2022. Was it good for you?

I realize we’re already three months into 2023 so asking about last year may seem irrelevant but gosh, is it just me or was 2022 already a blur? At the risk of sounding like an old person (um, guilty?), I keep hearing that the older you get the faster the weeks spin out of control, and that about sums up my thoughts for 2022.

So, when I looked at that summary in numbers, here’s what I found:

I spent over 200 nights away from home and over 50 days traveling/in transit to a new destination.

That’s a whole lotta packing, repacking, checking in/out, schlepping luggage at airports and hotels, screening of said luggage, moving around in various types of transportation, buying tickets and confirming reservations, arranging for dog sitting and various other things on the home front, and then my personal favorite part of all the chaos, making myself comfortable at various lobby bars in order to deal with it all. Yep, that much travel can be exhausting so it’s important to prioritize things as you move from one spot to the next.

So where did I go during all that travel turmoil in 2022? The short list includes Denver, Miami, Las Vegas, Park City (Utah). Pensacola (FL), San Diego, Chicago, New York City, Hawaii, Jacksonville (FL), Palm Springs (CA), and many, many hotels in my home city of Orlando. As a reminder, I travel for work and my work is about meetings so in any given day or week it’s normal for me to be in transit.

And when you travel this much, people are always going to quiz you on worst/best/most surprising, etc., so in reflecting back on last year, I thought I’d share with you some top memories in no particular order:

BEST HOTEL: Four Seasons Hualalai Hawaii. I should also point out that this hotel gets the award for most expensive glass of “house” wine at lobby bar coming in at a whopping $30 a glass. But as they say, when at the Four Seasons. . .

BEST SERVICE: Denver Downtown Sheraton. Hands down the most “Yes we can!” service I’ve ever encountered.

WORST SERVICE: Well, I’m not going to name-names, but let’s just say it was in Miami where, in most cases, the word “NO!” (and yes, they do speak in capital letters when they decline your request) comes first followed by “that’s NOT something we do here.” Surprised? Well maybe you haven’t been to South Florida in a while. . .

BEST HOTEL AMENITY: motion sensor curtains at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas. NOTE: It takes a lot to impress me but when you walk into a hotel room and the curtains automatically start rising/falling based on the time of day and human motion in the room, well, yeah, there’s that. Oh, and I also like hotel rooms that have built in night lights (Hyatt calls them stumble lights) so you don’t walk into things in the middle of the night when you wake up for that potty break in who-knows-where.

BEST/SHORTEST UBER RIDE: It happened in Las Vegas when a Tesla pulled up to get me and the 6’5″ driver from Kenya got out to greet me, and then promptly explained it would be a self-driving Uber test ride and would I mind that? To which I politely declined because, yes, I would mind riding in a self-driving vehicle on roads I don’t know in a city far, far away from home where I’m not familiar with the nearest hospital! In fact, pretty sure I would mind riding in a self-driving vehicle almost anywhere at any time. Judge me if you will, but I speak truth. And I only mentioned the height of the driver because that in itself was super interesting in that split second when I looked to climb in the back seat and found there was very little room behind that driver-who-wasn’t-actually-going-to-drive.

OVERALL BEST AIRPORT: (when flying on Delta) Salt Lake City, UT. New terminal, large everything, plenty of helpful staff, no lines/no wait anywhere, excellent Delta Sky lounge. Even the ride share pickup/drop off was convenient, and I’m mentioning that because oh boy. In some airports you and your luggage have to find a sherpa to get you to the designated ride share area (I’m looking at you, ATL)

And beyond my best/worst observations from last year’s travel I also had some personal highlights like when I got to feed a giraffe and, same day and location, also had a peacock eat part of my lunch right off the table where I was sitting. (Sweet!) I also had some people dressed up as animals try to crash my hotel reception for a group of veterinarians (NOT cool!), and enjoyed a private convention concert by Miranda Lambert with another client (VERY cool!). Riding the chair lift up the side of a mountain in Park City and viewing the world from that vantage point was breathtaking. And having an actual Hawaiian Kahu conduct a Blessing Ceremony over my meeting team before things got underway in Hawaii in order to invite goodness, happiness, harmony and other good things to all of us during the week ahead was just one memorable highlight of that trip.

So that was a tiny glimpse into a few of my meeting memories from 2022, and since I’m already busy making new ones in 2023, I hope you’ll stick around to enjoy more travels with Terry!

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The world may indeed be spinning faster for me than ever before, but as St. Augustine famously wrote, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”