Almost the Weekend

Thursday was a great day! I had my normal lunch with the other section reps and the NA staff. If you are elected to be a session rep, plan on meeting every Thursday for lunch.

After lunch we had F block (that is the whole section class-normally a lecture in the auditorium). Today’s F block lecture was about Child Abductions. Wow. I have young kids and it scares the living daylights out of me on these cases. It was very informative to say the least.

Earlier in the day we had another F block and that one was about the mafia. I won’t go into details, but I think we were all impressed with the presentation.

Today the temperature outside was 73! So after classes we hit the track for a sprint workout. They also have bars outside and some other equipment, so you can get some pull ups/dips in also. Was nice to get outside.

During dinner I had a meeting with my media group for our group presentations. I think I have a group presentation or solo one in every class. You might as well get used to that if you are coming.

After dinner I got some laundry done and I hit the patio off of the atrium to enjoy the weather a bit more. All in all a really good day. Time is flying by here, it feels like it’s going fast!

Steps 13458 = 6.4 miles


Repping Section 3!

Ciaran and I in our Essentials class! Awesome guy from Canada and technically an international student! Haha. Want to talk gun control? He’s your guy!

Armando and Gavin!

Wicked Witch Challenge!

Today was the Wicked Witch Challenge! It was 5 mins of pushing a 100 lb sand bag across a gym floor. After you had basically killed your legs, then you ran a mile to the parking garage. You run up the garage to the top, you lunge all the way across and then a max set of pushups! After that, you run the wooded trail/obstacle course till the track. At the track it’s TRX bands and then a 200 meter sprint to finish. Not a bad Wednesday!

These challenges are a good time, everyone gets into them and the atmosphere is fun. People cheering each other on and having a good time. It doesn’t seem like work...till it’s over! I got my mile swim in after and I am now almost done. The end is in sight.

People around here are pretty excited, a long weekend is coming up! We have a short Friday and Monday off. Most seem to have a handle on their papers, it’s the presentations that are starting to fire up.

Have a good day! A

9,317 steps = 4.41 miles

Group shot! Where am I??

My team of 3 for the sandbags! That’s Scott and Marco. Marco is smiling on the inside 😜

We had to push a 100lb sandbag wrapper in a towel the length of the gym...for 5 minutes. My legs still work!



Getting ready to go!

Our PT Instructors are good sports!

Here is the Wicked Witxh!


Lunch. I splurged with some chocolate milk and a grilled avocado/tomato sandwich

Law Enforcement Memorial #2

The highlight from classes today was the presentation from Chief John Belmar from St Louis County Police Department. He gave us some great insights on the Furgeson incident from 2014 that has been a defining moment in modern law enforcement. His point of view and perspective were something I think we all learned from. It was pretty much a consensus from every one I spoke with in our session that he did a great job.

The other big event of the day was our night time ceremony at the National Law Enforcement Memorial. It as a pretty somber event. Many of chose to read names of those that were on the wall. I read Justin Martin, Shawn Miller, and my good friend Sean Wissink’s name. As you might recal, we had been scheduled to do this ceremony earlier in our session. I did a previous blog post on it if you are interested.

Tomorrow is Wednesday...which means another challenge and one step closer to the Yellow Brick Road! Check in tomorrow for that!

Steps 15,339 = 6.88 miles

The wall.



My friend Sean Wissink. RIP Brother.

#271 Lined up at LEM


That’s a hawk, injured wing. No worries, animal control will take it to a place that will nurse it back if possible.

My dinner, fish tacos! Corn was spicy!

Front of LEM

Week 6 Begins

The NA is a collective of exhausted people! NYC was so epic, we haven’t fully recovered. Everyone around here is pretty warn out from the busy weekend. It seems that work is the focus this week as we all try and buckle down and get some of our final projects going. Many of us have multiple presentations left, papers, and forum posts. If you have any time before you get here, bone up on Power Point, you will use it in every single class we have here.

Tonight was the IACP dinner in the atrium. It was baked chicken and stuff. Nothing special really. Best part of the dinner was the announcement that one of our classmates was promoted to Captain! It was announced to all of us by the boss and whole room stood up and cheered for him. Really cool they sent the announcement and badge to us to present to him. He had no idea!

Tomorrow we going to busy. The acting Deputy Director of the FBI will be addressing us, we have regular classes and we are then heading to Law Enfocement Memorial for our make up ceremony. I’m really looking forward to that.

Sorry for the short post and no original pics really-I’m tired!

Steps 7704 = 3.48 miles! Lowest total yet? Tomorrow I’m back in the pool after 4 days off. Might be done this week? Night Night, A

Monday, means envelope!!  Sorry EJ, my kids sent me sugar!!!

My poor boy has the flu and croup. An ER visit helped him out a ton. See yesterday’s post for more info. Glad he is feeling better

Need pic of the Brooklyn Bridge

NYC Trip #epic 2of2

We didn’t get home till after 10pm-it was a long, tiring, eventful weekend, but well worth it.

Worst part was that my poor little boy was sick with the flu. My poor wife (who is basically a single mom) had to take him to the ER and didn’t get home till after 1am. I feel guilty having the experience of a lifetime in NYC and being gone for months while my wife is having to do everything back home. It’s a tough spot for your family when you are here.

My advice on this to have these conversations before you get here. Have a good plan for when your spouse needs help. I feel truly that I have one of the best wives ever, she handles so much already. It’s tough not being able to help them when they need it.

9/11 Museum was just as moving as the Holocaust museum. It’s a must stop for anyone while NYC.





We went up to the 75th floor, but the fog limited our view. Still a great experience. We could see enough to get the idea.

Chris thinks if he holds on, he won’t fall out of the window. He’s a touch afraid of heights!

Did a boat ride out around Manhattan and went to the Brooklyn Bridge. Some of us on the PD boat and some on the FD boat.

Lady Liberty. Eli loves the Statue of Liberty.

The NYFD were awesome guys. Had a nice conversation with them. One of my classmates was invited to come back this summer and let his daughter come on a ride. Guy even gave him his number so he could text him, genuine.

NYC Trip #epic post 1 of 2

What a great weekend in NYC! If you are coming here, this trip is a must.

The NYPD pulled out all the stops and rolled out the red capet for us. We had an escort the entire time, everywhere we went we were taken care of. I can’t say it enough, the NYPD knows how to host!

On Friday we packed up and took off. We unfortunately had a tire blow out on the way and we had to wait about 2 hours for some new buses to come and grab us. It was a delay, but we all had a good time and made the best out of it.

We were up and at it early Saturday morning and started off our day at the Emergency Services Unit. They have 7 helicopters there and they gave us a really neat demonstrations doing some rescues and high flying stuff. We were all very impressed.

After the ESU we went to tour NYPD headquarters. They show us the Comstat Room, the Real Time Crime Center, and other things. I was pretty amazed with their technology and their access to information. They are doing a good job if you consider the scope of their agency and the problems they have.

After that we walked back to our hotel on a guided walk. We did the Brooklyn Bridge, precinct 5, China Town, Little Italy, and much more! We walked for a good 4 hours and got rained on pretty good at the end. This walk is optional and I would recommend it if you want to see some of the city.

We ended our official part of the day with dinner at Carmine’s!  While we were eating we had bagpipers come into the restaurant and play music for us, it was really cool.

The next day we went right away to take a boat tour of Manhattan. We rode with the NYFD and they were just as accommodating at the NYPD had been all weekend. Got a close up view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. It was raining and chilly, but otherwise a great ride.

We spent the rest of the day at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and we also got to go up to the 75th floor of the new World Trade Center building. The fog prevented us from seeing much, but we got the gist of it. The museum was mind blowing. Having been in law enforcement when that occurred, it makes quite an impact of you. It’s a must see if you are in NYC.

I am going to attached another post with just pics in it.

Steps, I can’t remember! I had 11.55 miles Saturday night...
Sunday I had 6.7 miles!

Carmine’s for dinner! That was a ton of food, don’t fill up too soon. We had 8 or so courses? Salad, bread, 2 pastas, Calamari, stuffed mushrooms, chicken parm, chicken Marsala, shrimp, dessert. More then you can eat plus open bar!


Group walking tour!  We put in some miles and got to see pretty much all of Manhattan in the process.

Everywhere we went, police escort. Was very cool, NYPD doesn’t mess around. 1st rate hosts.

Iowa contingent at Emergency Services Unit!

Halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge.


The 5th Precinct. Used to have a morgue in the basement. It’s the oldest NYPD building built in the 1800s, before the Brooklyn Bridge!

Cannolis in Little Italy.

Our bus trip started off rough with a blow out! Cost us some time, but fun was had by all

We had to switch buses on the side of the road

Once we got into the city, pizza!!

Nice spot that hosted us for the night.