Two S's and an A; or, Surviving Business Travel

Traveling alone on business can be a boring ordeal. Hotel room after hotel room. Packing, unpacking, and packing again. Listening to the drone of pavement on rubber mile after never-ending mile. And all this to do nothing but work. Alone.

When I started my latest job, I had mixed feelings about being on the road all the time. I was excited to see places I’d never been before, nervous to be doing it al alone, and a little apprehensive about working with people from many other institutions. If I was going to not only endure, but enjoy the three months of the high school tour, I’d have to figure out a system to survive. Well, here I am with one week left, and I believe I’ve concocted a doozy. Are you ready for the most revolutionary theory to ever be invented by a business traveler? Here it is: Two S’s and an A (be careful not to mix that up...I don’t ever want my brilliant idea to ever be thought of as the

“ASS” theory because I’m not a vulgar person...it’s the “SSA” theory. In that order. Always.). Have i piqued your curiosity? Two S’s and an A stands for Spontaneity, Strangers, and Audiobooks.

Spontaneity

I hadn’t realized how spontaneous I’d become until tonight. Tonight’s my second of two nights in Cedar City, Utah – a typical “meh” city. What’s a “meh” city, you ask? Well, it’s one of those towns that’s too large to be considered rural, to remote to be considered suburban, and not even the size of a typical neighborhood in an urban city like New York. A “meh” city is a city in which you ask a local where to shop for something you’ve left at home, and they decisively reply “Walmart.” I’m sure you’ve been to one in your life. Cedar City, in fact, is on the high-end of a “meh” city because it now officially contains a Holiday Inn Express, a Springhill Suites by Marriot, and a Hampton Inn. It’s obviously going somewhere...just not too quickly. The term “meh” comes from the question that is something to the effect of “how was (insert city name here)?” Undoubtedly, when visiting a city such as this, one will answer nothing but... “Meh.”

Anyway, I searched for the atypical things to do in Cedar City, the things that a tourist wouldn’t necessarily find interesting, I didn’t discover much. So, I resigned myself to do something a little more touristy. I visited Cedar Breaks National Monument. It was magnificent! Upon heading east on Center Street in Cedar City, you won’t find yourself stopping at the edge of civilization, but instead will traverse the twists and turns up a canyon decorated with iron-rich red dirt and always-green cedar trees. Approximately twenty miles up the scenic byway I turned into Cedar Breaks. I had heard of the breathtaking beauty and I didn’t see anything but trees and a couple boarded-up buildings as I pulled into the park. However, I quickly found a small trail, and twenty yards later, I was awestruck. I came a small cliff that overlooked a fiery valley of towering stones and jagged cliffs whose vibrant orange and red was only slightly tamed by the delicate blankets of snow scattered about. I snapped some photos, hoping to capture the beauty that would inevitably become the background of my computer screen, before pursuing another trail up a slight hill to my left. Though my way was plagued with patches of dirty snow, putrid mud that seemed to be twelve feet deep, and a wind that would chill the bravest of Eskimos (did I mention that I was wearing only a T-shirt because it was about seventy degrees in the city?), the view on the next ledge was even more spectacular. A few more pictures, however, and I was on my way out of the bitter cold back to the city.

As I pulled into the parking lot of my hotel, I glanced at the clock. An hour and ten minutes had passes since I left. That’s it. This was proving to be a very long and uneventful night. I then asked the young lady at the front desk where to eat and proceeded to head back up the canyon for a meal at Rusty’s Ranch House. A meal for which I’m still suffering from an overly-full belly (put ribs and steak on the same menu, and I’m a goner). After I finished my gluttony of a meal, I walked out of the restaurant, witnessing all the glittery stars, and glanced back toward the city where I saw four searchlights dancing around in the night sky. Generally, at home, I would have ignored these lights and headed for home, but curiosity got the better of me. I drove through town with one eye on the road and the other in the sky, occasionally losing the lights due to an annoying streetlamp or two, and was excited for what I may come across.

Now, I’m not going to tell you what I stumbled upon at the end of my wild goose chase because that’s not the point. The point is I was spontaneous enough to follow roaming beams of light to their source. For all I knew it would be an enormous rave where I would be the snitch who called the police to get the multi-million dollar drug ring out of town. It could have been the opening of Utah’s first legal casino. It could have even been the premiere of a debuting Hollywood Movie. So I followed the lights, being especially spontaneous and avoiding the boredom that awaited me in my hotel room. Spontaneity can truly be the business traveler’s best friend by breaking up the monotony of meetings, suitcases and hotel rooms as it has proven to be to me.

Wow. I see I’ve exhausted your eyes from reading my brilliant words of wisdom. I suppose we’ll just have to leave Strangers and Audiobooks for next time. Until then, Adieu.