Hello everyone, as many of you know we have recently started blogging at the office and its been fun for me to read the daily new postings which cover a variety of topics from cool new clothing shipments to my (not so blue) blue suede shoes (they are gray Kirk, thank you very much) to Baker's daily M&M fetishes. I'm on a plane on the way to Medellin, Colombia which is not only where the Hincapie Factory is (more on that later on this week) but also where pretty much my whole family lives including my parents who split their time up between Greenville, SC and Colombia.
The trip to the factory isn't too bad - normally it's a drive to Charlotte, then a quick flight to Miami (about 2 hours) and then onto Medellin (a little less than 3 hours). We are in the same time zone and since I stay with family while I'm down there, it almost feels like a second home.
My routine when I travel to Colombia is normally about the same: usually I'm there for a full week which gives me about 5 long days at the factory trying to cram everything in. Since we've been growing so much every year, factory visits usually revolve around new patterns, new employees, new machinery and trying to figure out how we can continue the fast growth without interrupting daily business. I try to make it down about 4 to 5 times a year and each trip seems to be a little easier as we are light years away from how we first started, more insight on the raw interesting early beginnings this week.
Back to my routine, let's see I usually have about a 3 hour layover in Miami, since Miami is one of the few airports that you have to go back through security check after you've flown in (never quite understood this one) it leaves me about 2 hours, usually I go to Chili's order a salad and a diet coke and read a magazine. This time was no different except that on my flight over from Charlotte, Peter Valinski, fellow cyclist and director of sales at Sawgrass Technologies, is on my flight heading to Medellin as well for ColombiaTex, a textile show we will both be attending. Peter sells us our ink and plotters and has come down to our factory before to train our staff on how to use them. When I first met Peter about 4 years ago, he had just left Sawgrass to start his own sublimation machine company. Peter and crew built it and then sold back to Sawgrass where he currently works. He's a good guy and was one of the few to see us in our early almost archaeic stages, so its good to see him and talk about where we were and where we are now. I'm sure we will have some dinners this week as my family loves Peter and he feels at home when we go out. The flight to Medellin is pretty simple, just about enough time for a nap and maybe a beer and we are almost there. The airport sits on a plateau about 30 miles from the city of Medellin. Medellin basically sits in a bowl surrounded by mountains, so any trips outside the city require about a 14 mile climb in any direction to get out. On the weekends these roads are packed with cyclists heading to less congested areas for some great training rides. Once we land I go through the normal passport control, answer the countless questions about why I travel there so much, get my bags, get frisked, go through bag search (more questions) get frisked again and walk to go find my family. In most airports that is an easy task but in Colombia, being such a passionate society, most passengers usually have about 5 family members waiting on them, multiply that by 176 passengers and pause for hugs and kisses and the occasional shot of aguardiente (more on that later) it becomes quite the backlog to walk out of the airport. I'm no different as normally Mari, Jorge, David and Andres are waiting on me and sometimes my Dad if he's in the country. We exchange hugs and head down the mountain. Our normal routine is to stop on the way at Dona Rosa's for some arepas, empanadas and ohhh the mandatory rum and coke or 3. We normally arrive at the house around 9 pm, talk a little then bedtime as I get up around 6 to go ride before work.
Stay tuned for my next post tomorrow "Hoy Llega El Jefe"...yikes
Chao
Uncle Jorge and Aunt Mari
Enjoying some frijoles, arepa, chicharron and maduros
Finishing it off with some ron medellin añejo and empanadas