7 hours and 32 minutes... both ways. Stockton to Elko NV and back in 1 day...

Your first question is "Why does he do these things?"  And to that, I have no answer.  I don't know why I do things like drive 16 hours in 1 day, I just do them.  And even when my wife and friends try to talk me out of it... I still do them.  Although after this little jaunt I may have learned my lesson.  It was a really really really long drive from Stockton to Elko Nevada. 

What's that you say? Never heard of Elko Nevada? Well friend your in luck because I'm about to tell you all about it!  I can sum up Elko Nevada in 1 word: PODUNK.  It's in the middle of nowhere... literally.  My faithful co-pilot and navigator Billy and I left Stockton at 3 A.M. Thursday morning.  (To make it home before midnight we figured 3 A.M. was a good time to leave). I borrowed by buddy Adam's 4x4 chevy to make sure we made it over Donner summit with no problems and I borrowed his trailer to make hauling the bike easier.  Overall the drive to PODUNK/Elko Nevada was smooth sailing.  We had one little 'pucker' moment on the way up the summit (by pucker I mean your asshole shrinks 2 sizes in a matter of milliseconds because you think your about to die).  I threw on the 4 wheel drive and the rest of the summit went by without a hitch until I tried to use Adam's windshield wipers to clear the windshield.  Yeah, they just smeared salt and dirt and snow and ice instead of clearing it.  So them I had to sit hunched over and see out of the one clear spot for the next 20 minutes until we pulled into Truckee. 

Anyway Billy and I continued our 'circumnavigation' of Nevada without incident.  We arrived at our destination and I checked out the goods.  At this point you've got to be wonderin WHY did I drive 450 miles? To buy a 1998 Honda CBR 600 F3.  Below are some picks we took.  Oh and the other highlight of the trip was getting to eat at Taco Time!  I remember there used to be one in Stockton and me and my brother loved getting the Crispy Meat Burritos.  Deep fried and full of seasoned taco meat.  It was glorious!

Nevada is extremely beautiful and bigger then it looks.  The drive to Elko was foggy at times but offered great views.  The drive home looked like this!

Brody loves helmets! The bike came with a helmet that Brody immediately wanted to wear.  I couldn't resist.

The mythical Taco Time was found and pillaged by Billy and I!

At home in the garage finally.

Being a teacher...

So being a teacher is great.  You get EVERY evening off, you get EVERY weekend off and you get every holiday PLUS several weeks OFF.  The very best part though is that at the end of the day I KNOW that someone's life is better off because of me.  I KNOW that I have made a difference in the world and a contribution to society.  I know I have a HUGE impact on other people's lives in a positive way.  One of my co-teachers had a really bad day the other day and she was venting to us at the end of the day.  As she walked out to her car she discovered that a student had written all over it with a pen, she was beside herself.  Now I have had my share of car's keyed so I know exactly how she felt.  Whats crazy is that I am so used to it that it no longer bothers me.  It's kind of like letting a student get you mad.  Whats the point of getting mad?  That's what they want.  Eventually you stay calm and you look at it as nothing personal, it's just business.  A student cusses me out and acts all crazy, whats the point in my reacting with anger.  THEY are the ones who are crazy and have issues, why make THEIR issues, MY issues?  So I don't.  My coworker and I started to check out the damage and luckily we were able to get all of the pen off the car.  She had much better day today thankfully and was in high spirits.  She had to park her car down the street and walk several blocks in order to avoid more damage being done to her car but, such is life.  It made me think of this saying, and that's why I'm blogging it because it was a nice way of looking at being a teacher.  Mailmen get bitten by dogs, Policemen get shot, Firemen get burnt or suffocated, sometimes teachers car's get keyed.

 Besides, how many jobs do YOU know where you only work 180 days out of the year but get paid for working all 12 months?