June 16, xxxx
We left Ohio and drove to Madison, Indiana yesterday. Ricks high school friends Art and Linda Hernandez, live here. Madison is a small town on the bank of the Ohio River, just across from Kentucky and about 50 miles from Cincinnati. We stopped here on our last trip but only got to stay about 2 hours. We decided this time wed spend more time. They are about the nicest people Ive ever met, and we became instant friends when we met (I actually met Art a couple months before in CA when he was out on business.) Art works in the automotive technology field and they moved here a couple of years ago from Michigan. The company he works for, Grote Industries, Inc., makes all kinds of products and supplies all kinds of things to numerous companies. Art showed us a promo video the company did for their 100th anniversary. Old man Grote was on the cutting edge of a lot of technology, and was a very influential presence in the Cincinnati area. Art is a Senior VP and works with the Founders grandsons. He loves working for a smaller company with a big presence in the industry. Its so cool that management decided to move the headquarters to a small town for a better way of life. You dont find that too often anymore. I love it when Art and Rick get together because they revert back to high school and let their guards down a little. Its especially great having Linda around as well because shes full of stories about the two of them from their youth. Lots of ammunition to use at a later date! They set us up in the driveway of their house, which is in a newer development in town. Eventually there will be about two dozen houses there, but now there are about 7 or 8. Theyre building a new house on another site once they sell their house in Michigan. We had dinner and sat around and yakked til the wee hours.
posted Sunday July xxxx
