Planes (Almost Trains) and Automobiles

Why does it seem that business travel is such an inconvenience at every turn? Personal travel does occasionally have hiccups, but never quite to the extreme as when it's for work. This was an unusual travel week for me as I was in 4 cities in 4 days. I am definitely glad to get these meetings behind me, and at the end of the day I would much rather get them done in rapid succession than have them spread out over 4 weeks (or longer). I suppose the challenges are remembering which airline is for which connection & which city you're in when you wake up. Here's a little of what my trip looked like...

Tuesday -
Take American via Dallas to Boston. Rent a car & stay one night at the Westin in Waltham. Westin is our "preferred" hotel, so we tend to stay in a lot of Westins. I rented a car so I could hit a nearby gym and not have to worry about justifying the taxi fare on my expense report. Got in a decent spin and a great swim in the swanky BSC fitness center.

Wednesday - Business meeting shortly after lunch. Meeting went well, which is always a plus, especially considering with road construction & back to school (college) we got lost and stuck in traffic and were almost late. But it all worked out in the end. Then I headed to Logan to grab a JetBlue flight to Dulles. (note: at one point, this flight was booked on USAir, but was changed) From there, I took a shuttle to the Dulles Marriott, where the lobby smelled like farts or feet, or both. Didn't really get a good night's rest here, but watched a bit of Guiliani's speech (thought he was sort of a jerk) and also Palin (I was surprised that I kind of liked her spunk - but that's where it ends).

Thursday -
Met my colleague for breakfast & then grabbed a cab and headed out to our meeting. This one also went well, although again, we got lost due to a transposition of numbers when my colleague wrote down the address. Oh well, we made it in time and that's always a plus. Afterwards, waited for over 25 minutes for our cab & then headed to Dulles to grab a United flight to Pittsburgh. (Note: The colleague I was meeting in Pitt originally told me the meeting was in Philly, so in a last minute scramble I had to change my train to an airline reservation). Stayed in Pitt for one night at the Westin and for once had an amazing view from my giant window. The kind of window overlooking the city that makes you want to open the curtains and prance around naked...but I digress. I ran around downtown a bit, never quite making it to Schenley Park (sorry Brownie), found another gym and another spin class (which was AWESOME, complete with a disco ball) and worked some core & weights for good measure. My legs were jelly on the way back to the hotel, which was fantastic. I watched about 10 minutes of McCain's speech before falling into a beer-induced REM sleep (sadly, it only took one beer).

Friday -
After waking up and freaking out thinking that I was still at the Westin in Waltham instead of the Westin in Pittsburgh, I headed out early for my meeting with a different colleague and quickly realized once we were there that we really had no business being there. But we stuck it out, presenting for 2 hours, trying to remain upbeat. Sometimes it's tough to be column fodder when involved in vendor evaluation. Oh well. Afterwards, we had a car service pick us up & headed to the airport to catch my American flight (note: this return flight was originally booked on Southwest Airlines but was changed at the last minute). Fairly uneventful flights home, via Dallas, where I got to enjoy a good nap, sinus pressure (why must pilots change altitude 100s of times???) and the inevitable "Swelling of the Feet." Although, upon arrival in Dallas I discovered that the plane side luggage check resulted in the luggage guys dropping my bag so that the retractable pull handle completely broke off. Another suitcase bites the dust. I whacked my pinky finger really good at one point, so it's good & bruised.

So, in summary I either flew or had reservations at some point on:

American
JetBlue
United
USAir
Southwest
Amtrak

(It's no wonder I've lost my status on American since I seem to be all over the map with the airlines. Gone are the days of requesting a particular carrier...)

And navigated around the cities in:

Rental car
Taxi
Hotel Shuttle
Car Service

Casualties included:

1 suitcase
both my poor feet
1 pinky finger

Oh, it's good to be home. I am missing a fabulous Cupcake Throwdown, but I am so glad to be back and now must elevate these feet!!