Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of travelling with some business colleagues to a meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Now, most of the time business trips are not considered "pleasurable," but in this case we had just finished up two and half great days of meetings and I was fortunate to be travelling not only with business associates, but with people I consider some of my very good friends. On top of that, we all represent the web hosting community and this made the drive back to Washington DC a lot more productive from a work standpoint. AND it was the ultimate four hour "geek-out" session on so many different tech subjects. I am sure all of you would have wanted to be a fly on the wall... Or maybe on the windshield at some points in the drive. :)
So about halfway into the drive our stomachs started to rumble. With Breezewood, PA rapidly approaching I came to realization that if we trudged on and ate at any of the few dinner-esque types of establishments there, the second half of the car ride may not be as enjoyable as the first half. That being said, we decided we would rather stop in Bedford, PA to have a bite. Now as convincing (and as numerous) as the billboards were leading up to Bedford, Ed's Steakhouse was not my first choice for the afternoon. After about two minutes of back and forth, and being that I was the driver, I had to lay down the law and request that my riding companions stop watching the latest YouTube sensation and use their Internet connected devices (cell phones to the layperson) to find us a decent place to eat lunch.
As the options started to come up, we found an interesting review on TripAdvisor for a restaurant called Horn O Plenty. After a little chuckle about the name (it was all guys in the car) we were slowly getting sold on trying this restaurant. There were nothing but amazing reviews showing up! DONE. This was our stop and after about 2 miles off the beaten path, we arrived. And not a moment too soon... I was about to eat my shoe I was so hungry after hearing all these rave reviews.
Now I could go into all the reasons why this is one of my new favorite restaurants in the USA, but then this blog post would be three times as long and I'd risk losing even more readers than I already have. Let me just say that this restaurant lived up to every review and every expectation that we had, even before we had the first bite of food.
After one of the best meals I had ever eaten, we spent a considerable amount of time talking to Mandi Horn, the owner of the restaurant AND the farmer/grower of most everything we just ate. It was one of the most pleasant dining experiences I have ever had. The staff was "icing on the cake" to the great food we had just eaten. I really felt like I was at someone's home for lunch rather than eating out. And we had just met! Needless to say, the entire second half of the ride home was spent talking about the fantastic experience we had just had.
Now you are probably asking, "What does this all have to do with my love for Hedgehog and the importance of other infrastructure companies?" Without us, this entire process could not have happened. Now let me be clear that we do not host the websites for TripAdvisor or Horn O Plenty, but someone very similar to Hedgehog Hosting does. Infrastructure companies, like ours, are the facilitators of the applications that allowed us to find this "hidden gem." How great is it that we have all this technology that can lead us somewhere that we had no idea existed?
Let us take this a step further to something a bit more important than our lunch that December day. Non-profit groups like Amnesty International need people to find them even though they may be off the beaten path a bit. They need to garner support for their efforts protecting human rights around the world. Many infrastructure companies, and Hedgehog Hosting specifically, allow Amnesty to spread their message all over the world. These messages are not of the usual "Special of the Day," variety, but rather an appeal to save a person's life, or protect the rights of a group that is being persecuted. Our infrastructure companies make these messages available to everyone at any time. That, to me, makes every day worth going to work for.
In the end, I am so very excited that what we do makes a difference. Now, maybe it makes a difference for a small, local farmer who decided to open a restaurant a few miles from her farm in Bedford, PA or maybe, just maybe, it makes a difference to a whole group of people fighting for basic human freedoms. Either way, we will be here to help them and will be grateful for that opportunity!
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Finally, if you are ever in Bedford, PA you would be remiss if you did not visit Horn O Plenty (http://www.myhornoplenty.com) and have what I consider to be one of the best dining experiences ever! Please tell Mandi her computer friends from Washington DC are still reading her recommended cookbooks and looking forward to our next visit to Bedford!
