Cross-country sights...

I’ve been traveling a ton this year – every week except for 3 since January 1st.  Being on the road is challenging for a variety of reasons, particularly being away from my soon-to-be 3 and soon-to-be 5 year old daughters way too much. It’s also tough from a business perspective because it means being away from the CleverSet office in Seattle, our team and the day-to-day operations of our company. But, there is simply no other way – we’re in a critical stage of our company and the ‘road’ beckons. 

One of my favorite writers is Peter King at Sports Illustrated. His columns are informative, well-researched and funny.  Every Monday he writes a short piece on ‘Aggravating Travel Thoughts’ from the past week.  I love it – funny instances a variety of travel.  So, in following Peter’s lead I am going to do the same – these will be random thoughts from my travel experiences.

So here’s the first one: This morning I woke up at 4am for a 6am flight to Denver, on my way to NY.  Travel today is tough – long lines at ticket counters and security are really starting to wear people down.  But, this morning was different. I used the United ticket kiosk at SeaTac and then sailed through security (amazing what status you can obtain when you fly 35,000 miles a quarter).  So I avoided the lines, right?!  Wrong.  I turned the corner to see 57 people in the Starbucks line.  Yes, FIFTY SEVEN people – I counted!  Keep in mind this was at 5.15am.  What an amazing company Starbucks is – the ‘following’ they have created is simply amazing – the caffeine doesn’t hurt either.

Other interesting sights & observations:

* It was a crystal clear day in Denver but we still waited 45 minutes on the runway.  It’s amazing how restless people get when there are delays – unfortunately the flight attendants take the brunt of that frustration, which has never made sense to me.

* At least 70% of the people on this flight are business travelers.  At least 80% of them are staring at laptops (what did we all do before laptops?), and I would say that 50% of them using an Apple product. And, probably 30% of those travelers are wearing iPods.

* I just saw a 25 year old guy with a black beard tattooed on his face – pretty cool looking – except for when he is 60 years old.

* Upon landing there were five people standing within four feet of me – all five us were checking, typing or talking on Blackberries – again, incredible market penetration!

I’m sure I’ll have more to report given that I just landed in New York.....

Comments

[indigosuccess]

Todd
We appreciate the traveling you are doing for the company. Cleverset is taking off and I am excited about the prospects for the future. You should take a couple days and relax with your kids, they grow up much too fast and you can't always get that back. You are doing a fantastic job with the company