good travel lens

I purchased this lens mainly because i needed a 300mm lens for wildlife shots. I already had the 28-135mm IS lens, and liked the stabilizing feature, but the price of the 75-300mm IS lens was almost $500.00, which i did not want to spend at the time.
Everything that i read about the 75-300 III lens said that it did not deliver very sharp pictures,especially at the 300mm setting.
Those same reviewers were saying that the old 100-300mm push-pull lens was better. I checked out that one also and just did not like the looks of it or the push-pull feature. I thought that if i could stabilize the 75-300mm better it should deliver acceptable photos, so i bought this lens and a Sunpack mono-pod for $50.00.
I found the lens to be very lightweight but sort of cheap feeling. There was a slight wobble to the lens when it was turned out and it looked a little dark when i put the camera to my eye and looked through the lens.
I went out to a lake and used a roll of film on the local waterfowl. When i got my pictures back I found them to be sharp and there was plenty of detail in the shadowed areas.
The feathers on the ducks showed a great amount of detail and the colors came through looking natural.
That was what i wanted to accomplish so i feel that this lens was a good buy.
I think that the mono-pod helped a great deal and I would not use this lens without some type of support.
So,in the end i have a 300mm lens that delivers what i want and only cost me less that $250.00 including the mono-pod.
If you can afford an L series lens, by all means get one. If you cannot afford the L series, but still want acceptable results at the 300mm range, this lens will give that to you with a proper support.
I liked this mono-pod so much that, when possible, i use it with all my other cameras now. My pictures never looked so good.