So, here we are again. You’re starved for content and I have been gorging myself on experiences that you can’t wait to hear. No? You’re mildly interested in? You’ll happily read in passing when I ask if you’ve been following my blog? Fine, so be it.

January 12-30: I took a job working events at college campuses. It was easy and fun (for the most part). Flew to Miami, worked an event, drove to Tampa, worked an event, drove back to Miami, flew to Washington D.C. to see some friends and check out the inauguration, flew to Charlotte, worked an event, was robbed at gunpoint (they stole my phone… BASTARDS!), was happy to live through that, flew back to D.C. checked out an awesome photo exhibit by Robert Frank called “The Americans,” flew to Milwaukee, had one day of rest, flew to New York City and worked an event. Which brings us to February.

February 1-30: Took a job working NASCAR races, trained intensely for 3 days, drove to Daytona Beach, worked the Daytona 500, drove to Orlando, flew to Ontario, CA, worked the Auto Club 500, drove a Cadillac Escalade to Las Vegas, worked the Shelby 427, flew to Atlanta, worked the Kobalt Tools 500, flew to Milwaukee and here I am.

I know I am skimping on details… LOTS of details, but now you can see why.

I have been a terrible blogger. I have yet to write about the big mess of occurrences from January and have yet to talk about ANY of my travels since then. Well get used to it, because I am just one busy traveling fool! The new gig keeps me working hard, exhausted afterwards and the working AND traveling while exhausted. I will take this brief time I have to write a summation so check back here soon… this time I mean it.

As the comment from my number one fan so sarcastically pointed out quite a bit has happened since my last post.

Stay tuned for a story filled with statehood, action, intrigue, mystery, violence and near sickening amounts of travel utilizing public and commercial transportation.

Mark and I walked down to the Lincoln Memorial two nights ago to see if anything had changed. We would soon find that quite a bit had changed from our previous journey around the mall. For starters the temperature was more tolerable and it looked as if a nuclear (we can finally pronounce that word correctly again, it’s “new-klee-ur” for those who forgot) bomb made of barricades and porta-potties had gone off. We couldn’t get as close to the Capitol as we could earlier, but by gosh we had plenty of options for going to the bathroom! From the capitol to Lincoln Memorial there were large speaker rigs and massive jumbotron screens setup for the concert that was to take place on Sunday. Mark was in awe just at the difference between this and inaugural celebrations of the past. The preparation and expected crowd for this inauguration is and are unprecedented.

Unfortunately, we missed the concert getting prepared for an unprecedented number of guests at Mark and Nancy’s residence. However, that doesn’t mean the day wasn’t exciting. While driving back from a successful hunt for an additional air bed Nancy and I witnessed a car being pulled over in the middle of the highway. While sitting in a traffic jam listening to the Obama/Biden concert live I saw a police cruiser coming up the shoulder. A few cars behind us a gray Cadillac CTS was swarmed by no fewer than 3 additional police cruisers as well as an unmarked Impala. The Cadillac was stopped in the middle of the highway and the officers poured from their vehicles with sidearms pulled from their holsters and at the ready. As we drove away I continued to rubberneck from the passenger seat to see the driver of the Cadillac drop to his knees in cooperation and then get handcuffed. Needless to say, it was fairly exciting.

You’ll see one of the three free bracelets I received for buying a couple of burgers and fries from a local establishment in the flickr area. The prices have skyrocketed in order to take advantage of the massive numbers of tourists that will be on Capitol Hill this week. I pointed this out to the clerk and guilted her into giving me the bracelets for free. More and more street vendors are appearing with a mish-mash of Obama merchandise.

Later in the evening my friend Mark and I walked around the Capitol freezing, chatting and realizing that it would be impossible to get anywhere near that close on Tuesday.

Update: Nancy, Mark’s fiancée, got a free bluescreen picture taken that was then placed on some Obama artwork as a backdrop. The area is getting ever thicker with ObaMania vending.