Worth the trip for sure! 

So they say “call this 1-800 number to get a refund,” which also doesn’t work….F%#* I finally bit the bullet and got a $30 portable air compressor, great for my frequent long road-trips.

These was a brief time prior to this where Prime Rate rose to OVER 20%.Today you can't walk even 1 foot without tripping over real estate information, knowledge, and education. 

Collected two rents for that month, so the trip was worth it.

This I feel is where I usually get tripped up. 

The owner of the landscaping company always gave us a hard time about cleaning up after ourselves and made it clear to avoid creating any tripping hazzards because his insurance premiums would skyrocket if anyone got hurt.

If you are serious about investing in other markets, I would absolutely plan a couple of trips that coincide with local meetups/REIA events for each market. 

One day your STR may be a used by a family for a vacation, the next day by a guys gold trip. 

I think you'd need to work with a local attorney and CPA to make sure you're not tripping over any wires accidentally (to mix a metaphor). 

Probably, I will make a trip sometime this year and personally, survey these areas myself.