And so began my second adventure in time management.
I left Goldfield right at 4:00. The friendly guy at The Fortune Club had told me it would take 45 minutes to get to Colorado Springs. I knew my hotel was on the north end of town, so I figured that would add a few minutes. I typed it into my GPS, which told me my arrival time would be 5:09.
I had to check in at the hotel, unpack, take a shower, find the conference center, register and get to the dining room by 6:00. I figured I could do it. In straight-line miles, I was probably no more than 20 miles away. Thing is, there was this obstruction in the way called Pike’s Peak that kept me from going straight.
Things went swimmingly to begin with. I was chewing up the miles, and my GPS still predicted a 5:09 arrival time.
Then I hit a main road and traffic. Things slowed down considerably as I drove through Woodland Park.
5:10. 5:11. 5:12. My estimated arrival time edged later and later. When I got to Colorado Springs, I was at 5:15. I pulled onto I-25 right in the midst of rush hour. I crawled the 10 miles or so to my exit. 5:17. 5:18. 5:19.
I finally got off, and then drove past my hotel without seeing it. I think my GPS had determined that I’d arrived and gone out for coffee or something because it quit talking to me or showing me where I was.
I finally found my hotel at 5:27. The check-in process went amazingly swiftly — as, of necessity, did my shower. I had a bit of a hitch finding my way around the campus where the conference was being held, but walked up to the registration desk at 5:50. I had to wait for a few other people to register, but made it to the dining room at 5:57. The transfer from two solid days of adventure to rush hour traffic and the flurry of getting ready to sitting calmly at a table having a casual conversation with seven total strangers was a bit jarring.
Back to my room for a moment … I didn’t see much of it this afternoon, but over the next three days I enjoyed it. After all, it was every bit as large as our first apartment.
