Tag: Travel

  • Take me home

    There is no glamor in business travel. I would never want anyone to think that I don’t genuinely love my job or meeting so many cool people, because I totally do. And I am always fully aware that a ton of people would die to do what I do every day… God continues to grant me undeserved favor. Yet, there is nothing quite as wonderful as knowing that today is the day I am going home.

    Home.

    Romeo people will jump on that. It is true, San Diego is now where I think of as home. Forget that idea that “home is where you hang your hat.” Well, it is true if by hat you mean my wife and kids! It’s not like I hung Kristen, Megan, and Paul on a hook and they just chill at the house waiting for me to come back. They are home doing stuff while I’m away… doing really fun stuff like going to the zoo, or a museum, or taking the dog to the vet. Their life doesn’t stop… it just carries on without me.

    Another thing about going home is that I need to take care of stuff. I’m sure hard core business travelers are better at this than I am. But when I’m away I always forget to pay my bills! While I think that is funny, something tells me that there are some companies kind of wishing I would send them some money.

    So, in just a couple hours I head back to Midway and fly home. Loved Chicago. Loved Planet Wisdom. Ready to get 10 days at home before Pittsburgh.

  • My kind of town

    In the morning I am headed to one of my favorite places on the planet, Chicago. Cathy and I are headed out to the Windy City for a few days to check out the kickoff of the Planet Wisdom Tour. I’ve always wanted to go yet they never quite made it far enough to take my group from Romeo.

    While I’m not going to blog the tour, you can rest assured that I will share my thoughts about YS’s new student event.

    Of course Chicago has a soft spot in my heart. Kristen and I met there. We went to college there. We started our family there. Our time in ministry began there. Much of who Kristen and I are today began in Chicago, so I greatly look forward to any time I can get there.

  • Travels With Stoney: Day Four

  • We’ve landed

    Yesterday Megan and I made it to San Diego with about an hour to spare. Our plan worked out perfectly! We were able to drop off all the stuff from the car at the new house just in time to head to the airport and pick up Kristen, Paul, and Lovely as they arrived from Detroit. From there we headed back to the house to do a little “nesting” and get everyone settled. Everyone is having a good time exploring their new surroundings.

    Personally, my surprise joy came when I went grocery shopping. It may sound like something silly to get excited about… but it was a blast! Since there are so many ethnicities in our community the grocery store is packed with new flavors and things to try. I think I came home with 20 different juices that we’ve either never had or have not had access to in a long time.

    The truck gets delivered later this afternoon. So we’ll have the weekend to unpack the truck and start getting organized. Yup, it feels really real now.

    One cool thing that happened yesterday is that we started meeting our neighbors. Although the house is a lot smaller I can tell we are going to like living here a lot.

    video update: It’s going to take me a few days to get all the videos online. We took so much video… getting days 4 & 5 of Travels With Stoney done is just going to take me a little bit. Plus, I’ve got a massive backlog of work!

  • Travels With Stoney: Day Three


    Today is the last day of “big driving” as we have about 500 miles to get to Las Vegas. We’ll stay the night with my mom and then be off to San Diego early Thursday morning.

  • Travels with Stoney: Day One


    This video is a bit random, but I think you’ll like it. Megan pretty much stars in it and I do some commentary. The random girl in the middle with the fish, that’s my friend Angie & Chris’s daughter Grace.

    There are many more videos coming. Megan has shot nearly 3 hours of video in two days. There is a lot to sort through still.

  • Travels with Stoney: The Prelude

    travels with stoneyThe trip begins in just two hours. Everyone is still asleep at my in-laws house but I’m wide awake. Go figure. There are a couple pre-trip things I thought were worth mentioning.

    #1 Travels with Charlie. If you’ve never read the Steinbeck book which this trip is named after you should check it out. Travels with Charlie: In Search of America is a classic.

    #2 Participate in the journey. You can track our journey here. The best way to get in contact with us on the trip is by leaving a comment. Through the magic of mobile internet I’ll get your comment pretty soon. Feel free to ask Megan, Stoney, or Adam pretty much anything about our trip. We’ll either comment back directly on the blog or in a video. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer any emails during the trip.

    #3 Track our progress. Follow me on Twitter and I’ll be posting a lot about the trip in 140 characters or less. Also, I’ve started using Bright Kite. So if you use that you’ll want to friend me. But if you don’t, my Bright Kite updates appear on my Twitter feed. If we follow one another, just remember that the best way to contact me on the trip is to leave a comment. I’m going to try to minimize my “driving while twittering.” Twitpics are another story. I tend to do that while I drive.

    #4 Meet up. Check out our route. We’re still open to meeting up with people along the way. Again, a comment is a great way to make that happen. I’ll contact you via the email you leave in the comment dialogue.

    #5 Videos. Megan and I will be making daily videos of our travels. I can’t guarantee a regular broadcast schedule or anything like that. Nor can I guarantee what will be on them. But if you know me, you know they should be fun.

    #6 Today. In just a couple hours the first leg of our journey begins. This takes us out of Michigan, through the left half of Ohio, bisecting Indiana, and landing on the eastern shores of Illinois.

    Bon voyage!

  • Travels With Stoney: Stuff


    Get all episodes of Travels with Stoney by subscribing to my RSS feed or subscribing to my YouTube channel.

  • Travels with Stoney: Join us!


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    Every once in a while I come up with an idea that is crazy enough to try. This is one of those.

    On August 10th, Megan and I will push Stoney (our yellow lab) into the car and leave on a 2500 mile adventure. Together, we will travel through 10 states between Romeo and San Diego. As Megan told me, “This is the adventure of a lifetime.”

    You’re nuts! I know, it’s completely insane to travel for four long days with a 7 year old and my dog. But let’s be honest, how often in life do you have the opportunity to share an adventure with your kid? Never!

    The cool part? This is a participatory event. You want to meet up with us? Send me an email at mclanea@gmail.com and I’ll add you to the list. (If I can fit it in.) Of course, being that we are total tech heads, this will be a very well documented trip. We’ll blog, twitter, twitpic, and other “tech stuff” all the way across the country. Expect regular video updates too! I hope to meet all sorts of friends, including crashing at their pads, all the way from

    Don’t follow me on twitter? This is a great time to jump in and follow me. Tune in here on the website for all the latest.

  • Holy Travel Schedule Batman

    scheduleThis is more of a confessional post than anything else. I can feel my travel schedule getting out of control. In 2007, Kristen and I carefully managed our schedule to maximize our time together. It was fantastic spending so much one-on-one time with the love of my life.

    Then reality struck back. Here’s a quick rundown of what I’m currently trying to jam into the next 12 months… these are the temptations of a networking-crackhead. A true one-week family vacation. A YMX getaway. Two or three National Youth Worker Conventions 08. Internet Ministry Conference 08. National Youth Ministry Conference 09. Shift 09. Staff retreats, Light Force mission trip, and of course… more family trips. Did I mention that next week I’m headed to a 3 day conference? Yeah.

    Every single one of those are good things. Great things! I love every one of these opportunities. I love that at each one of them I get a chance to be a friend to people, learn new things, and hopefully minister. The challenge is that I don’t truly have the ability to travel that much. Every one of those opportunities comes at a cost, doesn’t it? And sometimes the cost has nothing to do with money… it has to do with the time away from family.

    I’m not the only person in the world with more opportunities than time. How do you balance it all?