Having had nearly two weeks at home base, the road was calling once again as I headed off for my first trip of the month, back to Duck, NC to conduct some additional training for Twiddy & Company, which is arguably one of the very best vacation rental management companies in the industry.  This was a follow-up engagement for the four days of consulting and training I had provided in December.  (See OTR December, 2008)  Once again, the leadership team at Twiddy & Co. extended the same warm and generous hospitality as during my first visit.

First of all, they put me in just the perfect home for my stay.   The home was perfect because for one of the few times ever I was able to bring along my wife Cathy on a business trip, thanks to her having to finally use stored-up vacation time before it expires!)  As it turned out, one of her closest friends Lisa was going to be in the area visiting her boyfriend Bill’s mom that same weekend and they were able to stay an extra night to help us enjoy our fabulous vacation home.  Here’s a link to the house we stayed in:  Link Celtic Shore home

After finishing two straight days of training I was really looking forward to having the weekend off with Bill and Lisa visiting.  Having mentioned this, the next thing I knew the Vice President of Twiddy & Co. Jon was offering-up his company SUV for us to take a drive up the natural beaches north of Corolla where we could see wild horses roaming the beach.  Next day our party arrived at the Twiddy check-in office to find Jon’s SUV ready for our adventure.  He even had the air partially let out of the tires and the gas tank full; we headed north only a mile or so more to “the end of the road” where you drive right on to the beach.

I have to admit Bill and I had enjoyed a couple of beers as he shared some incredible stories about his experience in Army Special Forces in the early 1980’s, so the girls had to drive.  As it turned out my wife was a quick learner about the four wheel drive stuff; must come from all her experience driving tractors and trucks on her family farm in PA.  I have to say she really did enjoy going over those bumps, and probably at a few miles faster than Jon usually drives on the beach!  The weather was perfect that day and it felt like spring.  I couldn’t believe the flocks of sea birds that were feasting right off shore, as the sun set over the sand dunes to the west.   We all wanted to see one of the wild horses, and we stopped at a spot that looked westward into what seemed like an endless skyline of sand dunes and sea oats. Although we did see a lot of tracks, we didn’t see the wild horses this time. Before heading back we took a great picture of us right on the beach in front of the Jon’s Twiddy Truck, but it somehow got deleted.  So the only picture we have from the whole trip was this one of Cathy and her friend Lisa on "one of" our balconies: 

                                                 

After getting back from NC it was good to be home for a week before heading out, especially with Valentines Day coming up with Cathy and the kids.  Cathy made this Valentine’s Day one to remember by bringing a new member into the Kennedy household, which is Max, our new Teacup Maltese pet.  Here’s a picture of us at the pet shop:

                                              

As the President’s Day weekend wound down, I geared up for my last trip of the month, which was to conduct four days of training and consulting for the Pegasus Solutions/UniRez reservations office in Sao  Paulo, Brazil.  It was exciting to be working with Pegasus again, as I’ve been conducting training for their third party call centers since they got into the business in the early 1990’s.  This office had just been expanded to take on some new accounts, so it was an exciting time for the 35 new agents who had been working there about three months so far.

Living in South Florida, where we have such a large Brazilian community that includes Sergio my neighbor and even Karla from our KTN team, I was excited to be able to experience it firsthand.  Although I’ve been to Mexico and Central America, it was also exciting to be taking my first ever trip to South America as well.  I’m sure I was the only business traveler taking pictures out the window that day as I snapped this picture out the window of the Amazon River: 
 
                                                      

Upon landing I was thankful for the gracious hospitality of my client contact, Adriana Benavente, the call center’s director, who had pre-arranged my ground transportation and lodging.  Having lived in New York and South Florida so long I could manage to find my way around signage in Spanish, but I have to admit the Portuguese language signs were confusing for me so late at night, so it was great that all I had to do was find the taxi company’s booth.  From there I was whisked away into a clean taxi with a polite driver and headed straight to the laceName w:st="on">BluelaceName> laceName w:st="on">TreelaceName> laceType w:st="on">TowerslaceType> hotel, where I found myself pre-registered and pre-paid.   The staff was very friendly and accommodating and very patient with my complete lack of understanding of the language. I even had a balcony with a terrific view of the endless skyline of Sao Paulo:

The best part was the hotel  was only a short walk to the Pegasus office, which was on the Advenue Paulista which my friend Sergio had told me was one of the most prestigious addresses in the country.  As soon as I entered the Pegasus Solutions/Unirez office I knew it is a special place to work, with a very nice cafeteria, a quiet room, an awesome espresso & cappuchino maker, and best of all one day a week they even have a massage specialist on staff!  The leadership team there was amazingly energetic, upbeat, and very motivated.  Despite working extra long hours because of my training and consulting,  Adriana still found time to take me to lunch and otherwise help me find my way around the city.  Here’s a picture of me with the team on the last day, which was casual Friday:  (From left, Fernanda, Karen, Karina, Renata, and Adriana.)