Flying with Only Carryon Luggage

Flying to Ohio was a bit different for me this year as I decided to fly with only carryon luggage. I was not bringing huge amounts of things down with me nor did I plan to bring a lot of things back home. I figured that the space occupied by the items remaining in the States would be plenty (it was) and coming home wouldn't be an issue. I was wrong on that.

Traveling with a carry on only

Would I recommend flying with only carryon? Yes, if you can manage it. But, depending on your flights and your planes, it can be a bit of a problem. On the one flight I was on, they did gate check for our luggage as they did not have a lot of overhead compartments. Anyone who did not think they could fit their luggage under their seat had to check it (free) but you got it back after landing. I checked my purple bag as I had nothing valuable or breakable in it but I did take my bag with my laptop and other bits and pieces onto the plane with me.

Vacuum Bags
Another thing that I did was bought some vacuum bags to pack my clothing and other "squishable" items in. You can buy pumps to use with them if you will not have access to a vacuum at one end of your trip. But, if you are going to use them, keep in mind that just because the items take up less space, they will weigh the same and you could get in trouble for being overweight.

Restricted Items
Make sure to check the list of restricted items before you travel if you are going to only use carryon luggage. I didn't think I could take a razor along with me but that is allowed. But things like a small blade is not (shouldn't be a surprise).

TSA prohibited items
CATSA what can you bring.

If in doubt, leave it at home!

TCM's First Flight, February 2015

One of the problems with flying is that depending on where you are starting, you cannot get anywhere direct. You also have to start out early as you have to get to a major hub to connect with anywhere else. For this reason, the day started out early, 4 am to be precise Had to be at the airport by 5 am or so and get checked in (online wouldn't cooperate) and then through security and to the gate.

By the time TCM and I got through security, we had probably half an hour before our flight. Grabbed a quick Tim Horton's tea and headed to the gate. TCM was yawning by this point but I told him he had to stay awake at least until we boarded. While he wanted some tea, I thought he was maybe a bit too young for such a drink.

We finally got boarded and TCM wanted to sit in the seat beside me. I buckled him in and tightened the belt as tight as possible considering that TCM doesn't actually have any hips or body shape to speak of. Once I told him he was secure, he proceeded to fall asleep.   Unfortunately, he doesn't have eyelids so you can't actually tell he was sleeping but he snores quite loudly so it was not a problem to tell!

Buckled in

Nap time!

Three hours later we landed in Toronto.   Did the security thing as we were headed to the States and then went to our gate. We still had a few hours to kill before our flight.   We wandered around the airport. In the one area, there were iPods attached to tables and there was no fee to use them. You could order from the restaurants in that part of the terminal or just browse the Internet on them.   But, nothing on the menu appealed so we left and went elsewhere.

Pondering some lunch

Eventually we went back to our gate and were relaxing when we found out that our flight was delayed by several more hours out of Toronto. Thankfully, there was free Wi-Fi, and some other travelers in the same situation, so we sat around, chatted and just waited.

Hanging out at the airport

We arrived at our destination airport just after midnight, only close to five hours late. Then an hour drive after that and bed. TCM and I were both exhausted at this point!

airport delays, traveling, traveling canuck's minion, waiting in airports

Introducing Traveling Canuck’s Minion aka TCM!

I’ve been having a hard time getting posts written on here so I decided to change things up a bit. I had recently ordered some Minion dolls via eBay but didn’t really need three of them hanging out around my house. I decided that one of them should become like a mascot for this blog and go on some adventures and post about them.

I took a quick poll of my friends and we decided on the little guy you see below

Hello TCM!

Naming him was a little bit more difficult. I thought of calling him Canuck, Jr as he was going to be the mascot for this blog. But my wonderful friend Amanda came up with Traveling Canuck’s Minion (TCM) which was perfect! The abbreviation is obvious as to what it stands for but it is a bit cooler than Jr, in my opinion.

With that said, TCM went for his inaugural trip in Feb/March 2015 to Ohio. There will be a separate post about his experiences and pictures. He has also setup an account at Instagram if you are there, “travelingcanuck” for you to follow. He is not the most tech savvy, especially when you consider he has no fingers, so you may not see a lot of posts. He has asked me to post for him but I have to admit that I tend to forget about the account.

TCM told me that he found the trip to Ohio fun but he did get a bit tired. He wanted to watch the "Lord of the Ring" movies with us but only ended up watching the first one. It was a bit long and scary for him. With that said, he is looking forward to more adventures.   The weather has finally improved here so he wants to go exploring in the near future as well.