Greetings friends! We are on the way to Kansas City where will stay for the evening before continuing our journey eastward to St. Louis. We all had a great time in Denver getting to see and do a lot during the day and half we were there.
The first night we met up with Bob and had a late night dinner and a few drinks at a couple spots close to our hotel. We were all really exhausted from the long drive so we crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel. Bob and I got some early morning footage of the Moonlight Classic setup then went to explore the city. I was very impressed with all the public transportation and the use of bikes throughout the city. It really cuts down on traffic and of course is beneficial to the environment.
Linda picked up Professor Tammy Proctor from the airport, and she will join Ashley and I for a few days until we hit St. Louis. Then a friend of ours, Taylor Hafley, will join us followed by Miguel Martinez-Saenz. We had a great night for the event at the Uptown Tavern. We met some fun alumni and had burgers and dogs as I collected video stories.
After the Uptown Tavern, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Moonlight Classic bike ride through the city. The bike ride was directed by Scott Olmsted an '04 Witt alumni. We had a blast riding through the streets of Denver! It was a great way to benefit Seniors Inc., and 5,000 bikers rode this year! Scott gave us a shout-out before the race and we went crazy. The 10-mile bike ride went all around the city and we really enjoyed the experience. By the time we got back it was already around 1:30 in the morning, and we were once again exhausted.
We hit the hay and woke up early this morning to take back our rented bikes. We are now getting close to Kansas City, which will be a nice stopping point before we head to St. Louis in the morning. Thanks to everyone who came out to the happy hour and to Scott for organizing such a great bike event! It was certainly an experience I will never forget. That's it for now. See you in St. Louis!
Ben
Click this link to see the photos and videos from the event!
Get ready Denver! Just like last year when we surprised our alumni in Chicago, this year we're pulling out the live Webcast in Denver!! If you missed last year's show, tune in this year - it's actually pretty entertaining. How did Denver get this honor? Well, we had such a great turn out in Denver last year and found that the alumni living in the Mile High City are about as gracious as they come, that we knew this would be the perfect place. This will be day 21 of the tour, so the crew should should have a lot to share at this point.
As we said goodbye to the cats and Debbie at her and Carol’s house, we hit the road anxious to get to San Diego. Since I joined the tour last week, I learned one important rule: we never make it somewhere as quick as we hope to. The drive from San Francisco to San Diego usually takes anywhere from 8-10 hours. Linda and I were at the driver’s seat and decided to take the famed Highway 1 along the coast to 17-mile drive and Big Sur. Once we made it there, we realized we couldn’t get off 1 until LA, and so we continued to drive along the curvy, winding, cliff-side road for hours and hours. Luckily we made it to LA in time for rush-hour traffic! Needless to say I am very VERY thankful for car-pool lanes. We were able to coast by the bumper-to-bumper traffic and made it through LA in no time. As we pulled up to Dan ‘86 and Tricia Kettlehake’s house in San Diego, after missing the Mexican feast they had prepared for us, we enjoyed some chips, salsa, and cookies (watch out Betty Crocker, these were amazing) outside on the patio. 
The past few days have been going by really fast. We had a great time in Sonoma at the Williamson's beautiful house before heading to San Francisco for a quick tour of the city.
I decided it would be a good idea to longboard across the Golden Gate Bridge, which turned out to be a great decision. After cruising to the other side and getting a quick snapshot of the Witt Nation van we headed into the city. We did manage to find the Full House house, which is NOT by popular belief across from the square. After getting some quick chowdah' at the wharf, we hopped back in the ride and cruised over to the beautiful home of board member Debbie Miller and her partner Carol Nast. They hosted a really fun event, and I interviewed and met many great alumni from the area. We mingled and had a few drinks and listened to how baffled Debbie was over getting rain the day prior. Sounds like the consistent weather in Ohio...Ok maybe not. After most of the guests left we had a great conversation about the right path for Wittenberg down the road. After trying to get some late night grub, we found the only place open was a frozen yogurt shop. This was definitely the best frozen yogurt I've had! Then the Ashleys decided they needed Taco Bell, so we drove for what seemed like 200 miles to the closest Taco Bell. I was exhausted so I just crashed in the car (I surprisingly for once did not partake in the eating). After returning to the crib we were careful not to let Debbie and Carol's cats out of the house. Debbie was concerned when she didn't see the cats after a few minutes and starting calling for them. We then had a WittCrisis on our hands, as the black cats were nowhere to be found. Young Ashley noticed the window and screen were both open in the kitchen, and Debbie and Carol went on an extreme cat search outside. The crew all sat together hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Luckily after yelling Leia and Luke in a cat-friendly voice for a few minutes, the black cats were found. The WittCrisis was resolved, and we could all sleep soundly. Well we just arrived in San Diego so I best be going. Peace!
Have you ever thought about 'connections'? What are they and why are they important? You may 'connect' with an old friend, 'connect' on the phone, could be facebook, maybe e-mail, you may 'connect' anything from 'Four' to 'the dots.' So, while thinking about all of the 'connections' we were going to make as we boarded our plane to join the crew in California, it was all about 'making connections' to arrive in time to make our 'connection' with Witt Nation. Well, as luck would have it, all of the 'connections' occurred, we won't say seamlessly, and two new crew members joined the ride, Jon Duraj '09 and me. After a swearing in ceremony, we were given the official secret password, knock and handshake. We are now crew members ready to engage Wittenberg alumni.
Yesterday was a fun-filled day of Witt Nation activities, and by activities we mean mostly driving. We woke up early to the space needle on our right and The Sound on our left in the not so rainy city of Seattle. We quickly cleaned out the van to transform it into the president's motorcade. On the way to Portland we discovered that President Erickson enjoys the musical styling of Robby Williams and Michael Jackson, he even shared a few youtube videos with us. After an entertaining three hour drive, we arrived at Meriwethers Restaurant in Portland. We had a surprisingly large and lively crowd with alums ranging from the class of '43 to the class of '05. After a lot of great conversation, we sat down for lunch and listened to President Erickson give a few updates on the University. It was exciting to see so many people this far away from campus interested in staying engaged with their alma mater. After the event we took a few minutes to explore the Alphabet District in downtown Portland. We bought a few trinkets, loaded up on coffee and got back on the road heading toward McKinnleyville California, for the night. We were on our way to meet up with Chris Heiliger '03, Beth '97 and Tim Dominick at the home of former Wittenberg employees Chuck and Nancy Dominick. After Chris's expert advice to try to get through 199 before dark, we mastered the art of holding your bladder. We arrived at the Dominick's to a warm welcome of pizza and beer... are they true Wittenberger's or what? After a great night's sleep and a quick breakfast of delicious homemade muffins, we headed to the beach to enjoy some fresh air and soak up the local scenery. On our way out of town Tim, Chris, and Chuck gave us a tour of Tim and Beth's organic coffee business 
Greetings friends! We're on the road to Portland after a great event in Seattle. Thank you to Paul and Sharon Sausville for letting the road crew stay at your beautiful condo! We got a great taste of the city first starting at the Seattle Storm game. We were honored to have head coach alumni Brian Agler from the class of 1980 speak to us after the game. The attendance at the event was fantastic! We had nearly 50 people show up to the game. After meeting alumni and digging in to the chicken wings and hot dogs, I was able to film 9 alumni profiles. After meeting with Brian, some of our young alumni got a group to grab drinks at a bar near the stadium. We had a blast exchanging Witt memories, and we would like to thank you for coming out with us on a Thursday night! I know I've said this before, but capturing alumni stories is one of my favorite parts on the Witt Nation tour. I’ve heard hundreds of unique Wittenberg perceptions, and the one common bond they share is the love and passion our alumni have about Witt. It’s refreshing to see the excitement in the eyes of our alumni as they tell their stories. The goal for the Witt Nation journey is to engage our alumni. I can say without any hesitation that our alumni are excited to get involved. We already have heard groups in several cities talking about getting together in the near future to talk about ways they can help the university. Thanks again for coming to the event. It was great meeting everyone!
blend in nicely now, especially Ben and his goofy hats. Well, after a very adventurous couple of days in Jackson, WY., we hit the road early this morning. We started our adventure by cruising through Yellowstone...not to be confused with Jellystone. Yogi Bear does not live there....my bad Ashley P. In the past couple of days we were fortunate to see lots of wild life, Moose, Bison, Deer, and other little animals, all of which have their own little funny stories. This has truly been a very cool experience. Well, after a few hours of driving and lots of construction we stopped in Bozeman, MT., to have lunch with Susan Welker Benne '02. Bozeman was an extremely beautiful and vivacious town. Susan took us to the perfect little road trip diner and then to an organic coffee shop to refuel before we hit the road again for Missoula. The Missoula event was a great success!!! We had an impressive turn out! The event was sponsored by Sandy Burner '63 at the gorgeous new home of her daughter Julie Gardner. The food was to die for and the company was incredible. I really had no idea we had so many engaged alumni in Montana. Professor of English Bob Davis joined us at the event and gave a riveting talk about finding your creative side and true calling in life. The alumni were extremely intrigued and impressed by his speech. Professor Davis is a great representive of the Wittenberg Faculty who has positively and intellectually engaged hundreds of students who are greatly appreciative. It was a great day here in the scenic state of Montana, it is honestly impossible to explain the beauty out here. Thanks to all of our alumni in Montana for making tonight such a succesful event! Well, we are off to bed earlier than usual and will be hitting the road extremely early for Seattle!!! Keep checking in to see what adventure we get into next! We have a pretty funny prank Ashley P. and I played on Ben earlier today, we will be posting the video soon!
