My first business trip

I'm about five weeks late with this, but I'm happy to report that I've been on my first official work-related overnight business trip.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. For many people that's nothing to celebrate. Some of my friends seem to spend more time on business trips than they do at home. Really. They travel that much.

But it's been over 15 years since I graduated from college, and not once in that time have I had to travel overnight for business. Sure, there were writers conferences. But those were related to fiction writing, and I have yet to earn money from that, so I don't like to count them as actual business trips. Then there was the Society of Professional Journalists conference in Indianapolis about 10 years ago, but we drove and made it a day trip. Doesn't count.

This trip was three nights in San Antonio helping a software consulting firm administer system testing on one of our regulated products. Bonus -- I got to travel with Kyle.

Oh yeah, we were busy with work. But we also managed to over-eat at a few restaurant, workout at a gym at least once (twice for Kyle), and find time to explore the Riverwalk and see the Alamo.

Some people I know NEVER sight-see when they're on business trips. Too busy. Too drained. I understand, because I was exhausted much of the trip also. But, yet, I was some place new and it would have been against my nature to not get out exploring for at least a few hours.

And now I know how cool the San Antonio Riverwalk is. How pretty the Alamo is lit up at night. And how crazy the spaghetti-bowl expressway system is there, especially when trying to use a navigation system. (There's a story here about a lot of last-minute lane changes, possibly illegal turns, and recalculations by the navigation system, but I won't embarrass Kyle with the details...)

There's aren't any more business trips in my foreseeable future. It's not part of the usual job description of a software quality engineer. But, if there are any trips, I look forward to writing about my second official business trip.

To view the full set of photos from the San Antonio trip, visit my Flickr page.