2/9/25 – The Week From Hell

It started on Monday when I was supposed to leave for St. Louis for the entire week. I locked my keys in my electric vehicle—with the car running—and had to call AAA. About 15 minutes later, I suddenly remembered that I had a key code to unlock the door. Thankfully, I had written it down in last year’s schedule book. Crisis averted.

Then came the drive. I somehow ended up on a one-hour detour down dirt roads, stuck behind 18-wheelers, just waiting for one to tip over in front of me. When I finally got through, I saw two semis sprawled across the highway on their sides, cargo scattered everywhere. It was a mess—absolutely horrible.

I made it to Boonville to charge my car, only to find the charger wouldn’t work. Turns out, when I got a new debit card, I forgot to update the payment info for the charging networks. Thankfully, there was another charger in town that worked, but the frustration was piling up.

By midweek, things weren’t much better. I had eight cancellations in three days. If you know me, you know I do not handle cancellations well—especially eight of them. By that point, I was pretty fed up.

Then, Friday morning, I woke up to no hot water in the entire hotel. No refund, no apology, nothing. So, I packed up and switched hotels, canceling everyone for the day. The new place wasn’t much better—the water was warm but definitely not hot. At this point, I was beyond done.

The one bright spot? I had a wonderful weekend with a really good friend, which helped salvage things a bit. But along the way, I made a decision: I’m never traveling again. I’m just done. I don’t force myself to do things I really don’t want to do, and this is one of them. Between the stress and the expenses, I probably made less this week than I would have staying in Kansas City. Some of that was my fault—maybe most of it—but the lesson is clear: traveling for work just isn’t worth it. Live and learn.

And then… the Super Bowl.