3 Days to go and...wait, what's up with this suitcase?

Hooooooooooooly crap I'm nearly there

Hey all - sorry for fewer updates this week.  I've been picking up some items here and there but otherwise I haven't done a whole lot else related to the trip.  (I did however meet one of my idols last night, Felicia Day, during her book tour.  Still freaking out about that.  Go read her book, it's awesome.)

The one thing I'm happy to report is that my suitcase and duffle bag have made it to my house!  If you remember from a few blog posts back, luggage shopping was pretty awful so I opted to just buy something economical online.  I ended up buying this hard case from Amazon:

It's nice and sturdy, it's purple so it's easily identifiable, and it came at a good price!  Great, right?

Well there's nothing horribly wrong with the suitcase I got, but there were some...interesting errors? Issues?  Features?  The first of which comes from the outside of the bag.

˙˙˙ʎǝɥ

˙˙˙uǝǝq ǝʌɐɥ ʎɐɯ noʎ ʇɐɥʇ pɹɐǝɥ ı

¿¡ǝɯ ʇnoqɐ ʇıɥs buıʞןɐʇ

Hahaha, sorry, couldn't help myself. 

So yes, the label on the outside is upside down.  (The original item image shows the label facing the other way - I checked.) Not a huge deal, and I think it's actually pretty hilarious.  The label can now be used as a conversation piece, AND if by any chance someone else has the same bag I'll be able to pick out my bag as the derpy one.

The inside gets a smidge weirder though.

To be fair, there was a description of the inside on Amazon but there wasn't a picture.  This means that even though I had a vague idea of what to expect, there were still a few unknown elements.

It's a nice-ish sorta silky gray lining.  There is a zipper that separates the two halves of the bag, which is great for the return trip when you don't want to mix the dirty and clean laundry together.  There is also a small, but long, zippered pocket that would be good for smaller important items like charging cables, medications, toiletries, etc.

At the base of both halves there is a zipper that goes all the way across the bottom (shown above).  Here's the weird thing about that zipper:

Still not seeing it?  ENHANCE:

See it now?

There's no pull tab on that zipper.  Well, either of those zippers.  I'm not sure if that was intentional because you're not supposed to open it up, but then why have it there?  When you eventually open it up, you get the interior of the plastic hardshell:

omnomnom

Still not sure why those zippers are there, but I'm thinking I'll throw my shoes in one of those pockets so they don't muck up the rest of my clothes.  Gotta make the best of a weird situation!  (If you know what those zippers are actually there for, drop me a comment below - I'm super curious.)

Other than that, the suitcase appears to be fine.  I was able to roll it around on carpet, so I'm sure that rolling it around on concrete and tile at the airport will be fine.

The duffle bag, in related news, is totally perfect.  I'm going to keep it folded up and wrapped in plastic until I need it for the return trip home.

Anyway, that's all for now folks!