penny for a thought | Patrick on every & anything

Roadtrip in review

Patrick — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:05:34 +0000

Mind-taxing drives, epic bike rides, Bobcat encounter, copious amounts of Mexican food, and Lance Armstrong… All words which define my eleven-day road trip to SoCal and back. The adventure kicked off with a 14-hour drive from Portland to Los Angeles, which began at 2:30AM several Thursdays ago. It then progressed with a week’s worth of music, catching up with friends, and incredible bike rides up, over, and through the mountains and canyons of Southern California. The chaos continued in Sacramento and Santa Rosa with a weekend of spectating the Amgen Tour of California where many of the world’s top professional cyclists (including Lance Armstrong) battled to be crowned king in CA.

Now, in pictures – though, unfortunately, the Bobcat which stalked me for 50 meters wasn’t interested in posing for a photo.

Piuma Canyon_Malibu

Lance Armstrong_Tour of California

Francisco Mancebo_Wins Stage 1

Kind of a big deal…

Patrick — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:03:54 +0000

No, no, I’m not a big deal, but the agency that’s letting me call myself a “strucker” is. Yes, I started today and what an incredible birthday it is… That’s right, today’s my birthday too… In fact, next to the dual squirt-gun equipped big wheel mom & dad gave me for my 4th birthday, it’s the best gift to date.

Re-loading

Patrick — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:00:19 +0000

As I write, from sunny Southern California, I can’t help but to be grateful for the incredible opportunities 2009 has brought me. I know, I know, it’s barely the second of twelve months, so I can only hope the excitement continues. Here’s a rundown of meaningful happenings:

- 2008 ended with a wonderful, yet eye opening, family vacation under the Florida sun.

- 2009 opened back where I began my adult life, Montana, and continued as I stood aside one of my best friends at his wedding.

- Weeks later I accepted a position I spent months keeping my fingers crossed for… More on that soon!

- I started riding for a new cycling team in Portland. It’s a motivating group of guys with similar abilities and a dynamic which rivals that of the Russian Circus.

- I’ve made time to spend time with great friends, old & new, in Chicago last week and Los Angeles this week.

- Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, like the rest of you, I witnessed history as Barack Obama took office as President of our great country… Epic to say the least.

- The madness continues this weekend when I head up to Northern California to catch the first few stages of the Amgen Tour of California where Lance Armstrong amongst a number of the sport’s other biggest names will battle. More on that to come.

In short, I feel pretty dang. That said, to quote one genius of a man: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” -J.P. Morgan

Best in the sky

Patrick — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:18:01 +0000

Very few people can admit to loving a particular airline. Southwest, however, is one airline I can I honestly say I love. With more than 12 round trips on the “balling on a budget express,” Southwest has yet to let me down.

With fair prices, no luggage fees, premium snack selection, professional, friendly, and [cheezy] humorous staff, Southwest is second-to-none. Oh, and don’t fear the cattle call… Just check-in online at least 12 hours before your scheduled take-off and you’ll make the A boarding group, which is crucial to a satisfactory experience on Southwest Airlines.

Portland Veloswap

Patrick — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:26:28 +0000

One of a handful of reasons for my blogging hiatus is the Portland Veloswap. What’s a Portland Veloswap? You ask. Put simply it’s an idea I had to bring individuals and businesses together to buy, sell, and trade new and used cycling equipment & apparel. It might not sound like a big feat, but given Portland, OR is literally “Bike City U.S.A,” it’s a pretty big deal! So, after months of planning, the idea finally came to fruition (thanks in most to my event promotion partner, Jim) and took place in epic fashion last weekend. It was successful in several ways – first, all the event space sold out and more than 1,500 people paid $3 to browse the showroom. Second, the event completely owns the first few pages of Google for the words “Portland Veloswap.” Don’t believe me, well let me Google it for you.

Okay, I understand “Portland Veloswap” isn’t exactly an overly competitive term to own on Google. However, the shear quality of each search result is what excites me. Without effort (aside from what went into the event planning) a plethora of highly credible local and national blogs and newspaper & radio station websites covered the Velopswap’s success, thus making it that much more successful. In the end, I could not have asked for the event to go any smoother and am looking forward to making the next one even bigger and better. Another plus is the amount of money the event raised for local, bicycle related organizations.