1971 Chevrolet C-10

1971 Chevrolet C-10

It's no secret that when I go to an auction I am easily distracted and actually pretty dangerous.  I tend to gravitate towards, shall we say, unique items.  That's what happened with this C-10.  I can't even remember what I paid for it, but it was back before trucks went crazy in the collector car world so it was probably a fraction of what it would cost today.

This truck was a custom build (obviously) and had been done right.  It had exactly 6 miles on the complete build when I bought it.  When I sold it 3 or 4 years later it only had about 200.

The girl I was dating when I bought this might have been a factor in my 'impulse buy' if I'm being honest.  Sheri loved Fords, HATED Chevys, and had the rather large truck you see in the background of the picture above.  "Blue" was what she called her truck, and it wasn't a show piece by any standard, but she loved it and I thought it was funny bringing around a truck that she couldn't help but appreciate and admire…..and it was a CHEVY!

 I entered the truck in one small show and it won the truck class.  The funniest part of it was I had to leave before the awards were presented so Sheri had to accept the trophy.  I had a great time teasing her about it "taking a Chevy for her to finally win a trophy for a truck."  Thank God she had a sense of humor.

 The interior was as mint and custom as the rest of the truck.  It was a simple vehicle, but certainly got a lot of stares. 

It was so wide it barely fit on my trailer.  When I sold the truck, I actually sold the trailer it's on here with it.

 The guy who bought it from me spent a fortune taking it to the next level.  He sent me this picture of his '72 next to the old stepside.  I'm glad it went to a good home.  The thing just sat in my shop most of the time I had it.  I'm just not a custom truck guy.  That said, I certainly appreciated how nicely done this one was and even though it wasn't any fun to drive…at all…I still appreciated it.

How Texas is that!?!

Fork In The Road

Fork In The Road

One of many bits of wisdom from the immortal Yogi Berra:  "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."  I feel like when we all get older we will look back at certain choices we make during our lives and wonder "what if".  I'm not a 2nd guesser by nature so I don't mean look back with regret, just wonder what things might have been like if you had taken door #2 instead of what's behind curtain #3.  For example, I know that at one point my father had a choice between attending Duke Law School or entering a doctoral program at LSU.  He chose LSU.  Had he gone the other route, he never would have met my mother and never would have had me (OK - maybe he regrets that last part a little:-).  Branelle and I had one of those "fork in the road" moments earlier this year. 

My wife was working as an aerospace engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.  She was a project manager building flight hardware such as a new fire extinguisher for the ISS.  We were quite happy and not really looking for anything to change when a large international agricultural company recruited her for a position somewhat out of the blue.  I say 'somewhat', because there was a small connection that I won't get into but Nel wasn't looking to leave NASA.  She asked me if I thought she should talk to these people and I said sure - there's never anything wrong with listening.  The position was out of her area of expertise, but I was sure she could handle it.  What made it extremely interesting, however, was that it was located in Soda Springs, Idaho.

 

If you've never heard of Soda Springs, you're not alone.  It's a small town, and I mean SMALL, in the middle of nowhere Southern Idaho.  The nearest town of any consequence is Pocatello, not exactly a metropolis, about an hour away.  There are about 3000 residents - keep in mind that our current "town" of Houston has about 6,000,000.  When we initially started researching the place we were both unnerved and intrigued at the same time.  Branelle did a couple of phone interviews and the next thing we know they want to bring us up for a site visit.  It all happened kind of fast but we were flying up to Idaho (into Salt Lake City about two hours away actually) later that week - the end of January.

Right before we flew up to Idaho, Branelle was asked by NASA folks if she would consider making a move from flight hardware to become a MER Manager.  I won't get into explaining the MER here, just know that the position is an advancement in both salary and exposure to real-time NASA ops.  Nel had never considered the MER (Mission Evaluation Room - in case it was bothering you), but she was flattered and interested so she agreed.  We didn't think too much of it and headed to Soda Springs.

 

Soda Springs is a nice, quant little town.  It was actually quite pretty, sitting in a valley of small mountains in the high dessert.  There was a lot of snow as you could imagine and it was cold, but not Minnesota cold.  I dropped Nel off at the plant one morning and while she interviewed I sat in a small coffee shop listening to a bunch of local old-timers chat.  To be honest, it was really growing on me fast.  A few hours later I met Nel and the plant manager and a few others for lunch.  Everyone was extremely nice and they gave us a lot of insight into the area.  I could tell they liked Branelle, and I was proven correct when she got a call from the corporate recruiter offering her the job about 10 minutes after lunch ended.  We told him to put it in writing and send it to us.  In truth, we were sort of trying to stall.

Our rental on Main Street

That afternoon we spent our time looking at homes with Shannon Whitney, a local agent.  The biggest issue I had with moving here was finding a place to live.  There were a total of 59 properties available the day we looked, and quite frankly I wouldn't have really wanted any of them.  We talked about building, but in a remote location like that it's both costly and slow.  We decided that there was one property we could work with if we wanted to make the move - It had a big home and acreage with nice valley views and didn't cost that much so we could remodel and add on.  Shannon was extremely nice and helpful and met us the next morning to look at a few more places before we headed out. 

This was the view from one of the contenders

We decided to stay in Salt Lake City for a few days and do some skiing.  We hit Deer Valley and Solitude and just kind of thought about things.  The company was really pushing Nel to take the job and we kept stalling because we wanted to hear back from NASA about the MER position.  Sure enough, NASA called and offered her the gig.  Now what?

Mulling over the decision, but the area is really starting to grow on me

Nel picking out a vacation home

When we got back to Houston we still couldn't decide.  Branelle was stalling with both companies.  She had never told NASA about the other offer and hadn't mentioned the MER promotion to anyone at the agricultural company.  She wasn't trying to leverage either against each other, just making a choice. We asked a few close friends and family members what they thought and got all kinds of mixed opinions.  I remember video chatting with Nel's parents and at the end of the conversation asking them what they thought.  Mrs. C said she wouldn't do it and Mr. C said he probably would.  That's the way it went with everyone.  We told the Ag company to come back with their best offer - again kind of just stalling.  We even flipped a coin - not that we were going to let it decide for us, just to see how we felt when it came up.

 

The money side was close, certainly not far enough apart to make the difference.  I could do what I was doing anywhere so that didn't factor in.  I liked the idea of being "off the grid", but Branelle was a bit less enthusiastic about it.  It was actually very stressful for her.  Ultimately, I think that the biggest negative factor for Nel was the fear of leaving what she knows at NASA for an entirely different world.  I'm pretty sure she would have done great in a plant environment and I'm also pretty sure she would have ultimately loved it, but I understand the trepidation.  We made the decision to turn down the Ag company and take the MER position.  I think Nel thought it was over, but I knew better.  Shortly after rejecting the offer, Nel got calls from the plant manager and others trying to change her mind.  They came up with about everything they could and the relocation package and signing bonus were top notch. 

I think I could have steered this one in either direction, but in the end I felt that Branelle was just a little too uncomfortable leaving NASA so we decided to stay.  My thought was that while I think we would have been very happy in Soda Springs, it was an unknown and I know that we are happy here.  We're still in Houston and Nel is enjoying her new gig with the MER, but I kind of wonder what things would be like if we had taken the other option at the fork in the road.  I imagine we would have bought a big place on the outskirts of Soda Springs with a bunch of acres and probably a vacation home in Jackson Hole a couple hours away.  Who knows.  "Never look back" is something I like to say, but it's interesting to imagine.

 

I used to say to Nel when we were deciding that "there's no wrong choice".  I'm still not sure if we made the best choice but it's cool.  I guess if I had to decide, I'd say that we probably made the right decision to stay….but I still wish we had gone!:-)

Europe Travel Wall Project

I don't 'Pinterest', or whatever that thing is, so this is kind of my own personal craft board tonight.  Like most simple Texas boys, my interests tend to revolve around sports, cars, and guns.  In spite of this, my wife thinks that I have a hidden inner-artistic side that comes out from time to time.  I don't think I'm artistic at all - I certainly can't draw or paint or anything.  I just think I like solving problems and a good project is pretty much all about problem solving.

We had a wall in our breakfast room that was bare so I decided to use it as a travel wall of sorts.  The reason I did it was primarily to encourage us to travel more.  I figured if you look at it everyday you'll say things like "we should go to Ireland"... and then actually go to Ireland!  I decided to go with Europe, and because there's room, Northern Africa.  I figured I would outline all the countries and then paint in the flags of those countries when Branelle and I had visited them together.  'Together' is the key - I've been to a lot of places and Nel has been to Russia since we've been a couple but they only get painted in if we go together.

Going back over my map with a magic marker.

The first step was to get an outline of Europe on the wall.  I thought an overhead projector would do the trick but I couldn't find one so I hit Craigslist.  Some lady in Pearland had dozens of them in her garage (no idea why) and I picked one up for about $20.  I then got some transparency printer paper and found an online map I liked and printed it out.  I put it on the wall and traced it in pencil then went back over the lines with a magic marker. 

The wall before any countries were filled in.

We had already been to Europe when I initially did the wall so I had some countries to fill in.  I wanted it to be interesting, not just solid colors from the flags.  I made the decision to actually try to paint the flags over the countries.  For some, this is really easy.  France, Italy, Germany, etc. have simple three bar designs and lots of room on the wall.  Other countries have much more intricate flags and/or are very small.  I've had to get creative with a few of them.

This was my initial run.  I had to make a few decisions.  For example, we obviously haven't been to every Greek island, but we've been to some so I painted in all of the islands as part of Greece.  However, islands like Sicily and Corsica I treat as separate even though they belong to Italy and France respectively since they have their own governments and flags.  

This demonstrates how I address some of the more intricate flags.  Here we have Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro.  I make an effort to use the countries borders as sort of an outline over the flag instead of trying to cram the entire flag or crest into it.  Branelle and I have visited most of Europe's "micro countries" such as San Marino which you can see as a little blue and white dot sitting inside Italy on the left here.  They're so small you just can't do much with them other than get the colors right.

Here we have Sicily and the tiny island nation of Malta.  I think I did pretty well getting the Maltese flag represented in such a tiny spot...or spots. 

This is the map as it currently sits - I think there are something like 17 or 18 countries filled in with lots to go.  There are some places that will probably never be filled in (I don't plan on taking my wife to Libya anytime soon).  We had a trip to Northern Europe planned this spring, but a number of events both happy and sad postponed it.  I thought we would push to this fall, but life has gotten in the way of that (baby).  The map will probably stay like this for a while, but we'll see how it goes (anyone want to baby sit for a month or so?)