The Sabbatical Begins
I'm not sure how long this road trip will last. This is my story of the adventure and I’m here to take you along for the ride. Many more pictures and adventures to follow.
Sabbatical. Typing the word brings an immediate smile to my face. I have spent almost three years working in the travel and tourism space as President and CEO of a destination.
I poured my heart and soul into leading and improving what I inherited. During my time, we created process, a new three-year strategic plan and established a new mission and vision while putting a stake a ground, determining our company values. Along the way, we reached and exceeded annual goals each year determined by the Board of Directors and set repeated monthly and yearly revenue records.
However, my intent here is not to focus on all of that. For many reasons which I’m not about to address, my wife and I made the decision not to extend our stay and I notified the board chair of my decision. This, despite the fact the board of directors overwhelmingly voted to begin negotiations on a new contract.
I made the decision to walk away. No job in hand and I am perfectly at peace with my decision. Did I just write that last sentence? Since I was 15 years old I’ve had a job, or left a position for another opportunity. Except one other time but that’s for another day. “Never leave a job unless you have a new offer in hand,” my mother lectured me approximately 1,200 times growing up.
I do hope she will forgive me, but I left with the full support and encouragement from my wife and family. You deserve to be happy my wife Debbie often reminded me. Smart man. I listen to my wife.
Now, my wife and I just didn’t leave without a master plan. After talking through our options we developed a months long travel odyssey. With a job that allows Debbie to work remotely, the idea would eventually allow us to visit our parents in their locals and our four children who are scattered throughout the East Coast. When you combine family stops and visiting friends with a large dose of discovering destinations we may or may not know, you have the beginnings of a Radical Sabbatical.
In the spirit of modern day planning, I consulted with ChatGBT, the AI technology tool which allows human like conversations, to answer questions about anything while making suggestions I may not have thought about when planning on my own. I plugged my initial desired pit stops into the prompt and ChatGBT spit out a road trip which would weave us through Southern California, the Phoenix, Arizona region and all the way to the East Coast.
Honestly, I am not sure how long this road trip will last. This is the story of our adventure and I’m here to take you along for the ride. Many more pictures and adventures to follow and I hope to entertain you in the process. Maybe even consider your own Radical Sabbatical.
Just came across your writings, terrific! I hope to read more but I found this one particularly interesting since I’m planning my own extended road trip to the eclipse in Texas next April and beyond!
Looking forward to reading about your adventures