
Mrs. Martin’s Spa Appointment: Fort Collins, CO: 11-22-14: Bill & Jane Lentz are Mrs. Martin’s host for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Bill is drying her out in his Hudson filled barn (a museum of over a dozen gorgeous Hudsons) after I gave her the first bath she’s had in over half a century. The washing, just before I departed home to Boston for Thanksgiving, left her woolen seats damp. Now, in full spa treatment form, Bill is drying them out with a floor fan. Jane plans to bomb Mrs. Martin’s interior. It was attacked by moths and mice. Adding to her beauty challenges, the upstate New York roads of her yesteryear were mud, dirt and dust filled. Now her upholstery is laden with barn dust and caked with red clay from the old byways. All this beautifying so she’s ready for the Denver Dire States event on December 3, 2013.
Dan McNichol is a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His published books, articles, thought-leadership papers and speaking events focus on mega construction projects in the United States and The Peoples Republic of China.
McNichol recently contributed to a front page story in The New York Times titled, “Trump-Sized Idea for a New President: Build Stuff”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) / Boston Chapter named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding journalists in 2014 and again in 2003. McNichol contributes to worldwide media outlets including: The New York Times, Engineering News Record (ENR), ABC World News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network, China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo, MSNBC and PBS’s The NewsHour, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel. McNichol is a frequent voice on National Public Radio (NPR).
ENR Magazine recently tapped McNichol as the magazine’s national correspondent for a cross country tour. McNichol and Aileen Cho, ENR’s senior transportation editor, drove in a 1949 Hudson Commodore with the tagline, “America’s infrastructure is as old, rusty and energy defunct as our original Detroit lead-sled.” The journalists wrote ENR print and online cover stories about the nation’s ailing infrastructure.
A former White House appointee, McNichol served the President on US policy issues surrounding transportation and infrastructure between 1991-1993. McNichol has worked in official capacities on the nation’s largest infrastructure projects: California High Speed Rail (2017), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Replacement (2013) and The Big Dig, a.k.a. The Central Artery / Third Harbor Tunnel Project (2000).