The Perfect Bag(s)

When you travel for a living, you're always looking for the "perfect" bag... or combination of bags. heh I've been dragging a large computer/office bag around for the past year. I'd purchased this bag, a Swiss Army bag, for only $20 as it had been stored, unused, in someone's garage and they finally decided they no longer wanted it taking up space and had listed it on craigslist simply as a computer bag with wheels. It was just too good a deal to pass up once I saw what it was! =) This was just before I was offered a travel position... as if I'd known I'd need this bag soon. heh It's perfect for traveling to offices, neatly fitting pretty much everything I need to have on hand during the day. It doesn't work quite so well as a carry-on however. It's large size means it often doesn't fit either under a seat or in the overhead bin on smaller planes and often needs to be gate-checked... meaning I have to pull the laptop out and hand-carry that while the bag goes down below. So, lately, I've been using this as my 2nd checked bag and packing my laptop in a backpack-style computer bag. That works... but leaves me with light bruises on my shoulder after every trek through an airport. I really needed something with wheels to get me through the airport unscathed. I'd seen one at Big Lots for around $25, but passed at the time because it was small and I had my behemoth already. Rethinking things, I'd gone back for it... no bag. =( The search continued. Tonight, after a wonderful day spent with a great friend, I ran into Wal-Mart to grab a couple things and just happened to take a trip down the clearance aisle (something I rarely do). What should I find there? The perfect small office bag!! And on clearance for only $20! It's made by Franklin Covey, has the strap across the back so it will easily piggyback over the handle of another bag for easy transport of all the bags at once and is well-padded. Perfect. =) No more backpack bruises. No more shuffling items from bag to bag in the trunk of a rental car in the parking lot of an office or at the car rental return. This bag has just enugh room for my computer and accessories, a knitting project and a book. =) It will take its maiden voyage in just a couple days...
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Alas, the bag turned out to be not-so-perfect afterall. One two-week trip where it's most roughest use was the trip to and from on the plane resulted in a bag with a practically non-functioning extension handle (meaning I couldn't roll it - the whole point of the bag) and the piece of fabric across the back (enabling it to piggy-back on another bag - requirement #2) pulling free at both seems to a point where it was barely attached upon return to Indy Luckily, still had the receipt so I got my money back. The search is back on...