As summer finally came to Adelaide, I was setting myself for a predawn flight to Sydney before flying to Los Angeles and then onto Charlotte and finally Burlington, Vermont, my destination for the Schlessinger Grossman Family Business Competition, where I was coaching a team of MBA students from Adelaide University.

This trip was going to confound my basic mantra of Slow Travel. I was flying out early  on a Sunday and returning 9 days later with a collective 3 plus days of travel.

Step one was preparing to travel to the other side of the world where the weather is completely different. It’s a challenge to get your head in the mind set  of a freezing cold winter when it’s quite the opposite where you are.

How to pack, what to pack? Nothing too hot for my travel as planes are notoriously warm, but with the knowledge that when I arrive in Burlington, it will likely be freezing. Marino wool socks, my Scarpa Boots, jeans and trusty Ralph Lauren jacket. In my carry-on were my Adel Uni polar fleece, my gloves and beanie. My beanie was fleece-lined.

I booked Premium Economy for the Sydney – LA and return leg and was lucky to get an upgrade to Business for the Adel – Syd leg. It meant an extra carry-on allowance but I always take the minimum on to the plane. I have luggage in the hold so an extra piece of carry on is just a hassle.  I say this because I am paranoid about having my carry-on near. Using my backpack means that I can either store it directly overhead or under the seat in front. I know I could get more in a roll-on bag, but as I was to see more than once on my flights, roll-ons were required to be stowed and not accessible during the flight. That would have done my head in!

The flight to Sydney was uneventful, as was the transfer to the international flight. Sydney – Los Angeles is a long flight and I was determined to sleep for part of the flight. I have never been a good sleeper, but this time, I had a plan. I downloaded movies and a couple of TV series to watch, as well as a couple of audiobooks, some podcasts and music. My iPad and iPhone were fully charged as were my earbuds and noise-cancelling headphones. I felt prepared.

The plane was packed, as pretty much all of them were across my 8 flights.  On the way over I watched a movie and some TV but made myself have a couple of sleep times where I put an audiobook on to play and closed my eyes for a minimum of 2 hours at a time. It worked, sure the audiobook story was disjointed but that was evidence I’d slept. I arrived in LA less exhausted than I expected, which was good as the airport, even at 6 am, was packed. Getting through customs was a challenge, as was depositing luggage for my connecting flights. I had plenty of time, which was good. Others in our team were not so lucky, with 2 of them missing connections from their international flight.

LA Airport

Charlotte Airport

As it turned out, there was no need to hurry. The combination of being the end of the Christmas holidays, grounding of some aircraft care of a fault and the weather meant my connection to Charlotte was delayed. It was delayed to the point that I was told that I wouldn’t make my Burlington connection. Fortunately, my Charlotte Burlington connection was made due to the connecting flight at Charlotte also being delayed by a couple of hours.

Burlington Airport

However, the delays meant arrival in Burlington at a snowbound airport at around 12.30 am, more than 30 hours since I’d left a warm predawn Adelaide.

The next challenge was getting a taxi or Uber at 1am on freezing and snowing early morning. My Uber App said there were none in the area, and there were no taxis. As luck would have it, another traveller had managed to get an Uber, and along with another traveller, coincidentally, a judge in the competition we had entered, the three of us shared the Uber, and were deposited at the Burlington Hilton Lake Champlain.the hotel is mid renovation meaning reception was more like a card table than an international hotel reception. The staff were friendly which at that time if the morning was all that mattered.

Exhausted I unpacke,  rang my favourite person, and went to bed. I woke about 10am. I went to the gym to shake out the cobwebs. It was a dreadful gym session, although the view across the shore to the lake was special. Snow everywhere!

Church Street Mall

I had a day to acclimatise and try and manage the jetlag, so I went for a walk and spent the day getting my head into Vermont time. I caught up with a team member for lunch and later in the day had a meeting with our team leader to plan the week ahead. I had  dinner with the two members of the team who had arrived. Another team member was supposed to be at dinner, but flight cancellations and delays meant he was still a few hours away. The last of our team members was still a day away, as she too had been caught out by delays and cancellations.

The rules of the competition were such that coaches weren’t allowed to discuss any aspect of the case before the team presented.  As a result, I made the decision not to read the case before I met with the team leader so there was no chance of an inadvertent breach.

We had Mexican, and day one was over.