AlphabetSoup

Day 5: Sunday, July 27

Another travel day, and so far not a good one for DoubleTree Airport Hotel in Hartford.

I was supposed to get an 8:00am wake up call, which did not happen. My phone alarm went off at 9:00am, and I was supposed to be on the 9:15am airport shuttle, but that apparently didn’t get logged either as the shuttle came and went without me, or even a call to ask where I was.

But I did make the 9:30 shuttle, was all checked in by 9:40am (even though my name was misspelled on the reservation).

Then my own stupidity kicked in. Since I missed my wake up call, I never got to repack my backpack. And since I didn’t do this, I didn’t see that I had one of the Leatherman knives from the merch truck in my bag, and tried to pass it through security.

Good news fellow air travelers, after a bag scan, a partial bag unpack, a second bag scan, and remainder unpack, they found it. I chose to mail it to myself at the hotel we are scheduled to stay at in Hartford when we come back to the US on Saturday. I hope it gets there.

Then I had to go through security again, this time I was clean.

All was well from Hartford to Philly. But as of now, I am still in Philly. As of 3:00pm, I am waiting to board my 1:45pm flight.

There some severe, severe thunderstorms right over the airport right now.

Updates to come…

Day 4: Saturday, July 26

This day takes the cake for insanity…

My mission was to drive the 30-foot Penske to Hartford, and leave it with a colleague. We would get it from him when we got back to the US.

My original plan was to drive to Hartford, leave the truck in the parking lot of his school, take a train to Hartford, and stay in a hotel, and fly out to Montreal on Sunday.

Andrew Zolov, our colleague, was vending the Avril Levigne/Jonas Brothers show at the Meadows Amphitheater (it had a longer corporate sponsored name, but I don’t remember). He suggested that I drop off the truck at the Amphitheater, and if I wanted to, he could use my services for the show, and I can make a little extra money.

I agreed.

And I am not sure why.

I arrived at the Amphitheater around 2:45pm, and immediately went to work helping set up a stand. Not sure I was much help, but I don’t think I hurt anything.

The venue has 5 stands, and this stand was going to have 12 people working it. I was going to take a bag of trinkets, and walk around.

I had no idea what I was in for.

The number of pre-teen, teen, and post-teen girls in one place. The amount of money they all brought, and that un-human high-pitched squeal they all produce was beyond the charts.

There must have been 30-40 different items to choose from at each stand. It was merchandise-insanity. If you can screen an image on it, they had it for sale.

When the gates opened at 6:00pm, it was like the ship was sinking and 10,000 girls were running for the 1 available life vest.

But it was a nice day, I made a little extra cash, and I wasn’t bored in a hotel room by the Hartford Airport.

Day 3: Friday, July 25

Today was a crazy day.

My first show day of the tour: Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

I had to go pick up a 30-foot Penske truck, and drive it to the Wachovia Center so we could cross load all the merchandise from the semi-truck to the Penske. Apparently, it is cheaper and easier to ship merchandise into Canada than to drive it across on a semi-truck.

In south Philly, people park their cars everywhere. Both sides of the street, in the median, anywhere a car can fit. So driving down a narrow one-way street with cars on both sides, in a 30 foot, loud, diesel, freight truck, was a bit nerve racking. But I got back to the Wachovia Center without hitting anything.

After a quick cross load, i got a chance to say hello to all the people from the last tour I was on in 2005. Meet some new people, and walk, walk, walk, all around, in and out, of the Wachovia Center.

After the show, and a good 16-hour work day, I had to drive the now full Penske truck to Hartford (our next US tour stop).

I finally pulled over for the night, around 3:00am, just south of New York City. The Holiday Inn only had smoking rooms available, so I took it. I needed some sleep, and I really didn’t care about the room, and I had to get up and hit the road by 10:00am, the next morning.

Good night.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 23

Very uneventful travel day. Everything went according to plan and on
schedule.

Sat next to a nice elderly couple on the plane. They have been married 50 years! He was reading his bible as she told me stories about her husband’s sales career, including a stint as a tropical fish salesman.

Grabbed a cab from the airport to the hotel. The cabbie insisted that I sit in the front seat because he trusted me. He only does taxi service from the airport because he is more confident that the people he picks up don’t have guns. Did I mention Philly has a crime problem?

Beautful hotel. Very nice room on the 25th floor with a view. Can’t say it is great, but when you are 25 stories up, it is hard not to have a view.

Hit a local bar around the corner called then Filed House. Watching the Indians tease me with 10-14 losing situation at the moment.

Back to the hotel for a good night sleep and a day on the town tomorrow. Eric and the rest of the crew should be driving in from Chicago around 4:00pm.

Day 1. Easy.

This is my first post from the new WordPress iPhone app.

Awesome.

This will make blogging from the road so much easier.

Back to packing, more to come.