Category Archives: Travel

Roadtrip(s) – Q1’16

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What a crazy past few weeks this has been!  It’s been an interesting time of change that has encompassed a full-range of emotions from professional enthusiasm to personal reflection.

First of all I would like to thank my wonderful wife for her terrific support and patience. Our life this past month has consisted of lots of car travel, hotel rooms and many other impromptu activities. From a personal reflection standpoint it’s truly amazing how karma treats us all.

charger_sideAs I mentioned previously much of our time has been in the car traveling to-and-from various locations all over the state of California. Fortunately, Brandee had strongly encouraged me to purchase a new car last year and, in retrospect, was this never a better decision. I could not have imagined the horror of having to travel such distances in our other vehicle(s) without air conditioning, heating or other comforts (not that this travel is luxurious in any way, but it’s less suffering indeed). Having a reliable automobile for the insane travel we’ve experienced recently is refreshing so that we can focus on other more important priorities.

nationsOne of the fringe benefits for all this road travel is that you start to notice particular road-show landmarks. A significant landmark that we noticed recently was the NATIONS Giant Hamburgers in Tracy. I had been to a NATIONS long-ago but couldn’t recall anything notable about the experience so Brandee and I tempted-fate with a visit on the road home recently. Brandee ordered a cheeseburger, I ordered a bacon-cheeseburger with a side of onion rings and drinks. Something for sure is that you better bring your appetite when going to NATIONS because they certainly bring quantity. After a delicious breakfast of burgers, ‘rings and drinks we were back on the road home.

floyd oklahoma 2007Above all else, and most importantly, it’s the love of family that is what truly matters in life. Floyd Neal, is my wonderful Dad and the proud father of four sons. His amazing mentorship, encouragement and support is a son’s life-dream. I am so grateful to spend some quality time recently with my eldest brother. His amazing spirit and awesome inspiration is truly infectious. Mike, you are a terrific person; thanks! John, you are an excellent role-model for your son and we look forward to your exciting near-future! And Robert, Dad loves you more than anything and you surely must know that. Dad has been so good to everyone in his life that I nominate him for the Best Dad Ever Award!

Family First,

Kevin

Plumas Pines Annual Golf Tournament – 2015 Edition

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plumas_2015

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

graeagleFriendly Familiar Faces

This past weekend a group of 50-60 guys made our yearly trip up into Plumas Pines /Graeagle, California for our annual golf outing.  This year was the 21st Edition of the event.  I have personally been attending for roughly 6-7 years and the core-group of golfers are long time friends going way back.  It’s really great to get to see these guys having such a great time, sharing wonderful memories and then making some terrific new memories as well.

Nelson – The Rookie

While there certainly is a core-group that attends each year there is always some attrition so there is need to bring in new participants each year.  And this year it was my time to invite some new blood to join us so I invited my friend, Nelson, to come experience the event for himself.  For those of you that know Nelson, you will know him as a ‘golf fanatic’ and there is hardly a golf course on the face of the earth that he hasn’t played.  This tournament gave him an opportunity to play two new courses he had never played previously.  I hope he enjoyed himself and he will join us next year!

Green Day(s)

There are several golf courses in the area and all of them have their individual charm as well as challenges.  For this year we played two different courses.  One, Plumas Pines Golf Resort and the other was Whitehawk Ranch Golf Club.  Both are beautiful golf courses but there is certainly different strategy to apply for each one.  Plumas seems like a narrower course with large redwood trees lining the fairways, but is a little bit shorter in overall yardage so positioning is critical at Plumas.  Whereas, Whitehawk is more open but much longer overall yardage so long drives are more important at Whitehawk than Plumas.

plumas2

The first day of golf for my particular group was a ‘practice round’ on the Plumas Pines course on Friday.  We thought this practice round was particularly important because on Sunday we would play the same course, yet this time it would be the official ‘best ball’ format play.

whitehawkThe second day is the ‘individual net score after handicap’ play at Whitehawk Ranch.  We had a lot of fun on this day and the course was in absolutely beautiful condition.   Additionally, as an off-golf-topic sidebar, if you ever have the chance to visit Whitehawk please do just to check out the incredible homes that are on the course.  I’ve heard that many famous people have vacation homes on the golf course and it’s fairly obviously based on the square-footage and beautiful exteriors.

Looking forward to 2016

As a summary, this was another year of fun golfing and, more importantly, friendly conversation as well as banter.  I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed themselves and I’m already looking forward to next year!  #PlumasGolf2016!

animated golfer

Summer Breeze in Japan

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Japan in the summer

jal001When it takes half-a-day of travel (~12 hours) to get somewhere, and half-a-day of travel back (~10 hours because of a nice tail-wind) there must be lessons-learned and experiences to share.  Taking into account the obvious items such as the travel itself and those experiences, there is always something particularly special when traveling to Japan.  This week I was fortunate to travel to the great country of Japan again, and in particular the Yokohama area.  The fantastic Japanese spirit is so infectious that I wish to share with everyone reading this message.

My Colleagues

handshake-iconFirst, and foremost, I should acknowledge my fantastic co-workers.  They are simply the best; period!  They make every trip to Japan work so smoothly and they are the team the truly makes everything successful.  The cooperation and teamwork among the team is fantastic.  I am so grateful to work with such a talented and gracious team.

Lesson Learned
The weather.  The Lesson Learned is that in the summer time period in Japan make sure “Cool Biz” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Biz_campaign) is acceptable.  It basically means that in hot weather, shirts with short-sleeves or other comfortable clothing is acceptable in these conditions.  Cool Biz serves a few important purposes.  First, it allows workers to be comfortable during their work.  Second, Cool Biz helps conserve energy due to less demand on air conditioning in the aggregate of all businesses.

Food

g311206ps3It’s unbelievable but every visit to Japan is a culinary delight because of the incredibly diverse food items available in Japan.  It might be assumed that every Japanese meal might be Sushi but that is really not the case.  With nearly all meals you have a choice of conservative food, moderate food, or extreme food.

I enjoyed two especially memorable dinners for this quick trip and one was to Korean BBQ and the other was to Yakitori.  For Korean BBQ it’s basically a do-it-yourself type dining.  They bring various meat and vegetable items and you BBQ them yourself.  It’s quite fun even though you do a majority of the work!  We had a great time and these types of experiences always produce great memories.

Also, for this particular trip we were treated to Yakitori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitori) which is everything Chicken!  It was so delicious and such a fabulous experience.  Again, there were many great memories created at this dinner while we consumed everything Chicken!gdr1600ps1

Summary

Of all the segments of Food, Lesson Learned and My Colleagues in my most recent trip to Japan there is a clear winner.  That is My Colleagues.  Clearly, without a doubt.

Arigato,

Kevin

KISS ‘Room Service’ for 10 hours!

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Riddle me this…

Question:  What possibly can be worse than being trapped on an airplane for 10+ hours while you travel overseas?

Answer:  Being subjected to listening to KISS’s Room Service song 10 times is what!!!

When you have a long plane ride obviously you prepare well for a variety of activities such as do some work, read a book, play videos games and listen to the airplane audio track, of course.  So after I was done doing some work, after reading for a bit and then after playing a few video games it was time to chill and listen to the airplane’s classic rock station on my headphones and relax.

kiss dressed to kill_room serviceSo I plug in my headphones, dial-in the classic rock channel and crank-up the volume!  We were off to a great start with Jimi Hendrix’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’, then Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’ and third was AC/DC’s ‘Hells Bells’.  You would think all was good in my world, right?  Well, it was, until the KISS song ‘Room Service’ started blaring through my headset!

Don’t get me wrong, I love KISS for the most part and have for a long time but this song, which I had never heard before, was the most juvenile attempt at lyrics ever.  I mean seriously, like ever!  The music itself was groovy but even on the first playing of the song I was somewhat applauded at the lyrics.  By the tenth time it played on my 10+ hour flight I was transformed!  Transformed from applauded to a closet-secret lover of this horrible song.

As soon as I came home guess what the first thing I HAD to do?  Take a nap?  No.  Feed the dog?  No.  Get on YouTube and share ‘Room Service’ with the wife?  Yes!

And as she so eloquently put it, “because you had to suffer, I have to suffer?”.  Well, “Yes, of course” was my answer and in the true spirit of sharing I proudly present to you, my loyal KevinNeal.com readers, KISS’s ‘Room Service’:


kiss_youwantedthebest

 “Room Service”

I’m feelin’ low, no place to go
And I’m a-thinking that I’m gonna scream
Because a hotel all alone is not a
Rock and roll star’s dream

But just when I’m about to shut the light and go to bed
A lady calls and asks if I’m too tired or if I’m just to dead for

Room service, baby I could use a meal
Room service, you do what you feel
Room service, I take the pleasure with the pain
I can’t say no

My plane’s delayed and I’m afraid
They’re gonna keep me waiting here till nine
Then a stewardess in a tight blue dress says
“I got the time”

But just as I’m about to take my coat and get my fly
She says “Oh please”, she’s on her knees
And one more time before I leave I get some

Room service, baby I could use a meal
Room service, you do what you feel
Room service, I take the pleasure with the pain
I can’t say no, no

In my home town, I’m hangin’ ’round
With all the ladies treatin’ me real good
A sweet sixteen lookin’ hot and mean says
I wish you would

But just as I’m about to tell her “Yes, I think I can”
I see her dad, he’s getting mad
All the time he knows that I’m in need of

Room service, baby I could use a meal
Room service, you do what you feel
Room service, I take the pleasure with the pain
I can’t say no

Room service, baby I could use a meal
Room service, you do what you feel
Room service, I take the pleasure with the pain
I can’t say no, I can’t say no

Room service, baby I could use a meal
Room service, you do what you feel
Room service, you take the pleasure with the pain
I can’t say no

Room service, well maybe baby, room service