My Travels

[Wilma]

Tobi, I agree with Jo.  I can't travel but your travels sure help brighten my day.

[Tobina+1]

Thanks, Gals, for the encouragement!  And hello from Grand Island, Nebraska!  I went to my folks' in Atwood this weekend, as my mom's birthday is today.  I had a work meeting on Monday afternoon, and then headed up here to NE for a couple meetings.  I'll swing by Manhattan on Thursday night to see my sister on her birthday (Friday), then head home.  Out of the 6 people in my family, 4 of them have birthdays in February!  I got to see both my Grandmas when I was home, and they're doing well and handling the weather good, too.

Sunday night, we had pizza with the "Hobby Club".  An old neighbor of my family says she has friends in Sedan that she visits, someone who makes pies for Toots?  Anyone know who that is?

As for the difference between bison people and cattle people; (I'm being generalizing here, keep in mind) a lot of the bison people are very environmentally conscious.  They tend to be less "cowboy" and more "tree hugger" (not in a bad way).  They usually have other conservation programs on their ranches.

[patyrn]

The pie baker would probably be Louise Chrisman who lives in Sedan.  Her daughter, Debbie Roebuck, owns Toots Drive-In, and I think Louise bakes pies every day and also comes up to serve breakfast at Toots every morning.

[Tobina+1]

What a small world!  Tell Louise that her friend Maxine Wright used to be my neighbor!  Maxine and Harvey now live in town, but they used to live across the creek from my grandparents, and about 4 miles from where I grew up.

[Tobina+1]

Well, I've been out and about once again!  Last week I was in sunny Newman, California.  No, not spring break.  Not even a very populated area!  It's East of San Jose, and about 1.5 hours south of Sacramento.  I was doing a software installation in a livestock packing plant (so I really wasn't even out enjoying the sunnyness... and no, it wasn't "THE" CA packing plant from the news).  The plant is using the system to track the meat from the harvest area, through the coolers, to the fabrication floor where they break it into cuts, and then to the shipping area where they pack it into boxes to be shipped out.  The idea is that they can tell which specific carcasses were in each shipment, so if something goes wrong or they have a recall they can track back to the harvest group and then back out to other shipments that may need to be recalled.  It is also very important for inventory purposes so they know what types of cuts they have and how much at any time.  This was a small plant, so it was a friendly atmosphere and the staff was very excited to get technology to help make their jobs easier and give them accountablility.

I also got to see lots of cool things on our way to/from the hotel... fields of broccoli, almond trees in bloom, and eucalyptus trees (they grow like oak trees there; very large and wild along the creeks).  We also drove by a frozen vegetable plant where they had truckloads of spinach that they were freezing and packing.  I even saw some Bird's Eye shipping containers, so I imagine that the spinach was being packaged and shipped for that company!  Like always, it was a business trip, so I didn't get to do a lot or see a lot.  But the "valley" was beautiful! 

I flew in and out of Sacramento.  On Sunday on my way there, I flew through Dallas (via American Airlines).  On Thursday on my way home, I flew through Denver (via United...good thing since Dallas was flooding!).  My flights were fine, albeit a little bumpy here and there.  KNOCK ON WOOD... I haven't had very many travel issues all the many times I've flown.  A lost bag once, but it was found and delivered (1:00 am after I'd already purchased contact solution, etc).

[Tobina+1]

Here's a pict of the broccoli in the field.  I was having a hard time attaching to my first post.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Love the picture of your Jack Russell, the broccolli's looks good too.

[Tobina+1]

So, I'm filling you in again on the latest of my travels!  Since my last post, I have traveled to Longmont, CO, to our main office about 3 times, but they were boring trips and nothing to interest you.
Last week, however, we had our company retreat and summer meetings in Grand Lake, CO!  It was a fun time!  We started the week off by going to the Rockies game (they got stomped by the Dodgers), and then drove up to Grand Lake on Tuesday.  Half of us went via I-70 after we picked up one guy from the airport, the other half went over Rocky Mountain National Park (I, of course, went the boring I-70 route).  We stayed in a "dude ranch" just a little North of Grand Lake.  It was beautiful!  They had a stream running through the property, and horses running around.  You could go horse riding, but we did not take the time.  Although it sounds relaxing and restful, we still did have meetings and presentations (I gave 4 presentations!).  But the atmosphere was nice and we didn't have to sit in a stuffy meeting room the whole time.  We had team building activities and breaks throughout the meetings, including sand volleyball, horseshoes, Apples to Apples game, and Imagine If game.  The theme for the week was "Change", so we changed teams with each activity, and sometimes in the midst of playing, too!
Wednesday, we had meetings all day long at the ranch.  It hailed and rained all day!  The hail was as thick as snow!
Wednesday night, our CEO joined us and we went to dinner at The Rapids restaurant.  It was beautiful (see picture below)!  They had great, expensive food and wine. 
Thursday, we had more meetings in the morning and wrapped up by noon.  In the afternoon we rented a pontoon boat and went out on Grand Lake.  The water was COLD, but the sights were beautiful.  We pretty much just puttered around the lake looking at all the houses.  They have some amazing houses!  There was one for sale and we found out later it was only 3 bedroom... for $3.5 Million!  We were joking that the company should buy it for a get-away lodge... but we're not quite THAT large yet!
Friday morning we just loaded up and drove back to Denver.  I stayed at my parents' house in NW KS the weekend before and Friday night, and then came back on Saturday.  It was a LONG week!  But, I'm happy to say that my hubby kept my garden picked and watered while I was gone, so I had a TON of cucs and a few tomatoes when I got back!  Yum!

[W. Gray]

Grand Lake, Co, is where Marvin Heemeyer when berserk in 2004.

He built a 55 Ton tank and proceeded to take out a good part of downtown, then put a bullet through his brain.

He was PO'd at the mayor and city council.

[Diane Amberg]

Tobina, thanks for sharing...Love those photos.