Hello friends,
Day 1 of my adventure has come to a close, and I think it can be best summed up in one word: tiring. Made it safely to Washington D.C. where I met up with the rest of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam for a meeting over dinner. We have a pretty busy schedule planned for tomorrow including multiple House and Senate visits, a White House visit, and a team photo in front of the United States Capitol. Tomorrow will be an early morning, so I am off to try and tackle this project of getting my body to adjust to the time change. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated! Check back tomorrow for a report on our day on Capitol Hill!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
It's Go Time!
It’s finally here. After waiting for two years, spending hundreds of hours in preparation, and traveling over 10,000 combined miles for training, I will set foot on an airplane bound for Washington D.C. Thursday morning. Not long after that, I will be heading to London, England accompanied by the other 16 members of the 2011 SkillsUSA WorldTeam, for the 41st WorldSkills International Competition. It is really hard for me to believe that the time has finally come. I am so excited for this adventure to begin!
After spending the week in the city, I traveled down to Pittsburg, Kansas with Ron Downing and Scott Norman (USA Technical Experts for Automotive Technology) to spend another week training at their fantastic Pittsburg State University Facility. Their staff of instructors including: Bob Schroer, Tim Dell, Mike Elder, and others, transferred a wealth of knowledge to me as I began to prepare for the WorldSkills competition. During the week in Pittsburg, I stayed with Ron and his wife Suzanne in their beautiful home and they introduced me to some of south-eastern Kansas' greatest hits including: Chicken Annies, Chatters, The Deli, strip-mine pits, and Brutus, the largest electric powered coal mining shovel in the world! (Or something like that).
We also visited Joplin, MO where a tornado had struck 4.5 weeks earlier and killed over 150 people. It was quite a sobering experience to drive through a town that had a majority of its area literally wiped off the face of the earth. This was a very sobering experience, but damage like that is something you just can't understand until you go there and see it yourself.
So now it's go time! The bags are packed and the work is done. I am very much looking forward to this trip and will be posting updates on here every day. Please visit often and follow me as I pursue my goal of earning the first ever gold medal for the United States at the WorldSkills level in Automotive Technology!
The last few months have been a flurry of activity and short notice trips to some interesting parts of the country. It all started this summer in Kansas City, MO with the 2011 SkillsUSA National Championships.
There, I went through nearly all of thestations in both the Post-secondary and secondary division to practice for the upcoming competition in London. This was fantastic practice, and it was great to see all of our SkillsUSA friends from around the country. While in Kansas City, I also met up with the rest of the SkillsUSA WorldTeam for the first time.
After spending the week in the city, I traveled down to Pittsburg, Kansas with Ron Downing and Scott Norman (USA Technical Experts for Automotive Technology) to spend another week training at their fantastic Pittsburg State University Facility. Their staff of instructors including: Bob Schroer, Tim Dell, Mike Elder, and others, transferred a wealth of knowledge to me as I began to prepare for the WorldSkills competition. During the week in Pittsburg, I stayed with Ron and his wife Suzanne in their beautiful home and they introduced me to some of south-eastern Kansas' greatest hits including: Chicken Annies, Chatters, The Deli, strip-mine pits, and Brutus, the largest electric powered coal mining shovel in the world! (Or something like that).We also visited Joplin, MO where a tornado had struck 4.5 weeks earlier and killed over 150 people. It was quite a sobering experience to drive through a town that had a majority of its area literally wiped off the face of the earth. This was a very sobering experience, but damage like that is something you just can't understand until you go there and see it yourself.
After traveling back to San Luis Obispo, I have spent the next several months training intensely for the competition. Thanks to BMW North America and MINI USA, I was able to spend a full day at the Western Region Training Center working on the 2011 MINI Countryman. Also, thanks to Sunset Honda in San Luis Obispo, I have had a 2011 Honda CRV at my disposal for the last month and have been using it to train extensively for the competition!
So now it's go time! The bags are packed and the work is done. I am very much looking forward to this trip and will be posting updates on here every day. Please visit often and follow me as I pursue my goal of earning the first ever gold medal for the United States at the WorldSkills level in Automotive Technology!
Daniel Lehmkuhl
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