Cars and Helicopters

The past two weeks have involved lots of fun with vehicles for the Laurie/Heckard Family! First, Steve's plant experienced a wonderful event. The Army sent a helicopter to land in the plant's parking lot. As we wrote in a previous post, Steve's plant manufactures all four transmissions for the Chinook CH-47.

As the helicopter approached, 30 min early nonetheless... everyone in the plant could hear the "chop chop chop" of the spinning rotors as the pilot circled around, assessing the landing. Quickly, each person dropped what they were doing and rushed outside to snaps photos and watch as the huge helicopter landed. It was a thrilling and awe-inspiring landing. Click here to visit his company's web site and view videos of the take-off and landing of the gigantic chopper. The flying debris and rocks can be seen in the video.

As the leader of all the manufacturing operations, Steve gave the visitors a VIP tour of the facility. It was such an exciting and fun day! We would have loved to bring Elliott to watch the fun but family and friends were not permitted to attend.

A few days after the excitement of the helicoper more excitement occured for us; we bought a new car! Well, let's say a new-to-us, gently used Acura. As Elliott calls it "the shiny car". For the first couple days he did ask "Where Daddy''s truck go?" and "Who's car is that" when he saw the silver Acura parked in our driveway. Steve reports the car "runs great" and he loves the built-in sunglass holder. If you know Steve you will know that he is very serious about his sunglasses! Alina's favorite feature is the heated seats. We are easy to please!

After driving home in the Acura, without his truck, Steve did mourn the loss of the vehicle which he had bought brand new, then sold to his Dad for a while, then repurchased. We may certainly buy another truck someday but that truck was special to him. We did snap a few photos as a fitting tribute to the sharp red S-10.