Eagle Creek Thrive 75L Women's Travel Pack

Today I made my first major purchase toward my traveling adventure: an Eagle Creek Thrive 75L Women's Travel Pack. I found it on the REI website on closeout, which made it 50 percent off. It is the 2009 model, but a deal's a deal.

It's hard to buy it sight unseen, but I think it should be alright. Eagle Creek seems to be a very reliable brand according to all the reviews I've read. And, out here in Hawaii, we don't have a lot of outdoors-type stores from which to choose. Sports Authority can only get you so far, and I've already checked them out. They have more hiking bags than these travel bags. I wanted to be sure that it came with zippers that could lock rather than the drawstring closure top.

The model I got comes with a main pack and a day pack that zips on and off it. It's like getting two bags for one. One of the dilemmas I was mulling over was the idea of only traveling with carry-on luggage. This way I'd avoid the check-luggage fees and would always know where my stuff was. It would never get lost by the airlines. But, in the end, my desire to have adequate space won out. This pack is supposed to have quite a bit of room and be more than sufficient to travel around the world. I'll have to try it out once it arrives in a week. If all else fails, I can purchase packing cubes to organize my stuff.