Where Is Hawkins?Where travel is cheaper than psychotherapy.

Mansfield, Ohio. Email me and say hi.

I was mentioned in a Chicago Tribune article today about Cubs fans and having to ruin vacation plans. My friend Eihab is pulling out of Hong Kong if the Cubs advance to the world series, leaving me to have awesomeness all by myself.

This year, he has a ticket to China with his friend Nick at World Series time.

“I’ve waited my whole life to see the Cubs in the World Series,” he says, “and when they finally make it, I’m stuck in Guangzhou or some other Chinese city 7,500 miles away? I would seriously kill myself.”

So he has warned Nick: If the Cubs go to the Series, he’s not going to China.

Nick, being a Sox fan, just laughs. The Cubs in the World Series? Right.

The article did mention another guy who has a trip with his girlfriend has a trip around the same time and he wants to cancel if they advance that far. The solution is obvious: She can come with me to Hong Kong, and I promise to return her in slightly used condition.

Since I’m sitting on a lot of frequent flier miles, I like to spend them on things I can’t normally afford. Like bringing Tim and Holly to India – there’s no way I could afford that in cash, so alas, miles! They’re not just a way to keep score, but they’re kinda cool for doing things that you never could do.

The (travel) highlight of this week involves my trip to Russia and the Trans Siberian Railway. In order to cheat and save frequent flier miles, I needed to fly two Oneworld partners of American Airlines on the way back. At the time I booked, I’d basically from Chicago to Moscow on American, then fly out of Beijing on Finnair to Helsinki, to London then Toronto on British Airways and finally, the last stretch from Toronto to Chicago on AA. There’s a forced overnight in London, and quite frankly, the idea of flying lots then sleeping in a hotel, then flying lots again doesn’t appeal to me.

The new route home: from Beijing, I fly to Tokyo then to Vancouver on Japan Airlines (in business all the way, natch), have a 10am to 10pm layover in Vancouver (Granville Island brewery, here I come!), then fly Cathay Pacific to New York, then head home. It’s not sexy by any means, but it’s a way that I can gain 3 full days in Beijing and not really lose anything except for the loss of sanity (I guess I gain sanity, or something.) This way, I get an extended stopover in Vancouver and get to run around, get contact highs off of BC Bud in Gastown, have some beer, and then sleep on a flight to NYC in Cathay’s sexy new business class. It sucks to be me.

Since it’s a lovely rainy day in Chicago, instead of going out to play I’m indoors, reading and planning out my next trips. I’ve come to realize that the planning and prep work I do is all part of the ritualization of what I do. And I do get a high off of the ritual and am intoxicated by it.

It starts out simple – after I find the place where I want to go, I look at flights on my preferred airlines and start to tweak them for cost and miles (I’m at 1.7 million lifetime miles on American Airlines, so I guess that means I get a secret handshake – or something.)

Despite the prep work, I love to keep things fast and loose. I write a list down of things I want to see and do, and then group them together by area so I can be efficient – but it doesn’t matter when I see them. There’s always slack time, so getting lost and having adventures with strangers fits in nicely. Instanbul was a good example where I stumbled upon new friends who somehow think I’m worth being close to.

I tend to read a massive amount before I go – the State Dept’s travel warnings, intel reports, etc. Since I’m branching out to somewhat far off destinations, it’s important for me to have an out. Hong Kong doesn’t worry me so much as getting lost in Siberia does. And in the next 18 months, it’ll only expand.