The Ohio Run

The Ohio trip this past weekend was great. I left Burbank on Saturday and it was about eighty degrees and sunny. I got to Ohio and it was twenty eight degrees and snowing! Thank god I am lard-butt Swede. My hotel in Columbus had collapsed due to the snowfall, so the night before I had to change hotel plans. I went from a four diamond resort to a four cockroach motor inn in the blink of an eye. Ever worry about the things your sleeping in while at a crappy motel? Me too. I wore my official KENDA BURKHA to bed, to prevent any unwanted disease from unwashed blankets.
In all fairness, the trip was actually great with the exception of the hotel. I like snow, so the weather was fine. I saw Columbus' entertainment districts, like the "Short North" and the "Brewery District." I even had a great little dinner at a sushi place called Haiku. I know, sushi in Ohio CAN'T possibly be good...but I have had worse in Santa Monica. Monday was the the day I had set up to actually meet with the KENDA peeps. Melody met me at the door and was great fun to talk to. She is the one who usually directs all the calls and is the hub for info there at the office. I saw Stefano right away in his cubicle, and he told me that has been moved to road bike stuff, and will probably not see much of us until Interbike. Scott, Stephen and Barry work in the wherehouse, busting ass to see that your tire orders are always filled correctly. Barry actaully loves to roll up to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park and hit the logs on weekends!
I also was able to finally meet the dynamic duo, Cindy Mcgrail and Karen Harold.
Cindy works in Bicycle Sales, and loves making candles and golf. Karen is the woman who kindly takes your constantly flowing fax orders and sees that they get filled properly by the wherehouse fellows. karen loves boating, gardening, and wants to get back into cycling! Then, I was rolling through the office and ran into El Jefe himself, Mr. Lonnie (Buffet King) Wells. Lonnie is the G.M. and Vice President there at Kenda U.S.A. He has been employed at Kenda for 15 years, and spent the prior twenty years at Columbus Cycle. Lonnie is a vintage car buff (like me), so we spent some time discussing our old cars. He has a sweet 1978 Corvette! Lonnie also plays guitar on occasion at Kenda Holiday Parties with fellow employee and web-guru Lydia Brownfield.
Jeff "Tookie" Williams made a Herculanean effort for Backbonerdome and drove up from Kentucky in S***Y weather to meet with the Kenda employees, and me. We had a great time catching up in the KENDA meeting room, and marveled at all the bike memorabilia in Jim's ofice....man he must be really old. And hairy. OK, REALLY HAIRY! :) I took Jeff, Lonnie and the crew for lunch at a Chinese Buffet that Lonnie apparently frequents. We sat in the Lonnie Wells Memorial Pagoda Lounge and at shrimp from the backs of Chinese concubines. Not really, but you soooo believed me, right? Anyhow, glad to be back, and sorry to have missed ya'll this past weekend. See ya at FONTUCKY this weeend!

Cap'n