There and back again

This year has been my first full year of serious travel in getting to the majority of my assignments. Of course to a degree I've traveled to shoot for clients my entire career, but that was mostly the jumping in a car and driving down the street (or a few hundred miles away) variety. Now I've arrived, oh glorious day, to the wicked fly-half-way-across-the-country-and-back-in-the-same-day type of business travel and I gotta tell you, it really beats the hell out of you.

For instance... on Friday I woke up before 6 a.m. after a late night shooting politics the day before for Newsweek (late shooting, and even later processing the digital files once home) and got ready to head to the airport for my early flight to Houston. I arrived just before lunch time feeling pretty shitty and in very serious need of 2 or 3 giant americanos. This is my 4th time to Houston this year and so I know the layout and my route at IAH pretty well... gate, bathroom, coffee, rental car shuttle (no baggage), rental car counter, off to my assignment. I had some time to kill before my assignment so I drove to a shopping mall that is most of the way to where I was headed and found a Starbucks (T-Mobile hotspot + coffee!) to caption and transmit my selects from the previous day's assignment.

After I was finished I had just enough time to check out the congruent Barnes & Noble (magazine rack, non-fiction section), before heading out early to arrive to my assignment (also for Newsweek) at 3 p.m. The shoot, which was probably the most surreal story I've worked on in a really long time (I'd love to elaborate, but I can't yet), was over promptly at 5 p.m. (I had to decline an invitation to eat dinner w/ the family at Olive Garden) and I joined rush hour traffic all the way through Houston (I was in the SW suburbs of the city, and IAH is in the NE corner) to get the airport. US-59 to I-610 to I-10 to I-45 to Hardy Toll Rd. back to the rental car center almost exactly 1:30 until my flight at 7:15 p.m.

Because of all of the shitty weather in the country on Friday, my flight was slightly delayed, and because of other cancellations first class was full (no upgrade chance) along with the entirety of coach. I got back to Miami International at 10:30 p.m. still feeling pretty shitty though happy that the shoot went well, got my car from the parking deck (Dolphin garage), jumped on the 112, and was home 12 minutes later. Total time spent in Houston: 8 hours.

So that is interesting and challenging and there is an aspect to the crazy in and out of that sort of job that I like (having local knowledge about airports, the best place to eat or pee, favorite art galleries to check in on, etc). But damn... a 16 hour day that includes 5 hours of time in a cramped plane is a rough day. First and foremost I'm encouraged by the idea that my editors are willing to send me to Houston or Minneapolis or St. Barths on assignment, thus expanding the geographic range that I've been deemed worthy to cover. But at the same time, if you don't get smart about traveling, about keeping your equipment and organization skills in check, life can get pretty hellish as you hop around our nation's fine air transportation network.

My only bit of advice is to make sure you become a free member of all of the major carriers' (who operate out of your main airport) medallion clubs. I've made platinum medallion on American this year (in only 8 months, since I forgot to join until March), which means that I am often able to bump up to first class if there is room. Even if FC is said to be only a shadow of its former luxury, it still makes all of the difference in the world. Not only is there enough room for one to comfortably work on a laptop (thus getting work done while stuck in the air, leaving less work to do once home with a girlfriend), but you may also arrive back home in somewhat less of a dilapidated state.

What should be stressed about my example Houston assignment is that it was a very smooth run. I didn't have any baggage, so there was nothing to go wrong there (though I did set off "bag checks" on both ends of my security gauntlet. My flights left and arrived relatively on time. The rental car agency didn't screw up, lose, or make me wait 45 minutes for me to get a vehicle (there are obviously the same "clubs" to join in the rental car world, but I haven't really gone that far yet). It all went well, and that is a good day in of itself. Other times, and especially while traveling through Atlanta (hiss, hiss), that is not the case at all... and your single 16 hour day is suddenly a 36 hour, two day extravaganza of fun!

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