Before the pandemic, I traveled alone all across the country and world. I was in California at least once a month for presentations or a race, along with races and presentations scattered across the country. This experience has been greatly missed but I got to experience it for about seven hours yesterday.
It was an early morning as the alarm went off at 3:30. I had just worked four days on track for SKUSA in New Orleans and was dreading the day ahead. It was going to be a long flight to Los Angeles and then some empty hours until I could check into my hotel. I did have a rental car booked for the day, so I wasn't going to be stranded, but other than that, expectations weren't all that high.
The sunrise not quite over the horizon was amazing at takeoff, and four hours later the plane touched down at LAX. Deplaning, I got a sense of what was missing for two years. I've traveled all around with INDYCAR, but I'm always in a group, so there was a sense of, well, like it was 2019 again and I was getting off a plane to give a presentation. There were no presentations, but the day started to resemble what I used to know.
Getting to the rental car place, which I think there's few things more depressing about travel than the rental car counter, wasn't bad and I was out the gate quickly. I had five hours to kill and no place I needed to be on that day, and it felt awesome. No worries about time-certain schedules. No itinerary, just my rented Toyota and the open road. The road that was filled with LA traffic. The road that I had missed.
I drove up to the north side of town, found a place to get breakfast and savored the meal in no rush. I continued driving and then my phone decided it wanted to go from 33% battery to 0 instantly. While I've been out here dozens of times, I don't know my 105 from the 405 to 705 to the PCH.
The road continued on, but I exited. While I had no place to be I did have a rental car to return, and I had no idea how to get to the Long Beach Airport to drop off my car. I parked and plugged in my phone and waited. And waited. And waited some more. I got out a crossword puzzle book and looked out the windshield and I simply enjoyed the moment of drama. This was awesome!
One of the things I love about travel is that you can be put into a situation that you've got to improvise. Okay, so maybe your idea of fun travel and mine are different, but the "What do I do now?" question when a problem arises is amazing.
Eventually my phone turned on, and when it did all the apps locked up, so it took a while longer, but then I headed south, found my mandatory In n Out stop, and got to the airport to return my car. It was the shortest rental I've ever had, but it was the most rejuvenating. The fun wasn't done as my phone wouldn't connect to Uber so I had to find the taxi line, got into a taxi, and made it to my hotel.
The travel bug has bit, and it has bitten hard. I forgot just how much confidence travel gives me. I also worried if I'd ever experience that again, but after enjoying it I can't wait until the next time I've got hours to kill in a city I don't really know.
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