Our DIY sound system in the Baby Loaf Bus

There are a lot of reasons why I love my job. I love being able to travel and work with amazing people who have become some of my closest friends. Another favorite part of being a Brand Ambassador is driving around in our refurbished Baby Loaf Buses that are customized to look like a Tillamook Baby Loaf of Tillamook Cheese. These buses, that we call Yums, are the coolest vehicles that I’ve ever seen. The attention that we get from driving them never gets old. The Yums are complete antiques and they are also completely bare bones. They don’t have air conditioning, a heater, or a radio, but it doesn’t bother us.

We Brand Ambassadors are quite resourceful when it comes to the Yums. The Loaf Love Tour was in Texas for 3 months and let me tell you, IT GOT REALLY HOT! There are several things that we do to beat the heat. When driving in 100 degree weather, you must always tie something around your waist or sit on a towel because in that heat leather seats and khaki shorts do not mix. Since there is no air conditioning, we have found that when we tilt the small swivel windows just right and and open the side windows completely we get a pretty good breeze. The only problem is that unless we are in constant motion, it gets really hot. April Fo Cheezy and I also invested in handheld, electric fans that squirt water. Those have been invaluable to us in the hot summer weather.

One thing that was a little bit harder for me to get use to was the fact that the Yums don’t have radios. I love music and I love to sing and dance. Sometimes we have long drives to our stores and it’s really nice to have some music on our ride. Since it is summertime, we always have the windows open and it gets a little loud so just playing music on your phone doesn’t really do it. Since we are kind of cheesy MacGyvers we realized that when you place your phone with the speaker toward the front windshield, flip the metal ash tray up, string a rubber band through the ash tray and wrap it around your phone it makes a killer sound system. If you see us driving around town in our little orange micro buses you may see us rockin’ out and singing to such anthems as “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen or “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” by One Direction. Believe me, we do not hold back either. We sing at the top of our lungs and I don’t want to brag, but our from-the-waist-up dance moves are pretty epic.

By Alyssa

It’s amazing how much attention we get on the Loaf Love Tour when we drive around in the baby loaf buses. I’m definitely not going to pretend like I don’t love it. I thought that we got a lot of attention in Texas for the last 3 months, but being back in the Northwest has made me feel like somewhat of a celebrity. When we’re driving to and from our events, people will pull up next to us, want to talk to us and see what we’re doing. They try and snap pictures of us while they’re driving… which can sometimes get a little scary. People weave in and out of traffic, trying to watch the road while they snap a picture! It’s a tough life, but I am always ready for my close-up! We’ve driven through downtown Portland several times where there are a lot of people walking around and hanging out by the waterfront. It’s exciting because people honk and yell out to us and we feel like cheesy rockstars! I could definitely get used to this rockstar status. When we arrived at our store event today there was a huge reader board that said “Tillamook Loaf Love Tour 1pm – 7pm Thursday, June 21.” It was like the reader board at the Rose Garden, “The Rose Garden Welcomes…Van Halen!” Wow, did I just compare myself to Van Halen? I think I might be getting a bit of an ego.

Aspiring Asteria, April FoCheeezy, Smiley Kylie and I (Till-Lyssa) are really excited for our next stop, Idaho! The great potato state! You know what is great on potatoes…Tillamook Cheese! It’s so fun to go to a new market, educate consumers about Tillamook and feed them our delicious cheese. We won’t be in our home state, so my rockstar status might not be quite as prominent, but my teammates are getting sick of me insisting there be a red carpet when I arrive to work every morning – I may need to be brought down a peg or two.

Stay cheesy Portland, and look out Idaho, here we come!

- Till-Lyssa

By Alyssa

Oregon State's Benny the Beaver

If you are from the Northwest, you know about the intense rivalry between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State University Beavers.  If you know me, Alyssa (aka Till-Lyssa) of the Loaf Love Tour, then you’re aware that I am a University of Oregon alumni and crazy, Duck Super-fan!  I would say on average most alumni were fans of at least one college sport while they were in school and may even follow that sport or team after they graduate.  I, on the other hand, was a super-fan of all sports.  I am proud to say that I attended EVERY home football game and Men’s basketball game.  I also attended 3 to 4 away football games a year and went to all Men’s playoff basketball games.  I went to Volleyball games, wrestling meets, Women’s basketball games, and track meets.

Alyssa with University of Oregon's Puddles!

When I started the Loaf Love Tour I was so excited to hear that one of my fellow Brand Ambassadors, Noelle, was also a University of Oregon alumni and Duck fanatic.  I was less thrilled to hear that the Production Assistant on tour, Jason, went to Oregon State University and is a huge Beaver fan.  In fact, the first time Jason and I met; I introduced myself and told him where I went to school.  Jason replied with, “My name is Jason and I went to OSU.  GO BEAVS!”  I thought, “Oh no!  The rivalry begins!  How will he and I ever work together in harmony?”  On top of that, what is the Tillamook and Loaf Love Tour signature color!?!  That’s right folks, ORANGE!  Don’t get me wrong, I love Tillamook orange.  I just knew that Jason was going to love to see a Duck wear OSU colors.

My very first week on the job and I was partnered with Jason.  Our second store day, the dairy manager came over and introduced himself.  Not even 2 minutes into our conversation it was revealed that a Duck and a Beaver were working together, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.  Even Texans, no stranger to college rivalries themsleves, knew about Ducks vs. Beavs. However, it turns out that Jason and I DO have something in common.  Our love for cheese!  Our favorite flavor is the Sharp Cheddar, we both love that Tillamook Cheese is natural, and we totally LOAF bringing cheese to the people!

Jason is still a diehard OSU fan, and I am still a mega U of O fan but it turns out both Ducks and Beavers love Tillamook cheese!

-Till-Lyssa

By Alyssa

Baby Loaves and Smile Sticks

I can’t believe that nearly a month ago I was hopping on a plane from Portland, OR to Dallas, TX to start my new job as a Brand Ambassador for the famous Tillamook Loaf Love Tour.  When people say that time flies when you’re having fun, they aren’t kidding. It’s hard to believe that our time in Dallas is coming to an end; I feel like we just got here. I was already extremely excited to begin my 6 month adventure, but Dallas and the Loaf Love Tour have far exceeded my expectations.

I know it sounds cheesy (the cheese humor never gets old), but there is not one thing that I don’t love about this job.  From the cubing parties, where all the Brand Ambassadors listen to music and slice the cheese into perfect bite-sized cubes to share with the people of Dallas, to the big events like the Dallas Zoo.  Originally, the Dallas Zoo event was supposed to be on a Saturday, but some extreme weather forced us to cut that day short.  Miraculously, just two days later the clouds parted and that big, orange wheel of cheese in the sky beamed down on us, and we were able to put our award-winning cheese in the mouths of thousands of zoo-goers. After a day on the job I often think to myself, “Am I dreaming?  I get to drive around in our awesome Baby Loaf buses. I get to talk to the wonderful people of Dallas about delicious cheese, and I get to travel around and share the Loaf. Someone pinch me!

My favorite day in Dallas thus far was definitely our Day of Loaf. The entire crew hops into our Baby Loaf buses, and we drive around spreading the loaf, taking pictures with the wonderful people of Dallas. Because it was Burger Week, we visited five Dallas-area restaurants and sampled their specialty burgers made with delicious Tillamook Cheese.  By the fifth restaurant I was so delightfully full…and happy that I had worn pants with an elastic waist band.

If you were one of the people who visited with me at a local grocery store, thank you for the warm hospitality! I love the sincerity as you listen to me rave about this amazing cheese and the support you’ve shown our co-op of family farmers. Dallas has been the perfect city to kick off the Texas leg of the Loaf Love Tour. This beautiful city has made me so excited to see what else the fine state of Texas has to offer.

Look out Texas!  The Loaf Love Tour is here! We Loaf you Dallas, TX!

- Til-Lyssa of the Loaf Love team

Dallas Super Fan

By Alyssa