can’t really see any wear and tear, though from my list I see I’ve had about 50 trips with it. Nothing has broken. Zippers work great. The top handles are solid (there are two), and I’m pleased with the performance.

I also say that I’ve gotten better at ensuring that I pack consistently. Power is always in the right pocket, water in the left. Keys in the small top, glasses above that.

This was the most expensive laptop bag I’ve owner, but it’s lasted much longer than a few others I’ve had and seems very durable. I’m pleased.