I haven’t traveled for my company for the last 5 or 6 years. I had the opportunity to come to Hastings, Nebraska to help integrate a new product into one of our manufacturing facilities. Myself and a coworker left in a rental car on Monday, April 2nd from Minneapolis for the 9 hour ride to Hastings. It’s a long haul, it didn’t help I came down with a nasty head cold before leaving. I wish I had a nickle for every time I blew my nose for 3 days, I could buy BrianK prime rib at Bungalow on Saturday night. 
We arrived at the manufacturing plant early Tuesday morning. The bus HVAC unit we are building is a challenge to say the least. The documention is terrible. Things started out OK for the first couple days. A few mistakes were corrected and plenty of engineering changes need to be corrected and updated. (I hate working on other engineers and designers junk, but I do love my job.) Our goal was to have one unit assembled, tested, and running before we left on Friday, April 6th.
By Thursday afternoon, it was very clear we wouldn’t be close to have a unit completed by Friday morning. My coworker has a young family at home and his wife and daughter wanted him home for Easter. I had two choices, drive home Friday and come back Monday, April 9th, or stay the weekend and work on Saturday. The choice was obviuos, stay the weekend.
Hastings is a very nice town of 25 thousand plus people. Everyone I have met at work been extemely nice. You can tell work ethic is imporatant. Most I have been working with are tireless, 12 hour days have been the norm.
I wish the beef in Minnesota tasted like the stuff here in Hastings. I know we can go out to some nice restaurants and get some excellent steaks, but the beef here is unreal. I have an order in with a local butcher. He’s vacuum sealing a bunch of steaks and pork for me. Good thing I brought three medium sized coolers to bring the meat home.
Well… to the point of this post. Today I was sitting in my hotel room watching the Masters, a tradition that is usually done at home with my Mom and Dad. And to top it off, it’s Easter. I guess it gave me time to realise how lucky I am and made miss home and my parents.
The current plan is to leave corn, beef, and pork country on Wednesday…. if we get a unit completed. I know IDO has some members from the Cornhusker state. I would live in Hastings in a second, if the St. Croix River was a couple miles away. 
There…… typing this post made me feel better already. Hope everyone had a nice Easter.
P.S. wow! I just reviewed this before posting. Sorry for the novel. 
Congrats to Bubba Watson, it was a great final day of the Masters.
They are the folks that should feel home sick.
