May 6-May 10, 2016
What better way to kick off the spirit of summer then going on a road trip. A motley assortment of Oasis Aqualounge employees piled into a twelve seat Mercedes Passenger Van at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning; all ready for the long haul to Frolicon in Atlanta, Georgia. The excitement for the trip managed to out weigh the over all sleepiness felt by all ten co-worker’s and before they knew it they reached the Windsor/Detroit border, the first leg of the journey.
As Tim Horton’s morphed into Waffle Houses and the landscapes became lush, green rolling hills it was apparent the destination was getting closer. Normally the drive to Atlanta is about fourteen/fifteen hours but unfortunately due to late night construction as the highway split to Atlanta the Oasis “Bang Bus” (as Marketing Coordinator Holly dubbed it), made the journey in a whopping seventeen and a half! The very weary Oasis team arrived at the Sheraton Hotel for Frolicon at nearly 3:00 am Friday morning!
The next two days at Frolicon were a whirlwind of networking, promoting, attending workshops, meeting new friends, playing, partying and definitely not a lot of sleeping. In true Oasis style some outrageous activities happened off the clock; such as hotel room tattoos, random hook ups and a late night trip to the local strip clubs. The Clermount Lounge, located in the basement of a condemned hotel was more of an attraction then a strip club…you’d have to see it to believe it! Cheetahs was the holy grail of strip clubs, it featured a buffet of the hottest women and you could even smoke inside. Needless to say we were glad we saved our “singles” for tipping at Cheetahs, the lap dances were epic.
On Sunday May 8th the gang piled back into the “Bang Bus” again for the next part of the trip; the vacation to Nashville, Tennessee. On the way out of Atlanta the group had to make a pit stop at the famous fast food joint Varsity’s, an Atlanta tradition since 1928. Full of smiles, cheeseburgers, fries & milk shakes the troupe drove onward an easy three and a half hours to Music City.
The next day and half was filled with honky tonk bars (Roberts was so good they hit it up twice), authentic Tennessee BBQ, sight seeing, shopping, tattoos and even more debauchery. The highlight was at Coyote Ugly’s, where the Oasis gals took turns dancing on the bar and nearly got the “boot”for being too risqué! Nashville was such a lively city, the group packed in as much as possible but a few more days would have been perfect.
Tuesday morning at 10:00 am the group left Nashville titillated, more tattooed and tuckered out. Their long journey home fell silent as well deserved sleep crept in. The group arrived back in Toronto safe and sound clocking in a fourteen and a half hour return trip. Six days on the road, ten Oasis staff and countless memories made this road trip one hell of a hedonistic adventure!
