If you have never been to EMG headquarters in Irvine you should stop by and visit us sometime. Our office is located in a building constructed in 1892 that was originally used as a lima bean warehouse. The building is listed on the National Registry of Historical Sites and contains original wood flooring, grain elevators, conveyer belts and other elements that kept lima beans flowing to California. How did the lima beans flow you ask? Well located behind our building are still operational train tracks where trains would pull up to load their cars and then be on their way. The tracks are still currently in use and if you are ever on a conference call with us you just might hear them rumbling in the background.

The building is stunning but you may find getting here a little daunting. The reason being is a little street called (insert dun, dun, dun sound effect here) Burt Road or as I like to call it The Bermuda Triangle. Everyone who works here should receive the shirt below on their first day.

Burt Road is only about 200 yards long and in the almost 3 years I have been with EMG I have seen more crazy things happen on this road than any other. Lombard Street has been deemed the “crookedest” street in the world but I would like to see it go toe to toe with Burt Road when it comes to odd and strange happenings. To get to EMG from any direction you have to turn onto Burt Road so there is no avoiding it. On this little street there is a gas station, RV world, Denny’s, a hamburger restaurant, La Quinta Inn, Jack in the Box, a Mexican food restaurant, a Jiu Jitsu training facility and EMG. That is a lot to pack in on this street hence the reason I believe so many things happen.

In the time I have been here there are some major and funny occurrences that stand out. Here is a short listing:

• Full Power Outage – There was electrical crews digging on the road and knocked out the power to all the business on Burt Rd. We got a long lunch that day but I am sure the restaurants weren’t too happy about having to close for the afternoon.
• Limo Catastrophe – A limo caught on fire in front of the Jack in the Box for no apparent reason. I drove by this on my way to lunch and thought this is just another day in the triangle.
• Danny Bonaduce – The Mexican restaurant right next door to us, Tia Juana’s, has an annual Cinco de Mayo blowout. When I say blowout I mean we literally have to rope off parking spots for our team members along with having random people looking for the festivities walk through our front door. Last year Danny Bonaduce showed up in a black limousine, not the one that caught on fire, and madness ensued among the crowd.
• Fire in the Field – There is a large empty field behind our building. It is beautiful around dusk to step on the back porch and watch the sunset but on this day people were on the porch watching a fire come our way. The gentleman driving the large mover cutting the tall dry grass thought it would be a good idea to smoke while working. He proceeded to throw his cigarette butt on the ground and it started to smolder. One of our employees noticed and before you knew it the EMG fire brigade was on the scene. They had to cross the train tracks and jump a fence but were there in an instant with fire extinguishers. We eventually left it to the firefighters but we did our part to put it out.
• Dog Frenzy – La Quinta is a dog friendly hotel which I find to be a great thing being a pooch owner myself. When one of our team members, Rob Dorsey, was leaving the office he noticed a dog fight about to ensue between two sets of dogs. The woman with the two bigger dogs did not notice the smaller dogs approaching and let’s just say she got taken for a ride by her dogs. After she came to earth Rob went to help her but the woman had been knocked out by the fall. The ambulance arrived quickly and Rob stayed until he felt as though everything was fine.
• Cement Truck Incident – For some reason Burt Road was under major construction for a few weeks. During this time I think every cement, electrical and big rig truck drove down or parked on Burt Rd. Driving to and from work definitely felt like going through a slalom course. A group of us were getting ready to leave for lunch and another team member called to tell me that a cement truck had fallen in a hole right in front of the gas station. We left for lunch right after we heard the news and we got the photo below.  How did this happen you ask? Well all any of us could think was, Burt Rd. Upon returning from lunch we came back to find the road had been blocked and we could not get back to work. A couple team members even spoke with the officers on the scene about letting us back down the road and got told something along the lines of keep moving but in a not so nice way if you catch my drift.

There are multiple other things that have happened on this tiny street but I don’t want to continue to frighten anyone away with the tales. I will continue to chronicle the occurrences on Burt Road even though I feel sometimes I am risking my well being. Please don’t let this stop you from visiting us though. Who knows, you may end up getting a free shirt!