King me, baby......So, I'm trying to leave Utah to get back to Hammond for my high school reunion when I'm called upon to save the day. Some lady at the gas station had twisted her locking gas cap on crooked and I had to call upon the power of my bulging biceps to wrestle it free ;-) I'm chillin' at the Grand Junction airport right now. Got to the airport 3 hours early just to be sure I get home for my reunion. I'm kinda looking forward to it. I hope everyone's grown up since high school. The jury's still out on that one.
So, this week was spent in lovely, middle-of-nowhere Moab, UT. On the road again with AM General to do some off-road testing. And to further my bleeding ulcer. We drove the long way from Denver, CO to Moab, UT and broke down like three times due to electrical issues. I got to drive an H1 for the last 3 hours of the trip. The portion that went up "suicide pass" through the Rocky Mountains. I found it hilarious how the portion of road with death valley to the immediate right was not equipped with a guard rail but the portion with a small run-off ditch was equipped. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic as an H1 is not the thinnest of vehicles.
We had a whole week of off-roading with data collection ahead of us. The team was expanded to include people that felt the desire to drive the test trucks. Think 10 Chiefs and 2 Indians. A cluster-fuck of massive proportions. I spent 2 hours configuring and testing a wireless setup on the first test day only to have Windows go brain-dead on me at the crucial moment. Then, two lunchboxes that I've worked with this whole time got on the CB radio and my personal cell to jump on my case about it. Mind you, our day was already delayed by everyone else in the group but when my turn came, it was a big deal. I'll admit that I'm tired and stressed from work lately but these asshats know that I run the data logger and we test when I'm ready. I was seriously considering renting a car and jumping on a plane and going home as I don't need this stress but I stuck through. Then, on day 2, amateur hour hit about high noon and we broke one truck severely. "Boys' and their toys" was my way of putting it. The original game plan was to not overly stress the trucks and just back down from any event that was proving difficult. Someone forgot to inform the driver as he destroyed a transfer case and rear differential. Good thing we were 2.5 miles from the park entrance. I did my part in helping out getting gear from the base station but I'm no mechanic so after a couple of stranded hours I caught a ride out of the park and back to my hotel room. They ended up abandoning the truck in the field as daylight ran out. On the way back to the base station, another newbie broke the transfer case on the test truck. Stuck in low gear 5 miles from the base station. Long, slow drive back with our blinkers on.
Yesterday, everyone took off without giving any clear direction to the data guys so we ended up doing a little number crunching and then wasting away at the hotel all day. I went for a run and hit the weight room. I caught a super-marathon on CSI-NY so that was good. In the evening, I was chilling with the semi-truck drivers and the rest of the data guys. The truck drivers cooked us dinner cause I bought lunch at a chinese buffet. When the guys finally got back to the hotel, the news was still bad and the trucks were still down. No matta to me cause I'm going home for the weekend and flying back out to Vegas to meet back up with them on Monday. However, now they may stay in Moab an extra day so that just gives me a vay-kay day in Vegas with my boy, Lenzo, on AM General's dime. Fine with me.
I guess I don't have much sympathy for them cause I've spent the whole summer working my butt off on that truck and the young engineers that are my friends don't show any respect for the work I do. I know sometimes they are just messing with me and I've got my heart on my sleeve. I'm just to the point where I have to say "I don't care" or go into cardiac arrest.
Anywho, below are some pics from the trip so far. I can't show any pics of the test truck as its a life in prison sentence and hefty fine. Enjoy.......................
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