Small Annoyances From A Life On The Road

John Sorsby
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read

My job basically requires constant travel. It’s not like it’s only at certain times of the year or until a project is finished either. It’s just the job. My territory covers half the state and Texas is a big state.

So I spend about half my life out of town. And when I’m in town, I’m still on the road every week day.

I’m not complaining about it. It’s the life I signed up for, and the travel help keeps me sane. The constant movement keeps work from getting stale.

But there are some small annoyances that I’ve run into while living a life on the road. Here are a few:

Hotel AC

If you don’t travel for work, then chances are you’ve never used those desks they have in hotel rooms next to the TV. Well I use those desks a lot. Like hundreds of hours per year. So the quality of those desks is important to me.

The problem is the air conditioning unit in most hotel rooms is directly next to the desk. Assuming the AC is on, you’re just getting blasted from two feet away. It’s really annoying. I’ll usually end up putting the comforter over the AC unit while I’m working.

Bathrooms

You have to be strategic about your bathroom usage when you’re constantly on the road. There’s nothing worse than having to stop in a small town gas station in the middle of nowhere and then buy $6 of gas to justify using their facilities. Morally, I can’t just sneak in for free.

I’ve learned a lot about how to spot the clean bathrooms from the road, whether that be gas stations or doctor’s offices I’m visiting. I’ll save those tips for another day though.

Car Door Dings

If you work at a regular office job, then your car is probably staying put in the same parking spot all day. Chances are the people next to you work all day in that same office and are staying put as well. There’s not many people coming and going on either side of your car.

I visit a handful of different doctor’s offices each day and am often parked in cramped spaces in parking garages. There are almost always cars on both sides of me. Plus, everybody in these lots is going to the doctor. They’re in and out in an hour or less. So there is constant turnover in the cars parked next to you.

I may be parked next to twenty different people in an average day. To make matters worse, most of these people trying to get in and out of cramped spaces are really old and in poor health. They could care less if their oxygen tank bangs my bumper.

The result of all this is that my car doors are just getting massacred. It seems like everyday I come out and there is a new ding.

Lack Of Outlets

I’ve got a lot to charge on the road — two phones, laptop, ipad, ipad keyboard and a wifi hotspot. Hotels have a lot of variation in their outlet availability. Usually, I’ll end up with devices scattered all over the room, often times sitting on the ground in the corners next to the lamps. It’s just a matter of time before I leave something that’s hidden away charging behind the TV in the only available socket.

Most hotels have a little coffee setup somewhere in the room with some appropriate countertop space. Sometimes the spot the hotel deems appropriate doesn’t have an outlet in the vicinity though. It’s such a slap in the face when you go to make your morning cup of joe and discover you’re not even connected. Just a total con job.

So you have to take the whole contraption and plug it in on the ground by the door and squat there like a fool.

It’s rough out here on the road y’all.

-Sorsby


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