I smiled as I drove across the state line into Michigan Friday morning. I was returning home from spending most of the week in Ohio, speaking at user groups throughout the state.

I spoke about Managed Extensibility Framework at four user groups over three days in four different cities.

Tuesday, I spoke at an internal user group of the Cincinnati Financial Corporation, before heading over to the Cincinnati .Net User Group in Mason, OH. Wednesday I drove up to Dayton to speak at the Dayton .Net Developers Group. Thursday I presented to a packed house in Columbus at the Central Ohio .Net Developers Group.

The trip was a great success. At each stop, the crowd was larger than their average meeting.  Everywhere I went I heard probing questions that indicated that I was communicating the concepts of MEF and loosely-coupled architecture. This was gratifying as most people had no idea what MEF was when they arrived at my talk.

The best of the trip was that I had a chance to see old friends. I spent ten years living and working in the Cincinnati area and many of my former colleagues came out to hear me. Some I hadn't seen in years. I once worked for a Columbus-based company, and through them I got to know much of the developer community in that area and I saw many familiar faces in Central Ohio this week. Tuesday and Thursday night, we went out for drinks after the meeting, which gave me a chance to talk one-on-one with a lot of smart people.

I also got a chance to see the inside of the Sogeti offices in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus and talk with some of the team in these offices.

I had a great time on this tour and I'd love to do another one.

Thank you to all who came out to hear my talk. Thank you especially to Mike Wood, Jim Holmes and James Bender, who allowed me to stay at their homes on my trip.