Family and friends, giant green field with Mr. Peanut racing Ryan's sisters, huge basins filled with Capri Suns. That's America, baby!
All jokes aside, our time in Long Island was really fun.
Some highlights:
Bringing out Mr. Peanut!
Finally the weather wasn't as unbearable as it was in the beginning of July and we felt brave enough to finally wake up Mr. Peanut from his deep slumber since training week. With his help, we shot a ton of fun videos for the socials, and we got him to participate in some of the racing competitions on the 4th of July which was equally hilarious and fun. (You can click those links above to watch the videos!)
The 4th of July Event
Ryan's family has been going to their neighborhood July 4th party for Ryan's entire life, and they are officially moving out of his childhood home in only a couple weeks. When he left home for the NUT, he didn't think he was coming back - so it was super special that he got to stay in his childhood bedroom one more time, and that he got to bring the NUTmobile to close out a childhood tradition. I really enjoyed meeting his family and spending so much time with them over the course of the week. It's cool that we all are so eager to share this experience with our loved ones! It's made me feel really lucky to see the support I've gotten from friends and family, and it was lovely to see that Ryan was recieving the same excitement from his support group! (Don't worry, we definitely plan to meet Katie's family in Texas once it gets a little cooler!)
This was also the first time we woke up Mr. Peanut for an event, and watching fans interact with him, and also interacting with Mr. P myself was so fun. Something about his handsome face just makes me giggle.
Kelly (aka Smelly on Tiktok)
We got to make content with one of Ryan's friends, Kelly, who now works for Barstool! She was incredible! I honestly learned so much about content creation just by watching her make the videos she posted with us, and she taught me some filming techniques I am definitely gonna use the next time I am assigned to work on Social Media!
One Rainbow bagel for the road and we began our four day drive to Iowa for the Hy-Vee Indy Car Series! Each day we drove for about 6-7 hours and then crashed at a hotel until finally making it to Grinnell, IA by July 9th. On day 3, we got to make a very important stop at THE WORLDS LARGEST TRUCK STOP ON I-80. This is the Disneyland of convience stores. The crem de la crem of chaotic tchotchke . I love this place. Favorite place on Earth? Maybe! We grabbed some lunch and some necessary souvenir photos, and then headed out again.
On our final drive day, we stopped in Des Moines, IA to meet some folks from the sales team and also grab our rental car. I offered to drive the rental back to the hotel we were going to be staying at for the week - which also allowed me a much needed trip to my other favorite place, Michaels Craft Store. Let me tell you, driving a normal car after driving a giant peanut is WEIRD! My depth perception was totally off, and I couldn't believe how low to the ground I felt.
Right before I got to the hotel, I drove by a ginormous field full of cows. I had been mentioning to Katie and Ryan that I really wanted to stop on the highways and just look at the cows (they are becoming my favorite animal) and suddenly I was in a rental car by myself with no one to stop me! So I pulled off into the farm entrance off the highway, and walked over to those cows. It was a lovely little moment to myself in the middle of nowhere, which I guess is one of the biggest joys in Iowa.
Cows and fields.
Stay tuned for Indy Car mania!
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