Not that it’s a big deal, but since this is my long-term travel blog I think it’s somewhat interesting to gauge how my travel patterns have changed over the years.
I need to meet with a key partner in New Jersey for my other business. The plan was to go last night, hold the meeting today, then return home tonight.
Routing: Burbank to San Francisco to Newark on United. A couple hours before takeoff, the Burbank to San Francisco flight posted a delay that would have results in a misconnection in SFO.
I used to live for these moments. It’s when I would make lemonade out of lemons, often finding a new route to earn more miles and score and upgrade.
Instead, I just canceled the trip.
But if I am being honest, there was another reason behind the cancellation: I had no desire to drive in the snow.
My meeting location was about an hour away from Newark Airport and I simply did not like the prospects of driving, alone, on slick, icy roads. Indeed, snow is now falling as a huge storm pummels New England but has reached as far south as Philadelphia.
I keep thinking about the helicopter crash and how I do not even want to leave my wife and son alone for a day.
Now I’ll do my best to hold the meeting by phone and travel later in the week only if absolutely necessary.
CONCLUSION
What a difference a few years makes. From the man who walked the streets of Afghanistan and Iraq to the man too concerned to drive in a snowstorm on the NJ Turnpike. I’m getting old. I’m not invincible.
Good choice – I think your time is valued differently now – to yourself and others – and I also think I flew on that same heli (have been hesitant to look at past pics); I certainly know a handful of others that did…and the connection certainly has an affect.
It’s just part of getting older. When we’re young we all feel invincible; what could possibly happen? But as we age we know from experience that bad things CAN happen. They DO happen.
With homes on both sides of the Atlantic, my husband and I travel constantly. As we get older we spend far more time reading the small print on our travel and medical insurance policies; remembering the days when we’d take-off for out-of-the-way places without any insurance at all! Sometimes we back-out of travel arrangements at the last minute because something just doesn’t feel right…
Kudos to you for cancelling your trip and returning home to your family. New Jersey will be there when the time is right for you to travel.
Ironically the storm around here (N. NJ) ended up being a big nothingburger…Boston of course a different story.
For decades we’ve been told that technological advances would reduce the need to travel. Why hasn’t it happened? The old “you can’t beat face-to-face” line still rules or isn’t the technology there yet? Travel costs are enormous: not so much the $$$ but more the human cost…time, separation, health, etc, etc