I accepted a new position not too long ago. The organization wanted me to fly to New Mexico for training. I'm a home body (I moved to a farm) and as such I don't get out much. Traveling isn't my thing, but what could go wrong?
I drove three hours to the Salt Lake City Airport (I live in the middle-of-nowhere on purpose), dropped off my car, and flew to DFW on my first leg via American Airlines. So far, so good. No problems, and I even got a row to myself.
My gate changed at DFW at nearly the last minute. DFW is massive, and it took 30 minutes to get to my new gate (via Skylink light rail). Got on my connecting flight that took me to a small airport in New Mexico. Again, so far so good.
Enjoyed New Mexico for about a week, and ate a ton of steak and tacos while the rest of my colleagues intoxicated themselves. Met up with an old friend, and we reminisced for hours and still didn't cover the full breadth of our shared experience. It was nice to have someone fill in the gaps of my misspent youth.
It was time to return to Utah, except the flight was now delayed. Not a big deal, I had hours to make my connecting flight. Oh, no! The flight was delayed again. I still had time... Oh wow, now the flight was cancelled. At first, I thought it was weather related, but am now convinced it was the pilot-strike. Apparently, I have to manually cancel the connecting flight as they don't do it for you. Now what am I supposed to do? The weather in Dallas looked terrible for all the open options the next few days.
After a lot of hesitation, I decided to rent a car and drive back to Utah. While all of this is going on, my poor wife had to cancel the hotel that I had booked in anticipation of arriving late in Salt Lake City. It's hard to get a refund on a non-refundable hotel, but we learned a few tricks: 1) Tell them it was booked in error and if they inquire, 2) tell them your juvenile kid booked the reservation. They'll refund you immediately.
The tourist city that we were in had no cars available, so I had to be taken to Albuquerque.
I made the terrible decision of going with Budget Car Rental and didn't know it at the time but found out later that they put the wrong return location in the agreement. How could I miss it? I was tired.
I drove through New Mexico at night (missing the beauty) and into Cortez, Colorado. I listened to Coast To Coast AM (The Bob Lazar episode) as I was in Lazar country until I reached Cortez. I was tail-gated once for a long stretch. I had an out-of-state plate on the rental car and knew from past experience that the police will discriminate against you when they believe you won't travel back to fight the ticket. I went the speed limit which was slow for the guy behind me. The tail-gating, as bad as it seemed, was nothing compared to Utah. By the way, I miss Art Bell.
Three hotels had no vacancy (one locked me out), but thankfully good ol' crappy Days Inn had some space for me. After I had awakened, and my mental faculties had returned, it dawned on me that Budget Car Rental made a mistake on the agreement. Not only that, I was not in the Toyota Camry that I had requested, but had somehow driven a Chevy Malibu. Two hours on the phone and some cursing and I had it straightened out, albeit at a much higher price.
The drive through Colorado was inspiring, but when I arrived in Utah I was sad to see the growth in Monticello.
Moab had grown a little, but Price remained unchanged, and that long stretch through the Price highway was as boring as it has always been.
I arrived at the remodeled Salt Lake City airport, having trouble finding where the shuttles are (it's changed), and paid a $50 long-term parking fee having only been gone for under a week. Jeez.
Drove my own car three hours home to the middle-of-nowhere and was relieved. Travelling just isn't for me. If I had to do this all over again, I think I'd rather drive. "Ride, boldly ride."
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