As I lurched toward the ticketing area at BWI – having endured uncomfortable taxi, train and shuttle rides with awkward, heavy equipment in tow – I eyed the opening in the check-in counter with more interest than usual.
Lifting the seemingly leaden case containing a five-foot tripod up to the counter, I asked, “That’s a scale, right?”
The attendant confirmed my suspicions, and I continued, “I’m only checking this one case, but could I put all my stuff on here for a second, just to see how much it weighs?”
The woman shrugged in agreement and graciously helped me crowd my backpack and carryon bag onto the steel platform with the tripod. Grand total: 65 lbs.
“You’ve been lugging a lot of weight around,” she observed.
More than half my own weight in fact.
The disturbing revelation triggered a memory from a class I had taken the previous winter about foreign correspondents and their experiences reporting abroad. Although I was not even leaving the Eastern Time zone, let alone the country, for the trip I was about to embark upon, the advice my professor had offered for reporters on the road was nonetheless relevant.
Never bring any more than you can comfortably carry by yourself, he had cautioned. Lesson one.
Throughout the rest of my journey – five days traversing the Northeast for a story about vowed religious sisters who are engaged in land stewardship initiatives – I learned a few other lessons in the infuriating, yet invariably effective, “hard way”.
The following are 10 lessons from my trip that can be applied to reporting excursions anywhere.
Lesson 1: Packing. See above.
Lesson 2: Time management. Don’t schedule meetings with reckless disregard for the laws of physics. Despite tempting assumptions about the Toyota Matrix, it takes more than an hour to drive 85 miles.
Lesson 3: Navigation. A road map from 1993 will not necessarily help when navigating roads in 2009, but it might hurt.
Lesson 4 (related to above): Guides. When a rental car agent asks if you would like a GPS unit, and you have a travel stipend specifically for covering such expenses, say yes.
Lesson 5: Communication. Don’t depend on being able to get in touch with people by cell phone or e-mail when your accommodation is a farmhouse operated by nuns.
Lesson 6: Safety. When a local advises you to lock your doors, lock your doors.
Lesson 7: Personal sanity. If you are traveling hundreds of miles in a car by yourself, bring CDs or an iPod, or prepare for hours of radio-scanning fun.
Lesson 8: Equipment. Whenever you happen upon an outlet, plug something into it.
Lesson 9: Cultural immersion. Poke around, make conversation with people you didn’t plan on talking to, and agree to tag along with them when they dig up parsnips even if it’s 40 degrees outside.
Lesson 10: Meals. Always eat with your sources when given the opportunity, and accept what you are served. Particularly in other countries, but even in the States, eating is a social activity, and meals are often the most insightful and rewarding time you will spend with the people you have come so far to see.
Happy trails.