In this electronic age, traveling can be a real drain on your batteries. So the next time you're headed to the airport, bring along a power strip.

I learned this the hard way. I was stuck in one of those airports with a nearly dead laptop and no available outlets. I wandered aimlessly until I found a bank of pay phones (remember those?) each of which had an electric outlet. Luckily, each phone was enclosed in a sort of booth with a small seat. I plopped down in the cramped space, plugged in and started writing. Not exactly ergonomically correct, but it did the trick.

Never again. Today, I don't leave home without a power strip. That way, when I find myself running low on juice in my latop, cell phone, a kid's DS or any other power-sucking travel neccessity, I simply walk up to whoever got to the outlet first and ask, very nicely, "Do you mind if I plug this power stip into that outlet and then we all can plug into the power stip and power up?"

Cindy Richards is the editor of TravelingMom.com, where she also writes the TravelingMomwithTeens blog.

Cindy Richards is the mom of two who gets her muse from traveling the world, usually with kids in tow. She also writes for TravelingMom.com, where she also serves as editor.

See more of Cindy's stories here.

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