Month: August 2019

What is an Ice Dog? Is it good? Why were you in NYC as the Southeast team? IM CONFUSED! All the answers are in this blog post, so read on!

These past few weeks have been absolutely insane. Troy and I haven’t stopped moving and are just finally settling back down into a routine (thank goodness!). So lets pick up where we left off, shall we?

I was leaving Greenville for Charleston when I last updated this blog. Boy does that seem like forever ago. Charleston was a blast! We had one off day in the city which we spent exploring the Charleston city market and learning about the USS Yorktown. The USS Yorktown was such a good experience. Troy and I got to run around through the whole ship, learn about what life was like during the war, re-experience the landing of Apollo 8, and listen to the stories of Medal of Honor recipients. We even got to spend time walking around a reconstruction of a Vietnam War camp. The entire exhibit was so educational and entertaining.

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The day after our off day was my birthday 🙂 I was expecting to be a little sad all day because I was away from friends and family, but this was not the case. At midnight I had friends calling me, sending me videos, and making me feel loved. I woke up in the morning to a bouquet of balloons at the front desk from papa sprat and a package and letters from my friends. The rest of the day was great as well. An ice cream truck showed up at our event, Troy took me out to an amazing rooftop dinner downtown, and then we came back and ate cookie dough and watched The Illusionist. It was a birthday for the record books and I’m so thankful to all my friends and family for making me feel so loved from so far away. A couple of my friends also sent Troy on missions to buy things for me, so extra props to Troy for being a little errand boy for them 🙂

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After Charleston we headed to Winston Salem for several days. I cherished this time because the whole week the one and only Mary Kate Frey came to stay in my hotel with me. It just so worked out that her apartment wasn’t ready for move in and I was craving some one on one girl time. We had a very fun few nights! Night 1 we went out for a late birthday dinner, night 2 was axe throwing and Mexican food, night 3 I cooked dinner for MK and Troy, night 4 we had a total girls night veg out and eat junk food and cookie dough and anything else we can get our hands on while watching a chick flick night. So one might say it was a pretty great week 🙂

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During our time in Winston Salem, Troy and I also spent some time exploring Wake Forest, which allowed me to get to see my O-staff partner and friend Patrick MacDonald. AND we got our ICE DOG UNIFORMS!!! And now we get to the good stuff… 

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So, Oscar Mayer came up with this crazy idea that they wanted to revolutionize the better Oscar Mayer Dog and turn it into something else entirely! Thus… the creation of the temporary ice dog sandwich! Now what is an ice dog sandwich? Well, glad you asked! Its two shortbread type cookies put together with ice cream in the middle. Now this isn’t just any ice cream… its hot dog themed ice cream: Half of the ice dog sandwich has mustard flavored ice cream and the other half has candied hot dogs in a cream ice cream. 

Once Oscar Mayer came up with this idea, they had to debut it in a grand way. And what better city to do a grand debut in than NEW YORK CITY! They found an ice cream shop in NYC that would create this ice cream and now they just needed to figure out a way to make the debut special. Well, the Wienermobile is pretty dang special, so it absolutely has to be involved in the debut…. but… this isn’t just any old ice cream. THIS IS HOT DOG ICE CREAM. Its different. Its new. Its creative. So the Wienermobile delivering it can’t just be any old Wienermobile. And if the Wienermobile isn’t just any old Wienermobile, than the hotdoggers can’t just be any old hotdogger. Are you catching my drift here? 

And so, Oscar Mayer created the very first Ice Dog Sandwichmobile and re-outfitted their Hotdoggers into Ice Doggers. Now, we have something special. But there was one last problem. The Ice Dog Sandwichmobile was created down in Mooresville, North Carolina, and Mooresville, North Carolina is exactly 621 miles away from the heart of New York City. Well…. we send our new southeast Ice Doggers who are already near Mooresville, NC on a crazy 621 mile adventure up to New York City. Boom. Now we have a plan.

So now Troy and I come in. We get the call. We are going to New York City in the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile. Its happening. So we take our Wienermobile and switch it out for the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile after our event and hit the road around 6:00 P.M.. We decide to drive as far as we can and then stop around midnight in Richmond, VA to sleep. 

Our brand team realized how many cool cities we would be passing through and decided they wanted us to stop wherever we could and record our adventures up the east coast. Well, Troy and I never like to disappoint, so challenge accepted. We woke up at 5:30 A.M. the next day and hit the road to maximize adventuring. 

Four major cities in one day. Thats what we decided to do. After getting coffee at dunkin donuts we started our trek. The first city we hit was our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.! We passed so many cool things: Quantico, the Pentagon, memorials galore. However, we had to pick out the highlights for the brand team, so we chose to stop at the Washington Monument with the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile. We had a good amount of people taking pictures and asking questions about the new mobile, but we were on a tight schedule. We got the content we needed, answered the questions we could, and we were off to Baltimore!

Baltimore was all about the views. It had a beautiful cityscape and Troy and I took advantage of it. We also found a fun wall that said “O Say Can You See” on it, so we capitalized on that as well. And then (this becomes a theme over the next few days…) we were off!

Next on the docket, Philly! Here we stopped to see the city hall and the Liberty Bell! Troy and I got a little frustrated in Philly because everyone kept cutting us off and then trying to take pictures. We were like “Um… you can’t be rude and then get a picture” but of course, we still smiled and let them take pictures because thats the job. And then….. WE WERE OFF!

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Finally, we could see the city in the distance. The Empire State Building and One World Trade Center stood tall calling out to our tired, burning, exhausted bodies (did I mention the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile did not have AC). We trucked on… now it was time for the ultimate challenge: Driving in New York City. 

To be fair, Troy and I did not have the take the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile into New York, but it was a bucket list item… I mean, how many people can say they drove the Wienermobile through Times Square, New York. Very few. So we decided to rely on each other and on our training and do it. The first challenge was getting into the city and the Lincoln Tunnel. During Hot Dog High, they actually construct a fake Lincoln Tunnel for us to practice in. That was definitely appreciated. We had to take it slow, but we made it through. Then we were on the streets of New York. People ran in front of us, cars came out of no where, police officers tried to have full blown conversations with us in the middle of intersections, but we eventually made it to Times Square. We took pictures, we celebrated, we switched drivers, and we got the heck out as fast as we could.

That night Troy and I met our friends for dinner in the city (my college roommate and his friend work together, and drove down to see us. My other roommate just got a job WITH LOREAL in the city too!) We got to spend time with them and catch up which is always nice and then Troy and I went to explore Times Square and get drinks with another one of my college friends who was in New York for business. It was a great first night in the city and the moment we got back to our rooms we crashed. 

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The next day was an off day in New York, so naturally, Troy and I did everything. I will just list our stops, because its too much to get into: 911 memorial and One World Trade center, Oculus, St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church and Alexander Hamilton’s grave, Wall Street and the stock market, Federal Hall (the first capital and where Washington was sworn in), City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, Chelsea Market, Central Park, The Ritz, Grand Central Station (or my aunt’s constipation), St. Patricks Cathedral, The New York Public Library, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, and of course Cupcakes by Melissa (my favorite cupcakes ever). So yea, we hit a lot in a day.

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We ended the day in the city by going to the ice cream shop to try the Ice Dog Sandwich. Our verdict was that the candied hot dog half was good and the mustard half was not the best. Overall, not my favorite thing I’ve ever tasted, but I’m glad I at least got to try it. The rest of the night was special because we got to see Mitch and Carly (two other hotdoggers) and get dinner with them. They were taking over the Ice Dog Sandwichmobile from there. 

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In the morning, we flew out of New York and back down to the Southeast, specifically Charlotte, NC. We only stayed two nights in Charlotte, but our day there was pretty fun. We got to do a NASCAR parade and drive Ryan Newman (our Oscar Mayer 6 driver) around, and in the afternoon the branding team paid for us to go play putt putt so we could get content for national mini golf day! 

Then, in a blink of an eye, we were off to Marion, Illinois (there was a slight miscommunication, hence why we left our region again.). There is very little to do in Marion, Illinois, but after such a busy few days, Troy and I were very okay with that. I still have some highlights to hit though. The central zone is all about the Wienermobile. We had 2 three hour events every day and 400ish people showed up to every one of them. When we pulled up in the Wienermobile, they were waiting in line to see us and cheering. It was wild. Every grocery store cooked out for us and some even had games set up like ring toss and cornhole. It was so fun!

We also got to meet Hig and Missy in Marion! Hig is a Kraft employee and Missy is his wife. They invited us to their home and made us steak, bread, twice baked potatoes, and dessert. Missy took me out to me her horses, cats, and dog. I was in heaven. They were some of the nicest people I’ve met on the road so far. They begged us to just sit on their couch and rest up/enjoy being in a house. It was really appreciated. If Troy and I are lucky enough to return to southern Illinois, we know we have a home there. 

And now for the final stop before we are all caught up: Chattanooga (I apologize for how much I am squeezing into this one blog post. Seriously. Its overwhelming, I know. You didn’t sign up for reading a book tonight and I get that). My grandfather lives in Chattanooga and my mom grew up here, so being in Chattanooga is like being home to me. I love this city. Our first day here, we did Ruby Falls, Sunset Rock, and then headed over to our Hang Gliding Reservation. 

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Hang Gliding was easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We were pulled up by a plane to 3,000 feet and then dropped. I got to fly the hang glider by myself and ate a hotdog at 3,000 feet too! We should be getting the footage from it soon, so watch Instagram for that! The views were absolutely incredible. The beauty of this area can really take your breath away sometimes. 

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The next day I visited my grandpa in the morning. He’s about to turn 95 but was still able to make it out to see the Wienermobile. It was a really special moment for me and I’m so happy I was able to bring it to see him. 

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Afterwards, I picked up Troy and we went to Rock City Gardens. Let me tell you, it never disappoints. The views, the nature, the gnomes… wowza. I used to go to Rock City a lot as a kid. I even went there for my birthday party one year, so it was fun to show Troy. 

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Another highlight of Chattanooga was going to dinner with my best friend’s aunt and uncle! They had taken my and Olivia (my best friend) to Amsterdam and Copenhagen as a graduation gift. They had a free night and offered to take Troy and me out to dinner. It was a blast to see them again and ketchup 🙂

The rest of our time in Chattanooga was pretty slow. Few people showed up at our events since we were about an hour outside the city, but I did get to see all of Caroline Daugherty’s (a best friend from highschool) family. They brought me cookies and socks, which was amazing. We also had one more off day on Monday. I spent the day by myself walking through the Tennessee Aquarium (freshwater and saltwater). It was really relaxing. I loves the fishies. 

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Troy and I also rode the incline up lookout mountain. No one else was on the incline, so it felt like a private ride 🙂 It was really awesome. Now we are packing up and getting ready to move on to another city! 

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My goal is to try and write a little more often in the hopes that the next entry is shorter. I’ve definitely got some surprises coming up this week, so stay tuned for that.

As always, thanks for coming to ketchup with me! 

Dot Diggity Dot

And if you’re wondering, here is my schedule for the next few weeks:

• Aug 27th – Sept 2nd: Darlington, SC (NASCAR here we come!)
• Sept 2nd – Sept 9th: Orlando, FL (yes… I am aware Dorian is a beast)
• Sept 9th – Sept 15th: Dothan, AL
• Sept 16th – Sept 20th: Madison, WI (FALL STAFF WOOHOO)
• Sept 20th – Sept 23rd: Tallahassee, FL
• Sept 23rd – Sept 30th: Knoxville, TN
• Sept 30th – Oct 7: Atlanta, GA (hello :))