True Road Warrior

There is a new PBS TV series titled, “America Revealed,” that looks at numerous aspects of how this nation operates.

Last night’s episode was about transportation and they produced a small piece on Dean Burri, an international insurance salesman who is the definition of “road warrior.” Notice he travels without wheels. (BTW, I believe the bag is a discontinued Tumi model.)

Here’s another article on the guy with some excellent tips (Be aware, the article is 5 1/2 years old.)

Road Warrior

Watch Frequent Flyer on PBS. See more from America Revealed

Comments

[Miguel Marcos]

This remark has nothing to do with traveling but nevertheless: cigar smoker and 340 lbs? Lordy.

[Lawrence]

The one thing that was new to me in the 2006 "Road Warrior" article was the way he adds velcro to the fastening seam of his shirts (picture 4 of 5 attached to the article).

Has anyone seen this before and does anyone know how it is supposed to help stop wrinkling?

[Dean Burri]

Good eye. Yes it's a discontinued tumi. I have a stockpile I get from buying them on eBay. I ruin one about every 500,000 miles. A roller bag is a rookie move. They only hold about 40% at best of what I can fit in an over the shoulder bag. Dean
(cigar an on flyer talk dot com)

[Frank@OBOW]

Dean...Welcome to One Bag, One World.

We here agree that roller bags are a bad idea and that true one bag travel is best. Too bad we get some of your Flyertalk pals coming here telling us that we are wrong and that a roller bag and an additional bag is best. Not just preferable but insist their way is best.

BTW--I'm curious. Do you remember the model number of the Tumi bag you use and have you looked at any other companies' current models--Redoxx, Tom Bihn, MEI, etc?

[tfar]

Having said that tough, have you read the FT forums lately? There are in fact many good tips.

[Frank@OBOW]

Flyertalk is an excellent forum. I never said it wasn't. What I said was there are people who are regulars on Flyertalk who come here and instead of helping to promote the concept of one non-wheeled bag travel they insist on pushing a wheeled, two bag concept because that is what is "best" for them. And what's best for them, is right for everyone.

Coming to this site and suggesting people use wheels and carry a second bag is like going to Lonely Planet and telling people they should consider 5 star hotels. It goes against the main purpose of the website. (Lonely Planet is geared toward the budget traveler in case you didn't know.)

Or going to Rick Steves' Europe oriented website and telling people they should consider Asia instead.

If people don't like what a website has to say, they should just stay away from the website, not try to change it because they don't like it.

[Miguel Marcos]

I finally got to watch the PBS video segment. I have that Tumi bag! It's dynamite, bullet proof but it does weight a bit.

[Ralph]

So how does the velcro work in terms of preventing wrinkles?

[K-eM]

I just got back from a 4 day conference trip. I traveled with 3 vendor reps and a coworker. All showed up with the typical wheelie and my boss also had a very full back pack. I showed up with my fits-under-the-seat carry on bag only. They were impressed when they found out that was all I had.

When we came home I packed it even tighter (no need to worry about wrinkles) and added a medium sized stuffed frog to my bag. I intended to mail home the materials I had collected at the conference, but my boss insisted we use the extra duffle bag she had packed. She had earned a free checked bag.

Needless to say, I had to help carry it from baggage claim to the curb because she was so burdened with luggage already. It was so heavy I strained a tendon in my arm. It would have been easier to mail the stuff!