Sea Otter

It was supposed to not happen, and then less than 24 hours before the show was due to begin I received an ultimatum; “Be in the USA for the Sea Otter”

So I went, and was there. Did other fun stuff other than work, stopped briefly in Santa Cruz, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, drank beers with friends very old and very new, and went riding.

But did I do a productive weeks work, was I really useful over there… no comment.

But I learned a few things, about the work to be done over there, of the work we still have to do over here. And I missed my family, and couldn’t wait to be home.

Road trippin’ USA

After two days and 1000+ miles, I am certain of this; It’s big this USofA thing…

Day one we set of at 9am, two hour long stops with people we needed to see, and got to our Bates Motel at 10pm.

I’ve discovered that Sacramento is probably the most vile city I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting – though I know we didn’t stay in the good part of town nor have any time to go find them. The bad bits found us though and it was a relief to get out of there.

Not such a relief was the hour chosen, 7am…. which meant another night of five hours sleep… A loooong drive through NorCal (oddly enough we didn’t stray from the I5 interstate for the whole journey) saw us pass a whole lot of… well nothing really. It’s big, and when driving in relay – very dull.

What was less dull was the monstrous works truck, about the length (though less volume) than a medium Sprinter van, but with a stonking V10 350hb engine and automatic.

Obviously not a supercar, but jeez what a crazy machine for those of us used to European diesel vans… yup, your’e right; the Ford was a petrol (or Gas as they like to call it) and therefore drunk about a supertankers worth of fuel on the drive.

Anyways, we made a quick stop in at Answer Manitou – said hello to some of the guys there. Then hit some wonderful traffic and finally arrived at the destination at about 9pm…

Sushi for dinner, a great nights sleep and now been woken up by bright sunlight pouring in the bedroom…. last time to pack my stuff, and back to the airport later this afternoon for the flight home!

Sick as a dog in the US of A

26 hours travelling….
Several beers
one new MacBook

…and I’m feeling better already!

In Portland this week (sooo close to Whistler – yet so far…!)

Boys tend to make such a fuss when they are ill, but I’m suffering here…

Some kind soul on the plane was obviously a modern day Typhoid Mary – and kindly infected me with a right stinker of a cold.

Feverish, sore joints, hacking chesty cough do not make for a pleasant sight. There goes all pretence of being the suave Englishman…

I’d love to be tucked up in bed, with honey & lemon drinks upon the hour… instead I’m working in the cold warehouse and feeling sorry for myself…

But it’s been a great trip; mission accomplished – and we are loading the stock onto trucks this afternoon.

Then back to the hotel, I’ll cry off the planned trip to see Portlands nightlife, and instead curl up under the duvet with my Walgreens cold & Flu relief…

Then tomorrow we hit the road in the big old works van… driving down through NorCal back in time for my flight out of LAX on Saturday.

Looking forward to being home!

PIC: Is of the warehouse taken from a really cool chocolate / pattiserie shop over the road. Expensive but the Lat’es have kept us going these past few days!