Traveling often puts us at the mercy of other folks. You have to hope that the person in the seat next to you on the plane isn’t a jerk. You have to trust the taxi driver doesn’t try to rip you off. And you have to believe that the person who had the hotel room before you didn’t set the alarm to try and wake you up unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

Based on my recent trip to Arizona for work, two out of three ain’t bad.

The first one actually reflected my attitude as I took the cramped window seat in the back row of the plane so that the 6-foot-4 guy who was ticketed for that seat did not have to fold himself in half for the two-hour flight from Denver to Tucson.

I figured my aisle seat might actually get uncomfortable with him struggling to fit into the seat next to me so I took one for the team.

When my work colleague and I arrived, we jumped into a cab and had a nice ride to our hotel. The cabbie talked to us about our trip and gave us some advice on dealing with the heat. I have no idea if he took us a longer route than he needed to just to make a few bucks, but he made us feel welcome so I kind of doubt it.

The third example actually did happen, although I lucked out and had already woken up by the time the unplanned alarm went off. In fact, I was not even in the room when the radio started playing.

I wish I could say that this was the first time I had received this kind of unpleasant surprise. One time, some jerk set the alarm for three or four in the morning, sending me into a panic as I struggled to remember where I was and figure out what had happened.

On some trips, I remember to check the bedside clock to make sure nothing like this will happen again, but this time, I completely forgot.

Lucky for me, the person who tried to play this trick had the alarm set for 7 a.m. Sure, that may have been his or her regular wake-up time and they just forgot to turn the alarm button to the “off” switch when they left, but I like my sinister plot idea a lot better.

By the time the alarm went off, I had woken up, taken care of some work on my computer and headed down to the fitness center for a workout. I walked in the room with my headphones on, listening to the last few minutes of a podcast so needed a minute to discover the source of the other noise.

Hopefully the 45 minutes of the radio playing (better than the annoying buzzer) didn’t bother the person in the room next to me. A classic song from Madonna filled me room as I turned the alarm off so that may have softened the blow.