Killin' Time

If mall walking ever becomes an Olympic sport, watch out. The Portland Timbers will have a leg up on the competition in terms of training and preparation.

As is too often the case on these road trips when we have to take off right after an evening match, the team is forced out of their hotel early and has to kill time before heading to the stadium. In Seattle, that usually means a trip to the mall in Southcenter, which is where this blog entry is originating from. The other option is staying on the bus and watching Van Wilder for the 14,000th time. Today, I chose the mall, figuring I could spend time surfing the net and/or blogging. Looks like I will be able to do both as I found power and WIFI at the Nordstrom cafe.

Ax to the Road has officially hired its second employee, none other than Portland Timbers' general manager Jim Taylor. JT has agreed to be the official blogtographer of ATTR for a salary of one Starbucks Americano per road trip. Of course payment won't be possible until we get the accounting department up and running, but that hasn't phased him. He was so stoked to put his lens to the test this weekend that he forgot to pack socks for the trip and is currently shopping for some here at the mall. You can see some of his Day 1 handywork by clicking the recent photos link.

I really want to order a coffee, but the line here is nonstop and I'm waiting for an opening...

Timber Collin Romer, Portland's crack PR guy, is on this leg of our two-match trip. I may try him out for a little play-by-play on the radio broadcast tonight in the event that I ever go on injured reserve. He won't be going with us to Kelowna, B.C., as the Canadian authorities saw photos of him dancing in downtown Vancouver from the last trip and want to question him as to what his motivation was for attempting a "break off" against a Canadian guy.

Got my coffee and it's excellent.

Also along for the ride is my two-year old daughter's rubber duck, Ducky. He was a last minute addition as I was leaving the house yesterday, when she insisted that I take him and that he would enjoy going on a bus. So far, he has no complaints.

Blogtographer Jim Taylor catches two former Pilots having a pre-match snack
Originally uploaded by Slax.