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Day 34-Monday (Minnesota- Chicago) 6/24/13

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Oddly enough we wake up early today. Probably in anticipation of our big day with the distribution company. But around 8am we open our eyes and lay around for an hour until 9 when we get out of the car and go into the walmart and grab the usual bread and water combination for the day. After a breakfast of PB&J and dry frosted shredded mini wheat cereal we dig our professional wear from the pile of clothes and head down the street to the Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) headquarters in Bloomington, MN.

As we get closer and closer I get more and more excited that this meeting could possibly change our lives forever. We pull up to the massive facility and walk in. Inside is a small lobby with key card access to the rest of the building. We walk up and the young desk attendant Casey greets us. As we tell him our story, we start to think of ways to get our lights more visibility in the lobby. He tells us that the guy we were originally supposed to see was in Germany for the week but he could get us a meeting with his associate in a few hours. As we leave, he invites us to leave the glowing bike in the lobby. Happily, we prop the bike in a dark corner then head out. We decide to go to the local FedEx to print more material for our meeting. So down the road we drive and camp out at the FedEx work stations for an hour and a half until it’s time to head back for our meeting. 

Now, even more excited we walk up to the building and sit in the lobby to wait for our meeting at 1pm. Then, out walks Nick, one of the product managers for QBP. He doesn’t manage our specific area but is the closest with the person we were originally supposed to meet with. He comes out and tells us what he thinks about our lights, then hears our schpeal. He tells us that our lights aren't something they usually go for because they are “gimmicky”. That’s not something we haven’t heard before but we assumed someone who sees new products would be able to see the value of the safety in the product. But we continue to talk and we explain how much of a buzz we’ve generated and he starts to sound more optimistic. After about an hour of standing and talking in the lobby it starts to rain and we part ways.  Back in the car, we sit in a calm numbness  of the unenthusiastic reaction from our meeting. After about 20 minute we decide to head out and visit the shops throughout the city.

The rain stops around 3pm and we split in car and on bike to visit bicycle shops. On the trip we hear of the storm that came through town, ripped trees out of the ground and left parts of the city without power even 5 days later. After 3 hours, we meet back up in downtown Minneapolis and start our 6 hour drive back out to Chicago….


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