Day 29 (5/23/22): Country Roads in Illinois
Start: Carbondale, IL
End: Cave-In-Rock, IL
Mileage: 80 miles
Elevation: 5451 feet
Good evening from the banks of the Ohio River.
Tish found a wonderful cabin right along the river with a beautiful view of the river. (See Gallery.) We’ve been treated to bald eagles, fantastic fragrances of Spring blooms, and a general sense of tranquility. The name of the town where we’re staying is Cave-In-Rock, and the name is literal. There’s a huge cave within walking distance of our cabin which used to be a hideout for pirates, but now is a very cool tourist attraction. (Again, see the Gallery.) This is the nicest place we’ve stayed.
Oh yeah, there was a ride today as well.
Day 2 of “ride like crazy until the rains come” plan was also a success. I didn’t go as far as yesterday, but it was a harder ride owing to the elevation gain and a strong and mostly unfavorable headwind and crosswind. A pretty tough day. Tomorrow looks to be a duplicate copy of today. Looking forward to Wednesday when we take the rest day which was originally designated for this past Sunday. (Wednesday is Sunday…anyone?)
The ride was mostly along very lovely country roads in Illinois. There were two stretches of about 5 miles at the beginning and end in State parks that were incredible. Almost non-stop tree canopies and fairly level ground. You take the good with the bad I guess.
I saw 2 bald eagles in a field along the way in addition to those we’ve seen at the cabin.
Kentucky looms. (I’m actually looking at KY now from across the river.) It’s the big State in the ride. We’ll spend close to 2 weeks slogging our way through it. More on that later.
What I’m Grateful for Today
I received 2 nice messages from colleagues from my first real job today. (Thanks Dan and Karen!) This got me to thinking about how fortunate I was to work for some really great companies and great people. I was especially fortunate on the front and back ends of my career.
My first job was with Computer Intelligence (which morphed into Computer Intelligence InfoCorp then CII, then Ziff Davis Market Intelligence then Harte-Hanks). Hugh Tietjen was the founder of Computer Intelligence and was one of the most thoughtful managers for whom I ever worked. He knew his business so well, but also trusted the people he hired to do their jobs. I’m grateful he took his chances on an untested Product Manager and helped launch my career. I worked directly for Harry Henry when I started. Harry was/is as master collaborator and just a great manager of people. When he took a chance and gave me my first management role, he was (and continued to be) my go-to role model.
My last role was at Green Street. Something I’ve referred to as a career highlight. So many smart people with a singular focus and a strong will to succeed. I initially worked for Craig Leupold who trusted me to stand up the firm’s Product Management effort. Getting the direction to just make it happen the right way is so motivating. I then worked for Andy McCulloch. I always thought of our relationship more as a partnership where we each brought different skill sets to the table. Andy liked working this way and this made working for Andy one of most enjoyable experiences of my career. I also did a lot of work for Green Street’s current President, Jeff Stuek, who is a master of setting a vision, designing a plan around that vision, motivating people to rally around the cause, and putting the right people in place to execute on the plan and succeed. I’m sorry I was only able to partner with Jeff for a few years. Interesting, he probably doesn’t know it, but he had a lot of influence on how I set up this ride. I’ll write more about vision and execution later either in the blog or another medium.
There were lots of great people in between of course. Finding the right people to work for/with is the most important part of anyone’s career. I’m glad I got to work with these great people and everyone else.