Work Travel

When I first found out that I would have to travel for work, I thought it sounded very exciting and fun. I also thought that meant that I must be pretty important for my work to send me clear across the country. Turns out I was COMPLETELY wrong!!!! Not on all accounts; depending on the weather and the people, I usually do have fun, especially when work also goes well. But the kind of excitement I tend to experience is not something I'd recommend to others. So my trip this time was to Barton, Alabama. Actually, my very first work trip was also to here and over the years, I've been there a lot. My first year working, I went there at least 10 times for almost 2 weeks each time, getting me Mediallian Status on Delta and Diamond VIP with Hilton Honors. So it's not really surprising that I have a lot of memories from there and each time I go (much like every place I go), I usually have a lot of thoughts that go something like "oh yeah, that's where I lost my wallet for 3 hours that one night". This trip was no exception and I even got to add to my list. So, here's the highlights of this particular trip.

Day 1: Flew through the Memphis, Tennessee airport which I have not ever done before. I got to use my new Kindle which I LOVE and I think I met Elvis. Twice. I also got to experience some terrible customer service from my rental car company.

Day 2: Went to the plant for work and then to dinner. I can't speak for all of Alabama, but if you've seen any movie exemplifying southern charm and hospitality (Sweet Home Alabama comes to mind), I can honestly say that Barton fits this mold. The people are so great here and I love the scenery. I met several people in the lobby of the hotel for dinner and then we left for the restaurant. When we got to the restaurant, I realized I had lost my purse at some point. Luckily, after calling the hotel, they found it in the lobby on the floor by one of the tables so I picked it up when we got back.

Day 3: Very busy at work as usual. I decided to go for an outdoor run which was fun. Running at low altitudes makes anybody feel like a better runner and the weather outside was beautiful and warm 60 degrees.

Day 4: Locked myself out of my hotel room, but I do that all the time.

Day 5: Yay, I get to come home!!! Or so I thought.... The day started well with lunch at the Rattlesnake Saloon. They don't let you drive in, instead they drive you (in the back of a pickup) down a STEEP hill to a restaurant built into a cave.

This poster was on the wall in the bathroom:

Well, after lunch, I headed for the airport where my flight was delayed. Grounded due to bad weather in Atlanta for 2 hours. After taking off, we flew the 40 minutes to Atlanta then circled the airport for another hour because of a tornado. It was crazy, I've never seen so many airplanes just circling around and around before. Hard to understand the problem since we were above the clouds and it was a perfectly clear night from our view. Then we were cleared for landing and I experienced 30 minutes of the most terrifying flight of my life. Several times I was sure the planes wings were going to snap off or that the wind would just take us down, but it turned out fine and we finally landed in Atlanta. My connecting flight had left 2 hours earlier and since it was already midnight, I was stuck there. Without my luggage of course. They gave me a 'discount' voucher for the Quality Airport Conference Hotel but when I went out to catch the shuttle, I stepped into the wrong one and instead ended up at the dumpiest hotel I've ever seen in an area that reminded me of Beck Street by Southern Exposure. The door to my room opened out to the street instead of a nice quiet hallway and there were 3 signs in my room suggesting that I use the chain latch and deadbolt lock in addition to the regular lock on the door. Very comforting.... 4 hours later, I woke up and rushed back to the airport to see if I could get a seat on the first flight out. Fortunately, I was able to get on the flight and finally made it home. Unfortunately, my luggage took a slightly different route to Salt Lake, so I had to spend 30 minutes trying to find it. When I got it, it was soaking wet... I think it must have spent a couple hours sitting in the rain or something.

Well, that's it for my trip. One of these times, I hopefully will experience a trip where I have absolutely nothing to say about it except maybe about the weather... this was not it. It's all good though, what else would inspire me to update my blog??? :)

Less than 2 days and I'll be back on a plane headed for Atlanta again for our cruise to the Bahamas. Let's hope it goes better than this one did!