As I was leaving LA fitness I got an email from Jamie. Barb convinced him to go to Lake Placid and he asked me to pick up his bike from his garage. It's one more step closer to him doing it. At least he's here.
The plan was to leave at 1 pm. We didn't leave until around 2:30 pm. I packed and the kids were out looking for headsets for the truck, it has a DVD player and they needed headsets. Typical, we were waiting for them.
At 1 pm I had a conference call from Howard at Picaboo to tell him that I decided not to pursue the yearbook opportunity with Pixami and stay at AG. Earlier in the year I spoke with Howard about the Yearbook software and potentially have his company purchase the yearbook software from Pixami and I'd come along with it. During our original discussion, before he knew of Pixami, Howard had talked to me about working with his company to develop Yearbook Software as they doesn't know the yearbook industry, which has a lot of unique nuances.
I told Howard that since we last spoke AG wanted me to stay and made me an offer that was too hard to turn down. I didn't know how Howard was going to respond and then he said, "that's music to my ears". He explained that he's in the process of getting a large investment from a company that also has a traditional yearbook division with approximately 1400 schools and they wanted him to create software for them using his photobook platform. He said he'd rather go the way of creating his own software for them and told me he wants me to be part of it.
Howard is a heavily weight. His company is backed by some of the largest Venture capital companies in the United States. One even has Al Gore as a partner. Howard has also made a small fortune when he developed the technology to do a 360 degree video for the real estate industry. He sold his company to a publicly traded company during the dot com boom.
He insisted that he needs me and wants to work with me in some fashion, that they need my knowledge. He said they had some grad students from Dartmouth do some great research on the yearbook industry and they are committed to going for it. He also said that in the last couple of months he's been taking me up to his investors and the people involved in the yearbook project. That I'm the guy to help them do it. He insisted that he wants me part of it.
It was music to my ears. Prior to calling Howard I was thinking that my ideal would be for him to take me on in some sort of consulting or royalty basis that I could do on the side from my AG responsibilities. I looks like my dream may come true. It will be interesting to see how the discussions progress, I've always found Howard to be fair. I'm also thinking of setting up a royalty situation if he goes for it. Something where I'd get a percentage of every book sold.
Hanging up that phone was a great way to start the Lake Placid trip. It was like a weight lifted off my mind. When I get back I'm going to give Tom a call and tell him I've reconsidered and will not be part of the yearbook group.
Finally the kids arrived home and we were off to Lake Placid. We decided to take the long way and go through Buffalo. I had some packages at our U.S. Post office box that needed to be picked up. We had Reid's hats, the humidor I got him for his grade eight graduation, Alyssa's rollers and Reid's cell phone case. The line up at the border was insane, at least a 40 minute plus wait.
Of course we forgot the vege platter at home and Alyssa was hungry. First stop Wendy's over the border. Then we needed to find gas. Finally we started making some ground and then about 2 hours later the truck started wobbling on the road. I was going about 75 mph in the fast lane and it felt like I had a flat. With lots of fear I was able to pull the truck over two lanes to the side of the road on the I-90 highway which is really busy.
I pulled over as far as I could and the semi-trucks and cars were whizzing by. I've heard so many times about people being killed by traffic hitting them when they are changing a tire. I was super paranoid and scared. We had to unload the truck, I had to read the manual to figure out where everything was and then do it in 100 F. I was sweating like mad. At one point a state trooper showed up and was parked behind us, I was so happy, then they took off and I had no protection again.
The spare was a smaller donut style and is not designed to go faster than 50 kph. I learnt the hard way when I speed up and the truck started to shake again. It was now around 6 pm and we turned off the highway and the toll booth person didn't think any tire stores were open nearby. It was in the middle of nowhere. I then asked if they have a Walmart. They did in the next town over about 15 km away. Off we went at a slow speed with flashers on.
We got to Walmart
We got out of Walmart around 8 pm, just before the auto area closed. Then it was off again and then Alyssa was hungry again and would not eat fast food. She said she already had chicken nuggets. Now the next adventure began, to find a pizza joint that was open. Turns out that most all closed by 9 pm and we didn't start looking until just after 9 pm.
The GPS on the truck isn't that great and we spent the next 2 hours looking for a pizza joint and finally found one and waited for the pizza to be cooked before getting back on the road. The guy at the joint was a nice guy, his name must be Rudy, he looked like his brochure. By this point it was just past 11 and I was tired and we had another 3 hours to Lake Placid. I told Alice I think we should stop and get a room somewhere.
I called some hotels, most we too expensive. I found a Travelodge for $65 and all was good until I got there and they said with two kids it would be $90. Aside from that, the smell of the lobby was awful and there was some creepy looking pedophile guy in the lobby. At that point I decided we are going to drive through to Lake Placid.
It wasn't easy, I was tired and at one point had to switch driving with Alice. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I switched back with the last 40 minutes. On the way at different times we had deers at the side of the road as we passed and just as we entered Lake Placid a couple of deers crossed the roads in front of us. Good thing we were going low speed.
The one good thing about driving so late was there was absolutely no traffic and when we got to the hotel we didn't have to wait. We also had lots of stuff to carry into the room. At Walmart we bought a full shopping cart of food and drink. We must have taken 3 or 4 trips each to get everything into the room.
It was near 3 pm when we got to bed. Right after we seasoned Reid's new humidor. I brought some cigars I want to put in there. I closed the window's, turned off my cell and unplugged the phone. I figured I'd need to sleep until at least 10:30 am just to catch up my my sleep. Not the best time to go to bed with an Ironman around the corner.
Swimming - 22:00 / 1100 meters
No comments:
Post a Comment