10 Lessons Learned on a Trip to Denver…

Orginally published on Monday, December 18, 2006 at 1:00 PM
by Todd Rhoades

I guess one of the nice things about traveling a little more is that I find that I have some really good flight and layover time to get some good work in… catch up on emails; write for MMI; work on calendar stuff and so forth. On my recent trip to Denver, I made some (probably not that interesting) observations...

1.  Flying out of smaller airports is a dream… I live in the thriving town of Bryan, OH.  I joking tell people that it’s in the middle of nowhere.   Actually, the closest airports to me are Toledo and Fort Wayne; and overall, they are a joy to fly out of.  First of all, I’ve an hour or less from both; and most importantly, I can park my car; get through security; and find my gate in a matter of 10-15 minutes (usually).  That’s awesome.

2.  Flying out of larger airports is the pits.  They are just so huge; and unlike the smaller airports, it takes so much more time.  You have to take the rental car bus to the terminal, then a tram to your gate; and the security lines are usually long. 

3.  I tested out Boingo (Boingo.com) on this trip for the first time.  It’s amazing how much you can get done with an internet connection during an airport layover.  Boingo has a network of wi-fi hotspots at many major airports; and my initial test proved successful.

4.  Denver is beautiful.  I love the mountains.  But then again, I’m from Ohio (the flat part of Ohio to beat) so any kind of mountain or valley is extremely thrilling to me!  

5.  I found out that if a roach crawls across your table at Outback Steakhouse, your meal is free.  (This didn’t happen to me, but it did to the people across from me).  You don’t want to hear the sound of two teenage girls having a roach crawl across their table.  They made a pretty good scene.  The manager didn’t help much when he came out and said they’ve had the exterminators out four times in the past two weeks to try and get rid of “those things”.  He blamed the construction and excavation work out back on the problem.  All the while, I just tried to enjoy my steak.  

6.  Rick Rusaw and LifeBridge Church in Longmont are doing some great things; and they have huge plans for the future.  They’ve just purchased nearly 500 acres that they are going to fully develop using their ‘externally focussed’ plan.  I enjoyed meeting with Rick and Eric Swanson (Eric and Rick co-authored the “Externally Focused Church” book recently from Group Publishing.  I also met with Randy SFDLK who until recently was the president of Standard Publishing.  It was great to hear what God is doing through the Extrenally Focused church movement.  We’re planning a conference on the subject for May, 2007 along with Leadership Network.  I’ll be sure to share more here as the details come together. 

7.  Interesting upsell opportunity at the gas station in Denver… they had a little machine that tried to get me to add one of three different gas additives to my gas purchase.  I’ve never seen anything like this before; but I thgouth that it was a great idea from a business standpoint.  (And who knows, I might have tried it if I wasn’t filling up a rental car).

8.  Have I mentioned that I hate airport security.  I always feel rushed.  You have to take off your shoes and your belt.  I have to take out my laptop.  Empty my pockets (cell phone, wallet, change).  And show them my pescky one quart zip-lock bag with all my liquids.  Well, when leaving Denver, I inadvertently left my belt in one of those gray bins they make you put everything in.  Bummer.  Bet there’s some happy TSA official in Denver wearing a nice leather belt home this evening.  Hope they enjoy it!

9.  I love my GPS.  It’s so nice to go to a new city, have all your addresses pre-programmed; and never have to look at a map.

10.  My last three flights have been with American Airlines.  They’ve been pretty good so far.  One very useful feature if the automatic flight updates that they send for free to your cell phone.  I had one flight with eight gate changes.  It’s always nice to hear your flight has been delayed or your gate has been changed to another gate 4 miles away from a calm, pleasant sounding voice recording!

OK… well, I’ve bored you enough.  Just some things that I needed to get off my chest, I guess.

Have a great week!

Todd

This post has been viewed 623 times so far.



  1 Person Has Commented:

I'm a chronic workaholic, love to connect leaders with other leaders, and would consider myself somewhat of a 'maven'. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you'll like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step.

MondayMorningInsight.com | PO Box 446 | Bryan, OH 43506 |