Travis Pettijohn: Blog

"Every 25 pounds we remove, we save $440,000 a year," Mr. McGraw said.

A work friend of mine introduced me to TripIt last week (I started traveling for my current engagement—back on the road!). It's a really great service. You forward all of your confirmation emails from travel agents/airlines/car rentals/hotels/etc, and it parses the data and builds a cohesive view of your travel schedule, complete with confirmation numbers and checkin/checkout times. Their mobile site gives you one-click access to flight status, too. The iCal feed lets me integrate it with my Outlook calendar and merge them into one view with the overlay mode. This is a BIG step up from manually entering every flight into Outlook (it's a good thing, too, since I seem to screw up time zones more often than I care to admit), and the process couldn't be easier: CTRL+F, CTRL+Enter. Done.

Work sent me to the VS Live conference in Brooklyn. Since I had never before been to New York, I decided to take advantage of the paid-for airfare and take a week for myself. I stayed at Chelsea International Hostel (keeping it on the cheap) while I was paying my own way.

I didn't want to be a total tourist; I was more interested in experiencing life in Manhattan as a resident would experience it...find a cool coffee shop, find a good diner, explore the bar scene, don't take too many pictures.

It was also a social experiment: I don't know anyone in Manhattan, and I was traveling by myself. Would I be able to meet people? Could I have fun on my own?

• Saturday: ORD to LGA. Checked into the hostel and wandered around Chelsea. Went to Ground Zero (not a lot to see there, it's a construction site). Met a group of Brazilians on the subway (I just uttered a "hi" as I sat down next to a girl and she warmly said "hi" back; conversation ensued). I hung out with them as they went to Times Square and Hard Rock Café (lame, I know, but I didn't want to be a stick in the mud, so I went with it). Separated from them as they continued their overly-tourist pursuits with an agreement to meet up in Greenwich Village later. They were a few hours behind me, so I went on a one-man choose-your-own-adventure bar crawl. Met a bartender that was new to New York and she offered me her phone number to hang out (but then never returned my call...lame). Met up with the Brazilians for the last few hours.
• Sunday: Slept late. Found a coffee shop (Grounded). Went for a run in Central Park which was phenomenal. Saw Death at a Funeral and then went to bed (one of the down sides of hostel is that there's no privacy, no TV, no place to just lay low, so a movie theater was a good break).
• Monday: Found another coffee shop (Grumpy). Went to MoMA, saw Bourne Ultimatum, went to a pub near the theater and met business traveler named Sam and a drunken Scot who was passing through and had no place to stay.
• Tuesday: Found another café (Soy Luck Club). Went to the taping of Conan (and hugged him!). Met up with a friend from work who is staffed in Manhattan for dinner/drinks. While I was waiting for him to get off, I started searching for a bar. I asked a random stranger (Emily) for a recommendation and she walked me to a place near her apartment. I told her that her company would be welcome while I waited for my friend. She stopped home and then joined me with a few friends. We all hung out for the evening. Cool!
• Wednesday: Went for a run along the Hudson, read, met up with a former coworker's daughter in Brooklyn for a couple of drinks.
• Thursday: Metropolitan Museum of Art, went to a couple bars in East Village. Saw a stark naked fat white guy sitting on the steps of a building being subdued by police. Met a couple of nice girls at Leopard Lounge (Shanna and Rachel).
• Friday: Called Shanna to join me for The Cloisters (which she and Rachel had recommended) but she had just gotten home to Jersey after crashing at a friend's in Manhattan so declined. Went to Cloisters. Found a surprisingly good sushi restaurant (surprising because of how good the fish was compared to how poor the atmosphere was), saw 3:10 to Yuma, took a walk through the Meat Packing District (too posh for me), went to Burp Castle in East Village where I met Emily and her friend Matt, and a really cool bartender Rachel. Went to an all night coffee shop that serves beer to meet up with a few of their friends. Cool.
• Saturday: Checked out of the hostel, dropped off laundry, went to a coffee shop, picked up laundry, checked in at the Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge. Went for a run from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, and back via the Manhattan Bridge. Absolutely one of the most beautiful runs of my life. Took a shower, laid low in the hotel because for the first time in a week...I could!
• The rest of the week was mostly conference related. I went to an Indian restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, went back to East Village a couple nights. Nothing especially eventful.

On a people-related front, I learned quite a bit. First, just reinforcing the fact that there are good, cool people everywhere—all you have to do is talk to them. Second, live your life for you and people will follow. The girl I met on Tuesday is a great example: I only asked for advice, offered to let her join me, and she ended up spending a whole evening with me. The conversation on Thursday was similar: I introduced myself as I sat down and let them know I was in from out of town and open to conversation, but didn't push. I let them talk while I read a paper, and a few minutes later they started asking me questions and invited me to join them.

I have to say: Manhattan is a really, really cool place. As a Chicagoan, I felt right at home and could happily live there. You have to have a little bit of a tough a-hole attitude; you have to walk with purpose down the street. Manhattan is a little denser than Chicago, their public transportation is a little better, but Chicago is a little cleaner and a little nicer. But they are both great places full of great people.

I went to a taping of Conan today. I know it sounds cliche, but the studio is REALLY small. Anyway, before the show, one of Conan's writers came out to warm up the crowd; after that, Conan came out to warm us up. I was in the second row, on the aisle, so a prime spot for Conan Interaction. He came out and shook hands with 6 or 8 people in the first 2 rows, and I thought to myself, Sweet, I got to shake Conan's hand! He singled another guy out, made some joke about how tall he was, and then asked the crowd if we thought the two of them should hug. After the applause, they hugged. Then Conan pointed at me and said that the tall guy and I should hug. I popped up out of my seat, excited to be picked out, and I hugged the guy, then awkwaydly half-sat down because I didn't know what to do. Then Conan joked that the other guy was lingering for more...and I sure was eager to hug him. I tried to say something to Conan about how if I hugged him, and he hugged Conan, it was like I was hugging Conan. Then Conan said that the three of us should hug...and then we did. I hugged Conan! Awesome :-)

I'm on vacation in Manhattan right now. If you want to follow my trip, you should read my reviews on Yelp (in order as they tell a story, starting with Chelsea Hostel). I'm eating and drinking my way through Manhattan. Yesterday I met a group of Brazilians on the subway and hung out with them. The highlight of the night was the couple having sex in Carne Vale in front of everyone. He was seated in a booth, she was riding him, and it was pretty obvious they were having intercourse. Eventually they ran off to the bathroom to finish up...I imagine they couldn't finish the way they were because they were constrained by having to be "discreet." Anyway...it was like the carnage at a car accident that you know you shouldn't look at, but you just have to.

I just got back from running The Relay out in California. It's an intense, sleepless, 199-mile, 12-person relay race over about 36 hours from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. Everybody runs three legs (well, sometimes some people run extra legs) of about 5 to 7 miles each. At the end of the race, I was talking to a couple of other runners. They had both run marathons in the past and they were talking about how this race requires a whole different kind of endurance. Funny stuff. I know that I could not go out and run a marathon tomorrow (maybe next year?), but it made me smile to hear a marathoner talk about how challenging this race is.

Overall, I had a blast. I was there with great people, and the constant activity meant we never had a chance to get bored or annoyed with each other :) I plan on doing this again next year!

Here are my pictures from the event. To give you an idea of how intense this was, here's a timeline from when I woke up on Friday morning to when I went to bed on Monday morning.

Friday 6:00am CDT, Wake.
7:00, Out the door to ORD.
12:15pm PDT, Arrive at SFO, pick up vans, head north to Napa.
3:00, Arrive in Napa, eat dinner, buy groceries.
8:00, Team meeting, plan directions for the next day.
9:30, In bed.

Saturday 5:20am, Wake.
6:00, On the road to the starting line in Calistoga.
8:00, Race starts, Zach runs leg 1.
8:20, Van gives Zach water at mile 2.
8:45, My leg (leg 2) starts.
9:05, Van gives me water at mile 2.
9:30, Jan runs an extra leg.
10:15, Ghost runner runs (in other words, we chill out and wait 45 minutes).
11:00, Sarah runs, we hand her water at 2 miles (this pattern continues).
11:45, Jan runs his second leg ("I came here to run, so I am going to run.")
12:30pm, Van exchange. Jan finishes his leg (6) and hands off to Adam to start off Van 2. We (Van 1) chill out at the exchange point, eat, lay in the sun, try to sleep.

6:00pm, Van exchange. Nellie from Van 2 hands off to Zach from Van 1, I run, Jan runs an extra leg, ghost runner, Sarah, Jan runs his assigned leg.
Sunday 12:30am, Van exchange. Jan hands to Adam on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Jan just ran across the bridge at midnight under a full moon. He raved about it.
1:00, Van 1 arrives at our hotel in downtown San Francisco.
1:30, Everyone has showered and is asleep.

4:00, Everyone is awake.
4:30, Van 1 is on the road to the next van exchange.
5:30, Arrive at van exchange.
5:45, Nellie hands to Zach. Then I run (boy was I in pain; my legs felt like stilts and it took me 3 miles just to warm up). Ghost runner (Jan didn't run an extra leg...slacker), ghost runner, Sarah, Jan.
10:30, Van exchange.
11:15, Van 1 arrives in Santa Cruz, we have brunch (so good and necessary) and then go to the beach to wait for van 2. I fall asleep on a bench on the boardwalk. The water is freezing, but feels really really good on my sore feet.
3:15pm, Van 2 arrives in Santa Cruz.
3:45, Nellie and the group crosses the finish line.
4:15, Both vans are back on the road to SFO.
5:15, I'm checked into my flight at SFO, but am too early to check my bag. So I take the tram to the International terminal where there is a food court and I open a beer. I'm too tired to read, so I send some emails and texts from my phone to pass the time.
7:30, I'm through security. I chill out with another beer and some sushi. Still too tired to read. Try talking to a girl who is also alone with a drink and get shot down.
10:45, Board flight, fall asleep before we even leave the gate.

5:15am CDT, Arrive ORD. Get bags, struggle to stay awake on the L so I don't miss my stop. I definitely fell asleep on the bus that I transfered to, but wasn't worried because I was going to the second-to-last stop.
7:15, At home. Take a shower.
8:00, Asleep.
11:00, Alarm goes off, snooze until..
11:45, Hobble out of bed, run errands, sort through my pictures, go about my day.
9:30pm, Asleep.

I went to San Francisco last weekend to visit some friends, Chris and Katie, that moved out there this past spring. It was a short trip. I flew in Friday (arrived around 5pm), and flew out Sunday mid-afternoon. All in all it was a great trip. I ate at a few great restaurants (Greens was my favorite of the weekend, though the quality of the sushi I ate on Saturday was bordering on life-changing). On Saturday, we took a self-guided walking tour. Along Haight street, up Buena Vista Park, bus over to Fisherman's Warf, walking around Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill/Coit Tower, Washington Square Park. It was a great day, and I'm looking forward to my next visit! See my pictures.

Last week I went on vacation to Angel Fire, NM (a ski valley outside of Taos) with my family. I went on a lot of hikes and brought along my GPS unit. Check out what a little code to transform the log file into KML brought out. Install Google Earth, and then open the KML of my trip. Make sure you have 3D terrain enabled. You can see some of the pictures I took (sorry—cameraphone only) in the exact location where I took them. I'll make the code available to transform from Mapopolis to KML upon request (or when I polish it up a little first).

Edit: By request, here's a screenshot. So now if you're Mike and you don't want to install Google Earth, you can still get a feel for the end result.

I went to Vegas a week ago for the weekend. Left Friday, came back Sunday. All in all, it was a fun trip. I went with my brother in-law Mike and his friend Dan. We did some gambling, saw a UFC fight (the Franklin/Quarry fight knockout was awesome: Franklin punched Quarry and the guy went immediately unconscious and fell like a tree.) We stayed at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. It was fairly nice. We didn't get maid service on Saturday, so that sorta detracted from it. I'm still not big on gambling. I played a little roulette, some craps (bought a book on how to play to read on the plane ride there) and casino war. We also ate at some amazing restaurants. A sushi place in Hard Rock casino Friday, and Delmonic's steakhouse on Saturday.

I didn't really enjoy flying America West. It was on time, but the service was sort of unprofessional, and the plane wasn't cleaned while in between legs of the flight (there were empty liquor bottles and goldfish crackers on the floor and in the seat pocket). The passengers were all vacationers, too, not business travelers. When you get used to the orderly progression of flying with business travelers, well, vacationers don't know what they're doing.

I can see myself going back to Vegas, but not anytime real soon. It was fun, but I think amount of fun per dollars spent per hour, there are better weekend getaways. There's a sort of fakeness to it all; like how the hotel was nice, but we didn't get maid service. The design of casinos bugs me, too. It's hard to find an exit or a cashier. They want you to get lost, wander around and spend your money. But, all in all, a very fun weekend.

I just checked in to a flight tomorrow and noticed that I'm Gold on American now. That means I get to board with Group 1 regardless of my seat and I have the option of picking exit row seats. Rock on! I'm special!

I spent last week in Seattle for a training program that Avanade sends all new hires to called QuickStart. The week was a ton of fun! I met some really great people from all over the world, including the UK, Germany, Spain and Canada. Plus people from all over the US.

View my pictures from the week!

I flew in Sunday morning so that I'd have time to do some sightseeing. I wandered around and found some random cafe for lunch and had a falafel sandwich. Then I went on the Underground Tour. Seattle was built on a flood plain, so twice a day when the tide came in there were serious sewage issues (if you flushed while the tide was in, the toilets flushed up). They backfilled the entire area, making the old first stories of the building underground. What you see now as the first story is actually the original second story.

After that I wandered around Pike Place Market and took in the sights, including the Original Starbucks (the logo is a bit more revealing there). I bought some fresh fruit and watched the dudes throw fish around.

Class began on Monday. The focus of the training is on how to be a good consultant: meeting skills, questioning skills, assessing risk, stuff like that. That evening I had dinner at Marco's Supperclub and had an amazing tuna dish.

Tuesday after class we had a team building event at Blue Ribbon Cooking School. Beer and wine provided while you cook under the guidance of professional chefs. This was a great time! Afterwards a few of us went to a pool hall and kept the night going.

After class Wednesday, about a dozen of us went to the international district (the PC way of saying Chinatown) for dinner. Followed by bubble tea and a round of beers (African Amber) back at the Edgewater Hotel (where Avanade put us up for the week).

Thursday was our last day of class. Afterwards thirteen of us went out for sushi. Talk about a great mix of cultures! Japanese food and people from all over Europe and North America. Some beer, some sakegood times! Then we went to the Seattle Mariners baseball game. What's more American than baseball? Of the thirteen of us, only three were American. When the international folks started asking me about the rules (How many tries does he get? What are those lines for? So a foul ball is only a strike sometimes? Don't those people die from boredom standing there waiting for a ball to get hit?), I realized how convoluted baseball is. It's such a simple premise with a huge pile of rules.

After the game we went to a bar called Cowgirls Inc. You know the movie Coyote Ugly? It's like that. Bartenders dancing on the bar. Drinks and dancing made for a good time.

The week was great! I'm glad I got to know so many fun people, and I'm feeling inspired to be part of this organization.

I almost rear-ended some guy tonight. I was driving in the rain. I noticed a pedestrian on the sidewalk. She was wincing, riding her bike in the rain. That sucks, I thought. I turned my attention back to the road and the guy in front of me was stopped (the guy in front of him had stopped to turn left). I hit the breaks. Too hard. The car slid. Oh shit. I pumped the breaks, thinking Oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit with every pump. I was able to stop in time. But afterwards I was all adrenaline-shaky. My feet and legs were all wobbly. Phew!

I'm still getting settled back into my normal life after my trip. It's been a week and a half. I balanced my books today (it's been almost a month!). I'm still working on the web site. I finally finished the safari portion of my trip, which was the most picture-laden. A few more days should do it. Once I finish it, I can finally clean my apartment. And put away my laundry (it's folded and sitting on sofa). Not enough free time!

I'm back, safe and sound. I got into Chicago Saturday afternoon...I'm still piecing my life back together (bills, cleaning, laundry). It was an amazing trip, to say the least! I'm working on a web site. I took over 1,000 photos (using the burst shooting mode when a cheetah is walking across the road in front of you, for example, leads to lots of pictures).

Actually, I haven't worked on the website tonight. Instead, I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. I was in Africa when it came out, and I just couldn't wait to see it! I mean, I've always believed that this war was about economics and oil, but Moore presents more facts than I could ever dream of uncovering. Weapons? Liberation? Nope. Just a guise. Hopefully John Edwards can give the Kerry campaign the boost it needs to get Dubya out of office. (BTW, Edwards announced his presidential candidacy on the Daily Show. He won my support right there and then!)

Let's go over what I've packed. I've got Tylenol PM packed. I also have a few yards of twine and about 7 feet of duct tape. 5 boxes of crayons and two bags of candy to give away to kids. Bug spray, Wet Naps, hydrocortisone, Neosporin, band aids, Pepto-Bismol and toilet paper. Malaria meds, "Third World Travel Formula," probiotic, Imodium and a follow-up antibiotic if Imodium doesn't do the trick. Enough clothes, socks, underwear, flip flops, running shoes. Some meal-in-a-bars. A flashlight. Three books. A map of London, all my flight info, printouts of some key emails and a notebook for journaling. My camera and extra batteries. All the regular toiletries: toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, floss and deodorant. Passport, proof of yellow fever vaccination. Feels pretty thorough...but what am I forgetting?

You know what's crazy? 14 days from now (to the hour), on the 17th of June, I'll be departing O'Hare on my way to London. Three days after that, I'll be on my way to Tanzania. I can't believe it will happen so soon!