2009-05-16
Chicago Training - May 2009
Kentucky! It's good to be home.
Yes I am back home after spending a week in Chicago being trained by UPS and Feeding America (http://www.feedingamerica.org).
Flew out of Louisville on Monday 5/11/09 and flew back yesterday Friday 5/15/09. This has been the longest time I have spent away from Arianna.
It was a very busy week of training in which we covered truck routing software and using mobile phone applications for drivers. Learned a lot about GPS geocodes and optimising truck routing.
Spent the week training with some very excellent people from Food Banks in Austin, Denver, and Madison, along with great people from UPS and Feeding America. Of course my own Food Bank is God's Pantry Food Bank in Lexington, KY (http://www.godspantry.org).
During the week I ate very well at Thai, East Indian, Harry Careys, and a take out sandwich meal. Feeding America took us out on Thursday lunchtime to a place named Dick's Last Resort.
This was my 5th visit to Chicago. 4 of which were with God's Pantry.. 2 to the Operations Conference and 2 to Training Classes. In April 2008, Arianna and I visited Arizona with her mother and my parents by train going through Chicago.
Pictures of that visit to Arizona may be found here: Arizona Photos - April 2008
Ervyn, my Linux Mint Asus Eee PC netbook was with me, but very rarely used for actual internet access. The main reasons being that the hotel I stayed at, Hyatt Regency on E.Wacker, charges $13 a day for internet access, and although we had internet in the training class, time was spent learning. I did use Ervyn to play a couple of movies while waiting at the airport and in the hotel room, and for playing music and games to pass the time.
Although I love travelling (have visited 15 states in 10 years), I always love coming home. Home is definately where the heart is, and my heart is with Arianna, my house, my church and my work. That is why I said I came home to Kentucky, and not to Scotland. Scotland will always be the home of my birth and the first 32 years of my life, but home is now in Lexington, KY.
Tomorrow, Sunday 17th May 2006 will be the 10 year anniversary of being in USA. I flew into Newark airport, survived a night there, and have been here ever since, apart from 2 visits home (3 weeks in April 2006, and 2 weeks last Christmas/New Year).
While writing this blog entry I have been watching The Terminal with Tom Hanks. It is a most excellent movie, and I for one totally understand all the red tape the guy had to go through. Sometimes it does feel like you spend your time travelling (walking, train, plane, car), but it is always good to come home and just relax!
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