I have arrived!… in St. louis.

For those who do not know, I have transplanted myself from Salt Lake City to St. Louis for the summer. There are so many reasons for this move but mainly because Protective’s office is out here and they want me to work full-time for the summer so it’s easier to be here. Another good reason is that I needed a change of scenery. I mean Salt Lake City is great and all but… well, I’ll stop that sentence there so as to not offend anyone.

I left Saturday, May 3rd around noon and I finally pulled into my driveway here in St. Louis around 3 am on Monday, May 5th. It was a long and arduous journey. Saturday I drove for approx. 12 hours straight through to Colorado Springs to stay the night at my cousin’s house. Along the way I got pulled over twice. Both times right outside Breckenridge. The first time I was given a $50 ticket for “not turning from a turn lane”. WTF? I had no idea I couldn’t enter a turn lane then decide not to turn and get back on the main road. Later, I got pulled over by two cop cars. The cops had been following me for about 5 miles and clocked me doing 90 in a 45 and then 105 in a 60. I had no idea, it had been 10 hours of straight driving and it was 11 pm and I was exhausted and wasn’t paying attention. I told the cop my story and he took my license and went back to his car with the 3 other cops. Literally 25 minutes later he returned. He gave me a warning and told me to “never come back to Colorado if I plan to drive like that”. I have now been banned from a Wal-mart in Orem, my high school in Alabama and now the state of Colorado. HAHAHA! Awesome.

Later, coming through Kansas I got pulled over again going 110 in a 75. I got another warning. I am probably the luckiest guy in the world when it comes to being pulled over. My running total is now at 21 pull overs in my 9 years of driving. I have only been issued 4 tickets and of those 4 only 1 has been for speeding. The others were for stupid things like expired tags or broken lights and once the issue had been fixed, the courts tore up the tickets.

So I guess thats basically the story. I’m home in St. Louis now, living at home again. I’m working full time for the Asset Protection Division of Protective Life as a web developer. It’s a good time. A bunch of great people on the web dev team. Our leader is fearless and mighty. I’ll be taking a class at UMSL starting on June 9th I believe. When I can, I plan to travel a bit this summer, so I’m going to be pretty well occupied.

So far I’ve been to Chicago for my mom’s birthday/mother’s day. We went to a couple Cubs games and saw some sites. Best steak I have ever had was at the Chicago Chop House. Amazing restaurant. Now at second place is a place called Stoney River here in Chesterfield, MO.

I am planning a few more trips to Chicago over the summer as well as a trip to San Francisco for my buddy’s wedding near the end of June and a trip to LA to visit an old friend and her husband come the beginning of August.