Wednesday - The red eye to Miami, and all the unglamorous travel associated with getting to LAX, etc. Thursday - landed at 5 am Eastern Daylight Time after the 6 hour flight and change in time zones that made it feel like 1 AM. Car rental and suffer through Miami traffic to drive 3 hours North to the Agriculture Group that has contracted my Organic Production and Practices Certification Services. 10 hours later, I have completed the documentation review.
This was scheduled to be spread out over 2 days but to accommodate their schedule, we pushed through and did it in one day. I return to my rental car and drive back to Miami. Granted this 4 hour leg of the trip was self-inflicted because I could have stayed in Tampa or another city closer, but I was hoping to catch an earlier flight on Friday given that it was "Good Friday" and the beginning of the Easter weekend.
For those of you keeping score it is now technically 23 hours of billable time granted it is only 17 consecutive hours after landing and I probably shouldn't be allowed to count that incredibly refreshing 3 hour nap that I got on the flight, but I am taking the liberty of counting it, since the time is billed. You may also note that the return drive from the Corporate HQ is one hour longer than the drive to the HQ, well here is where I will begin to indulge the critics to a small degree.
I drove an extra hour South of Miami to Key Largo and stayed at the Tiki Resort on the beach. I had already called the airline about getting on an earlier flight and was reminded that it is Easter Friday as well as the beginning or the end of many Spring Break periods and all flights were oversold so there will be no catching an earlier flight. So I woke on Friday worked on my report for 3 hours lounging at the Beach and drove from Key Largo to Key West, it is an amazing drive crossing over all the islands, time stood still as I took in the pristine green tones and clarity of the water and the architecture of the bridges, awesome!! One of them is over 7 miles long. That drive now has a checkmark next to it on my list of 100 things to do! Before I make a new list (I am going to finish my list before I am 40, not before I die, don't want to have a terminal deadline).
Then the day was actually concluded with the 10 hours of travel time to get home. It never fails to amaze me how much time it actually takes to pack up, load the car, drive to the rental car return, take the shuttle to the airport, get checked in, go through security, rush to the gate (still hoping to go standby on the earlier flight leaving 90 minuted before my scheduled flight, no luck), having arrived 2 hours early, sitting around waiting, actually had two conference calls that I had to work on, finalizing the Corporate Social Responsibility Report with the Global Reporting Initiative self-reporting indicators that I had to audit for RJReynolds, I will let everyone know when that report is made public and you can review my handiwork. But I digress, returning to the wasted time that is travel, then boarding the aircraft, THE FLIGHT, getting luggage (which I never do, if I can't carry it with me, then I don't really need it), leaving the airport and waiting for either the shuttle to take me to my car or the Van Nuys fly-away bus, then the drive home.
Kerrie is constantly reminding me of what a vacation it is for me to get to go on these trips. The only reason I am traveling home for this weekend is because it is Easter, and therefore the workers in the fields where I am consulting are also not working and it makes no sense to me to wait around until Monday morning in Miami, they had wanted me to work Saturday and stay over Sunday, but it didn't work out that way, of which Kerrie was glad, I would have been on a real vacation staying Miami with nothing to do for a couple of days. Not to mention that I had been in Chicago Mon and Tues this week, which means I added 16000 miles of flying to my total (one step closer to 1 Million which is also on my list)
But the timing of the weekend does add to the next chapter of the saga. Sunday night red eye again to Miami. Forgot that traffic was going to be awful and stayed at the Morris' house for dinner too long enjoying the company of family. Racing down the 405 cursing my foolishness, and evaluating the severity of the consequences of missing this flight. I was on the phone with the airline confirming; unfortunately, because I wanted the flight delayed, that it was on time. Arrived at the airport and valet parked, first time I have done that, can't wait to see how much that costs for 6 days, I estimate it is more than my truck payment each month. I would have missed the 40 minute pre-flight check-in deadline as well, fortunately I checked in online and had already printed my boarding pass. Hussled through security, thank goodness for the executive platinum specific security entrance, the regular line was quite long as should be expected considering it is a Holiday. Rush through security, only to realize that my flight is from gate 44, which means that I have to board a bus and go to a secondary terminal in the middle of LAX, get off the bus, walk into the terminal straight through the last call for flight 1260 to Miami, walk across the tarmac, and up the outdoor stairs onto the plane. Did I mention how inconvenient gate 44 is, which is where all my flights have been routed for the past three or four weeks. Board the plane and have the doors shut behind me, with the attendant asking "Mr Edwards?". Extremely full flight and as I mentioned earlier, I have 1 weeks worth of clothing in my carry-on, and there is no room in the overhead bins. Fortunately I am sitting in an emergency aisle, where it is not safe for a large bag to be stowed under the seat in front of you blocking the emergency aisle, so the Flight Attendant takes my bag and puts it with the crew's luggage in the compartment next to the front door. Find my seat 21A, sit and realize that I have been holding my breath for the past hour.
I fell asleep before the Spanish fasten your seatbelt instructional video was over and woke up to the thud at landing. My knees are on fire from the guy in front of me reclining back on me, which I vaguely remember happening or was that my flight on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday of last week? I remember it happening but not waking enough to rearrange, big mistake.
Zombie through the Miami Airport (not the cleanest, most efficient, or most modern of the major airports). Get to the Avis shuttle, 2 hours drive North East to Fort Myers. 6.5 hours of reviewing documentation, including most importantly the chemicals and pesticides used and their frequency and the Re-Entry Indicators and documented tests performed by the company before permitting the workers back into the fields. This field is a grape-tomato grower, with over 800 workers picking crates of tomatoes. For each crate they fill, they hand carry it to their supervisor, who dumps the contents into a community bin and punches their productivity card. These migrant workers are all paid 2.50 per crate filled and on average fill 3-5 per hour. US agriculture laws exempts agriculture companies from overtime premium payments, so I am also evaluating living wages standards and sustainability. The biggest chunk of this day is actually spent interviewing 30 workers for 10 minutes each and making sure they are paid for the time spent in the interviews so they are not punished for their participation.
After this time in the field, I then drive 2 hours due North for the next Field where I will repeat the process the next day. Tuesday, smaller crew of only 180 workers, because of the difference in temperature, this field is 6 weeks behind the first field and the tomatoes are still growing, so this crew is actually tying the plants to stakes so the plants grow vertically, there are some workers that amaze me with their skill, I had a hard time catching up to them to start the interviews they were moving so fast.
After the 6 hours at this site, I have a 3 hour drive ahead of me to Georgia and the next field, but it dawns on me, Spring Training, DUH, Dodgertown in Vero Beach. (Attend Spring Training is also on my 100 list) That was too far away, but even better Detroit Tigers are only 45 minutes away. Verlander the star pitcher stinks it up, but I did make it in time for batting practice and Miguel Tejada from the Astros broke my hand (figuratively) with a shot over the right field wall that came right to me, providing me with a souvenir of the trip.
Spent the game with my new buddies Jim Layson from Orlando, watching his 20th preseason game this month, most of them Dodgers games because that is his favorite team, and Walt Simpson retiree from Michigan watching the team he played for 60 years ago. I googled him and nothing came up, wonder how much of his story was alcohol or "The older I get the more I did, better and faster I was" embellished? Not quite like going to the Salt Lake Buzz games with Mike and Troy or the Dodger games with Rod and Kris, but it had to do.
Game over at 10, and I was comfortable driving for only 2 of the 3 hours, but got me closer to my destination and for safety stopped for rest around 12:30 am. Wed I was up at 6 because I still had some driving to do, arrived at the field, much smaller crew of only 50 workers at this field. The production due to the cooler climate in Northern Florida is another 2 months behind the previous field, and the process being completed here is that the workers are planting the tomatoes. Because of the technical nature and precision needed to plant, these workers are paid minimum wage. That's right 5.15 per hour, rather than productivity based pay. Wrapped up the work in about 5 hours, and drove 2 hours.
Detroit at Pittsburgh today, sold out, disappointing! The only ticket I can get is double face value from a scalper, yes 26 dollars, and everyone who knows me know there is no way I am shelling out that kind of money, so I watched 4 innings with a view of only the infield, peering through an opening in the fence behind the Tigers BullPen. I thought I had a good picture but I guess they didn't turn out.
Even if I had gotten into the game, I had every intention of ducking out early because I wanted to self-inflict more driving on myself. 1 hour 40 minutes later I am standing in Titusville, FL across the bay from Kennedy Space Center where the shuttle is scheduled to land. It was too cloudy to get a great view, but the double sonic boom separated by less than a second that I can only describe as being similar to the sounds of a firework show and those loud bass booming blasts that you actually feel rock your chest more than you hear them but amplified 10 times, and suddenly bright lights appeared and two seconds later were gone. So obviously the first photo is not the shuttle landing but the shuttle at the Astronaut Museum on Kennedy. The second picture, in the distance you can see the large white hangers where they store the shuttle and launch it, this is as close as you can get without NASA credentials. A little hazy that is why the landing was delayed 2 hours too foggy.
I was standing in a park with about 500 other people, including Yan Heidrich, a long haired Hans Hanson look alike who is also a Mall Santa Helper every winter, who is an Orlando native and was telling a small group of us what to expect as this is his 8th landing and when the lights appeared and were gone, even he wasn't sure that we had seen the shuttle or another aircraft. So he talked to his son on the phone who was watching on TV and confirmed the lights we had seen was the shuttle and he was watching it on the runway stopped. A little anti-climatic and probably not worth the 3+ hours spent round trip getting there. But did confirm that I seeing a launching in person is worthy of the 100 list (I would have gladly amended the list, for the sake of adding another checkmark, to read view the space shuttle landing, but it wasn't good enough to make the list)
Where am I in my week, o yeah Thursday morning, back at the Corporate location to reconcile the findings and observations from the field assessments, evaluate the on-site packing house and the employees working there, etc. The employees at this site work from 6 am to 2 pm in the slow season, so I too left at 2, headed over to the Tigers stadium to enjoy the game with Walt and Jim again, we had all determined to sit in the same area again on Thursday. I can't wait to see the pictures of Walt's grandkids he is going to email me.
Friday, Corporate HQ finalizing observations and a Summary of findings and the final report to be distributed to a Major Grocery Retailer, done by 11am, need to get to Miami (remember 3 hours drive back for a flight tonight).
Fort Lauderdale is on the way, and would you believe that is where the Baltimore Orioles are hosting the New York Mets as both play their final Spring Training game this afternoon.
Yep, still wearing the Detroit Tigers Cap. Great game, Baltimore won it 4-3 even though they were down 1-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. I had to stay to the end, all three other games have been so lopsided, I was excited to see one come down to the last out. Had a lovely time with my new friends Peter and Jessica visiting from Liverpool England, and who had no idea about the rules of baseball so I spent the game explaining strategy and rules, etc. In the end they decided Baseball is a bad mix of the worst Cricket and Rounders rules, never heard of rounders before.Had to fight stadium traffic which was more pronounced since everyone left together, then traveling to Miami airport during rush hour, missed the 7:30 flight, I called the airline and they told me my flight was right on time, and that if I missed it, there is a 9:15 (that was already overbooked) and then nothing until the morning. Got to the airport at 7:25, got my standby ticket to the 9 pm flight and on a whim walked clear out to the gate for the 7 pm flight, HAH, delayed, and I am back in my confirmed first class seat.
Whew, Kerrie would have really been angry had I not been able to come home until Saturday morning due to a baseball induced delay, if that would have happened I would have gone to see the Marlins - Yankees night game that started at 8PM.
This flight lands at 11:40 PM and then the drive home, email and post this to the blog and 2am normal sleep.
I was calculating in my head that between two flights, 6 nights of hotels, 2 rental car contracts, gasoline for the 1800 miles I drove this week (which again for you math junkies, the car said I averaged a little less than 50 miles per hour meaning I drove a total of 36 hours this week plus the 2 hours roundtrip to the airport and 12 hours of flying time, is a 50 hour work week in it's own right, never mind the actual work I did), parking receipts, meals (mostly Tiger Dogs and $5 sprites in commemorative mugs. ; ). ). And then the $2200 that I paid for the recertification as an SA8000 lead auditor training seminar that I am attending next week, I realized I am floating my employer close to $5500. Sure hope they stay solvent long enough to pay me back, not that I fear they wouldn't but could you imagine?
I know that I only paid $450 for this flight and am enjoying first class amenities with everyone else that paid 3 times that amount only because of the status afforded me for having flown 130,000 miles last year, but for once can everyone in the paying seats; being placated and appeased at the price they paid for airfare with a $10 meal, choose the bland stuffed lasagna rolls and let me try the Beef Filet? Four of my six flights over the last week were upgraded and I am sick of the same meal.
Not all my trips include 3 and 1/2 checkmarks from the Stanford100 list, but many of my weeks are similar regarding the travel aspects and the scheduling. After my exploits from this week Kerrie has decided that I cannot squat on her space anymore and that I need my own blog estate, so be on the lookout for a link and add it to your weekly sources of information overload.
