Sundance: solo travel lesson is learned once again.

Philip Seymour-Hoffman answering questions at Q&A after "Jack Goes Boating"

I arrived in Salt Lake City and, just as planned M picked me up from the airport around noon. (If you haven’t read it yet, Travel Partners Make Sundance Affordable will tell you who M is.) We drove to Park City together, picked up the keys to our condo and checked in. Then M had to head back into town to work at the Yarrow Theater and I got organized. There were things to do:

• Figure out how to get into Park City, 3 miles away, using the the free bus system.
• Check into the Volunteer Villa to pick up my credentials.
• Pick up my volunteer uniform and other SWAG.
• Get the lay of the land in Park City.
• Start choosing films.
• Maybe see a film.
• Connect with A, the other roommate in our condo.

Sundance treats their volunteers very well. At the Volunteer Villa I received a warm welcome and lots of advice. Surprisingly, I was in line right behind O, a woman that I connected with on the Sundance Volunteer Facebook discussion board. A friend already.From check-in, I went to pick up the Sundance jacket — a really nice white bomber by Kevin Cole. Unfortunately, there was only men’s XXL left. Obviously, I haven’t worn it. But I am trying to figure out how to give it away to a Solo Traveler reader. So please, give me your suggestions in the comments section of this post as to how I can do this fairly. By then it was about 6pm. Maybe a film? But it was bothering me that I hadn’t yet connected with A. She needed a key to use the condo. And I hadn’t really figured out the city. And where were all the people? This was Saturday night and the streets were quiet?

I ran into Olivia again and decided to follow her to the theater she was working at. It was a hotel with conference rooms modified for the screenings. There was a makeshift cafe set up and I was starved so I had a bowl of chile and decided I couldn’t sit through a film worried about A. After the bite, I headed back to the condo – not feeling very accomplished.

Me at the Eccles Theater where I was on the theater team.

The Lesson
So the lesson is patience. I have to be patient when I go to a new place. I have expectations of the trip and, while my expectations have always been met, it has never happened on the first day. Day 2 is when things get into gear. And that’s exactly what happened. Everything worked:

Yes, patience.

Related posts: