The Flagg Agency

A life of oh wells

I came across this photo in my Facebook stream the other day. It has been posted by a friend of mine who had shared it from a page known as “Always Grow Personally.” It begs the question of “Are you an ‘Oh well’ or a ‘What if’ type of person?” My apologies in advance if what I am about to write offends you. I can never know if this subject has touched you recently. We all deal with what comes next in different ways.

I have written about picking the right vacation; what to do while on vacation;  what to expect while you are expecting to take a vacation, but I thought you might like these seven tips to remember before you take a vacation!

1. Notify your credit card company(ies) of your dates of travel and the places you will be visiting. Did you know a bunch of purchases even in a different state all at once can trigger a fraud alert? I once drove a Rental truck pulling a trailer with my truck on it and had to fill the tank every 2-3 hours. Multiple gas station visits in a day triggered an alert.

Even with a universe of online cruise, tour and other travel information at your fingertips, using the services of a travel agent makes good sense – and can save time and money, too.You will find that most professional travel consultants have a heart of an educator. Travel agents are not selling a transaction, we are making sure you buy an experience that is right for you.

Chuck and his daughter on the Pitcher's Mound at the Field of Dreams baseball field

I have a question for you. Have you ever been a movie set tourist? In 2005, our family traveled to Kalona, Iowa for a wedding. Having no responsibility as a part of the wedding party, we chose to head north about two and half hours to Dyersville. This is where Kevin Costner played catch one last time with his father on the baseball field made from his cornfield in the film Field of Dreams.

I worked in radio in a former life. There were four sides to radio:

• The talent or the programming side.
• The money or the sales side.
• The engineering side.
• The management side.

As part of this pyramid, I worked for about fifteen years in the programming side. At one station, we had someone in management who would freak out if you ever mentioned any other radio station in town. In a way, I could understand where he was coming from. On one hand, why give the competition free advertising? On the other hand, you have to be a realist. No one was listening to any one station all day every day unless you worked there or it was at an office!