Luggage Wars
With a two-week trip looming and my big suitcases all broken for one reason or another - wheels, handles, etc - and my trusty carry-on all the worse for wear and tear, it was once again time to go suitcase shopping. We stopped by Costco first. They had a nice set of Samsonite hard-shells that i was interested in trying. They also had some softsides, but they looked flimsy so i picked up the shells. Across the parking lot at Target, they had turned my favorite bag into a four-wheeled spinner. The problem is that i need to be able to drag the smaller on just two wheels and this one had problems with that. However, they had a set of rolling duffels which i figured i would try.
When i got home, i still hadn't unpacked from last week, so everything in there needed to fit into the new bags with extra room for thicker winter clothes. The wheeled duffel bunched everything together, would wrinkle everything, the end pockets would be useless after stuffing the center, and the straps would just get caught on everything an the front pocket is on the wrong side. Fail. The hard-sided suitcase held everything - barely - but doesn't allow for errors (or extra toys or last minute add-ins) and lining up the latches is a hassle. Fail. Back to the stores.
We took everything back to where they came from. Fortunately, Matt reminded me to double check the bags and it turned out i left some interesting items in the side pockets of the small duffel. OOPS!! Now THAT would be interesting. In the end, i wound up getting a set of Swiss Gear Lugano bags that were the closest to my old Zurich bags. Let's hope they all hold up.
