Traveling with others

It is a rare and special thing to find someone with whom you can travel well.

You might get along with someone famously in person, but then when you try traveling together, certain differences become apparent right away.

Differences that, in particular, stem from a lack of travel experience for one person, and a dearth of it for the other.

I am by no means as well traveled as those who travel for a living. Consultants live out of their suitcases, taking airplanes to work every Monday, and airplanes home every Thursday. They know of the precious time wasted standing at the baggage carousel, and so they have figured out how to make a weeks' worth of clothes fit into one carry-on.

I am working on this. With every trip, I get a little better at figuring out which shoes I really do need, and how to make the most out of the limited space. I have learned that regular packing cubes frustrate me but the compression cubes are genius. I didn't think the shirt/pant folder would save me a darn bit of space, yet it is amazing at maximizing packing space. I still haven't found the best way to pack toiletries, but I'm working on that.

Tomorrow, I leave for a two day trip to two different cities. I will be traveling with three coworkers. Thankfully, I like all three. Not liking each other would make even a short trip an utter hell. We seem to have paired off naturally in terms of personality, so I have a travel buddy in particular within the group.

There is a fifth person who made a lot of travel arrangements, and I don't know her very well. I can only guess she doesn't travel much based on the decisions she made. I also know that she works closely with my two non-buddy traveling companions so I think they speak a sort of shorthand. No hard feelings among any of them, but I wonder if that's why the planning for the trip has seemed so frustrating to me.

I like my TSA pre-check status, traveling light, checking in early, flying Southwest. I know that the two major cities to which we will be traveling - Houston and Dallas - both have two major airports in them and that both cities are known for their absolutely legendary traffic. I might be the only one in the group who knows this. The others made their flight reservations first, leaving buddy J and I to follow along. J and I wanted Southwest but the other crew had already picked American. After we had booked and confirmed our flights, someone thought to look at a map and realized that flying into the other airport (that serves Southwest, ahem) would be better in terms of traffic getting to the venue. Too late, folks. Booking on American means change fees.

Then, time passed. I heard nothing more about hotels, plans. J asked for an itinerary. We were told it was forthcoming. We leave tomorrow. Yesterday, we asked again for an itinerary. There still was no mention of one, but we were asked to each bring in an empty wheelie suitcase so our employer didn't have to pay shipping fees to send the swag we're bringing on ahead of us. I really hate being asked to use my personal property for work purposes, especially when the work purposes are to cover the mistakes of others. It's not really that expensive to ship a few boxes if you plan ahead. Overnight or two-day shipping, on the other hand, costs a small fortune. Apparently, even though the planners knew about this trip for months, it occurred to no one to plan ahead and ship the necessary items.

Again, we asked for an itinerary. We were told there binders on someone's desk and to feel free to look at them. Huh? Binders? For two days? What?

The travel planner had printed out all of the details for everything for each city and had made a binder for each city. One binder. Not copies for each of us. I looked at my coworker and said, "The reason I keep asking for the itinerary is because it is unsettling to not know where I am sleeping tomorrow. Can I please just see the hotel reservation information?"

She understood, and offered to have me make copies of the materials in binders. I made two copies: one for me and one for J. She was relieved to have that info in hand, as was I.

I looked at the materials, and shared details with my sister, who lives in Dallas. She said our hotel is the complete opposite side of town as our event. Remember the traffic? The hotel couldn't be less convenient if we tried.

The best part was this afternoon before leaving work when our travel planner emailed us to remind us to bring the confirmation code from when we booked our flights through the work travel service so we could get our boarding passes at the airport tomorrow. Boarding passes at the airport? Who still does that? I've had my boarding passes on my phone since 8:15 this morning.

Deep breaths. It will all be okay. But man, is this highlighting a few things about how I travel. I pack lightly, I travel swiftly, I bring one - and only one - extra pair of shoes. I'll probably bring a swimsuit even though I most likely won't use it, but beyond that, I won't overpack. I will use TSA Pre-check and breeze through security with my one small carry on bag. I will not be lugging an extra suitcase full of work-related items. I will breathe. I will enjoy good company and have some fun out and about in the world.