Destination Run - Vegas Style!

For the next 36 hours, I am in Vegas for the fabulous 'Structures Congress'.  I know, I know - all of you structural engineers out there are completely jealous of this heavenly parfait filled with steel, concrete, timber, masonry, and wonderful sessions on seismic and gravity analysis and detailing challenges!!!  Whoop....maybe not :)

Anyway, I am actually here for a series of meetings in conjunction with the conference - for this sustainability committee I am on.  One of the potential activities includes a tour of hoover dam that I hope to score tickets to tomorrow night!  So....sorry to disappoint any of you hoping to hear about any possible craziness for me at Tao or the Palms with Lindsay or the Kardashians :)  Well....I will check back in Sunday, after the fact, if things take a spin in that direction!

Traveling for work is hard on many levels.  It is wonderful to visit many places on the company dime that I normally wouldn't be able to - but it is never fun to do it alone.  One time I was driving alone thru the 'badlands' of South Dakota.  I had a couple hours to kill before my flight was due to leave Rapid City - and I had a rental car.  I decided to drive to Mt. Rushmore.  It was early April - not the busy time of the year for tourists.  There was no traffic - nearly all the little towns on the way resembled ghost towns.  And then - ta da- I was there!!! But - I looked around and I was alone in the car.  I decided to pull over, get out, and call my husband at work.  So...imagine how excited I am to share this experience with him.

The phone rings - he answers - andhe is as grouchy as an be! Some new impossible deadline from his then boss....then immediately deflated my bubble of 'national landmark bliss'.  So - boo on traveling alone is my new mantra.  Yes - hotel beds alone with no kids yelling or climbing in - is great! Food is also good on someone else's dime (especially when a few cocktails are involved).  But, I have to admit that I really don't enjoy these escapades.  Leaving my family is 'not cool' and putting this all on Chris's plate to manage everything in my absence - I truly feel guilty about.

The one true brightspot that I LOVE to brag to my other running buds and gym rats about is my running and athletic adventures when I travel.

In the past, I once rented a car while I was in Phoenix for work, and drove to Meriposa County and did a 8 mile trail run thru the desert that crossed over the dam of a lake in the state park there (the race even had scorpion and snake training to prep for the course!).    Last month I biked 17 miles thru Napa while there for work.  And at a bare minimum - I try to run the streets or 'sights' in every city I travel in. 

I hope the next 36 hours give me that same oppototunity.  I plan to enjoy the cool steel sessions, some nice merlot, get some miles under my belt under the lights of the city that never sleeps - and maybe drop a quarter in a slot machine in the airpoort before I fly home.