This is a big airport

Minneapolis/St. Paul is a pretty big place. It was probably about a half mile walking from where our flight arrived to where our next plane departs from.

Observation: the amount of gadgetry that we carry to go about travel is truly staggering. When I was young warthog at the Academy, I flew with nothing but my wallet and a combo cover. Now, I have 2 phones, an iPod, and chargers for them all. That doesn’t include Mrs. Ahab’s two phones or her iPod.

It is nice I suppose, as all this technology does allow me to live blog my travel woes from my Blackberry.

3 Comments

  1. I’ve managed to pair my travel-charging necessities down to a couple of items in a small bag. You can do it too…

    One item (about the size of my thumb) charges any USB-capable device from a wall outlet, a 12v car socket, or a 9v battery. All you need for the IPod is its USB cable.

    It comes with a retractable USB cable, and a “tip” for your phone. The USB cable can be used to charge from a PC… I leave the power end in my car, and the USB cable in my laptop bag. Phone is covered.

    Another (about the size of a pack of cigarettes) charges almost any “flat battery” (cell phone, digicam, MP3 player, etc) from a 12v car socket. You adjust some little prongs to touch the contacts, a little LED lights up to indicate correct polarity, and you plug it in to the car socket. When the LED turns green you know the charge is complete — overnight usually does it.

    Add to this 2 other necessaries:

    (1) a small 110 to 12v adapter
    (2) a small (150w) 12v to 110 inverter

    And I have everything covered, in a small, zippered bag about 4″ diameter and 6″ long.

    Laptop: Charge in the car, using the inverter
    Cell: Charge in the car or hotel, using the cable and the adapter, or from the laptop USB port. Charge battery alone / spare battery with flat-pack charger
    Digicam: Charge battery with the “flat-pack” charger (in car or inside with 110/12v inverter, or off the USB charger/laptop USB port using its sync cable.

    I could go on, but you get the picture.

    Speaking of pictures, I also carry a small external USB drive, which runs on power drawn from the USB port. With another small device I can transfer pics from digicam to HD without using computer.

    Send me an e-mail if you’d like specific model #’s on any of this.

    A

  2. Yeah its big alright, seeing that one time while trying to catch a connector flight to Rhinlander, the wife and I had to walk the whole damn lengh of it. The worst part was our flight was delayed and we had booked it because we thought we were going to miss it. It gave us time to check out the Gen. Mitchel musuem.

  3. They’ve got a cool shuttle train though.

    And some good eating. And I understand you can get real personal service in the rest rooms.

Comments are closed.