Gonzo’s Great Gold Quest – Part 2
Ok, here’s the thing…
I like reaching goals.
I am an achievement junkie.
I am really into setting an objective, quantifying it, putting together a plan, and then going after it with everything that I have.
That is cool to me. It gives me energy and excitement. Provides purpose.
When I was in elementary school, I set a goal of being 6’3” tall. I am 6’2”. Not bad. Almost got there. Betcha didn’t know height is controlled by goal setting! Are you short? Raise the bar, set a higher goal!
Sometimes, though, it makes me do goofy things. Take for example, “Gonzo’s Great Gold Quest”. This was my attempt to achieve my goal of qualifying as a Gold Medallion member of Delta Airlines Sky Miles program.
Why was that important?
Because I had missed it by only a few thousand miles each of the past three years. So, earlier in the fall, I started plotting to see if I could make it to Gold without having to take any extraneous/unnecessary flights. [Delta requires you to actually fly the miles for MQM status except in cases of certain credit card holders] I was well positioned coming into the fall, as I was more than half-way to my goal. My first gig of the fall was in southern Texas. That’s a long way from Atlanta! Alas, Delta could not get me to my airport destination: Midland/Odessa. Welcome back, Continental, my old friend. Seeing Kirk Cameron (“Growing Pains”) on my flight from Houston to Midland/Odessa was a small consolation for not adding to my Delta total.
I added miles on subsequent trips, but then hit a few speed bumps. Georgia Southern University? Great school, had an awesome time. Three hour drive from my house and no commercial airport in Statesboro. Blackhawk Technical College in southern Wisconsin on Friday and Waubonsee Community College about an hour and half south of there on Saturday? Great! Flew up on Delta! Problem. Two gigs, one flight. And the only return that worked was on the Friendly Skies of United.
This type of subversion of my goal continued throughout the fall. Until finally, I calculated that I was going to come up 8,850 miles short of my goal, missing Gold for a third straight year. What to do?
I started plotting flights to Seattle, Anchorage, Los Angeles, anywhere that I could rack up miles. But, the costs were too prohibitive. What to do?
Then, I lucked out. On the day after Thanksgiving I found my answer. I was messing around with a couple of different travel sites as well as the Delta site, when I came across a $270 round trip airfare from Atlanta to LAX. What? How could that be? But, there it was. If I flew from Atlanta to LAX on Tuesday, December 15, I could fly there and then right back for that low price and pick up 3,892 miles. Boy, was this great!
But, it would still leave me over 5,000 miles short of my goal. Hmmmm, is it possible to do this roundtrip scenario and then… Could I do it again?
This past September, I was recruited for combat duty by the Georgia Southern University Leadership Boot Camp. My job was to turn students into a well-oiled, combat-ready leadership machine. Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I was the
Move them to the outside

