Jet lag is when you arrive and your luggage looks better than you do.

After losing my position at the company with which I worked in early August (state legislature seriously cut funding to Fl Housing Corp to redirect funds elsewhere), I was feeling pretty low. I had worked with the company part-time for a while and then full-time in late June, however very quickly the funding changed, thus making me change with it. However with that I suppose came a silver lining. Just a week or so later I found out through some deal forums (e.g. slickdeals.net) that JetBlue was going to sell an 'all-you-can-jet' pass that would be good for ALL flights between Sept 8 and Oct 8th. The $599 pass would include all the taxes and fees for domestic flights, leaving only some taxes for international destinations. Taking a look at the route map, I realized that this would be an opportunity for me to check off a significant portion of my life list. In 10th grade religion class at Bishop England High School, where I grew up in Charleston, our instructor gave us a project to make a list of goals for our lives. In class he gave the example of a group of friends that had done this when they were in school. At the funeral for a friend many years later, those students were surprised to find that each of them still independently kept and carried that list with them. So, I made a list of 100 things I've wanted to see and do throughout my life. Maybe one day I'll share that list, but the point was this was suppose to be a lifetime dream list of not just places to visit, but also accomplishments, goals, and honors. I have been so extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to accomplish and experience so many of those goals and they have been so worthwhile. I still have some significant milestones to pass, and the list is dynamic enough to need adjusting at times, but it has been a great tool.

Anyway, after consulting my work schedule, open, my savings account, tolerable, and my enthusiasm, high, I decided to just go for it. So, knowing this would be a popular thing, I called up JetBlue and made the purchase. I loved the flexibility of the program such that a passholder was allowed to make as many changes as they wanted without penalty as long as it was done three days prior to the day of flight. I read that someone had created a Facebook discussion group for AYCJ passholders so I joined in. Here people were throwing out itinerary ideas, so I too spent some time mapping out where I wanted to go. I spent a week or so during free time coordinating with anyone else that expressed an interest in visiting the same place as I may have been and setting up some ideas.

Realizing that I'd need to stay connected, I finally broke down and purchased an iPhone 3GS. It is funny/dumb that even with my technical background I had fought the idea of having one for a long time. I had a once close friend that had an original iPhone and can recall how many times it was handy looking up something when on the road, however I had been against what I considered spending/wasting money on things like text messaging ('why not just call someone') and mobile e-mail when I could do it at home for less money; however over the last year I've reevaluated a lot of my old stupid habits and quarks and the general cost of them. Besides the trip, the iPhone finally got to the point where it was extremely useful and did just what I wanted, including copy/paste, video, focusable camera, speed, and memory capacity. I had been using an iPod Touch for quite a while and found it invaluable in Italy in May and decided it was time to upgrade. I am glad I finally caught up. The new device is exactly what I needed and the versatility made it an invaluable tool for the upcoming trip. On most trips, I would only have a few flights that would be easy to track, however this trip would involve at least 14 flights, 2 countries, multiple time zones, and many different car rentals. It was suggested to those using this pass that we should check out tripit.com. this became an incredibly invaluable service that made organization so much easier. Instead of simply having to enter data by hand, whenever a flight, hotel, or car confirmation was received, one simply had to forward the e-mail to the company and everything would be organized automatically. The company even had a free Tripit iPhone app available that gave easy access to the itinerary at all times, even when not connected to a network. The best part was that the tools and services I needed were free, though there is a paid 'pro' version that provides a lot more services, such as travel delay alerts, useful to travelers. Several of us also made use of the ability to share itineraries to keep track of friends' progress. I also started using Twitter, twitter.com/mblitch, for the first time. While I'm not someone to post constant status messages of mundane activities, I did start to find it useful to stay connected to local events, friends, and travel companions. I attended a Tampa Bay Tweetup event in May at the @flaquarium, but really hadn't done too much with it until planning this trip. Though my knowledge is quite rudimentary, I did learn a fair amount from someone once quite involved in mobile advertising (e.g. texting codes to get information/coupons) and several other friends that were quite involved in social networking and SEO. On this trip, I found that Twitter became a wonderful way to stay connected, share information and ideas, and feel a part of the trip for others. As I'd later find, it really did help improve the quality of many of the trip experiences.

So, after a lot of planning, packing, and preparing, I was ready to get started. I had decided to make the most use out of this pass, so I set my first flight out of Tampa for the earliest possible, 6AM on the first day (9/8/09). So that no one would have to get up so ungodly early in the morning to take me to the airport, I had my father drop me off at 11PM. My plan was to find a quiet, dark place in the airport to sleep until I had to get up to go through security to catch the first place. I learned in past airport experiences that airport chapels tend to be about the best place since announcements are turned off on the room and no one ever really seems to come through. So after making sure everything was charged and everything checked off my mental checklist, I caught a little sleep to prepare for what may be a last big youthful adventure. I was excited about the experiences I was going to have, the people I would meet, and hopefully the good memories that would be made. What also made this trip a little exciting was this morning I got a call from one of my former directors asking me to come in to discuss a few things. Though I didn't say exactly what I was doing, I did indicate that I was going to be unavailable for the next month and then, upon request, scheduled a meeting on the first day I was back home. Maybe things will work out, but for now, I was ready to hit the road. I have my new netbook and iPhone with which to stay connected, a stack of magazines piled up over the months to go through on my first flights, and a stuffed backpack containing just about everything I would need for the next three weeks. It was time for a walkabout.

My sleeping area for the evening