Monthly Archives: August 2024

Travel Gear Review: Flo Mask

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It feels late in the pandemic to be buying a really fancy mask, but with the prospect of sitting for hours on planes while the US had increasingly significant waves of infection, I decided it was worth trying out a different style of mask to see if I liked it. And I did!

What is it?

Terri, a half-Japanese woman, is wearing a Flo mask with a cherry blossom decorative cover on it. She is also wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a Google Summer of Code t-shirt and is standing in front of some bushes.
Image description: Terri, a half-Japanese woman, is wearing a Flo mask with a cherry blossom decorative cover on it. She is also wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a Google Summer of Code t-shirt and is standing in front of some bushes.

A respirator/mask with a rigid frame and a replaceable filter. I particularly liked that it had a version intended for smaller nose bridges (common for those of us with Asian genetics), as I know fitting glasses can be a problem for me due to nose shape. I also paid extra for the “halo strap.”

Product link: https://www.flomask.com/

What problem did I need it to solve?

I have good disposable N95 masks that I liked, but I was willing to take a chance and see if I liked something else better, especially given that I was intending to spend hours on a plane and in airports to travel so my kid could see his grandparents.

Pain points for me with my existing options:

  • Straps either slid down my hair or hurt my ears.
  • Wearing a mask for more than about an hour tended to get kind of gross
  • Wearing a mask during humid weather (which is most of the year where I live in the Pacific Northwest) meant it could get hard to breathe
  • Not the most aesthetically appealing
  • Took a lot of adjustment to avoid fogging up my glasses. Since I don’t need mine most of the time, I often would just take them off

How did it work out for me?

In short: great!

The “halo strap” sits on my head better and doesn’t leave any sore spots, which meant I could wear this nearly indefinitely. It does take a bit of futzing if I want my hair to sit well — I usually pull it over the bottom strap and flatten it before putting the top strap on, although since I often wear a hat (see picture above) it doesn’t matter too much to me.

The short nose bridge option did indeed work for my face! This is exciting, as I have difficulty finding glasses that fit me due to my short/asian nose bridge, so I knew it could be an issue.

The humidity in these masks condenses around the edge (instead of in the filter) and they provide a sponge to help hold it. Wiping out excess condensation with a cloth/napkin helped it from getting too gross. The filter itself never seemed to get that wet, so it was easier to breathe through even in humid conditions.

This was significantly easier to wear with glasses/sunglasses. It’s not foolproof, but typically it only took a little jiggle to fix the seal (unlike before where I’d have to adjust the nose bridge nearly every time).

It still looks kind of dorky I guess, but I like it better than many of my other options.

But most importantly: despite several trips and increasing covid numbers, I did not get covid this summer! (I did, however, get a cold thanks to being around my in-laws unmasked.)

Things that could be better

I really would have liked more colour options. I know you can just put stickers on the harder plastic shell but I haven’t done that yet and I probably would have bought extra decorated front pieces if they had them in more colours. I did get a pretty one with cherry blossoms though!

The condensation was pretty gross at times and the sponge felt inadequate, but it was so easy to deal with by wiping it out and it was so much better than my old preferred mask that it feels silly to complain about it. Still, I feel like there might be room for improvement in the design of the sponge insert.

If you don’t clean and dry the sponge and frame after use they can smell kind of bad, so definitely plan for some cleaning time after any extended use. We’re talking a swipe with a cloth or a wet wipe before putting it away which isn’t especially onerous, but it was easy to forget during travel.

I’m not sure I can sing in it without breaking the seal on my face. This may be an issue for me as I sing with a choir and wore a mask this year since even if I felt fine there was a good chance I was infected with some kindergarten disease. I’ll try it out before rehearsals start in the fall, but if it doesn’t work for that I can always use my disposable masks instead, which have a slightly larger area covering my face.

Overall

I liked this enough that we ordered some in different sizes/shapes for both my husband and kid to see if they like it as much as I do. I’m eager to see how it performs during our very wet winter, but it’s already been an improvement in the few surprise humid days we’ve had in August.

I didn’t get covid this summer while using it for travel, a short conference, and miscellaneous indoors errands. That said, the rest of my family *also* didn’t get covid and they were wearing different masks, so probably most of that was the effect of wearing a mask at all rather than this specific one.

Travel Gear Review: Midori Clip Ruler

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I picked up this ruler to go with my travel notebook. I didn’t use it the way I thought I would, but it found a niche that made it fit perfectly into my travel stationery setup.

What is it?

A metal ruler that also acts as a clip bookmark and a stencil.

A Midori Clip ruler: a copper metal ruler with stencil holes in it. The end is folded to make a clip. It is sitting on a larger black Field Notes brand notebook.
Image Description: A Midori Clip ruler: a copper metal ruler with stencil holes in it. The end is folded to make a clip. It is sitting on a larger black Field Notes brand notebook.

Link: https://www.jetpens.com/Midori-Clip-Ruler-Copper-Daily-Life/pd/29899

What problem did I need it to solve?

I wanted a travel ruler for drawing lines. I was mostly expecting to use it for lines in the knitting charts I was writing out and modifying during the trip. I figured I’d use it for bullet journal type stuff too, such as drawing the monthly calendar I use for tracking.

How did it work out for me?

Turns out that this actually isn’t a great ruler. The stencil meant it felt a bit flimsy on one side as you move it around on the page, and the clip is just barely enough to make a slight bump if you try to draw a line longer than 10cm. This especially was an issue for me when I drew out the calendar I use for a bunch of monthly tracking stuff.

But it is an absolutely *fantastic* bookmark for holding open the Field Notes notebook that I was using. It’s just just enough weight to hold the pages open and it worked quite well when I needed a pattern place marker for the knitting I was doing.

My Midori Clip Ruler being used to hold open a notebook and mark a place in my pattern. The pattern is a variant on the Kelpie Etudes charts from Gannet Designs, and it has been written out in pencil.The ruler is made of copper and is holding the notebook open without much difficulty.
Image Description: My Midori Clip Ruler being used to hold open a notebook and mark a place in my pattern. The pattern is a variant on the Kelpie Etudes charts from Gannet Designs, and it has been written out in pencil. The ruler is made of copper and is holding the notebook open without much difficulty.

It turns out I didn’t need to draw as many lines as I thought I would, but I *did* need to hold the pages open while knitting my shawl for a month during and after the trip. It was also great for just marking my page so I could immediately open to the pattern page I was working on (a bit of an issue as I was working with 4 very similar charts).

It also worked ok as a stencil the few times I used it. It’s very small so it worked best with my mechanical pencil (then I coloured the results with gel pen sometimes). I could probably find ways to integrate these particular icons into my tracking, but many of them are ones I don’t use right now so it’s not super useful to me.

Things that could be better

I feel like there’s got to be a way to design this such that the clip nudges in just a milimetre or so so the full length can be used for drawing lines, but it’s clear that they intended you to use the internal slots for that so maybe that’s on me for using it outside of the design intention? If you look closely in the image below you can see the wobble at the end of the line where I hit the clip while drawing.

Close up of the Midori Clip Ruler in use as a bookmark, showing the shape of the clip while the ruler is on the other side of the paper.
Image Description: Close up of the Midori Clip Ruler in use as a bookmark, showing the shape of the clip while the ruler is on the other side of the paper.

The icon choices aren’t super useful to me, so I’m probably going to keep freehanding most of my personal icons. Still, I enjoyed having some of these and maybe I’ll find uses for them now that I have them!

Overall

I was completely surprised at how much I loved this ruler/bookmark!

I nearly talked myself out of buying it before the trip since I already have a few small “gauge swatch” rulers thanks to knitting. But this was significantly better: it’s super small and slender, stays put in the notebook even if I have to stuff it in a bag in a hurry, and as a bookmark and page holder it found a real niche in my life. Despite feeling flimsy as a ruler, it felt satisfying as a bookmark and absolutely stayed put. I’d be afraid to use it in a library book lest I forget it, but it would be great in books I own. I’m debating trying some other metal bookmarks to replace the post it notes I use in pattern books while I’m working out a design.

I’m tempted to get another one with one of the other stencil options because I love it so much and wouldn’t mind having a spare for my larger journal. I just noticed the cat version has a book icon that would be perfect for my book review tracking!

Auditioning my next bullet journal

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I’m loosely auditioning new notebooks to replace my bullet journal. So I pulled out my fountain pens and inked up a few contenders that I hadn’t tried yet and here they are with the ones I’d already sampled:

A set of 5 notebooks open to a pen testing page showing handwritten samples for 5 different pens in different coloured inks. The pens themselves are sitting on the bottom right notebook.
Description: A set of 5 notebooks open to a pen testing page showing handwritten samples for 5 different pens in different coloured inks. The pens themselves are sitting on the bottom right notebook.

My current bullet journal (the one in the upper right) is a lovely book from Kela Designs. It’s going to run out of pages in a couple of months (maybe sooner if I keep messing around with drawing doggies for doggust). I really love this journal but it’s pretty thick and heavy (160 pages, 160gsm bamboo paper), and I want something thinner that I’ll carry around more and also something that’s closer to 1 year sized for me rather than the 2 years it’s taken to use this one. My desire for a smaller page count has cut me off from a bunch of the more solidly built hardcovers so I’m pretty much just looking at softcover notebooks this round.

Currently the winner is the one with the ivory coloured paper which is from Rhodia (bottom right). Paper’s a bit thicker which makes it closer to my current notebook than the others shown here. While I wonder if the ivory colour is going to go terribly with my stickers, I think I’ll like it for writing and washi tape. It’s also got a slightly rubbery cover that reminds me a lot of the Pentallic notebooks that were my daily travellers for years when I worked at UNM and could pick them up from the campus store. The appeal of this one is a much smaller page count than most A5 dot grid notebooks. It clocks in at 32 sheets / 64 pages, so it’s way thin and I’m not committing myself to 2 years of the same notebook the way I did with my current journal.

The tiny bottom one is a passport-sized one from Goulet that’s meant to fit into the Traveler’s Passport system. I *love* the idea of the system with a leather cover and ever-changing inserts, but the Traveler’s comes in two sizes and I was pretty sure they were “too big” and “too small” but my brain wouldn’t let go of the idea of trying it out. Thankfully the refill notebooks are pretty cheap so I could try it out without actually buying a cover. The paper is nice, but the size is definitely no good for my bullet journal needs. I’d been thinking about it as a travel journal option but holding it in my hands (not even writing in it!) I took a different notebook on my last trip so… it’s probably not a winner for me right now. I’ll likely toss this tiny one into my purse to see if I use it, and I might try the larger size at a future date because I really like the idea of being able to get some pre-printed calendar notebooks, but I may have to accept that while the concept is good they just don’t have quite the right dimensions for me.

Middle left is my latest travel notebook from Field Notes that beat out the passport to get taken on my last trip. It’s big enough that I could work out knitting charts in it, but I didn’t love it with fountain pens and wound up using pencil and gel pen. Since both of those are less potentially risky for travel anyhow, I’ll likely keep it as my travel companion. But it’s not making the cut for bullet journal replacement outside of that.

Upper left is from Clairefontaine. I got this one to see if I liked the paper, and I do! I also was surprised by how much I liked the wider lines for writing, as they work really well with my thicker fountain pens. I also tried sticking it in an a5 ghost whale pouch (from Tom Bihn) and carrying it around in my knitting bag and found that it was a winner for weight and size. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten kind of hooked on the dot grid thing over the past year and some of my habits and tracking rely on it, so after trying it out for a while I decided to buy the Rhodia notebook that’s likely the winner. But I really like this notebook and I’ll find another use for it!

A set of 5 notebooks closed so you can see the covers. In the upper right there is a thick green A5 one from Kela Designs with a corgi on it. Lower right is a Rhodia A5 softcover in blue. Bottom middle is a smaller passport sized one from Goulet pens. On the lower left is a black Field Notes one, also mostly A5 slzed but smaller than the other 4. On the upper left is a Clairefontaine notebook with a cyanotype illustration on it, also a5 size. There is a test tube sitting on top of it to help you see how much thinner it is than the green notebook beside it.
Description: A set of 5 notebooks closed so you can see the covers. In the upper right there is a thick green A5 one from Kela Designs with a corgi on it. Lower right is a Rhodia A5 softcover in blue. Bottom middle is a smaller brown passport sized one from Goulet pens. On the lower left is a black Field Notes one, mostly A5 slzed but smaller than the other 4. On the upper left is a Clairefontaine notebook with a cyanotype illustration on it, also a5 size. There is a test tube sitting on top of it to help you see how much thinner it is than the green notebook beside it; it’s probably more than 1cm thinner.

I noticed at Powell’s that the Leuchtturm 1917 also comes in a smaller softcover with a smaller page count, so I may try that out in future. Honestly, I might have impulse bought it if they’d had it in a colour other than black. But by the time I got home and looked up what other colours were available, I convinced myself that I should start with the Rhodia that I already bought, so I’m trying to force myself to wait until I actually need a replacement (or they go on sale, I guess?).

Also, look at me with those fountain pens! I went from one pen that I found in a drawer to 5 (although one is a disposable one, and the other 3 are relatively cheap). Thankfully my current notebook has nice enough paper to accommodate me in this journey into fountain pens and pretty inks. I’m having a lot of fun!

Travel Gear Review: REI Collapsible Cane

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I’ve been using a cane consistently for about a decade now and I love this particular telescoping model. It takes some weight off my injury and greatly improves my travel and conference experiences, but also having a cane that I feel is a delight to use rather than a chore has really changed the way I think and feel about my disability. I recommend this model to everyone who asks about it!

What is it?

A collapsible, telescoping cane, intended for hiking.

This exact cane was discontinued some years ago, but REI sells an updated version of my cane here: https://www.rei.com/product/184729/rei-co-op-walker-power-lock-staff-single

A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.
Caption: A collapsible hiking cane with cork handle attached to a green backpack with a strap intended for an ice axe.

What problem did I need it to solve?

I have a pinched nerve in my left hip. If I stand on a hard surface for long enough, it causes first numbness and then pain. The pain typically doesn’t start until hours after the standing, and it can take days before I go back to normal, or even months if I do something like chase my kid around the zoo without rest or stand around talking at a conference for a few days in a row.

How did it work out for me?

The cane basically does three things for me. First, it takes some pressure off my leg, greatly increasing the amount of time I can stand. Second, it serves as a reminder to me that I need to be careful, since I won’t get that feedback from my body until it’s too late. And third, it makes my “invisible” disability very visible to others. That helps a lot in places like airports where people can be impatient about how slowly I move, conferences where people are more willing to sit on the floor with me, and I’m still working on my kid remembering that I can’t chase him when I need the cane.

But those are all things *any* cane would do. What makes this one special?

It’s incredibly adjustable. Many canes use holes and locking mechanisms that allow you to adjust in fairly large increments — maybe an inch or 2cm between holes. But a 1cm difference makes a big difference to my arms, elbows and wrists. Obviously some people must get lucky and the notch is in the right place for them, and I believe the best practice involves cutting the bottom off the cane so that it’s customized for you. So it’s not an insurmountable obstacle but it’s a destructive kind of customization that requires actual tools.

When I was using a less adjustable cane, I felt often like having a mobility device was more hassle than it was worth because I was trading leg pain for back/shoulder/arm issues. But this cane allowed me to experiment and fine-tune until I found exactly what I needed, and it let me continually adapt as my needs changed rather than involving a one-off cut. This was particularly important to me when I was pregnant and my body was changing for quite some time both during and after. But some days you’re just wearing thicker-soled shoes, so it’s not like this is a pregnant-person-only kind of issue. Feeling like I could always in-the-moment make it work for me was huge: It felt like an awesome tool that I loved instead of a hassle that reminded me of my limitations.

It’s also light. Carrying any kind of extra weight can put extra pressure on my nerve, and I don’t know if you’ve ever used an el-cheapo cane from the drug store, but the ones I tried were designed to feel sturdy and solid. This may be comforting for many cane users (especially for seniors concerned about falls) but the weight was working at cross-purposes for my needs. Despite the lightness and the seemingly less-solid clips on this sporty cane model, I haven’t had it slip closed on me during and I’ve been using this particular cane for 10 years. That said, I’m not the heaviest human, so your mileage may vary if you need to put more weight on it.

As well as being light, it shrinks to be small — I have a beloved Synik Guide’s Edition from Tom Bihn that has the “ice axe” holder that fits it *perfectly* so I can strap it to my bag. (Note: The bag was only available in a limited run and I jumped on it immediately. They use to offer guide’s editions somewhat regularly but they warned us that some parts were getting hard to come by so it might be a while before they do them again.) As well as being easy to strap to a bag, this cane also fits in the seat pocket on airplanes or on my lap on a bus/car/train. These are important for me because it tends to get moved out of sight/reach in moving vehicles and it can be easy to forget it. I don’t use the cane 100% of the time so sometimes I forget that I have it with me if it’s not immediately obvious. You can see the picture of the cane strapped to the bag up above.

Beyond “not losing it” I like the ability strap to the bag when I don’t need it (e.g. I’m hiking on softer dirt trails that are unlikely to pinch my nerve) or when I need both hands free (those few minutes where we’re towing all our luggage in/out of an airport so I’ve got two rollerbags).

I also particularly like that this has a real cane head that’s been designed with comfort in mind: the cork gives a bit of impact cushioning that makes a significant difference over longer periods of time, the head is comfortable in my hand and feels more ergonomic than a stereotypical round hook or worse, a hiking pole.

Things that could be better

I use a rubber end on my cane to avoid slipping on polished floors and to reduce impacts against my hand. The cane itself has a sharp point on the end, though, intended for hiking in dirt/snow/ice. This sharp point absolutely destroys those rubber cane tips pretty quickly. My workaround is to fold up a piece of paper inside the rubber cane tip so the metal point doesn’t push directly into the rubber, and that helps a lot. Before that I used to go through multiple cane tips per year, sometimes per conference.

Also, not the cane’s fault, but I wish the American medical system was better. I had rounds of misdiagnosis, bad advice, and getting shuffled from doctor to doctor, all at great personal expense. This cane has had significantly better results than an entire care team and I’m a bit salty about the whole experience.

Overall

I love this cane so much that I bought a special “cane user” puppy sticker not just because it’s cute but also because being a cane user is part of my own identity now.

When I was first using the cane and feeling super self-conscious about looking “too young” to need it, a lot of other cane users took time to make eye contact, smile and give me “the nod” — instead of feeling uncomfortable I felt *seen* by others. If you think a cane might help you, I highly recommend just giving it a shot.

You know the genre of kids books about a child being upset about needing glasses and feeling uncool until they finally find a pair that suits them and then it’s like magic to have an accessibility aid? I hope everyone gets that kind of magic with a mobility device the way I’ve felt with this cane.

Estimating my knitting speed

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It’s occasionally useful to know how long a knitting project will take me: When do I need to start a gift for it to be ready in time? How much yarn should I bring on a trip? So I decided to make a personal estimate I could refer to when I wanted to make a guess.

The thing I knit with the most consistent size is socks. I’ve made enough that I know how long it takes in an “average” week while I’m working and doing stuff: it’s about 1 week per sock.

Two socks are usually around 60g of sock weight yarn. Sock weight yarn can vary in yardage by weight, but it’s usually around 400 yards per 100g.

So a bit of math gives me 30g or 120 yards of yarn knit per week.

Estimating a month as 4 weeks, that means I can use a bit more than one skein of sock yarn per month. I use the same weight of yarn for shawls, and sure enough, a one skein shawl will also take me around 1 month.

A rainbow knit shawl in progress and a bowl of dried strawberries.
Caption: A rainbow knit shawl in progress and a bowl of dried strawberries.

It’s mildly surprising that those estimates match since I usually knit shawls with around a US5 needle and socks on a US1, but I often do more complicated patterns on the shawls and make more mistakes, so maybe that’s why it’s not much faster? If I were trying to be highly accurate, there’s a lot of variables that could factor in to how fast I can knit a thing:

  • What size of needle am I using?
  • What weight of yarn am I knitting?
  • How complicated is the pattern?
  • How much time do I have to knit?
  • How distracting am I during that knitting time?
  • How often do I need breaks? (Due to being bored or avoid muscle strain.)
  • Am I working on any other projects in the same time frame?

But I’m not looking for high accuracy so this is good enough! I often knit a bit more on vacation (especially if I’ll be on a plane or a train) so I usually pack more than 120 yards/week, but it’s nice to have a rule of thumb.

The annoying part of knowing this, though, is that I have to be honest with myself about how much yarn I can reasonably buy and use in a year: many yarn subscriptions are 1 skein/month, and since I don’t have space for more stash, that means it’s probably too much yarn for me! This has been really helpful for keeping me away from yarn subscriptions and sales (especially the big ones from knitpicks), and has gotten me thinking more carefully about using my stash.

Travel Gear Review: Micro Maxi Foldable LED Scooter

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My kid is in that awkward age where he’s too big for a stroller but walking across some of the larger airports can be a lot. I’d originally wanted to get scooter luggage, but after some research I decided we’d get a lot more use out of a folding scooter that would be useful for jaunts to the park and dog walks too.

What is it?

A folding 3-wheeled scooter for kids (max weight 110 pounds). It’s even got light up wheels!

Product link: https://microkickboard.com/collections/children-ages-5-12-maxi-scooters/products/maxi-foldable-led-scooter

What problem did I need it to solve?

My kid’s too big for a stroller but still short enough that walking all over larger airports is a chore. He can walk for 3 hours at the zoo without problem, so I think it’s more of a mental exhaustion than a physical limitation.

I’d seen some kids with scooter luggage in Chicago on a previous trip and totally coveted it. After a bunch of research, though, it seemed like the quality of scooter luggage was mixed, and for around the same price we’d likely get a lot more long-term use out of a regular scooter. My kid was on the edge of outgrowing his toddler scooter and doesn’t yet love his bike, so this was something he wanted anyhow and would use multiple times a week and not just on trips.

How did it work out for me?

It was great!

Kiddo loved the scooter from the moment it arrived and it got a lot of use on dog walks even before our trips. Hatch was a little less excited about this as he’s afraid of people on wheels, but he’s mostly used to it now and it helped him with exposure.

I was a little worried that we’d have trouble with checking in at the airports or on the train (which has new luggage restrictions), but most gate agents didn’t even question us about it and neither did anyone on the train. Note that we were traveling first class on all flights and the train trip, so they might have been less inclined to give us trouble as a result, and there was typically ample overhead space when we boarded.

We did have to gate check it like a stroller on one of the smaller turboprop planes, and we did have to demonstrate that it folded once. No one gave us a hard time about him using it in the airport (I guess it’s just another accessibility device), we had some fun conversations with other parents, and one of the Canadian customs agents jokingly offered to set up an obstacle course so he could scoot through the line lanes since we were the only family going through at the time.

With the scooter, kiddo moves significantly faster than I do with the cane (probably close to my husband’s walking speed) so we did have to make him slow down or give him a point where he should wait for us. When there was traffic or lots of people, it could be a bit nerve-wracking and we had to get him to hop off and walk, but it was pretty good in safer streets and the emptier parts of airports.

When he got tired, he stood on the scooter and had one of us push him as if he were another piece of wheeled luggage. This worked even better than I expected and it’s pretty stable with the 3 wheels. He also just didn’t get tired as much. Scooting was more fun, I think, and took less energy for him to go at fast adult speeds.

As well as in the airports and train station, the scooter got a lot of use for jaunts to the local community swimming pool, parks, open houses, and “look at the fireflies” walks around my mom’s house. We didn’t use it in Iowa because my inlaws live in a significantly less walkable area.

Things that could be better

The method for locking/unlocking the folding is a big plastic sleeve that you pull up and down to release a clip inside. It tended to get a bit stuck and needed jiggling and two hands to operate most of the time. Not a deal breaker, but I do wish it was less finicky. We’re pretty fast at getting off the plane through experience and it felt bad to get hung up on a piece of recalcitrant plastic when you’ve got a grumpy travel kid and passengers streaming by you.

This scooter is technically a bit over our airline carry on limits in the longest dimension, but so much smaller in the other two that I don’t think anyone even noticed. If we’d been forced to put it in a luggage sizer that might have been an issue, but we flew first class so they weren’t really examining our luggage closely. We treated this as kid’s larger carry on and we only had one other small carry-on suitcase between the three of us, which may have contributed to it feeling like we weren’t carrying “too much” in the eyes of the gate staff. It would have been nice if the manufacturer had made the scooter just a little shorter, but I don’t think they designed it with carry-on in mind. (Their ad copy mentions putting it in the trunk or school locker. Plus they actually sell scooter-luggage for carry-on.)

My kid is very safety conscious but it was still nerve wracking to let him use it in Toronto street traffic or some of the busier parts of the airport so we had him hop off and walk in some places even though he really didn’t want to. This could have been more dangerous with a younger or less careful kid.

Overall

Kid loves it, I love it, and it made out travel easier!

I was surprised by how infrequently anyone challenged it. Some of that may be privilege, but it drew so little attention that privilege may not have played a big role. We did see some other kids with scooter luggage and similar so it’s obviously something airlines have seen before.

Even if it hadn’t been a travel win, it’s been a win at home in similar situations: it’s great for going to the park where kiddo might otherwise get tired on the walk home after playing, especially since he can stand on it and get a push from an adult.