Chica Quality Stands Out "Like a ROC"

HANDS-FREE TRAVEL DISCOVERED, AND PREFERRED

In days of old when Knights were bold and bags were made of leather, along came a Chica in cordura nylon and a whole new and original ideal of quality was born. In this Adventure Journal, Theresa Crow discovers there's more to quality than the old classic idiom of leather and brass, and that hands-free travel is the ticket.
Dear Red Oxx,

I got my Chica after reading all the reviews and deciding that it would be a good personal item for me and to go with the Gator we already have. My hubby could then carry the Gator when we're traveling. However, after getting it to middle Tennessee, it's now become my everyday cross-body purse.

Ladies, if you are still carrying a shoulder-only bag, you really need a cross-body bag for hands-free movement --more on this topic below.

While it has not yet been on any special trips, it does commute 100 miles round trip each weekday to work. We leave home at 6 a.m. and travel a few miles to board a commuter van which takes us to downtown Nashville, TN. Once there, ROC (my bag's nickname, which stands for Red Oxx Chica) and I get out at a corner where the state legislators convene, artists perform, and tourists stay, usually the Hermitage Hotel, Nashville's only 5 Star and 5 Diamond hotel, which is over 100 years old.

My office building is 27 stories high --for fans of the television series "Nashville", the lobby of my building was used recently to film an upcoming episode. While this might not be a safari to Africa or a trip to explore Europe, it is here, in the concrete jungle, to which I travel every weekday.

You might be interested in what my ROC can carry to such a place. Well, here is the list of my everyday stuff:

• 1 wallet with checkbook inside
• two hard large prescription glass cases (regular and sunglasses)
• one small front-pocket wallet
• assorted pens
• one nylon folding bag in the event I need to wag something home from work (e.g., when I buy something I don't really need from a co-worker's child),
• one folded plastic rain poncho in plastic bag
• one small zip pouch with lipstick, chap stick and lip pencil
• one small zip pouch with aspirin and other assorted medical needs
• Sony reader
• my entry badge on a lanyard to get onto the floors of my company
• 16 oz. water bottle
• car keys which hook over the inside snap pocket and make for easy retrieval and
• my Smartphone in a Smartcase phone holster clipped to the side that I stole from my hubby

My Office Building

My Office BuildingMy ROC in black is the perfect conservative color for traipsing around downtown Nashville during lunch or waiting for my commuter van. I absolutely love the fact that I can go hands-free with this bag by wearing it as a cross-body bag.

When catching a commuter van that stops briefly for me to jump on, it really makes it handy, especially when opening the van door with one hand while closing an umbrella with the other. Ladies, if you haven't gone cross-body with your daily bag yet, then you have no idea what you're missing.

The Chica is perfect for discovering how easy it is to be hands-free, whether in the grocery, walking to the car/bus/van or trekking through an airport.

This is not my usual leather bag that I was raised to appreciate (my dad raised me to appreciate leather, solid hardwood and stainless steel as quality materials), but I think that he would be impressed with the quality of the Chica bag and approve of my purchase.

Theresa Crow

The subject of leather for use in our bags crops up on occasion. The reason Red Oxx does not use leather is because it requires considerable care and upkeep. If it is not cleaned and conditioned yearly, it will crack and deteriorate. Thus voiding any kind of lifetime warranty. For submitting her Adventure Journal, Theresa gets her choice of a Rigger Wallet or Market Tote. What's your story?