Monday, October 01, 2007
It’s been 5 days since I left Wisconsin, driving to Apex, North Carolina. (near Raleigh, NC) 1100 miles later, I arrived safely in Apex, NC. A few observations from the trip: the problem with Wisconsin is Chicago traffic. I expected some slow traffic around Chicago, but not 30 miles north of it. I also noticed that the highest gas prices and worst roads were the toll roads in Illinois and West Virginia. That makes no sense.
On Wed. evening, 4pm, I arrived at my hotel, Baymont Hotel & Suites in Lexington, KY. I had called them on the road and was put on hold for 4-5 minutes. The clerk apologized and thanked me for my patience. (I don’t hear that often) She even gave me 10% off the room rate. CNBC, Bloomberg, Mad Money, and Fast Money along with free internet access were the amenities I most appreciated.
I found a cool restaurant that night, called Ted’s Montana Grill. I had the Bison Meatloaf, squash casserole, garlic mashed, and a pint of Anchor Steam. YUM!
The next day I found myself driving through the mountains just south of Charleston, West Virginia. Awesome! Especially around Paint Creek Road.
I rolled into Apex on Thursday, about 3:15pm and met my host family, the Finch’s. Terry, Sue, and Sarah, their teenage daughter, are great. They have a wonderful 3 story home, which I call the Finch B&B, that is huge and beautifully decorated. My room is a huge 20 x 20 room on the second floor and has a big L-shaped leather coach, TV/DVD with Dish and a DVR. A few pics are posted. They have two great dogs, Bella and Buddy. Buddy is shown in one of the pics relaxing on my bed. The room is also used for their Wall Street Basics (WSB) business and they have quite an impressive setup of 4 monitors to watch the market and aid in stock research. More pics of the Finch’s B&B in Apex will be posted later this month.
Saturday night was my first Wall Street Basics (WSB) class. Gary Williams, the instructor, holds the classes in an old Kmart that has been turned into a conference center. I estimated 400-500 attendees. Class started at 7pm and Gary finally quit speaking about 1am. Awesome!
I left that night/morning absolutely confident that I will learn to be a successful trader within the next few years.
I car-pooled with my friend Jim Smith and his son Keifer, age 14. This was class 1 of 5, with the remaining 4 classes held on the next 4 Saturdays.
Sunday I decided to attend church at Tree of Life Lutheran in Cary, NC. The service was a contemporary style, which was really refreshing and uplifting. The lessons and sermon were about ….. money. How appropriate was that. “All the treasures of the world can’t buy a spot in heaven.” And “Godliness with contentment is great gain”. After the service the pastor, Mike Geiger, and his wife Christy, asked me what class I was taking. “How to make Money!” was my reply. We all had a laugh over that one. The two big takeaways from the service were: 1) Learn how to be a better steward of the His blessings, and 2) take care of you spiritual portfolio, first.
The afternoon was filled with brewing beer over at Jim & Sue’s house. A few pics are posted. A wonderful stout was on the agenda and 6 hours later, was produced.
It’s been 5 days since I left Wisconsin, driving to Apex, North Carolina. (near Raleigh, NC) 1100 miles later, I arrived safely in Apex, NC. A few observations from the trip: the problem with Wisconsin is Chicago traffic. I expected some slow traffic around Chicago, but not 30 miles north of it. I also noticed that the highest gas prices and worst roads were the toll roads in Illinois and West Virginia. That makes no sense.
On Wed. evening, 4pm, I arrived at my hotel, Baymont Hotel & Suites in Lexington, KY. I had called them on the road and was put on hold for 4-5 minutes. The clerk apologized and thanked me for my patience. (I don’t hear that often) She even gave me 10% off the room rate. CNBC, Bloomberg, Mad Money, and Fast Money along with free internet access were the amenities I most appreciated.
I found a cool restaurant that night, called Ted’s Montana Grill. I had the Bison Meatloaf, squash casserole, garlic mashed, and a pint of Anchor Steam. YUM!
The next day I found myself driving through the mountains just south of Charleston, West Virginia. Awesome! Especially around Paint Creek Road.
I rolled into Apex on Thursday, about 3:15pm and met my host family, the Finch’s. Terry, Sue, and Sarah, their teenage daughter, are great. They have a wonderful 3 story home, which I call the Finch B&B, that is huge and beautifully decorated. My room is a huge 20 x 20 room on the second floor and has a big L-shaped leather coach, TV/DVD with Dish and a DVR. A few pics are posted. They have two great dogs, Bella and Buddy. Buddy is shown in one of the pics relaxing on my bed. The room is also used for their Wall Street Basics (WSB) business and they have quite an impressive setup of 4 monitors to watch the market and aid in stock research. More pics of the Finch’s B&B in Apex will be posted later this month.
Saturday night was my first Wall Street Basics (WSB) class. Gary Williams, the instructor, holds the classes in an old Kmart that has been turned into a conference center. I estimated 400-500 attendees. Class started at 7pm and Gary finally quit speaking about 1am. Awesome!
I left that night/morning absolutely confident that I will learn to be a successful trader within the next few years.
I car-pooled with my friend Jim Smith and his son Keifer, age 14. This was class 1 of 5, with the remaining 4 classes held on the next 4 Saturdays.
Sunday I decided to attend church at Tree of Life Lutheran in Cary, NC. The service was a contemporary style, which was really refreshing and uplifting. The lessons and sermon were about ….. money. How appropriate was that. “All the treasures of the world can’t buy a spot in heaven.” And “Godliness with contentment is great gain”. After the service the pastor, Mike Geiger, and his wife Christy, asked me what class I was taking. “How to make Money!” was my reply. We all had a laugh over that one. The two big takeaways from the service were: 1) Learn how to be a better steward of the His blessings, and 2) take care of you spiritual portfolio, first.
The afternoon was filled with brewing beer over at Jim & Sue’s house. A few pics are posted. A wonderful stout was on the agenda and 6 hours later, was produced.
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