Clouds? A Hurricane?? Nope!

North Carolina Travelog #25
Sapphire, NC - Sat, 23 Sep 2023. 10am

We're headed out for another day of hiking. It's our last full day on this trip. How time flies! The day started on a downbeat note, though. The weather forecast called for clouds most of the day— presumably an effect of Hurricane Ophelia that made landfall in North Carolina a few hours ago!

Fortunately for us the hurricane made landfall at the southeastern tip of the state around 6am today and headed mostly north. We're well to the west. And those morning clouds covering our hotel when we left 45 minutes ago? Once we drove into the hills west of town we found that the clouds are only hanging in valleys. Even slightly higher up there's beautiful sun. And now even the valley fog seems to be burning off. We're now looking forward to great weather this last full day of hiking in North Carolina!

Trade Show Day 3: It's a Wrap. Going Home.

Phoenix/Vegas Trip log #7
LAS airport - Thu, 5 Oct 2023. 6:30pm

The trade show is a wrap. Although today's hours were shorter than the previous two days, just 10a-4p today, the day felt longer. And I only worked the booth 11:30-4. (I was scheduled 2-4 but decided to pitch in extra.) It felt longer because a) activity was slower, so the hours seemed to drag. And b) I was tired, so the hours really seemed to drag. Note, this is after I purposefully stayed in the past 3 nights, avoiding Vegas's many temptations of partying late.

We had good numbers at this show. Our raw leads surpassed beat the goal I set personally by 15%. And we had many good conversations with potential buyers and influencers, including a few today.

Now I'm at the airport awaiting my flight home. Lots of flights in Vegas this evening are showing delays but ours shows on-time still. The aircraft is at the gate; that's a good sign. But we could still be late if we have to wait for a) crew transferring from a delayed flight or b) a long queue for takeoff.

If we get out of Vegas on time tonight I'll land at SJC just before 9pm and be home-home by 9:30. It's been a long week so I'll be glad to get home. Especially because I have a full day of work tomorrow with meetings starting at 8am and running back-to-back for several hours.

UPDATE: The flight actually departed a few minutes early and pulled up to the gate in SJC at 8:32pm. I was home-home just after 9pm. The difference of 25 minutes wasn't objectively huge but it sure felt significant.