Thanksgiving travel and your laptop

C'mon, sing it with me.  "Over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go...oh crap!  My laptop!"  Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends often in faraway places, but for some of us, we still have to be connected.  Maybe there's a report that's due on Monday and you've been putting it off all week or little Billy hit the delete key while watching "My Little Pony, the golden years" while flying from Denver to Philly.  Or maybe you simply need to stay in touch with the folks back home.

My laptop is my life...even more so than my wife!

Ok, piece of advice.  First, laptops are replaceable...second, don't say things like this out loud.  Traveling with a laptop can be quite a hassle, but a little prep can go a long way.  First, make sure your laptop is not a 48 pound boat anchor.  Seriously, many folks don't realize that the family laptop is often not built for portabilty and is really not much more than a desktop replacement.  If you have a big heavy laptop then don't bother.  You'll be miserable lugging that thing around in airports.  I've always maintained that you find out exactly how heavy your laptop is once you fly with it.  If you have a huge laptop there are other alternatives I'll cover in the next few paragraphs.

Be sure to back up all your important data before leaving.  After all, things happen.  Never check your laptop in your luggage.  Lost underwear is one thing...a lost laptop is quite another.  Plan ahead.  You're gonna need to take the laptop and any PDA's out and place them on the conveyor belt to be scanned.  Keep things organized and easily accessible.  I often use my laptop bag as my only carry-on.  A nice big laptop bag can hold a change of clothes and a few other things in addition to the laptop.  If you're able to, buy a spare battery and charge it before leaving.  Don't forget your charger either!  If you have important files on your computer at home or at work, leave it on and use something like GoToMyPC to access your computer in the event you forget something.

Um...do I gotta' bring my laptop?  It's just another thing I gotta' carry!

No...luckily many people have computers nowadays.  If you're a good son or daughter you've made sure that Mom and Pop have a computer of their own to be able to send you every email joke that comes across their inbox as well as being able to share all of lifes little details through multiple daily emails.  Well, now you can use that computer!  Worried about applications?  You have a lot of choices.  If you are a cloud computin' person using such things as Google Docs, Thinkfree Office, or Zoho Office, then you can simply log on and get to work...from anywhere!  Another possibility is to use a USB flash drive not only for document and file storage, but for your applications as well!  Use Portable Apps and take your applications with you!

Great!  Now all I have to pack is the stroller, the diaper bag, the portable DVD player, the....

I wish I had some tips for that, but unfortunately I don't.  At least I hope you can lighten your load a bit by either traveling smart or traveling without your laptop.  In any case, enjoy your trip and Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you have a lot to be thankful for! 

David Trask writes for Flubbernuggets.com and is thankful that he travels with a VERY small laptop.  Either a System76 Darter Ultra 2 or an older Dell X200.  Although, he secretly covets the new netbooks from Asus, HP, MSI, and Dell...and is being very good so Santa will notice.  ;-)