This past week, I had the pleasure of returning to the state of my birth, Massachusetts.  PJ and I visited Landry's at their Boston location and met with their staff, giving them a detailed walk through of the Hyland that will help them understand and sell the bike.

We had a chance to drive around the city and got to see a few fun neighborhoods.  It was great to see light rail available and being used.  In Minneapolis, we're a little behind with implementing light rail, but with the resounding success of our first line, more is on the way.

From Boston, we made our way around New England and visited Signature Cycles at their Greenwich CT location.  After spending some time chatting with Paul and Laurie, they decided to come on board as a stocking dealer.  This was great news, because from the beginning PJ had envisioned them as being a perfect shop for the brand.  They will also be stocking at their Manhatten location (which has already pre-sold a Rohloff build).

>Unrelated, I came across this hand drawn sign in an ice cream freezer at a small co-op.  It made me smile. 

From Connecticut, we stopped in at a shop in NJ that catered to the high end road market.  They expressed some interest, but as of yet haven't committed to stocking.  PJ will follow up and we'll see where things go.

One of the nights we were on the road, we stopped into a fantastic Italian Trattoria.  The weather was perfect and the atmosphere in their outdoor seating was great.  The food was delicious and both PJ and I appreciated this relaxing meal in the middle of a long week.

Next up was NYC.  We stopped into a few shops and had some mixed interest.  In general the shops appreciated what we were doing with the bike, but many felt that it wouldn't work in their market with their clientel.

We were a little discouraged, but not too much.  We'd encountered this before and would take the feedback to help improve future offerings.

We met with Jay from Sid's Bikes and after having seen the bike at Interbike, he immediately picked up on how he'd be able to sell the bike in his store.  We really pleased to see that they were interested in picking up the line, as their store merchandises their brands very well, giving good floor space and representation to all.  I've got a feeling it's going to be a good relationship for both of us.

The day before, PJ and I had been talking about wanting to get to a Yankees game before the end of the season, since it's their last season in Yankee stadium.  I called my wife and said "This is important... check ESPN.com and tell me when and where the Yankees are playing!".  Despite being at work, she humored me, and we ended up going to the Yankees v. Cleveland game that evening.  It was a good time, despite the home team losing.

This last photo is of our demo bike locked up outside of the restaurant we had lunch at after meeting with Sid's.

PJ's still on the road, working his way down the eastern seaboard.  I'm looking forward to hearing of his exploits in Baltimore, DC and the surrounding areas.