What a long and tiring week I've had. This was our weekly "DPS Summit" at Gibson Memphis. Basically all of the other guys that do my job across the US (and the rest of the world) gather together and we have a series of meetings with our bosses and the different divisions, as well as do a factory tour of one of our facilities.
Monday started out with my best Gibson related flying experience yet: managed to find a direct flight, and ended up getting a whole row to myself! Relatively quick flight, no delays. I got to Memphis and picked up my rental car. Last trip I ended up sick for 2 days due to getting car sick, so I didn't want to experience that again! I had intended to drive around that day and explore, but after waiting a bit to pick up one of my coworkers from the airport, I got mentally sucked into waiting around for the others...I mean, I never get to see these guys so I figured I should interact with them as much as I could. (just a shame none of them seem to share my random adventure/exploring spirit!). Ended up eating at "Pig on Beale" with Mark B, Dan, and Chris. I had an amazing smoked turkey sandwich with great fries and onion rings.
Tuesday was the first round of meetings. Mid day we did the factory tour at Gibson Memphis, which I had never seen before. That is where they make all the hollow and semi hollow body guitars. The entire building is this huge cavernous affair, and it lent itself well to the factory. For lunch we went to Dyers, this joint that cooks their hamburgers in 100 year old grease. It was delicious. After that we had more meetings...it was a very long exhaustive day. Didn't get out of there til 7ish. For dinner I went with Aljon, Danny, and Glenn to the Butcher Shop. I got chicken (YES...chicken at the steakhouse) which was actually pretty amazing...I've never had grilled chicken be so juicy and flavorful.
Wednesday was another day full of meetings and more meetings. Lunch was provided by Gibson Memphis, they ordered fried chicken from this place called Gus's. AMAZING...never had fried chicken that delicious. More and more meetings, got out super late again. I ended up going to Texas De Brazil, this all you can eat steakhouse, with a big chunk of the group. Sorta expensive, but I figured what the hell...I got to clear out a good chunk of the price with my expense budget for the day.
Thursday we had a cancellation in the morning, so we ended up having a "roundtable" type brainstorming session. The Gibson Bus showed up around 11:30 and we left for Nashville. I had rented a car not knowing the hotel was 2 blocks from the factory, so I didn't get to use it. I was planning to go to Nashville in it but was told not to due to the expense (even though it had been approved beforehand). I should have just done it and paid for it myself, I ended up getting pretty car sick on the ride. We stopped at Dennys on the way, and I had a burger. It was surprisingly REALLY good...but at this point all this super heavy food was starting to wear on me (and everyone else). I even had to break my semi soda-edge, due to needing to stay awake during those meetings haha. We got to Nashville and met with everyone else at the showroom there, and had a demonstration and dinner. I didn't really eat much that night, like I mentioned the food was starting to wear on me.
Friday morning we had some training from Gibson Pro Audio. They got us box lunches for the bus ride...which, I appreciate and all...but they got nothing but Almond chicken salad sandwiches which were just nasty to me. And they didn't get anything for the vegetarians and even made a stupid snarky remark about it too. I think that lack of consideration really shows someone's true nature and character, and I really dislike it. Anyway, the bus ride back was better since I took some Dramamine before. Took forever, because we caught some of the rain leftover from Tropical Storm Isaac. After checking in I got my car and drove around. Drove over to West Memphis in Arkansas, and around some of downtown Memphis.
Woke up super early today because I needed to drop off two others that were leaving before me. I had 2 hours to kill so I drove down to Mississippi (only 10-15 minutes away) and back. The flight was pretty alright, I had a nice cute girl sit next to me and we chatted for a bit. Now I'm going to unpack all this crap and UNWIND!
