We’ve shared space with Push for 18 months now. We love those folks. They’re an amazing bunch of people, who I’m pretty stoked to call friends now. Friendship aside however, it was time we had our own space, to *push* our own identity. Hopefully we’ll all still see each other at Lizzy’s. Our new office _is_ right there anyways …

All of the team spent a hell of a lot of time preparing the new office into something we could call home. When we got the space, it was setup for a construction company. I guess that’s a bit ironic for me, but it plain sucks for everyone else. So, we all worked our asses off to remove carpet, paint, clean, and do a million other things to make the office into something that begins to represent Hydra, the raddest digital agency in the world.

The whole process was a little cliche of the things you’d expect from working your balls off after a full day’s worth of regular work with co-workers. I have a bit more respect for everyone, and I definitely care a smidgeon more about everyone there. I know it sounds like a load of crap, but everyone really gave it their all, and I couldn’t be more proud of what all of us have been able to pull off. 

The move definitely had it’s perils though. I had to dodge insane traffic to pick up equipment I dropped in the middle of 50 during rush hour. We destroyed some walls we had to put back. More than a few nerves were a little frayed from the tremendous amount of work we had to do. 

I know I’m gonna get some shit for this: Regardless, of everyone who stands out in this whole process, Bobby Jones is definitely the man. Bobby is undoubtedly the best employer I’ve ever known. During the entire transition between offices, Bobby probably worked 80 to 100 hours on the new office. He poured himself into making the transition relatively smooth, and keeping the rest of us motivated while we helped realize his vision. The sort of stress he must have been under is impressive. What’s more impressive, is how calm and collected he remained throughout the affair. Ask Rob and Parker how many times Bobby took the late workers out to IHOP at 5:00am to feed the most dedicated of folks. I’ll probably follow up my ‘Folks that mean shit to me’ lineup with Bobby next (even if it does give me a brown nose).

Anyways, a mega-huge thanks to everyone at Hydra for working your asses off doing shit you didn’t know how to do, but did it anyways. I’m honored to call all of you my coworkers, and more honored to call all of you, my friends. I’ve worked with some of the toughest people in the world. I’d trade every one of them for you guys, you’re all the best.

Melissa and I went to Tennessee for a wedding of our friends, Taylor and Jason. We had the chance to catch up with a bunch of friends. We managed to evade trouble. We also nearly died. Overall, it was a really good time.

Wednesday

We headed to the airport on Wednesday afternoon. We got there a bit late, but we still made it on time. The only problem was, our flight crew didn’t make it on time. So we didn’t leave Orlando until 9:15. We were supposed to hang out with friends in downtown Knoxville that night. Instead, we headed straight to our hotel, and to sleep.

Thursday

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, and headed to downtown Knoxville. Melissa might have been on vacation, but I was not. I had to find a Wifi spot, and she was supposed to go sightsee while i worked. Instead, she hung out with me, while we sat at a coffee shop with internet access.

We left there to pick up some friends from the airport. It turns out the itinerary we had for them was completely wrong. We waited, needlessly, at the airport for 2 hours before they finally arrived.

We all headed back to our new hotel, got checked in, and went out for drinks. The night was fun, though we didn’t overdo it.

Friday

The next day, I stayed in the hotel room and worked, while Melissa and everyone else went out around town.

Melissa got back to the room around 2:30pm and got me up so we could make the rehearsal dinner at the venue in Maryville, TN about 2 hours later. I was reticent to leave my coding duties, but Melissa is coercive.

Funny thing about guys; 1 guy wears nice clothes somewhere, and other guys line up to do the same. Not me. I wore jeans and a hat on backwards (of course). As it turns out, I was the one wearing the appropriate attire for the event. Lesson: “Don’t Follow”.

Go Me.

So, after we got back from there, we went out to the local bar (walking distance) for drinks. We did a lot of horsing around, and I got to meet some cool people too. Scott and Dawn are friends with the former drummer of The Absence, an awesome Death Metal band from Tampa, FL.

On our way back from the bar, Jason showed just how nuts he and his buddies are. They were chasing each other around. One of his friends got in his car, and hit Jason with his car. It was hilarious. It was terrifying, but Jason was ok and it was really funny.

Saturday

The next day was the wedding. It was early in the morning (10am), at Ridge Valley Farms, a very nice venue in a picturesque part of Tennessee. It was a really nice wedding. I’d say more, but hey, it was a wedding. Taylor was beautiful, and we all hung out. Woo Hoo!

So, around 1:30pm, we left there and headed back to the hotel, for a well deserved nap.

Around 5:30, we all got up and got ready to go downtown for the evening. It took 2 vans to get all of us (about 20) to the first bar of the evening. That bar had some pool tables upstairs, and they brewed their own beers. It’s hard to beat that sort of thing. So, I had a few stouts.

I played pool for a while, and was doing pretty well at first. I was doing well, until Dawn, who hadn’t played pool in years, played me. She beat me. Then she played someone else, and beat them. So I went for the rematch, and she beat me again. I was heckled about this, a lot.

We left there, and walked down the street. We walked for a while, until we found an irish pub. It looked cool enough, however, they wouldn’t let us in. The crowd we were with was pretty rowdy, and bartenders were calling around town to let other bars know to not let us in. Our reputation was literally preceding us.

We did manage to get into another bar, where we were about as welcome by the locals as venereal disease. I can’t count the number of rude looks we got from people there. A lot of folks left. It was awkward.

After we got our individual cabs back to the hotel, a few of us met up in one of our hotel rooms. We nearly had the whole 3rd floor of our hotel booked. Anyways, a few of us met up for some Texas Hold ‘Em. It was a smoking room (dammit), and I played poker with everyone until 6 in the morning, when I was defeated. I went back to the room, a little broker, and red-eyed from all of the smoke.

Sunday

Melissa and I got up that morning, with an idea that we should do something fun, before we had to be at the airport (around 5pm). We were carpooling with our buddies Trinity and Hal (recently married), who were also eager to go out and do something.

We decided we’d go to the mountains, since it was a relatively close drive and seemingly well worth the trip. It took a while but we finally got to where we though we’d finish our mountain trip. It was scenic and we marveled at the cool view of the valleys below.

We were on our way back, when we reached a fork in the road. Trinity and Hal had been to this part of the mountains a few days earlier, and turned right at this intersection. A lookout over a dam was to the left. So, we turned left.

After few miles of some of the most amazingly curvy and windy roads I had ever been upon, we wound up at the lookout over a dam about a mile downstream from us. We stopped for pictures. A traveler who also stopped told us, that if we continued on our current path, we’d go through The Tail Of The Dragon, the curviest, and most dangerous stretch of road in the country.

So, we went for it

I have never seen Melissa so scared in her life. The road is, in fact, the most unbelievably winding path I have ever even heard of. I can’t begin to do justice to just how amazing this stretch of road is. What I can say is that it’s awesome.

About a half hour into our trip, we realized that we were going to need to get to a gas station soon. That’s about the time we noticed mile-markers on the side of the road. We also noticed that they were descending in number. We hoped this would lead us to a gas station.

At mile-marker 0, we found out that instead of a gas station, was a sign claiming “Welcome to North Carolina”. We were getting really low on gas, and we were 30 miles from the nearest gas station going backwards. We had to make a decision, and we elected to go back the way we came.

That meant going through that treacherous strip of road again. Melissa was quite upset about it.

About a mile into our journey back, the gas light came on. This was terrifying. There is NOWHERE to pull over if you run out of gas on this stretch of road. Every turn on the road is a blind turn, so anyone could come out of any corner at deadly speeds. Also, even if we could pull over, there is zero cell phone reception out there. Oh yeah, even if someone did stop to help us get gas, we would probably miss our flight too.

So, I made a very conscious effort to not use any gas while descending the mountain. This meant not using my brake around hairpin turns that I should have braked far more than I did.

After 30 miles, we made it back to the main highway. I saw a BP shortly after we got on the highway. We were elated, until we were by the pumps. The gas station was closed.

We drove off, and after a little bit of sputtering, we found another gas station. It had the oldest operation gas pumps that I’ve ever seen, but they worked. We filled up, and we were off.

We got back to the airport, dropped off the rental car (which was heavily used during our mountain trip), and got on the plane home.

The plane ride was hell. Allegiant Air is a cheap airline, but for good reason. Their flights are easily the most uncomfortable that I have ever been on.

Wrapping it up

Overall, our trip was awesome. Taylor and Jason are great friends of ours, so it was really cool to see them get married. Their friends are a great group of folks, several of whom I’m eager to see again. As always, it’s great for Melissa and I to get away, but this time was really, really great.

I spent some time talking to my buddy Greg about business. I’ve always felt a certain level of camradre with Greg. Both he and I don’t come from CS backgrounds. We both work out a lot, and we both drink lots of beer. Greg has some interesting ideas up his sleeve. That guy’s a businessman, through and through.

I had the opportunity to talk with Jason of Rails Envy , about the hillarious videos they keep putting out. I’ve never really had the opportunity to talk to Jason before. I’ve met Gregg a few times, and he’s a nice guy. However, it was really good to meet the other side of that effort. If you haven’t seen what those guys are up to, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

Erik Hersman was there as well. Erik’s a strategy guy, who has made a living on predicting where web trends will go, and advising businesses how to capitalize on them. Erik can shame the best of geeks with his industry knowledge. So, I had to ask him a few quick thoughts about my upcoming side project. Erik was understandably brief (we were at a bar, and there was loud music playing), but he gave me some tips I’ll take to heart.

Much of the rest of the time, I was getting phone calls from clients. It figures I suppose. I shouldn’t be upset about it. They’re paying my bills, and right now, I could use the extra cash.

A few other attendees that I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to: Alex Rudloff, Etan Horowitz, Chris Scott, Ryan Price, Meagan Fisher , and a multitude of others that I can’t remember.

Good times.