I spent the week of 28th seeing northern Louisiana and northeast Texas. Similar to my week in Georgia last year, I rode with the territory manager for the week, visiting dealers, customers, and helping with service or engineering issues as I could. Being this late in the year, I didn't get much field time, but was able to see a few balers, a few rakes, and a mower.
As is usually the case, the people we met and visited with were exceptionally friendly, and grateful for the help. It's a good feeling to have been part of the design of a fix for a known problem, and be introduced to a customer or dealer as such. Whether I had answers to questions and issues or not, the fact that a representative from the factory had traveled to visit for the week was appreciated. The John Deeres and New Hollands of the world don't give grunt engineers so much freedom, and such trips are one of my favorite parts of my job.
And of course the barbecue and seafood were outstanding. I think Larry figured it'd be an alright week when he found out I'd eat just about anything, and that's exactly what I did. I owe Larry a big thanks for all the hospitality!
