Nebraska? Yep, Nebraska.

Sidney Nebraska, that's where I have been for the past couple of days and let me just say, there just isn't much out there.

I was doing a Chevy event at a Cabela's 50 year celebration. We were at the fairgrounds in Sidney. The turnout was pretty impressive. But after I talked to some of the locals, it's mostly because there's really not much else to do in Sidney and most of the people in the town seem to work for Cabela's, lol. No, but really, they do.

Sidney had a sign just outside the town that said the population was a bit over 6,000 people! Seriously, I attend race events with more people than that, and this is an entire town! lol.

But I actually thought it was pretty cool. The downtown area was really neat. The town prided themselves on keeping the historic integrity in tact as much as possible. I didn't get to check anything out other than to drive through the town a few times, and even though I thought it was kind of cool, I think it would be like living on a beautiful island in the Caribbean, Great at first, but then you realize how small it is and you just want to go somewhere else. But maybe that's just me. Some of the people I met had lived there for 30-40 years!

The event itself was pretty neat. They had a lot of things for the kids to do. A lot of air inflated things, laser tag, the National Guard had a timed obstacle course, Shooting lessons and the local high school football team provided free food, food and more food. I had some AWESOME ribs.

We had a lot of vehicles for people to drive, Cruze RS, Cruze ECO, Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500 diesel, Traverse, Equinox, Malibu, Tahoe Hybrid, Corvette Grand Sport, Camaro and a Camaro SS convertable. Most people wanted to drive the trucks and the Corvette and Camaro, but everthing got driven.

Here are some pics:

 This was the common sight as we drove in from Denver

 Once we got close to Sidney there were quite a lot of these hills. This was the only one I saw with the crosses 

 Took a couple shots from my hotel as the sun was going down.

 Tried to get a shot of this rainbow in the evening but it was too far away.

 Another one of those hills

Below: I just started randomly parking the truck at different spots and taking pictures. 

 Our spot at the fairgrounds

 Three of the most popular cars of the day.

Registration

So although we were seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we had a decent turnout and the people were very nice. A good event, would have liked to had another day to check out the town but oh well, maybe another time. 

Back to SC in the morning to see my wonderful wife and my boys. God has blessed me with and incredible family and this whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" couldn't be more true. I seem to miss them now as soon as I leave for the airport to go out of town. But it sure makes coming home GREAT!   Don't spend so much time concerned with what you're gonna do next, that you forget to enjoy where you are now. You'll miss a lot of life that way. 

JM

Philli -> Boston and now NJ

     As I get busier I seem to be finding less tome to do updates to my blogs. It has only been two cities since my last update but it feels like it has been longer, I guess because of the week long mission trip my family and I went on. If you didn't catch my blog from the mission trip, you can find it here

http://bahamamission.blogspot.com

Another thing that I haven't done a lot of in the past couple cities is picture taking. Ive taken some shots, and I will share them in this update. 

the night before I left for Philli I went outside and took a few shots of the moon.

I wish I had a really good lens for my camera, but this 18-105 does pretty good.

When I came in the house this is what I found laying in my spot on my bed:

How funny is that? And they just looked at me like, "don't know where you're gonna sleep." lol. These two were not the best of friends at first, now they are best friends. 

I headed to Philli shortly after returning from the mission trip. I had such a great time with my family for a week on the mission trip that it was hard to leave to go to work. I just wanted to hang out with my wife and kids. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?

Here are some shots flying into Philli:

This was hard to read because the way we were flying by made it upside down, but I think it says:

"Amazing Maze and Ramsey's Pumpkin Farm" I think I'm close.

This Helo was just hovering over the landing pad as we flew by. I thought it was cool.

Philli was a pretty uneventful city. Of course I had to try a philli cheese steak sandwich while in this city. Myself, Matt, Kai and Greg went to a place that claimed it had the best cheese steaks in the city. At least that's what Kai found in his research. Well, let me just say, none of us will be relying on Kai's dinner research in the future. This was quite possibly the worst cheese steak sandwich I've ever had. I honestly think I could have done better with a box of steal-um's and some cheese.

We were located right between the Hockey stadium where the Flyers play and the baseball stadium where the Philli's play. 

 Chevy car and CUV course behind the Volt course

 Chevy Volt course. Set up is all finished. Just need to pull the cars over in the morning and we'll be ready to go. 

 Not too far from the site there was this giant old ship. I'm pretty sure it's no longer in use. I know I wouldn't want to be out in the middle of the ocean on this thing. Looks like it has seen better days. 

 Just a random bridge shot lol

 Volt course in action

The Corvette and Camaro course, known as the Halo course, is right next to the Volt course. 

After Philli we headed to Boston. Really nothing to share about Boston other than it was HOT. Like, it was the hottest city we have been to so far. On Friday they said it was 103˚! and it felt every bit of it. And then of course the other topic was the rain. We had a heck of a lightning and rain storm pop up for about an hour and a half so we had to shut down. I grabbed a couple quick shots of the clouds as the storm was rolling in. 

And when the storm let go, it really let us have it. We all had to re-chalk all of our courses before we could start up again. 

But all in all Boston was a simple gig. I did love hearing the people talk, cracked me up. 

So tonight I am in NJ. This is the last city before I get a couple weeks off. I just got to town today and set up my route for the Volt. 

I went out to find a pizza place for dinner and I found this place....

 Very good Italian style pizza. They coock the pizza in a wood stove and it really does taste just like the pizza I had in Italy. Personally I still prefer a good NYC style pie, but this is definitely in second place.

So, maybe I will take more pictures in this city. I would love to do some night shots of the city skyline. If I can find a place to do that I will. 

I am SOOO looking forward to having two weeks off with my family. I just want to hang out with my wife and boys for a while. I love my family. 

JM

A few cities later and a lot to catch up on

Well its been a while and I've been through a few cities and some pretty drama filled family situations since my last post. I'm not sure how well I will do at giving a recap so please bare with me as it may be a bit scattered.

I guess first I should pick up where I left off with regards to my new venture into the world of VW. At the last post I had gone through the training and was waiting to hear weather or not I had passed. Well, I PASSED! I received the formal phone call several days later to let me know that they were very pleased with my performance during the training class and wanted to make me an offer. This was welcome news because as far as I knew, when this tour that I am on now ends in November, I would be out of work again. That fact has been at the forefront of my mind for quite some time, so this bit of news was a HUGE relief.

I am excited about the new opportunity. VW is an awesome brand and I know some guys that are currently doing the same job that I have been offered and they love it. Of course I have the nervous stomach about taking on a new venture. I love new challenges, but even so I still get nervous.

So anyway, I've signed my contract and I will start work with them at the end of the tour that I am on now. Well, actually, I will start right away with training, product knowledge and job shadowing some of the guys that are already in the position.  The good thing is that I can do all of this on a schedule that works around my current tour. I'm sure at some point, if I continue this "blogging" thing, I'll make a blog about the VW gig. We'll see.

With respects to the Main Street In Motion tour that I am on and where  my schedule has taken me.

After the VW training it was back home for a few days to see my oldest son graduate.  Hard to believe I have an 18 year old, but the fact is, I do. I was so proud of him. He really changed over the past year in a lot of good ways and Adrienne and I are so thankful that he has become the young man that he has. For his graduation present he got this truck.

Dylan loves the truck and its been an interesting time trying to tech him how to shift with a "three on the tree" transmition as well as dealing with no power steering and no power brakes. lol.

After my short time home it was back on the road and I was off to Aspen Colorado. Aspen was a beautiful place. I had never been to Aspen before and all I had ever seen of the place was on TV or in photographs. I was there at the end of May/early July and up at the Independence Pass (12, 095') there was still snow on the sides of the road that looked like it was 15' deep. I havent seen snow this deep since I was in Arjeplog, Sweden. 

We were not on the Main Street tour in Aspen, we were doing a one off event at the Aspen Environmental Forum. It was a perfect place and perfect group of people to pitch the Volt to and let them take it for a drive. The people responded very well to the car and were very excited that they had the opportunity to drive it.

As a side bar, we were just around the corner from Lance Armstrong's house and at one point his kids as well as some of the neighbor kids had an old school lemonade stand out on the curb. They were selling lemonade for fifty cents a cup to raise money for the fight against cancer. Lance was out there for a short time as well, but I'm not a "ooh it's a celebrity" type person so I didn't bother him. He was having fun with is family. On the other hand, one of the guys that was working with me is a huge Lance fan and also an avid cyclist. When we went by and he learned that we had passed Lance and I failed to pint Lance out to him so that he could have his picture taken with him, he was not pleased. lol. We did go back a bit later but Lance was gone by the time we got back. Neal is not gonna let me live that one down.

Pic's from Aspen...............................

 My hotel room 

 Volts staged for the drive

 This old Jag was sitting in the parking lot

While in Aspen I was once again provided a 4x4 vehicle as a rental car. Well of course this meant I had to take it off road right? I mean duh, it's a 4x4 AND a rental! There's not a more off road capable vehicle on the planet is there?

I asked one of the locals if there were any off asphalt roads that I could explore nearby. I was told about a road that went up "Smuggler Mountain" and it was very close to my hotel.

The first time I went up I went alone and I went up again one other time with Darren. There were a lot of people that hike up this road as well as mountain bike. At first I was afraid I was gonna get ugly looks from the locals for coming up this road in this full size Chevy 4x4 and disrupting there hiking and riding. However, it couldn't have been a more opposite experience. The hikers, joggers and riders were VERY nice. They didn't seem to have an issue at all with me treading on there turf. The ride up was fun. It wasn't too aggressive but it did require a bit of delicacy at times to get over the large rocks and negotiate some of the turns.

smuggler mountain pictures.......................

 The view of the sunset from atop Smuggler Mountain was great

Darren insisted I take this picture of him. lol. 

 

Back home for a few days and life is good. I love getting out with my boys and playing basketball in the driveway. I missed out on so much due to my previous job and how I let it consume every part of my life. Now I look forward to the time I get to spend with them shooting ball or just talking. Gosh I wish I could get some time back. Ya know, you can make more money, you can get another house or another car. You can get new clothes, you can get new stuff. But you absolutely CAN NOT get time back. When it's gone it's gone. And all too often, especially us guys, we get overly wrapped up in our jobs and making money, and we lose so much time with our families in the process. Of course this is nothing new and even I had herd the old sayings like "A man on his death bed never says, I wish I had one more day at work". But MAN it is so easy to get caught up in trying to build your career or make enough money to obtain "things". When the reality is that the "things" that really matter are usually at home while you're at the office working. It's a delicate yet oh so important balance that too many of us get wrong and now that I realize that, I'm trying to get a better balance. It may seem like having a job that requires travel would have the opposite effect for what I'm looking for, but so far that's not the case. I have a lot of time at home and when I am home, I'm home.

 And obviously we play with the goal lowered. It just makes it more fun :-) 

 Lol. They like to play in their slides and all to often they lose one or both of them.

The next city on the Main Street tour in NY. I was staying in Flushing, NY. Now, if you've never been to Flushing, well, you're not missing much. I was staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Flushing. The hotel was nice enough. Certainly more than I expected from the area in which it was located.

The driving event was taking place at Citi Field and the route for the Volt was by far one of the most interesting yet. One of the streets we had to go down was basically a row of chopshops. The traffic in and out of these shops was insane and the drivers had very little regard for what we were doing.

This location was also close to where my Uncle Tommy lives on Long Island. I made arrangements to go to his house and have dinner. It was great to see him and my aunt Brenda as well as other family members that I hadn't seen since I was very little or had never met at all. 

My uncle Tommy is a man that changed my life for the better. I went to stay with him for a short period when I was young and I learned a lot from him in a very short period of time. I wont go into all the details, I will just say that it was literally a life experience that followed me from the time I was twelve years old and still guides some of my decisions to this very day. I had the opportunity some time ago to tell my uncle just what an impact he had on my life. It was what I felt to be, a rare opportunity to let someone know just how they have impacted your life. You know, kind of like if you had a teacher that had a great impact on your life and you get to go back as an adult and let that teacher know what they had done for you. The strange thing was, as I started to tell my uncle, I realized I couldn't find the words to describe what I was trying to tell him, but somehow I think he understood.

I didn't get to do any sightseeing in NY and no off roading, however, driving in the traffic was AWESOME! I love driving in NY. It's like survival of the fittest. You get in wheer you fit in or you get left behind. So fun, but only as a visit, I wouldn't want to live it.

The event in NY went great. The people were supper nice and did a great job driving our "challenging" route.

On the final night Darren and I went to a Chinese place to eat. It seemed like a sketchy place, especially when we were told to go to the basement to eat, but we figured what the heck.  It wasn't the greatest of environments, but not the worst either. In reviewing the menu they had some pretty interesting options like: Intestines and duck blood with sour cabbage or stir fried kidneys in brown sauce.

I didn't go for either of those, but I did have the  Stir fried duck tongue with cayenne chili.

These pictures are a little hard to see due to the lighting in the basement and my poor camera phone. The mess on the plate is my duck tongue dish and te thing in the chopsticks is a duck tongue. 

Let me just tell you, That's the last duck tongue I'm ever having. It was not a pleasant meal. I did eat about twelve of them to see if I could acclimate, but no...it wasn't happening.  

A couple NY pics.....................

 Flying into Laguardia, NY

 View from my room in Flushing, NY

Back home after NY and looking forward to several days off and hanging with the family. I had a total of 8 days at home this time and only had a couple of thing scheduled to do. 

There was some interesting family drama that took place that I'll refrain from sharing on here, but it took a pretty heavy toll on my wife and her family. 

One of the days that I was home, Gabe and I took the drift car to Carolina Motorsports Park. I was heading down there anyway to work a corporate program that afternoon, so we used the morning as a test session for the car. The car did great UNTIL something let go in the engine AGAIN! SO FRUSTRATING! The engine was built with great parts and by reputable people. We still arent sure what happened because we haven't gotten the engine apart yet. All we know is that it started to make a rattle in the bottom end and there were small shiny metal flakes in the oil on the dipstick, not good! Gabe is taking the engine out tomorrow and should know more soon. He also already has an LS2 replacement engine that he will be dropping in this week. We currently have a lightly modded LS1 so the LS2 should be comparable to what we had. 

Video from CMP............................

Pics from CMP...............................

I also spent a lot of time playing basketball with the boys at night. So much fun. 

Adrienne was working a good bit trying to finish up a huge deal she sold and she finally finished. Dylan had been going to work with her to help get things installed and I even went one day to help. But she's finally finished with the hard part. Now I hope she can chill a bit. It's great to hang with her at night and watch TV and/or talk. There is nothing quite like sharing your life with your best friend. I can tell my wife ANYTHING and we can talk about anything. I know I still have a long way to go in order to be the husband I should, but I know that I will get there and there is no better motivation for me that to simply make her happy. 

And now, I am in Washington DC. Our tour is being held at FedEx field, home of the Redskins. It has been an interesting start to the program due to our trailer not showing up until early in the morning of the day the event started. But once we got set up and rolling, things went great. 

The weather has been crazy humid. The temp was 88˚ but the heat index was 93˚. You would think I would be used to it considering I live in South Carolina, but nope, it's just plain 'ol hot. 

One of the guy on the Volt team, Kai, is a photographer and we went into DC one evening so he could show me how to take night shots. It's something I hadn't figured out yet, so his hep was much appreciated. We got a few cool pictures and I can wait to shoot more night pictures.

DC pictures.................................There are a lot of pictures of ducks. Not because I like ducks, it was just that they would let you get right up to them.

 Having fun with night shots. The streak is a plane that flew over while taking the picture.

Tonight myself, Kai and Darren went to diner. On the way back we swing through the city so that Darren could see some of the sights. 

Air force Memorial

We swung by the pentagon

Playing around with long exposures while moving the camera lol.

Then I started taking pictures of random people as the drove by. lol. I blurred their faces on purpose.

We had a good time checking out the city. This was my third time into the city this week, think iIm over it. I'm ready to be back on the calm streets of South Carolina. 

And now your up to speed on this new life I'm leading. It's been one of the most difficult yet best times of my life and I can't wait to see how God uses me in the future. We have a mission trip coming up at the first of July that I am really looking forward to and I am sure I will be blogging about that trip as well. 

Until the next post I'll leave you with this:

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Hebrews13:5

JM