(Update by Dave)

Artistic impression of Dave & Nancy

We are back in Oregon now but I wanted to give a quick update on a fun visit we had in Nevada. After a lively discussion at a family dinner, we agreed to stop by my sister Pam’s classroom and talk to her kids – she teaches a combined 4th and 5th grade class in Minden, Nevada.

Who says all that time doing corporate pitches was a waste of time? Using photos that we’ve accumulated over the years, I whipped together about 30 PowerPoint slides giving an overview of Australia. The presentation covered Aussie money, animals, population, size, landmarks and some good old Aussie slang.

Pam said we could have 30 minutes and I was not really sure if we could fill that much time. With a corporate pitch, I always planned 1 slide per minute. With 10 and 11 years olds, I had no clue how much time it would take to work through the slide deck.

There was no need to have worried. The kids were as engaged as any corporate audience. There were almost more questions than we could handle, including some questions that would put the corporate guys to shame – these kids were paying attention. Good thing both Nancy and I (and Pam) were there to respond to all the questions. We ran overtime and into recess – some kids even stayed back voluntarily to talk more about Australia. Wow, if my corporate pitches could go so well.

Pam asked each of the kids to write us a thank you note. All of the notes were great. We couldn’t scan them all but one from “Tanner” is included below. His detailed take on my hairline is noted in the drawing above. Cheers Tanner!

Thank you letter (click to enlarge)

Cheers to the kids, we had a great time.

We have another 10 days here in Oregon before we head back to Australia on April 1. We are working on getting out on the bikes here for some short rides to test the collarbone and Nancy is doing modified pushups against the wall without much pain so the healing seems to be coming along. We see the orthopedic surgeon on April 4 – fingers crossed for good news and a start to the big Aussie bike ride shortly thereafter.