DAY ONE – 19 January 2015
My
counter-parts and I were all set to travel back to our specific regions in the
greater Los Angeles
area in December, but the company decided to cancel all trip. The reasoning
of the head office was it was too close to the holiday. We would’ve been
gone between 15-19 December, so back before anyone should be leaving for the
holidays. Honestly I really think it was the company didn’t want to chunk
out for our expenses at the end of the year. I’m sure the final decision
on our trips came from our bean counters.
I’d been
looking forward to seeing how California
decorates for the holidays, even though I don’t celebrate them. Yeah the
commercialism can bother me, but the artistic quality of what people come up
with can be interesting. And one of my client contacts had offered to
take me on a boat ride after dark in order to see how all the lights looked
when viewed off-shore. I’d previously mentioned this to my manager, and
she said it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest to do that, as no favors were
being offered. If anyone asked, it’d be no different than going for a
ride with a friend. Since the December trip didn’t happen, the point is
moot.
And when
drafting this journal, the question in my mind was how would this be different
than previous entries. How I interact with my clients is not anyone’s
business, as I want to keep the journal focused on the fun and interesting
items. Also, at the time of this trip, there was a huge upheaval in the
person life, so going this time was making me a bundle of nerves due to
anxiety. It’s one thing to tell someone you’re only a phone call away if
they need you when you’re a couple miles away, it’s different when you’re going
to be two time zones away. By the time this is published (some months
after the trip actually happened), the upheaval may either be a footnote in my
life experiences, or part of a strong foundation for the future. At this
point it was too early to see, and the travel blog was not the venue for those
thoughts.
Since the
itinerary for January trip was just going to be what I’d originally planned to
do on the December trip, that part of the planning stage was easy (as my brain
kept coming back to the personal issue which weighed heavily). The
arrangements for flight, car rental, and hotels were made online as they had
been before. I’d get another 6 am flight out of Austin ,
and arrive in Los Angeles
by 7.30. I thought that seemed early, but this was a direct (without the
touch-down I had the previous time). I told my clients the first I’d see
would be about noon, as I factored in the time it took to get baggage, pick-up
car rental, and actually drive the distance to my furthest destination.
The
flight out of Austin
was about a third empty. I commented to my counter-part Roy that it’d been a long time when I’d seen
a flight which wasn’t full. He concurred. I just figured not enough
business travelers booked this flight, and didn’t think anything of it.
Since it was so early in the morning, I took the opportunity to doze a little
instead of reading or playing a game on the Kindle. Figured if I couldn’t
get a power nap in, then going into repose to recharge the brain before the
drive would be good.
After a
nice easy landing at LAX, I noticed picking up baggage was also quicker than normal.
It’d been chilly in Austin , so I had a sweater
in my suitcase, and had been wearing my fleece pull-over when I left Texas . Austin was twenty degrees below normal, and Los Angeles was currently
degrees above normal, so with weather forecasted to be in the 70’s, I wasn’t
going to need those bulky items. I’d purchased a garment bag for my suits
last month, so I wouldn’t have to roll them in shopping bags, so I wanted to
see how well everything came out.
I was too
busy soaking in the warm weather on the shuttle bus to pay much attention to
the other passengers. But when we were dropped off at Enterprise , I noticed the bus was a little
empty too. I was able to haul in, get my rental secured, stow my gear,
program the destination into the GPS, and get on my way in record time.
It was barely 8.30 when I was leaving the rental agency, and it’d only take me
about 90 minutes to reach San
Bernardino . And as I got out on the highway,
there was traffic, but it was light and moved along at a pretty decent clip.
Yeah, I was going to get there long before my scheduled noontime arrival.
The GPS
took me east across IH-105 (through Lynwood ),
where I picked up 605 north which took me all the way to Duarte . I then turned east on 210,
which sent me through towns which were in the region of my counterpart Mary
Beth. I chuckled as I went past Glendora
and Rancho Cucamonga , wondering if MB was at
the dealers there. Of all the drives I’ve taken to reach my destination,
this was the most northern route I’d had. I was able to see the mountain
range really close up, but there was no safe place to pull over and take
pictures. Some of the peaks were Mt.
Baldy , Mt.
San Antonio , and Timber Mountain
Once I
reached San Bernardino ,
I really saw what an economically-depressed area this was. I’m sure in
the past this was a better place, but it’d seen better days. The last
time I visited this client was when I rode with my District Representative, who
gave me some backdrop information. I had to go past a Home Depot to get
to the dealership, and there was a score of day-laborers hanging around the
area waiting for some construction boss to come along and grab them for a
short-time job or two. It was 10.30 when I pulled into my destination.
When I
spoke to my contact (Joe) and mentioned how sparse the traffic was and how
quickly I got through baggage and the rental process, he commented that was
probably because everyone else was off today. It took a moment for the
fact to shift in my mind, and then I realized it was MLK Day. Suddenly
all that fell into place. Joe got a good laugh over my brain fart.
We went over the business we needed to discuss, and that brought us up to
noon. By then I figured I’d tip over to my dealer in Redlands . If I saw anything interesting
along the way as a place to stop for lunch, I would.
The
dealer in Redlands is one of my favorites to deal with, as I have such a good rapport with my
contact there (a man named Junior). Junior got to hear about the
situation I was going through, and he demonstrated some genuine empathy about
it. While we have a strictly professional relationship, this is someone
I’d continue to stay in contact if I ever leave this position. Before
Junior set me up in an office to work in, I mentioned I hadn’t had lunch yet,
and asked if he wanted to go with. (There’s a small plaza across the road
with some quick places.) Junior had a meeting to go to, otherwise he
would join me.
My
TripAdvisor article already had my comments about BK Subs, so there’s no need
to repeat it. I worked until it was about 5 pm, and then figured it was
time to work my way to Riverside
to check into my hotel. It wasn’t far to go, but considering the time of
day it’d take me 30-45 minutes. Since I’d been up since 3 am CT, I wanted
to get something to eat and crash out earlier if I could. I’d stayed at
the Hyatt Riverside on the previous trip, so I knew exactly where I needed to
go, and what would be waiting for me.
There was
some seminar taking place at the hotel, but it was nice the parking had been
set aside for those actually staying at the hotel. The ground floor was
crowded, and one elevator was working, but those were really small concerns
when the front desk gives you a warm welcome as a returning guest. I got
up to my room and found a surprise waiting for me. There was a home-made
cookie with a nice personalized note next to a bottle of water setting on the
desk. I’m sure that’s done for all the returning guests, but I’d never
seen it before, so it really came off as a nice gesture.
The first
thing I did upon entering was take a couple pictures of the room for a TripAdvisor
article, and unpack (and hang) the suit I’d be wearing the next day. I
did a quick phone call to check on the situation at home while I was doing that
to make sure everything was okay.
After a
quick stroll down Main Street
on the section blocked from traffic, I decided on a place called Elephant Thai
Cuisine. The chicken teriyaki I had was pretty good, although service was
slow at refilling my water glass. Yeah, I learned that trick from
hometown-girl-done-good Rachael Ray on $40 A Day, where you could save on a
restaurant tab by not ordering a beverage other than water. I was still
hungry afterwards, and had seen a sign for ice cream outside a nearby pizza
joint.
Now when
I visit places, especially those I’m going to write articles on, I try to be
discreet about taking pictures if I can. Not only does it mark you as an
out-of-towner, but it tends to creep people out. The interior of the
Antonious Pizza Café had a huge high ceiling with lots of snowflakes suspended
on fishing line. The flakes were of varying sizes, and different
heights. It was a really nice art project. That would’ve been a
good thing to take a picture of, but it was more important to chat with the
proprietor there, as I was getting a cookies & cream milkshake.
When I
came in, an old lady rolled over to me and tried to make small talk. This
was someone who had not aged well, didn’t know how properly apply make-up, and
was still trying to dress like it was jazzercise time from the 1980’s.
Spidey sense tripped on, and I made sure she didn’t get too close. I
don’t know if it was one of the local prostitutes, or just a sad old lady whose
had a rough life, I didn’t want her anywhere near me. Even if I was unattached
and looking for some No Strings Attached fun, I wasn’t interested at all in
what she was offering. The lady followed me around the café a bit while
my milkshake was being prepared, and briefly out the door when I left.
The evening was nice and I was going to sit at the outdoor café, but I didn’t
want her anywhere near me.
I worked
my way back to the hotel, and had only drank half my milkshake. I’d
gotten a small, and it was very filling. Well, there’s a fridge in the
room, so the remainder will keep until the next morning. It was getting
close to 9 pm PT, which seemed early to sleep, but the body was getting near
collapse time. As recent personal events had made it so sleep was not
something I was getting a lot of, when the body wanted to drop off, I was
inclined to let it.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Lynwood: http://www.lynwood.ca.us/
Duarte: http://www.accessduarte.com/
Glendora: http://cityofglendora.org/
Rancho Cucamonga: http://www.cityofrc.us/
Mezcal: http://mezcalriverside.com/
Rachael
Ray: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachael_Ray
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