My Interview at Creighton University

A sign on one of the buildings on campus

My long awaited invitation for an interview at Creighton University School of Pharmacy was finally sent to me, and, as you all remember last year's trip to and from Omaha, NE, the trip was once again eventful. This year, I traveled to my interview alone, and Allison, Madison, and Emma stayed at home to work and go to school. As of yet, I haven't been pulled over by a police officer 90 miles from my house, but I have had some adventures in South Dakota.

This is when I turned west into South Dakota and started entering a storm

First, I want to talk about my interview and the program at Creighton. I think my interview went very well, and I really enjoyed talking with the two people that interviewed me. I love the program, and it would allow my family and me to stay home because it's online except for two weeks a year.

Second, I'm stuck in Rapid City, SD.

View of Rapid City and maybe all the way to Iowa

The trip was going so well, and I was making great time on my way home. But, the car broke down 180 miles outside of Rapid City, and I called AAA (thank you Jesus that we have 100 miles of free towing). My plan was to be towed to Wall, SD (famous for Wall Drug), find nobody to fix my car, and then get towed to Rapid City. The Tow to Wall was 116 miles, costing me $70 for the extra 16 miles, and then I was towed to Rapid City.

This is the view from my car after an electrical storm passed overhead sending lighting strikes just to the south of me.

The exciting part of this story is, the tow truck driver in Presha, SD, didn't want to drive all the way to Wall, let alone Rapid City, so when AAA got hold of him, he said he didn't want to get into trouble doing a piggy-back tow so he just wasn't showing up. I wanted four hours before AAA got back to me after my many calls to have me clarify. "If somebody in Wall can fix my car, I'm staying in Wall, but if there isn't, I need to be towed to Rapid City." The AAA guy apologized for the delay and called up Mike of Mike's Towing. So after FIVE HOURS, Mike shows up and asks me why Tony (the Presha tow truck driver) didn't pick me up, I explained. He said that he doubted that was the reason cause no more than 100 feet from my location sat Tony.

This became my study area for my current online class

Well, long story short, I made it to Rapid City Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. It is now Tuesday, and my car should be fixed by 5:30 p.m. I have no idea where the rest of this journey will take me, but it would be great to have a phone call waiting for me at home telling me I have been accepted into Creighton. Until then, I want to thank all the people that have helped me through this difficult time, I want to thank my family for being so patient as I slowly make it home, and I want to thank God that I am safe and surrounded by so many people that are willing to help.

Gregg

A New Car?

GREEN ONE!

Well, green-ish. So Emma has taken notice of all those VW commercials and insists on playing Slug Bug (without the slugging) every time we climb into the car. So we play and have lots of fun, but when I wrecked the VW Passat Wagon, Emma said immediately, "So, let's get a Bug car." I laughed and thought never in a million years will we ever buy a Bug car.

I later told Allison what Emma said to me about the Bug car, and Emma piped up what a good idea she had about getting a Bug car. Allison looked at Emma. Then, Allison looked at me. She then said, "That is a great idea Emma! Do you realize how cute we will all be driving down the road in a Bug?" I'm thinking that I'm fighting a loosing battle, but we were picking up Madison from school soon, and she will take my side. When we picked her up and she got in the van, Emma blurted out, "Madison, we're getting a Bug car!"

To make everybody happy, I made the comment, which I thought would win the battle for me, "We will go test drive a Bug car to see if Daddy even fits in one." For those of you that don't know me, I'm a 6'3" 300 pound man with big, broad shoulders. I tried to fit in a VW Jetta once, but I was way too big. I thought that the Bug car would be similar in size, so I thought we would never talk about a Bug car again. We made our way to a local dealership to find a Bug car on the lot, so we ask to test drive it. I started laughing at the thought of possibly getting stuck in the car (it's happened before) as I sit down. I'm sure Allison was laughing at the look on my face as I looked all around trying to figure out where all that room was coming from. I was shocked! It has as much or more room than my recently deceased VW Passat. So...

I lost the battle. So for a week or so we have search all over the internet, talked with the professionals about the differences Bug cars can have, and we test drove many different Bug cars all over the county. The picture above is a Green(ish) 2001 VW New Bettle 2.0 Liter engine with automatic transmission and leather, heated seats. It is getting one final inspection at the shop to make sure everything is in order, and then we will pick it up Tuesday or Wednesday when it will be officially part of our family.

Gregg