Athlete days in the South

While I have been writing up reports on RAAM, I will take a brief break to talk about my time in the Mississippi and Tennessee for athlete days.

After RAAM, I spent a good amount of time asleep at home in Boulder. It was good to be able to recover from such an intense week, and get back into the rhythm of everyday life. After a week of relaxing though, it was back to work, and I headed off to Mississippi for a string of athlete days.

MS didn't provide the excitement that other areas in the US did. Though I did get the chance to meet some nice people, talk to a few doctors, and even give a presentation to a select crowd. The next day was more of the same, meet and greet, and try to understand the southerners with their drawl, while repeating myself so they could understand my kiwi accent.

I departed MS keen to get to my new destination of TN. I had heard a lot about Nashville, and was very eager to get there to check it out. I was staying in a nice hotel right in the middle of town, and was thinking that this could be a very fun night. I went out riding in the afternoon and was lucky enough to somehow stumble across the annual international music festival held in Nashville, where the atmosphere and feeling at the event was amazing. Lucky me.

On the ride home from the festival, I stumbled across a place I have been waiting for since I arrived in the States in February: White Castle. I was rather disappointed when Matt and Tim's quest for White Castle after RAAM did not eventuate due to there not being any White Castles in Maryland. But now I found it.

I walked in, still in my cycling kit, with the biggest smile on my face possible. The women behind the counter was a typical fast food server: overweight, hating life, wondering why the hell she is still there. So she looked pretty shocked when I came in grinning ear to ear, and asked, "What's your signature meal?"

"huh?"

"What's White Castle's signature meal?"

"Arhh, number 1."

"Sweet, I'll take one of those."

I must have looked pretty odd, sitting there eating this food, which didn't taste very good, but I whole heartily enjoyed anyway.

I started my next athlete days in Fayatteville, TN. These days were good fun, and I was well looked after by Mary Jo and Nikole from Sanofi Aventis. The days were not too demanding, but I still got to meet a lot of people. I traveled down to Cool Springs that night, and did some more meet and greet stuff. In between meetings, I was fortunate enough to be taken to The Craker Barrel. I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but besides being able to tick it off my list, I was also able to try fried ocra. I had never even heard of ocra till about a week ago, when I was warned to stay away from it by my friend Karis. She said it was horrible, and I shouldn't let it near me if I had the chance. This only made me want to try it, especially since I was down in the south. It actually tasted pretty good, I was quite impressed. To me it seemed to be a cross between bok choy and brussel sprouts, both of which I like. Fried it tasted good, but even some of the southerners warned me not to have it any other way, but i'd still be keen to try anyway I could.

That night I was to give an informal presentation at dinner, but first I went to meet the doctor that was introducing me. We went into his practice, but before I got the chance to meet him, I was approched by a rather excited nurse. She ran up to me with an apidra calender, open at December (my month) and asked for an autograph. I was quite happy to sign one, but was rather surprised when she said, "Thank you. You know you're bigger than playboy round here!?" That was interesting.

The dinner that night was the last event I did for Apidra on the trip, and the next mroning I was headed back home to Boulder. Only thing was it was my new home, the apartment I had signed the lease for, but hadn't moved in. Thanks to Fabio, all my stuff was there, though all boxed up. I'm now settling in, but still have a bit of stuff to get.

Keep looking as I update the rest of RAAM, and soon will be reporting to you from Bend, Oregon, as I take on the Cascade Classic.