West Virginia is boring!

I was expecting a boring place and was not let down. I heard it has nice scenery and it does...for about 20 minutes. Backwoods America is just not my cup of tea I guess. It doesn't help that it has not stopped raining since I arrived and I am not a fan of driving on mountain roads.

I hope the weather improves tomorrow but it does not appear it will based on the forecast. I have a lot of driving ahead of me and lots of work to do!

Long Weekend Back Home

I have today off work and am spending the weekend with my family since I was already so close in Savannah. I fly directly from here to West Virginia for work on Sunday. I am looking forward to relaxing and not thinking about work for a while.

I did end up having to do some work today since some things are time sensitive. Such is life.

Now it is time to head to my favorite local places for seafood and drinks!

Savannah Day 2

I ended up at a small taco bar in downtown Savannah and had some great tacos and a great margarita. My co-worker headed off to bed since they had been awake since 3:45 AM for their flights. I decided to stop into another small bar near the hotel for some cheap beers and to watch the baseball game to unwind. It worked!

I spent all day on the trade floor and it involves a LOT of standing. My sore feet and legs reflect that and I am glad I don't have to do it again tomorrow. We broke down the trade show booth at 6PM and were ready to roll by 6:30. Luckily my boss is taking the van back and I am staying with family this weekend. They are picking me up soon!

I am supposed to have tomorrow off but we shall see if that happens. It is very busy right now at work and with the time sensitive nature of my projects I fear that I will have to do some work at some point tomorrow. Either way I am going to get some relaxing time in and some errands done. Maybe I can sneak in some beach time at some point!

Savannah Day 1

This morning I drove from Atlanta to Savannah in a rented van with all of our trade show goodies. It is a VERY boring drive with not much to look at aside from trees, concrete, and other cars. It took me around 3 hours and 40 minutes to get there which is 30 minutes less than Google's estimate.

I picked up my co-worker from the airport and we proceeded to the convention to set up the booth. It is definitely a 2 man job with all the small things that have to be assembled. It ended up looking great and we finished just in time for the opening reception. We said hello to some clients and mingled a bit.

Tomorrow is the all day show. It is crunch time and a chance for me to try on the sales hat for a while. A welcome change of pace from the rigors of project management...even though I will be doing that at the same time.

Busy Work Travel Begins!

Tomorrow starts one long slog!

I start in Savannah for a 2 day trade show for work. I follow that with 3 days back home in South Georgia for a long weekend with family. Sunday night I am off to West Viriginia followed by North Carolina and Virginia until Friday. That is a total of 12 days on the road!

This is going to be a whirl-wind trip with many different types of clothes needed. This presents a packing challenge since I need to carry on my bag and also want to keep it down to 1 bag that I have to lug around. It is going to be heavy but manageable.

I am going to take a small bag with me to Savannah to carry the nicer clothes I need for the trade show and will send it back with the trade show shipment. This will reduce what I drag around during my work travels later. I also am considering going to the beach which means flip flops need to be brought. That works out to less laundry since I won't need socks on those days.

Its going to be a tiring but hopefully fun experience in the end. I have a lot of work to do and a lot of ground to cover but nothing I haven't done before.

The best things in life are not things at all

I saw this on a bumper sticker on a car in front of me. This was on the way to work this morning and I completely agree with it. I have realized that material things are just that. In the end they mostly mean nothing. Some of them you need to survive but the majority of the crap we have is not necessary.

The things I value the most:

• People: friends, acquaintances, family, and so on. People are what make life what it is.
• Experiences: All of my best memories are from travel. I will continue to travel for as long as I can.
• Food & Drink: This brings people together. The food itself is not as important as the company that comes with it. It is a tool to bring us together
• History/Culture: Another reason I travel. I read about all sorts of interesting history and places to visit. When I actually get there it definitely adds to the experience to know the background behind it.
• Freedom: without it we cannot do as we please. I will viciously fight anything that tries to impede it.

Remember all of this the next time you think about buying more clothes, a new car, or an expensive "toy" that you want because of some marketing you were subjected too.  Does that object have more importance than the above? My guess is no.

Car woes on hold

The burning grease smell from the axle has gone away. I called my dad (a mechanic) and he says as long as it drives OK then I can wait to replace the part. This is good news!

It saves me $150 today since I don't have to take it anywhere to get fixed. It can (hopefully) wait until he comes to visit again and we can do it ourselves. He comes up to Atlanta fairly regularly so it shouldn't be an issue.

It also saves me time and hassle of taking my car to the repair shop and picking it up. I will just hang onto the part just in case things get worse before he can visit again.

Win!

Sunglasses and FEDEX Account fraud

Today so far has been a day of putting out fires both at work and on a personal level.

Hertz did find my sunglasses and they will ship them back to me. Nice to know that I don't have to re-buy them at least. I will have to eat the shipping costs. Lesson learned!

I got a collections notice from FEDEX in the mail last week. Turns out the mysterious charge to my American Express a while back was actually through my FEDEX Account. I called them to investigate.

They looked into it and decided it was indeed fraud would erase the charge from my account. That is another $168 that I don't have to come up with. Another bit of relief!

Things are looking up from the events of the Baltimore trip. I hope they continue to improve!

Baltimore Day 2

This trip wasn't going to go well from the start.

A lot of scrambling around today got most of what I needed done. There is still one small loose end that my client is going to help me with my guidance over the phone.

Lots of delays, barely made my flight home (the last one of the day!), and left my expensive sunglasses in the rental car. Running through the airport is not my idea of fun. Neither is having a crappy cold sandwich and peanuts for dinner. In the end I made it home.

It was a long two days that I do not care to repeat. The majority of my work trips go well. This is one that was doomed from the start. I have had worse but still get frustrated all the same.

Hopefully the next one will go much better.

Baltimore Day 1

I must admit that today got to a rocky start:

• Left home with a headache
• Lots of turbulence
• Rough landing
• Broken A/C in the rental car
• Things a mess at the job site

 Things did slowly improve this afternoon where I could get some work done. Still not without a few snags but I will get it done in the end.

I did have some great crab cakes and a beer for dinner which helped smooth things over a little. Early start tomorrow to keep things moving for work. Always and adventure...I guess.

Just another day on the road!