Soaking up the sun in SoCal.

We call our awesome little VW Baby Loaf buses ”Yums” and our fleet now has 5 Yums, including the Loafster convertible. I personally have the Tillamook Baby Loaf Yums to thank for making me feel like a star while in the Los Angeles area. For a metropolis that has undeniably seen every form of fashion, cars, homes, and celebrities, I continue to be shocked by people’s surprised reaction to little `ol me driving down the street in a Tillamook Baby Loaf on wheels.

As a Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassador, your daily commute to work is unlike any other. For starters, I drive a custom VW that is almost twice my age, the exterior of the vehicle resembles a baby loaf of cheese, and it proudly has Tillamook written all over it. Trust me, there is no driving unnoticed. Often I feel like I’m in a parade with all the waves, smiles, and thumbs-ups I give to total strangers along the road (just wish I had a crown to wear!).

Driving the Loafster convertible!

There are certain occurrences one must be prepared to encounter when driving one of the five Tillamook Yums. Such as: People honking excitedly at you, people screaming and shouting, photos and video being taken of you, being followed or waved down, having 30 second conversations with the car next to you at a red light, or watching people slug their friend in the arm to get them to check us out!

Nothing beats the feeling of when the Loaf Love Tour teamdrives the Yums down Hollywood Blvd, Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica Blvd, or Rodeo Drive. The people along the streets look at us with such sincere smiles that we naturally give them a cheesy smile right back! The Tillamook Baby Loaf Yums help the Loaf Love Tour bring our tasty cheese to the people everyday and I feel honored to drive them!

See you on the road!

-Jenn, Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassador

By Jenn

Loaf Love Pyramid

For the record, our ”Day of Loaf” in the Orange County area has been by far one of my favorite days on the Loaf Love Tour… so far, at least!  We started the day early by unloading the Tillamook Baby Loaf buses and driving to Angel Stadium (which I’ve become very familiar with since my daily running trail loops around the stadium). We took some pictures and video of the buses in front of the stadium, then we wanted to do some group photos.  I got super excited and talked the team into doing a pyramid photo! Lucky for us, our Brand Manager Susan was a college cheerleader so she was able to instruct us on how to properly execute ‘The Loaf Love Pyramid.’ 

After we took some cheesy photos around town, we headed out to Huntington Beach.  The Baby Loaf bus caravan certainly made lots of heads turn as we drove around the beach area. Talk about feeling like a big deal! It’s not every day you see groups of people shuffling through their bags to find their cameras and phones to snap photos of you driving… I loved it! We parked our buses and enjoyed a team lunch at Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s (a recommendation given to us by one of our Twitter followers – thanks to them)!  I enjoyed my ninth order of fish tacos since the tour began. I just can’t get enough of them.  After lunch and pictures, we cruised down to Newport Beach, all the while hearing honks from smiling drivers and loud hollers from bystanders informing us how much they love Tillamook Cheese. 

Newport Beach was awesome. I may be a little biased since I’m from Newport, OR and naturally felt connected to this little coastal community.  People came up to us and shared their Tillamook stories and truly seemed so happy to see us down in their neck of the woods!  I love hearing how much people love Tillamook and seeing the excitement in them when they talk about their experiences with our product. It’s just another reminder to me of how lucky and happy I am to be a Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassador!

Loafin’ My Time in Orange County,
-Jenn, Loaf Love Tour Ambassador

By Jenn

Have you ever wondered how the Tillamook Loaf Love Tour is able to get our delicious cheese cut into perfect little bite size cubes? Well I have discovered the answer: Cubing Parties! These parties are one of the first steps we Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassadors do to make sure everyone of our Tillamook Cheese lovers gets that perfect bite.

Perfect little cubes of cheese!

We’re a month into our 2011 tour and everyone has quickly picked up on their role at the party. We begin by washing our hands in the kitchen of our hotel, then we turn up the music, and we all maintain our position and begin the cubing. Jason is in charge of opening the loafs of cheese, Tyler uses this funky cheese cutting tool (which is similar to a cutting machine you would use in school), and then the guys pass off the big blocks of cheese to us gals. With our lovely doctor gloves on, we separate each and every cube. All the while, we’re talking up a storm and dancing like its Saturday night. After we have broken apart 300 pieces, we bag the cheese up and put it in the cooler for the next day. The amount of cheese that needs to be cubed is determined by the events coming up for the next few days; basically we just estimate and hope for the best. We never want to run out of samples for the best fans in the world!

Once the cubing begins to wind down, I start my favorite part: cleaning! I’ll collect all our supplies and bring them over to the huge industrial size sink and dishwasher. I have had jobs in the restaurant world so this is a cinch for me! Cubing parties often remind me of a fun little make-shift factory… just think of Thelma and Louise or Lucy and Ethel when they’re working in the chocolate factory!

I think we have just a little too much fun doing this!

Isn’t it nice to know your Loaf Love Tour team is dancing up a storm while preparing your yummy little bites with love?

-Jenn, Loaf Love Tour Brand Ambassador

By Jenn