Life's a Stitch

Packing disasters, the more you travel, chances are you've had your turn with a suitcase spill or some other packing mishap. A burst bottle of non-aerosol hairspray? A broken zipper spilling your dirty laundry onto the carousel for all to see? I've had a few myself:

I packed a hostess gift for my friend,  two bottles of British Columbia wine, something she wouldn't find in Florida. You know how, when waiting at the baggage claim, and you see a telltale trail of red liquid and you think, I'm glad that's not my piece of luggage leaking red wine. Wrong. This time it was mine. And why does it happen when you are breaking in a new suitcase? Her sweet husband, not a wine drinker, mind you, spent an hour the next day pressure washing my bag. It would have been a lot easier if the bottle of white was the one to break. 

It kills me to waste good food. Upon leaving our winter's visit to California one year, I had some spare weight available in my luggage. What should I pack? A five pound bag of fancy brown rice or the jug of pure maple syrup? For some reason I chose to bring the maple syrup home to its country of origin. That should have been reason enough to leave it behind, but I opted to bring coals to Newcastle, sticky liquid coals. Again, it was a new piece of luggage. No wonder I go though suitcases so quickly. I still have issues with the interior compartment zippers caked with dried maple syrup.

Then there was the time I hand carried ten bags of Canadian-only catsup flavoured potato chips on a flight from Toronto to New Hampshire, a request from my niece and nephew.  The flights were booked on points and included this last hop on a propeller plane where the pilot was younger than the aircraft. He nicely offered me space in a storage area behind the cockpit. During the flight we heard a number of ominous loud bangs, but we made it safely to our destination. On our arrival the pilot informed me that I could expect some potato chip casualties due to the non-pressurized cabin. And right he was.

 This year:

What possessed me to pack breadcrumbs? We have breadcrumbs in Canada and they are as cheap as in the US. I knew they wouldn't last through the summer's heat and I didn't want to take up precious freezer space, so they came along. At least           they vacuumed up easily. Those that didn't adhere to the syrup clogged zippers.

Here's a link to other packing disasters. I especially liked the one about the dead ducks. I know, though, that in my case I couldn't bring them over the border without attracting the attention of the airport canine unit.