NMS Drives For Penske!

Yes, NMS drives for Team Penske!

Yes, it's true! Yours truly, NMS-North driver Bob has signed an exclusive contract to drive for Team Penske! Am I driving for Penske in NASCAR?   Nope.   Driving for Penske in IndyCar? Also Nope. 

Did I just rent a Penske truck and drive it 700 miles from NY to the new NMS-North HQ in South Carolina? YOU BET! 

For what it's worth, Roger Penske is the owner of several big companies, like Penske Truck Rental, Penske car dealerships in multiple countries, NASCAR and IndyCar teams, oh, and he owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Their truck rental folks did a great job, and unlike an unnamed company that I won't go into, they GUARANTEE that your reserved truck will be there, or they'll give you a larger one for the same price! I'm happy to give them the business, if you know what I mean. If you want to know more about Mr. Penske, here you go:  ROGER PENSKE

A final pit stop just north of Charlotte before stopping. 

This brings up several interesting topics, mostly, that I have to give a LOT of respect to all the professional truck drivers out there! Even though I was driving a tiny little 22-foot truck for "only" 14 hours, that is some hard work. You've got to be paying attention all the time (dead AND live deer on the Interstates), checking those mirrors (where'd that motorcycle go?), looking out for dumb drivers (Mr. BMW on the Cross-Bronx Expressway), getting into the right gas station for diesel fuel and DEF, and about a million other things. Once I got to SC and then drove the Camry down to the drug store, man, it was like the easiest thing in the world! Salute to the truckers!

What the heck is THAT thing in the mirror?

Just a cool looking old step delivery van

So let's see, I set a personal record on this trip, by putting over 46 gallons of fuel in the truck all at once! At my destination I added another 22 gallons, so 68 gallons total. I managed to avoid hitting anything and stayed off the Parkways in NY (low bridges, no trucks) and survived the stupid George Washington Bridge even with the entire lower level closed! 

Most of the driving was fun. The stop and start in NYC was not as much fun. For the record, I went from NY into NJ, then PA, MD, WV, VA, NC, and ended in SC. In a few more weeks I'll make the trip just one more time in my car and say goodbye to NY and working! No promises, but in my car, I bet I can beat the 14 hours it took in the truck!

That's a lot of "gas money"

On the day after driving, Brian and Alicia came up and helped unload the truck, so that moved pretty quickly. So far we've put all the boxes and stuff in the garage, and today the painters started painting the inside of the house. After that, there's some carpeting and furniture scheduled to arrive, and before you know it the NMS-North HQ will be fully up and running!

Not exactly a big rig, but not so small either! Breakfast in PA.