Boulder and Driving into the Mountains

After relaxing a bit this morning at the hotel and catching up on the news, I headed into the main part of Boulder looking for a bike shop.  Since I don't have cycling gear with me and I'm doing the event this weekend, I needed a jersey and shorts.  I found a Performance Bicycle (one of the biggest chain bike stores in the country) and they were having a huge clearance sale, so I picked up some gear for fairly cheap as far as cycling gear goes.

Then I went and explored the CU campus for a while before lunch.  I wasn't expecting all the stone buildings, but it's a really nice campus, and in a great setting too!

I also managed to sneak a peak at Folsom Field.

I met up with Greg and he briefly showed me where he works and what he's up to, and then we went to Half Fast Subs (say it out loud), which was very tasty and had one of the most overwhelming menus I've ever seen.  I couldn't capture two of the boards in this picture.

After lunch Greg had to get back to work, so I wandered around one of the main malls in town and eventually decided I needed something refreshing to drink.  I ended up at Jamba Juice, which was a wise decision.  Then I headed to an arcade/mini golf place that also happened to have a run-down driving range with cheap range balls and even cheaper rental clubs.  I hit about 80 balls and relaxed there for a couple hours.

For those of you familiar with golf clubs, I was also surprised to learn that apparently Cleveland's Hi-Bore design is nothing new.  One of the lefty clubs was this old beaten up club with a sunken crown just like the Cleveland design, only it was much older.  It was also made out of carbon fiber.  It also didn't work very well.

After gassing up the truck, I met Greg and his girlfriend Dana for dinner at the Southern Sun brewpub, which had some tasty food and good root beer on tap (I had to drive following dinner).  It was great to see Greg more and get to meet Dana.  After dinner I picked up Lyndsay in Denver and headed West into the Mountains on I-70 as the sun set.  The drive into the mountains was really scenic, even mostly in the dark.  The truck handled the climbs well for the most part, and we got to Copper in a reasonable amount of time.  Copper itself seems like an amazing place from what I can tell in the dark.  There's a ton to do here, and it's incredibly scenic.  Our hotel is really more of a condo, and since we have a kitchen and meal prices are a little spendy, we'll probably try to do some of our own cooking.  I'll update more on Copper tomorrow when I can actually see it, but I'm impressed so far.  Should be a great weekend.

Driving and Pizza

From Angola, we continued the drive through Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska.



Last night we stayed in Omaha, Nebraska. After forgetting my razor at a previous hotel, I walked a couple miles to a pharmacy to get a new one. Along the way, I definitely was reminded repeatedly just how big the Huskers are there.



Today's drive was from Omaha to Fort Collins, Colorado via western Nebraska and Wyoming. A fairly uneventful drive, other than having to be careful to not overheat our truck in the hot weather going uphill.



Nate is from Fort Collins, so the plan was to end up at his house for dinner. Nate's parents own/run several restaurants, and tonight we had grilled pizza, a homemade specialty that was quite delicious.



We topped them with pesto, BBQ sauce, pesto chicken, mushrooms, peppers, onions, and mozzerella. Very tasty indeed. Nate's dad was gracious enough to lend me his bike for this weekend's ride, so it looks like I'll be doing the Copper Triangle for sure.



After dinner I dropped Lyndsay off in Denver and headed to my hotel in Boulder. Tomorrow I'll explore Boulder a bit and meet up with Greg, a best friend from high school who I haven't seen in a while. Tomorrow evening we'll take the truck up into the mountain passes in order to arrive at Copper Mountain for the event. The 80 mile ride and the elevation gain aren't too intimidating, but the fact that it's at elevation with three passes over 10,000 feet will make things really interesting.

Road Trippin'

Today we ate breakfast in a really crowded hotel lobby and hit the road destined for our current location, a Ramada Inn in Angola, Indiana approximately 630 miles away from where we started the day.  Much of the day was driving as normal.

Notable sightings included an out of control car fire on the freeway, two Tootsie Roll trucks (the trailers look like a giant Tootsie Roll), some cool light effects coming from the clouds, and lots of spots of road construction.

The highlight of the day (if you can call it that) was having both trucks stopped at a truck checkpoint for a full inspection by highway police.  They're pretty rigorous, and while the officers were friendly, they sent us on our way with numerous warnings for minor infractions.  I suppose in retrospect it was a good learning experience for what to potentially expect in the future, but at the time we were wondering how many fines we might be racking up for things like not having our emergency triangles accessible enough.  Apparently they like to stop smaller trucks for several reasons.  First, many fail to have properly authorized drivers and logs, and secondly it's quicker and easier to inspect one of our trucks than a semi.

After arriving at the hotel, I went for a short hill-interval type workout on an elliptical in a futile attempt to jump start my climbing legs.  I'm still hoping to attempt the cycling event we'll be working at this upcoming Saturday if I can find a bike and gear.  It's a 90 mile ride at elevation with a good amount of climbing, so to do it mostly untrained will take some patience, tons of food to make sure I don't bonk, and lots of mental toughness.

A Brief Update

Today we woke up early to a nice thunderstorm complete with pouring rain. Luckily, our tent is mostly leak-free and our stuff stayed dry overnight. The weather cleared up in time for the race, and the sponsor village was a success, with lots of cheer signs handed out and surveys being taken. We managed to pack up pretty quickly, and hit the road headed for a hotel right near the Newark airport, where we'll meet Nate in the morning. Along the way, we nearly ran one truck out of gas simply because we couldn't find diesel, and when we did find it, we also found the world's slowest gas pump. It probably took 20 minutes to fill our two trucks (they were filling simultaneously).

We hit a bit of traffic coming back across the George Washington Bridge, but it was nothing compared to my experience heading the opposite way a week ago. We got settled in at the hotel and then found a slightly quirky restaurant (which called itself a tavern) serving a variety of tasty food. I had a chicken/rice mix dish with salad and some fried plantain. After dinner I set about doing some laundry and went to work out. The machines at the hotel are all pretty pitiful and in various states of disrepair, so I went and ran outside for a bit instead.

Tomorrow we start the long drive to Colorado.

"Increvals"

I seem to have created a new word, a mix of increments and intervals. Usually occurs when I make up my mind to late on which word to use.

Today went pretty much as expected, with a busy expo and then an immediate breaking-down of the expo setup followed by immediately unloading and setting up at the finish line for tomorrow's race.



After some Subway for dinner, I worked out on an exercise bike while watching Men in Black II (made me feel dated). Now it's time for bed so I can be ready to go at 5AM tomorrow morning. I think I've got the alarm figured out this time.

"Wurster"

After picking up the truck this morning, we drove the hour west to Worcester (the title of this post is about as close as I can get to spelling it phonetically as people around her pronounce it). We found a nice little restaurant that seems to be a popular place and got lunch, and then went to set up at the expo. Setup went really smoothly for only two of us, up until I gave myself a massive splinter that went under my fingernail and hurt like crazy. I understand now why it's been used as an ancient form of torture. Luckily, I found a nice lady who is another exhibitor at the expo who decided to play mom and spent a good 5 minutes gently pulling with her long nails to get it out. The finger still hurts a bit right now.

After setup, we had a little over an hour to kill before picking up Lyndsay (our help for this weekend, and possibly for the rest of the tour) at the bus station. We wandered around what seemed to be the downtown section of Worcester and found a couple interesting things. The first was a memorial to Major Taylor, whom I had never heard of before. He was a world champion bike racer around the turn of the 20th century, and also notably one of the first African American Athletes to rise to an elite level in American sports.



The other cool thing we stumbled upon was a large memorial with interesting statues on it that honored the local soldiers from Worcester that had died in the civil war.



After picking up Lyndsay, we stopped by the hotel and then decided to get Thai for dinner. It was good, but I still compare everything to the Thai House in Fairbanks, AK and so far nothing has quite matched it. After getting back from dinner, I went for another 5 mile run, and now I'm back catching up online, which is kind of nice since I'm on my computer rather than the work computer. I have bookmarks for all my favorite sites. One of my favorites at the moment is notalwaysright.com - a collection of stories of dumb, scary, and angry customer interactions.

Also, if you saw Iron Man, check out http://speterdavis.com/mcomics_ironman.html for a good laugh or two.

Tomorrow is expo day. Then a load-out from an expo and setting up at the finish line in Webster.

Raining Buckets

Today I got off to a bit of a slow start and caught up on the news.  I decided to clean out my bag a bit, which meant I decided to get rid of (drink) the glass Coke bottle you get at the end of the World of Coke tour in Atlanta.  Given its presentation, I figured this had to be some really good soda.  I chilled it nicely and then drank it over ice.  It was pretty much just a Coke.

Meanwhile, it had been raining all morning, and hard at that.  I still don't have a truck until tomorrow morning, so I decided my options were either to stay in the hotel all day (exciting) or catch a train downtown again.  I chose the latter, and sprinted from the hotel to the train station in a hard downpour.  The train parking lot was in the process of becoming a lake.

In downtown, I wandered over into North End for a while and grabbed some lunch followed by gelato and tea.  The latter combination was very tasty.

Shortly thereafter, I met up with Molly and Marco and planned to help Marco inventory shoes in the back of the truck we have access to.  We scrapped that idea quickly due to the rain. Instead we drove around Boston somewhat aimlessly in Marco's rental until deciding we were hungry.  We ended up at Legal Sea Foods, which is a really tasty, upscale seafood place.  I got the crabcake combo, which was extremely flavorful.

After dinner, I took the train back to the hotel.  The dinner wasn't sitting particularly well with my stomach, so I did what any perfectly sane person would decide to do - I went for a 5 mile run in the rain.  It was actually really refreshing.

Also of note, something is screwy about these hotel elevators.  There are two of them, and the floor buttons are on opposite sides in each.  I've probably ridden them 20 times in the last few days, and not once have I turned to the correct side that the buttons are on.  That's even after I made a mental note of which side they were on and in which elevator.  I swear they're changing sides on me or something.

Tomorrow we drive to Webster, MA and set up for Saturday's expo.  It's been fun, Boston.  I'll be back.

Boston: Beer, Rain, Book, Lightning

Today's route (only about 9 miles today):

After switching hotel rooms, I headed out to catch the train and got off a few stops before downtown to check out the Sam Adams (Boston Beer) Brewery.  Besides the fact that I like their beer, we did a big project on the company last winter term, so it was fun to visit. 

I got to sample a couple of unreleased beers and vote on which one should go into production.  They were both good, but the Witbier got my vote.  

The tour explains all the intricacies of making beer, and I got to smell fresh hops and taste 3 different types of malt barley, one of which tastes like grape nuts.

And then of course the tasting room, where we sampled the famous Boston Lager and their Summer Ale.  I also learned more about the Utopias, and will have to try it sometime when I can find it and feel like spending $20 on a drink.

Then I wandered all the way north into downtown.  On the way I wandered through the Theater and Chinatown districts and checked out the Beacon Hill area more fully after yesterday's excursion.  I also sensed rain was on the way, so I bought a book.  I would have eaten at this restaurant simply because of the clever name, but I wasn't hungry at the time.

Boston is still a really cool looking city, even on a rainy, cloudy day.

And then it started raining, so I sat down under cover and read an entire Grisham novel cover to cover in about 4 hours.  It's a little bit of a deviation from classic Grisham, but with the same ability to tell a good story.  It's about a 3rd string NFL quarterback a little too full of himself who finds direction in life by getting sent to play on a no-name league in Italy.

After finishing, I grabbed some clam chowder in a bread bowl, and having nothing else planned for my time downtown, I headed towards the train station.  On my way, I had an attractive girl ask for directions somewhere, and I told her I couldn't help until suddenly it hit me I was carrying an iPhone.  I headed back the other way a couple blocks and found her and managed to give easy directions (well, the phone did most of the work).  After that detour, I had to practically run to catch my train.  Upon getting back to the hotel, I've been treated to a really nice lightning storm out my window.

Tomorrow holds in store... something.  The truck should be ready for pickup, and I still hope to meet up with Brownie before leaving Boston.  Other than that, who knows.

Photo Blogging Boston

After dropping off the truck, I took the train downtown.  Between noon and 10PM, I logged close to 20 miles on foot walking all over downtown, Charlestown, and Cambridge.  After just a day, I really like this city.  It's definitely the kind of place I could see myself living.

The route

The view coming out of the train station

The Freedom Trail - I followed it off and on through downtown into Charlestown.  I like how easy it was to stumble upon.  I saw the red bricks and figured it must be the walking tour.

Boston State House across from Boston Common

A really good street performing 5 gallon bucket drummer being upstaged by a little kid showing off some sweet dance moves in Crocs

Cobbles in North End - Made me think about cycling

A typical North End street.  I really like that part of the city.  Feels very historic and European, plus tons of good-looking eateries.

U.S.S Constitution

U.S.S. Cassin Young and my finger.  I walked around the boat for a while.  Kind of odd/cool that it's managed by the National Park Service.

Bunker Hill Monument - looks familiar, right?

...and the view from the top.  Worth the muggy 294 stair climb.

Wandered over to Cambridge to check out Harvard and MIT.

The Downtown view coming from Cambridge.

If you ever get the chance, watch a group of geese hurriedly eating grass.  More importantly, listen.  It's really funny.

And I saw tons of people wearing Crocs.  Then I ran into the Crocs retail store.  Almost as big as the New York Store.

Tomorrow I plan to head back into Boston and perhaps spend money to do something (aquarium, boat tour, museum of fine art?).  Hopefully I can meet up with Brownie since that didn't work out tonight.

A lazy work/play day

Today I woke up about 10 after getting a decent night's sleep and got some menial work tasks done before checking out of the hotel and heading down the road to check out Mystic, CT for some early lunch and a good place to get work done.  The Mystic Seaport looked interesting, but I didn't particularly feel like being touristy or spending money.

I also saw Mystic Pizza (famous because of the Julia Roberts movie of the same name) but wanted something different after lots of pizza in New York.  So I took a picture of their sign and moved on.

I ended up finding a shady bench near the docks to have a conference call and write our weekly event report before hitting the road to wind up at the outskirts of Boston.  I ended up getting lucky on Priceline and got upgraded to a 3 star for a price I thought I'd only get a 2 star for in Dedham, MA.  I was even happier when I realized it's about a 3 minute walk from the hotel to the train stop that heads into downtown Boston (about a 15 minute ride).  I checked into the hotel and decided to wander over across the highway to see what I could find for dinner, and I decided it was about time I got around to seeing the Dark Night, so I was happy to find that there was a theater right near the hotel.  Or was there...?

So I was out of luck.  I decided to wander North a couple of miles to downtown Dedham to see if I could find anything to eat that wasn't a Chilis.  Dedham was a really nice, older town with lots of historical buildings.

And much to my surprise and happiness, I found exactly what I had given up looking for.

The movie was definitely extremely dark (not a kids movie by any means) and profoundly heavy.  It was also really good.  At first I wasn't sure I was buying the CGI,  but once I got caught up in the storyline I didn't even notice.

Then I walked back to the hotel in the dark, where I am now.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the truck in for service before catching the train into Boston for the day.  I'll enjoy checking out the city during the afternoon and hopefully meet up with a friend from Oregon in the evening.

A Rough Beginning - A Rougher Ending

Today got off to an interesting start as the alarms (note: 3 different alarms) meant to wake Nate or myself up failed to go off, or were inaudible, or something.  Needless to say, 8 minutes after a text from Molly (the text noise woke us up!?) we were downstairs in the lobby ready to catch a cab.  We ended up in 2 different cabs, with Nate taking one on his own.  I took my best guess at where to get dropped off near the finish line in Central Park since we had all of our personal belongings with us (lots of large, heavy bags and suitcases), and I actually had a pretty good guess.  The only problem is that the street we took into the park didn't actually connect with any part of the park.  We ended up cutting all the way across the park East to West just to go back East again.  It was a painful, slightly humiliating experience (Side note: Molly is a trooper).

We did have a really nice view from our finish line booth.

The finish line was fun, and definitely made me lust after some bikes.  I miss having one around and will be working on trying to get one on the tour with me.  I think the nicest bike I saw (even in spite of the numerous Zipp wheels, Cervelos, etc) had to be this one:

After the expo finished, we headed over to the Crocs flagship store a few blocks west of the park.  They have a really nice selection.  I bought myself a pair of the men's Santa Cruz model.

After we returned to the trucks, Nate and I parted ways with Molly and we headed back to Nate's aunt and uncle's house for dinner.  They had a wonderfully refreshing pool that I swam in for a while, and then dinner was extremely tasty.  They gave me some good suggestions for what to check out along the Connecticut coast tomorrow, so I booked a hotel in New London, CT and headed out at 8PM expecting to get to my destination around 11PM in time to catch up a bit on sleep after a long weekend.

Here's where things got a little interesting.  I thought getting into Manhattan through the Lincon Tunnel was bad traffic-wise (though I expected some delay on a Thursday afternoon), but the traffic on the George Washington Bridge into Northern New York City was absolutely horrendous at 9PM on a Sunday night.  I spent 3 hours sitting in standstill traffic before finally crossing the bridge.

The entire drive took about 6 hours, and I just recently got to my hotel (note the time stamp - Pacific Time) at about 2:15 AM.  Red Bull was my friend along the way, as was loud music.  Note to self: avoid the George Washington Bridge in the future.  The only problem with that idea is that the main traffic veins between New England and the rest of the U.S. run right through New York, and going around that area can add hours onto a drive (though apparently going through that area does the same thing).

Tomorrow I'll be sleeping in a bit (I got the hotel to give me a late checkout for free) and then checking out a couple spots along the coast (Mystic, CT and Newport, MA are two likely stops) before trying to get to the suburbs of Boston tomorrow night.

Overall, a good day.  I'm just exhausted.

Upgraded Technology and a non-stop City

Well needless to say, I now have an iPhone after looking for a week in 5 different states. I suppose it's fitting I got up at 4:15 in the morning Friday to wait in line at the flagship Apple store in Manhattan. Theirs seems to be one of the only ones around where you can actually consistently find an iPhone. After waiting for three hours, I finally got mine and I walked across the street to explore Central Park a bit and set up the phone more. We started the expo at noon and finished up at 8. It was a fairly slow day at the expo, but I got to wander around a bit during lunch to check out the food options. After the expo, we met up with Alex Kniess from Eugene who is currently working for an ad agency here as a new business intern. We had some Mexican food at a seemingly popular place (I would guess pretty much everywhere in Manhattan is popular on a Friday night) and parted ways. I'll have to run into him again in Eugene to catch up on how the rest of the internship goes. After that, Molly and I decided to go out for a bit to meet a couple of her friends. We got to see a tiny piece of the New York bar scene, which really just seems loud and packed with people. I'm sure there are great places to get a drink, but we didn't find them.

Today we took a cab to the expo which started at 10 and lasted until 6. The expo was busier today but still not quite what we were expecting or hoping for. For lunch,I went on a tour of food stands. I got a sausage, a pretzel, and a gyro. At about 5, Nate and I went to go get the trucks and managed to be the first people into the hotel dock space. We managed to get loaded up pretty quickly and drove over to Central Park to unload at the finish line of tomorrow's triathlon. I saw a lot of really nice, expensive bikes at the expo, so it's too bad the transition isn't near the finish, because it would be enjoyable to be able to see those bikes getting ridden.



We finished our set-up and headed back to our hotel and then got a bite to eat at the same pizza place as Thursday night. Tomorrow we have to be at the finish line early, and about as soon as we're done with the finish line event, we'll be driving out of the city. I'll be heading back to New Jersey to drop Nate off for a vacation week he's taking, and Molly is headed North to see family. After I drop Nate off, my options are very open... almost too much so. I don't know what to do with myself, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun exploring this upcoming week before our event in Massachusetts next weekend. Possibilities include Providence, Rhode Island, Webster MA, and Boston (very likely at some point) or maybe somewhere inbetween for some biking or hiking.

The time in New York has gone pretty quickly, and it's been pretty much non-stop action since we got into the city. It's been a good way to experience what this city is all about. The only downside is that we haven't had a lot of time for more touristy activities or shows. It's a good thing we get to come back again during the tour, because I want to spend some more time here.



Other interesting highlights of the last two days include watching a truck back into a parked Mercedes seemingly knowing it was in the way, plenty of cab rides that are certainly hazardous to one's health, a couple of drives through Times Square, and having an elevated heart rate as a result of thinking Molly's hand got in the middle of a collision between a cab door and a large truck (the cab door didn't come out of it looking very good) (Molly's hand was fine).

Quite a city.

The Drive In

Today got off to a slow start with a workout, some breakfast, and reading/catching up online in the park in Princeton. I was thinking about showing off with some cool bicycle stunts, but there was a sign that forbade it.



After that, we drove north to meet up with Nate before beginning the adventure that was driving into Manhattan. We left the place he was staying at 4PM anticipating hitting some (lots) of traffic heading into the city. We timed it pretty well, because it took about that long to go 50 miles. The last 7 miles took an hour and a half, with much of that waiting in standstill traffic heading into the Lincoln tunnel.

Driving in New York City is, well, interesting. Especially when you're driving a large truck. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The major disadvantage is that you're big and can't maneuver particularly well. The major advantage is that you're big and people have to pay attention to you. Regardless, the driving style required of a New York driver is moderately aggressive and very confident. I fit the truck through some holes in traffic that really shouldn't have been big enough to fit through. I also learned how to change lanes simply by turning the front end of the truck into the next lane to block cars behind me in that lane. It sounds rather rude, but is apparently standard practice.

After a fairly uneventful load-in to the expo, we spent a while driving trying to find a place to park the trucks before we eventually ended up at a place for $80/night per truck.



We took a taxi to the hotel and ate some pizza and now it's time for some sleep. Tomorrow morning I'm going to get up around 4 and head to the famous glass cube Apple store to hopefully finally get myself an iPhone. I've been able to confirm that the store has an almost continuous supply of phones, but it sounds like there's a 3-4 hour wait to get one regardless of the time of day. I have to be at the expo at 11, so I'm planning on getting there around 5AM to make sure I can get one with time to spare. Wish me luck.

A Day of Meandering

Today got off to an early start with plans to find an iPhone near Philedelphia.  The good news is that I actually managed to find a place that had phones.  The bad news is that we got there far too late to have a chance at getting one.  The next part of the day was spent looking for a truck wash to make our truck all nice and shiny before driving into New York City, since it'll basically be a billboard on wheels for a couple days.  This took far too long.  The first address we plugged in to the GPS didn't exist where it was supposed to, and when we called them we found out that their truck wash wasn't even working.  At this point we drove into new Jersey hoping to find a truck wash there, and eventually we did, but it was after nearly 4 hours of searching for one.

After getting the truck cleaned, we decided to spend the rest of the day in Princeton.  We checked out campus with its beautiful architecture and the main shopping district.  

We stumbled upon Hoagie Haven, which was an amazing find.  You can get a $6 hoagie that has to be 15-16 inches long.  It helped that I was starving.  We went to check into the hotel before walking back to the downtown area for some tasty gelato and a light dinner.  Tomorrow will likely bring an epic adventure, with potentially non-stop days in New York City now through the end of our event on Sunday.  I'm expecting it will be some long days and high intensity work but also fun at the same time.

Exploring Jim Thorpe Area

Today we had a lazy start to the day that consisted of breakfast and finishing reports from the last event. After that, we drove a couple miles back to Jim Thorpe, PA where we rented mountain bikes and checked out a trail that headed up to an overlook on the area. It was a really fun ride with some nice trails and a bit of singletrack that renewed my confidence in my ability to ride a mountain bike.



We got to the overlook point, and it was definitely a nice view.



From there, the trail went straight down the side of the hill along the path of an old tram line. This was probably about a 30 percent grade with lots of rocks, ruts, and old railroad ties. I decided to ride down it anyway, and managed to make it down without incident. Overall, very enjoyable. After a work conference call and some tasty late afternoon lunch/early dinner, we headed south to Allentown, PA hoping that come 9PM we'd find out that the city's Apple store would have iPhones tomorrow morning. However, this is not the case. There appear to be some phones available at the Apple store in King of Prussia just north of Philedephia, so the plan for tomorrow is to head there early, get an iPhone (I have my fingers crossed), go to a truck wash to clean up our truck prior to heading to New York, and if we have time we'll stop by the Deleware River National Recreation Area in the afternoon and possibly do some hiking. It's really kind of nice to have everything so close. From where we're at now, we could easily be in 10 different states within a matter of hours.

A long Drive

Today Molly and I parted ways with Nate who is headed to New Jersey to see some friends. We're going to meander for a couple days through Pennsylvania before eventually meeting up in New York. We set out early from our hotel near Toledo, Ohio and decided to cut north towards Lake Erie and check out the scenic route a bit. We went through Port Clinton and Sandusky, and despite Joey's urgings decided not to go to the Cedar Point Amusement Park. We headed back Southeast towards Cleveland, where the plan was to check out some AT&T stores to see if I could find an iPhone. I had previously picked out 8 different stores to try, but quickly abandoned that plan when the first store that I showed up at told me there weren't any iPhones left in Cleveland, and she was pretty sure that was the same for the entire state. I called ahead to numerous other stores along I-80 into Pennsylvania, and my luck there was no better. Oh well. The wait will only make it more gratifying when I finally do get one.

After a long, flat stretch in Ohio, we hit the Pennsylvania border and I was immediately much more into the countryside. Pennsylvania also seems much more tourist friendly, with an information center providing brochures of all shapes and sizes. They even have road signs alerting you to the fact that there are vending machines at the rest stops. The rolling hills heading into the Appalachians are really pretty, and occasionally the view reminded me a bit of driving between Delta and Fairbanks in Alaska.

We noticed the little snack shacks serving ice cream and burgers all along the drive in the morning, so it was only fitting that we ended up at one for dinner. The food was pretty decent, and the ice cream (I went for something called death by chocolate) was huge - I didn't even finish mine, which NEVER happens.

We've made plans to rent mountain bikes in Jim Jim Thorpe, PA tomorrow and we're going to go ride a trail into a gorge, which sounds like fun. I'm just going to enjoy being on a bike again. We drove the backroads through that area on the way to our hotel, and it's an area that begs to be explored. We're right in the midst of the Pocono Mountains, and while these aren't quite the type of mountains I'm used to, they're spectacular in their own way.

Race Day

Today got off to an early start. We were at the race setup around 5:30 and spent the morning manning the Crocs tent right near the finish line. Over 4,000 women participated in the triathlon, and it was fun to partake in the festivities.



After packing up, we hit the road headed towards a final destination of Toledo, Ohio. Of note on the way was watching a semi pass a Corvette. We're staying in the Toledo area tonight and will be hitting the road early tomorrow. Nate is heading on to see friends in New Jersey, and Molly and I are probably going to see where the road takes us tomorrow (though the current plan is to stumble upon an AT&T store so I can purchase an iPhone). The ultimate destination for this upcoming weekend is the Nautica Triathlon in New York City.

Expo day

Today we got up and headed to the expo. The expo was pretty standard, with all the women participating in the triathlon tomorrow coming in to pick up their race packets and check out sponsor booths. We sell Crocs at our booth, but our main job at the expo besides set-up and take-down is doing the marketing aspects, including giving away free stuff, having people fill out surveys, and generally promoting Crocs as a recovery shoe. Here's a poor quality cell phone picture to give you an idea of the layout.

After the expo finished, we had to break down the entire booth area and reload the trucks to drive around the other side of the building to set up our finish line tent, where tomorrow we'll have a presence on race day. We provide foot ice baths, self-massage sticks, sell shoes, and continue to promote Crocs for recovery.

After finishing the set-up this afternoon, we headed over to Mars Cheese Castle, which featured a huge array of cheeses, candies, chocolate, meats, wine, beer, gift items, and Green Bay Packers paraphernalia. The also had a sandwich shop and a bakery, and I got a tasty reuben with a slice of apple pie.

We ended the night by checking out the welcome to Wisconsin sign looking for a geocache, but we were driven off by bugs before we found it.

And finally, a picture from yesterday's slightly less than exciting adventure to the Jelly Belly factory.

Schnitzel is a Fun Word

Today got started with a workout while watching part of the Bourne Identity. After that we made a quick stop at the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, which is really more of a distribution warehouse from what I can tell. I was somewhat excited by the free tour, but it was a bit of a letdown as all you really see is a bunch of videos showing production rather than any real production. Good news is we got a few free jelly beans out of it.

After that we headed over to setup for tomorrow's expo. Well, Nate, Molly and I did. Stephen decided to take the scenic route back through Chicago. We finished most of our part and waited for Stephen (who was stuck an hour away in traffic) to figure out where exactly he was supposed to be. I can't be too hard on him, however, because shortly after that I managed to lock myself out of a truck that is supposed to be lock-out proof. It's one of the types that you have to hold the handle for while shutting the door or it unlocks itself. It swung shut but only half-shut, so my best guess is that it didn't close fully enough to pop up the lock. I wish I'd thought of that at the time, because I never tried shoving the door all the way closed to pop the lock (I was too concerned with trying to pop the door back open since it wasn't all the way closed). Later Molly managed to apply the steering wheel club without a steering wheel club key in her possession. Nate is the only one of us who hasn't done anything particularly dumb today, so he'd better hurry up since he's only got 25 minutes left.

After that I met up with the Deines family who thankfully were willing to drive several hours to come see me. They're close family friends from back in Alaska. We went and had a tasty German dinner, and my main dish was a Cordon Bleu Schnitzel. It was great to catch up with them even briefly, and hopefully it won't be so long until next time I get to see them. Right now I'm waiting on laundry to finish before catching some sleep before tomorrow's expo.

Nothin' doing at the moment.

Chicago

Today began much like yesterday ended - trying to figure out how to get our large truck around a bunch of low clearance bridges. Once we got that figured out, we took the train/subway into downtown Chicago and spent the majority of the day there. We walked the magnificent mile, cut down along the canal, ate some Giordano's deep dish pizza, and along the way saw an interesting parking garage in two of the high-rises.

After that we checked out the Navy Pier and got rained on a bit while heading back over to Millenium Park.

(Downtown Chicago view from Navy Pier)

We wandered through the park for a while before ending up at the Art Institute of Chicago. Thursday nights are free, and I was amazed how much came back to me from high school art/history lessons. I viewed original Picassos, Monets, Moreau, Mattisse, and the one painting that sent chills down my spine was Seurat's most famous:

Oh, and the other painting of note was American Gothic (you know, the farmer with the pitchfork and daughter).

After that we were both fairly worn out and decided to head back north to the truck. We timed our arrival at the truck perfectly, as it started to storm while crossing the parking lot between the train and truck. It turned into a lot of rain and some nice lighting, and as we drove further north we got a nice lightning/rainstorm/sunset/rainbow combo. Now we're in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin for our next event.

A Side Note

This blog needs a better name. Yes, "Adam's Travels" is accurate and fairly descriptive, but there's certainly nothing interesting about it. So, I'm having a contest of sorts. Post a comment if you have a good idea, and I may or may not choose to use it. If you're the winning namee, you'll get... a $5 Starbucks gift card presented by Joseph Mucha (he doesn't know this yet... I don't know if they even still exist). If that doesn't work, you still get mad props from me. That's enough, right?

Long Day from Nashville to Chicago

We got an early start today and headed North towards Chicago with no particular plans or hurry to get there. Just outside of Louisville, we decided it might be fun to visit Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) and found out there was a museum. We arrived there around lunchtime and managed to catch up with a tour that had just left to view the track. It's definitely a sight to behold. The amount of money that goes into a two minute horse race once a year is a little overwhelming.

Next we toured the museum for a while and caught a movie. Not only was the movie well done and insightful, it was presented in one of the most original theaters I've ever seen. it was oval shaped, and had screens around the entire wall. It created a beautiful way of showing panoramic images, including a full 360 degree view of the track. The only improvement that could be made is swivel chairs instead of stools. Other than that, I was really impressed.

After that enjoyable stop, we headed across town to grab lunch at Whole Foods before heading North again. Along the way we passed through Indianapolis, but didn't find a reason to stop. We had an interesting experience with diesel fuel at a truck stop and managed to find out the hard way that the rapid fill pumps for semis don't work well with our truck. We found this out by repeatedly covering both ourselves and the side of the truck in fuel.

After that minor fiasco we headed North and considered a detour through the ghost town of Gary, Indiana before finding that we were forced to make the side trip as a construction detour. I definitely see why it's considered a ghost town at this point. Also of note was that Molly and I had exactly the amount of cash/change necessary for the toll road between the two of us. Navigating Chicago was a whole different beast of its own. Our GPS became useless for a good while as many of the roads it was giving us were low clearance (we need 13' or more) or restricted truck traffic. After winding our way around Chicago towards Evanston (our hotel destination) we thought we had nearly made it when we found our path to the hotel obscured with less that a quarter mile to go. We had to zig-zag our way North a fair number of blocks before we finally found a street that had clearance to get under the Chicago rapid transit rail lines. Don't even get me started on the parking.

At this point we were starving and managed to find a nice little Italian place for dinner. The food was tasty, and cravings for dessert ensued. We wound up at Ben & Jerrys and fixed that problem. The preliminary plan for tomorrow is to park the truck north of town and ride the rapid transit lines into downtown and spend the majority of the day there. I'm excited - first time in the main part of Chicago. This city is huge.

Last Day in Nashville

Today got off to a nice relaxed start. I woke up and did a nice workout for just about two hours while watching the Tour De France individual time trial. It's really nice to have something genuinely interesting to watch while working out. I'd be watching it anyway, so I may as well get the workout in as well. I met up with long lost friend and mentor Brent McClun who I knew in Alaska. He now lives in the area and it was great to catch up a bit after not having seen him for three or four years.

After lunch Molly and I decided to go check out the Grand Ole Opry. I had a basic understanding of what it was all about, but checking out the museum really gave me a perspective for the incredibly important role the Opry has played in the development in country music and music in general. We didn't get to see the inside of the main stage, but it was still a good experience. Next door we checked out a Gibson guitar retailer briefly and I bought some shorts for work, and then we decided to see Wall-E. It was decent, but after all the hype and people calling it epic, I was a little let down. The first 15-20 minutes set it up to be really good, but then after that it felt a little cartoony. I think I was expecting something a little darker and deeper. But hey, it's a G rated Pixar film. It has to have a happy ending.

For dinner we met back up with Nate and tried out a taco place. The food was really cheap and pretty good, and I ended up with a lot of food. If I went to Vanderbilt, I could definitely see eating there fairly often. Tomorrow Nate will be staying in Nashville an extra day, and Molly and I are going to leave town early headed towards Wisconsin and see how far we feel like going. We may drive all day and end up in Pleasant Prarie, or we may get sidetracked along the way and end up doing somethig fun. I'm game either way.

BBQ and Honky Tonk

Tonight we got dinner at an excellent BBQ Place called Jack's. I got the combo, including pulled pork, beef brisket, and sausage. It was some of the better BBQ I've ever had, and probably the most authentic. After that we headed next door to listen to some live music. We heard the Western Swingers, and they were rather good and definitely enjoyable. Next we headed up the street a bit to find another band. They took far too long to set up, and in the mean time I said hi to my friend Jack, as Nate put it (Jack is from the area). The band wasn't anything amazing, and Molly, Nate, and Nate's girlfriend headed back to the hotel. I stayed another couple songs and headed down the street just for the sake of wandering. I had an interesting encounter with a large and somewhat menacing homeless guy who was nice enough that I was ready to buy him some food assuming he was actually hungry, but as it turns out he wasn't going for me being willing to put some food on my card and instead was rather ATM focused. Long story short, he was looking for a "hotel" and I managed to talk/trick him out of getting anything out of me at all.

In other news, if I get a chance tomorrow night, I'd like to check out B.B. King's Blues Joint.

Nashville by Day

After a morning workout, a conference call, and watching the exciting and unexpected finish of today's Tour stage, Molly and I headed downtown to do some more exploring. We went along part of the same route I took last night before branching off to the Northern part of downtown. We saw the original Presbyterian Church, the State Capitol building, Several Court Buildings, Printer's Alley, the Bicentennial Mall, and then I headed off West to to Centennial Park. Centennial Park is home to a replica of the Greek Parthenon (either at 1:1 scale or 2:3 scale) which is slightly odd. There's really nothing Greek about this city as far as I can tell.















There are also plenty of Canada Geese.














I headed through the northern edge of Vanderbilt's campus, stopped at RiteAid for some shaving cream and multivitamins, and now I'm back at the hotel before dinner.

Nashville on a Sunday Night

After writing that last post, I decided to wander downtown and see what Nashville was all about.

First off, let me say that I keep tricking myself into thinking it's going to cool off at night so far this trip (I know it will eventually happen further north), but as a result I went dressed in one fleece jacket too many.

Second, it's becoming all too apparent that I need a better camera and a better phone. This problem will be solved shortly.

Anyway, I first started off by investigating the large hole in the ground near our hotel, which will eventually turn into a multi-use high rise owned by Intercontinental Group. I continued towards downtown and came upon some fabulous old architecture, including the Union Station Hotel and the Customs House.







(Customs House)







Next I came upon the main strip of bars, saloons, and clubs in downtown. I was rather surprised by the number of people out on a Sunday night, and equally surprised by the loud live music at most bars. This city is known for country, but if one were to judge solely by the drinking scene, it would be a confusing mix of country, jazz, and hip hop. There were also an abundance of cowboy boots for sale, but no one out drinking seemed to be wearing them.







(Numerous boots)







I saw the oddly-shaped AT&T building up close, and made my way down to the riverfront to catch a glimpse of LP Field, where the Tennessee Titans play home games. Near the river I found Coyote Ugly. I took a quick look at Fort Nashborough (not much to see in the dark) and looped my way back around towards the hotel. On the way back, I took a closer look at Sommet Center, the home ice arena for the NHL's Nashville Predators.















As a whole, I was impressed with the livelihood of the city on a Sunday night. Downtown has a very clean, cozy feel with music pouring into the streets and lots of cute girls who aren't afraid to say hi to you.

From Atlanta to Nashville

Today I woke up somewhat early to watch stage 2 of the Tour De France, only to find that Versus had no signal. As disappointing as that was, I did get to watch the first sets of the Wimbledon finals, which was pretty epic. We got free breakfast because we are "elite" Marriot members - people who have been on the tour for a while have racked up lots of nights of stays. This last weekend has been my first on the concierge level, with free meals and perks. Definitely a nice bonus. We left Atlanta for Nashville about noon, which unfortunately meant I missed the conclusion of said epic tennis match, but I was pleased that later today I did get to watch the finishing part of stage 2 of the Tour.

The drive from Atlanta to Nashville was fairly uneventful, but I got to drive one of the trucks on the highway, which pretty much confirmed that I'll be perfectly comfortable driving a larger vehicle. I rode with Molly and it was good to get to know her a bit better and hear a little bit of back story, considering we went to the same college and are now somewhat randomly on the road together on the other side of the country. We went through Chatanooga, Tennessee and didn't really get to see it, but it still has a cool name and is therefore worth mentioning. We arrived in Nashville in the middle part of the afternoon and immediately checked into our hotel, the Hotel Indigo, a modern, stylish place to stay in a good location. It's a little difficult to describe the styling other than modern making use of wood, brushed aluminum, and quirky artwork, so perhaps some pictures are in order.

I caught up online a bit and we headed to dinner at a place near the Vanderbilt campus that had a 2 for 1 special on both pizza and beer. We ended up with lots of good food and drink for a pretty reasonable price, and Nate gave us the rundown both on his past schooling and leading up to this position, as well as a really insightful take on what this job is all about. We just got back to the hotel, and now I get to figure out what to do with the rest of the evening. I may make it an early night, or I may stay up a while and find something interesting to do.

Last day in Atlanta

Today got off to a lazy start by watching stage 1 of the Tour De France live on TV. They've changed the format a bit this year, and instead of the traditional prologue, they jumped right in to racing stage 1. It made for an exciting finish, but I don't know if I like the change. Stephen (Crocs retail manager working the tour - also a cyclist) and I headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and then the majority of the afternoon was spent geocaching in the Atlanta area. We visited spots near Piedmont Park, Georgia Tech University, a random totem pole, and a cool area back in the woods with an old tower and stream. I found a log crossing the stream and felt compelled to walk on it.



Also near the tower and stream was a sign that dumbfounded all of us.




















... we ended up parking in an area for "van pool only" so we probably should have just followed the signs and parked in the unauthorized contractors area as that was the more accurate of the two for our situation.

We headed back to the hotel and went 0 for 3 on caches near the hotel downtown on our way to dinner. Dinner was decent Mexican food, following which we headed back to the hotel to get on the internet for a while, and here I am.

Tomorrow we'll be headed to Nashville, TN to relax for a few days and reorganize the trucks prior to heading to Pleasant Prarie, Wisconsin for an event this upcoming weekend.

Also, make sure to check back a few entries from time to time, as I'm adding more pictures to those entries as I get them on my computer.

Peachtree 10K/4th of July

Today got off to an early start with an alarm going off at 5:30AM to take the MARTA to the starting line for the Peachtree 10K running race. It's the largest 10K in the country, with approximately 55,000 participants. We dressed up in Crocs gear (including the shoes) for the run in order to do some grassroots marketing. It was a blast, especially with the looks of disbelief that we got for running in Crocs. We actually managed to pass a fair number of runners (especially on the hills) and were able to impress upon numerous participants our message of Crocs as great recovery shoes to change into.



They were even really comfortable to run in for the most part. The race itself was a blast (the crowd atmosphere was great, and the sheer number of people was astounding).

After the race, we hung out at the hotel for a while, had free concierge breakfast, and headed out to the World of Coca Cola. The entry fee was a bit steep, but it was cool to be surrounded by advertising from one of the world's best-known brands. We got to try Coke brands from all across the world (Beverly from Italy was particularly bitter).



Following that, we had a nice seafood dinner and headed back to the hotel, where we watched the downtown fireworks display from the balcony.

Overall, a great day filled with lots of new, exciting experiences. Tomorrow sounds like a laid-back day (our last in Atlanta) that should include some geocaching and possibly a behind the scenes tour at CNN.

Beginnings

The last week has been incredibly rushed, but not to the point of chaos. It's hard to believe that a week and a day ago, I was just finishing a vacation in Utah to see my parents' new place and relax a bit after graduation. I applied for a really interesting traveling marketing job while on vacation, and managed to set up an in-person interview for the day after I got back to Eugene (only a week ago). I was hired almost immediately, and set to three intense days of packing my belongings in storage to head up to Portland Monday morning for training. The job is representing Crocs at major running, triathlon, and cycling events across the country. We get to work at expos, finish line display, as well as grassroots/guerilla marketing efforts surrounding events. Monday's training went quickly, and after a brief dinner excursion with a friend who currently has a sweet Nike internship, I boarded a plane for Atlanta, Georgia to meet up with the rest of my team.

I arrived in Atlanta after a nice long red-eye and got to experience the MARTA public train system, which was surprisingly efficient. I checked into the hotel and took a nap while waiting for the team to arrive in the 16 foot box trucks I'll be driving around the country for the next 5.5 months. Only one of the trucks was due to arrive on Tuesday, as the other truck had broken down on the way from Colorado. They arrived in the late afternoon and I got to learn set-up first hand as we put together the display for our booth at the expo for the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10K race in the country (estimated 55,000 participants). Set-up went smoothly and I went to dinner with a brand ambassador and retail manager I'll be working with for the duration of the tour.

Wednesday was the first day of the expo, and turnout was a little low partly due to it being the middle of the week, and partly because race packets had been mailed out which reduced the incentive to come to the expo. Regardless, I got a good handle on how the data capture surveys work, the types of premiums we'll be giving away, Crocs shoe models in general (my first pair were Tikalis) and how expos work. We also managed to get free entries into the race thanks to some connections at Reebok (title sponsor of the event) and will be running it in the morning in full Crocs garb (including Beaches on the feet) as some fun grassroots marketing exposure since we don't have to do a finish line setup for this event.

Today the expo was much busier and went smoothly, other than the freight elevator being broken during takedown, which resulted in some creative improvisation and alternate routes to get large displays down several stories to the truck. Overall, the experience has been great so far, and I'm looking forward to several more days in Atlanta with more free time to really get a better for the city.

This blog will attempt to serve as a record of many of the unique and interesting experiences I have on the road for the rest of the year. Once I have an iPhone (July 11 or shortly thereafter), this blog should become much more interesting as I'll start throwing lots of pictures in. In the mean time, expect lots of text descriptions. This should be fun.