A year of traveling continuously (and occasionally dangerously)

Traveling by motorcycle was the exception this year. Mostly, we hopped on planes, trains, cars and the occasional bus.  In this picture Now Voyager sits at the Guatemala border in the rain, waiting for its paperwork.   NV has since moved onto bigger and better things and so have we.

When I was a twenty something Account Man working on Madison Avenue, I yearned to work on international accounts as I wanted to see the world, even back then.   But I was too career-obsessed then, as international assignments were often only a one-way ticket out of the Big Time. So I passed on “going overseas” and stayed in NYC, then LA, SF and back to LA. While I’ve always done a ton of business travel, two flights a week were not unusual, they were usually to such exciting places as Cincinnati (P&G), Denver (US WEST), Cupertino (Apple) and my favorite, Columbus, Ohio. Exciting travel was left to KR and my personal adventures.

As time marched along—shoot, its run at full trot, no? — KR and I have spent more and more time planning, prepping and going on more adventurous trips on bikes, cars, RVs, planes, trains and buses.   We’ve seen Nepal, India, Argentina, Alaska, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Belize, Guatemala and all of the U.S. And like a junkie who gets his first shot of dope, I’ve been yearning to go further, longer and more adventurously every chance I get.

And then LACI came along and all thoughts of prolonged, wandering travel have pretty much been put on hold.   Instead, we did a “travel pivot” and decided to take advantage of whatever little opportunities came our way and not worry about missing out on the Big Kahuna of trips.

Voila! We took 24 trips to 35 cities in the last year for a combo of business (mostly) and pleasure. While I’ve traveled more often in my career, I’ve never traveled to as many interesting places in such a short stint. Here’s the stat sheet.

I‘m thinking, “How did this happen?”  Why now?  It certainly wasn’t planned. While I’ve never thought of retiring or slowing down, I didn’t think I’d become an International Man of Mystery at this stage:)  About a year ago I dreamed up the idea of a Global Innovation Network, linking innovation institutions around the world together.  Well you can’t build a global network without going global. And while we can, have, should, and will continue to debate why a little incubator in downtown Los Angeles is building such a network, we’ve been doing it for about a year and its starting to get momentum.

I guess the other reason is that just as in business the ability to “pivot” is often key to long term success, the ability to pivot in life is at least as important.  All my life I’ve been a Man With a Plan, but most of the time the Plan gets thrown away as soon as life happens along.  So, Karen and I pivoted off the Adventure Plan to the build a global cleantech ecosystem plan. Go figure:)

So, in celebration of the New Year, here’s what’s struck me as interesting during our Year of Traveling Continuously…

• I like airports, especially big, new, shiny international airports. They’re all the same in that you can figure out what to do and where to go no matter what far-away-land you might find yourself. And now they’re good places to hang with Wi Fi, Starbucks, pretty decent food, comfortable lounges and lots of stores.  I feel at home in an airport. Sad, but true.
• There is one international language that most everyone knows and responds to: a smile. While cultures, values, life styles, dress, standards of living, and governments vary widely, the human spirit doesn’t.   People are often surprised that my grasp of Spanish doesn’t go much further than “Mas Margarita’s, Pour Some More,” yet we spend so much time in Mexico,  Central and South America without speaking much Spanish. How can you live in a country you don’t know the language? My answer is, “Are you going to restrict your travel to only those places you speak the language?” Of course not. We like people, we look for ways to connect in physical and emotional ways, and we treat people with respect.   I admit we try not to go to places that are steeped in conflict and hatred, so I’m not sure that our international language will work everywhere.
• Like the pull of gravity, KR’s search for things to decorate Corona is an inexorable force that can’t be fought. No matter how small, light and swift-footed we start any trip with, we end up pulling the equivalent of a 20 mule team across Death Valley by its end: ) And I will always lose this debate because well, the end result is pretty damn neat. Corona is alive with stuff KR has carted back from all over the world and its great.
• From my perspective, China’s people have made an unspoken pact – give us a middle class standard of living and we’ll do what the government says. It’s a bargain most of us would make if in the same situation. China’s middle class looks prosperous, active, educated and pretty happy to this outsider. The same bargain is being struck with Hong Kong’s middle class; let us makes lots of money and we’ll look the other way as Beijing gets rid of the two systems, one country bargain made in 1997.
• This year’s trip along the Pacific edge of Mexico took us through the most notorious parts of Mexico without even a whiff of trouble. In fact, we spent Christmas Eve 2013 not too far away from the area where the 43 students were kidnapped and killed. Two points here; once again we see no signs of the crime and drug cartel behavior that is splashed on the front pages of U.S. newspapers.   We love Mexico and its been a safe place for us. Yet, Mexico’s government and criminal justice system is totally corrupt and not to be trusted. If Mexico is ever going to take its place along other developing nations, it needs a deep-rooted cleansing.  No one can predict if this will happen, but I keep thinking Columbia cleaned up its act, so Mexico can too.
• KR and I have settled into a new rhythm of the road in which we move often, stay in a city a day or two, and get just enough of a taste to know whether we want to come back or not.  These trips are pretty strenuous, often lasting 18 hours a day rushing from one meeting to the next, usually in a different city.  Yet, KR doesn’t complain as she gets to explore a new place a bit while I do business.   She’s fearless and curious, which usually makes for a good time.
• Often the best part of the trip is riding up front in the leather.   On really long trips we use frequent flyer miles to sit in Business Class as one of our many guilty pleasures.  It’s amazingly comfortable with food at the push of button, more movies and TV shows than you can possibly watch.  When was the last time you could hit the keyboards for 14 uninterrupted hours?  It’s productive time in the lap of luxury.  Does it get any better?

So, here are a few of our favorite pictures from 2014.

BERLIN. KR is ready to go on Day One is Berlin. Berlin is a stylish, creative, prosperous city that reminds me of Wash D.C.

PV-LA-PV.  1500 miles and 3 days drive. You can tell this is a LA to PV drive as the Iron Duke is loaded with goodies for Corona.  Lilly and Squirt and Fred and Karen are in there somewhere.

SOUTHERN MEXICO. Christmas Eve in the Guerrero state of Mexico having a family meal with a family we don’t know. PS, this is the most dangerous part of Mexico

GUATEMALA: Public transportation is colorful, if not too environmentally friendly.

GUATEMALA.  After spending a few days in the colonial city of Antigua, KR isn’t quite ready to get on the bike.

RECORD BREAKER. The day after setting a personal record of 750 miles in one day, NV is cleaned up and ready to meet his new owner.

WASH DC. I go to DC at least once a year to attend the ARPA-E conference and to confer with The Big Guy in the house in the background:) OK, confer might not be the right word, more like beg-for-some-of-that-government-money-that’s-being-spent-on-everything-else type of public crawl.   And it’s not with The Big Guy, but with some guy/gal who has a picture of the Big Guy on his /her wall.

MEXICO CITY. My first delegation with Mayor Garcetti. We signed a GIN MOU with GreenMomentum

SAN ANTONIO. Meeting with various government and private agencies to discuss Mexico/US trade. Perhaps the single most unproductive meeting I attended all year and that’s saying something

MILAN. Milan Centrale is the coolest train station we came across in our European stint

VERONA. Beautiful city in Northern Italy deserved the more than 12 hours we gave it. We’re definitely going back to Northern Italy.

TURINO. Less than 12 hours here, but we visited Environment Park, which was pretty interesting, and is another example of Italy’s leadership in technology parks.

MEXICO CITY AGAIN. Here I have dinner with the GreenMomentum guys and a US diplomat. I tried to sell GIN’s Landing Pad program to a bunch of Mexico City entrepreneurs. No Sale(:

HOME SWEET HOME.  The Corona Adobe sits proudly on its hill. It’s always good to be home, all 6200 square feet of it.

THIS IS NOT LA. KR and her favorite house guest, Larry Jones, go to PV’s Home Depot to plan another project.  Copper pipe will be used as curtain rods in LBS some day.  Probably the next time LJ visits:)

MAMMOTH LAKES.  KR takes Squirt on her first camping trip. Here they sit in our RV camp ground. KR is probably not happy with something I’ve (not) done:)

THE WAY WE ROLL. KR, Squirt and Lilly enjoy the sleeping bag while Yours Truly drives back from Mammoth.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. Now Voyager II gets his first trip up and down both sides of California. Great, great bike and a damn good trip.

SHANGHAI. We visit Shanghai twice and still haven’t seen enough of it.

SHANGHAI. KR in a restaurant in the French Concession section of Shanghai

HONG KONG. Easily the most beautiful city we’ve visited in Asia (so far).

BEIJING. Parks are really used in Beijing as social gathering places. Here a group dances on a Sunday morning in Temple of the Heaven park.

BEIJING: Our biggest day on the mayoral visit to China was a formal MOU signing in which Mayor Garcetti witnessed.

NORTH OF BEIJING. The Great Wall was the highlight of the trip. No picture does it justice, in much the same way that no picture does Machu Picchu  justice either.

SEOUL. Seoul has a great vibe, not sure I can tell you why. Another 24 hour stop gets on our must return list.

TOKYO. “Typical” apartment has a single room that serves many purposes: living, dining, kitchen, bed, and prayer room.

STRATEGIC RETREAT. We end the year with an LACI Strategic Retreat at Little Big Sur in the jungle south of Puerto Vallarta. Despite how this picture looks, we actually got a lot of good work done.

PUERTO VALLARTA. By far the most unique night was spent in a Hooka Lounge in downtown PV. Entire lounge is covered by pillows and inhabited by kids who couldn’t possibly be older than 16 at the high end. KR, Debbie and I had a great time talking, drinking, and watching the kids suck on the water pipe.

CURRENT COMMUTE. PV routine is developing – I take Broken Arrow to one of the PV Starbucks to hit the keyboards.  In this case, I’m going to the Starbucks that’s furthest away as Broken Arrow likes to run.

Take care and have a great 2015!