SparkDad

Tuesday night was football night. In addition it was Soccer night. On top of that it was a late night for Mama at work.  So the question is how do I duplicate myself to get to two practices at the same time?

Mama arranged for Stickman to ride with one of his team mates on the soccer team.  We had never been to their house so I finally had an opportunity to use the navigation portion of OnStar.

Now being a man, I would not really “need” the navigation piece. I do not follow directions nor look at maps and would absolutely not want a woman ( OnStar’s voice is a pleasant sounding woman) to tell me where to go…

I am of course kidding! With the address in hand I quickly pressed the OnStar button on the rear view mirror and waited. The OnStar representative was on the phone very quickly offering assistance. She looked up the address for me and sent the directions to my truck.

I am not unfamiliar with navigation as I use it all of the time on my Android phone, but OnStar is nice because their is no map to look at, making it a very safe way to get from point A to point B.  We arrived at the teammates house and then we were off to football!

Pork Chop , shown above, plays tackle football for the Pearland Patriots. He plays on the five and six year old team. I know that you are remembering the news story last week, but his team was not the group that got into the melee. In fact his coaches are some of the most professional and dedicated coaches that I have ever seen in youth sports.

While he was at practice I slipped away to the Silverado so that I could check out all of the interior. I had not really spent any time just looking around in the truck since we camped he first weekend.

The first thing I noticed was the very nice center console. There is a lot of storage room in it. It has a place to store pens on the side, several compartments in the inside to store paperwork, wallets and as you can see here my camping knife.  Under the top console is a larger one that is big enough to hold a small to medium sized purse and maybe even a small laptop such as a netbook.

After I checked out everything that opened and closed I moved on to the awesome radio. I like to listen to a variety of music and news stations.  Some of the great stations that are on the dial are Bloomberg Radio, CNN and Fox News. Of course there was almost every sport as well including MLB, NBA, NHL and a station dedicated to the various college division.

My favorite right now is 90’s on 9. I graduated from high school in 1991 so this is right up my alley.  I have used XM Radio before and it is very nice on long road trips. We often drive 10 hours up to Northwest Texas and I spend a lot of time hunting for radio stations. This solves the problem.

Well I am feeling very bad today so I am going to end this post!

- Spark Dad

* This month I am a part of the Chevy Weekend Warriors team hosted by the Local Houston Area Chevy Dealers. As a Weekend Warrior I am provided a Chevrolet Silverado to drive, gift cards to subsidize gas usage, gift cards to various stores such as Academy to complete missions to highlight vehicle features and my blog is highlighted on www.gottalovechevyhouston.com. All of my opinions are however my own and the Houston Area Chevy Dealers do not guide my posts. I will tell you when I do not like something on the vehicle.

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As some of you might have heard I am lucky enough to be one of Chevy’s Weekend Warriors! I get the privilege of driving a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado Texas Edition for the next 40 days.

I picked up the truck from one of Houston’s Area Chevy dealers on Friday morning. The truck is very big! It dwarfs my little Nissan Pathfinder!

The one that I picked up has very nice 20” wheels and a clean white paint job. The interior is charcoal gray and well appointed.

It is extended cab which means that it has a back seat and “suicide” doors that open to the front of the vehicle.

The pick up day was perfect because we had a big Cub Scout camping trip planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Let me tell you I put the truck to the test on cargo capacity.

One of the other Chevy Weekend Warriors measured his truck in Garret Lengths and Garret Rolls ( you have to just watch the video ).

I have a ton of footage that I took over the weekend that I am working on in Microsoft Moviemaker. Chevy did not choose me for my steady hand or video skills. Actually I am not sure why they chose me! I am bald and old!

So far my favorite feature is the Bluetooth connectivity to the truck. With a few easy steps you can pair your cell phone to the truck, make and receive calls. The quality of the voice is very good! The truck is even smart. When a call is being received or placed, it mutes the radio for obvious reasons, but also it increases or decreases the temperature setting on the air conditioner to reduce air nose. How smart is that!

Be sure to check out the www.gottalovechevyhouston.com website, follow us on Twitter at @chevyhouston, #chevywarriors and on Facebook. At the website you can sign up to win numerous prizes in the sweepstakes!

I have already been receiving comments like “Nice truck!”. I am now just waiting to be a part of the “Chevy Gives Blogger New Truck” headline : )

See Ya! – Spark Dad

This week was our 16th year anniversary. The time has flown by!

Saturday around noon we took the corvette for a all day coastal drive. The weather was not sunny, a little overcast, but not rainy or cold so it was a good day.

We set out from home and loaded up on I-45 south from Houston heading the Kemah.

The drive was good but we were stuck in access road construction traffic for 30-40 minutes. Yuck! The car was begging to be driven and we are sitting still!

Once we got out of that nasty hang up we drove down Nasa Road 1 to Highway 146 heading to Kemah. For those of you not from Houston Kemah is a nice gulf boardwalk filled with restaurants, shops and carnival rides. We ate at Landry’s Seafood House and then visited some shops.

We took some goofy photos at like the one to the right! Mama looks great even in a dunce hat!

After finishing up in Kemah we headed to Galveston and drove along the seawall. The gulf breeze and sound of the ocean waves was very relaxing.

After leaving Galveston we drove along the coast. We were looking for vacation spots for weekend trips. On the way we stopped at Woody’s and gawked at some very nice motorcycles. 

The road between Jamaica Beach and Surfside is amazing. Once you get out of civilization you load up onto the San Luis Pass toll bridge and off into untainted beach. There are huge stretches of beach that have no houses or anything developed. We found a good spot and pulled the ‘vette onto the beach. Very nice!

After some time on the beach we drove back up Highway 288 North. I was very disappointed that the speed limit was 65 : (

What a great weekend. Thanks GM for making an awesome car for a romantic drive with my sweetie!

- Spark Dad

If that title does not make you want to read on I am not sure what will.  This is Mama and our friend Mary Lou taking the Corvette for a spin. They  took it out on Friday afternoon and very nicely brought me back a Sonic soda!

Driving the car is nice, but with the top down it really makes you feel good. Even driving slow.

Saturday Mama and I are going to take the ‘vette for a drive down the coast!

- Spark Dad

The first Friday that the Camaro arrived, Mama and I met our neighbors at a Mid-Town Houston restaurant for dinner. 

All of my life I have only owned two new cars. And these new cars were not top of the line models like this one, so never has anyone offered to do anything special for my car.

When we arrived at the restaurant we drove around looking for parking but were unsuccessful so we decided to go ahead and valet the car.

When we pulled up to the valet stand and the valet approached the car. He took a good look at the car.

“Hello Sir. How are you this evening?”, said the Valet.

“Fine.", I said.

“Would you like to have the car parked out front?”, the Valet motioned to a parking spot in front of the restaurant.

Let me tell you that Mama and I were caught off guard. The Valets like to park the expensive, nice cars out front to help the establishments image.

I do not get that in my Nissan Pathfinder : )

All I can say is the Camaro is fantastic, affordable luxury. American muscle. I love it!

- Spark Dad