Today it started….snowing that is. And not only did is snow, but it stuck. I scraped snow off cars at the lot today, and I was cold. Today, was a very depressing day for anyone who rides motorcycles. It is the beginning of six months of being deprived of a beloved hobby. Well today didn’t turn out to be too bad for me anyway. Today was the first day for my replacement at Market Motors. His name is Eric Faux and I believe he will do a good job at the lot. This means a lot to me since I will not be working there anymore and I want the lot to do well. Yesterday I interviewed about 20 people trying to find the right person to work at the car lot. Of those 20 people I talked to maybe 3 were remotely close to being ‘THE’ person for the job. I do have to say that being on the opposite end of the interview was nice, especially being on the interviewee end for the last 6 months. I will miss working at the car lot, and I can not forsee that I will not be out of the picture of the car lot since my father-in-law owns it. I am looking forward to working at The Tire Rack and I can now feel good about making this decision to move on in careers. 
The Nice Weather Is Over
My New Job at The Tire Rack
Last Tuesday I got a call from Mike at The Tire Rack. He told me that he was emailing me an offer at The Tire Rack. I called Katy and had her read me the offer which was emailed since I do not have internet at work. She read me the offer and that night we talked about what I was going to do. I really didn’t want to leave my current job working at Market Motors. I enjoy what I do and I’m treated well and the compensation is more than sufficient. I called Mike to make a counter offer and after some figuring of numbers I decided to accept the offer that was orignally given. I took a hair follicle test on Thursday and got an email today that I’m starting this coming Monday, November 6th. I think the major thing that is going to get some getting used to is the early hours. I have to be to work at 7am rather than 10am. This is no big deal since I don’t mind getting up early, I feel I get more done when I’m up early. The major pay off is I get out of work earlier since I go in early. I am also working with a good friend, Bill Pratt! I am looking forward to making new friends and broadening my work experience. The Tire Rack seems to be a pretty good company to work for, really good benefits and what not. Man I’m excited!
2nd Interview at The Tire Rack
I just finished my follow up interview at The Tire Rack. We went out to lunch at Bobs 19th Hole in South Bend which turned out to be a pretty good meal. I went out with 4 other guys plus Mike Hoover who gave my first interview. The crew that I may be working with seem to be a pretty laid back guys. I would like to say thanks to Bill Pratt for getting me an interview in at The Tire Rack. Bill is a friend that is in the Computer Science Department at IUSB. I met bill back 4 years ago at Wal-Mart when I worked there which was before Bill went to IUSB. On they way back I rode with who the programming team at T.R. call Ozz (his real name is Bill). Ozz owns a 2004 Mini Cooper S and I have never ridden in one before, so I jumped at the chance. We talked about Motorcycles and how he came accross his Mini, he informed me that he was married but didn’t have any kids. When we got back I talked to Mike Hoover a little bit more and he let me know that there is someone else he is interviewing who has Web Testing experience and that I should here back from him in a week or two. This is also when I found out that the Chris, the woman who I will taking the place of and will be training me, went with us as well. It was then that I started kicking myself in the ass, because the only two words I exchanged with her the whole time was “Hi, my name is Cory. Nice to meet you”. Oh well you live and you learn. I guess we will see what happens.
Welcome GlockTalk.com Members
Looks like someone from GlockTalk.com found my 2002 Glock Armorers Manual that I scanned in last January. I had been searching forever for an updated glock armorer’s manual and broke down and finally bought one off of ebay. I have been getting a decent amount of referrals to my pdf file. Keep them coming! Maybe I can kill the demand for the bastards on ebay that are trying to sell this file for a profit. If you came here looking for the file then check out my Downloads Section
Life is Good
First I would like to say that life is good, and I am happy with everything in my life right now. Today nothing extremely special happened. Just an ordinary day working at Market Motors. Detail some cars here, pick up some cars there, and talk to some customers everywhere. Devin came and visited us at the lot on his fancy new motorcycle that Katy and I sold him. He bought Katy’s old motorcycle and is pretty excited about it. I got home and Katy was taking a nap with Mozart. I took a ride on my bike down “River Road” ( CR 8 ) a couple times since I had time before Mike was going to show up. I kinda wished Brian was with me to enjoy the ride. I took it pretty quick feeling considering I’ve only had this bike for a couple weeks. I felt pretty confident in the speed that I took the corners. The suspension felt incredible compared to my SV. The suspension on my RC is fully adjustable Showa which came stock with the bike. I got home and Mike showed up to help me on my drywall. He’s awesome at cutting out the receps and cutting pieces to fit. He has helped me on a lot of the drywall and I feel like I owe him more than I could ever repay him. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have any of this done except for the part Brian helped me on. Katy cooked us some Pizza which Mike turned down because he already ate, and after he left Katy and I cleaned up. I think Sunday I am going to go to his house and help him out. I feel like I’m really indebted to him. Thank you again MIKE!!
After thoughts on trip to Deals Gap “The Dragons Tail”
Well, we did it. Five of us took the trip to Deals Gap, Three of us on motorcycles, and two in the Miata. We left at 4:30 am on Sept 1st and didn’t arrive there until 2:30 am Sept 2nd. The trip down was 22 hours and 830 miles, and should of only taken about 14 hours and 600 miles. We decided about 3/4 of the way into the trip that it would be better to get off of the interstate and go east on 421 in Tennessee and then backtrack when we hit I-81 in Kentucky and go back west to hit I-75 south. By the time we got to our motel after being on the road for 22 hours we were ready to kill each other. We went to bed and woke up at about 9 am. We woke up to the sound of motorcycles driving by and I was anxious to hit the gap. I walked out and into the morning light to see rain. This kind of bummed me out but we weren’t going to let rain spoil our day. We showered and ate breakfast and hit the gap. I checked my oil in my bike and found it to be a quart low. David was nice enough to take me to “Hell Benders” to buy a quart of Amsoil Synthetic. We then got back on the road to see the scenery. Even though we were all sick of our vehicles it didn’t really bother us to be back on/in them. We then headed to the beginning of the Dragons Tail we hung out there for a bit. Here we got to meet a few people as well as check out the tree of shame and watch riders take off from the straight-away doing wheelies before the first turn into the “Tail of the Dragon”. We then hit the gap and ended up going all the way through it and turned around. Coming back we met David and Craig and decided to hang out at a turn off on the side of the road. I had Craig take some video of Mike and I taking the corners (This can be seen in the video). We hung out here for a little while longer and decided that we wanted to hit the “Tail” some more. Upon trying to leave we discover that Mike has not clutch on his borrowed Honda V65. His clutch is hydraulic and we could not get the cover open to even see if any fluid is inside the reservoir, since one of the screws are stripped to the point of no return. During this discovery a generous off duty firefighter riding his Harley pulls over and gives us a hand. The off duty firefighters name is Mike (also in the video). We concluded that the fluid is probably the original fluid and that we may be able to bleed the line and get it back to running condition. We lifted and propped the tank while trying to trace the hydraulic line. We bleed the line and Pepsi comes out and something in the line ends up clogging the bleeder valve. After cleaning the bleeder valve and reinstalling it we end up with even less pressure in the clutch handle. So whatever pressure we had in the hydraulic line is now lost. While putting the bike back together someone yells “Your leaking gas!!”. And sure enough gas is spewing out of the main line which is connected to the reservoir tank. We end up fixing the line and in the process lose almost everything that was in the gas tank. Mike (Firefighter) ends up staying with us the whole way through until we fixed the line which ended up to be about 3 hours. It’s now dark and we finally put the bike back together and get it back on the road (Also in Video). The next day (Sunday) we end up finding a drill and pulling the stripped screw out and running clean fluid through the clutch line. The clutch starts to work and the Green Machine is back on the road again! The only problem now is there seems to be a valve rattle which was not there before. The bike makes it through the day with out a hitch and we ended up leaving Monday Morning (Sept 3rd) at 4:30am. Along the way through the “Dragons Tail” we encounter a rattle snake in the road curled up, and five or six wild boars grazing on the side of the road. The Green Machine ends up making it back to Elkhart at about 7:00pm Monday evening to conclude the 600 mile trip in 14 hours with the rest of us. We were all glad to be home.
Although the long ride down was well worth it to spend a few days at Deals Gap, next time we are trailering our bikes.
Here is the video Deals Gap Movie
I couldn’t get all of the recorded video into this file. I will be making another video Let me know what you guys think of the video. This is my first attempt at one.