Third Day!

Today was an interesting day...First, I went to the ATS corporate office in Mauldin. Of course I got lost and had a difficult time getting turned around :P Curt Stutzman and I went down to grab some info from Roy, who is the onsite tech for the CAT Newberry facility. I will be covering his position for a while, at least for a couple few weeks. It's an hour drive, but I should be able to rent a car and the hours will allow me to get home at a decent time. The job is a simplified version of my job at PPG and is very laid back (like everything here). The facility has only been here for two years, so there isn't a lot of production or staff. Now there are people trying to get my accounts restored.... I even am asking Jason to ship my CAT badge to me so I can keep using it.

Here is ATS.

The drive down to Newberry is long, but scenic.

CAT Newberry (Power systems manufacturing)

Front entrance.

China Town retaurant. Everything at this restaurant reminds

me of our chinese place back in North Pekin.

Mmmmmm General Tso's chicken. It was pretty good,

not the best, but pretty good.

Here's Curt...kindof a scary picture if you ask me.

This is Gary Oertle (IT) at the Foutain Inn engine plant.

I have a lot of work to do....find a house!

If you didn't hear, we sold our house last night....for the price we wanted.

Greenville: Day 2

Okay, I made it through a 2nd day! The day would have been nicer, but I am getting pretty sick, so I was coughing with a sore throat. I feel a little better now, though, but I still can't wait to get home and go to bed. I'm going back to Target, because I need some more items like cough drops and pizza.

Much Better!

It was really rainy this morning, but it cleared up and got sunny this afternoon. I have been seeing video of the snowstorm back home. Sorry guys.

I needed to get online again tonight, so of course, I had to come back to Panera! I got a soda and cookie so I wouldn't feel bad about the free wifi. A guy who works here gave me a giant loaf of bread to take home for free. Score!! Free food!!! (Note to self, come back tomorrow night at 9:00 :)

I took the opportunity to do some exploring tonight. Since I've been here, I have noticed that the main roads are very twisty windy and pretty intimidating, especially at night. Panera and Target are in a newer part of town, so I decided to drive past them and see how far I got. Wade Hampton Blvd. is the equivalent to Peoria's War Memorial Dr. or Bloomington's Veterans Parkway. There are a lot of things on this road like restaurants and stores and the road is 7 lanes wide. I actually drove to Greer because that is where I think I want to live, and I think that I would be pretty happy there! The road goes up and down, but slowly with wide lanes :) In the daytime, I bet there is a pretty mountain view! I drove past a Lowe's, HomeDepot, major restaurant chains, etc etc, and the 100th Bi-Lo grocery store I've seen today. No Shell stations around here, which bums me out because my car like the V-Power go-juice.

In an interesting turn of events, I may actually work at a CAT site for a few weeks. There is a facility in Newberry, which is about an hour SE of Greenville. The onsite guy is leaving this week, so I've been asked to help out. I'm going down tomorrow to absorb the info from the guy's head. Since I'm pretty familiar with it all, it shouldn't be too difficult! Oh, the irony...

My first day in Greenville

My first day in Gville was interesting. Let's go on a trip.

I finally found my way to I385 and then Main Street.
It must have been God, because I was lost most of the time.


Walking towards the Hampton Inn to fix a touch screen system.

More of the Reedy river.


Even more.


Here's the pretty lobby of the hotel. Nope, I don't think I can afford a room here.


Man, am I hot. It must be like 65 degrees.
Oh wait, it IS 65 degrees.
I think I got sunburnt today. Boo-hoo.


Here is my mentor, Jim, working on a disk quota error at the parking offices.


Walking downtown at lunchtime.


Here's Jim again. This reminds me of one of those presidential campaign photos that you always see. You know, the kind that are black and white where the guy looks all stressed out and tired.



There! That's more like it.


Let's go get some chicken. It's not Buffalo Wild Wings, though...


Here's the crew, orderin'.


This place is pretty cool.


"Basic Chicken Sandwich." Doesn't SOUND appetizing, but it is pretty decent.


Hoity Toity hotel next to City Hall.


JIMMY JOHN'S! JIMMY JOHN'S! JIMMY JOHN'S!


Here's one our stops. All of the po-po are pretty cool people.


Let's go see some more of them at the county jail!!! YAY!!!


Coworker, Todd, smmmmokin'.
Traffic is bad coming home. Drivers are now 30X worse instead of 10X like yesterday.


Ahhhh. Back home. Well, it's 6:00, sunny, and 60 degrees. Let's go for a run.



There we go. We're off!


I decided to run along a very busy road. Whatever. I Wasn't the only one!


Here's a pretty lake near my apartment.


This is a Baptist church and is what 99.9% of the local churches look like.


Wait....what?


Mmmmmmm. Panera. I really just need free Internet.



There we go!

Now, I 'm off to Target to get some supplies and go home to bed. Goodnight!

My trip to South Carolina!

Hey everyone! I made it safe and almost sound.
Here are some pictures from my journey that I'd like to share with you!
The trip was 750 miles and it took me about 13 hours.
(and I still didn't stop after KY)
There were lots of potholes and my car did not sound right the whole way.
Let's get this picture story started!




That's too cold. Let's get out of here!




Champaign area was white as .... snow





Northern Kentucky was rockier but there was still some crummy weather. Let's keep going!




Ahhhhhhhh....green.




ouch....don't look down....it's pretty inTennessee!




It's like a roller coaster. Up and down and up and down and around.
The entire time, I am praying for my car to make it back up.
Not everyone was so lucky!




You are now entering North Carolina. NICE.




More ups and downs, but at 50mph instead of 75. More scaryness.




Neat! Tunnels! It's like shuttle reentry....waiting for the radio to come back on.



Ahhhhhh much better. Now let's find a place to stay.




This place looks nice, let's see if anyone is there already.




Anyone here? I GOT DIBS!


Then I inflated my bed and went to sleep.
Thanks for following my trip everyone!

I'll post a picture story for my first day in Greenville, too. Goodnight!