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.