Just Another Day in the Life

I desperately need to write a few posts about Texas and updates on the summer in general, but yesterday (our first full day in Des Moines) had me laughing out loud (at ourselves and at our current occupation) and I just needed to share this story.

When people hear how we are spending our summer they typically have jaw dropped, look of awe and a comment along the lines of, "You get paid to travel the country?" or "How did you manage to get such a cool job?" or "Sign me up!"  This glorified summer road trip is an awesome opportunity and has been such a fun experience...but with the good comes the, well, interesting? unexpected? insanely frustrating?  Sometimes the behind the scenes isn't quite so glamorous.  For example, washing dishes late at night in our hotel room, pulling up to hotels and scouring through bushes around the whole building to find an electrical outlet so we can plug in our truck, parading around cities in matching outfits everyday, and parking.

Parking actually isn't as bad as you would expect.  We can use "pull through" spots and only take up two spaces, we can easily pull into four spaces in a row, and when parking for events we manage to jump curbs while avoiding obstacles such as cement pillars, propane tanks, flowers, people, etc.  To think I was nervous about driving this truck 2 months ago! HA!  So parking isn't as bad as you would think.

BUT....

Today we received an email from our amazing team back in Colorado that went something like this:
Subject: Truck - MUST MOVE
Body (To Sum Up): The Des Moines Police Department just called and said you are parked in a residential neighborhood and need to move the truck or it will be towed.  Details, details, details...

Let the scramble begin!

Option 1: Try to pull into Luke's cousin's drive way which is essentially on a 45 degree angle - this means scraping the bajeebs out of our back step and their driveway for a few seconds (imagine nails constantly scraping on a chalkboard) and having little to no room to move once we get to the top - aka NOT an option unless we want to be doing 75 point turns like in Austin Powers.  Plus, our cousins are moving next week and trying to show their house to buyers so we thought the hot pink truck may not be the best lawn ornament to have at this point in time.

Option 2: Park at a local Hy-Vee - we are doing some events at Hy-vees after all!  The manager was for it but the property manager in charge of the place wasn't up for it.  Bummer.

Option 3: Drake University!! This is when things really begin to get funny.  After loading the many packages from the house onto the truck (since we now wouldn't be able to park very close and add packages as we need them) Jean (Luke's cousin) suggests getting a week long permit to park at the University right down the street!  Brilliant!  She called over, mentioning she used to be a professor there, and kindly asked, "I was wondering if I could get a week long permit for a banana truck to park in the lots?"  HAHAHA.  Naturally, the security office asked, "What?  A what truck?"  Oh, you don't know about those hot pink and turquoise banana trucks that are all the rage right now?  Needless to say, they needed to see it first.

This looked promising.

So we hop in the truck and head a mile down the street to the security office thinking, "Parking this far away wouldn't be so bad.  We have bikes and the walk would be good exercise and a nice way to start the day."  We pull into the security office and ask about the permit.  The woman asked what the truck was and I just said, "It is a 26' food truck but it is a bit bright.  You need to see it to really understand."  So she walked with me outside, *stunned look*, "Oh. Ok.  Let's see what we can do."

Now my fortunately, unfortunately story begins:
Unfortunately, the woman looked into it and said she could only issue permits to Drake affiliates.
Fortunately, there was a man with her that seemed like he really wanted to help and asked what we were trying to do.
Unfortunately, he says, "Oh, you are that truck they were talking about on the radio.  Apparently it was called in as a suspicious vehicle because it has been in a residential neighborhood for 2 days and has been running the whole time since it has been there."
Fortunately, we can say, "Oh!  That is just our generator!  The truck isn't actually on, it just sounds like it!!  AND we have been here for 16 hours, not 2 days."
Unfortunately, still nothing he can do and he said parking in the area wasn't easy.
Fortunately, he suggested asking a local church to park in their parking lot and there is one right across the street from where we are staying!  Success!!

We left the Drake University and I looked at Lucas, giggling, and through laughter said, "This is our life right now!"

So we head over to the Baptist Church...

Since it was a Wednesday, many people were not around, so we rang the bell with high hopes that someone was around to speak to us.  I had taken a phone call at this point, but Eugene came to the door and introduced himself and asked who we were.  Lucas explained our situation and without hesitation the man said, "Of course you can park here!"  He didn't think twice about it and was so very friendly and helpful.

Before we walked away, an older couple was leaving the church and without hesitation Eugene introduced us to them and told them briefly about what we were doing.  They looked at our truck and said something along the lines of, "Oh yes.  We saw the police over there the other day and wondered what was going on!"  I was stunned.  Less than a day in Des Moines and we already have quite the reputation!  Hopefully that will improve once we get our banana samples on!

The woman then spoke to me and said, "Well we are having a pork loin dinner at the church tonight and you all are more than welcome to come join us!"  AMAZING!  We did have to turn her down due to plans we had with our family, but what a wonderful community this church must be!  They were so welcoming and generous, and just made my heart smile.  I think I may just need to go over there on Sunday morning this week - it isn't easy finding places to go to church when you are a "food trucker." 

After our conversation with the couple, Eugene showed us a nice shaded area off to the side of the church (all the while asking about our lives, telling us a bit about the church and making sure we had everything we needed).  He even let us park right near the wall so we could plug into an electrical outlet rather than run the generator!!  Hooray!  Please refrain from laughing at the excitement I felt about this - having access to electrical outlets these days is like seeing a best friend that you have not seen in months.  Yes, it is that exciting.

Which reminds me - We get to see Amy and Brain in Des Moines this week!!

It was a whirlwind of a day, but ended up working out perfectly.  Sometimes this job of ours can throw us for a loop...but I imagine those "loops" are what will be our fondest memories well after this tour ends in September.

More updates soon.

Phoenix - It's Hot! Realllllll Hot! Were you born on the sun?!?

My blogging has gotten away from me lately!  I know you all have been itching to know how life with bananas has been lately (or not) and I apologize for the delay.  The reason I have not been writing is mostly due to one of the following:

1. Heat.  When it is hot outside, all you want to do is lay around in the a/c and not move.  Once movement occurs, so does sweat.

2. Family!  My parents braved the AZ weather and joined us during our adventures over the 4th of July.  Having them in Arizona was wonderful and I wanted to spend all of my time with them rather than blogging.

Poolside drinks with the rents!

3. Laziness.  We were fortunate enough to have access to some beautiful pools at a resort in Arizona, so when we were not working we were typically poolside, moseying around the lazy river or sitting in the shade napping (why shade?  See number 1).

I could some up our time in Arizona in two words: hot and delightful.  This sounds a bit contradictory, but let me 'splain - no, too much, let me sum up (name that movie)!

Our stay in Arizona was delightful for three main reasons.

1. We were in a house, so we felt like we were leading a somewhat normal life (with the exception of boxes and dishes taking over the hallway).  We were able to cook, make decent coffee, relax on a couch, and go shopping for groceries in a normal fashion.  Not to mention my god parents house is GORGEOUS, it just made us feel at home.  We also just happened to have a pool in the backyard which proved to be quite enjoyable when coming home from a long day in the heat. Much thanks to the Bockraths!!
2. My parents came!  My mom spent five days with us and joined us at some of our banana events, and was super helpful in 1001 ways.  It was fun spending time with someone other than Lucas (I kid. I kid.) and who doesn't love having their Mom around?  We introduced her to life on the banana mobile and also spent some quality time together.  My Dad joined us for our last weekend in Arizona, which happened to be over one of our days off.  He was great per usual and convinced us to see Lone Ranger and then watch old Lone Ranger episodes on YouTube to compare and contrast the old show with the movie.  We also spent a day at the pool with my parents and ended their stay with a dinner celebrating their birthdays which we unfortunately will have to miss while we are on the road.  I would say their visit was the highlight of AZ and we are very fortunate that they were willing to fly into uncomfortable conditions to spend time with us!
3.  The Marriott.  My Godfather let us use his membership card to go to the Marriott down the street from the house.  Complete with 4 pools and a fitness center, this is all we needed to make the stay complete!  Being able to workout and then sit in the lazy river made it almost feel like we were crazy vacationers that chose to be in Arizona in July!  This was the cherry on top of a great place to stay!

Why Arizona was hot:
     Well, just look at the weather forecasts and then consider we were also there when they were breaking records.  Our days ranged from 109 - 119 and at one point the thermometer in our truck registered a little over 120 degrees.  Yikes!  At least it is a dry heat...

It truly was fun to be in Phoenix and we enjoyed experimenting with smoothie flavors at home, cooking meals rather than eating out, having a house to stay in and most importantly seeing my family!  With that said, I think this clip describes Phoenix better than anything else:

Peeling the Heat!

We Can't Escape Them!! - Bananas Everywhere

It is true.  The bananas follow us everywhere we go.

I was in need of some thank you cards, so I was browsing through the greeting cards at the grocery store.  I didn't find anything that was fantastic and was debating between a few mediocre options.  Just as I was about to leave, I glanced down and spotted this card:

Card - Front

Card - Inside

Decision made.  I bought two copies and checked out.

...and I have plans to go back and buy out the store.

I swear, bananas are following us everywhere we go!