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California Free by Ken Cutler

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AUTHOR: Ken Cutler on 10/07/2024

I’ve made the trip from Pennsylvania to California six times. The first time I went, I didn’t have to pay for my plane tickets. Each of the next five times, the entire trip was completely free.

I was asked to be the best man in a college friend’s wedding a couple of years after we graduated. He lived near Los Angeles. I planned my trip out there with another college friend, Robert. Like me, he was an engineer and single. He’d recently been bumped from a flight to Alaska and had been given a large voucher in return. Generously, he used part of that voucher to purchase my plane tickets.

Robert and I rented a yellow Nissan Sentra and put over 1800 miles on it during the week before the wedding. Robert was a great travel companion. He was a brilliant guy who seemed to have a wry observation or witty remark for any situation with the slightest potential for humor. He was laid back and easy to get along with.

We had a map but didn’t have a detailed plan for the trip. After a long day taking in Yosemite National Park, we rolled into Modesto late at night and had some trouble finding a place to stay. Finally, we found a motel in a seedy part of town with a vacancy. We checked into our room and turned on the TV to wind down. Out of the corner of my eye, I sensed movement, but didn’t think too much of it at first. A short time later, the source of the motion became apparent: the room was infested with the biggest roaches I’d ever seen. I wasn’t happy about the situation, but Robert was traumatized. He wrapped himself up in his sheets to try to form a hermetic seal against the bugs. I don’t think he slept much.

Robert and I both had excess cash flow and saving for retirement was not yet on our radar. We were quite loose about money on the trip: we’d alternate paying for meals and hotels, not bothering to keep track to make sure we were sharing equally in the expenses. When we got to Morro Bay a couple days after the Modesto fiasco, we found a hotel with two rooms available. One was on the ground floor. The other was on the second floor but was the expensive honeymoon suite. Without batting an eye, Robert said we’d take the suite. He paid for it, explaining to me that he thought there would be less chance of roaches.

The suite had a fireplace. Though it wasn’t cold outside, Robert was determined to get his money’s worth. He got a rip-roaring fire going. Eventually we started sweating, so we turned the air conditioning on full-blast to compensate. I ordered a pizza to be delivered to our room for dinner. Inspired by Robert’s indulgences, I gave the young lady who dropped off the pizza a tip of nearly 200%. I can still remember the startled look on her face as she thanked me.

The trip to California with Robert was hands down the best vacation I ever took as a single guy. I would not return to the Golden State for over a decade. When I did, it wasn’t for a vacation. Between 1998 and 2001, I made five trips to San Jose on business. Some of those trips lasted two weeks, which gave me a free weekend to explore.

My company put me up in a four-star hotel that had a favorable corporate rate. I had my own rental car and an expense account. As the trips were typically during the summer, there was a lot of daylight left for exploring after the workday was over. It felt wonderful driving around the San Jose area after work. It was even more magical to venture out further on weekends, cruising in my rental car and listening to CDs I’d purchased for a buck a piece at a record store near my hotel. I spent time in San Francisco, Monterrey, and Santa Cruz. I hiked in some amazing parks, saw redwood trees and visited wine country. I absolutely loved driving around California and taking in its diverse terrains.

To add to my heightened dopamine state during those trips, the lead engineer from the company we were working with made client entertainment his top priority. Sujit had a company credit card with a $30,000 monthly limit. His greatest pleasure in life seemed to be making sure his customers had a good time. For the most part, this consisted in treating them to lavish meals. The highest amount I ever witnessed him lay down was an inflation-adjusted $7,500 at The Plumed Horse in Saratoga, a nationally ranked French restaurant where he hosted our group of 18.

I recently wrote a Forum article that discussed the special thrill humans experience when receiving something for free. I can’t help but think that one of the reasons I enjoyed my California business trips so much was that I didn’t have to pay a penny for any of them.

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William Dorner
4 months ago

Nuke Ken. First trip to CA was in 1976, visiting Silicon Valley and Wine Country to sell our Videojet inkjet packaging printers, which at that time, no one heard of the word inkjet. After visiting CA a few times for business, I then took my wife with in 1977 to visit LA and Disneyland, nice to get business trips. These are just a few of my over 1000 visits to manufacturing plants around the country over my career between 1972 and 1994, some were in the smallest towns. After that, I was on the cusp of working from home in my own inkjet business, 1994 to 2024, and am officially retiring on 12-31-2024 at 78. Not to worry, I have been semi-retired since about 2000. Thanks for all the great memories. One little story, at a Sales Meeting around Lake Conroe TX, for the celebration someone said we were promised a toast, OK, and Remy Martin XO was the treat! My memory says it cost as much as our meal, but one great memory for ALL!

jerry pinkard
4 months ago

I had many memorable business trips in my career. Probably the best was Bermuda. I sold a large software development project to a Bermuda client in the 80s. It took 30 months and most of the work was done in our US office. I took trips to Bermuda several times a year to meet with our client. They were great hosts and I dined in many of their top restaurants. (There is no bad restaurant in Bermuda).
My company paid for my wife to accompany me on one of the trips and we both really enjoyed that, and my client did a great job showing her around the island, including a boat tour.
I have been to several Caribbean islands and none of them can compare to Bermuda.

Michael1
4 months ago

Like many here, I’ve had some pretty great work trips. I think the best are memorable not because of the fancy hotels or meals, but for what I got to see and do. Travels when I was still in uniform or in government probably top such a list more than my later corporate trips.

What makes me comment is the reference to that trip to Cali with Robert being the best trip Ken had as a single person. That got me thinking, what was my best trip while young and single? 

A trip that rises to the top in my memory was with a good friend with whom I was serving in Italy in my early twenties and with whom I used to hike a lot. His parents had come over, and the four of us took a trip to hike in the northern mountains of what was then Yugoslavia. Good people, trout fresh from the river outside our spartan hotel, super hiking to the source of the same river where it emerged from a cave in a mountainside. Perhaps one of my cheapest trips in an addition to one I remember well and fondly. 

Mike Gaynes
4 months ago

Near the end of her life, my mom was living in the SF Bay Area, surrounded by family. My TV news job in Rhode Island didn’t pay much, so I wasn’t able to go out to see the old folks as I would have liked.

When a PGA golf tournament came to Rhode Island, they announced a celebrity putting tournament early in the week, and I was invited. First prize would be two free air tickets to anywhere in the US. I HAD to win that.

I’d never been much of a golfer, but I could putt. I won my first three matches with ease and reached the final against a sportscaster from a rival TV station whom I didn’t like very much. By this time I was totally revved up in full-on Lee Trevino mode.

We played an intense match that went to an extra hole. I mis-hit my first putt and left it a good 15 feet short, and I was internally enraged. When the other guy put his putt within three feet, I went to concede it but was so pumped up that I knocked his ball away like a polo shot, vaguely in his direction. Somebody next to the green commented, “I don’t know if that’s the best sportsmanship I’ve ever seen, or the worst.”

I rammed in the 15-footer and won the match on the next hole. I asked United if I could swap the two economy tickets for one first-class, and they agreed. And that trip to San Francisco remains the only time I have ever flown first class. The free wine was great.

William Perry
4 months ago

My pre-retirement experiences with the California Tax Board (CTB) as an east of the Mississippi CPA were often unwelcome surprises for clients who had taken a business trip to Cali or had inherited CA real property and later sold the property.

Per the CTB-

As a nonresident, you pay tax on your taxable income from California sources.

Sourced income includes, but is not limited to:

  • Services performed in California
  • Rent from real property located in California
  • The sale or transfer of real California property
  • Income from a California business, trade or profession

I recall two client returns – one for a travel nurse and one for a staff attorney who had flown to California to take a deposition. Both clients ended up having to file a delinquent non resident return for less than two weeks working in California. Apparently, CTB auditors look for invoices for services billed to a CA based company from non California based firms and a couple of years later the individuals received a state tax notice.

I think it is likely they would have preferred roaches in their lodging.

mytimetotravel
4 months ago

My most enjoyable business trip was to the south of France, staying outside Nice. I was there to support the system test of a new product, but really it was a reward for the development work – several of us went at different times. Since the French lab frowned on overtime and weekend work we had plenty of time to explore. I still have a shot glass I bought in Biot, although the perfume from Grasse is long gone.

Back in 2012 I had a good time exploring San Francisco, arriving on the California Zephyr from Chicago and leaving on the Coast Starlight for Portland. The Coast Starlight left late, because of an equipment problem, which meant I got to see Mt. Shasta in daylight.

R Quinn
4 months ago

I recall two memorable business trips. One was to LasVegas. We were having dinner in a famous restaurant – I can’t recall the name – and I was scanning the menu and saw Kobe steak for something like $25.00, expensive but not bad in those days – until on a closer look it was $25.00 an ounce.

Another time in Chicago we were being wined and dined as clients. After a great meal our host suggested we go down to the wine and cigar bar for after dinner drinks.

We enjoyed after dinner drinks and helped ourselves to cigars from a fancy humidor you needed a key to access.

I’ll never forget the look of panic on the hosts face when he realized those cigars going up in smoke were $50 each.

Rick Connor
4 months ago
Reply to  R Quinn

On my first business trip to San Francisco, several of us went to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner. In my inexperience, I ordered a meal that was “MP” – make price. When we got the bill my meal was double everyone else’s. I was pretty upset. When we got back to the office I went to my manager to confess my sin, thinking our meager government per diem would not cover it. He just laughed and told me to expense it; the company picked up the excess. He said I put in so much uncompensated OT not to worry about $20.

mytimetotravel
4 months ago
Reply to  Rick Connor

I thought MP meant Market Price.

Rick Connor
4 months ago
Reply to  mytimetotravel

It does – my typing skills are pretty suspect.

R Quinn
4 months ago
Reply to  mytimetotravel

It does

Rick Connor
4 months ago

Ken, I travel to CA off an on my whole career. I spent many weeks in Lompoc, CA in 95 and 96 preparing for a launch. I really enjoyed the Central CA area. That’s when and where I became a wine lover. I also spent a bunch of time in Sunnyvale, CA in the late 90s and early 2000s. The longest stretch was most of April to July in 1997. We probably overlapped. The difference is I was mostly traveling on federal government contracts. Finding a hotel that met the federal per diem rate was a challenge. It is a great place to have free weekends. I also had some friends who had moved there from the eat coast, so I got so home cooked meals and met their families. It was tough being away from home, but I did get to visit some cool places.

P.S. I have a few good friends who started their careers in the early 80s with GE Nuclear in San Jose. They made the move to GE’s Aerospace business when nuclear slowed down later in the 80s.

Edmund Marsh
4 months ago

I have many good memories of trips to California with my wife, and hikes in the redwoods above Santa Cruz are among them. I don’t expect they’ll ever include a $400 meal at The Plumed Horse, but a bowl of clam chowder from the Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach south of Morro Bay is worth the wait in the line that extends on to the sidewalk.

Mike Gaynes
4 months ago
Reply to  Edmund Marsh

When we lived near Half Moon Bay we hit Pismo at least once a year. Loved the Splash for the lobster rolls and the salmon sandwich.

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