My Latest Adventure

I had the opportunity to fly out to California for an interview with Knight Transportation. It was a great experience to be able to interview for a company I have a lot of respect for. The trip started out Wednesday (3/14/07) when I flew into Fresno via Phoenix. I was amazed as we crossed the Sierras. As we entered the enormous central valley, I immediately noticed how green and lush everything was. It looked as though I was flyin into Ireland. Right next to the valley stood the giant, snow-capped granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada range.

I touched down in Fresno and hopped in my rental car towards Visalia. By the way, my rental car was a Hyundai Sonata. Okay, so you say, "Wow, who cares about a Sonata?" Well, this thing was a V6 and it had some serious get up and go. So you can basically imagine that I got to places a little quicker than if I was driving my jeep. Anyways, Visalia is a little city that has about 100,000 people. Most of the people that work for this particular Knight facility live in Visalia. The Knight facility that I was checking out is actually located in a neighboring town called Tulare (pronounced "Tulary"). On my way I was amazed at all the agriculture in this area. There were fields upon fields of orange groves, walnut groves, grape vinyards, fruit trees, etc. It is not a joke when people say that the central valley of California itself produces more agriculture than most countries in the world!

I checked into La Quinta Inn and I was excited for my interviews. I had a pair of tandem interviews on Thursday. They weren't bad at all. In fact, they were as laid back as you can get. My first impression was how they had the facility set up. It was a nice new facility with a bunch of cubicles in the middle. I immediately saw the casual atmosphere that was in the office as well. Everyone was in tee-shirts and pants. But they were all working really hard to get things done. So, after the interviews I sat in with some people to see what they did. They dispatched and ran a computer program that organized all the drivers with their associated cargo. It was both intense and very busy. You can tell that Knight is very organized and that they run a very smooth operation.

After boggling my mind with a very complex computer system, we went and ate lunch at Chilli's. I had the shrimp tortillas. I was then given the rest of the afternoon and evening to check out the town of Visalia. My interviewer gave me a map of the city and where the churches and nice communities were. I was very impressed with Visalia. It's got a small town feel but it is also very clean. Plus, Diana loves it that it has all the necesities: Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. I ended the evening eating at a grill with some guys from the facility. I had the Ahi Tuna. It was tasty; however, it was hard for me to finish two pieces of raw fish encrusted in almonds. At night I consumed my time by chilling in the hottub and surfing the net for the places to go fishing near Visalia. And believe you me, there's some sweet places to wet a line out there!

On Friday morning I woke up and headed to the office again in Tulare. I sat in with the Director of Customer Service and another guy that did planning. I was able to follow a little better than the day before. The boss-man then called me into his office. He sat me down and said he liked how I interviewed and that he believed I could work for them. In a nutshell, he offered me a job with some awesome benefits! I about fell out of my chair. I am so blessed. I am so grateful that I have that opportunity. I told him that I would get back to him in a couple of weeks. Now I have to wait on a couple of offers from other organizations and find out what I want to do. My heart is so full right now for the many blessings I have. I don't know if I will take this offer or not, but I do know that it is there for my taking if I decide to do it. I give all the credit to the man upstairs for giving me such wonderful opportunities.

So after the offer I basically floated around town in my rental car. I was so excited that I decided to check out the local fly shop. I went in and talked to the owner a bit. I also baught some magazines that I could take home for my flight. All in all it was a good trip. Like I said earlier, I feel so blessed for that opportunity. Diana and I have a lot of soul-searching and decision making to do here in the next month of our lives. I just hope we can feel the spirit and go where the Lord would have us go. Until next time...