Early flight this morning out of Burbank heading to Las Vegas. Oh, that’ll be a fun vacation,
Yeah right! Travelling for business is rarely a vacationary treat. I know. Whaa Whaa Whaa for the salesperson. “Somebody call the Whaambulance.” I get it, but…It’s a business trip. You cram in as much business as you can in the shortest amount of time possible to make sure you’re not away from your real life too long. Yes, sometimes the meals can be good, but eating out 3 meals a day does begin to ware on you and you’re extremely sculptured physique.
Today, I arrive in Vegas, get my rental car and head immediately towards Lake Havasu City in Arizona. It’s a 2-1/2 hour drive that spans across Nevada, California and Arizona deserts. Small highways most of the way (some time even spent on Historical Route 66…Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…get your kicks).
It’s actually a very picturesque drive all the way. Town’s you’d never see unless you’re on this exact trip. A town like Stagecoach, NV. A one street, no exit junction where you’re required to slow down from 70mph down to 25mph as you cruise through it. Weird place for a town, but who knows exactly what brought these folks to settle in here. Silver maybe? History could tell, I’m sure.
Finally, after hurrying to get to my appointment that starts at 1:00…STOP. Oh yeah, I should mention that we calculated wrong on the appropriate time for this meeting when setting it up. If you don’t already know, Arizona doesn’t abide by the same rules of time as we all do. They don’t move their clocks back for Daylight Savings. This means, I am accidentally running an hour later than expected (c’mon Arizona, get on board with the rest of the country already…you’re making me late!).
No worries though. I have Ivonne.
Ivonne takes the reigns and gets the meeting adjusted and all is smooth, educational sailing from there. One of the most satisfying parts of my job is taking a topic (like healthcare, etc.) and making it understandable and interesting to anyone who will hear. This proves to be a great success here as well as they’ve been starved for face-to-face support on these things and I’m the man on the spot to help them get a clear sense of what they can do. I guess that is where the satisfaction comes from for me. Being able to help with something that by design is more complicated and overwhelming than it needs to be is what I am called to do. And, in the hope of not patting my own back too hard, I’m very good at making it simple and useful.
After the meeting, I take a moment to gaze over Lake Havasu. I do love any body of water. It brings me peace. I think the clearest whenever I’m on or in the water. It’s my thing.
Now, back in the car to check into my hotel in Vegas. Arriving around 6:00pm, I’m in my room at the New York, New York Hotel & Casino. Big dinner? Fancy Dinner? Steak? Italian? Irish
Pub? Japanese? It’s all here (like it is in any major casino in this city. Well, since I’m in pseudo New York, I choose to have a Nathans Hot Dog with cheese. Keeping it simple just felt right for dinner tonight. The day was long and my flights really early tomorrow so I limit my playtime to $40.00 which turns into $63.00 on the Wheel-of-Fortune $0.25 slot machine. Good enough for me this time around.
Beds in hotels are different each place you go, but for me there great since I really don’t find my own at home comfortable at all (that needs to be addressed someday soon).
Last few emails sent and I’m done for the night.
Super-Agent out.