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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 19, 2010 21:18:57 GMT -6
I was told this morning that I'm headin' off to Filter School at the Baldwin Filters plant in Kearney Nebraska in the first week of February. I'm having a little bit of difficulty getting the address loaded into the car GPS'r device, but preliminary research is telling me that this is gonna be about a 10 or 11 hour drive at about 750 miles. Leaving Sunday, returning Wednesday. (2-7-10 * 2-10-10) So I'm told. I was told little to nothing else about this trip just yet, so I checked out the Baldwin Filters site myself to see what this is all about. I figure a trip like this is something that I should very much so check out in as much advance as possible, ya know? This is a work related trip, not just some small traveling camping trip for the family and I to try. Should be interesting though, huh? Here's a link I got some info from on the Baldwin Filters site. Baldwin University Heck, that tells me more than what I was told so far from Work.
So that's what I know so far. As I said, this should be pretty interesting. I haven't been West of the Mississippi since 1976, and that don't count for anything cause I was just 6 years old at the time. This here will be By Far!! the furthest Road Trip I have ever taken in my life. And I gotta say, I'm pretty well lookin' forward to it. Updates will be posted as I learn more of the details.
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Post by snow on Jan 20, 2010 8:27:01 GMT -6
Have fun.... If you weren't such a wimp ;D I'd say tell your company to [shadow=red,left,300] FLY [/shadow] You out there .. <gets ready to email Madam Cowboy about her hubby's chilli comment>
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 20, 2010 19:47:25 GMT -6
Afraid of planes. Yup. I'm a wimp.
Afraid of this current administration's handling of the Christmas Day Terrorist attempt on that plane over Detroit... A wise wimp.
Dude, if I were threatened to be Fired by refusing to fly, I would seriously consider accepting those consequences... even in today's job market. OR... I'd arrange to drive my own personal vehicle my Self to this Training session. As it is though, we'll be driving in a Company Vehicle. I believe we'll be taking the E150 Club Wagon, Ford van. No Planes for me. But, I digress. Trip Detail Update coming up in the next post.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 20, 2010 22:04:03 GMT -6
Drive Details: Unknown yet. Haven't talked to the fellow I'm traveling with about the details of the drive. I got an Address for the hotel though, and after entering that info into the car GPSr I've the results that tell me it'll be a 10 hour, 45 min drive time @ 677 Miles one way. Itinerary: Hotel Reserved for Sun. evening. I suspect we'll be leaving (taking off? LOL!) sometime around 6AM to be at the hotel by 5PM. Meals are up to us on Sunday it appears. But the hotel that night is paid for. Monday: 8AM - 4:40PM. Full day of various events, including the training sessions, a Manufacturing Plant Tour and Breakfast and Dinner (what cowboys call lunch) provided. 6PM. Supper (what cowboys call dinner) provided at a Steakhouse Restaurant. Tuesday: 7:30AM - 4:45PM. A little longer of a full day, including the training, a tour of the Lab at the plant and both breakfast and dinner provided. 6:30PM. Supper provided at a Mexican Restaurant. Wednesday: 7AM - 12:30PM. Closing up day, half day of the training, including a Distribution Plant tour. Breakfast provided, Dinner (optional) Dinner at 12:30 being optional, I'm not sure if that's provided or not. Given the 11 hour drive back home, that would put our return time at 11:30PM if we skip the dinner. Uhh... are we expected to actually be at Work like normal on Thursday? If so, we're skipping the Optional Dinner!
Anyhow, that's what I've got so far. I left the Daily particulars out of the itinerary listed above, but suffice it to say that I'm gonna have a pretty interesting and full trip ahead of me pretty soon. And all things considered, I'm Really lookin' forward to it! Almost like a Vacation, that's mostly Covered by the Company. Cool! I've been dreaming of a Family Vacation/Retirement that would have me driving my rig 'cross country. First Destination being Colorado. Well, ya know what? This here Company Provided trip is gonna give me the actual personal driving experience of getting more than half way to Colorado.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 20, 2010 22:22:31 GMT -6
Random thought just came to mind too.
You can't have such a "Down to Earth" traveling experience like this if you take to the air with a plane. I mean, how the heck are ya gonna see what this great country has to offer on the ground.... when you're at 30,000 feet?
I rest my case.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 23, 2010 21:40:14 GMT -6
I sent an email to the co worker via the company's private system we have, suggesting that ought to begin discussing the Driving Details. With just 2 weeks until we embark, I figured that this would be a logical first step, huh? Haven't heard back from him yet. So, I've been doing this drive research on my own. (what... I have to do Everything? ) My various sources tell me that we'll be actually traveling something closer to the 675 to 700 Mile range. The sources also narrow the time down to around 10 hours and not 11. (whew!) My MS Streets and Trips program has broken this trip down into a 2 day drive. 8 Hours the first day and just under 2 hours on Day 2. (thus, 10 Hours total.) This is horse pucky, huh?
I've since considered a Challenge for myself and my driving endurance. I wonder if Maybe I can take on the entire drive by myself. I won't say Non Stop, cause we'll need to pee, get gas and eat... but can I take on the entire drive Solo? Now I wonder.... What do you folks think? Can I do it??
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Jan 29, 2010 20:40:17 GMT -6
Well, I've heard back from the guy I'll be traveling with and it looks like we'll be taking the GM's (General Manager) Lincoln pick up instead of the van. It's also been bantered about that we should maybe stop somewhere for the night on the way back home. I was under the impression that we were supposed to be back at work like normal on Thursday, but I guess the GM will give us a pass if we don't return till noon or so.
Thus blowing my theory of driving the entire trip one way myself? I dunno. I guess if I want to give that theory an attempt, looks like the return trip home can/will be my chance. Personally, I'm inclined to want to get back Home on Wednesday night, but the other guy seems to not be in such the hurry. I guess that this will be a 'play by ear' situation. One that I have no answer for until the time comes, ya know?
Well, that's all I have as an update for now. One week to go before my travels and I just finished a bad week at work early by taking tomorrow off on a sudden notice. (personal issues...) Maybe, with a little luck? ... this trip can serve as a mini vacation as well? I could sure use one! Now then. What do I do with a Weekend at my disposal? I normally don't have weekends, and now I'm confused as to what to do with one at random. Geocaching maybe? Maybe, we'll see how the snow and temps look like. If that don't work then I guess we may take in a movie at the movie house or perhaps some bowling. Man, it's been a long time since we've went bowling. I wonder if my knees can still hold up to it.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Feb 6, 2010 16:04:54 GMT -6
Well, this is it. We leave tomorrow and that means a 4 AM wake up time to be at the main location to get the Lincoln truck and the co worker. Assuming the 10 hour drive my research is telling me, if we leave at 6 AM, we'll get to the hotel in Nebraska just in time to see the start of the Super Bowl. That'll be weird, being almost 700 miles away from home to watch that in a hotel instead of on my own TV. BTW, I'm calling it now. Saints over Colts, 35 - 31. It'll be won late in the game and the game will be close through it's entirety. Sounds like we'll each have our own hotel rooms. Good, cause I don't know this guy too well and I was a bit leery on sharing a room. No offense to the guy, but he just started working for our company and we haven't had much time to get to know each other. I guess that changes tomorrow, huh? Besides, I smoke and he doesn't. While I don't like the non smokers telling me off about my ever so nasty habit, I DO try to be nice to non smokers and keep it away from them as much as possible. Separate rooms will make that easy. So, folks. Is it normal to get a little nervous before a trip like this? I think it'll be really interesting and I'm glad I'm going, but this is the first time I've been separated from the family for so long. I just left my DD at my folks place and it's gonna be weird not seeing her for several days. More and more talk keeps saying that we should lay over someplace in Iowa before coming back to work on Thursday like normal in the AM. Even the GM told me today that he doesn't expect us back until noon or so and that wouldn't drive straight home himself. I guess that should be of little concern really. No matter What we do, I won't see DD until after school/work on Thursday anyhow. So, it turns out to be sort of a good thing I suddenly took last weekend off. I took her home Friday after work instead of Saturday so we got 2 days of activities in instead of just the normal day and a 1/2. Sat. we went out to lunch and a movie, and Sun. we went out to hide a geocache and find two others. Pretty cool time spent together. I guess that's all for now. I'm planning on taking a lap top PC with me, so I might still be around at the forums but I'm not 100% sure on that. We'll just have to wait and see about what happens Wednesday on the way home. If the weather turns bad I might not even want to keep driving that night. Maybe an extra layover will be good... time will tell.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Feb 11, 2010 19:54:58 GMT -6
I called the game right. There was a 31 in the score somewhere! ;D Turns out, I didn't drive much at all. None on the way home. Got back home at 10:30 PM Wed. night and went pretty much to bed right away. I also didn't get as many Pics as I had planned either, but I did manage to get sick during the trip. Real fun, huh? NOT! I did get the laptop to work at the hotel, but the DSL's 10MB connection combined with only 64 MB of RAM made for a God awful slow connection. I could read this forum but it took forever to get the email to work, so I never even tried to log in here. What few pics I did manage to take will be posted soon. EDIT: 2-12-10 ~ What I have up so far can be found here at this link. LINK Remember, this is still a work in progress. An entire new post will be made when the Album is Complete.
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Post by Cowboy Camper on Feb 13, 2010 18:00:59 GMT -6
Pic Album is Complete. Trip Pics! Don't forget to read the captions under each pic when you check them out.
A pic Direct from the Iowa 80 Truck Stop's website: EDIT: Added Pic.
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Post by blaird83 on May 3, 2010 11:15:35 GMT -6
well, i'm flying to Ashland Nebreska next week.
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