Jan 26-31

So, my first city of my new adventure with the Main Street In Motion (MSIM) tour was to be Miami, FL I ha never been to Miami before. I had been to Florida on many occasions, but never to Miami.

I was also a bit nervous about the entire trip. Although Adrienne and I had discussed all the travel I’d be doing, it still wasn’t sitting well wit me yet. So, with my stomach in knots and my nerves on edge, my best friend Gabe came by to give me a ride to the airport. Gabe and I had a great talk on the way to the airport. He and I had become great friends over a very short period of time. (More about Gabe later) Got my tickets, through security and off to Miami I went.

The air travel was un eventful. The Greenville/Spartanburg airport is one of the easiest airports to travel in an out of in my opinion. Not that I have a vast experience of travel to compare it to.

Landing in Miami I was picked up by one of the staff from the company I am working for (Eventlink)

I was taken to the site that we would be holding the event, the Sun Life Stadium. We were set up in a HUGE parking lot, which is standard protocol for these types of traveling driving shows. Racetracks are rarely used because you can get big parking lots a lot cheaper.

I was introduced to several new people within the company. Some I knew by name and had actually conversed with in the passed, but only via email or telephone. Once the introductions were done and I had been given a company shirt to wear on site, I was taken to the Volt tent so that I could see the layout and start planning the driving route. Well, actually, just checking the route that had been suggested and making any changes that I may feel are necessary.

The Volt drive is supposed to be a “pseudo street drive”. We were to try to keep the cars “on site” if possible. This meant using perimeter roads around the facilities to simulate what the car would be like to drive in the real world.  This would be no problem at this location. They had a great perimeter road as well as a great place to turn around. The course we ended up laying out was exactly 1.0 mile in length and only took about three minutes from start to stop.

After setting up cones and putting out signs, I was finished for the day. I hitched a ride to the hotel with the logistics crew, as they were finishing up for the day as well.  We were staying in a Hampton Inn in Miramar, FL., A nice enough hotel, but in the middle of nowhere. But that’s ok, I didn’t have intentions of going anywhere. After all, that would cost money, of which I had none of.

So the next day it was time to meet the crew I would be working with. I had only previously worked with one of these people in the past and not for too long. Meeting the new crew had me a bit nervous as well. Not because I didn’t know them, but because they didn’t know me. People don’t typically just “like” me. I’m not a very likeable guy I suppose and I was concerned that they would not be to thrilled to be working with me. And not only work with me, I was supposed to be their “lead”,

Everyone arrived at the site at various times based on travel arrangements. Most were just coming by the site to have a look, meet me, and then head to the hotel for check in. We would have an official “team meeting” on Friday morning, the first show day.

Friday morning we all met at the Volt tent and did formal introductions. Most of the introductions were of them meeting me, but a couple of them had not really met before either. Everyone seemed to be good personalities and ready to do their jobs. They had all been trained on the Volt several months ago and were light years ahead of me with respects to product knowledge so I had a sharp learning curve ahead of me.

The event went great. Attendance was low over the three show days, but from what I understood, that was expected in this market.

The team worked really well together. Adjustments had to be made from time to time and when those adjustments were recognized, it was pointed out in a very courteous and professional manner so that it could be dealt with.

At home, things were a bit different. The first day wasn’t too bad. Adrienne and the boys and I were on Skype talking and doing our best to stay in touch. We Skyped for a few hours the first night,

Then day two came. I got a call from Adrienne around ten am. She was completely hysterical. She was literally having a breakdown. A full scale panic attack. She had gone to her friends house to see if she could get calmed down, but no luck, This is when I got the call. I was freaked out and didn’t know what to do. Adrienne didn’t want me to travel, she wanted me home and home NOW. But how was I going to do this? It was my FIRST city on a twenty four city tour and the first time I had done this type of job for this company. I couldn’t just leave, could I? Then after a few minutes of conversation I thought to myself “Where are my priorities?” At which point I told Adrienne, “I will let them know right now that I have to leave and I will come home.” I told here we couldn’t survive and raise are kids by just sitting at home and snuggling on the couch, but that id my traveling was going to be this big of an issue, I wouldn’t do it. I would get a job doing something close to home and adjust our lifestyle to whatever that pay turned out to be.

Within just a few minutes of telling her this, she was already getting better. As it turns out, there was a couple of things going on here that culminated at a really bad time. Adrienne had a medical scare that made her quit smoking, she had also been out of a certain medicine as well as just started a new medicine. She was stressed about money. And to top it off, I was out of town. But once she knew that no matter what the cost, if she needed me, I would be there, it helped calm her down.

We got on Skype again that night and had a long talk, She was already much better at this point. Not one hundred percent, but much better for sure.  Then I had a very serious talk with all four of my boys about what was going on in our lives. Up to this point we had not really shared too much of the “not so positive stuff.” Not because we didn’t want to tell them, we just didn’t see the point. But now it was apparent that they needed to know because they were going to have to step up and start helping around the house a bit more than they had in the past.

So Miami was over and on Monday the 31^st I flew home to a family that was very happy to se me. This is always a great feeling.