A few nice vw bus road trip images I found:
Goodbye, Sammy. (With Flickr notes)
Image by Earl – What I Saw 2.0
We have been a lot of places together, but that’s all over now. I couldn’t fix what was broken about you, so I had to let you go – even though I didn’t want to.
When I found you on the luggage carousel at BWI, this is what they had done to you.
I love to travel.
My parents gave me my first real piece of luggage in 1970, for my high school graduation – an American Tourister hard side three suiter, in green. (Green was a cool luggage color back then. You have to trust me on this.) I used it all the way until 1994, when a bottle of Jamaican Jerk Spice Rub burst inside it on the way home from a trip to Kingston. Jerk spice is pretty pungent, and I like it on chicken and burgers, but it’s not so hot on clothes. So I bought this one.
Hard sided luggage is kind of expensive, but it really protects your stuff – that’s why I like it. I got a Samsonite because it was the best there was at the time (maybe still) and I didn’t want to have to worry about my stuff getting broken or stolen while I was traveling. I always keep my can’t-afford-to-never-see-it-again stuff in my carry on.
Some places where Sammy and I have been:
Some good times:
Jamaica, 6 times
The Bahamas
Las Vegas, twice
LA
Colorado Springs, CO, twice
Williamsburg, VA 5 times
Washington, DC, 5 times
Richmond, VA
Ocean City, MD – too many times to count
Rehoboth Beach, DE (see above)
Boston
Disney, Orlando
Outer Banks, NC – 4 times
Some sad times, too:
My mom’s and then my dad’s funerals, in Wilmington, DE
My Uncle Bill’s funeral in Wisconsin
My father-in-law’s funeral in Hagerstown, MD
It has traveled in the bellies of buses and airplanes, on trains, on roof racks, and in car trunks from everything from VW’s to Mercedes – and it never let me down. Not once.
I love to travel, and I even love packing for the trip. I guess it’s the old Eagle scout in me. I’m one of those guys who start to get excited folding, packing, adjusting all the stuff that’s going with me because it means I’m going somewhere, anywhere, for a fresh experience and to see something new, or to see something I’ve seen before and loved, again.
I love the way luggage feels when it’s empty, because it’s going to be filled soon, and I love the way it feels full, because it means I’m on the road or about to be in the air.
I love packing the car trunk with all of our bags, getting it all in right, and maybe getting it all in a little better than the last trip.
I love the hustle of airports, leaving early because I never sleep much before I travel – I’m too excited about it. I love seeing all of the people, and talking to other travelers.
I love customs lines, entering another country or coming home to this one, trying to guess where all of the other people are from, and seeing the different look of passports.
I really love getting my passport stamped, because that means I’m somewhere else, ready to get into a fresh culture and a fresh part of the world.
I guess – no, I’m sure of it – that when this bag was broken, somehow I felt like all of those other places and experiences were broken, too. I got mad about it because no one seemed to care.
I know "it’s just a bag."
I also know it’s a whole lot more, too.
I wanted to keep it, even though it didn’t and wouldn’t work right. I thought I could still use it for car trips. My wife said, and I’m sure she was right, that I needed to let it go. I know it’s just a thing. It’s just a thing that that has been with me for some special times, experiences and places, and more importantly, special people in my life.
So today I said goodbye. I put it out with the trash for pickup. And as I type this, looking out our front window at 9:40 a.m., I literally just saw the trash guys pick it up, toss it in the back with the rest of Ann Arundel County’s broken things, and drive off, back up our street.
Am I too attached to stuff that’s attached to good times, and good people? Maybe. Probably.
Yes.
Goodbye. And thanks for everything.