Here are some pictures from our team training camp compliments of our star photographer – John Robichaud.

enjoy!

Yesterday morning at 7:07 local Hawaii time, I was awakened by the sound of glass breaking, pictures falling off the walls, lamps crashing to the floor and the fear that our building had just been hit by a bomb.

In my confused state, I called my wife, Brooke, who is on the mainland and started to explain to her what had just happened to me and she said “Get out of there, it sounds like an earthquake.” I’m not sure why my first instinct wasn’t to get out of there as fast as I could and was pretty calm and collected considering now what we had all just lived through.

Just as I was finishing my call with Brooke, an aftershock hit and I finally decided it was ready to high tail it out of the condo. As I left my condo, all of my fellow team was standing outside already and was yelling at me to get out of the building.

It is hard to explain my thought process but through the entire ordeal, I never felt scared or threatened until the hotel workers next door was yelling at people to go to higher ground for fear that a Tsunami could strike at any time. It’s amazing how fast a natural disaster hits you and you have no time to react.

My condo was trashed. Every picture on the walls either fell down or was hanging crooked, all of the kitchen cupboards opened up and spit out wine glasses, coffee mugs, bowls and an entire spice cabinet. Broken glass was in the living room 12 feet away from the kitchen, in the bathroom and down the garbage disposal.

Since the power was out over the entire island of Hawaii, it was difficult to find food anywhere in town and all of the supermarkets suffered major damage and were closed. Cell phones were not even working. It’s at that time when you go into survival mode and reality sets in and it’s very frightening.

I am very thankful that we are all safe here and appreciate life that much more knowing that it can be taken from you at any time. Thanks to everyone who called or emailed yesterday concerned about our safety.

On September 30th, I will be getting married to the woman of my dreams.  How do I define the term “Woman of my dreams?”  Well besides the fact that she is the most beautiful person both inside and out, she has agreed that a grilled burrito bar for our rehearsal dinner cooked by yours truly would be awesome!  I get to share my passion for burritos and grilling with my closest friends and family and this makes me happy.

I will be making a few homemade salsa’s to go with the feast and will include (but are not limited to) my fresh tomato salsa, cucumber mango and a black bean and corn relish.  I made a test batch of the relish and tomato salsa to bring in to Timex and share with the unknowing test pilots yesterday.  The salsa was a hit and a few had asked for the recipe so here it is.  If you don’t like cilantro and garlic…you may want to skip this one.

Meyer’s Salsa

28oz can whole Tomatoes
½ small onion diced fine
1 small Jalapeño seeded and diced
1 clove garlic minced
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ green pepper diced fine
Juice of one lime
1 tbsp cider or red wine vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Puree the tomatoes and juice in a food processor or blender to your desired consistency.
Add all remaining ingredients.
Place in refrigerator overnight.

I recommend a good blue corn tortilla chip to serve with.
Want more of Meyer’s salsa recipes?  Post a comment below with your request and i’ll add ‘em.  (I can make some mean guacamole too…)

Day 2 of the show yesterday (day 4 of the trip) and my legs are definitely starting to show signs of fatigue. Standing for 9 hours per day really starts to take a toll on your support beams making the walk from the show to the hotel like a slow shuffle…only two more days to go.

Conrad Anker spent two hours at our booth yesterday signing posters and chatting with passers by and old friends he has made along the way. Conrad introduced me to a few of his friends including one of the employees for The North Face who works in their new office in Venice, Italy where Brooke and I plan to take our honeymoon next year. It’s great to be connected in the industry!

If you have never been to an Outdoor or bicycle industry trade show, I’m afraid you are missing out. Not only do you get to look at the coolest new gear offerings from every company associated with the particular industry, you can manage to drink free beer for the last two hours of the show each day (if you’re not working of course). I always know when it’s 4pm at the OR show and not because I’m surrounded by 170 Timex watches, it’s the flow of beer that I see with people walking by our booth.

It’s great marketing in my opinion but some companies take the free beer ploy even further. Keen shoes gave away a free pair of shoes and the guys at Optic Nerve Eyewear Company had a stupid human trick contest where each trick earned a free pair of sunglasses. Our friend at Fuel Belt did some trick with his eyes making them twitch back and forth faster than a hummingbird flaps it’s wings…coolest thing I’d ever seen.

Last night’s stage in the Tour of Utah was a circuit race that consisted of a 6.3-mile loop that the field did 8 times in just under one hour and a half and was won by Toyota United Pro team member Chris Baldwin. The event was very well managed and the loop had the cyclists pass through the start finish line 4 times on each loop making it very spectator friendly as well. I saw an old fellow employee, Petar Tomich who now works for the Navigators Cycling team and chatted with him and team director Ed Beamon just before they rolled out on course in the team car.

The night was topped off on my walk home where I witnessed one driver smash in to two cars before becoming wedged in between the Utah public transit train and a Toyota forerunner at an intersection. Myself and another by standard flagged down a police officer then both ran down to the scene to inspect the aftermath and offer our stories on what each of us witnessed. The driver was clearly intoxicated and was very lucky he did not hurt anyone during his drunken rampage. There seemed to be an abundance of people who witnessed everything so I bolted before being interviewed.

Brooke came in to town last night from Wisconsin to get her dress fitting done and so the two of us can meet with the flower and cake crew. Tonight we are going out to dinner with the Timex crew to Log Haven where we will be getting married this coming September so that will be fun!
Thanks for reading.

Yesterday was the first day of the show and traffic was better than expected for Timex and other vendors that I spoke with, so spirits are up in Salt Lake City.

Dean Karnazes was at our booth in the morning signing some of his books and talking with a few of our retailers and was followed up by Conrad Anker who spent two hours in our booth.
I saw some of our Timex Multisport Team sponsors yesterday, Vinu Malik from Fuel Belt, Alan Romick from Headsweats and Talia Herman made a guest appearance in the Spenco booth. Great to see all of you.

The best surprise guest for me was seeing my brother Greg yesterday for the first time in almost two years. He is working with a fly-fishing specialty company out of Montana called Simms Fishing.

Retailers sniffing at the latest offerings from Timex packed our booth back to back with individual meetings and frequent fly by’s from potential new accounts. The new Expedition Tide and temp E compass is getting some serious lookers and the new line of heart rate monitors also seem to find some serious time in the limelight.

So, I managed to pull off what I call the “Mexican Trifecta.” This term is applied when one ingests Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, chicken burrito for lunch and Chili Verde enchiladas for dinner. The lunch time burrito was nothing to write home about but certainly beat the pre packed turkey sandwiches that cost $8.50 at the show cafeteria though!

After dinner we peeked around the corner to see if The Flock of Seagulls were still playing at the industry party but the big hair mullets were no where to be seen or heard.

Tonight is stage 4 in the Tour of Utah cycling race and consists of a criterium that goes around the Delta Center only one block away from the OR show and two blocks from my hotel so that’s where I’ll be tonight! I think the Health Net boys are in the lead over the Toyota United pro team but the race isn’t over ‘till it’s over!

We’re missing some staff here unfortunately because of the recent terror threats that has put a few of the major airports into lock down mode. Fortunately it’s smooth sailing at the airport here in Salt Lake City.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but I need to download a different browser to do so.

Thanks for reading!