An Expert’s Guide To Killing Time On The Road

What do you do when you’re away from home on business, and you find yourself with free time during the day? Some recent examples:

April 3, 1998, New York City. I was working at the New York Home Textiles Show, and it was a big bust. Very quiet. To make things worse, Carol was with me, and every time we tried to arrange something, it fizzled. So I left the booth in the hands of a co-worker and played hooky.

Carol is interested in the Russian monarchy, so we zipped over to Forbes Magazine on Fifth Avenue. Their first floor is a museum housing the collections of Malcolm Forbes. There, in the lobby of this downtown office building, is the world’s biggest collection of Faberge Eggs, the exquisite bejeweled treasures commissioned by Tsar Nicholas as annual Easter gifts to his wife Alexandra.

The Forbes collection also contains other really cool stuff, such as a room filled with early Monopoly games; a room of ceremonial awards and loving cups; rare documents signed by Thomas Jefferson and others; a big collection of toy boats and toy soldiers; and other stuff I can’t even remember any more! It was really interesting, and fun, and fast, and FREE!!

September 21, 1998, Harrisburg PA. This was a whole empty day that just fell into my lap. The previous day I’d been in a car accident and I was still shaken up. I was too restless to watch a movie or TV, and my car was in the shop, due out any time.

I found myself at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, admiring one of the world’s biggest paintings, Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. The museum had loads of other Civil War stuff too, plus exhibits on manufacturing and technology, Native American history, dinosaurs, and just plain cool stuff like old fire trucks and airplanes.

February 21, 1999, Fort Wayne IN. On paper, spending Sunday in downtown Fort Wayne looked like a good idea, so that’s why I showed up for a Monday morning meeting on Saturday afternoon. I brought along all kinds of work to do, and patted myself on the back (in advance) for everything I knew I’d accomplish with my free day.

That was on paper. In reality, anything at all was better than doing paperwork in a hotel room, so that’s what I went out looking for: anything at all.

I found myself touring the Lincoln Museum, a big collection of Abraham Lincoln’s papers and memorabilia. The gift shop is packed with more Lincolnalia than you can imagine, and in exchange for whatever you buy (including your admission to the museum), you receive a shiny new Lincoln penny in change, glued into a small presentation folder.

The Lincoln Museum was great, but I still had a pile of work waiting for me in my room, so I didn’t stop there. I took in a theater organ concert at the Embassy Theater, a grand old 1920’s movie and vaudeville palace. It’s been restored to become Fort Wayne’s premier venue for legitimate theater and concerts. Once in a while they show off their vintage Page Theater Organ with a special, and that’s what I happened to catch. Its bag of tricks includes sound effects, flutes. horns, and violins, all emanating from the giant organ pipes at either side of the stage.

February 26, 2000, Atlanta GA. Now you’d think that I would’ve had my fill of giant Civil War oil paintings (Harrisburg, remember?), but this was different. For one thing, Carol was with me again, and so was Atlantan Dave Buechner, who was showing us around town. We were filling time in between our morning appointment at Dave’s store, and our afternoon date in Athens.

And this painting was different, quite different from others I’ve seen. The Cyclorama is a huge oil painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta. It’s hung like a theater curtain in a big circle, facing in. You view it from inside the circle, giving you a panoramic 360 degree view of the battle.

It’s enormous, two stories high. To round things out, they put three dimensional figures in the foreground, like soldiers and horses and cannons, to give it more depth. To see it, you sit on bleachers. The bleachers rotate around and a tour guide narrates as the battle scene passes by. Incredible!

June 2, 2000, Fall River MA. Friday afternoons are not usually a good time to work on the road. It’s hard to get Friday appointments with retailers, and they often don’t work out anyway. On this Friday, two appointments cancelled and my lunch date fell through, leaving me with an empty calendar until 6:00 PM.... On to Battleship Cove!!

The USS Massachusetts saw action in WW2, was later mothballed, and then sold for scrap. Her loyal crew purchased the giant battleship in 1965 and made a home for her in Fall River. The site eventually grew into a collection of war ships including a destroyer, a sub, and several PT boats.

The ship has not been dolled up for tourists. Most of it is not accessible to the handicapped, the claustrophobic, the feeble, nor the obese. I wandered alone through the cramped underdecks of the ship, squeezing through narrow passageways and hatches, up and down ladders, through the radio room, sick bay, powder magazines, and more.

After three hours, I had still not seen all of “Big Mamie,” but it was time to push on to my next stop.

Please don’t assume that I automatically find a museum or a concert whenever I have free time. I’ve also been known to take a nap or watch TV. And sometimes... well, not that often... sometimes I’ll even use the time to get some work done.