Dear Reader,
Now that I'm the father of a thirteen year old girl who seems to have suddenly discovered boys, I understand why my future father-in-law gave off the "don't cross me" vibe the first couple of months I dated his daughter. I was her first serious boyfriend, and though I was only 9 months older, I was the college wild man trying to derail or at least distract the end of his daughter's very successful high school career. That's why I was more than a little surprised when he agreed to let her spend the last couple of weeks of the summer before her freshman year with me and my family.

Since her family had recently moved, the only obstacle standing in the way of a couple of weeks of fun was meeting her somewhere between her house in Georgia and mine in North Carolina to retrieve her from her dad.

We planned to meet at exit 83 off Interstate 85 at Cowpens National Battlefield. We picked the exit because it had a nice visitor's center and some interesting exhibits, just in case one of us arrived before the other, but trust me, there was no way I was going to be late given my sometimes frosty relationship with my father-in-law to be.

My future wife and her dad had farther to go so they left early that designated morning, while my brother and I passed some time at a friend's house. We enjoyed the afternoon and left our friend's house an hour before we were supposed to meet, plenty of time to travel the necessary 40 miles.

As we neared exit 83, my brother asked,
"What is Cowpens anyway?"

"It's a Revolutionary War battlefield," I responded.

"How come I never remember talking about it in Dr. Watson's class?" (We had both taken North Carolina history with Dr. Watson the previous semester.)

"Because it's in South Carolina, dummy," I replied.

You know the "bullet time" special effect scene in the movie The Matrix, where everything happens in extreme slow motion? Well, we experienced that in our car that day as we turned toward each other, locked eyes, and simultaneously uttered a word that shouldn't be repeated in a family-friendly newsletter. For nearly an hour we'd been travelling north toward exit 83 in North Carolina, when we should have been travelling south toward a South Carolina exit on the same interstate.

The next 90 minutes and 120 miles were a blur. I'll save you the math; yes, there was some speeding. There was also a not-so-proud moment at a rest stop where my brother and I switched drivers without ever coming to a complete stop. And because these were pre-cell phone days, there was no way to get in touch with my future wife and her dad to tell them we were going to be very late. When we finally got there, the future Mrs. LaRusso was happy I was alive; I was happy her dad simply kissed her and drove off without saying a word.

This fall SAS Education will embark on a road trip that has been navigated more thoughtfully. The second annual SAS Programming Road Show, which starts in late September, brings our two most popular courses to seven new cities. These courses provide a strong SAS foundation and are the perfect preparation for SAS Certification. Sign up for both courses to take advantage of our Best Value Certification Bundle, which offers both courses, e-learning, a practice certification exam and an exam voucher at a 50% discount.

We hope to see you on the road.

Thanks for reading,
Larry LaRusso
Editor, SAS Training Report