Hello from Centennial, CO

Hello from Centennial, CO

Thursday Evening   January 17, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Centennial, CO??????  More a bit later.

I had been meaning to finish up the travelogue for our last trip to Missouri and Iowa, but never could find the time.  Indeed, I had one person contact me and ask if I made it home OK.  The trip, a bit over 1900 miles, went very well.

Periodically, I update our bus statistics.  Since we made our maiden voyage in the bus in March of 2006 (to San Diego), we have traveled just a few miles shy of  70,000 miles.  We have spent 773 nights in the bus.  It has been a great vehicle for us. 

We were kind of sad when we shut the business down, because we knew that we would not be travelling as much in our “home away from home”.  It is looking like we might be making a few more trips in the bus this year.  We will have to see what falls into place.

Now, for this trip.  I am all of about 35 miles from home, but am staying at the Drury Inn (map).  I recently contacted a company that I did a lot of training for after I retired from Gates:  NTT.  From about 2000-2002 I taught a continuing education class titled:  Mechanical Drives.  It covered belts, chain, gears, bearings, and couplings.  It was a very active class in those days and I traveled all over the US (including 2 weeks in Alaska).   I always enjoyed teaching the classes (mostly to maintenance personnel).  Unfortunately their business dropped off pretty significantly and I was laid off.

As noted, a few weeks ago I contacted them to see if there was any opportunity.  The rest, as they say, is history.  I am now an “employee” (even had to take a drug test).  There is a fancy job tile, but it basically says that I am a part time trainer.  I have no idea how many sessions I will teach.  The Mechanical Drives is not taught all that often, but an off-shoot is a class on bearings, lubrication and shaft alignment.  That is the class I am auditing this week in preparation for teaching.  I will be auditing another class in Atlanta in a few weeks.

As I have said repeatedly, this blog is primarily a travelogue.  Since I traveled a few miles and am staying in a hotel, I guess it qualifies.

That is all for now.