American travel

Carissa's post made me recall a former job when I used to travel three weeks out of the month for seven years. I was a trainer for a software company and the owners were really cheap. So after a full day of work on Monday, I would fly out that night. Usually, on a recycled ticket so rarely was I flying as myself. This was long before the days of 9/11 and tight security. With a ticket in someone else’s name, I was a little nervous that the plane would crash and no one would be able to identify me. What's worse is I'd invariably arrive in an unfamiliar city, have to rent a car in the dead of night and drive to a distant place beyond the arriving airport.

What I found was how much McDonald's has created a homogenous American culture where "everywhere is the same.” My mom tells me about traveling in the 40s pre-Interstate and how it was so special back then. Every town seemed to have its own personality. Now we can go from Miami to Massachusetts and rarely see a unique spot along the way. Everywhere we go we can find fast food restaurants and nondescript strip malls along the Interstates.

But I’ve also found that when you find yourself lost in the dark of a small town, just look for the golden arches and you’ll find someone who can guide you back where you need to be. Unless you are in downtown Mobile, Alabama at two in the morning; then even McDonald’s is shut up tight. Streets are dark and you have to park across the street from the hotel because the hotel’s under construction. And the guy in the lobby has no security guard to walk with you from your car back to your room with your luggage. You find yourself walking through a dark parking deck worried for your physical safety and wonder if your job is worth this and you make a conscious decision to find another job.

At least that’s what I did that night in 1993 and began a new career where I wouldn’t have to travel so much. I love to travel now but on my terms, under my own identity and when I’m rested. After all, nowadays traveling is a job in and of itself passing through security, delayed flights and the edge that everyone seems to feel about flying.