Last week I went on a business trip, my first with the new company. Originally my boss was to travel with me, but he had to cancel at the last minute so I got to go alone. The purpose of the trip was a day trip to a remote project site. This took three days due to flight schedules. Helicopter flight schedules. I love helicopters. There is never a bad view from a helicopter.
I finally asked one of the kind people entrusted with chauffering me between the airport and the hotel about the two names. He said the obvious, Deadhorse (or Deadpony as J-Bomb calls it) is the name of the town, and Prudhoe Bay is the oil field lease area name. It was so intuitive I felt silly. Even sillier for a momentary panic after boarding the plane in Anchorage with a destination of Deadhorse and hearing my bag had been goldstreaked to Prudhoe Bay.
Nothing like a town with an oil well on a main street to make me wonder if I'm in Texas or Alaska. What does it tell you about your life that a three day trip to a remote drilling pad on the North Slope is like a vacation for you? I got enough sleep, I had no chores or cleaning to do, I made liberal use of the on site gym, my food was prepared, my room made up, people appeared out of nowhere to transport me to where I needed to go, and I didn't spend more than $2 (on postcards). All from filling out the correct form for the big company's travel department. They even put me up in the 'nice, new hotel'. It's got nothing on the Ritz, but it was clean and safe and had a gym. It's only a year old and they are adding another 100 rooms on this summer because they are always at capacity. Saying 'it's a whole different world up there' doesn't even come close to cutting it. The icing on the cake? From the drilling pad I could see the ice pack on the Arctic Ocean. No polar bears though, so I have to find a way to need to go back.
Last week I went on a business trip, my first with the new company. Originally my boss was to travel with me, but he had to cancel at the last minute so I got to go alone. The purpose of the trip was a day trip to a remote project site. This took three days due to flight schedules. Helicopter flight schedules. I love helicopters. There is never a bad view from a helicopter. 
I finally asked one of the kind people entrusted with chauffering me between the airport and the hotel about the two names. He said the obvious, Deadhorse (or Deadpony as J-Bomb calls it) is the name of the town, and Prudhoe Bay is the oil field lease area name. It was so intuitive I felt silly. Even sillier for a momentary panic after boarding the plane in Anchorage with a destination of Deadhorse and hearing my bag had been goldstreaked to Prudhoe Bay. 
Nothing like a town with an oil well on a main street to make me wonder if I'm in Texas or Alaska. What does it tell you about your life that a three day trip to a remote drilling pad on the North Slope is like a vacation for you? I got enough sleep, I had no chores or cleaning to do, I made liberal use of the on site gym, my food was prepared, my room made up, people appeared out of nowhere to transport me to where I needed to go, and I didn't spend more than $2 (on postcards). All from filling out the correct form for the big company's travel department. They even put me up in the 'nice, new hotel'. It's got nothing on the Ritz, but it was clean and safe and had a gym. It's only a year old and they are adding another 100 rooms on this summer because they are always at capacity. Saying 'it's a whole different world up there' doesn't even come close to cutting it. The icing on the cake? From the drilling pad I could see the ice pack on the Arctic Ocean. No polar bears though, so I have to find a way to need to go back.
1 comment:
My recent 14 day trip to the bush was like a vacation for me as well. Nothing to do after work but look around, work out, eat, and relax. Why is real life so hectic and stressful?
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