Monday I drove from where the BBI Media & Events office is located in Grand Forks, N.D., to Ames, Iowa, to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for REG's new research center on Tuesday morning. Drive time there was about 8 hours, and to keep me company I brought my dog Barney, a 100-pound chocolate lab. He loves car rides but I think the two-way 16-hour trek probably cured him of that for a while. 
 
 It's always nice though to get out of the office and travel. Monday night at the motel there were some cool bikers staying in Ames for the night as they made their way to Sturgis for the big annual motorcycle rally in a few days. They all loved Barney. 
 
 With all of the biofuel research work and development going on in Ames, it was a good place to go. During the ribbon cutting ceremony Ron Hallenbeck, vice president of existing business and industry for Ames Chamber of Commerce, said Ames is the sixth smartest city in America. That's sort of cool I guess. I hear Denver tops the list, or at least it did a couple of years ago. REG relocated its headquarters to Ames from Ralston about two years ago, and it seems the community of Ames and REG are both still happy about that decision. 
 
 My time in Ames was short and no sooner than I got there I was I driving back to Grand Forks. Of course, I hit Minneapolis at the peak of rush hour, which added some unwelcomed time to my drive back home. And then all of the road construction-single-lane travel on the freeway sucks. It's true that up north there's two seasons, winter and road construction. In the winter one has to deal with all the snow, wind and ice; and in the summer there are never-ending delays due to construction. But we made it back in one piece so that's good. 
 
 For more official information on REG's research center and the ceremony, read my web news story posted Wednesday morning. Oh yeah, and if you're going to Ames make sure you hit the Hickory Park Restaurant Co. for some tasty barbeque.

It's always nice to get out of the office and travel.

Getting out of the office

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