Friday, January 7, 2011

Seattle, Salt Lake, Denver & a Gall Bladder!

After our Portland promotion, we drove a few hours North to Seattle, WA. We captured some incredible interviews with a local muralist/painter named Baso and a myriad of other Seattilites.

It was freezing and personally I was pretty under the weather (no pun intended). I had a 3-day cold apparently the progressed drastically the one day we had to spend in Seattle. The Space Needle didn't see the likes of me, but the rest of the group soldiered on to capture Unipaas Jet footage.

Seattle seemed to be over and done within a blink of an eye. The next morning, Vinnie wasn't feeling so well- and was super quiet (even more so than usual). We all thought it was the cocktails that Eve (Seattle Director & guilty culprit) bought for him the night prior. Little did we know.

After Seattle we began our decent to the great state of Colorado. It was pretty impossible to make it there in one day, so we had to stop of in Salt Lake City for the night. I had never been to Utah and didn't quite know what I should expect. Salt Lake City was the weirdest city I'd ever been to. The air was horrible, (apparently they were having a red alert in air quality), it smelled like sulfur and then vomit and then feces. It was an everlasting gobstopper of putrid smells as we traveled through. It was pretty disgusting.

All of the exits were labeled 9000 NE, 3400 SE etc. No street names just 4 digit numbers. I was enlightened later that these numbers and directions revolve around the Mormon Tabernacle in town. Wow! They don't have a state lotto so Matt couldn't complete his souvenir lotto ticket chain he's had for 7 states. I also noticed an abundance of self improvement signs. Lipo, lap band, acne scars, viragoes veins and a lot of those pass it on signs with Andre Agassi- I'm pretty sure they were outdated, I wonder if they know he's addicted to Meth? Utah was interesting for sure.

The mountains were incredible however.

The next day was a drive through Wyoming- breathtaking mountains, cliffs and canyons. Snow covered valleys and frozen lakes. Not a whole lot of anything, but gorgeous nothingness. Oh and people in Wyoming LOVE fireworks. There is a firework stand on almost every bend, and where there isn't a stand there is a sign advertising a stand close buy.

We had a fantastic meet and greet in Denver- tons of people showed for more information. We had some break dancers and Andy from the Flow Botts and a designer who croqueted sweaters that stragtigically fit your iphone, ipod and other electronics to be easily accessible. Pretty awesome. Denver is going to be a great one.

As we got into Colorado Vinnie didn't look so hot and asked us to drop him at a hospital- we had no idea what was so severe. A few hours later we get a call that Vinnie needs to go into surgery the following morning! His gall bladder was inflamed and they needed to remove it. He hadn't been feeling well the last few weeks- and apparently the clinic in Long Beach diagnosed it as Acid Reflux... BIG mistake!

We're happy to report that Vinnie had a successful surgery and is recovering in Poudre Valley Hospital. Although we asked to see the gall bladder, it was already gone.

Vinnie needs to stay and recover in Fort Collins Colorado for a few days (which is the nicest hospital I've ever been in). He may join us in Philly or head home to rest. We all think he's crazy for still wanting to go on the trip. As of this morning, we're Chicago bound leaving Vinnie and his gall bladder cavity will remain in Colorado.




We send him healthy vibes, and wish him a speedy recovery. What an adventure thus far, and not we're not even half way done yet.



Three RAWker's soilder on.

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