{"id":1001,"date":"2010-11-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2010-11-30T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T09:00:00","slug":"on-the-road-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1001","title":{"rendered":"On the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TPOQep1cTBI\/AAAAAAAACqA\/SWL87EPLnvw\/s1600\/philadelphia.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_yytsDp42pSs\/TPOQep1cTBI\/AAAAAAAACqA\/SWL87EPLnvw\/s200\/philadelphia.jpg?resize=200%2C150\" width=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m in Philadelphia today, fulfilling a commitment to facilitate a meeting for a non-profit group.&nbsp; I made this commitment before I accepted my new job, and negotiated an agreement to let me fulfill this obligation.<\/p>\n<p>I took the train to Philly from DC.&nbsp; While our train service in the U.S. is generally abysmal, especially compared with train service in Europe (or even the Ghan in Australia), let&#8217;s say, &#8220;it&#8217;s serviceable&#8221; for such a rather short distance (about 120 miles\/193km).&nbsp; I probably could have driven here for less money than the cost of rail fare, but when you add up the exorbitant cost for parking in the city, plus wear-and-tear on my nerves (I hate to drive on interstate highways), then using the train is the best choice, especially since I&#8217;m not in a hurry.<\/p>\n<p>I will come home tonight, then leave for Seattle tomorrow.&nbsp; I tell &#8216;ya, reminders of my years of on-the-go travel with back-to-back trips doing multiple tasks are returning quickly!&nbsp; The skills I learned as a seasoned &#8220;travel warrior&#8221; have been dusted off and re-engaged.<\/p>\n<p>I still dislike traveling though, for three reasons:<\/p>\n<p>1. It&#8217;s a huge hassle with all the security crap and the nickle-and-diming that airlines do.&nbsp; It&#8217;s just no fun any more.<\/p>\n<p>2. I hate to be away from home.&nbsp; I miss my partner and miss important things to me that happen while I&#8217;m gone: my nephew&#8217;s school play, seeing a concert that my partner had gotten tickets to see months ago, and a visit in DC by someone who is very close to me, but who lives in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>3. With my strange diet due to a chronic health condition, I always have struggles with finding foods that don&#8217;t set off &#8230; um&#8230; &#8220;challenges.&#8221;&nbsp; Change in the water, etc., do not set well with me.&nbsp; Plus, I&#8217;m generally not the kind of guy who likes to eat out.&nbsp; I much prefer to prepare my own meals and eat at home. &nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Oh well, the bright side is that I&#8217;ll get to see several colleagues who I have known for years and renew working relationships, and make new contacts too that will help with my new job.<\/p>\n<p>Life is short:&nbsp; be where you need to be and get the job done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m in Philadelphia today, fulfilling a commitment to facilitate a meeting for a non-profit group.&nbsp; I made this commitment before I accepted my new job, and negotiated an agreement to let me fulfill this obligation. I took the train to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1001\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}