The Travel Game

It's been well over 50,000 miles since my last post, and I finally have a few moments between all of my projects for a quick personal trip to New York. Since I resumed my life as a road warrior a few years ago, I have found that I seem to have a lot less personal time on my schedule.  Even though my assignment is nearing completion, I still needed to take a little time for family.

Travel is a really unusual game. It's supposed to be about getting from point "A" to point "B" with minimal disruptions to your life.  It's also about trying to get the lowest fare, most frequent flier miles, and best seating.  Just like standard business travel, it can be a no-win scenario, especially around a holiday.  In this case, I needed to be in upstate New York for a graduation on a Saturday morning.  The lowest fares were either overnight flights that would allow me to arrive in the morning on Saturday, but place me180 miles away from my destination.   I made the tactical error of getting in to JFK right before rush hour on Friday.  It took three hours just to get out of the city.  I managed to stop for dinner in New Jersey before continuing onward. 

So, a minor miscalculation while playing the travel game did cost me a bit of sanity throughout the weekend.  However, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Later.

Just Can't Get Enough

In an unusual turn of events, I have returned to my old travel schedule for the last month. In an effort to maintain my status on one of the airlines, I decided to take a day off to visit a friend in Honolulu. However, I decided to take the trip via Newark. Yes, it is an interesting routing to go from California to New Jersey to get to Hawaii for a couple of days. However, it actually cost me a couple of hundred dollars less to go through New Jersey than it did to go on the regular routing through Los Angeles. After all these years, I am still baffled by airline fares.

I just got back from a quick business trip to Boston, and I think I now have enough to keep me as a top-tier traveler for one more year. This might actually be the last year I get to do this, unless I can find a travel job in the upcoming year. You never know. After all, I still wonder why I ever gave this up.

Later.

The Road Most Traveled

Manhattan is such an interesting place. I managed to take the subway a few times, and I balanced it out by taking a few taxis to get myself back to my hotel that was just outside the city. After a long week of conferences and meetings, I took a cab to the car rental place at the airport, and rented a car to drive up to Albany for the evening. The concept of the GPS is interesting. I asked for the fastest route, and the computerized voice took me off I-87 in the Bronx, and sent me through New Jersey before reconnecting with I-87 once again in New York. That just made no sense to me, but I was in no mood to argue with the computer. That argument always got me into trouble in the past, so I just took the road most traveled -- it was quite crowded, even in New Jersey. Thanks to all of the abuse from some of the cab drivers, my luggage has finally given up on me, so I had to do some quick shopping and shipping.

And so I find myself in Albany for another day. I managed to have some Texas chili and Idaho fries for dinner. Not bad for a small restaurant in Albany, New York, right? I've also booked yet another work trip in a couple of weeks, so the adventures continue on the road most traveled. I need a nap.

Later.

Consistency In The Universe

I took a quick trip to Atlanta and Philadelphia this week. I think time has started to catch up with me, as I can no longer adapt to the time zones as well as I could. For the first time in quite a while, the sleep factor (or lack thereof) actually caught up with me. I actually was way too tired to drive on the freeways of Philadelphia. The other problem was the fact that I seem to have gotten a bit dependent upon those GPS devices. This was one the the few times within the last year that I couldn't get one of those devices in my rental car. For those long-time readers of mine, you know what happened next. Yes, I got lost in New Jersey and Philadelphia quite hopelessly. At least there is some consistency within the universe. Later.