Comfort on the Road

by Carol Penn-Romine

Once while on tour, blues legend B.B. King found himself in the hallway of a hotel, locked out of his room in the middle of the night in his underpants.

He told the hotel employee who found him—and who did not recognize him!—that he had gotten up to make a trip to the bathroom and mistook the door to his room for the bathroom door. By the time he realized his mistake, the door had slammed shut behind him, leaving him in a public area without his keys or his pants!

Even the most seasoned travelers can make such mistakes and are likely to simply because they’re fatigued by their time spent on the road and the changes in their routine. Travel, whether for business or fun, is taxing. Changes in eating habits, water, sleep, routine and time zones can all wear you out, even if you’re having the time of your life.

But you can tuck a few small things into your bag that require little space and help make your journey easier and more comfortable:

A night light: If you wake up disoriented in a strange room at night you could end up doing what B.B. King did. A night light with a blue or pink bulb is a great item to have on hand. These pastel-colored bulbs do not shine so brightly that they glare, but they will give you enough light so that you can get your bearings and move around an unfamiliar room much more easily—without having to turn on the light.

A clothes pin: Speaking of light, a good, old-fashioned clothes pin provides an inexpensive and low-tech way to control the light in your hotel room. Just as there seem to be no shopping carts without at least one square wheel, so it seems that hotel rooms invariably have curtains that gape, some a little and some a lot. Secure your curtains with a clothes pin at bedtime, and you won’t find yourself at dawn, squinting helplessly at the cruel blade of sunlight that always seems to spill directly onto your pillow.

A tub stopper: Pack a flat, rubber tub stopper even if you seldom take tub baths. When you arrive in your hotel room, road weary and aching, you may eye the bathtub eagerly, only to discover that the stopper is missing or that the stopping mechanism is not working properly (this can be the case even in really nice hotels). So there you stand in your robe—or less—unwilling at this point to call someone to remedy the problem. A wadded-up sock stuffed into the drain won’t help much. But a round, thin piece of rubber is all you need to ensure that you can enjoy a hot soak to help you relax and put the stress of your day of travel far behind. (It will also come in handy if you do laundry in the sink.) On the subject of tub baths, if you’ve been out hiking all over creation, especially on concrete and asphalt or through galleries and museums, lying in a tub of water as hot as you can stand it will help prevent your feet and legs from aching the next day. And massaging your feet and legs with lotion, especially a peppermint lotion, also will help. So will lying on the bed or the floor and propping your feet against the wall as high as you can get them, a smart thing to do midday if you need a rest but don’t want to waste time taking a nap.

Zip lock bags: These are helpful for holding dozens of things including leaky bottles, rocks and seashells, damp bathing suits, dirty shoes or half a yummy treat that you’d like to finish later (just don’t put them all in the same bag!). Smaller ones are good for carrying cotton balls and swabs, vitamins (but not prescription medicines—keep them in their original containers!), assorted sinus and tummy remedies and ink pens that sometimes explode in pressurized airplane cabins. If you pack sundry items in clear plastic bags, you can find what you need at a glance, without having to open and close a lot of containers. And carry a few spares—you never know what you’ll end up putting in them!

Self-adhesive notepads: These little wonders are helpful on the road as well as in the office. Use them to jot down addresses and phone numbers of places you plan to go. Use them to tab pertinent information in guidebooks and magazines and to mark your destinations on the map. Write out the next day’s agenda on them and place them wherever you need them. Stick them on the door or the mirror with any notes you need to remind yourself of before you head out the next day. And write down a few helpful phrases in the local language so you’ll have your cheat sheets at the ready!

© 2006, The Hungry Passport