Business Travel

I am working down in Houston now, staying at the Marriott West Loop By the Galleria, which seems an unnecessarily long name for a hotel. The hotel is decent - soft beds, good selection to TV channels, decent room service selection. It's nothing to sneeze at.

In the bathroom, they provide you a nice range of toiletries to use. There's mouthwash and skin cream (which is good, because hotels are notoriously dry and you can soon find your skin cracked and flaking in the dry atmosphere of a hotel room). In addition, there are three items for the shower - shampoo, conditioner and "invigorating body wash."

I've been using the body wash all week, but have found myself stepping out of the shower and still feeling sluggish and tired. It is not invigorating me as I would have hoped. I only find myself really invigorating once I get my first dose of caffeine via a Diet Coke.

The shampoo and invigorating body wash look very similar, both yellowish liquids in a clear bottle. Today, I accidentally washed my hair with the invigorating body wash. I hope there are no long term side effects, like my head becoming confused and thinking it's part of my body. I'd hate for my head to suddenly morph into an arm or something. While an extra arm extending out of the top of my neck might make it easier to reach canned food on the top shelf, without a mouth I wouldn't be able to consume it.

Sure, now I have a can of beans, but I can't enjoy it!

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Sharp-eyed readers will notice at the bottom of the right hand menu there is now a section for links. In addition to a link to the Travellerspoint site that hosts my blog, there are two other links (at this point).

The first is to a public google calendar that I keep up to date with my most up to date travel plans. It's probably complete arrogance for me to think that anyone cares where I am, but in the event you ever think to yourself, "hey, it's Tuesday, I wonder where Greg is," click on the link to find out. If you see white space, it means it's one of the rare days I am actually in Toronto.

The other link is to a site called TravelBlogs.com, which is a site that collects some of the best travel writing on the internet, and for some strange reason, the little corner of silliness on the internet that I call my travel blog. If you ever get sick of reading about chickens or people with arms for heads and want to read some serious and interesting travel tales, I would suggest checking it out for sure. There's some pretty interesting stuff on there, including a dude who is trying to travel from London to Sydney without using a plane. Cool, and much more interesting than me washing my hair with bodywash...

I am sitting at a high-top table in the Dirty Dog Bar at 505 East 6th Street in Austin, Texas, just a mere 10 blocks from the Texas state capitol building, sipping on a pint of Dos Equus and watching the University of Texas Longhorns Football team playing the Rice University Owls. Off to my left, a band is preparing to play a set once the game finishes. I look around at my fellow patrons. Beside me, a couple beautiful blond co-eds from the University of Texas are watching the game intently. At the end of the bar, a guy in a button down shirt works on his laptop, probably one of the many high-tech or bio-tech workers in the region. Closer to the stage, a few metal heads are chatting and drinking, waiting for the Dave Evans and his band to get started. Just then, three guys with Mohawks walk into the bar. None of the other patrons bats an eyelash.

“Man,” I think to myself, “Austin IS weird.”

Now, you may be saying right now, “Gregory, why do you feel the need to insult the fine city of Austin, Texas, by calling it weird?”

However, I’m not the one that called it weird, at least not originally. In fact, the citizens of Austin like their weird reputation, and some years ago started plastering their cars with bumper stickers imploring everyone to Keep Austin Weird. This weekend, while perusing the local free paper while eating breakfast in one of the many Mexican run restaurants in town, I read an editorial that was lamenting the covering of a local “non-commissioned outdoor art piece,” (i.e. graffiti) and how this was just one more move away from Weird Austin and towards the “Dallasifaction” of the city.

Austin is a very diverse place. If people know Austin, most likely it is because of the University of Texas in Austin. The University is one of the larger ones in the country, and is situated on a beautiful campus north of Downtown Austin.

The most famous building on campus is the huge tower attached to the main building. Architecturally beautiful and visible from most places on the campus and in various places across the city, the tower is also site of one of the more infamous campus shootings in American history, when on August 1, 1966, architectural engineering major Charles Whitman barricaded himself in the tower with a rifle, killing 14 people and wounding 31 others. The stand-off ended 96 minutes later, with the police storming the observation tower and killing Whitman.

The incident notwithstanding, most North Americans would know the University of Texas from watching college sports. The Longhorns basketball team is a perennial contender in the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament. The big draw though, is the Longhorns football team.

On Saturday, September 22, the Longhorns faced off against the Rice Owls. The game was not expected to be much of a match. Rice is an “Ivy League” school, more known for its academic achievements than its sporting traditions. Rice is, however, proud of the fact that all of the team doctors are Rice graduates and former football players.

The likely uncompetitive competition was not enough to deter the Longhorn fans from coming out to support the team. Even though the game wasn’t scheduled to start until 6 PM, the fans started arriving early in the morning, soon filling up every parking spot and patch of grass within 2 miles of the stadium, and preparing for the American Football tradition of “tailgating.”

The tailgate party is the pre-game ritual of football fans across the United States. In Texas, they pull up in everything from small cars to massive RVs, usually with a few bumper stickers declaring that they “Bleed Burnt Orange” (the colour of the uniforms that the University athletes wear) or beseeching the Longhorns to “Hook ‘Em High” on the horns of the bull that is the University of Texas’ mascot. The tailgate party can be as simple as a charcoal barbeque and a cooler to beer, up to satellite TV dishes, flat screen TVs and massive BBQ smokers to slow cook ribs all day well prepping for the game.

Back in the Dirty Dog Bar, the game comes to half-time, and the sound is turned down so that the band can do their sound check. Tonight, the Dirty Dog is presenting Dave Evans, the “originally lead singer of AC/DC,” famous Australian Rockers who went on to success after dumping Dave Evans in 1974 for Bonn Scott as lead singer. I laugh quietly to myself as a line from AC/DC’s Thunderstruck comes to my mind, “Went through to Texas, yeah Texas and we had some fun.”

Dave Evans and his band are not the only musicians playing in Austin this evening, though. In fact, Austin is the self-declared “Live Music Capital of the World,” with more live music venues per capita than any other city in the USA, including famous music cities like Nashville or Los Angeles. Many of these venues line Sixth Street, offering music lovers the opportunity to hear many types of music. The band selection is very diverse. A bartender at the Jackalope, another bar along Sixth Street suggested I go and see a band of his friends that sounded like “New York City in the mid-seventies, you know, like Iggy.”

I listen to Dave Evans warm up for a bit, but decide to head out into the night air. I’d been walking all day and in addition to my Dos Equus, the bar has been handing out orange Jello shots each time that the Longhorns scored, and against the porous Rice defense, they were scoring a lot. All the vodka was going to my head.

I head out into the night, and wander over to Congress Avenue. I look to my right, and perfectly framed at the end of the street is the Texas State Capitol building. Austin is the capitol of Texas, the history of how it became the capitol I covered (most likely with incorrect and inappropriate details) in a blog entry on my last visit to Austin in 2001 called 38 year old grandmother strippers and American Born NHLers. If you scroll about half-way to the bold title “Capitol Music,” you can read about how I surmised that moving fatigue is what landed Austin the title of Texas capitol. The capitol being in Austin, though, means that the city is home to many government workers, not to mention the politicians.

Turning right, I see some shiny glass buildings, and am reminded that back in 2001 this area was called the “Silicon Hills.” Austin is in Texas Hill Country, a lush and rolling area of Texas that is nothing like the image of endless cattle ranches or dust farms that we often see on TV. Back in 2001, over 100 high tech companies had set up shop in Austin, including IBM, Tandem, Schlumberger, Motorola, AMD, Apple and Texas Instruments. Even though the Internet Bubble has burst since I was last in town, there is still a presence here of technology, from computer circuits to genes, the companies range from computer equipment manufacturers to bio-technology companies.

I watch a couple of goth kids wander by me, on their way to catch some band no doubt doing covers of My Chemical Romance, and think what a strange mix of people that inhabit this city: Frat Brothers and Sorority Sisters from the University in the same bars as the alternative rock fans; Mexican service workers enjoying a drink after their shifts, sitting next to bio-tech professionals drinking away the stresses of the day; country musicians grabbing a smoke before going on to perform for a crowd of government bureaucrats; smarmy politicians coming into town on occasion to sleep through sessions of state legislature; and all of it in a downtown core that doesn’t take more than 20 minutes to cross on foot.

Austin is weird, in the best way possible. Hopefully they do keep it that way.

The sun is high in the sky, reflecting off the Detroit river as I sit outside enjoying lunch on the steps of The Riverfront Promenade just outside the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. It's a beautiful day in the summer of 2007, and sitting on these steps make me think about to a beautiful day 10 years early, in the summer of 1997, when I was in about this exact same spot looking out on Detroit River.

On that day, I had wandered down from the cramped conference room full of consultants to get some air and some perspective. Back in 1997, the area along the riverfront outside the Renaissance Center was a parking lot, and I had to weave my way between cars to reach the water's edge. I had just started travelling for work, and was seriously questioning my ability to spending 4 days a week on the road. "Could I see myself doing this 2 years from now?" I asked myself. The answer was no. I'd do it for a bit, and then get out, get a job that kept me in Toronto and at home.

10 years later, I'm still on the road. So much for the 2 year plan.

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In July of 1997, I left my job as a computer programmer at one of the big banks in Toronto to join a management consulting firm. Management consulting, for those that don't know, is (according to that fount of knowledge Wikipedia), "the practice of helping companies to improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans," which sums it up as well as any other description I've ever seen.

I work for a company that signs short contracts (usually 3 to 6 months) with another company to help them solve a specific problem. For me, this has mostly revolved around computer systems, and their application to customer care and marketing organizations.

Back in August of 1997, I got staffed on my first project. It was in downtown Detroit, working at the Renaissance Center, a series of 7 buildings located on the Detroit River. I wasn't so impressed with Detroit at the time. Back in 2004, when writing about my impressions of Detroit in August of 1997, I wrote the following:

Detroit is a weird place. During the day downtown Detroit feels like most downtown places. There are lots of people walking around in business suits, enjoying being outside on a quick break from their jobs.

However, as soon as 5 o'clock hits, the entire downtown area clears out. The cars flee off to the suburbs, and leave downtown Detroit empty. The bad areas of Detroit seem to ring the city core, and thus people want to make sure they are on the other side of those areas before night falls.

This exodus leaves downtown Detroit eeirly empty. There are wide, 5 lane streets that you could lie in and nary a car to run you over. Restaurants shut down for the evening because there is no-one left in town to serve. It's like those movies where the hero wakes up and finds they are the only person left on earth.

Hardly an endorsement for the place.

As I stated, I was also a little wary of consulting. By mid-September of 1997, I was pretty sure I couldn't hack it. The travel was mind-numbing, turning the experience of getting onto a plane equivalent of catching the subway to work, all the magic of travel washed away. The hours were long, and the work was intense. By October, I had arranged with the company I was working at to station me in Toronto on a long term assignment instead of having me get on a plane every week.

It wouldn't last. Within a year and a half I was back working as a travelling consulting, a road warrior again.

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Almost 10 years later, here in the present, I get assigned to a project in Detroit. It's not the same client as my last trip here in 1997, and I'm at a completely different management consulting firm than I was 10 years ago, but I am back in working again in the Renassiance Center, just steps from the Detroit River and in the heart of downtown.

A lot has changed in 10 years. Downtown Detroit is a very different place now. A new football stadium and baseball stadium have been built in downtown, replacing the older stadiums outside of the city core. Add to that the 3 casinos have opened up and the hockey arena (which has always been downtown), and the nightlife has greatly improved. A 5 story high attrium, called the Wintergarden has been added to the Renassiance Center complex, facing the river and letting out onto the The Riverfront Promenade, providing access to the riverwalk along the Detroit River.

Comerica ballpark, bringing baseball into the downtown core

Cadillac Square, downtown Detroit

Statue of one of Detroit's most famous citizens, boxer Joe Louis. Well, at least a statue of his fist, which was really the most impressive part of him...

Detroit is a city that has had some hard times (and probably has a few hard times ahead of it, given the amount of business that is associated with the automobile industry in the city), and the downtown core in 1997 reflected that, but 2007 brings a revitalized city. The spirit of Detroit has been restored, and I mean that both figuratively and literally.

The Spirit of Detroit is a large bronze statue created by Marshall Fredericks, located just a few blocks from the Renaissance Center at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. The 26 foot high seated figure who holds in his left hand a bronze sphere emanating rays to symbolize God and in his right hand is a family group symbolizing all human relationships, was recently refurbished in 2006 at a cost of $100,000.

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So too has my own goals and dreams changed in the 10 years since I last stood on the banks of the Detroit River. Back then I wanted a big house and a fancy car and a high paying, powerful job. I dreamt of vacations at a cottage north of Toronto. And I knew that I didn't want to travel all the time for work.

Now in 2007, I'm happy with my rental apartment in downtown Toronto, sold my car last year because I never used it, dream of vacations in faraway places and I still spend a better part of 4 days a week on the road, visiting clients and helping them "improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans."

I look at myself 10 years on in this business, and I am older, probably a little fatter and definately have less in the way of hair on my head, and I can think to myself that 10 years has both made all the difference in the world, and 10 years haven't really changed a thing.

After wrapping up in Seattle, I was called down to Atlanta, Georgia for 3 weeks. I must admit, that after 3 months shuffling back and forth between rainy, cloudy Seattle and gray, cold, snowy Toronto, heading to a location down in the South of the USA was a nice change. The weather was excellent while I was there - mostly sunny and warm.

Atlanta, Georgia was originally founded as the terminal station of the Western and Atlantic railway, part of a trade route running from the Atlantic Ocean to the mid-western USA. In those days it was called Terminus, but after a few more name changes took on it's current name of Atlanta (feminized version of Atlantic) in 1847. Strange for a city to be named after an ocean over 4 hours away by car, but whom am I to complain.

It's railway connections meant that Atlanta was an important supply hub for the Confederate army. It was captured in September of 1864, and the Union army (under the direction of William Sherman) burnt the city to the ground in November, a scene famously played out in the novel and movie "Gone With The Wind." The city was rebuilt, and adopted the phoenix as it's symbol, as they both had risen from the ashes.

I was feeling a lot more like the ashes than the phoenix when I was in Atlanta this past trip, though. It's probably a little unfair, though, because I had been to Atlanta before and when I was there I was pretty burnt out on travel at the time.

Burnout is something that can happen to all travellers, whether for pleasure or business, while on the road for a period of time. It could be the feeling that you are in constant motion, and yet not really moving anywhere important, or it might be the sensation of travel becoming a chore or routine.

I spent more than 13 months in Atlanta in 2003 and 2004, and by the end of the project I was pretty frazzled. I tried to keep myself up on the road, turning my business trip into a fun adventure by going to see local sporting events like Braves baseball, Hawks basketball and Thrashers hockey, seeing the world headquarters of Coca-cola and CNN, hanging out in the fun neighbourhoods of Little Five Points or Buckhead and even going to see the Mid-town Music Festival.

I was staying outside of the city itself in Alpharetta, and getting out was a bit of a chore, and so instead of heading out I soon found myself mostly getting takeout food for dinner, working out in the gym (I was in training, at the time, for Kilimanjaro and was walking 4 to 6 miles per day on the treadmill) and watching TV.

I was suffering from travel burnout, described by Doctor Marie-Annette Brown, professor and researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle in an article written by Jack McGuire in 2004 as "duplicating the same symptoms seen in mild depression and various forms of anxiety," a "mind/body malaise," whose symptoms include low energy, weight gain, tension and irritability, difficulty concentrating and decreased interest in sex.

(Okay, I didn't suffer from that last one, but that could be because of my general inability to obtain sex. I'm sure if I was offered sex on a much more frequent basis, I might actually become less interested in it... Okay, maybe I'm not sure about that.)

My malaise presisted until January of 2005, when I was able to hop on a plane and about a day later, land at Kilimanjaro airport, just outside of Arusha, Tanzania.

Returning to Atlanta brought this all back to me. Which isn't really fair to Atlanta, because it sounds and looks like it could be a very interesting place if I could have just gotten myself motivated to see the place. I'm afraid, though, that Atlanta has most likely been spoiled for me. I couldn't get out of my funk the entire time I was there, and could only find reasons to complain about being on the road again, rather than enjoying the opportunity to see a new place.

Luckily for me, my Atlanta project wrapped up quickly and so I am back in Toronto and soon off to another location - hopefully one I haven't been to that can reinvigorate me and my love of travel. Actually, that's probably lucky for my regular readers as well that I won't be spending a long time in Atlanta, otherwise you'd be forced to read my whining about travel for a long time, instead of something interesting.

Cheers, readers!

Greg

Post-script:

Resources:

Feeling burnt out yourself?

Here's a nice article on preventing travel burnout while travelling ( Prevent Burnout While Travelling), some tips on coping with the daily grind of business travel, and finally Jack McGuire's aforementioned article on Travel Burnout.

On Monday, March 12th I flew in to Seattle from Toronto, and after a full day of work, was tired and didn't feel like doing anything elaborate for dinner. So I just wandered across the street from my hotel to the Subway sandwiches for some dinner. The man behind the counter had an eyebrow ring and a tattoo on his neck. Someone with a tattoo on their neck wouldn't be able to get a job in a Subway back in Toronto. But out here, on the left coast, it's all cool, man...

The Pacific coast of North America, encompassing the states of California, Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia are often sterotyped as liberal, laidback and alternative, at least compared to the eastern coasters in New York, Boston and Washington D.C. (the other Washington). This is a sterotype that has a certain amount of truth, whether it is drug decriminalization in Oregon, gay politicians in British Columbia or tough pollution restrictions in California.

Whether the liberal bias is true or not, Seattle is not helping it's case with one of it's art installations.

In the area of Fremont, just down the street from a massive art installation of a giant under bridge troll...

Is a statue of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bloshevik and head of the communist USSR from 1917 until 1924.

Why, you ask, is a statue of Lenin, communist leader, placed in a public square outside a fast food Taco restaurant? The statue was created by Emil Venkov in 1988, it stood for less than a year in Poprad, Slovakia before being toppled in 1989.

Seattle resident Lewis Carpenter bought the statue as part of a business venture to open an eastern European restaurant in Seattle. He died before his restaurant got going, and his family donated the statue to the Fremont business district to display until someone buys it. Asking price: $150,000.

That's the how - but I know what you are really wondering is the why. I'll leave that to the Freemont Chamber of Commerce to explain, as written on the plaque accompanying the statue:

Lenin in Freemont: Right or Wrong?
The presence of this sculpture has evoked a wide range of responses. If are is supposed to make us feel, not just feel good, then this sculpture is a successful work of art. The challenge is to understand that this piece means different things to different peple and to learn to listen to each other and respect different opinions. From an artist's standpoint, all points of view are valid and important.

Are Outlives Politics
The sculpture is placed here in the Artist's Republic of Freemont, as a symbol of an artistic spirit that outlasts regimes and ideologies, and as tangible prrof that art does outlive politics.

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And with that, my entries on Seattle end. On Tuesday we had a client meeting that went well, and on Wednesday we completed our work and I caught a flight for the last time back to Toronto. I said goodbye to the 8 people who I have been working with for the last two months, and that's all. It's sad to say goodbye to people you have been working with over the past two months, sharing a office with. But that is part of the consulting gig - always moving on.

And so I move on. And new adventures await, some place new...