Some of you have travelled for your career and I hope this resonates. Most others that I know haven’t and have their own impressions of travelling. I wrote about it a little on Monday but since I am living it now, I will write about it some more.

The impression that the non-frequent business traveler has is that this life is somehow glamorous. I get it, my expenses are paid and I get to pick where I eat for the most part. But, I think that is where the joy ends. Let me describe some of my day.

The only way to get hotel/airline status is to travel a lot. For instance it takes 30 segments or 30,000 miles a year to advance a rank on Delta. What does Silver get you? No checked bag fees and early boarding, whoop tee do. Using segments, that is a minimum of fifteen trips. If you don’t do that, then you get knocked down two status levels at the end of the year. I say that because that is over one trip a month in a year.

I got my airline status travelling to China frequently. I paid dearly for that at 7,000 miles and 16 hours of flight time for one way. To top it off, I was gone for six months out of a year on these jaunts. I got Hilton Diamond by spending 90+ nights a year at a Hilton. That is a whole quarter of a year people! The owners of the hotel franchise sent me a Christmas card one year. By the way, that does not count the nights I spent on non-Hilton hotels (this was not my China year).

The topic today is more about the hassles of travel. Here are some examples. I am in Cedar Rapids, a small city. I am staying downtown where I have to pay to park in a parking garage overnight. At least I do not have to valet… but when I put in my ticket to leave, it was rejected as ‘damaged’ and I had to pay the maximum daily rate outside the fact that I already paid for parking. I brought the issue to the front desk return my money for the day. We will see if it happens again.

When I got into my room, I really had to pee. When I stepped in the bathroom, I stepped in a puddle of water. No idea where it came from or why… but then I had to deal with maintenance thinking I overflowed the toilet, cleaning up the mess, etc. This is the glamor of travel. I have to be a steward of my companies’ and my clients money by being somewhere I don’t want to be doing something I don’t want to do. When my expenses are paid, it is fine but I am personally on the hook for non-approved expenses.

It’s the little things that you have to enjoy. When I was in middle school through college I had a subscription to National Geographic. I loved the articles about ‘Americana’ (ultimately, I cancelled my subscription because of social justice, even in the 1990’s). I get to see Americana. The burrito place in Lemoore, CA or the pizza place in Cedar Rapids, IA are benefits. These are places that are not are not easy to get to – meaning far off the freeway, but real interesting and good places.

To be 100% honest, I would rather spend one night in Fremont, MI than seven nights in Shanghai China. Having eaten at five star restaurants and all of the swanky places, my preferences is value. I am talking about value over glamor. I do sometimes imagine what it would be like to live somewhere. I do like going to the grocery store, walking in neighborhoods and seeing a small glimpse of life

Fortunately yesterday was a beautiful introduction for my first time in Iowa. It was 66 degrees and sunny.

End Your Programming Routine: I wont say that it is all one hundred percent bad. I feel sorry for people that travel as I once did. It is no kind of life, I would rather be home right now.