Sunday, it was great to be back in church at home after having been away for so long. We had a visiting pastor, but it didn’t matter because it was good to see old friends and to worship at home again. Afterwards, Mom and I went to breakfast with the breakfast bunch. Then we headed to the J.C. Penney, which was having a luggage sale, because Mom needed to replace hers. The last time she flew, a 9000 pound gorilla jumped up and down on her luggage and threw it off the plane. When we got it back it was in shambles. We were able to find good deal on a four piece set of luggage.

Now having travelled a bit, I have several simple rules when buying luggage. One rule is that the large bags have a handles on the top, the bottom, and the side so that when lugging them in and out of the car or off the luggage carousel, you can lift them. The second thing, of course, is that luggage must be on wheels. It’s also best if a suitcase has generous outside and inside pockets–particularly an inside pocket with plastic to hold things likely to spill or a wet swimsuit or wet items. Another feature I look for is that the luggage not be too heavy. The set should have connectors too, so that if you’re traveling alone and you have two bags, you can use the connectors to hook them all together and pull them through the airport. And, finally, luggage should not be black. It’s a pain looking for black luggage on the luggage carousel.

Anyway, we looked for luggage with all those criteria and Mom was lucky enough to find a chocolate brown set that met all our requirements. After our shopping spree, it was time to drop mom off and head home to prepare for a trip to the SEALS Conference first thing Monday morning.