A few weeks ago we were honored to have as our guest blogger Chuck Thompson, author of Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer. Herewith, the first of his five tips for the modern traveler.

December 13, 2007:
Five Tips for the Modern Traveler

Hit the road enough and you eventually acquire a workmanlike knowledge that goes well beyond knowing what you want at the Panda Express in Terminal C before you even look at the menu. It doesn't take a travel writer to get a basic handle on the industry, which is why it always amazes me that you almost never find anything novel or particularly useful in those "savvy traveler" columns every magazine and newspaper in America trots out two or three times a year to announce for the millionth time that you should drink plenty of water while on a plane and "check the Internet" to find deals on hotels. Wow. I'll bet no mileage-club gold-level account rep crisscrossing the country ever thought to do that before.

After giving up on finding anything new in those workhorse rundowns of tired tips, I began keeping my own list of ways of making life easier away from home. Though constantly in flux, my list (abbreviated below) is meant to equip any 21st-century traveler with the knowledge to travel like a pro.

Downsize

The best way to start packing for a trip is by reaching into the drawer next to the bathroom sink and grabbing a handful of trial-size toiletries — mini shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, aspirin, shaving cream, Band-Aids, sun screen. If you don't have a drawer like this, start one. Like old ladies who hoard cat food, I'm a habitual collector of handy-sized personal items, tossing random tubes into the basket every time I pass that shelf at the drugstore, lifting them out of hotel bathrooms, plucking them off of maid carts left unattended in hallways. Keep enough of these plastic bottles around and you can be out the door for Kabul ten minutes after National Geographic calls the house.

Read the rest of Chuck's tips here — and while you're at it, check out our entire slate of guest bloggers, plus daily Book News and Review-a-Day posts, weekly employee essays, and more!

But Fup had been talking about herself, the others want Bear to confirm.

Indeed. "She put it this way: When you tell someone about a dream, you feel detached from what happens, right?"

Down from the window ledge comes Bagheera's small voice. "And maybe you're willing to say things about yourself that you wouldn't ordinarily."

Even Chester nods.

"Fup remembered napping in front of the cabin. This was her first day there. In her sleep she heard growling. She'd have bolted if she knew where to run. When she opened her eyes, Bandit was standing right in front of her — but she was looking at his tail. He was facing the opposite direction."

"Wait," Oreo interrupts, "wasn't Bandit part wolf?"

"Three quarters German Shepherd," Zooey clarifies, "one quarter wolf."

"'No problem,' Fup thinks. 'Bandit's not even looking at me.' Then, through his legs, Fup spotted a Doberman. Staring. And Bandit continued to growl."