Kenya Safari – Amboseli – Day 7

Kenya Safari - Amboseli Day 7 This morning we got to stalk with the cheetah. We were parked directly behind her, erect black ears framing an array of six Tommys 300-yards up-wind. The terrain sloped uphill perhaps as much as 10 feet over the distant with the Tommys at the top and just over the rise. Those in foreground we could see perfectly and of those in the back we could see body and head. The grass was sparse and mostly about a foot tall. Our job was to advance without being seen. That meant skulking forward a few paces only when all heads were down or ... [Read More]

THE SPIRIT OF THE WIND

  I am not really a religious guy.  To be honest I am more fascinated by religion(s) and sincerely awed by the faith of others than I am personally committed to a particular creed.  That is not to say that I necessarily discount a higher power or spirit, but let’s just say that I am fine with the fact that I am always questioning and regularly conflicted. It is also important to note that being in nature has always tilted my spiritual needle.     Last week, Sue and I had a quick get away to Sedona, AZ.  For those of you who have been fortunate enough to visit the ... [Read More]

Kenya Safari – Amboseli – Day 6

Amboseli Day 6 6:00 am wake up and turbo prop from an airport that made me expect to see Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart walk in the door. 35 minutes to an air strip at which we flew-over elephant and zebra on the downward leg of our landing pattern. The into a pop-top van with the three of us and Beverly, Tony and a driver named Ben for our first game drive – elephant, wildebeests, zebra, hyena, warthog, cheetah, impala, Thompson and Grant’s gazelles, baboons and birds – eagles, vultures, geese, ducks, cranes, plovers, pelican, egret and heron. That’s just the stuff we saw. Lord only knows ... [Read More]

Kenya Safari – Day 5

Kenya Safari - Day 5 After breakfast we met out safari companions.  Beverly, is a black woman from Detroit. She’s fat, middle-aged, traveling alone and almost immediately told us she was a spiritual soul. She works as a machinist for an axel company, is friendly with an easy smile and regularly goes off alone to a patio or other outdoor area to smoke. John and Holly are from Boca Raton, FL and are here to celebrate their 10th anniversary and his 40th birthday, alone – that is without their six and eight year old sons. Holly has that pinched look of pretty women who are professionals, wives, ... [Read More]

Kenya – Day 3 & 4

Nairobi Day 3 British Air was uneventful to Nairobi. Kim giggled much of the way at “Hitch” and “Meet the Fokers.” I don’t know what Aurora did. I got into Robert Ruark’s “Something of Value.” I haven’t re-read it in 40 years, and it’s long out of print. But thanks to a renewed interest in Kenya and Abebooks.com I’ll have a second go at it. The Pinto’s must be well connected as Salma and her Micato Tours sign met us inside of customs and escorted us through. Handoff was then to Tony and Kip who put us in a van with welded iron reinforcements around the interior. Kip ... [Read More]

A BUCKET LIST KIND OF DAY

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Charleston, SC for the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC) spring Forum.  Five Hundred plus industrial real estate professionals gathered to network and share best practices.  I arrived a couple days early to coordinate the volunteer service projects (see my previous post entitle, “The Kite”) and attend the board meeting.       Because the four days of the conference are always jam packed with speakers, panel discussions and dinners, I often stay an extra night so that I can enjoy some downtime on a local golf course and a quiet dinner with a colleague and close friend Dave.  But this post ... [Read More]

Kenya Safari – Day 1 & 2

The Mara

Day 1 & 2 London The Thistle at Heathrow had been an excellent idea to break up the 19 hours of flying between Los Angeles and Nairobi. Get off at Heathrow, take the Hoppa shuttle to the Thistle, drop the carry-ons (big bags checked through), take the tube into London for a bite of dinner, then back for a few hours sleep before taking on the final 8 hours and two times zones of flying. The first step worked just fine – Hoppa to Thistle. The Thistle is a collection of 2 story 1970’s construction buildings arranged around a central parking court. Typical of other Thistles I’ve stayed ... [Read More]

THE KITE

  A few weeks ago, the nation’s premier industrial real estate association, IAMC, was in Charleston, SC for its 2013 spring Forum.  I came in a little early to join a couple dozen dedicated association members who share my sincere belief that it is important to leave the communities we visit in better shape through planned service projects.  The goal of our Volunteer Service Project team is to spend a few hours each Saturday and Sunday morning of the spring and fall conferences getting dirty doing something that is unique to the region.  The reality is that we get so much more out of these projects ... [Read More]

Fight or Flight? My Close Encounter with the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Fear typically triggers a fight or flight response in people, and I’m no exception. Touching down in Sydney one Wednesday morning last month made the decision more urgent: I was scheduled to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge that very afternoon. This was the first stop on a two-week trip that later brought me to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. My colleague Adam Jones-Kelley pretty much insisted I do the BridgeClimb (see his blog on his climb with Soo here http://www.sitenet.com/travelblog/?p=7505), and since we coordinated this trip through Sydney rather than directly to Malaysia – my primary destination for this trip – I couldn’t let him down. Problem ... [Read More]

On the Road in Portugal (Part One)

It’s interesting that people enjoy travel stories.  For one thing, why would you want to hear how someone else was having a great time while you were laying patio bricks during your week off.  And travel stories always come off a bit uppity, as in – “Garth and I had such a grand time sailing the Aegean with Lars Prendergast -- the world famous author and financier – that we felt we simply must share the experience.”  Even if it’s only an extended weekend at Earl’s Snake Ranch in Iowa there’s always the overtone of “nah nah nah nah nah nah” coming through in that ... [Read More]