"tanks" for the memories

Friday morning I checked out of the motel and attended my last 1/2 day of class. We had a short review and then some closing remarks from the Northern Zone Training Manager for my company. During his talk he asked the class to nominate one person who showed them the most leadership and positive attitude during the class. I was shocked when I was nominated and the class all decided that I was the "man". The training manager presented me with a coin bearing the company logo and seal. I found out later that the coins are a limited edition and each "zone" only gets 10 coins to present each year. I was very honored to not only receive the coin but also to be recognized by my peers. It was pretty cool.

We all had to take an assessment test covering all the items we had learned in the past week. The test is taken on line and is graded as soon as you finish and hit the "submit" button. I missed 3 out of the 50 questions for a 94. I passed !! Whoo Hoo!! Now picture me doing a "happy dance" :-).

As soon as I completed the test I was out the door and headed towards home.

The wind was howling today and the weatherman said a cold front was moving through. My little car was tough to keep in my lane and I kept thinking "I'm glad I'm not driving an 18 wheeler in this stuff". I did see a truck towing a 5th wheel and the wind had ripped off part of the outside bedroom wall. They had pulled off and were using duct tape to make temporary repairs. They had traveling companions stopped helping them and looked like they had things well in hand or I would have stopped and helped them.

I made it home shortly after 6pm. Rudee was waiting for me to arrive and after a quick change out of my work clothes we went out for a quick dinner and then back home where we turned in fairly early. I was pretty wiped out and I was really looking forward to a nice nights sleep in my own bed :-)

Saturday was unpacking and laundry day. We did manage to take a nice motorcycle ride in between all the work though.

Sunday we were up early. We were meeting our motorcycle friends for a scheduled ride to a museum. We met them in Lebanon and our first stop was to a gentleman's house who is a retired welder and now creates yard art and displays them at his house. He was quite a character and took us all around his property showing off his "art". He had dinosaurs, birds, turtles and just about anything else you could think of and they were all made out of discarded metal. Pretty neat stuff but I forgot my camera :-(.

Our next stop was in Crawfordsville for lunch so I was able to make a detour and pick up my camera. That was a good thing because our next museum was a "private tour" of the Ropkey Armor Museum ( http://www.ropkeyarmormuseum.com/) just outside of Crawfordsville Indiana. The museum is a private collection of military vehicles and equipment and is owned by Mr. Ropkey himself who welcomed us.

The museum is actually a very large pole barn behind his house and is quite extensive. He is a former tank commander and his collection leans heavily towards military armor but he does have several aircraft, trucks, jeeps and even a Viet Nam era patrol boat and UH1 "Huey" on display.

This was a "hands on" museum and you can touch and feel as much as you want. It was awesome being so close to these massive machines. He even had a Japanese tank that was captured by the Marines during WWII.

We spent probably 2 full hours touring the museum. If you are ever in this area and enjoy history, especially military history, this place is a "do not miss"!

Rudee and I dropped the bike back at the 5th wheel and hopped into the Dakota. We had decided to drive to Lebanon and combine dinner with watching the Colts play Denver. We arrived at the 32 Warehouse just in time for the game. We enjoyed our dinner and it was nice to watch the game on a "big screen" projection TV. We were able to cheer the Colts on to a victory. They are starting to look like the "contenders" we have come to expect after a pretty miserable opening game loss.

Monday will be my first day using the new computer system "live" They are supposed to start me out slow to help me get used to using it, we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.