The Portable Lifestyle™

30/10/2024

This was truly a sad sight no matter what team your root for...

The fans who grabbed at Betts will not have the chance to do it again.

20/09/2024

Way to go, Shohei!

25/07/2024

STUCK - Homeless on the Road

Have you ever been picky about lodging and dismayed when you realized that what you booked is not gonna work?

Or worse, the booking never responds after you paid, and you end up with nowhere to sleep?

Well, we have, too.

The latest time was on St. Martin where we booked a villa rental through booking.com - never again!

The booking was kinda last-minute, and it was worrisome to not get a response. And then show up at the rental, not able to get in, no idea which unit, no one there, it's dark & everyone speaking French.

Homeless. This also happened in London one time

So the next couple of hours were spent finding wifi at a pizza place, sitting there and looking for other lodging. At 8:30 pm at night.

Drove around & settled on a 2 star place whose beach beat the 4 and 5 stars by miles. The 5 star Hilton nearby had a beach covered in red seaweed & no one could swim in the ocean.

This little 2 star ocean front hotel room was a delight in every way. You just never know about lodging.

We have also been stuck in London with the same situation, that time with our kids -- a family of 6 and no where to go. No response from the VRBO land-lord.

That time, we checked into a hotel we knew in Kensington at a good rate with a few rooms to house our clan. And loved it!

Thailand & Indonesia - both villas were wildly unsuitable. One had an ant hill built in a corner (that Jon thought was fine, Kathryn said "no way we are staying here"). The other looming stairs with no guard rail and drop-offs the baby could fall into - wildly not baby-proof.

In both cases, we're driving around with all our bags and kids, and find good lodging by looking at hotels and talking to front desks.

CONCLUSION: be flexible, have alternative options in mind (a couple of good travel sites like Priceline), notice other possibilities around you when driving and don't give up hope. There will be something great.

SILVER LINING: in each case, we ended up with far better lodging that made us so much happier than we would have been in the failed lodging. And it taught us to have faith even if it's scary to have nowhere to go with it getting late.

24/07/2024

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24/07/2024

RENTAL CAR WOES

The Caribbean trip included a rental car place trying to charge us for a scratch on the front. It was a pain to deal with.

We handled it by sending the photos we took before-and-after, reminding them of the fact that this car was already beat-up and that they chose not to fix the previous dings they stuck us with, that some of the car functions were not working.

We handled it by sending the photos we took before-and-after, reminding them of the fact that this car was already beat-up and that they chose not to fix the previous dings they stuck us with, that some of the car functions were not working (small island Caribbean rentals you take what you can get & many of the cars are beat-up with high miles) and that many previous customers had complained about this company charging them with made-up dings.

We have not heard another word, so seems they backed down. Yay!

CONCLUSION: with rental cars, document everything, be prepared to make a logical case, be careful & fight back if you feel something is wrong or unjust.

SILVER LINING: We rented 6 cars on the trip and many companies went way beyond the call of duty. One picked us up with a sign at the airport. Another let us keep the car for an extra 4 hours after our flight was delayed. And two let us just park the car anywhere on the island and send them a photo of where we left it to catch a ferry and plane respectively. Several transferred bags into the car, saving us a lot of lugging.

23/07/2024

TRAVEL WOES & HEADACHES

Seems like delayed and cancelled flights are on the rise.

We experienced a delayed and then cancelled hurricane flight for our 17-year-old in Europe. This after he put his passport in the trash and missed his first direct flight (!).

Thank God for booking flights with miles, the magical way to book & rebook with no penalties!

First his new flight was delayed for 2 hours over a broken lightbulb (really), so he would miss the connecting flight. Spent 3.5 hours on the phone ensuring he got a later connector flight.

Then his entire plane was diverted from Houston to DC over Hurricane Beryl (which also affected us in the Caribbean). Another 2 hours on the phone to ensure he got put on the soonest flight out of DC to get home.

5.5 hours on the phone for air travel issues, some caused by the 17-year-old (he will never be so careless with his passport again), some caused by the airline & some caused by the weather.

Was it worth it? Yes -- to get him home & it's par for the course. We were grateful he had free wifi on his phone over the ocean (something new) so we could text & learn of the diversion soonest.

Conclusion: you win some, you lose some. But being prepared, paying by miles and being grateful -- that we have the luxury of traveling and sitting in a "chair in the air" to see so many places, even despite the hiccups -- helped.

Silver Lining: We also experienced the reverse with a regional Caribbean flight on WinAir -- bought a ticket last-minute & they added a flight, so arrived on St Barts earlier and arrived sooner. It was like a mini private flight in a tiny puddle jumper plane with only 3 passengers. Holla!

22/07/2024

Happy Summer! We're traveling a LOT this summer -- together and sometimes solo.

Our child who just graduated high school went on a 3 week Europe trip with 85 other teens (gulp!)

And we've been beating around the Caribbean, island hopping (5 islands, 4 hotels, 6 rental cars, 2 boats, 6 planes) with Family Camp & Family Reunion Lake Trip coming up next.

What a whirlwind summer!

Hope you're doing some fun things during these hot months.

Our theme in the Love & Manifestor's Club for July is Vacation Manifestation because we find that when you're having fun, plugged in, in the flow, you often manifest while not even trying to, not working, just chillin'.

There's nothing more fun than coming home after a blissful day of sailing, snorkeling and beach-hopping to see you've made money & manifested without paying attention to it.

On another note, we just saw some research that the more negative words you use in the subject line of your email, the more people open it, so we're putting that to the test here - lol!

Read on later this week as we discuss Travel Woes & Headaches with an emphasis on how to deal with them. Enjoy.

Have a wonderful Summer! Hope this email finds you with some magical summer plans.

Abundant Travels,
Jon & Kathryn

{excerpt fro TraveLiving issue #59}

20/07/2024

Happy Birthday, Mom! I miss you...

02/06/2024

Last Prom!! Julian & his girlfriend, Haze 🥰

08/04/2024

Happy Doggies

A woman built custom “trains” out of decorated plastic barrels to give rides to disabled dogs at an animal shelter in Turkey.