As I write this, we are leaving Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, after a pleasant visit. Lynnda and I left Easter Sunday afternoon for a trip to Florida and a cruise with our youngest son and his family. I’m sharing some of our experiences this week that may give you things to think about.

We flew Breeze Airlines out of Charleston because we can get a direct flight into Orlando. We heard about long lines at airports. None at Charleston (CRW). The airport is a 15-minute drive from our house. We drove, parked, checked in, went through security and were at our gate in less than 30 minutes! In a large airport like Orlando, it takes 30 minutes or more just to park and get to the check-in counter. There are advantages to living in a small city with a small airport.

When we boarded, Lynnda whispered, “Both pilots are females.” I thought, “Wow, never had that happen before.” I don’t care who flies the plane as long as we get to Orlando safely.

The chief flight attendant announced during the safety talk, “We have an all-female flight crew today.” Everyone clapped. In all my decades of flying, I’ve never had an all-female flight crew. My guess is no one else had either. The crew did an excellent job. We got to Orlando early and had a fun flight.

The chief flight attendant was telling one of the other passengers about the alligators in Florida at the airport. She said they kept it low-key. Last year the airport shut down a set of runways to allow an alligator to cross them.

Our environment is getting healthier and people care. The alligator was an endangered species; now they are prolific. In our area, we see increasing deer, wild turkeys, fox and bears. We are even seeing skunks, indicators of a healthy ecosystem.

The next morning, we took our first trip on the Brightline, Florida’s high-speed train that runs from Orlando airport to downtown Miami, where we boarded our cruise ship. Brightline can travel over 100 mph, fast for the USA. Europe’s high-speed trains are capable of over 200 mph. We were happy. It got us to Miami in less than four hours. Brightline was fast, clean, comfortable, and had great food. Turbulence was not an issue like flying. We could get up and stretch, read and make calls. I worked online scheduling in-person meetings with foreign companies for SelectUSA the first week of May. I could not do that on a flight.

From downtown Miami, it was a short rideshare to our hotel on South Beach, the first time we had ever been there. At the hotel’s evening reception, we met people from New York, Indianapolis, Atlanta and San Diego. Our hotel host was from Miami and has lived here since she left Cuba in 1957 with her parents at age 4. For years, she dreamed of going back. Not anymore. She is happy to live in Miami. We learned, we had lots in common like children, sports and vacations. Politics never came up and never needed to. As Americans we have more in common uniting us than we do that divides us. In addition to our hotel host, we talked to other Cubans in Miami Beach, including one young cab driver.

People in New York City elected a socialist mayor. Other places seem to have an interest in socialism. Before they vote, they might want to talk to the Cubans who lived under socialism and put their lives on the line to leave Cuba for the USA. Lynnda and I enjoy meeting people and learning from them. In conversations, we work to find what we have in common.

We boarded our cruise ship Tuesday heading for the Dominican Republic. It was a hot sunny day in Puerto Plata. The temperature was 85 degrees. With the breeze, it wasn’t too bad. Where we docked was an area set up for cruise ships with two pools, beach, restaurants, tiki bars (some with in-water seating) and lots of shopping. The area was very clean and safe.

We visited Monkey Island, where we interacted with squirrel monkeys. Lynnda didn’t flinch when one jumped on her head. Our group was like new toys to the monkeys. Crawling all over us we felt their surprisingly soft paws.We had to empty our pockets and tightly hold cell phones. The monkeys are fast as lightning and will take anything they can get their little paws on. It was a fun and educational experience.

The Dominican Republic imports most of their energy, primarily gasoline and diesel fuel. We saw quite a few windmills on land along the coast. This morning as we were coming into port, the wind was calm and none of the windmills were turning to produce power. When we left port this evening, all were turning in the evening breeze. Large scale solar power doesn’t make sense because it requires large amounts of land, a premium for an island nation.

The Dominican Republic uses the resources they have to produce as much electricity as possible. Most people and countries understand the wind doesn’t always blow and windmills require back up. They can develop ways for all energy sources to work together providing an efficient energy system using sound engineering, not theory and wishful thinking.

Throughout this entire week, we have met primarily friendly, happy, helpful people. Some were on vacation; others were helping people to enjoy their vacation like the cruise ship, train, hotel and flight crews.

Being friendly, happy and helpful is a choice like at Shale Crescent USA. We are happy to help prospects who are a good fit for our region find what they need to expand their business here. A sincere smile, having a true interest in others and finding what we have in common builds strong positive relationships. Good for personal friendships, business and even government.

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Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com is director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and more than 40 years of experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.