Travel For Work

This week I had to take some work related training courses, and those courses were 2.5 hours away by car.  So that meant work travel, a day trip.  I was picked up at my front door at 7:30 AM by a colleague, in a company vehicle no less.  No reason to complain, right?

Well, I'm gonna, for 2 reasons.  The first is because, in my haste to get out the door after receiving the "On my way" text,  I neglected to add sugar to my go-cup of road coffee.  Ugh.  Like drinking a hot puddle.  The second reason is because I hate to work travel.

Now, I am not a fan of the word HATE.  Its an ugly word, with a lot of serious weight behind it, and serious baggage attached to it.  Hate crime, hate mail, hate groups.  Its not a word I like to use about my own feelings- I try not to hate anything.  I certainly don't hate anyone. But I hate to work travel.

I like to travel for recreation.  Visit friends, family, see sights and events.  Good stuff.  I don't like the travel itself per se, but I enjoy arriving at the destinantion.  There is a level of enjoyment to it.  The same cannot be said about work travel, however.  It is tedious, monotonous, and often longer than it needs to be. Fortunately, this was a quick trip of one day, and I was back home by 4 PM.  So it was tolerable.  

My reason for hating work travel is I used to have a road job; a travel job.  It was every day travel. My range ws anywhere from 10 minutes away, to a plane ride away.  I had no home office, no base.  Iwent where I was dipatched to, and it wasn't a guarantee that I would make it home every night.  That meant hotels and motels, restaurants and fast-food, doughnuts and terrible coffee, missing my family and friends, missing out on occassions and get togethers and holidays.  My work when I got there was great and enjoyable; its the same work I still do today.  But the travel to get there was awful.  

It was a good living, but no life.  I recoil in horror and strongly object when road travel is suggested these days.  Thanks but no thanks.  I want to go to my office, pound away for 9 hours or so, then come home to my girls.  That's what I'm trying to build, that's the life I want.  I owe it to myself, but more importantly, I owe it to them.