Steel City

All,

My travels have taken me from western New York to the rust belt of northeastern Ohio and the greater Pittsburgh area. I spent the night Wednesday in Youngstown, just minutes away from my mom's hometown of Warren, the football factory that produced Buckeyes Korey Stringer, Maurice Clarett and the traitors, Prescott Burgess and Mario Manningham of Michigan. Thursday morning, my first sales call happened to be in Warren, with a customer who's been in business since 1959, and whose location was across the street from the mall where my mom worked one summer when she was home from college. Small world! The day ended in Pittsburgh, where I stayed for the night and worked Friday. My travels took me in and through downtown Pittsburgh, and this was really cool as much of my mother's side of the family has roots in the steel city. Both my grandfather and grandmother grew up and went to school in the 'Burgh, and my brother attended college an hour north of the city at Grove City College. My final appointment of the day Thursday was only 10 miles from Grove City, so I drove down to the campus and took a few snaps for my brother and Amber's sake. The first two pictures are pretty obvious; a picture of the Warren exit, and the picture of the Grove City campus. One last picture I had to include, though, is of the Grove City track, complete with a steeple. This is significant because my brother, Ryan, is the school record holder in this event (3,000 meter steeplechase), and I wanted to capture this in my blog. At this time, I will begin singing "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen....(inside joke between Ryan and me).

Anyways, this weekend will be spent in Lancaster, PA, where I'll be working Monday. Tuesday will be spent in Buffalo, NY, with the remainder of the week being spent in Binghamton, NY and Pittsburgh again. More updates to come and thanks for reading!

On the road,

Matt