Carolina on my mind...

Friends,

Hopefully you're all doing well! I've spent the last week and a half in Charlotte, mostly in meetings and transitional duties for my next role.

As I promised in my last post, I've attached pictures of the truck + trailer I'll be driving around the East Coast this year. What you're seeing is a Chevy 2500 HD Diesel Truck and 18 Foot Trailer which serves as a "Mobile Showroom" of Newell Rubbermaid-branded Industrial tools. These shots were taken from a Marriott in Huntersville, NC, which I thought was an appropriate backdrop as I'll be spending nearly every night in 2008 in hotels!!

I head back to Tampa this weekend to train the new rep who has taken my old territory, then it's off to the races!

More to come. Hope you are all well!

On the road,

Matt

First Stop: Providence

Friends,
It's been a busy week for me as this was my first taste of my new life on the road and first glimpse of the new job I'll be doing. I spent the last several days at a hardware trade show in Providence put on by one of our key distributor partners. It was a great learning experience for me. Though it was was frigid outside the whole week, I was fairly busy inside the RI Convention Center most of the time! As I found out when I talked to my dad this weekend, apparently I'm the first one in my family to ever set foot inside the state of Rhode Island, so that's kinda cool as there aren't too many places that my dad hasn't been!
The show wrapped up yesterday and this morning I flew to Charlotte, where I'll be for the next week or two. Meetings and final preparations for the new job will take up most of my time while I'm here. On my flight, we flew right over NYC and since it was a crystal clear day, I had an unbelievable view of Manhattan, Long Island, etc. It was pretty amazing, although it seemed eerily similar to the conditions on the morning of 9.11.01....
I've attached pictures of Providence as seen from my hotel room. We stayed downtown at the Westin, which was right next to "Federal Hill" where the state capital is. I wanted to include pictures because my parents were big fans of the show "Providence" a few years back, and they were very curious about the city and if it was as nice as the show depicted.
That's all for now. Hope everyone is well!
On the road,Matt

Pack up the beach towels...

Friends,



My apologies for not sending along a post in awhile, it's been a crazy past week and a half moving and finishing up responsibilities in Florida. I've officially moved out of my apartment and am now embarking on the journey that will be 2008 for me. The adventure kicks off tomorrow as I fly to Providence for a week-long trade show my company is participating in downtown. I've never been to RI, so I'm pretty excited about it! I'll also be meeting many of the people with whom I'll be working in the near future, so it should be a great week!



Leaving Florida and heading for the Northeast will be quite a change, but I look forward to it. Spending this past weekend moving, and sweating through the afternoon heat, in January no less, made me ready to pitch the shorts and flops in favor of the jackets and gloves. I'm sure I'll miss the mild Florida winters in no time, but at least for now, I'm excited for the more temperate climates I will soon experience. My schedule for the next few weeks is as follows:



Providence, RI: Jan. 15th-21st

Charlotte, NC: Jan. 21st-26th

NC/SC Travel: Jan. 28th-Feb. 1st

Tampa, FL: Feb. 4th-8th

KY/Tenn. Travel: Feb. 11th-15th



*These dates are tentative, but that's roughly where I'll be the next several weeks. Pictures will soon follow. You guys will get a kick out of the new rig I'll soon be driving. Hope all is well.



On the road,

Matt

First Post 1.6.08

Here goes...





Based on the recommendations of friends and family, I've decided to start a blog to journal all of the places I will be this year since I will be traveling for most of 2008. In the past, I've enjoyed reading the blogs of friends when they've spent extensive time abroad, so hopefully the same will be true here. My intention is to update it regularly, providing you guys with cool info on what I'm doing. I'll try to make my posts interesting so I don't waste your time.



Feedback is welcome. More info to come.



On the Road,

Matt