Pillows

 So, several lessons learned. We are never too old of a dog to learn new tricks. The first lesson is if you buy the biggest suitcase made, it will be filled. We’ve (I’ve) been wrestling three of them at 50 pounds each now for 12 days. It has been brutal. In addition, the larger the bag the more room it occupies in a small room.

Bonnie heads home in two days so there goes one of those monstrosities, in addition Jen and I agreed we could combine our two behemoths into one and send a second bag home with Bonnie. Amazing we can rid ourselves of half this cargo. Thankfully we’ll then be down to one huge suitcase for us both.

When your suitcase is to big crazy things happen. Example, in my normal international travel I took two pairs of underwear (not sure why one is referred to as a pair) thereby wearing one, washing the other and switching daily. If damp or couldn’t wash, I’d simply go commando. Give me extra space in my bag, I brought eight “pairs”. Now, with them all combined, I’m not certain which are clean and which are not. The result; I have to sniff my underwear to find the clean ones. Horribly inefficient and time wasting. Jenny, guessing 12-15 pounds of hair/makeup/blow dryers/medicine/laundry soap/ shampoo/….you get my drift. Bottom line, much more than required.

Second lesson, bring your own pillow... I love my pillow at home. It is one of my favorite things. Had I left some of my crap at home, I could have brought my own with room to spare. I’d much prefer my pillow to my underwear.

You’ve all experienced the huge variety of pillows provided by hotels. Most are so big and hard you wake up with a sore neck. Good for propping, bad for sleeping. The ones on the ship were so huge that we used the tiny decorative pillows and put cases on them to sleep. I really miss my pillow and I also miss my bed with Woody at my feet.

Love you all, going to sleep here tonight in Venice with an average pillow…