New Orleans Part I: the bike show

theme of the show: David Allen Coe, "You Never Even Called Me By My Name"
("And I'll hang around as long as you will let me/ And I never minded standin' in the rain/ You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'/ You never even call me by my name...")
Yes, I know this song is the epitome of country and I had heard it before... but, at this show, being right by the stage, I learned not only that I can actually tolerate country music (SOME of it anyway) but also that this song is actually really catchy! (especially when it's played about 20 times in 3 days!)

Anyway, what do you get when you throw together 60,000 bikers, outrageous 90 degree weather, some good ol' New Orleans cookin', and a couple of girls in need of a break? That's right: This year's Steel Pony Express bike rally and music festival. For those of you that don't know, I have been begging to go to this show since I found out at the beginning of the year we were sending people. I have always wanted to go to New Orleans, and I figured doing it on company money would be the best way! My roommate for the trip, Diane, had a different reason for wanting to go: she has 5 kids and reeeeally needed to get away for a little bit :) There was also another work person with us, but her husband was there and we basically never saw her, even at our booth, so both New Orleans installments will focus just on the crazy adventures of Lisa and Diane.

Well, anyone that wants to go to a bike show (we do usually a couple a month) just for fun really has no idea what they're getting into. We spent entire first day trying to find all of our boxes, compounded by the problem that the show lost 35 of them, containing over $20,000 of stuff. umm yeah. But, we decided early on that we were just gonna have a good time down there, so we made friends with a bunch of the set up guys who helped us out, which was a blast all weekend. Well, the boxes were found, so we spent the next three days of the show on our feet for 12 hours a day screaming "would you like a free bandana?" (my feet hurt like hell, my voice is almost gone, and my face is still in perma smile mode) and giving out free pins, koozies, tatoos, pens, magnets, brochures, and whatever else we found lying around to the hoardes of bikers. People are crazy.

So, with 3 loooong days and record-breaking hot weather, you can imagine we were pretty exhausted at the end of each day. It was really a good time, though. It was a blast to get out and meet people, and I'm totally starting to love the biker atmosphere. Everyone's so friendly! People absolutely loved us too and other worker people were always stopping by and bringing us beads and free t-shirts and stuff, and most of the people attending the festival were pretty cool to talk to. We had these old bearded tattooed biker men calling us "honey," "sugar," "sweetie," and "baby" all weekend, which was hilarious and truly Southern. They had some big bands, too, although none were really my style (Big & Rich, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Blood Sweat & Tears). But really, it was just nice to get away for a bit and do something different. And since despite trying not to let it be, work really is a huge part of my life, it's fun to meet the people out there that pay my salary and try and talk to new people about what a great product we have. I have officially become an insurance dork and I have decided I must really be a salesman at heart.

So, enjoy the pics-- installment 2-- the good stuff-- will follow later :)