Yessir, I have a business trip coming up to Pennsylvania tomorrow. I most likely wont find myself on a computer at all, or for very long if I do find a computer, so yall take care. I'll try and post pics on Saturday.

what part of pa??

Hershey/Jonestown/Indiantown Gap

EDIT: just looked up directions from Google Maps. 2 hours? I wont have that much time while Im out there. Bummer. I got my hopes up for meeting you somewhere.

Have a safe trip!

ahh its only a 1 1/2 less actually.. haha ive been there before its a nice base i got off friday if you wanna catch up?

sure, but not sure when I'll be off work. Look for a PM with my cell phone number. I'm gonna be staying in Jonestown

Have fun!

well i had the privilege to meet up with rich friday nigt... and all i can say is what a stand up guy... we went out to eat and on the way back we had a lil race my car vs his rental... let him tell you what he got haha, but i dont know is it a west coast thing or what but i had the lead and he got caught behind a lil, granted its a 2 lane highway and when i look up again here comes rich ripping up on outside shoulder, im like wtf haha but he's a pretty kool cat i wish i have the opportunity to meet some more of you and like i told him im looking forward to getting some time off work and getting down to tms next year

cool that you guys got to meet up. glad ya'll had a good time

I believe the privilege was all mine. Alex is quite intelligent and got a helluva sense of humor. His level of mechanical ability FAR exceeds my own. But what I got? Lemme spin a bit of a story fer ya.

First: PA is not that great lookin of a state. I was expecting Maine or Tennessee when I was flying in. Looking down on PA...idyllic. Then you land. Bleck. But the people of the Great State of Pennsylvania MORE than make up for the terrain. I land, I go to get my bag from claim. I was stopped by like 6 or so ppl to thank me for my service (yeah, that's what I get for traveling in uniform). Cool. Peeps from around the nation love their troops. A hell of a lot better than gettin spit on in 2002 upon return from Afghanistan.

Get my bags, go to Enterprise. The woman at the counter greets me and proceeds to get the paperwork handled. Great. Get in. Get done. Get out. Love it. We walk outside to look at cars. She has verified with me several times that I am reserved for a Cobalt. She says to me: "We have a Malibu right there, over there's an Impala SS, and I think we have a Grand Prix sittin around here somewhere. Oh, is that it?" Guess what, I passed by the 07 GP that would become my baby for the week, and Alex's butt-whupper. I'm driving from Philly to Lickdale/Lebanon to see my friends from high school. Did no one warn me about carryin cash for them durn toll roads. The lady in the booth had paid my 1.50 USD for me and thanked me for my service. Wow. Get to a "service plaza", which no more than a REALLY nice rest stop. I go lookin for the ATM. Which is down. Great. I figure I can find another further down the turnpike. In the GP I go. As I'm gettin ready to pull off, an older gentleman had asked what I wanted/needed. "An ATM so I can pay to get offa this highway. I'm just gonna find one further up." Before I could protest, he tossed a bill on my passenger seat, thanked me for my service, and walked off. I picked the bill up...it was 20 USD. not to worry, all 20 bucks stayed in PA. I made sure of it. I take my exit, give the 20 to the guy in the booth, and tell him to give 2 USD to the next vehicle that pulls up with PA plates. he refuses, sayin that I do enough for the country. I tell him my experiences from the last 2 hours, and TELL him to take the $2. he finally says something along the lines of " I understand, and I will apply this to the next person with PA plates."

I get off work early Friday, give Alex the call, and wait till he's ready. This man drove the hour and a half to my hotel, then escorted me to the restaurant strip around where he went to college. I was quite impressed by that. I woulda had someone meet me half-way-ish. Pay for his dinner, make arrangements to get a ride in his car after dropping my car back off at the hotel to sample the suspension. Cool. off we go.

yeah, I decided to blast past him ont he surface streets so I might have a chance to get to the hotel first and smoke again. Dude took it as a challenge. Off we go. What I can tell ya, is that the 3800 Series III engine has a nice limiter. It maintains 110 without shuttin the engine/tranny down like Series II does. Yeah, Alex had me beat by barely squeezin in between two law-abiding vehicles. Eff it. He aint about to beat me like that. I waited for the left shoulder to get REALLY wide and punched it. Im really gonna feel bad if it turns out I threw rocks onto that Camry's hood. But I caught Alex. We pull up into the Days Inn at PA-72 and I-81, I park, and he, get this, OFFERS to let me drive the car. Of course I jump at the offer. That 5 minutes convinced me that his suspension is what I need for my family. Tight. Responsive. Comfortable. His car can definitly handle WELL over the 15 MPH I did on the skid pad. There was NO body roll or lean. The rough asphalt and tar seals on the road affected his car none at all. Set up the cars for the pics that will be posted tomorrow, and we stood around talking about our respective cars. This dude dun impressed me. Just as I was gettin ready to pass out standing up (I think I had 9 hours sleep cumulative over the entire week), I noticed another GP sitting pretty under the street lights behind the hotel. Alex rolls out, I drive over the the GP. 97 GT with hi-po torque stars with a real nice lookin metallic midnight blue dress on. Almost like Kaibatsu (sp?).

All in all, very pleasant and rewarding trip. I got to see friends I've been missing for 8 years, got to learn a bunch of new things from the Army and from Alex, AND got to drive a new GP. Dont get much gooder than that.

Thanks for stickin with the blog, rest assured pics tomorrow, and good to be back. Thank you, Alex, for allowing me to drive the car, showing you the tails of an 07, and tolerating all the drool over the exhaust and CAI.

WOW, sounds like fun! To bad you might not make it to the reunion in Phoenix! We'll have to meet up somewhere sometime.

hey rich u are right the car does look stock i walked out this afternoon and im looking at it and im wtf was does it look different it was a lil lower before with the other set of rims/tires so im not sure why it so raised up now but glad you had fun... i had fun and didnt get home till 12:30 haha but you more then welcome to come back over

Well, got my pics up and running. Here they is:

This is what I was testing (yes, this shot is unclassified in its entirety)

Drove by this everyday on the way to work:

The brown pole is their flag pole. You can see their red restrooms in the background

This flew overhead one day. "He" was doing gun runs, noticed us set up, then started doing right wing down fly-bys. By putting the right wing down, it is a sign of either confirmation or respect.


Yeah, I was there in Hershey, PA...but they closed 45 minutes before I was able to roll in. Darn it.

And finally, some pics of the GPs together

sweet pics, rich