Providence? Or the Sahara?

I should have known that yesterday was going to be a scorcher when I went jogging at 7 a.m. and it was already above 80 degrees. We left about an hour earlier than we normally do because we were changing cities, relocating from Boston to Providence. Even though the drive was so short, I fell asleep and woke up when we arrived at The Home Depot. At this point, I could have sworn that I fell asleep and woke up in the Sahara desert. The store was on top of a plateau-like hill, so we could really see nothing around us. Heat rose up from the asphalt, making everything appear very hazy. If Natalie told me that we drove to somewhere along the equator, I probably would have believed her; it was that hot outside.

The heat must be to blame for the lack of customers at the store yesterday, however, buzzing was a bit different. Jordan and I decided to drive around the college campuses and surrounding neighborhoods to buzz, and were very lucky when we went to Brown. It appears that the entire campus is being rebuilt in a project called “Building Brown”. Yesterday, it was more like “Buzzing Brown,” though. We found so many people working outside without any protective eyewear whatsoever! And it was just around noon, when the sun is at it’s highest point and was most likely to cause eye damage! Thank goodness the Safety Squad was there to let everyone know how unsafe their behavior was and provide eyewear with 99.999% UV protection.

While there are definitely not torrential downpours in the desert this time of year, it certainly looked like it had monsooned on us, when, in reality, it was just sweat. At least I got a good farmer’s tan.

Sophie

Sweaty Interview…literally

Today we had PR in Providence, R.I.! Once again, I was nominated to do the interview with NBC Channel 10. Unfortunately, it was a bizillion degrees outside and I basically sweat my body weight…just in time for a news interview! The reporter was really nice and seemed interested in our products and our demonstration. While I was doing the interview, I was praying that he wouldn’t zoom in on my sweaty face, haha! So I hope I don’t look like a mess on camera : )

The Famous “Safety BUG”

Well, it’s a little more than halfway through our tour and high time we started posting. What better way to start off our blog then talking about the most noticeable aspect of our tour, the car! Whether you love or hate the way our little safety bug looks, there is no denying that it gets a lot of attention. There is one particular occasion that comes to my mind, when we got a tremendous response to the vehicle. Rafael and I were approaching a tollbooth on our way to Cleveland and the attendant completely flipped out when she saw the mobile hardhat approaching. I wish I had a video camera handy to capture her reaction. She radioed another attendant to come see and we had a fifteen minute conversation at the tollbooth about the car, our job and MSA’s products. Luckily there was no line behind us. Of course not everyone loves the safety bug. I’ve been told, “that’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen” and “aren’t you embarrassed to drive that?” But either way, it is a great conversation starter and definitely helps us convey our message. This is Breanna posing with the Safety Bug.

First stop at Chi-city!

Hope everyone is enjoying our blog and your Independence Day! The tour has been a blast so far, I just want to say a little something about our time in Chicago.

I have never been to Chicago, so it was a new venture for me and the other safety squaders. For starters, the drive to Chicago was delightful with my girl Sophie, however, the GPS took a little vacation and drove us through the lovely town of Gary, Indiana. Sophie and I considered Sam’s Meats, a local deli, for lunch, but due to the recent breakout of salmonella in the U.S., we held back our hunger. Finally we were in Chicago–our first Home Depot was very urban, considering the diversity, but luckily we had Rafael to be our Spanish translator, while the rest of the squad busted out a few high school Spanish vocab. We found some great little back roads to “Buzz” in. The people were very grateful and a lot safer!!!!! The best day for the Safety Squad was our last day at the True Value vendor show (free food) jk… We gave away Chicago Bears Hard Hats!!! It was really cool how responsive people were to our demo and display.

The city life, whether it was shopping, mostly eating EVERYTHING, or Second City comedy club, was a great way to jump start out tour

Cleveland Lemonade

So we continue to our next stop. It was a long drive all the way from Chicago to Cleveland and all through the drive we were stopping to get something to drink, refuel ourselves and keep going. We finally made it to Cleveland.

The next day, we visited The Home Depot and then two of us went to “buzz” and make neighborhoods safer. It was a hot day and there were tons of people working outdoors either mowing their lawns, installing new stairs, or fixing their windows. All of a sudden, we see a man cutting the grass (without saftey glasses) and right next to him were his children and a lemonade stand. We had to stop! We were really craving some of that ice cold lemonade but had no cash with us at the time. We made everyone at the scene aware of the hazards they were facing and gave them some nice tips on how to prevent it too! They were so thankful for our stop, that they decided to give us free lemonade!!! It felt great to enjoy the ice cold lemonade on the hot day! What a great day buzzing!!