At my old job I used to spend a lot of time on the road. I look back on those days of constant travel and homelessness with a deep fondness; a fondness so deep it sort of creeps me out a bit. I love to go places and see things, and I used to get paid to do just that. So when our fearless yet wacky leader, Greg said "You're going to Milwaukee for five days to do this thing." I said "uh...sure." My reserved response belied the excitement I felt because, bitch, I ain't never even been to Milwaukee! Now, work travel can go one of two ways. It can be the best time you've ever had because you're traveling on the company dime, or it can be just like working, and they don't call it work for nothing. The good part is that you get to decide. This is America, damnit! If you've ever had to work a trade show, you know how that goes. If you've never had to work a tradeshow for your job, first let me congratulate you on your life choices and second, they don't call it work for nothing, but there are far worse things one can be forced to do than sitting around inside talking to good people about bikes that you think kick ass. We aren't exactly building the Kolyma Highway here....
Seeing as that I'm a big fan of doing things I've never done before, and having never been to Milwuakee I was pretty excited for this trip. It's a place I've always heard a lot about, but never really understood why there was this mystique surrounding it. Everyone always gets this weird look in their eyes when they talk about Milwaukee. There's some sort of embarassed exhilartion that comes across people's faces when they talk about it. It's as though when they were there they did something they feel like they should regret, but don't and all they can do is warn you that the same thing will happen to you once you're there. I've never seen people have that reaction to a place, so I was pretty excited to go.
Turns out, the most disappointing thing about Milwaukee is that they put ice in their mimosas, which I just find very odd.... T$ and I hit the ground running, hooking up with Zito and from there the raging only subsided for short stints of work whereupon we talked to people about the finer details of what makes Surly Bikes so bitchin' and watching people come back smiling from the Fatbike demos. The people sure do love their Fatbikes.... Normally I'd have much much higher standards when it comes to the photos I post on the blog but I think the blurriness of this photo accurately represents what my vision was like for most of the trip and what we did while we weren't working/sleeping. I swear, when I took the photo it looked like it was in perfect focus. Go to Milwaukee. I command thee.
