Virginia

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First week training

Just thought I would put a little bit out there. There is not too much to report at the moment. Last week, I worked alone collecting renewals for insurance the whole week. My field manager gave me several stacks of cards to do. He was shocked when I reported I had them all done but 2. He said that was two weeks worth of work. I had completed them in four days.So I officially started training this week. Thus far we have only done the same thing. I have spent all day with Mr. Ted Kelley doing renewals. I have learned a few little things here and there. Overall though, it is everything I am familiar with and did last week. I am frustrated in that sense. Tomorrow though, they are letting me go off by myself again. I am headed to Montpelier, Virginia. Hopefully I can get the renewals done and hopefully add some new business. It would be nice, especially since I have to make some money to make up for the rest of the week sharing everything with my trainer.

There have been quite the variety of characters we come upon. Today it was a guy who raised raccoons to an author. Just this week I have driven across 3 old Civil War battlefields. Wish I knew more of the history to understand their significance.

I will keep enduring training. The company seems to be having some problems with leadership in our area. It reminds me much of the mission. Where some missionaries were trying to micro-manage. I will do to these managers what we did in the mission. Ignore them. What are they going to do? Fire me? They can’t until I am at 13 weeks, because then my ‘training’ is completed. But if I have proved myself to be of some value to the company then they are not going to fire me when I am bringing in several thousand dollars to the company in a week. Face it, they need their employees. I am not going to sit on a conference call during quality work time. I will most certainly not do it every morning for several hours like this district manager is having entire regions do. It is such bad management it is laughable.

Well, time to get ready for bed. I need to do some more research for my talk on Sunday (Amanda and I are both speaking this coming Sunday). I need to get some more LSAT study in, write in my journal, and go to bed at a decent hour.

 

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Raleigh, North Carolina

Well, it has certainly been a long two weeks in Raleigh, North Carolina. I went down on the 1st and returned yesterday. It has certainly been an experience. I have always been fortunate to end up in the most interesting situations, and there always seems to be something to write home about.I rode down with Larry Grice, who went through license training with me. I have to make a few mentions of Mr. Grice. He has a certain way of doing things. There is this certain twitch, or something, which makes him have to constantly be fidgeting with his surroundings. It seems as though he must be always turning a nob or moving something. Readjusting the volume, changing station, changing the fan speed, turning things on and off, moving his seat, making a strange little laugh, and a whole host of other things. To top it off, he cannot drive smooth if his life depended on it. It is a constant change of speed and use of the brake, and these are not gradual. Faster, slower, jerk here, jerk there, swerve over here, and more constant twitches. By the time we got there, I was car sick and in the front seat. To top it off, my patience was such that I was ready for a rampage.

I don’t know why, but the volume of the radio always worked itself up so that it would hurt my ears. So I would say something so he would have to turn it down again. But in doing so, I had to have a conversation with a man who I could not understand. Between his accent, and perhaps a bit of a lazy mouth, it put more stress to carry conversation. Raleigh is a three hour drive, and if it had been 2 minutes longer, I am afraid I might have found a dead body on the side of the road. Really though, I was so wound up, mad, angry, irritated by the time we got there, I just had to go for a walk. This went on every single time we drove to work, or back, and all the way back here to Richmond.

One day on the way to work he put on Spanish music. I don’t mind a little latin music once and a while, but with his driving, and it damaging my ear drums, and then in the 100+ heat, it wore me thin. Another day, we listened to this preacher lady who was doing something I am not familiar with. She kept putting an ‘ah’ on the endah of herah wordsah, preachinah about Christah, and it wasah loudah, and sheah wasah doinah some sortah singinah, and Larry decidedah to keep the windowah downah, and it was likeah 114ah with heat indexah, and we areah in shirtah and tiesah… I started riding with other people to lunchah and to and from workah.If that was not the end of it, Larry had a few other character traits not so endearing. I found out from the class that he solicited a women in the class for a little sexual favor. Apparently she needed the cash more than her dignity, and he returned at 2:00 in the morning. I really don’t know anything happened, but her roommate supposedly got the low down from her. She is a college student and had complained before the whole class that she needed some dough, and her roommate said she definitely had plenty the next day. I do know that he asked two other married women for her phone numbers during the week. One of which earned him a sexual harrassment complaint to Combined Insurance.

Nicole Moore, who was with us in license training put Larry in his place when he started making comments about her body and such. Larry was always off visiting family and did not do any studying. Then as the week wore on and he obviously was far behind the class, he only complained that there was too much information or that it was not all necessary to know. I learned loads of patience, and wore it awfully thin a few times. He was a absolute mess. After a shower, the bathroom smelled like something was in its last stages of being decomposed by mushrooms. He slept naked and did not make much effort to cover himself in transition between clothes, the bathroom, and the bedroom. While I would be studying or even in bed, he would turn the television on and blast the sound. He would mumble little things to himself, or if they were to me I could not have understood or heard it very well. As if this was not enough, he was black. So, being raised in a very non-black state, Idaho, I never worried about this. Honestly, I do not think I really care or give any thought to skin color. However, when you are with one 48 hours a day, I found myself in places and even in private being extra careful to not be racist. Again, I honestly don’t think I have a racist bone in my body, but somehow with the climate around us, I found I had this fear of being racist. It created an extra cautious talk, reaction, and actions in his presence, more I think from the social and governmental climate we have today. Quite honestly, I found myself reverse discriminating to him! I was more lenient or less vocal with him than I would have been with someone else. I suppose that does make me racist, but in a reverse way. I let him get away with blowing my ear drums out because I did not want to offend him, or because he was…I don’t know what.

The entire week, in the background, was this constant struggle with my patience and with a complete phenomenon I have never encountered before. To top it off, the air conditioning went out in the building we were having our training in. For a week of record highes, it was horrible timing. With the temperature with the heat index between 105 and 115, it was definitely the same indoors. In a room with windows facing the sun the light and heat poured in. The full wall was windows, and they do not open. The heat was stifling. When we would go outside to cool off every hour, we thought it was cool, even though the bank one day said 114. I have no idea what the actual temperature was inside, or if it was just the closed quarters, and tremendous humidity, but that wore on a person too. Quite literally, we would be listening to Mr. Roger Dudley teach us, and I would have sweat running down my face. You could not touch anything and not have it stick to you. It was long, tedious days, and then when we were done, it was back to the hotel for a shower and nap. Both were required if you were to be any form of comfortable. We were supposed to be in shirt and tie all week, he let us come in shorts and t-shirt and we still sweat like none else. Some wore almost too little. This girl straight across from me did not leave much to the imagination, and with a skirt on, it only caused more aggravation to know I could never look that direction.

There was roughly 18 of us in this room for our sales training. Day in and day out, we memorized and went over the 3 policies, the history of the company, and the company ethics. I am a complete admirer of W. Clement Stone and this whole organization. A company with ethics, principles, and something more than just trying to make money. They literally are trying to change the world for the better. It was easy to lose sight of that though when you are so completely uncomfortable. I remember sitting down on the chair the second day and feeling the moisture still in the seat padding I had left from the day before. The gum on the bottom of my chair was warm enough that it stuck to my shoe when I accidentally hit it while shifting my feet beneath me. Gladly, the air conditioning came on and Friday was probably around 80 in the room.

The week proved to be interesting with the people inside the room. There was the has been insurance agent trying to get a new start in the business. Just lost his wife to divorce, or I think forced away his wife, and was a complete know it all. Always had to offer his two cents, tell the corny jokes, and interrupt everyone’s study to critique them, all while he did not do very well in learning the presentation himself. Then there was the Ms. I cannot do anything. Complain, complain, complain about how hard it was, how hot it was, how stupid she was, how her car broke down, how she could not learn the information. Oddly, the information she could not learn, she did not learn. Then there was the military man, who was always right as well, but who thought he was actually in lead of the class. Even with the teacher present, he had to tell us what to do, make sure we knew of his anger, or frustration, and more. Then there was the woman who constantly had things to say that had nothing to do with anything, and she had to share with the whole class. Many tempers flared, many people started yelling at others, mostly back at the hotel, and this was all a show. Then there was Larry, and all the women thought he was a predator or something, there was the little lady across from me who always had the complete following of male eyes, and the dynamics of the class were never boring.

Our poor teacher, Mr. Roger Dudley of Fayetteville, North Carolina was obviously worn by the end of the week too. Even on the last day, he caught several people cheating on the final, and made us all take it again. That did not make the class happy as we did not get out early like we were supposed to, and who wanted to take an hour test over?? I had already been downstairs for 10 minutes when we were summoned back to retake it. Most of what I missed was purely in having lost interest. Word for word phrases I substituted words that had nothing to do with anything I was writing so quickly to get it over with again. For example, rather than writing, Do you drive a car, I wrote Do you own a car. Which cost me the entire question. I was writing so fast by the end that the checker could not read my writing and I missed probably 3 due to my having completely lost any interest by the end of the test.

To add to the situation in Raleigh, right before I left to head out to North Carolina, my computer crashed. I don’t know exactly what happened, but my computer refused to recognize any internet. My wireless card altogether was not even recognized by the computer. So I had to take it in. In the end they had to reformat the entire hard drive! At least they could do a backup of my files. I did not get to take my computer with me, which I had hoped to do. That way I could still run finances and orchestrate what I do from my e-mail. Well, now I was high and dry, and worried about my computer, all my information on it, finances, and who knows what else. Two weeks later, I went and picked up my computer. It crashed twice within the first 30 minutes of having got it back. So I will have to take it in this morning. I was able to pull the Microsoft Money off of it to use on Amanda’s computer, so now I can do the whole financial thing. I am going to try and pull the family history file off so I can use it while my computer is gone. Fortunately I put the couple hundred pictures on Photomax, so I can lose them if I have to. I do have 3,000 songs on the computer, and I hope not to lose them. I have given away, or thrown away most of the CD’s I got them from.

Anyhow, it has been a testing by fire for two weeks. There was a positive side though. I have two close, new friends, Nicole Moore of Norfolk area, and Andy Yauss from Radford. If it had not have been for them, I might have lost my sanity. They were good study buddies and they let me vent to them when I thought I was about to break.

How is that for two weeks! It was the first time in my life I felt like my poor body was not handling the stress very well. I would wake up and my whole body was tense and one big knot in dread of the day. I usually went to bed exhausted, but could not sleep very well due to the stress on the body. Mentally I honestly don’t think I was close to breaking down, but my physical body sure was growing weary.

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Bonified Stately

Another week has passed and things constantly change and go. Sometimes I have to laugh at how quickly the world seems to change. One moment one thing is happening, the next moment all new circumstances have arisen.One month ago, Amanda and I were not in Virginia yet. In fact, we were driving through Kansas and would be arriving in Missouri. A week before that, we were comfortably situated in our little apartment in Provo, Utah. Had not even started packing yet. One year ago, I was unmarried, living and working my life away in Boise, Idaho. I had a wonderful job during the week working for The Gallatin Group, and on the weekends I sprayed lawns in Malad, Idaho. Seven months ago and eleven days, I was married in Logan, Utah. Put me at seven and half months ago, I was working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Now another chapter of sorts is beginning, or at least a sub title. Today Amanda officially starts at Virginia Commonwealth University in the dental hygiene program. It was strange to drop her off at her ride’s home, and come home alone, to realize she is now a student again. Oddly enough, Matthew and Sarah Harris are one of the individuals who Nathan Wayment’s e-mail passed through in its line before us for which we were able to secure this huge home to live in.

Another chapter opened on Friday when I went in to take the Virginia Health Insurance Licensing Exam. I had spent a whole week in class preparing to take the test, and there I was, taking it. I really don’t know what I expected, that it wouldn’t come? It did, and I squashed it! So, now I have certification to be licensed for health insurance in Virginia. Now, I head off to Raleigh, North Carolina for two weeks of training so that Combined Insurance of America can appoint me. Then after appointment, I will receive my actual license from the state. Then I will be bonified and legitimate to be selling insurance in this state. Carrying on in a company of which my Grandmother invested 30 years of her life. Too bad I could not take her residuals!

Life marches on, it continues to amaze me, and go forward. One day it seems that I have enjoyed and endured all I wanted in life, and then another magnificent vista opens before me. Endured not because of pain and torment, but because it just seems my bosom could not contain anything more. My, our, blessings are beyond comprehension. At some points in life, I feel my heart has swelled as wide as eternity and could not possibly take any more. Pain just isn’t an option any more. It is so low, so mean, so vulgar, and something only to distract our mind from the real view. The past weeks I have recognized blessings which have come to me which have been in the pipeline for generations. I recognized blessings that come to me from my Great Great Grandmother Christiana Wilhelmina Knauke Andra. I also stumbled upon one that has passed to me from Regina Friederike Nuffer Scheibel Wanner. Just this week I had one fall in my lap that came from Herbert and Marthan Christiansen Coley. Who would ever have thought that the faith of these individuals would reap and bestow blessings on those who they only could imagine.

Well, time to be doing something more. All is according to plan, as far as I can see.

 

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Ides of July

There is not loads to report for this week.  I have applied for probably nearly 50 jobs online.  I have an interview tomorrow for a position with Combined Insurance.  Who would have thought?  What are the chances? Grandma worked for Combined for 30 years.  I have in essence sold Combined Insurance for 6 months of my life.  That is probably the equivalent that I spent with Grandma out on the road selling insurance.  I sure loved it.  Funny what we remember isn’t it. 
There was a couple of times we went to Soda Springs to sell.  I remember the Caribou Lodge.  It was my first time going over, I must have been about 4-6 years old.  We were in the old 1974 two door Mercury Cougar.  What a car.  As we came down the pass from Lava Hot Springs we hit a pheasant.  The old car took it in the headlight cover.  So when we needed the light, we were Popeye into Soda.  Grandma liked the Red Baron pizza and she promised that she would treat me.  Accordingly, we went and bought one and took it back to the Caribou Lodge.  It was only then we realized that we did not have an oven.  Grandma went down, and knowing the owners well, asked if they would cook it.  They agreed and we ate Red Baron Pizza.  It sure was good.
This was my first time on the road selling with Grandma.  She had taken me several times to other places close like Kimberly, Twin Falls, Wendell, and American Falls. I always felt so loved.  She would buy me clothes and completely dress me for the week.  This week, she bought this little red suit that had zippers over the pockets.  It was a short sleeved shirt with shorts.  She gave me the permission to carry the money if I promised not to lose it.  So I would zip it up in my little pockets and keep it safe all the time.  Made me feel like a million bucks. 
Every morning we would get up and she would make oatmeal out of the packets.  She had a little warmer that you put in the coffee cup and it would boil the water in the cup.  She would pour the water in with the oatmeal and we had the little feast every morning.  She would comb and part my hair with a duck’s tail in the back.  I felt like a little prized doll the way she took care of me.
It was this same week that we stopped at this home to visit some people.  That is one thing I remember, we always had leads.  Grandma never knocked not knowing who lived there.  This house was on a corner or curve in the highway.  I could probably take you there today, even though I was only about 5.  We were sitting in the front room of the home and the people kept commenting on how adorable I was.  Being a little bashful I asked to go in the backyard.  I went out and stood at the back fence watching a baseball game.  Never had seen a baseball game.  I was thrilled, it was warm, slight breeze, and the shining metal baseball bat.  Our visit came to a close and they were begging Grandma in front of me if they could keep me.  She asked me if they could keep me and I remember breaking out in tears. They thought I was so much more adorable.  It would be funny to know who lived there and see if they even remember this.  I very much doubt it.
One of the best parts about being with Grandma and doing this insurance business was that when we set out to drive there, she would give me all the lead cards.  Sometimes there would be up to 200 of them.  It was my job to take a look at the map and figure out where things were.  Then I would go through and organize the lead cards according to street, and then line the streets up to area.  This was a big job coming to towns like Idaho Falls/Rexburg.  I remembered I became quite the pro.  The entire week we came back to the car, I could tell her the house number of the next house, and then would direct her how to get there.  I became a master at map reading and directions.  Even to this day, I can look at a map, get a good feel for where anything is, and I can know how to get where I need to go.  Coming to Richmond, I think Amanda is constantly amazed that I already know where everything is.  I already know the main streets, where they are, and where they go.  Even in church today, changing our ward boundaries, I knew all the roads they talked about.  This has been a great blessing to me.  All thanks to my beloved Grandmother, and Combined Insurance.
It is funny how much we remember.  At least me.  I have noticed that others are not so fortunate.  I remember that same week going to the sulfur mines and Grandma showing me where the Circle A trucks were.  She took me and showed me where my Uncle Doug lived at the time.  (Uncle Doug moved from there about 1987, which means I was definitely younger than 8.  I remember going to Grace, Idaho and Grandma showing me where Evan was raised.  I cannot take you there now, even though I have tried to find it.  Evan and Grandma divorced in 1987 as well.  I remember her taking me to the Minne Tonka caves, Bennington, Georgetown, and even little Niter.  Oddly, driving through Chesterfield a few years ago, it seemed too hauntingly familiar.  I still don’t know if it was from an expedition with Grandma or if it was for family history purposes.  (I did later find family history links)
This weekend we went to Northern Virginia.  Amanda and I have made a commitment to keep President Kimball’s challenge to the Saints that if circumstances permit, members should attend the temple at least once a month.  I have done this ever since I came home from my mission.  I have done it pretty well since I was endowed, except for several months in the mission when missionaries were not allowed to attend the temple.  Accordingly, Amanda and I needed to attend for the month of July and thought now was as good time as any.  We went up Friday night, stayed with Dennis and Gwen Thompson, who I lived with when I worked in Washington, D.C..  We spent the evening, caught up, and planned out Saturday.  Saturday, we went to the temple, dropped Miss Mandy Lundstrom off at the Baltimore Washington International Airport, drove to Annapolis, Maryland; and then crashed back at the Thompson home.  I did 15 initiatory at the temple and Amanda/Mandy both did a session.  We got lost getting there as we talked and passed every single junction for a free way.  Mandy was staying with the Thompson’s.  Oddly, she was the old girlfriend of Brad Hales, my good friend and old roommate.  She was going to ride the train from Springfield clear to BWI with all her luggage. Knowing how horrible that is, how much I hate traveling with luggage, I offered our services.  Plus she got to go to the temple one last time.  Amanda and I then ran to Annapolis to see the historic downtown.  Sadly, we got there 5 minutes after they closed the statehouse.  But we drove around a little longer.  The Maryland Capitol is the longest used Capitol in the U.S..  It has also served at the United States Capitol while the current one was being built.  It was in this very building that General George Washington resigned his commission of the Continental Army.  Wonderful history.  The College of St. John is right by as is the United States Naval Academy.  The town reminds me so much of Britain.  I love it.  I recommend all pay a visit there.  Go to the Capitol when it is open. I did last year and enjoyed it.
Anyhow, we came back to Richmond this morning and got ready and went to church.  They reorganized our ward, but as we did not know anyone, it did not make much difference to us.  At least we don’t have to attend another ward.  It was a good day.  At least we got a new lesson, no more of that adultery lesson we had for the last 3 weeks. 
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Arrival in Virginia

We have safely arrived at our home in Glen Allen (Richmond) Virginia.  We have now unloaded the car and are in the process of putting things away.  Here in a while we will venture out to find food, tp (how rude to not leave any!), and find our way around some.  It will surely be an adventure as we have no idea where anything is. 
Today we left from Lexington, Virginia and drove here.
Last night we spent the evening with Evan and Amber Fetters.  They are friends of mine from USU.  They were the ones I visited last year in Baltimore, and we both keep crossing the country.
They took us on a little tour of Lexington.  I have to admit, it is such a beautiful town.  It has its character and maintains it.  I have to admit, I am leaning towards Washington and Lee University just as much as University of Virginia.  I loved it there.
We drove from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky yesterday.  West Virginia was beautiful.  We liked the gold domed capitol building.  Nothing too exciting other than that we jumped off of I-64 to skip the turnpike.  Since we are thrifty we decided we don’t like toll roads.  We took US-60 through some pretty serious back country.  It was very beautiful and added a few hours onto our trip.
The day before we drove for over 11 hours.  We drove from Branson through St. Louis, Illinois, Indiana, and northern Kentucky.  It was beautiful.
Anyhow, time to get back to work.  We have a house to organize.
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Moving to Virginia Day #5

Another day of traveling.  Today we left from Branson, Missouri and crossed Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and have come to rest in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.  Here we will be spending the evening for our few hours tomorrow drive to Lexington, Virginia.  There we will spend the rest of our day with Evan and Amber
Fetters and enjoy the fireworks at Washington and Lee University.  Should be an exciting day.

This morning we took our time getting ready.  I called and invited Liarra Bartlett to come and visit for a while.  She came and we visited for about a half hour.  It was sure great to see her again.

We visited with Becky Hughes for a spell and then popped by Ryan and Carina Hughes’ home.  There we got a tour of the home since I had not seen it since helping to fix it up.  We also ate bran muffins which Amanda got the recipe for.  It was good to visit with Cheryl Linton as well.

We headed out towards Virginia.  We saw downtown St. Louis including the Arch.  The rolling hills of southern Illinois, Indiana, and northern Kentucky were all beautiful.  It was a long drive today but we are glad to be getting closer to our destination.

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Traveling to Virginia Day #3

Yep, another day on the travel route ending in Virginia.
This morning we arose at the home of Joseph and Alyson Shepperd, but we were alone.  Now if you want to know kindness, they gave up their bed and slept on cushions on the living room floor for us.  If that is not sacrifice for your brother I do not know what is.  That is true religion! 
When we awoke, they had already left for work.  We were tired enough that we slept in until about 9:30.  We arose and got ready for the day and finally headed out a little after 10:00.
We made our way to Liberty, Missouri which was near.  We paid a visit to the Liberty Jail and went through the visitors center there.  It was a good tour and then we watched the new Joseph Smith movie.  It was very, very good.  I was really moved by it.  What it especially powerful is parts of the film that are depicted, we were actually on site.  It was moving to realize you were
only feet away from where the actual events occurred. 
After Liberty we headed off to the temple site at Independence, Missouri.  I have to admit, I like attending the spot, but I have never cared much for the visitor centers there.  The Community of Christ visitor centers are hollow, and it seems like the LDS one’s cover only superficially, or skirt around what is really there.  While I have great respect for the site, I just feel that nothing
is really worthy of the site that is currently present.  Perhaps someday.  I surely hope so.
We took Noland road out, hopped back on I-70 and headed south to Branson.  We stopped, ate, picked up some fuel, shopped for souvenirs and headed the rest of the way.  For some reason or another I felt really tense and really wanted to get to our destination, especially where it was so close. 
Passing near Collins, Missouri I started watching out for the road to get to my cousin’s home.  I knew it was in Humansville (actually Arnica) and should visit.  Well, I took M, when I should have taken N, and ended up 20 miles off the mark.  For nearly 3 hours we searched before we finally found my families home.  When I did find a signal to call, I phoned Bryan, Amanda’s Dad, to ask for direction.  He told us we were supposed to be going off of N rather than M, so we backtracked and headed off that direction.  But before he could have mentioned AA to me, if he would have, we lost our signal.  So we wandered for a long time before we figured out we also needed AA.  When I finally found what was familiar, then we got lost in the maze of roads on their property!  Ugh.  By the time we were there, the sun was getting closer to setting so now I was antsy to get going so we could get out of the country before having to wander all night.   Nonetheless, Tammy was taking her family to Stockton for fireworks so we were able to follow her out. 
We ended up showing at Branson a several hours late.  Jason and Mara Hughes still had the chili on for us and we enjoyed a meal with them.  We ate and visited until about midnight thirty.  We then headed off to Andy and Becky Hughes house to stay the night.  We stayed up and visited with them until 2:00 AM about everything from birth control the Liken the Scripture movies and people we know in them.  Funny where people you know end up.
Anyhow, it is time to crash for the day.  Tomorrow (now today) is our day of rest.
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Moving to Virginia Day #1

The first day has been completed.  We have driven from Provo, Utah to Parker, Colorado. Your typical day of driving but I thought I would offer a few comments.
Driving between Provo and Price going down through the canyon right before you head into Price, I saw a hub cap go flying from the driver side of the car and go behind me off the passenger side of the road.  I saw little chunks of it flying off which indicated it probably was not worth the savage.  To add to it, I had this idiot driver following very closely behind me, so I did not dare slam on the brakes to pull over.  Not to mention Amanda trying to tempt me with some smoked almonds. 
Driving over the continental divide I thought my poor car was going to die.  In the past when I have driven the divide I just set the cruise and once and a while the car would shift down to take it back up to normal speed.  Wow, what loading the trunk and back seat of your car can do!  It kicked my cruise off every time and just to maintain the speed of the loading trucks I had to push the pedal to the floor and drop it to lowest gear.  We sped along nearing red line and still being passed by Walmart trucks (which to me is simply embarrassing).
We finally made the pass and in Frisco filled up the car.  We still averaged about 28 miles to the gallon to that point.  We only had one more real pass to climb. After going through the tunnel, there was an accident by Georgetown 12 miles ahead and we were stopped on the freeway.  I knew the truckers were not happy.  The stop and go traffic on a 5-7% grade made the whole freeway stink with the burning of brakes.  I think my poor brakes even suffered a bit with the load.  I just put it in 1st gear and tried to coast it as much as possible.  There was a vehicle somewhere ahead that was stinking something terrible. 
We drove our way pretty easily to Parker after that.  We were able to see the Denver Temple.  We had to drive on the toll road because we had no idea how to get to where we were going without the directions we had.  But we found the home of my old friend Nicole Whitesides.  She is now married to Nathan Wallace.  We had a great chat.  Nathan is a great guy, it was the first time I met him.  She even came to see me home at the airport when I got back from the mission.
They have a very nice home on the very outskirts of town.  Literally, there is nothing but desert beyond.  But it will be filled very quickly from what we understand.
We went out to eat at some Asian place where the food was very, very spicy hot.  I broke a good sweat and enjoyed it.  Amanda on the other hand ate quite a bit and went home sick.  She is still feeling stomach sick this morning.  I hope it will depart during the day.  We will just have to see.
We crashed and went to bed after Nicole and I went through the yearbook.  I updated her on everyone I am still in contact with, she updated me on who she knew, and we reminisced about the old days.  She was the girl who told me we could not date in high school because I was not planning on going on a mission.  I liked her enough I decided I better look into it.  I was not active yet in the church.  She is the one who really planted the seed in many respects.  I decided that I was not against it like I was before her. I decided to look into the church a bit more.
It was with her car that I ran straight into Kevin Orton and pinned him against a White Toyota pickup.  I wonder if feeling ever came back into the side of his leg. He has not said anything.  Perhaps he has just become used to it, or it returned.  That was the most I ever heard Kevin swear.  It is amazing I did not break both of his legs.  We were both very fortunate that no major hospital bills came from that event and he isn’t maimed for life.
I went on many dates with Nicole and she was such a wonderful friend all through high school. She was from a different middle school.  Her friends became my friends and mine became hers.  Dustin and Kevin became very good friends with her too.  Kevin and her even dated for a spell. 
Anyhow, enough of the past.  Today we make our trip to Kansas City, Missouri.  I pray for heavens protection, guidance, and blessings.  May all go well to Glen Allen.