Recently blog buddy Terri wrote about a business trip she took from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh. As a grizzled veteran of the air travel wars, I found myself vicariously saying, "No don't do that! Leave yourself more time" and feeling the trauma of running down the jetway hoping to get on the plane before the door closes.
There was also one quotation that got me to this reflection. Terri doesn't fly much. In fact she started her post by saying, "Before yesterday, I could count on one hand the number of times I've traveled by airplane." I on the other hand wouldn't have to go more than a month or two to fill a hand up and have been at that pace for most of my adult working life.
I remember the late 70's when I would be running back and forth from Washington to New York on the Eastern Shuttle, The 80's going back and forth from Chicago and also covered the whole country during my investment banking days. The 90's were a bit slower when I first moved to New Mexico. But in the 2000's it was going back and forth to Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles. This last year it has been Denver, Phoenix and Chicago.
I missed the 'golden age' of flying. By the time my career started, deregulation had begun and competition had eaten into profits. Post 9/11 was a bummer with the extraordinary ramp up of security. I remember each time I hit the frequent flyer hurdles to get those extra benefits (just got there on Southwest by the way). I remember the first time someone let me try their noise reduction headphones and how wonderful it was to block out all that noise on flights. It was a wonderful day when I hit a million miles on United and got lifetime status. No more having to hit the travel targets each year to maintain status.
Over all these years, I've developed routines and patterns that help take the stress out of the travel routine. Wife has long since succumbed to the weight of my idiosyncrasies (like we always move fast in the airport...even if we are way early, we always work to get on the plane as soon as possible - must make sure to have space for the carry on bag, we park in certain places in the airport, we fly certain preferred airlines, in the morning we get breakfast burritos at a certain place, we wait out plane changes at the United Club, etc, etc, etc).
In spite of everything, I still really like to travel. I may not like flying per se. I may not want to be away from home for quite so long on a trip. But I have always loved being in other places. Large, small, famous, innocuous, makes no difference. I have no desire for it to change.
2 comments:
I think my anxiety was mainly from lack of experience. I could see building a routine if it were something I did more frequently. If there's a next time for me, I might have to get some tips from you for making things easier. And even though my first business trip was a challenge, it left me with a good story to tell!
I am happy not to have to do the benelux commute anymore. I am very happy to be discovering more of the Netherlands through more regional travel on the other hand. I think over time I am also trying to be more conscious of not developing idiosyncrasies. In particular because with kids it's different every time. What worked last time won't the next. Best for me at this stage is to be zen and flexible: easier said than done!
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