Reflections of My Travel » 2002 Ten-Week Business

Wedowee, AL

arcanai — Sun, 11 Aug 2002 06:59:11 +0000

well it was a looooonnnnngggg week. traveled back and forth to anniston all week from wedowee. waking up at six every morning and getting home at nine every night. training was just exhaustive. i feel bad for randal because i know it’s got to be ten times more tiring for him. we also had the added pleasure of having to go to heflin, jacksonville, and talladega to set up equipment and software in the afternoons. but today is a relax day. got to sleep in (seven instead of six) and randal has spent the morning doing stuff with his dad. first they got up on the roof to take down the antenna and add another one. then they started washing cars. randal’s dad has gotten a little pressure washer thing that you can hook a big jug of car wash or wax onto and so they’ve been out playing with that. i love that they are finally getting to spend some good time together. they don’t really talk or anything. but just standing together washing the car is so much. made me smile. kinda like before grandpa moore died. we didn’t go over there to talk to him. we sat with him and watched old westerns and he was so happy to have us there. or playing dominoes with grandma moore. funny how quality bonding is different for everyone. now we are getting ready to head back to anniston (i think we get to ride this time instead of driving ourselves) to meet up with shane and teresa for junior’s belated birthday lunch (dinner). chinese two days in a row. speaking of which, jenny should be getting on a plane about now. i wish i could see her.

Wedowee, Alabama

arcanai — Sun, 04 Aug 2002 06:59:27 +0000

After getting so far Friday night, it was decided that we should just go ahead and get to Wedowee. On the way, we stopped at an RV sales lot to look around at some RVs. Dream about how much easier all this travel would be on us if we just lived in one of those. (Although I had never considered how small that would get to live in and how large it would be to drive). We also stopped in Moody, AL to have lunch at Milo’s. According to Randal, a Milo’s hamburger is a big part of the Alabama experience (apparently, it is unheard of to eat there and not drink the tea). Turns out Saturday was to be my day to have some experiences. We stopped at Walmart in Anniston to get some groceries to bring with us. Randal’s mom and dad weren’t expecting us until Sunday evening so we figured if we were already going to be surprising them, we should at least have our own food with us. On the way home, we discovered that there were going to be some races at Hollis Crossroads and some fellows from church were going to be racing. Randal’s dad’s birthday was this past week and we figured it would he would enjoy going to the races. I had the pleasure of experiencing the “redneck 500″ firsthand. And a demolition derby as an added bonus. It was a… um… unique… experience. Randal was happy though because he got to sit with his dad some and that meant a lot to both of them i’m sure.

Bowling Green, Kentucky

arcanai — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 06:59:56 +0000

What a fiasco. We thought that we were going to make Friday’s drive nice and short. Just stop in Indianapolis, where it would be early enough to get some work done, and finish it out over the next couple of days. Well we were sure wrong. We stopped at a few hotels in Indianapolis, but they were all booked up because of the Brickyard 400. So Indianapolis was out. We continued driving south and figured that we would stop in Louisville. Perhaps it would still be early enough to get some work done. When we got to Louisville at 2230, we saw that the hotel parking lots were filled with some beautiful old cars. Turns out there were over 12,000 people in town for a big antique car show. Everything was sold out all the way down to Cave City, they told us. Which is really a shame because if we could’ve found a room anywhere, we would have very much enjoyed seeing the car show. So it goes. So after midnight we finally found a bed in Bowling Green, KY. Almost to Tennessee. So much for a short drive.

Peoria, Illinois

arcanai — Wed, 31 Jul 2002 06:59:23 +0000

We had a very big sales meeting on Friday in Peoria, so we got there wednesday night in order to have time to rest and prepare on Thursday.

Fort Wayne, Indiana

arcanai — Sun, 21 Jul 2002 06:59:42 +0000

We spent about two hours trying to find a room to stay in for two weeks. Nobody bothered to tell us that there was some big eight day basketball tournament going on in town and that all the hotels were booked up. We finally found a decent room with a microwave and refridgerator. Which is good because we were able to go to Walmart and stock up on fruit and yogurt and cereal for dinners every night. I just wish there had been a gym at the hotel since I am badly in need of getting back into a solid exercise routine. Although the first week, while I was working from the hotel room, I did work out the best I could in the room everyday. Our customers here are really great. I started going into the office Friday and all the second week and they took us to a new and interesting place to eat lunch every day and they also drove us around Ft. Wayne’s neighborhoods telling us the history of the town. It was so nice and hospitable. Over the weekend, we were told that we needed to visit the Embassy Theatre. Wow! I must say that I was rather impressed by this place. The movie was interesting. Northern Redneck flick, Red Greens Duct Tape Forever. (Well technically, it’s a Canadian thing, so it’s probably southern for Canada). It was… interesting… we went to see the theatre. We also went to one of the nice parks for a picnic, kite-flying, and bunny-watching. I must say, Ft. Wayne is a very nice town.

Terre Haute, Indiana

arcanai — Sat, 20 Jul 2002 06:59:57 +0000

When we left Union City on Friday, we intended to go all the way to Fort Wayne, but by the time we got to Terre Haute, we were exhausted so we found a room and got some rest.

Union City, Tennessee

arcanai — Thu, 18 Jul 2002 06:59:22 +0000

Here we are again. And another 13 hour drive. Turns out Tennessee is a long state to drive across.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

arcanai — Sun, 14 Jul 2002 06:59:22 +0000

After getting up at 0600 to go kayaking, sitting in morning meetings, checking out of the hotel, going to see a movie, and wasting the rest of the afternoon driving around waiting for the dinner reception to start, we finally left Sandestin around quarter of eleven Saturday night. We had to be in Myrtle Beach by 1600 Sunday so we had to drive through the night. We’ve done that before, but not after such a long, tiring day. It was pitiful. We pretty much drove in hour shifts (he drove an hour or so while I slept and vice-versa) until about 0500 when we were both just too tired to drive any more. We pulled into a well-lit gas station and pulled a blanket over us to tent out the light and both slept in the back seat until it was just too hot. We ended up reaching the Kingston Plantation, where the RLNC (Residential Lenders of North Carolina) Convention was being held at about 1530. It was a long, long, long day. And we were on again…

Sandestin, FL

arcanai — Fri, 12 Jul 2002 06:59:34 +0000

So here we are back in Sandestin for the third time this year. This time it was the ACFA (Alabama Consumer Finance Association) Convention. This is a nice small comfortable group. We did get up early (6 comes in morning hours too???) Saturday morning and went kayaking around the bay. That was nice. We got a two seater, sit-on-top kayak and spent about an hour rowing around through some little secluded waterways (saltflats?). There was also a talking parrot at the marina who said hello to me as he tried several times to reach out for me to take him. I told Randal that he wasn’t happy there and wanted to go home with me but Randal wouldn’t hear it. :`-( So Sad. I tried to get the parrot to quack but he just got confused and reached out to me some more.

Mobile, Alabama

arcanai — Thu, 11 Jul 2002 06:59:00 +0000

This was almost the first time I ever drove more in a day than Randal. If there had been a stupid hotel somewhere in Meridian, MS we would have stopped and I would have had three hours to his 45 minutes. But there was no place to stay and as soon as he took over the driving we lost our four lane to a very slow two lane so it took forever to get to Mobile. I will say that this was the scariest driving I’ve done. We went through a horrible storm, more like a monsoon, and Randal usually does rain driving but he was sound asleep so there’s me going 70 through a monsoon when I couldn’t hardly see the road. I figured Randal was sleeping so well that if we died, he would have never known what hit him. We made it though around two in the morning. We considered trying to get up early to go out to Dauphin Island to explore Fort Morgan and possibly see some dolphins. Instead we slept as long as we could before packing up to make it to Sandestin on time.