Journey's (Almost) End

This trip - Bali to Singapore to Melbourne to Hobart to Sydney to Los Angeles to Chicago to Albany and a 2-hour drive to Rutland - seems tough. No, correct that. It is tough. But as I was flying home last night,  it occurred to me that it only ranks #3 of my most challenging flights.

Number One will always be the trip that started with a drive from Rutland to Boston where I had a meeting with some executives in the company. I then caught an overnight flight to London where I attended a board meeting at a hotel in a London suburb. I then caught an overnight flight to Singapore, where I hooked up with Linda and Shirley as we all connected to an overnight flight to Beijing. Pretty cool - three redeyes, sleeping only on airplanes. Sure saved on hotel bills.

Number Two is probably the commute I made a couple of years ago. I had a budget meeting in San Francisco, so I flew from Sydney, arriving in the morning, attended the meeting, had dinner with some friends and caught the 10:30pm flight back to Sydney. That makes it a commute of 7,400 miles (12,000 kM) each way.

Until then my longest commute had been a same-day trip I took from the Newark airport outside of New York to San Francisco. Out in the morning, visit a magazine to drop off a PC they were going to review and back to the airport to catch the red-eye home. I recall it was important to get back because Peg was visiting us and we had been given use of a private box at Monmouth Racetrack. Wouldn't miss that for the world.

Anyhow, I am now in the lounge at Sydney waiting for that last leg home. I seem to have listened well to my bride who, quite sternly, told me as I was leaving on this epic journey: "You be very careful. I'm not going to be there to look out for you and tell you what to watch out for!"

It will be good to see her. Hugs and kisses in a few hours!