After a break at home March 8th through the 15th, I am in San Jose California.
The time at home was great as always. My oldest son is now 18 years old. It’s hard to believe that he will be out of the house and off to college soon. Personally I hope he stays at a local college and stays at home while he’s there. If he does that maybe I will build another two car garage and put an apartment over top for him to rent. Hmmm. We’ll see.
So we are at San Jose Great America for the event this weekend. We are in Silicon Valley; it’s not quite what I though the area would look like. I didn’t even realize I was in SV until I saw a company that I used to work for, MEMC Electronic Materials. I knew they had an office in SV because I had an opportunity to go work in that office many years ago. When I saw the sign for the company, I asked one of the locals “am I in Silicon Valley?” “Yep”, he said. So that’s how I found out where I was lol.
I went to the hotel to check in. We are staying at a Residence Inn. It’s an ok place. My room is right next to the highway and the walls seem paper-thin so I can hear everything that goes by. But its ok, I have four boys at home, I’m used to sleeping through some noise. The room has a full kitchen, much like we had in Dallas, so this was nice. I could go to the store and buy a few things to make dinner in the room, and I did.
The complimentary breakfast was good and likewise they had a complimentary happy hour every night from 4-7pm. It was way more than a typical happy hour though; we had full meals and all types of drinks including non-alcohol, which I liked. One night we had burgers, steamed veggies, rice, salad and bread. Another night was lasagna, salad and bread. Another was shepherds pie, mixed veggies, salad and bread. And it was all, all you can eat and it was good. LOVED IT.
The location for the Volt street drive is ok. Our tent is directly across the street from the San Francisco 49ers corporate office and training field. Of course due to the strike there are no players there, just office workers. A couple of my team members went over to the office to check it out, that’s how we knew there were no players there.
The staging area was the smallest we’ve had yet, but we made it work. The route itself was quite simple and uneventful. This was a good thing.
Weather was a big factor for us at this event. We had rain again and LOTS of it. We also had high winds. The winds got so bad on Friday that we had to shut down for an hour for safety reasons. There were tornado and high wind warnings for the area so we had to do what was right in the best interest of customer safety.
What really impressed me was how many people were coming even in the bad weather. These people REALLY want an opportunity to drive these vehicles!
On Saturday night it rained hard for several hours. In fact, at 2:30am I was awakened to the sound of water dripping. Only to realize that the water was actually dripping on my bed, right at my feet. I turned on the light and right above me, the ceiling had a HUGE water blister that looked like it was going to bust wide open any minute. GREAT!
I packed up all my stuff and loaded the car and drove over to the main lobby and explained the situation. They gave me a new room as well as a gift basket with some snacks and drinks in it as an apology for my troubles. So I got to my new room and unpacked and got back to bed around 3:15am.
Sunday was the worst day for weather. We had wind, massive amounts of rain, and it hailed FOUR times throughout the course of the day.
Yes, The white spots are hail!
And yes, people still were there driving!
There’s a point when its just ridiculous……I think we’re there.
So, like I said, the rain was a bit much, but it seems to be following us to every city.
This city seemed to go by quickly and I am already heading home. Next stop for the MSIM tour, Irvine, CA at Wild Rivers water park.
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