On Wednesday it was time to hit the road again and after pulling into a spot at the Fort. Lauderdale airport, I said goodbye to our mini-van and got into a rental car for the one-way trip to Orlando.  What a difference it makes to take this 3.5 hour drive on the Turnpike without kids.  I managed to drive it straight through, as I wanted to be sure to be on time for my sales call to a major boutique hotel company located there.  Good thing, because just as I was finishing lunch the contact called to see if we could move our meeting up a bit, as they now had a conference call.  After my sales call I headed over to my second home in Orlando, which is The Peabody Hotel, where my good friend Barb Bowden had arranged accommodations.  I always love visiting what the kids call “The Ducky Hotel,” as it has that rare quality of casual elegance so often missing from luxury hotels.  As always, there was a knock on my door right after check in and my dear friend Barb had arranged for yet another amenity, which in this case couldn’t have been more perfect as I was starving from my long drive, short lunch, and long meeting, and facing at least 3 hours of work in my room.

The next day in walking through the lobby I really missed the kids, thinking back to the dozens of times they have seen the famous march of the Peabody ducks.  As luck would have it I happened to be checking out right about the time the March was to start, and just in time to have my picture taken with Dave, the famous Duck Master, who also offered his card and told me to call ahead next time to arrange for the kids to be honorary Duck Master during their next visit.  (Dave, I’ll be calling you in about 2 months when we bring the kids to see the Disney Holiday exhibits.)  Here is a picture of Dave and I:

                                

Next, it was a short drive over to the resort where I was to be the guest speaker at another users conference for Navis and their Narrowcast system.  Fortunately for me I got there in time to see most of the morning segment of their conference, and although I’d sat through this same segment only 5 months before in Bend, OR,  I found it as intriguing as the first time.  It was also great to see so many of my longest-term and dearest clients such as Scott Erickson and his gang from Century 21/Action (Topsail Vacations), Pat Plumlee from Plumlee Realty Vacation Rentals in St. Pete, and Steve Trover from AllStar Vacations.  And as much as I like and connect with Kyle Buehner, the President of Navis, I have to admit that the very best part was seeing my good friend and personal mentor Milt Buehner, their now retired (yeah right!) CEO.  Here’s a picture of Milt and I:
                                                

As is too often the case, the road was calling once again immediately after my presentation ended, and I was back in my rental car headed to the Orlando airport for my one-way flight to New York, where I was to have a second meeting with a major luxury hotel company on the Upper East Side about a system-wide program, and where I was also to meet with Affina Hotels.  It was great to walk into Affinia’s corporate office on the west side, and knowing that they will soon be moving that it could be the last time, and since I’d first walked in here in 1991 as a 30 year old up-start hotel trainer, there was a bit of nostalgia too.  But since they’ve now booked me again this year and it will be before the move, I’ll be back one more time!  After this meeting, and a very successful second sales call to the hotel company, I was back at Laguardia in the JetBlue terminal awaiting my return flight home, where my Cathy was awaiting to start our weekend, albeit a short one.