Good Day Friends and Followers of Crier Media,

It’s certainly been a while since I’ve been active here; while there are lots of excuses for why the simple truth is that I didn’t really feel like I had much to say….plus, I needed a break.

For me, summer is always jam-packed. I’ll be at the kart track almost every Wednesday and a few weekends through the year to race or support our CRG drivers Thursday afternoons are reserved for the CanTorque Race Report with Jason Gregor on our local sports radio station Sports 1440 here in Edmonton. Almost every other weekend I fly somewhere in the country to race with Alex Tagliani in the NASCAR Canada Series.  Combine those mentioned above with running a business; there’s not much free time left over.

Racing is now completed for the season; my focus is returning to work. I am starting to rediscover my motivation and enthusiasm for writing.

Last night, I talked with my neighbour; he’s a British dude named Lewis (Louis?). I live in a condo so we pass each other from time to time, which usually goes something like:

Me: “Hey Lewis”
Him: “How are you doing mate?”
Me: “Oh, you know, it’s another day in paradise”
Him: “Yeah, I hear that”
Me: “Have a good one”
Him: “You too”

It is pleasant but hardly engaging.

Last night, however, was quite different. I started with a wave and a “Hey Lewis”, he said hello and as I passed him he got my attention to tell me that he’s moving out this weekend, took a new position that is relocating him to Dallas and that he’d like to stay in touch.

A bit more conversation later and we discover that we already work together IE: CanTorque supplies his company with goods and services but he’d never actually worked with us although our main contact in their plant is a very good friend of his. We exchanged phone numbers and look forward to engaging once he gets settled in Texas.

Very large potential customer that was next door for the past year and I had no idea.

Was this just chance, or did destiny intervene?

Last fall, my girlfriend Amanda and I travelled to the US. This was, in large part, me wanting to do something for my upcoming 50th birthday which was going to include a few other friends and family. Trying to coordinate turned into a bit of a snafu so I made the decision just go where I wanted.

When we started dating she always seemed interested in the places that I’ve visited. When we’d see something on tv I’d say: “I’ve been there” and, if I really liked a place, would tell her that one day I’d bring here there.

Our trip took us to New York City and then to Houston. New York is a pretty obvious choice for Times Square, Central Park, Empire State Building and 1000 other areas of interest.

Houston may seem like a bit of a strange choice.

Without hesitation I will say that Houston is my favourite US city. I’ve had some of the best food, played great golf courses, enjoyed the majority of the weather but above all else: I really like the people there.  Combine this with a girlfriend who is a science teacher with and extreme love of space and astronauts and Houston’s Johnson Space Centre (Yes, I know that it is now called Space Centre Houston but I’m old school and will continue with JSS) becomes a top-tier vacation destination.

Amanda has had several encounters with astronauts over the years through her work but one of her favourites is Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen:

Jeremy has been selected as part of the upcoming Artemis II mission that will return humanity to the moon for the first time in over 50 years. Knowing that Jeremy will be in Houston training for the upcoming mission meant that Amanda had been working her network pretty hard to try to get some form of engagement with Jeremy while we were in town.

For proper context here I also have to mention that, especially during vacation, I have a laissez-faire attitude where Amanda, on the other hand, if very, very, VERY prone to planning. Can make things interesting from time to time but I digress.

We arrived to Houston on a Tuesday afternoon after NYC, didn’t have anything planned on arrival but we hit Galleria Mall, had a bite to eat and then enjoyed the evening cocktails provided by our hotel.  Not really part of this story but I have to say that an automated cocktail maker in the lounge was pretty awesome, here it is making a margarita:

MargaritaMagic

I mostly left the Houston schedule up to her. We didn’t really have anything lined up on Wednesday aside from wanting to go to JSS on Thursday but was waiting to hear back from her contacts on the chance that we’d be able to line something up.

During breakfast on Wednesday I said to her that I thought that today would be a good day to go to the JSS, that was met with a lot of hesitation because “what if we can get together but that’s on Thursday or Friday?????”, I said that IF something got lined up that, of course, we could go back.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that she asked me at least a dozen times on the way to the Space Centre if I’d be willing to go back. Every time I said yes.

We bought a VIP behind-the-scenes package that gave us access to all of the public attractions as well as a private and guided tour of some of the training areas that aren’t generally accessible to the public.

The morning was spent touring around the exhibits but my personal favourites are the

Seriously, there are two of my favourite things in the first picture: a Boeing 747 AND a space shuttle and you get to walk inside of both at the JSC.

This is a Saturn V rocket, the same model that sent our first astronauts to the moon. There’s no way to appreciate the size of this thing from the picture, trust me when I say that it’s MASSIVE!

Info on this Saturn V can be found here: https://spacecenter.org/exhibits-and-experiences/nasa-tram-tour/saturn-v-at-rocket-park/

Our tour started by making an off-site trip to the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) which hosts one of the largest pools in the world, large enough for a full-sized replica of the International Space Station where the crew of Artemis II has been preparing for their upcoming mission. When we were en route our tour guide Shawn mentioned that the crew was scheduled to be training today and that they’d be active, pending any issues.

As an aside: I have to say that the NBL is truly impressive. I am also a big fan of space as well as a PADI certified scuba diver; getting to see these 2 in harmony was amazing.

That being said, there was no training going on.

After we got to see everything that we were allowed to we headed back to the JSC with the first stop being their flight simulator building.

Second aside: I am also a big simulator guy, I have a full motion racing simulator although it doesn’t get used nearly enough.  I definitely appreciate highly engineered products.

Everyone on our tour was very excited for everything and tended to rush into wherever we were at where I am quite comfortable sauntering (I’m also comfortable saying that I saunter). When we entered the building everyone blitzed to the first thing that looked interesting but I was still mostly in the entrance when Shawn got my attention and motioned down the hall.

It was Jeremy.

He came towards us, I just kind of stood back but then something ridiculously incredible happened.

Jeremy entered the foyer where the rest of our group was, said a quick “hello everyone” but then made a bee-line to Amanda and said “is that you?”.

Holy balls, Jeremy Hansen Knew Amanda! Knew her well enough to then give her a hug, have a bunch of chit chat and then proceed to declare that while he’d like to stay he was actually on his way to the bathroom.

Fate, destiny or good luck?

I often say that things work out the way that they should.

This time they worked out way better than we could have planned.

I’d love to hear your thoughts:  @cl_87 on Threads and Instagram or email [email protected]