Spring Training

Monday, we went to school. Me, Bill, Murphy, Frank (I call us the "B Team") and Travis went on a road trip to Gillette Stadium to get our learn on. Frank wanted to drop his car off in Lowell on the way (a little out of the way) but got confused or freaked out or upset or somthing by another car and missed the exit, then just followed us all the way there after all. Murphy stopped to pee twice during a two hour drive, I think he might be pregnant. In the Caravan, Bill drove and Travis and I sat in the back and enjoyed a showing of the documentary "King of Kong," which I highly recommend. After a lunch stop at Applebee's in lovely Hudson Massachussetts, we got to the stadium in Foxboro just in time and there was nobody there. A friendly security guy let us know to head across the street to a big parking lot. Ohhhh..

We signed in, saw that box lunches were provided after all (D'oh!) and got underway learning about the all-new 2009 Dodge Journey, with best-in-class fuel economy. We heard all about how the Journy -YAY!!- stacks up next to competitive vehicles like the Edge, Rav4, Equinox, and Santa Fe -BOO!!-. One thing I like about school is the chance to drove the cars on a closed test course to evaluate them (beat on them) first hand. Another thing I like is the coolers outside each tent full of ice-cold soft drinks. Here's a summary of what I learned: Santa Fe has too much body roll, Journey has the best fuel economy unless you get the v6, and Rav4 has the most cargo volume but the tailgate is not convenient. Including travel time, that's eight hours well spent, if you ask me.

The best part though was after the classes were done. I had a suspicion they would, and sure enough, they did. They had Drifting!!! We all lined up and watched a demonstration of what a Charger, Challenger, Caliber, and Viper can do. It was thrilling. Watch the video I took, and listen for my breathless interjections.

Then we all went into another tent, took a test on what we'd learned and got more fabulous prizes. On the way home, Bill drove again and Travis and I watched another documentary, "Darkon" about LARPing. Again, recommended. We ate box lunches that I grabbed between modules and got home much quicker by not going all the way to Lowell. A good time was had by all.