DETROIT, Mich. Aug. 2--On the road for the third week now. I have remembered my work shoes and watch, making this endeavor slightly less arduous but hardly less tedious.


Professional road warriors must live bleak lives. They shuttle from airport to airport, conference room to conference room, hotel to hotel. Their forums are not front porches and city parks but Blackberries and laptops. They are well versed in the nuances of security screenings at Denver versus Orlando. They chat easily with hotel van drivers, flight attendants and local corporate managers. They attend sporting events in unfamiliar cities to entertain employees, customers and clients they might otherwise loath.


That is not the life for which I am on a narrow path, but it is a life I have seen a number of men and women lead. I am getting a little up-close look at it and it indeed is, to be redundant, bleak.

For openers, there is the distance from family. Cell phones help but there is always the lack of company and touch. Sitting here in Michigan, I can't see Steve's expressive face as he yells at his sister with the equally expressive face. I can't hug my wife after her long day of working her job, caring for her often rebellious-mother and attending to her aged aunt.

Living out of a suitcase is not very exciting either. You never have quite enough clothes or the right clothes for various situations, and shoes are difficult to deal with if the suitcase is a carry-on like mine. Then there is the world of flying in the modern era. Consider the plight of the road warrior who is forced to ride airplanes:

>Fewer flights exist across the board to accommodate travelers. Airlines had an incredible waste of capacity through the 90's when fuel was cheap and times were good. Now, the sooner you make your reservation the better your trip will be. These airplanes are full and uncomfortable.

>Checking your bag has become a luxury. Unless you are a frequent flier with free bag checking privileges, the cost is $20 to $30 for one bag and you had damned well better not let that bag weigh more than 49 pounds. Overweight bag penalties are $100 or more.

>On some flights, airlines won't let you select a seat until the day of travel. On that day you had either best get to the airport early or hit the keys and surf for whatever bone the airline will throw your way. Otherwise it is a center seat in the last row, between the two fat guys.

>Everything the airline does now costs. Unless you ride first class, alcohol has always been sold, but now food (if there is any), blankets, pillows, talking to a reservation agent, checked bags, are all for-sale. And American Airlines shamelessly offers to upgrade you to priority boarding status for $10 so you don't have to fight with the unwashed for a spot in the overhead for your carry-on. Just dreadful.

>As always the airline will never fail to make you feel like a prisoner of war. It begins with the government going through your bags, shoes, pockets, and forcing most men to take off their belts. It continues with the list of violations for which you can be taken from an airplane in chains which flight crews defiantly announce as you taxi out. Everything is done for the airlines' convenience, right down to demanding a credit card for a sandwich--no cash accepted. And don't ask for help or information if your flight is delayed or cancelled; they are just to busy. Usually trying to help the flight crew who is stranded.

My first flight home was cancelled due to a storm that ran through Detroit like fury, as good as any summer storm in Missouri. It was late, than later, than later still before American Eagle cancelled it. But the agent that finally showed up at the gate just flat said, "if you need help rebooking a flight, you need to go to a service center or call the 800 number. I won't be able to help you here." She had little information, personality, style or interest in anyone save for the crew that was stuck at the gate with her.

Travel, unless you are riding first class, is best done on trains or in private automobiles. Take your own food or stop and dine where you choose. Bring your own pillow. Take all the shoes you want.

It can be fun, enlightening and educational to be out and about but doing so "on the clock" is a just work.