Finally home from SCAA (Part 1)

Well I'm back.

My memory and writing skills will prevent me from doing any justice to my experience. Not to mention the fact that all the big news has already been posted elsewhere (and far better than I ever could anyway). So, I'll just talk about some of my personal highlights.

But first....

I would like to thank everyone who made the trip possible for me. Mike for letting me off the bar. Kathryn and Emmy for covering my shifts. The upstate Gimme! Coffee crew for putting it together and pulling it off. Andy for designing the Schecter-Matic Profile Pump and being on hand to explain it to everyone. And of course Kevin Cuddeback for having passion for coffee and love of the community to put us in show.

Day one started as most do, with me opening the store at 6:30AM. I work my normal work day then run to Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch a lovely 5 hour bus ride to Ithaca. That way I could hitch a ride with the Gimme! Caravan to Charlotte.



Day two was me at the wheel for 11 hours while Kevin rode shot-gun and handed out the snacks and Tomas...well...um... We arrived at The Blake Hotel and checked in. The room was on the 10th floor and had a kick ass view of downtown.



Day three was booth set up. If I were smarter I would have taken pictures of the disaster that was the show floor. We actually set up the booth pretty fast. It took a while for the facilities to get things set up. You know, like water. Once things were a go, it seems that we were the only people in the house up and pulling shots of espresso. People came out from every corner. It as a little daunting for me to pull shots for a while. Some of those people were real heavyweights. You know, USBC contestants and Judges. People like that.

Stay tuned for part two......