I thought I had the same problem...... when you come from the iphone, everything(video, etc) is viewed through the ipod app...... when I got the ipad, I had the same "where's the hell are the videos???"...... Then I realize that there is a separate video app......
Hope this helps.
Thanks, but I looked there first and no luck. Obviously not in the iPod 'app' either. What baffles me is it appears the iPad 'knows' the info is there as it has indicated that 16 gigs of 32 is available, but I can't access any of it. Do I have to hit the sync button even though I've drag and dropped it and seen it in the iPad under the iPad tab. With all the iPods and iPhones I've used with iTunes before, I've never had this issue. I thought I knew what I was doing which makes this confusing.
Its somewhat confusing reading what you just said too.
There is no iPad Tab, but I think you meant Music Tab, which doesn't actually list any music. But in iTunes in the Menu Music on the Left (Not a Tab) shows all your music. I would also check to see what Playlists you have created as they sometimes appear as separate lists within the iTunes Playlist.
It sounds like you drag n dropped music into iTunes which then copies it to your Playlist, but wont sync it to the iPad until you hit the Sync button.
Can you remote to your desktop at home while your out on vacation? If not you will have to wait until you get home, sounds frustrating, but unless you place them by remote onto some cloud service then retrieve them from your vacation spot. Or if you can remote to your desktop, install a remote server like AirVideo which will only stream non protected movies to the iPad, and install the AirVideo app on the iPad to view them while on vacation, just a thought.
Otherwise once you get back home it will be interesting to see if that inevitable Sync button just has to be pressed, which you may not need to manually do if you have it set to automatically Sync each time you connect. But after something new is added to the library while it's connected, you have to manually click Sync in order to get the new added material to copy over. Sounds like you already know all this stuff, so it was probably just as simple as you didn't sync after coping new items to your iTunes library.