End of Tour- DA WRAP UP!

So after dropping off Araceli at the airport I reported back to IMG Live for a day of work ahead.

It was raining alot that day, but i didn't mind working outside. A Californian (well, sort of) such as my self rarely gets the opportunity to relish in a day of gloom and thunder, so I enjoyed my labors outside. Dougie wanted me to tidy up all 3 trailers from the tours that had just finished. I started with Direct Sales East since that was the easiest. After doing inventory there, I moved on to the Sell and Save trailers which had alot more items in them. I can't believe they were able to fit all their luggage in there.

I was in the middle of figuring out how i was going organize the Sell and Save East's trailer when another IMG LIVE Tour celebrity appeared to help the cause! Jay Couch had been helping IMG Live out with Coke and other random errands in the office that week, so Dougie sent him out to help me too. With Jay there, everything went alot faster. I think the best part of the day though was when Smitty needed us to remove the brake governor boxes for the trailers from each of the vehicles.

It was easy to get the ones from the Expeditions out, but the 15 passenger vans were a completely different beast. First we tried twisting our hands deep inside the heart of the car where the cord was nestled/tangled through, then we decided to sort of 'disect' the car by unclipping the front console area and pulling it to the side. It was CRAZY to see the engine RIGHT THERE! then we figured that the cord twisted even higher up. Luckily Jay knew how to carefully disassemble the plastic that was around the audio/radio area. After he did so, we found the cord just chillin' there connected to the outlet. AFter this little dilemma it was easy to get the black box outta the other vehicle.

When this was all said and done, we still had to run the trailers all over to the warehouse, while getting oil changes and cars cleaned. Jay had to be out at 4 that day, so we were only able to get the car cleaned up...oil changes would have taken too long...

As we were somewhere along packing up the trailer, Dougie told me that my tour had been post-poned a week and that I would be able to fly home to see family for a bit. This was awesome because my sister was about to have her baby and I hadn't seen her pregnant yet, so the timing was too good.

Jay finally left at 4, and my last task of the day was to go down to the warehouse and chain up all the trailers, which I'll tell ya, was not an easy task. Those chains are heavy to wrap around 1, and 2, I thought I'd grabbed enough long chains the first time at Home Depot, but after getting back to the warehouse and realizing I didn't have enough chain, I had to drop work for a second, go back to Home Depot, and get more chains to tie around the trailers. But hey, at least I now know I can chain trailers together!

When i was done, i was going to try to meet up with Jay Finn for dinner, but our timing wasnt working for us that evening. So I just went back to my hotel room and chilled that evening.

The next day I ran errands in the morning, mailing Rod and ARaceli's things to them via UPS and making sure all the locks & keys were together for the right trailer. I also had time to grab some awesome Sushi and Publix. There was someone in the IMG office who had sushi and it tasted pretty good for grocery bought, so since I had no time for Happy Sumo, and still harbored the craving for some spicy tuna, I opted for this. It was good stuff.

Eventually it got around the time to leave and head to the Marta. The hotel called me their regular cab service which turned out to be a Lincoln Towncar...I was not thrilled about this...I think the last time i was in a towncar i was in New York, and probably tipped the guy as poorly as I did this one to the Marta. When I see fancy cars, and no meters telling me how much to pay, and someone just throws a number outta the air, I immediately feel ripped, and don't tip good.

I could have called a regular cab, refusing the towncars' service, but I was running outta time. The whole time though the driver kept on saying I should just take him straight to the airport and not bother with the Marta. I told him i'd take my chances, that i liked the train, and that cab fares are too expense & the Marta is cheap...he still tried, no result though...

After I paid him 18.00 for the ride (seriously, it was like 15mins away) and tipped him 2.00 (to which he said that was cheap..yeah i didn't care) I was off to ride the Marta and get to the airport.

Anyways, gotta jet for now, more tales to tell later!

MB