I actually headed all the way to Connecticut but New York was my biggest headache. I woke up at 5:00am on Wednesday to see a few customers to the North. The real reason for the trip was to see the operations of a business associate in Connecticut. That appointment was at 1pm so I decided I’d see some other customers along the route. I had a few stops in Trenton and Plainfield NJ and than I had the wonderful experience of driving through the Lincoln Tunnel. It wasn’t atrocious but my GPS lost the satellite signal in the tunnel and when I came out I was presented with a few options and I had to guess because the GPS was calculating. This put me in the heart of NYC at 9:30 in the morning and it was nightmarish. I’d drive one block every few minutes. People are everywhere crossing streets and crossing guards probably have the worst job in the world. Jobs that require driving like UPS, USPS and delivery drivers in NYC probably have nearly the worst job ever. At one point an Ambulance put on it’s lights and I was in a line to go through the Queens tunnel and I couldn’t move for the guy which was a panic. Eventually I got out and I had a customer on Long Island and than I went to White Plains, New York. My key stop was at 1pm in CT which I arrived exactly at 1.

To sum things up, I got to see the inter-workings of how a 5 million dollar company is run by 4-5 people. It was interesting to see and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to apply some of the same principals to my business. After that visit I could have stayed over night but I decided just to drive home. We have customers in MA or VT I could have seen but that would have taken me extra hours and extra time so I said it was enough. My way back was fine until I hit, take a guess, NYC. This time the GPS had me going through Queens then over the George Washington bridge. Queens was a nightmare driving as it was complete chaos and than it took an hour to get over the bridge until I had to sit in more traffic on the Turnpike. The ride back from CT to home took about 4 hours and I was starting to lose it towards the end. I narrowly missed getting hit about 3 times at various sections. I was ecstatic to get back. I proceeded to sleep 12 hours as I was completely beat from the day.

I think following a GPS is extremely interesting. Now, I would be completely lost without it but I wonder how often it takes the right route. For it’s few downsides, it’s upside is huge. I know when I’m going to arrive, I rarely get lost and I can map a route so much easier than using a map. I can’t imagine how people did business trips 20 years ago.