Catching up is hard to do

I don’t know where to start after being away for seven months.  There are so many high and low-lights that its tough to figure out how to put a theme around them.  Maybe its just that we continue to live an interesting life?  One of contrasts, unpredictability, playing hard, working harder, and traveling by almost every means imaginable which now includes a few yards on the back of a camel:)

Here’s a speed dating summary of the last half of 2016

• Lots of travel — twelve trips  in the past six months to India, Africa, the East Coast and Mexico.  You know something is weird when you know which terminals to avoid at Heathrow and where the best lounges are at most of the airports we hit.
• Two huge events for LACI — the Grand Opening of the new 60,000 sq. foot La Kretz Innovation Campus and the less than grand election on November 8th.  Both will shape LACI for years to come.  I won’t be going back to DC any time soon.
• 2016 will be LACI’s best year as measured by almost any metric:  we’ve grown the number of companies we serve by 40%, the number of jobs created by 70%, the long term economic value we’ve generate by 40%,  and the size of the NGIN network to 20 members in nine countries.   Our 2016 budget is 8X the budget we started with five years ago.
• “El Diablo” — aka Bogart — has driven KR to the edge of sanity, forcing us to put him through a two week intensive training session.  The result; the family has a leadership problem.  No s__t!
• Our Mexico places –the Corona Adobe and Little Big Sur — continue to draw guests from near and far.  KR has turned into the Innkeeper with the Most-est and our 2016 rental revenue is 2X that of 2015.  Onward and upward!
• Life in the Arts District continues to get more and more interesting.  The addition of a scooter, a 2006 Aprila Scarabeo, has made getting around really interesting.  New establishments are popping up almost daily.  The retail complex around the corner under construction has applied for 17 liquor licenses.  Yaahhh boy!  Our 800 sq. ft. loft continues to work as USA central the Walti clan.
• We’re finally starting to use Thor, our 2016 Leisure Travel Van “Libero RV, after about a year of sitting in the parking lot.  As with any of our travel vehicles, we’re in the process of figuring out how to configure it to our liking.   Not surprising, we need more electrical power!

Well, those are the headlines.  Feel free to close this up or to skip down to the pictures now.  For those of you who want more color commentary, I’m here to serve, so read on:)

The Geography

In the seven months since we last wrote after coming back from Spain, Morocco and Ethiopia, we’ve traveled to India, Egypt, Mexico, the East Coast, and Northern California.

This was our third trip to India and the second speaking tour for the State Department I’ve done.  We covered four cities in about ten days.  I did 25+ speeches/meetings in Delhi, Chandigarh, Indore and Hyderabad.

It was the first trip that KR and I didn’t venture out of the hotel often except for business!  Part of this was because two of the hotels we stayed in were absolutely fabulous.  Part of it was getting in sync with a time zone 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles.  But the real reason was laying around in bed all day, half way around the world, is the only way I can get away and relax.  When was the last time you just hung around in bed for an entire day?  Exactly my point:)

I’m still conflicted about India.  We got out of just the mega cities of Delhi and Mumbai this trip to the North and the Central parts of India.  Hyderabad, in the south central region, is a tech boom town in which all the major multinational companies have huge presences.  It’s a go-go entrepreneurial hub, strewn across rocky hills and spread out for mile and miles.  I was never in a car less than 90 minutes to any meeting as the traffic was so bad.

Yet, unless you’re rich, India just isn’t that attractive of a place.  800 million people or so mean there’s just a mass of humanity, their trash, their houses, their vehicles, their animals, and their shops every which way. The rivers are polluted.  The country can’t really feed all its population and still has 300 million people (the size of the US) without access to electricity.  The idea of sidewalks and parks aren’t really on the agenda anytime soon.

I hold hope that we’ve not seen the “good stuff” yet:)  KR has pretty much given up and doesn’t care to go back.  Maybe that’s why we didn’t get out of the hotel much:)

Cairo was a whole different deal.  I liked the vibe immediately.  The city is much more interesting visually, it’s much older and has the advantage of being split down the center by the Nile, which we got to sail on by the way.  The architecture is interesting, at least in the upper scale part of town that most foreigners hang.  The streets are full of cars with the occasional motorcycle, which is pretty much the opposite of India’s cities.

No surprise, most of the perceptions that we Westerners have about Egypt, Muslims and the MENA region aren’t true.  The US government is mightily mistrusted by most Egyptians that would speak about it.  Even those people who were living in or working for US companies, felt that our history in the Middle East was horrible. We were/are only looking out for our own self interests.  I’m not sure this can be fixed…

KR and I spoke with the young woman who served as our guide and for the first time I got an explanation of the Muslim religion that wasn’t scary or angry or intimidating.  And while I’m not a religious guy, I could understand how she felt and had empathy.  We could live next door to each other without thinking twice.

We’ve gone to a number of far-flung countries in search of business.  I’ve met with probably a hundred groups in the last 12 moths and no matter if its Ethiopia (which makes Mexico feel like a 21st century country) or India or Egypt or Morocco or Spain or… there is one surprising commonality:  entrepreneurship is alive and well, even in the most desperate lands.  Young people are excited about starting companies, about creating new products, about using innovation to solve their countries problems.  It can’t help but give folks like me hope for the future and a bounce in my step.

The Vehicles

A big part of  travel is having the right mode of transportation:)  To date, our stable includes (by length of ownership):

• The Iron Duke (’96 Jeep Grand Cherokee):  This is the Mexican equivalent of the New Yorker’s “station car.”   162,000 miles strong, its role is to carry Karen, the dogs, our guests, friends and assorted neighbors around Puerto Vallarta and environs carrying as much stuff as can be crammed in.  Usually twice a year it makes the 1,500 mile trip to/from PV to Los Angeles. Karen hates the Iron Duke because she has to drive it.  I love the Duke because he can’t be hurt.  Who cares if someone puts a new crease in his side door?
• The Bullet (’01 Jaguar XKR Silverstone).  The Bullet is now the  LA version of the Duke.  He wasn’t always that way as he started out as a mint-condition-not-a-scratch-to-be-seen exotic sports car, before he encountered the streets of downtown Los Angeles… After fifteen years, he only has 72,000 miles since the distance from front door to front office door is 2-3 blocks.
• Now Voyager II (2014 BMW 1200 GS motorcycle):  The vehicular love of my life, NV II is KR and my Adventure Vehicle to far away places.  NV II has an unusual combination of space-age technology with tractor-like reliability.  It’s simply the best motorcycle I’ve ever owned. This is beyond surprising given that  NV I  (another BMW) was the worst, most unreliable motorcycle I’ve ever owned.   NV II meets our thirst for adventure the freedom of motorcycling.  NVII has already been to the UK, IOM, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Morocco, Luxembourg, Belgium and Monaco.  He’s barely broken in:)
• Thor (’16 Leisure Travel Vans Libero):   Thor is a mini RV that KR calls our little jewel box.  Prime function of Thor is to take ALL FOUR OF US to far away places, but mainly places in North America.  Thor is a small, but fully functional, Class C+ RV that has excellent interior finishes.  Fully functional means:  bed, toilet, shower, kitchen, refrigerator on-board power, satellite TV, dining room table and enough storage that includes a small closet.  Thor is still a work in progress relative to outfitting, but has a big future.
• Rover (’06 Aprilla Scarabeo motor scooter):  Newest member of the family, Rover’s job is to be the local get-about when we’re roaming in Thor. Rover sits on a rack in the back of Thor, ready to to go to the store, bar, or just down the street from wherever Thor is parked.  Rover continues an interesting trend in the Walti vehicle ownership history:  two Yahama RZ 250’s, two Honda Pacific Coasts, two Fieros, two Jaguar XK8s,  and two Scarabeos… Go figure.
  

  Three wheels for four-up adventure traveling. The “Ural” is modeled after a 1940’s era BMW motorcycle with sidecar. KR, Bogart and Squirt get the right seat. Generous, I thought

• Potential New Additions to the Stable:  Highest on the list of new members is a Ural motorcycle/sidecar ensemble.   This would be a creative and practical solution to my wanting to go everywhere on a motorcycle with KR’s desire to take Bogart and Squirt everywhere with us.  KR, Bogart and Squirt could sit in the sidecar.   Also on the list of potential additions are a Moto Guzzi m/c, a Morgan 3-Wheeler (if the Ural doesn’t make the cut), a replacement for the Iron Duke (shush, don’t tell KR), a Corvette, a Jag F-Type, a Jag Station Wagon, a Ferrari, and a …..:)
• Planes, trains, etc.  Well, there haven’t been any trains in the last year, but we have taken ferries, taxis, Ubers, big big planes, small planes, pongas, buses, vans, the aforementioned camel, a sail boat, and a Tuk-tuk or two.   I recommend the Airbus 380 and the Brittany Ferry, but not in the cattle car areas.  British Air’s food quality has gone down hill, which is a great disappointment.  Flight to avoid at all costs is the American out of Reagan to LAX at 5PM.  ALWAYS two hours late, no inflight entertainment, no wi-fi, and the center seat is usually the only one available.  Who says that airline consolidations are a good thing?

Life in the Loft

It’s hard to believe, but KR and I have been living in our 800 square foot loft in downtown Los Angeles for more than five years!  Factory Place is located in the “Arts District,” which is LA’s industrial area that’s rapidly becoming the West Coast version of NY’s Meat Packing District.  This place just reeks of coolness and weirdness and diversity and creativity and … money.  Someone told me that the Arts District has the highest HH income of any area in LA other than Beverly Hills.  I don’t believe that, but like all major metro downtown areas, it costs lots of money to live here so those who do are well off.  Research shows that downtown LA has equal parts Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and White Folks and it shows on the streets and sidewalks.  Diversity is a very interesting thing if one is open to it.

The family sedan for most people on this planet is not a sedan, but a motor scooter or motorcycle.  The work horse of Asia, much of Africa, and even big swaths of Europe has two wheels, not four, and accommodates between one and five people, depending.  Traffic, parking, gas mileage, and cost are all made the easier on a scooter.

This summer we shifted to a two-wheel family sedan as well, the aforementioned “Rover.”  I now drive Rover the five blocks to work, we use him to go to dinner at night in downtown, or to see friends in Hollywood.  He’s the easiest, most convenient vehicle I’ve owned in quite a while.  I recommend one to all:)

Life South of the Border

Let me state this up front:  Mexico is becoming the safest place in North America to live and visit.  There aren’t any terrorists in Mexico.  Narco’s?  For sure, but it feels a lot safer to me than going to France, or Belgium, or San Bernardino, or Germany or… Shake your head in disbelief, think I’m crazy all you like,  but it’s the truth.

The Peso continues to take it in the shorts via the dollar.  When we bought/built Corona, the ratio was $1.00 = $11 pesos.   As I write this, the dollar equals 20.5 pesos!  For those of us who live/visit Mexico, this has made a huge difference.  It’s generally a good time to be an American tourist in much of the world in terms of currency.

Here’s one practical example of the impact of the dollar/peso devaluation on our life.   We have a wonderful maid who comes to Corona five days a week from 10AM to 3PM and we pay her $7000 pesos/month.  That equals about $340 dollars a month in today’s valuation!

Here’s another. I recently had to get the Iron Duke fixed.  He needed a new coil, plugs, distributor, oil change, radiator repair, tune-up and an ECM unit fix.  Total cost was $3700 pesos = $180.00. PICKED UP AND DELIVERED:)

The dollar is at all time high via the British Pound, Euro, Egyptian Pound, Mexican Peso, etc.  Lesson to be learned: never, never keep your money in a foreign currency even if you live abroad.

Our palapa in the jungle, “Little Big Sur,” continues to be a challenge to upkeep and rent remotely, but remains a joy to actually use.  LBS is best understood as a land-locked version of owning a boat;  just keep putting money in and every sailing is actually a repair/maintenance outing:)  Our annual Jungle Storm event turns into an all out “invite your friends to the jungle to repair and fix-up LBS.”  Every visit to LBS is preceded by a visit to Home Depot:)

Two Seismic Events

The Grand Opening event for our new campus on October 7th was the result of more than five plus years of labor and $47M in capital investment.  2300 VIPs, stakeholders, sponsors, and friends RSVP’d to our event.  Two Mayors and assorted other VIPs gave speeches, cut the ribbon, took part in tours and gave press interviews.  The new 60,000 square foot purpose built campus is the Taj Mahal of cleantech with desks for over 250 entrepreneurs,  a chemistry lab, electronics lab, an advanced prototyping center, micro grid, and a model ‘smart home of the future’.  The La Kretz Innovation Campus elevates LACI to a new level of prominence in the world of clean technology innovation.

Thirty one days later and the Trump Trampling  washed over LACI like a tsunami.  We literally had to send out “keep calm and carry on ” notices and hold numerous counseling sessions as everyone is this building believed that the sustainable world as we know it was coming to an end.  And frankly, nothing that has happened since the election gives us hope he was “just kidding.”

My view is that LACI will survive and prosper no matter what.  Market forces and mega trends are at our back. But, I’m worried shitless that the New Administration will step away from its commitment to sustainable sources of energy and the steps necessary to reduce/slow climate change.  This won’t really impact us here in the US as we’re all comparatively rich.  If it gets hotter, we’ll just turn the air conditioning on.  Drought and crop reduction?  We’ll just pay more for food.  No, its the poor who feel the brunt of the effects of climate change.  The World Bank estimates that climate change will push another 100 million people into poverty by 2030.  This is serious stuff that the Leader of the Free World doesn’t seem to understand or give a shit.

And please, don’t talk to me about “clean coal.”  Coal is as likely to be clean as the Lock Ness Monster is likely to  jump out of the lagoon tomorrow.

To the Future, we go!

I’m looking forward to what 2017 will bring, none the less.   KR and I have plans and ideas of what it will entail, but who knows?  We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a great and prosperous New Year!

Here’s what all of this looked like in pictures.

CAIRO (DEC 2016)

INDIA (OCT 2016)

LOS ANGELES (OCT 2016)

 

MEXICO (DEC 2016)

 

ON THE ROAD HOME (DEC 2016/JAN 2017)

I promise to write more often.

 

fw

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