Space landings and trailer parks belonged at the same table.
I had two friends who needed to meet. One had the operations and business-development experience that made him useful around unusual projects. The other was already in the middle of conversations that sounded like space landings and trailer parks. I wanted to attend the introduction too.
The proposed format was bourbon.
The trailer-park part was not hypothetical. After Thanksgiving, I flew to St. Louis to inspect a few mobile-home parks. I spent the weekend on rural roads, stopping at community boards and properties for sale. It was another real-estate category to understand, different from both the raw land near Woodstock and the furnished loft in Portland.
I did not have a deal to announce. I was looking, driving, and learning what the properties and communities actually looked like. A tour was still only a tour.
The introduction came after the trip. I sent a short note putting the two friends together and suggested that all three of us get a bourbon before the next holiday. Scheduling pushed the actual drink farther out, but the group was set.
This was how a lot of side ideas moved around my life. Travel to see something in person. Find a friend who knew a useful corner of it. Connect that person to somebody else. Put a drink on the calendar and see whether the conversation had a business inside it.
For this one, the agenda was already good enough: bourbon, space landings, and trailer parks.