Where I've Been - One Month Left

Hello AGAIN from Columbus, OH. Pretty sure this has been my most frequented location of tour...and let me check - Yep, according to foursquare it has been (47 check-ins here to be exact).

Well, I only have ONE MONTH left of tour now, which is so stinking crazy! And to be precise, I have 29 days until I'm on a plane back "home" (which is going to be NC at this time) and because we have to drop the vehicle/trailer off in Wisconsin & finish up work in Chicago before we fly home...technically I only have 25 days left of actual "event" work. I cannot believe that it's almost been a year & that I've been living out of hotels for almost ten months now. Ha.

I could officially do this at the very end of tour, but I feel like writing about it now, the "best & worst" of Map Team 1 (aka Team Jetfire) from my perspective & a review of the last 9+ months.

We've been to 23 states, driven approximately 39,000 miles...visited countless cities, (I) made it to 12 MLB stadiums and 2 Spring Training stadiums. Our most common event to do in our "free time" is shopping, whether it was just window shopping or actual shopping, we found ourselves in a mall in basically every city that had one. My favorite cities were, Orlando (probably because it was right after spending a MONTH in Indianapolis in February...), Kansas City, State College, PA & Milwaukee (disclaimer: when we visited these cities, the weather was PERFECT & usually the events were fun, which had to do with my "decision" on this). My least favorite cities were; Annapolis, Maryland...rude people, nothing special to look at or do, Wheeling, WV - terrible, just terrible...oh & I also disliked the entire state of New Jersey.

Let's talk food: Best cupcake (and we tried SEVERAL) goes to Smallcakes Cupcakery in Kansas City, which is also where I had the best BBQ of my LIFE...at Oklahoma Joes! Best Brazilian place (we tried a couple) was at Brazil Grill in NYC on 8th & 48th, most of the staff spoke Portuguese & according to Michelle, the food was pretty authentic! We had a running theme of finding "fro-yo" in places & basically Menchie's has the best. And the best brew I tried along the way (didn't have much of an opportunity for this) was White Beer from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee.

While at work: My favorite event to work as far as the "cool-factor" goes, was probably the Jets/Giants Draft Party at New Meadowlands Stadium (aka MetLife Stadium). While I enjoyed working NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, PGA, LPGA, NCAA & Minor League Baseball events...that one really stuck out since I actually got to go on the field (first time EVER on an NFL field) and be a part of the action, it was really fun! The most interesting event has to go to the Lunar New Year event in NYC, our very first event! It was SO different than any other event we worked & will forever stick out in my mind like, yeah...I just did that (along with driving a SUV & trailer through Manhattan!) Another cool event was the series of Droid Scavenger Hunts we did for the launch of the Samsung Charge...it was really fun to be a part of something so interesting & viral-marketing driven! The only "celebrities" I saw/met were, Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns while in Indianapolis, Jack Nicklaus in Dublin, OH and I got to meet Dan Mead, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless, while at State College, PA.

While at play: My favorite thing we did on our day off is when Kevin & I were able to go to Universal Studios in Orlando to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I have a whole blog post about it back in March, if you haven't read it...you should. :) I also very much enjoyed going to sporting events, I got to see baseball games at Yankee Stadium in New York, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and Miller Park in Milwaukee as well as the Braves vs Tigers spring training game at the ESPN, Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, FL! And just recently I was able to watch the Red Wings take on the Blackhawks in a pre-season game in Chicago at the United Center!

The most beautiful place we went would have to be Traverse City, Michigan, and I would say it's because I'm biased...but looking back on all the places, that really was the most beautiful in my opinion. It also had my favorite hotel we stayed at...the Great Wolf Lodge, which we stayed at by force, due to a complete sell-out of hotels for the National Cherry Festival!

I think that pretty much sums it up for now, hopefully I can do a more complete overview with some exciting stuff to throw in from these next 25 days! Hope this posts finds you all well, MUAH!