What do you think of this person’s flying habits? (part 1)
I’ve been copying the travel comments from the newsletters from a friend into a file. I edited out people’s names and put in bold the names of places, but otherwise it’s as he wrote it.
What do you think about this lifestyle? I think I once would have aspired to live this way. Even if I didn’t want to fly this much when I flew, I think I would have felt some envy.
Now I read it as empty. I see craving. Trying to fulfill wants but never satisfied. I don’t know if I’ve found deeper values that others might identify too or if people will see me as out of touch not to take advantage of and benefit from the fruits of progress and human ingenuity. I’d be curious to learn how others perceive it: would you prefer to live like him? Maybe I’m misreading him, but I feel I can get more of what he’s seeking by not flying, that only self-powered transport (walking, biking) maybe taking an occasional bus or train will bring me more travel experience, growth, learning, cultural exchange, cultural awareness, diverse cuisine, seeing my culture from the outside, adventure, and what I seek from travel than what I see him getting.
March 6, 2022: On Friday, my parents and I drove from NH to NY; yesterday we flew to Seattle for my uncle’s funeral; tonight I have a redeye to Miami and onto the Bahamas; back to NY on Wed; then off to Rwanda with my family (and our friends) to see the mountain gorillas Mar 15-27
March 8: Tomorrow I fly home (via Miami) from a quick 48-hour trip to the Bahamas. My old friend is there for a month on a fishing expedition of epic proportions, which I didn’t want to miss so I squeezed in a quick visit – and I’m glad I did!
This morning we drove three hours back to Kigali and took a 20-minute helicopter ride (9 of us in 3 copters) to Akagera National Park near the Tanzania border, where we’ll spend the last three days of our trip. We’re in a tented camp on the edge of a lake and this afternoon we took a boat safari where we saw two rhinos, tons of hippos (including two mating), baboons, crocs, zebra, impala, and topi.
November 15: This weekend, I ran my fifth World’s Toughest Mudder, a 24-hour obstacle course race, which took place from noon Saturday to midday Sunday in the desert in Laughlin, Nevada, about 90 minutes from Las Vegas.
May 18: My cousin and I flew into Ft. Lauderdale last night to play singles and doubles in the National Senior Games
June 24: We’re off to Europe tonight for two weeks. During the first week, [my wife] and I doing our eighth Backroads trip, this one a six-day trip on the Italian and French Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica. The trip ends Friday and then [my wife] will fly home and I’ll fly to London to hang out with a friend for four days (we have tickets to the ABBA virtual concert, Henley Royal Regatta, and Wimbledon) before I fly back to Italy where my friend and I will be co-hosting – for the 18th time! – our Value Investing Seminar in Trani, Italy on July 7 and July 8.
July 18: On Thursday morning I’m flying to Eugene, OR (via SF) to go to the last three days of the World Track and Field Championships with my cousins on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
October 13: The only thing more perfect for my 56th birthday on Nov. 1 than going to the Elton John concert with [my wife] in Las Vegas is going climbing all day in nearby Red Rock Canyon with my guide/buddy and his awesome wife and THEN all four of us going to the concert! . . . Our itinerary is nuts – we’re only going to be on the ground for SIX HOURS. We’re taking a 3:10pm flight from Newark on Spirit (unfortunately – but it’s 1/3 the price of every other option), landing at 5:49pm. We’ll have a quick dinner somewhere at Mandalay Bay, walk 15 minutes to the stadium, see the concert from 8:00-10:35pm, and then hustle back to the airport to take the 11:59pm JetBlue flight, landing at JFK at 7:43am. Total roundtrip nonstop airfare is only $288!
November 6: I’m running my 6th 24-hour World’s Toughest Mudder this weekend (noon Sat. to noon Sun.) in Atmore, AL, about an hour north of Pensacola, which I’m flying into on Friday evening.
November 11: I’m flying to Pensacola, Florida this afternoon and driving an hour to Atmore, Alabama to compete in the World’s Toughest Mudder, which starts at noon tomorrow and finishes at noon Sunday.
December 17: I just got back from Fiji this morning. It was a fabulous trip: the 14 dives in six days were amazing . . . Now I’m doing a quick unpack and repack, as [my wife and kids] and I are off to Argentina tomorrow night for an adventure in the Antarctic (Emily can’t take 2+ weeks off to join us, but no tears for her, as she’s doing a week-long Birthright trip to Israel later this month). We fly to Buenos Aires overnight, spend half a day Monday there, and connect Monday night to Ushuaia, which is on the very southern tip of the continent. We spend two days touring the area before getting on our small (50-cabin) ship on Thursday and heading across the Drake Passage to Antarctica, back on Jan. 3 and home the morning of the 4th
December 22: We just boarded the ship, named the Plancius, where we will spend the next 12 days – two days each way crossing the Drake Passage and eight days along the coast of Antarctica.
January 29: [my wife] and I didn’t ski our last day at Deer Valley on Friday, leaving us with three days remaining there on our Ikon Pass, so we plan to fly back Sunday afternoon, Feb. 26, ski DV Mon-Wed, drive around to ski Alta ([my wife] doesn’t like snowboarders) on Thursday, and then catch the 5pm flight home that afternoon (Mar 2).
February 3: I flew in Tuesday night, landed mid-morning Wednesday and took the train 2 1/2 hours here, arriving just in time for the start of my buddy’s annual investor conference the last two days. . . [my wife] took the exact flight and train as I did two days later, so arrived in Klosters just as I finished skiing and joined me for the last two hours of the conference. Check out the two amazing pictures she took at dusk (without filters)! We’re now on a one-hour train to St. Moritz, where we’re spending the weekend with friends and flying home on Monday afternoon.
February 12: With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s horrific invasion less than two weeks away on the 24th, I’m pulling out all the stops to help Ukraine. To that end, I will be traveling there this week, flying to Krakow Tuesday night and entering Ukraine Friday, to deliver an ambulance and many other desperately needed items (see below for full details).
April 1: I’m doing a 22-hour trip to Poland tomorrow to bring $300,000 more supplies to Ukraine – just dropping them off at the airport and taking the same plane back
May 31: My flight home from Kenya wasn’t until almost midnight on Sunday, so my parents and I flew an hour north of Nairobi to have lunch and go on safari at the magnificent Lewa Wilderness, an ultra-luxurious, exclusive private game reserve owned and run by our old friend.
August 20: I’m off to Latvia, Estonia and Sweden tonight, back on Thursday.
August 27: Right now I’m on a flight to Seattle to meet my guide
October 21: On Wednesday night, my friend and colleague and I went to see U2 at Vegas‘ incredible new entertainment venue, The Sphere.
October 22: I’m doing a day-trip to Baltimore tomorrow, attending the Robin Hood Investors Conference Tuesday and Wednesday (it’s not too late to register), and flying to Europe Wednesday night for a week-long trip to Zurich, London, Edinburgh, and Vilnius.
October 27: Today I finally had the chance to visit the company’s new 35,000 square foot headquarters/manufacturing facility (dubbed “The Wing” – see picture below), located in Henley-On-Thames in Oxfordshire, about an hour outside of London.
November 1: I’m on my way home from Vilnius, Lithuania (now connecting in London)
November 4: I flew to Dallas this afternoon and met up with my friends who are running the World’s Toughest Mudder with me
December 22: It’s been three years since I last kited – the only place I do so is when I’m at my parents’ beach house on Lamu Island, a half mile off the coast of Kenya – but after two days it’s all come back… Just like riding a bike! And I still have seven more days!
January 1: After we landed yesterday morning at 7:30am off a 15-hour flight from Nairobi, we did our best to stay up – [my wife] succeeded and I didn’t, napping from 7pm to 11pm, when I woke up to get dressed for the Midnight Run, a famous four-mile run in Central Park.
January 18: [my wife] and I are doing our first day of skiing this year at Deer Valley, which has had a lot of snow recently so conditions are great – and there are no lift lines because the Sundance Film Festival started today.
January 29: I’m going to an investment conference in Switzerland this week
February 3: 36 hours ago I was in Zurich, flew through Vienna to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, where I was nearly arrested for bringing in 17 drones for Ukraine, customs seized them, forbade me to leave the country so I couldn’t go to Odesa as I’d planned, my friend [a U.S. Senator] and the US Embassy intervened, told me to get out of the country ASAP, and with my heart in my throat, I wasn’t stopped as I boarded the last-moment flight I booked to Bucharest, Romania (my 85th country)
February 12: If there’s one thing that was clear from my visit to Israel last week
February 14: BANFF Mtn Film Fest New York — I go to this every year — awesome short films about adventure sports — this year, [my wife] and I are going 3/8
February 17: I just flew overnight to Nairobi . . . I go to the airport for my 11:35pm flight back to NYC
February 25: To honor and support Ukraine, I’m at the tail end of an emotional, inspiring, exhausting weeklong visit, visiting dozens of brave men and women who are risking their lives every day to liberate their country from the monsters who have invaded it.
February 29: I spent the entire eight-hour flight home from London yesterday cranking on the attached 79-slide presentation about my week in Ukraine
March 4: I just got back from a weekend in Cozumel . . . Since we were flying home on an early flight this morning from Cancun, we booked a hotel near the airport, hopped a ferry to Playa del Carmen yesterday afternoon, and took a taxi into Cancun
March 13: . . . I had a very different experience yesterday, fishing in the Bahamas with my friend . . .
April 14: I had no internet for six days while I was on the dive boat in Cuba
April 19: The spring meeting is this weekend so we flew to Minneapolis yesterday and went to the cocktail reception last night
April 21: I’m planning to run two laps of the 10k Spartan Super a week from today (Sunday, 4/28) at Mountain Creek ski area in NJ, about 75 minutes from NYC … [quoting an April 14 email I didn’t see, I guess to a different list] Yesterday I took [my wife] and two of my cousin’s children … to do the 10km, 25-obstacle Spartan Super at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway
May 4: I’m at my 27th consecutive Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha.
July 14: I’m currently on a flight to Seattle. (“Wait a second,” you might be asking, “weren’t you just in Europe for the past two weeks?” Yes, but that ended yesterday, when [my wife] and I flew back from the Azores. After 20 hours in NYC – just enough time to unpack, repack and get a few hours of sleep – I headed back to the airport for a 7am flight this morning.)
As soon as I land, my long-time climbing guide is picking me up and over the next four days we’re going to tackle two epic peaks in the Cascades in northern Washington, the North Ridge of Mt. Baker and the West Ridge of Forbidden
July 24: From November through March, I traveled to 20 countries including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Switzerland, Austria, Moldova (fleeing the country before possibly being arrested after customs officials seized my 17 drones worth $65,000), Romania, Cyprus, Israel, Ukraine (along the eastern front for a week), three separate diving trips to Bahamas, Mexico, Cuba, France (French Open), UK/Scotland, and I’m forgetting a few…
OK, that’s pretty insane, but the last 11 days top it for intensity…
On July 1, [wife], our three daughters, one boyfriend and I flew to Italy for four days…
Then [wife] and I flew to the Azores for a six-day Backroads hiking/biking trip with 11 strangers (all Americans), with whom we quickly bonded.
Those two weeks were pretty routine (for us anyway), but then things got REALLY crazy/fun/exhausting for me…
It started at 4:30am a week ago Saturday, when [wife] and I woke up in the Azores to catch a 7am flight to JFK. We landed at 10am and got home at 11am – just enough time for me to unpack and repack for my 9th annual climbs…
On Sunday, I again up at 4:30am for another 7am flight, this time to Seattle, where my long-time guide and good buddy met me. We drove three hours straight to Mt. Baker, in North Cascades National Park, right along the Canadian border…
I hopped an 11pm flight, which landed at JFK at 7am on Thursday.
After a day of rest, [wife] and two of our daughters drove a couple of hours to spend the weekend with my in-laws at their lake house in the Berkshires (where I spent every waking moment on my campaign to persuade Biden to step aside), and then we drove home on Sunday.
I’m now home for the next 10 days until my parents fly in from Kenya and we all drive up to Lake Sunapee, NH
August 4: My parents flew in from Kenya on Thursday and yesterday the four of us … and all of our crap squeezed into our car and [wife] the Chauffeur drove us nearly five hours to our extended family’s house on Lake Sunapee, NH.
September 22: Now that I’m safely out of Ukraine after 11 days there, I can speak more freely about it.
As with my previous three trips (I’ve now spent nearly a month there in the past year-and-a-half)
November 1: our really big celebration (which also includes Susan’s birthday and our 31st anniversary last month) is a two-week trip to New Zealand, departing this Thursday.
November 7: [My wife] and I are at JFK about to board one of the longest flights in the world – 17 hours and 40 minutes nonstop on Qantas to Auckland, New Zealand.
November 14: It was a cloudy and then rainy day on the northern tip of New Zealand’s south island yesterday, but that didn’t stop [my wife] and me from doing a steep, slippery hike called the Tawa Walk up 1,400 feet to the scenic peak of Trig K.
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