38 Days and Counting

Outside the plane window at LAX

Just call us road warriors .

This is the pic as we sat on the plane preparing to fly out of LA this morning…land in Chicago…grab a rental car and immediately began our trip to Philadelphia and New York City.

18 hours after waking-up in Sherman Oaks, California to fly to Chicago and then driving 261 miles, we’re now ready to fall asleep in a Hampton Inn outside of Toledo, Ohio.  It will be rise-and-grind tomorrow around 6:30 to begin the final 531 miles to Philly for an investor meeting around 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

We use Hilton Hotels almost exclusively, because Hilton’s award system is awesome. Several years ago, we didn’t have to spend one cent on hotels during a two-week trip to Europe.  Of course, we did spend a lot of money to get those points, but Hilton doubles and sometimes triples points, which adds-up quickly, especially for a Diamond member like Trish.

Hampton Inn in Toledo, Ohio 1 A.M.

I also found the power of social media when I had to tweet something bad that occurred when we walked into our room.  I’ll spare the details, but I will tell you that it’s something that’s never happened to us, and hopefully will never happen again.

BTW…I don’t normally believe in going the Twitter route for something like this, but with the front desk not having the power to help being able to help at 1 A.M., I was forced to make a statement.  Thanks to Hilton Honors on Twitter, I’m once again a happy camper.  I also want to say that the front desk person was sweet and understanding, but powerless at this time in the morning.  I'm sure it will be taken care of in the morning.

I love airplane flights from LA to Chicago.  It gives us 3 hours and 45 minutes worth of un-interrupted work time, which I used to write emails and and two proposals, one for a new investor pitch, the other to a sponsor.

What I didn't love was the 100 degree temperature (check the dashboard reading) we found in Chicago.  We left LA when it was 75 and beautiful.  

Exit 64 on Ohio Turnpike

The Drive itself was relatively painless with very little traffic to contend with coming out of O’Hare and through Chicago.  Thanks to an iPod hook-up in our rental car…yes National Car Rental again, we were able to pass the miles by listening to Bruce Springsteen’s live show in London a couple years ago called London Calling.  30 songs that started in Chicago and ended as I got off the Ohio Turnpike to head to the hotel.

One interesting/frustrating thing that happened today was that Trish’s Blackberry died…and with no time to get a new one until tomorrow, it was wild to see her “withdrawl” from not having a phone. LOL

We really do rely on our smartphones to run a business.

Long day with more time spent on my butt than I like, but it gave me plenty of time to get ready for several big meetings coming-up over the next four days.

As to why we didn’t fly from LA to Philly or NYC?  Watching those pennies and believe it or not, it was a lot cheaper to be a road warrior.

As The Boss signs on Born in the USA's No Surrender  “No retreat baby, no surrender”.

Good night.