A different way of travel

I travel a lot. No doubt about it. For the last couple of years I have traveled with something I call my 10 day bag. It is a duffle bag that is about half the size of a small roll away bag (I hate roll away bags) - I use it for any business trip that is less than 10 days - hence the name. While we were cleaning out the house in North Carolina, we encountered the way my ancestors traveled.

I had two great aunts (Aunt Dee and Aunt Noanie) both traveled a lot in the early part of the 20th Century. We found a collection of post cards from them from all over the world. We also found the trunks. Each of the big trunks weighed about 100 pounds. They were very sturdy. When these two women would go to Europe (which they did frequently) or to the Middle East (which they did at least once) or to Asia (again at least once) they shipped their belongings in this kind of container (bottom picture). They were bulky and impractical. I can only imagine what an airline would do if I showed up for a trip with one of these.

One of the fashions of the day was to attach stickers of the destinations that one visited on a trip. Both cases - the upper picture is of a regular suitcase - had the stickers plastered on them. The benefit of my approach is that I am very mobile. There are a couple of obvious accommodations that one has to make to my approach. I need on many trips to find a laundry. At the same time the bag is small enough so that I cannot on most trips take back more stuff than I brought. (If need be extra stuff can be shipped.) My 10 day bag is purposefully anonymous. Their trunks attested to their travel status. I found the contrasts interesting.