Highlighting a Blog - Bennie

Before I started blogging, I only read a couple of blogs that were related to Mexico. Since I've been writing, I've checked out the links that people put on their blog roll, and have discovered some very interesting blogs out there. I've added some non-Mexican blogs to my blog roll, and thought it would be interesting to highlight one of these blogs each week. I will start with Bennie...

I used to travel every week. For 10 long years. And after I stopped weekly travel I still travelled every month until recently. I ended up feeling like I'd lost myself to my work, that I was never home, that I was always trying to catch up. Even though I was relaxing in a hotel room at night, I was not in my own home, where I could do the things I needed to do to keep ahead of the game (i.e., laundry, shopping, cleaning, bills, etc). When I finally got home, too much had to be crammed into too few hours and it left me feeling stressed and constantly under pressure to do more than I really had time or energy to do. I lost my hobbies, and contact with friends. I barely kept up with family, and had little time to just 'do nothing'.

On the plane yesterday I exchange these thoughts with another 'road warrior'. His family functions without him, they all have their own routines and when he's around, it's disruptive to what they've developed. He has no say in his household, he's more like a visitor there.

The airport is full of people like that man and me. Commuters. Working from home offices but mostly working away from home - in another town, another state, another country. My father worked internationally, and I can only partly appreciate how hard it must have been for him to do all that travel. And I'm sure it's worse now, since air travel has become such a chore.

"Take off your shoes". "Do you have any liquids or gels in your bag?". "Keep moving". "Your flight has been cancelled/delayed". "I'm sorry for the inconvenience of losing your bags (and your underwear and deodorant)". "I'm sorry, we only have center seats available". "We are not responsible for damage to the wheels, straps, zippers, pockets, of your brand new $200 suitcase - it's normal wear and tear". "That will be $15 for the first checked bag (and we may or may not damage it as just mentioned)". "There is no overhead space available, you will have to check your bag (and hope we don't lose it or damage it)".

I used to travel a lot with a former co-worker and still very good and dear friend. Bennie was always the guy who would get the rental car and pick me up at the airport if he could. He did the driving, I sat and admired the scenery as we talked about everything and anything. Thanks to Bennie I got to see more of the towns we were working in, he was always looking for something to do and explore. And he always knew the latest on what was going on - with the clients, and with the area we were visitng. Thanks to Bennie I have pictures of the ice storm damage in Enid Oklahoma, and the Pentagon after 9/11.

Bennie has started writing a blog that well-describes the life of being on the road, and along with his words, he has posted some nice pictures. Portland Oregon is the site of his current travels - take a look.