14 Years Ago This Week

It was 14 years ago Tuesday that I pulled up my roots in Oklahoma City and started my journey to Charlotte, NC. I arrived in my new city 14 years ago today. This move was one of the biggest life changes I’ve ever made.

I left a home I had lived in since my 10th grade year. My parents moved to New Orleans for business right after I graduated High School and they were kind enough to let me stay in the house when they left. I lived in the 3 bedroom 2 story house alone for 12 years. You can imagine how set in your ways you get living alone. I had worked at the same job for 12 ½ years. There really was not an upward path for me unless I left the company.

I was 30 and this was my big move. I went from living alone with a stable job to living with someone else with no idea where my next paycheck was coming from. It was a huge life changing event for me. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

I remember a song I had playing in my car when I was leaving Oklahoma. The song was from one of my favorite movies “Straight Talk”. The song was “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” by Dolly Parton.

If you have never seen the movie Straight Talk it’s a cute movie that never went over very big. It’s a sappy Romantic Comedy’s (the kind I love). Dolly Parton’s character leaves Arkansas to move to Chicago and make a better life for herself. She stumbles into the perfect job as a radio psychologist using her common sense to answer questions. I won’t spoil the plot just in case someone wants to watch the movie.

Least to say my move turned out just fine and opened many doors for my future.

Light of a Clear Blue Morning

(Dolly Parton)

It’s been a long dark night
And I’ve been a waitin’ for the morning
It’s been a long hard fight
But I see a brand new day a dawning

I’ve been looking for the sunshine
Cause I ain’t seen it in so long
But everything’s gonna work out just fine
Everything’s gonna be alright
That’s been all wrong

Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning
I can see the light of a brand new day
I can see the light of a clear blue morning
And everything’s going to be alright
I’m gonna be okay

It’s been a long time
Since I’ve known the taste of freedom
And those clinging vines
They had me bound, well I don’t need them

Cause I am strong and I can prove it
And got my dreams to see me through
It’s just a mountain, I can move it
And with faith enough there’s nothing I can’t do

Snowy South

This week I’m lucky enough to be working from home office in Myrtle Beach, SC. I have lived in Myrtle Beach a little over 10 years now. As all of you know one of my main reasons for living here is the mild winters. We do have winter every year with temperatures that fall below freezing. Our winter season is generally very short (several weeks at most).

A week ago today they had snow in Myrtle Beach it was the first time in 9 years we have had snow here. The year after I bought my house I woke up to 5 inches of snow and heavy snowfall. It stopped at noon and had melted away by dinner.

I was not home to catch the snowfall this year but Stefan got a few pictures of the house in the snow I’ll share with you. I’m happy to say the freeze was not enough to cause damage to the plants and flowers that were blooming. My Daffodils decided to make an early entrance this year and have been blooming for a few weeks now.

Plants along driveway

This is the house with a dusting of snow

As pretty as it is to see the snow, I'm starting to get the itch for the best season here... Spring!

Let's hope the groundhog agrees to have an early spring next Monday when he peeks his head out.

It really could be worse….

Last week I wrote my blog about the Mini-Cooper adventure. I have to say I have had great feedback to my rant. And anytime things like this happen you wonder could it get worse… The answer is always going to be “Yes it can”.

As I walked out of the Marriott Courtyard last week to head home (in my Cadillac I might add). I saw the car that would be worse than the Mini-Cooper. I instantly felt sorry for the poor traveler that got the car pictured below.

I'm happy to say I'm working home office this week and I have my trusty 15 year old Thunderbird that I know how to drive and park.

Multnomah Falls, OR

I was able to get out of the office early enough to make the short trip 35 miles east of Portland to see Multnomah Falls during day light. The falls are the second highest year round waterfalls in the nation with a 620 feet drop. This was the first time I saw the falls in the winter with the ice created by the mist.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Have a great weekend everyone.

Multnomah Falls - Upper Falls

Multnomah Falls

Portland, OR

I have been trying to figure out what to write about today ever since yesterday. I’m in a beautiful area of the country and I just take for granted that everyone knows all about it. So today I will introduce everyone to one of our many great cities. Portland Oregon.

I have been fortunate enough to travel to Portland and Oregon many times in my life. The first time was back in the late 80’s. I will tell you a story about that trip later in this blog.

Portland has roughly two million residents in the surrounding area. Many people do not realize that the city is the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a great place to visit with many activities to choose from. Portland is know as “The City of Roses” and they have the most beautiful rose gardens that sit on the side of a mountain looking over downtown with Mount Hood towering in the background. Just above the rose gardens is a Japanese Garden that is so beautiful to see.

The Columbia River is a monster river that divides Oregon and Washington State. You can’t imagine what Lewis and Clark must have thought when they explored the area.

My room looks out to Mount Hood and the weather this week has been spectacular. Blue skies not a raindrop. Each morning I have been able to watch the sun come up over Mount Hood. The view of Mount St. Helens has been just as clear as anyone could hope for.

Twenty plus years ago when I made my first trip to Portland it was with friends of mine that had moved from Oklahoma City to Seattle. We decided to take a weekend trip to Mount Hood and enjoy a weekend of snow skiing. At the time I was a novice at the sport (which is far better than I am today). I would ski on the Green and Blue runs which are the beginner and intermediate slopes.

My friends had never been snow skiing so I encouraged the four of them (all women) to take lessons. After the lessons which were half a day the three adults of my friends were smart enough to just pull up chairs and drink in front of the fireplace at the lodge. Then there was the teenager and me who didn’t give up quite so easily. I agreed to take her up on a green run and ski down with her.

On the ski run I was making better progress than the teenager (Kristi), so I would stop on level areas on the way down and take a break and wait on her to pass me. This continued many times and each time I’d pull to a stop using a technique of pointing my skis slightly up the hill until I came to a stop. Now this was not the way I was taught to stop, but it was the least effort on my part.

Well on one of those stops I pointed my ski’s too far up hill and started skiing backwards down the hill. Remembering back to my lessons I was told to never fall down hill because you would go head over heels. I thought if I fall going up-hill I’ll break my nose. In this flash that seemed like an eternity I never lost my balance and actually made it to the next level area and came gently to a stop. Kristi was very impressed at my skiing skills and how I could ski backwards and watch her. It was quite a let down when she found out it was not skill but luck.

So this ski trip is one of my many memories of the area. Since I will be here many times this year I will write blogs of things that I’ve seen in the area and hopefully you will feel like you have explored one of our great Pacific Northwest cities.

If you want to see more about Portland here is the link to the visitors web-site.
http://www.travelportland.com/visitors/

About the blog and what’s in the name Reflections?

I am new to the blogging world. I have several friends who have started blogging in order to keep up with each other in this busy world we live in.

I travel extensively with my job. I see more in a month than many people see in a year. And what I see in a year is often more than some people see in a lifetime. Travel is much more enjoyable if you don’t take things too seriously and just roll with the flow. The attitude you have makes a huge difference, it can make you or break you.

As I was flying coast to coast this week from Wilmington, NC to Portland OR I thought about it and decided what a great way to share my funny stories from the road with friends.

There is a greatest hits album by Tim McGraw called “Reflected”. In thinking about a name for my blog I was thinking what a great description for a greatest hits album.

I was thinking about reflections and what I think of as reflections. As you look in a mirror the reflection is what you see today. You can look to the past in a reflection and if you look on the surface of water you can even see reflections of things to come.

Since I am held captive on airplanes and in airports I have plenty of time to reflect (looking forward, backwards and even what’s going on at that moment). As I listen to music on my iPod I think about friends that a song reminds me of and even events in my life. As bad as I am at keeping in touch I still think of the wonderful friends and experiences I’ve had through the years.

When I was trying to make myself decide whether or not to blog I was thinking what would I have to talk about? Then I started making notes (you do that at my age) and the ideas started flowing…

I could write about:
Friends in my past that I think about and stories about these precious friends.
Movies I’ve seen that changed me or made me think.
Funny and not so funny travel stories from the road.
Life in the Carolinas where I call home.

So here’s to a new year and a new Blog. I'm going to try and post a few stories a week. I don't think I can commit to a daily blog. You know men and commitment.

Why can't I start this car

What a travel day yesterday… I woke up at 4:00 AM to drive to Wilmington NC to catch my flight because the ticket was $500 cheaper from there than from Myrtle Beach. And don’t you think for a minute that meant I got a super deal on the ticket price.

The trip started out well, the flight out of Wilmington was on-time but that really never matters when you’re flying through Atlanta. You can just count on a delay when Atlanta is involved. There was an earlier flight but I thought to myself “hey it will only get me to Toronto an hour early just sit down and have breakfast instead”. Well my flight was delayed 2 ½ hours leaving Atlanta then you add the extra taxi time and next thing you know we were nearly 3 hours late.

That’s OK too… I have a prime seat at the gate and I’m #1 on the First Class Upgrade list, I’m Platinum, I have a high dollar ticket and I’ve been on the list for 2.5 hours and nobody has bumped me yet.

Wow, what was that pill I took? I thought it was an aspirin? Must not have been because I actually thought I’d swing that upgrade to First Class. What a hallucination! Not snowballs chance… Minutes before the flight departs some “Super Diamond Encrusted Platinum Jerk” steals my upgrade. Well no sense in whining, it won’t get me the seat anyway… Look on the bright side I have the entire exit row to myself.

We landed in Toronto and slid nicely over to the gate, rode the bus over to Immigrations and Customs. I told them I was here for work, whipped right through without a problem. Now darn it of all weeks to let me in they pick the one with the temps due to be below zero (F). Oh well I guess it’s the Canadian hospitality. I should just be grateful because Immigrations is one of my worst fears in life for some reason.

I trot on out to Hertz to pick-up the car and there are no cars. Just a very long line of folks wanting, wishing and waiting for cars. I think to myself “this is when it really pays to be Presidents Circle”; “I’ll be in and out of here before all these folks”. Can we say Naïve! No cars mean nobody has any priority over anyone else. I guess we were all Hertz Presidents Circle.

Being broken I humbly agreed to the first car available. The agent asked if I’d be OK with a BMW, then gently in a soft voice very much under his breath he added “Mini-Cooper”. I thought for a minute and then realized this as the little car about the size of a roller skate. Wow, I didn’t know BMW made these cars. What a change from the full sized car I reserved.

Oh well I agreed just so I could get the heck out of there and get to my room. I was told it would be about 15 minutes and my car would be pulled around. So off I go to the ATM to pull out some Canadian Currency to have change in my pocket for the toll road.

An hour later when my car finally arrived, all the Hertz Presidents Circle folks standing there drooling at each car as they come by hoping it’s there car. Like a bunch of gamblers around a Craps table in Las Vegas hoping their number has finally come up. Well “By God” it was my turn… I go over in front of this fine audience of professionals and get in the car. Perfect posture, smiling about to drive off in “MY” car.

Now wouldn’t that be all too simple… The clicker turns out to not have a key on it. I look around and see a “Start Engine” button on the dash. OK I think it’s like some of the others I’ve heard about that has a proximity clicker and if it’s in range you just press the button. Again can we say Naïve!

Let me see the start button does not work. Well I’ve had a car (Triumph Spitfire) before that would not start if the driver’s door is open… I’ll try closing the door. Darn that didn’t work. OK maybe it’s some other safety device preventing it from starting… Let see, maybe the seat belt. Not a chance there’s no way it’s not going to be that easy. Maybe the emergency brake, nope not that either.

Well I guess I’m going to have to duck my head a bit and go ask for help. Now any of you that know me realize it’s not a favorite thing of mine to have to ask for help. I walk over to the person at the exit gate who checks your contracts as you leave and ask if they can show someone who has driven nearly 30 years how to start a car. The reply was I don’t know how to do it. I’m just a security guard you need to find a Hertz person. A lot of help that was, I can’t find a Hertz person with God’s help. They know how angry these folks are and they are all hiding like cockroaches when you flip on the lights. I guess it’s time to do the un-thinkable and open the glove box and read the manual that comes with the car. Just so you know… “Techie folks don’t read manuals; we just figure it out on our own”.

Well after looking in the guide I see there is a slot you slide the clicker in, then depress the brake and press the start button while caressing the steering wheel whispering sweet nothings. OK it wasn’t quite that simple… But I was right the Drivers door had to be closed, the brake depressed and the start button pressed. By this point I have given up on finding the electric window button, I just don’t have the energy anymore. I’ll just pop the door open when I get to the gate and hand the contract up to the agent. Refer back to the “Drivers Door must remain shut”. The car stops. Well I close the door, press the brake hit the start button and off I go into the snowy Toronto traffic.

I found the window controls in the center of the console below the radio. This would be the radio that when I roll the dial simply changes radio stations. I thought I could control the volume by rolling the dials. Oh well I had not studied that far into the manual yet and shooting down the 409, 401 and 404 at 90 KPH in snow and in the dark reading Google maps in one hand does not allow the extra eye to finish reading the Mini-Cooper manual. So I just realize I’ll deal with that radio later. At least the volume was not so loud I couldn’t think. Lucky for me the blinkers and wipers are both located on the handles on the steering column. Can’t judge speed since it’s in Kilometers and the speedometer is dead center in the car for everyone to see (except the driver). The rear windshield wiper is on and I have no clue how to shut it off, oh well I’ll deal with that in the morning.

I get to the hotel feeling like a fool not knowing how to set the volume on the radio, not knowing how to start a car. Where is the defroster (center position), where are the electric locks (if you want to know you’ll just have to keep reading)… Just last week I was “Hip”, I had an iTouch, TiVo I was right up there with the latest technology. Now I feel so broken I may need a hip.

Well what a difference a good night sleep and reading the manual can make. The radio volume is the dial directly below the CD player above the string of buttons that control from left to right (driver’s window, fog lamps, electric door lock, boot release “British for Trunk” and passenger window). The radio can be tuned using the dial just above the CD player in the center of the Speedometer.

Looking higher up on the ceiling just above the mirror is another string of switches that control reading lamps on each side of the car and one for the dome light (3 switches there). Another to set the light colors… Oh my God how old am I to think “Who needs mood lighting in a car the size of a roller-skate?” Then another switch to open the sunroof (if only there were sun to appreciate).

Oh well suck it up… I think I can do this… I whirl out on the freshly fallen and still falling snow that is coming down at whiteout speed and start my 30 minute trek up the freeway. I pass people in the ditches (these are the folks that know how to drive in the snow and ice, unlike me – whose motto is “I don’t OWN an Ice-Scraper and have no plans to buy one”).

I get near my destination and decide to get a cup of coffee at the Tim Horton’s. Down goes the window, place my order drive up get my coffee and off I go rolling up my window. Wow, I’ve mastered this car. Well not quite yet. The window goes up, and then goes back down half way. Wonder why that happens? I’ll try it again and again and again. I finally figure it must be some snow or ice on the window seal wipe it with my hand and see if that help. Well I’ll be darn, I got one right.

The good thing the people here are a dream to work with… What a nice group of folks, I guess they could see on my face that I was a man on the edge and decided to be kind to me and not push me over that edge. Maybe it was fear? Oh well who cares they treated me nice.

Well I wonder what challenge will face me in the morning… I miss my 14 year old car that I know how to drive. I want to go south and get back in the balmy 50F weather.

Now I’m done wasting your time. Say a short prayer for me that I can find the roller skate in the parking lot in the morning. I hope they don’t cover it with snow when they plow the parking lot tonight.