Here I am on another business road trip to Chicago. It's not a bad drive. I've been asked by readers, "why don't you fly?"
Driving kills a day, but then again, flying does too. If I'm there at 5:00 am for the security stuff it won't matter since I'll end up waiting on the tarmac for two hours as Atlanta shuts down for bad weather and Los Angeles clears all bomb threats. By mid-morning I'm finally in the air, but I didn't get the precious aisle seat because I forgot to ask and I'm against the window next to a 300 pound man and I'm staring at the fascinating way his watch hides under the folds of his wrist to keep my mind off of the claustrophobia. Without stopping, my flight is two hours. If I choose cheaper tickets in exchange for a layover, my flight can be up to four or five hours. After landing at Midway, I wait another hour for my bags at the carousel unaware that a South-Sider named Mack is going through my bags for a new pair of shoes. It's now 3:00 PM. My day is pretty much over.
The other thing is expense. Because I'm building my business, I don't have large clients with bottomless pockets. If I did, I could expense it to them and fly first class all the way. But then again, I would be Eliyahu M. Goldratt. However, I'm not and my goal is just survival. The average flight from Dallas to Chicago is four hundred dollars, give or take a fifty. Add the rental car and lodging and I'm out a thousand dollars per trip. On the other hand, I can get in and out of Chicago via my old trusty Ford Focus for three hundred dollars and some change.
The downside to driving is the time. The upside is the time. I listen to audio books and music my wife can't stand, and I call people on my cell phone to ask them things I can't remember when I'm in the office. The cell phone coverage for Sprint is great in Oklahoma, but Missouri is miserable. I think when the cell towers were rolled out in Missouri, it was an experiment in road rage. Each cell tower between the Oklahoma border and Springfield on Interstate 44 is just far enough away from the next one so that my call is dropped. Every-freaking-tower. I'm not kidding. When I'm on the phone I hear the failure beep and the screen reports "Signal Faded" quickly followed by "Entering Sprint Service Area". Tell me that wasn't done on purpose. I want to beat the crap out of the "Can you hear me now?" guy when that happens since I tend to constantly repeat that phrase myself up and down I-44.
I leave here on Tuesday to drive back. I'm looking forward to the drive again. I know where all of the clean bathrooms are and will turn off my phone on I-44. It's better than flying and I can stop for white chocolate Reeses and Coke any time I want without buzzing a flight attendant or crawling over a fat guy.
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Unrest by Parkway Drive