Welcome To Loo-a-vul Y'all!

Welcome to Lousiville! Ever the polite southerners, they welcome us with class and style as we walked down to the Fourth Street Ward for lunch today.

I got in from OH on Wednesday evening, was downtown Chicago on Thursday working at a facility there, and then I took off again on Friday afternoon for this wonderful conference I'm attending. I'll be here for 5 days/nights. Got in on Friday and I'll be leaving later on Wednesday.

Its a little disappointing as I thought I would come and have a little fun over the weekend maybe shopping around and doing some other things, however, I've discovered that there's really not much going on in ...........................................

Turns out - there's nothing downtown Louisville! I couldn't get into the Marriott hotel where the conference was being held, so I booked myself down about 4 blocks from the hotel at the Residence Inn. So, Friday night, I got in around 6:30ish and decided that I was going to stroll down to the Marriott to make sure I knew where I was going and maybe do some window shopping. Instead of strolling, I ended up with quite the brisk pace as buildings were boarded up, homeless people were lying in the gutter (literally) and about 4 men called out to me with "hey baby", "hi'ya sunshine" and other such terms of cat-calling. Hmmm - this was all at 7pm in broad daylight!

Today our meetings started and I actually bumped into a few friends so we headed the opposite way of my hotel for lunch and we ran into the Fourth Street which is actually packed full of restaurants of all kinds. It was not a bad area, but it was definitely a littel pocket in a big city.

Then, after my meetings at 4, I had been wanting to go and buy a few new outfits so I thought that I'd head over to a mall, hoping there would be a Banana Republic or J. Crew... When I asked after shopping, the concierge brightly said "Oh! You're in luck! There's an art fair going on!" And then I explained that I wanted to do some clothes shopping and her face fell a little, but then she grabbed a map and started giving me directions -- to the Thrift Store. I said "no Thrift Store" and she said, "the Hilton next door has some cute sweater sets in their gift shop!". NO! Turns out, as the concierge put it, Louisville really doesn't have a lot of shopping downtown. THATS JUST SAD! It leads me to believe that their banners strung up along the city's lamposts really do have a point!

" Welcome to POSSIBILITY City" -- they need to add -- "its possibility because we got us some work to do!"

FYI -- its the Kentucky Derby this week. Last night when I got in, there were tons of people pouring out of hotels with ball gowns on because it was the Derby Gala. Tonight, its the opening of Churchill Downs - they say there are about 45,000 people there tonight. This morning, the city was all chopped up with barriers as they had the infamous Derby Mini Marathon. I was disappointed I didn't realize this as I probably would have run it since it was just a mini. It would have given me something to do while I'm stuck here in the Possibility City.....
In case you want to check it out - here's the Churchill Downs link http://www.churchilldowns.com/

Can You Believe This Is All In Ohio?!

Today was a little screwed up again as my customer service had to overnight some product to me at the hospital - but it was actually quicker for me to drive the hour from Canton to Cleveland and pick the product up myself. So - I didn't actully get scrubs on and back into processing until about 11 ish and then I spent a few hours doing hook ups and in-servicing for the product. As it is - they shipped the product wrong - I was supposed to get ONE CASE, which would be two units. However, instead, they shipped ONE UNIT. So - I have to drive back to Cleveland tomorrow to pick the second container up which they're shipping today. At least, once I get the second product back and finish up with everything, I get to head back to Cleveland to catch a flight home! Yea!

I took a quick hour to stop by some other infamous Canton landmarks later in the afternoon.

My first stop was the First Ladies National Museum. Part of the museum is in the Saxton House which was President McKinley's wife's, Ida, family home. McKinley was from Canton but this house is the only remaining house that has links to McKinley. There is also an old bank next door that contains a big library and another exhibit for the first ladies. Both of these building had both been redone and were absolutely beautiful buildings.


This is the staircase in the Saxton-McKinley house. It was just gorgeous and was very well done.

The other famous location I stopped by, but didn't tour (I didn't really tour the First Ladies Museum either, but I walked through part of it) was the Pro Footbal Hall of Fame. I bypassed the ticket booth where adult tickets were going for $38!!!! I probably wouldn't have even paid $2 to tour the place, but I did beeline for the gift shop! :)

And now you've had a mini tour of the famous spots in Canton, OH. I tried to snap a few shots of the local Amish, but they were speeding by so quicly in their little buggies that all you could see were flashes of white and black as their caps whizzed by. They have one of the world's largest Amish colonies in this area.

Oh - here's a little tidbit to add on from yesterday's blog. So, I found out that the name Cuyahoga (which is what the river is here that feeds into the Ohio) is from an Indian word (surprise!) Kaihoghha which actually means "crooked". If you looked at an aerial view of the Cuyahoga River, its distance "as the crow flies" is about 30 miles in length, but because of all the snaking and twisting, it actually runs for 90 miles. Crazy! It really is a beautiful area with cliffs and waterfalls and all kinds of nature. Can't wait to get back to run more of the Canal trail!

Cold, Wet - But Happy!

Up at 3:30 a.m., out the door at 4:15 a.m., parking at 5:10 a.m., in security line at 5:20 a.m., on plane at 5:40 a.m., airplane door shut at 6 a.m. - sitting on the runway at 6:30 a.m.....

And so begins my week back on the road. I was spoiled to have two weeks as a normal person back in my own bed, with my dog, in my car for 14 whole days -- and now I must pay.

It didn't turn out all bad, though. I finally got into the Cleveland airport (where their airport code of CLE is paraodied in all the bathrooms with a sign above the sink that reads "Help us put the CLE back in CLEan" -- LAME? Vote here....) It didn't take me long to get my feet on the ground, my suitcase in my hand and my rental car seat - well - under my seat. And so I was on my way to Canton, OH for a 3 day product trial.

If you recall from a few weeks back, I blogged about being in Angry Akron, OH with the heavily obesse, irritanted Ohioians. Whats very amusing to me is that I discovered, today, that even though Akron is a mere 10 miles from Canton, the people of Canton are completely different. The Cantonites are amazingly delightful people who say HI at every corner, laugh at your lame jokes and skip down the hall to the OR rooms (okay, maybe not quite skip, but they definitely had a happy little jaunt for being a Monday morning).

As my product hadn't all arrived, we spent the morning/afternoon trying to track things down and arrange for a morning set up and then I got to take off! Yea!

Here's a little something for all you iPod users out there. You HAVE to download the Yelp! app. Its phenominal and its tells you everything! I've gotten so addicted as I can look up restaurants, stores - everything on Yelp! All you do is put in what you're looking for and where you're looking for it and this list pops up. And whats even better is that subscribers of Yelp! can then add their comments to whatever so you can go through and find out if the restaurant is good or if the park is worth stopping at or an auto repair shop is reliable. And, in the case of today - I found the most amazing running trail ever ever ever!

Jenny Andersen - I have to tell you that I love your homeland of Cuyhoga Falls! I had Yelped the Cuyhoga Valley National Park and had been drooling since last Thursday to strap on my trail shoes and hit the gravel path in the CVNP.

It had been raining all morning, but I had this urge in me to get outside, even if it was pouring. And my wish came true. It was a little drizzly when I first got to the Park parking lot, I took off running and not long after it really started coming down. The longer I ran the harder it came down until, at the end of the run, I was entirely drenched to the point that I could barely even see. It was awesome! I would have definitely stayed on the trail longer if it hadn't been raining, but I got a good hour and some minutes in - not quite sure how far I went as the trail wasn't exactly marked and I was so sopped that I didn't want to stand looking at the map to figure out distance. I could have gone on forever though - and I think the trail actually last forever. It was just a gorgeous trail and it was continually different so that it was just an awesome intriguing run.

Here's the scoop - There's the Erie canal in NY and then they built the Ohio-Erie Canal in OH to connect Lake Erie and the Ohio River via the Cuyhoga River. Here's a little link to dear old Wikipedia with more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_and_Erie_Canal

I was thinking as I ran, that I should write a book about sad American stories. There are so many places around the U.S. that were cities that had families and houses and business and churches and they were there one day and then, you blink, and they were gone just because times changed and people thought of bigger and better things.

So is the case with the Canal system in the U.S. They used to transport things via the canal systems, and then the train system came along and it took over and bypassed the boats and soon, all the towns that had been built up because of the canals were extinct.

I know that the Sparta bike trail up in WI is a trail system built on an old train line - its a rails to trails system that dots the country. Its great that they make use of these old lines, but its sad that a whole culture of the U.S. has to disappeared.

So the Cuyohoga Valley trail runs alongside the old canal and also by the railroad track (took over the canal system, but still in use). Here are some picts of my rainy run on the Cuyhoga....

Here is one of the sad stories referred to - that town of Botzum that disappeared. They now have a little train stop there thats a "tribute" to Botzum but is also an actual train stop.

I was thoroughly soak and a little cold, but its always the best feeling ever to be all wet and muddy after a great run outdoors!

And back "home" to North Canton - the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame!

Book Review #4 - As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me

I just finished reading another book. I had gone on-line to find a picture of the Norwegian guy who escaped occupied Norway and I came upon this book and thought it sounded interesting. I was actually just googling the book to find a picture and discovered that this has also been made into a movie as of 2001 -- I believe its a German movie or some foreign film so I'm presuming subtitled.

An awesome book because its an awesome story. Absolutely unbelievable! It was a little quircky to read, though, as there were no chapters. It was just one long story and then in between events, they would have a few astericks under the paragraph and then just start another event. It was hard to find a good stopping place as you didn't have that "I'll just put it down once I finish this chapter" thing going on. I made it through all the same.

The story follows a German prisoner of war who was taken into captivity by the Soviets. He was taken from his home in Munish into Siberia to almost the very opposite edge. Just the journey to get there originally was amazing. They ended up bringing tons of the prisoners to work in lead mines and from there he escaped. The story does follow him as he served time for several years in the mines before he actually decided to escape.

It took him 3 years to get across Siberia and then he entered in Tukey and asked for assylum and they ended up shipping him back home to Germany.

Seriously - a nail biting story that will definitely keep you reading!

Snow And Calvin's Determination

The other morning we woke up to this glorious blanket of white covering the ground -- that was tongue in cheek -- it was a horrific morning in April! I mean, seriously - it was 80 the week before, and now we've got snow again. Come on! The good news is that it was pretty much all melted by the late afternoon and we could see the green grass again.