spring16roadtrip

Upon landing at O’hare airport this afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful, dry weather.  It was sunny, 80 degrees, and just slightly humid.  After picking up my suitcase, I took the Blue Train from O’hare airport to Addison Street and then the bus on Addison Street toward Lakeshore drive until arriving at Wrigley Stadium.

After walking a few blocks from Wrigley Stadium, I checked into the AIRBNB and met the host, Stasch. Stasch is a laid-back, 40-something  year old guy who lives a few blocks away from Wrigley Stadium.  He doesn’t have a conventional 9-5 job, but (along with his live-in girlfriend) makes money through AIRBNB, Uber, Taskrabbit, and other crowdsourcing platforms.  He seems to live a comfortable, laid back lifestyle with his two dogs in a beautiful neighborhood.

After meeting Stasch, I ate lunch at an Mediterranean restaurant he suggested by the name of Zam Zam (http://www.yelp.com/biz/zam-zam-middle-eastern-grill-chicago-3).  I ordered a Chicken Shawarma bowl which was flavorful and filling.

The section of Clark Street near Wrigley Stadium houses late-night restaurants, lounges, and bars. The high concentration of bars and restaurants probably make this a great area to be at on game nights.   Unfortunately, the Cubs aren’t playing tonight but the Blackhawks are playing a Game-7 hockey game tonight, and if they win they’ll advance to the Stanley Cup.  Depending on how exciting the game seems to be, I may stop by a bar and experience watching a Chicago sporting event on Clark Street.

It was interesting to see how naturally Wrigley Field blends into its surroundings.  Unlike Dodgers Stadium or Staples Center, Wrigley Field has a beautiful facade and provides a welcoming view from the surrounding four streets, rather than an intimidating, closed-off fortress or a stadium set back thousands of feet away from a major street.  In fact, the view may have been too open and welcoming, leading neighboring building owners to build bleachers on their rooftops to earn extra money by charging the public for admission to their rooftops.  The questionable legality of these roof-top bleachers ended in a lawsuit which could be read about on the Wikipedia page. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_Rooftops)

 

After eating on Clark Street, I walked on Addison Street toward Lakeshore Drive.  The streets and Lakefront park were filled with young people running, walking dogs, playing tennis, picnicking and just enjoying the 80-degree weather.

What makes Chicago, Chicago? (Differences between LA and Downtown Chicago)

• Relatively high density (lakeshore drive and all coastal neighborhoods have high-rise condominium towers and primarily multi-family units)
• Buildings/Architecture has character (many different neighborhoods, each one with something special/cultural/activity to do).  For example, there’s the Michigan Ave neighborhood, Clark Street/Wrigley Field, etc.  
• At least the area that I was in (around wrigley field) wasn’t too materialistic/fashion-oriented with billboards spurring demand for clothing, products, etc.  Clark street was almost 90% full of bars/lounges.  People seem to be more experience oriented than material-oriented.
• Beautiful green area along Lake Michigan (parallel to Lakeshore Drive).  Lakeshore drive is a beautiful 16-mile long highway which is lined by high-rise condominium towers on one end and a lakefront park on the other end.  The Lakefront park offers parks, running/biking paths, and many other amenities. This is a huge asset to the residents of Chicago
• Walking is a viable transportation method….People walk around rather than just driving everywhere and staying home (especially in downtown Chicago)
• Chicago has a nice balance between the New York intensity and the Los Angeles laid back lifestyle. (similar to San Francisco)

When I was walking back toward the direction of the AIRBNB, I noticed a beautiful, historical condominium complex named “The Pattington.”  (http://www.the-pattington.com/index.php).  In 1904, when the project was built it was the largest apartment complex in Chicago.  Apparently, these units sell in the $200/SF range (http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/698-W-Irving-Park-Rd-APT-A7-Chicago-IL-60613/3705025_zpid/), which seems to be reasonable considering the location, historical price premium, and luxury  price premium.  I was expecting at least $500/SF, but this just goes to show how important it is to be local and to know the ins and outs of a market before investing in it.

 

Song of the day:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mj-2SVMG4]

This blog post is being written after the second night of Passover 2016.  Tomorrow morning is the flight to Chicago for the start of the RV road trip.  I’m excited to begin the adventure and looking forward to all of the memories, experiences, and realizations that I’ll have over the next month.  As of tonight, the preliminary map for the road trip is as follows:

Along with the excitement, there is a lot of  anxiety/concerns.  A few of my thoughts are as follows:

• Driving any motor vehicle (especially an RV) needs 100% of the driver’s attention.  I shouldn’t use my phone in any way ( including searching for music, scrolling through facebook, checking email, etc) if the car isn’t in park or turned off.  It would be reckless and I know better than to be a distracted RV driver.
• During the last few weeks, I’ve spent many hours thinking about topics such as religion, sex, travel, drugs, friendship, goals, happiness, and more.  I hope that I’ll be able to continue making time to think about what I’m doing and apply my realizations to decision making
• It’s been 35 days that I’ve been sticking to my resolutions.  I’m very proud of my progress and am confident that I’ll be able to maintain my resolutions throughout the road trip
• I’m concerned about loneliness and lack of human interaction.  I’ll need to make a great effort have conversations, introduce myself to people, and attend Meetup events in cities I’m visiting.
• I should plan the first few days of the Road trip.  The first few days will be busy and it makes sense to try to spend all the time I can enjoying the cities rather than planning the itineraries during my time in the cities.

The upcoming cross-country road trip is both traveling and vacation.  What are the purposes of the cross-country road trip? Are all of these reasons beneficial/valid?

• 1.  Business/work
     • Experiencing the culture of the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder Meeting. I enjoyed reading the yearly shareholder letters and reading several articles and books written by and about Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.  Attending the shareholder meeting will be an enjoyable, curiosity-provoking and hopefully educational event
     • Visiting many different areas and cities across the country will also help me understand certain MSA’s which may be good areas to consider searching for investment opportunities.
     • Or for most cities/areas, traveling will likely instill a sense of confusion/lack of understanding which will strengthen my belief of not straying outside my real estate acquisition area or areas of understanding.
  2. See/Experience things/cultures/events/perspectives/foods that you haven’t seen/experienced before
     • Increase my bank account of experiences/cultures/experiences/physical sensations
     • Learn about myself through what I see and experience
  3. Self-discovery/Self-Improvement
     • Exposed to a new environment without the security of my day-to-day life (friends, family, car, work, streets of LA, etc), I’ll hopefully be able to question a lot more about myself, make resolutions, learn more about my strengths, weaknesses, passions, insecurities, etc.
     • I’ll also be able to use the change of environment to help in implementing new habits and removing existing habits.  What are some habits I’d like to change:
       • Impulsive/unnecessary smartphone use
         • http://gizmodo.com/5991495/why-my-iphone-is-better-as-a-dumbphone
       • Constant movement because of the inability to sit with one’s own thoughts
       • Living in my mind when I should be living in the present
  4. Solitude/Powerful feeling of smallness/Powerful feeling of awe in nature
     • Enjoy the unique perspective of being an entire world/life while being so insignificant to the seemingly unending number of people/places/ways of life I come across.  
     • Become awe-stricken at different landscapes/physical formations throughout the country.  
       • Is looking at landscapes enough? Probably not.  I’d want to focus intently on describing/capturing the beauty.Besides photographing what I see, maybe I should spend five minutes sketching what I see (there’s no way I have patience for that…) or I can practice sitting down and focusing on the view and coming up with (and writing down) descriptive adjectives/phrases that would describe the view/landscape to a blind person.
  5. Relationships (Visit family/friends and make friends) /To learn, and occasionally to teach
     • Live by the motto of Sean/Jason:  “Approach each conversation with the mentality of wanting to learn something new (lesson, perspective, idea, etc.) from each person you meet.”
     • Start conversations with people, attend Meetup events, social experimentation, get out of my comfort zone
  6. Separation from responsibilities at home / Distraction/escape (Negative)
     • Responsibilities are not meant to be forgotten or delayed.  They are meant to be addressed and taken care of.  If delayed, they will only eat at your subconscious and come back to be even more stressful/troublesome at a later date.
     • Determine a way to limit distractions/escape urges (cell phone, internet browsing)
       • What will I do when the urge to check my cell phone comes up?
         • Read a pre-written paragraph
         • Take out a word document and start writing (physical journal)
         • Notice my thoughts… and then question them

Today, April 11, 2016 is about two weeks before I’ll be flying to Chicago to embark on a 1-month road trip. I’ll be flying into Chicago on April 25^th, picking up the RV on April 26^th, and driving through St Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and possibly other cities/regions depending on the amount of time available after Salt Lake City. The RV and flight are already booked, as are the entrance into the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting (April 30^th), but that’s about it. The rest of the schedule/activities/route are completely open to impulsive decisions which makes road trips exciting.

One main concern about the trip is the possible loneliness that will come from traveling alone in an RV, especially because I’ll spend many days in the solitude of sparsely populated mountainous regions of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. How will I make sure that I have enough social interaction and conversations during the trip?

Last night I came up with an idea to include a detailed recollection of a person I met and conversation I’ve had (and a lesson I learned from the encounter.) This will hopefully encourage and motivate me to start conversations and become interested in other people. I will try to implement this, at least for the first few days of the road trip.

Other ideas for meeting people are using Tinder, attending Meetup events, couchsurfing events/discussions, Facebook posts, Nearify?, Tinder?, Ridesharing?, conferences/gatherings/festivals, Reddit?, Travbuddy?, EatWith, SMILE!!! and chat with strangers, Travel Slow (don’t be in a rush),

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-boles/20-non-awkward-ways-to-meet-people-_b_8100950.html

Do I want to go to ICSC? I don’t think it’s worthwhile. I don’t have any specific properties to market or any money to invest. Therefore, it doesn’t seem worthwhile to spend the $1,000 and three days to attend the conference. I would much rather be traveling and saving the money.

This should be a great trip, but I should probably look up some more activities and nature to see in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Other than that, I’m pretty much good to go.