Business travel: essential, expensive and difficult

     For a number of years now Renshaw Music has operated in two states 1200 miles apart. The biggest part of the piano tuning business is in Chicago and now here is Florida there is a large music store.  Travel to Chicago in December has always been a combination of business and a tradition of portraying Herod in the living nativity offered to the community by my church in Chicago.  this is our 20th year to produce Journey to Bethlehem  and I have participated every year every night for all 20 years.
     Some of the challenges of this trip have been that I have always driven.  I used to drive the whole trip without an overnight stop but these days I make the first day a good 15 hours starting at 3:00 AM, and then the second day is comparatively easy.  Driving was necessary because I needed to carry all my tools and parts so that I could do more elaborate work on my customers pianos.  Because primarily of the store I believe this year I am going to fly.  It has always been true that the trip would be cheaper flying than driving when you consider meals and lodging and the cheap air fares usually possible on this route.  The new variable now is the store and the time on the road that would not produce income from tuning and take time away from my tending to the store that would produce income.
     Journey will also produce some real down time from the business as a whole.  As much as I have come to enjoy Florida, I will get to spend some time with my two sons who live in Chicago, and reconnect with my church family at First Baptist of Oak Park.  The business demands of such a complicated enterprise are very hard to get away from and I am usually in need of this real down time in order to finish the year strong and prepare for the Christmas season.  After doing Journey for so many years it just would not seem like Christmas without my role in Journey.
     When I do these trips to Chicago I spend weeks before the trip packing tuning work into the period I will be in town so I am certain the tuning income will make the trip turn a profit. I usually don't make much of a profit but if I just break even I would still need to invest some time in the Chicago enterprise to keep the business healthy there.
     It is always a very busy time but in spite of the expense and grueling schedule I return refreshed and feeling like the company as a whole is in a better state.  These trips require very careful planning often for weeks before I depart.  It has been many years sense I have flown and I am looking forward to arriving refreshed and ready to go.