So I plugged in this TomTom 630 that co-worker Travis happened to give me the other day — saying that it was just gathering dust on his shelves — and set it for Jason’s GPS coordinates and address, some 90 miles away. The trip was not without incident. Thanks to the extraordinary evasive qualities engineered into the 944 chassis, I was able to avoid hitting a deer that suddenly popped out of the roadside brush. This on a stretch of two-lane road through eye-friendly Indian reservation territory. However, just a mile earlier, I was forced to straddle a rabbit that came to a frozen halt in the middle of my lane with traffic approaching in the adjacent lane. I cringed and shuddered when I saw the bunny bounce and spin in my rear view mirror. My truck or SUV probably would have passed right over. So one of the very first things Jason and I did, as soon as 944 was on the lift, was to inspect for bunny parts. None.
Jason took the Nine44 for a test drive for longer than I expected — made me a little nervous, wondering if something broke. But he had a grin on his face when he returned, and got it immediately up on a lift where it was given one of the more thorough exams I have ever seen. Over the next 2.5 hours. Occasionally, he would interrupt the flow of his work and point out this and that. I wish I had an audio recording of these remarks, but I did get a few photos (see the collection from that day). At one point Jason told me that he had been expecting something of a basket case, based on our earlier phone call, but now he could see that this thing was something that had been well cared for by someone (despite exterior cosmetics). Music to my ears.
Now to start prioritizing and planning the execution of the to-do list. Stay tuned.