Home For The Holidays

December 23, 2009
Yesterday I headed to the airport to catch an early flight to MN before the snow storm hit. My original plan was to come home Christmas Eve but with freezing rain and 6 to 13 inches of snow on the way (to MN) changing my flight seemed like a good idea. The airport in Denver wasn't bad the only run in I had was with a crazy TSA lady who was telling people to move through the security line faster even though there were kids in front of us moving slow...I guess she didn't see them??? I also ventured over to the customer service desk hoping to have them help me book a flight to Orlando in March. Come to find out that customer service people don't know how to book flights only people at the ticket counter (outside of security) know how to book flights...weird.

Today I was at my sister's house and Abbi said to the younger kids "Yep, that is aunt Jamie she still has her coat on". Well, I guess having a legacy of the girl who always has a coat on is better than no legacy at all :).

The snow has started to fall here in MN and according to the weather it will be snowing for the next 72 hours!

Pavement Markings and More...

December 21, 2009

So my morning consisted of a panic because it seems there is a big snow storm moving across the upper portion of the states this week. Not good for flying into MN on Thursday. After some frantic phone calls I decided rather than be stuck here on Christmas with no Christmas tree I changed my flight. Now I'm flying to MN tomorrow night and will hopefully beat all of the bad weather.

Today at work I came across a few weird things in Grand Canyon. I'm not really sure what this pavement marking means but either it is a legitimate park service marking or someone is playing a funny joke. This symbol is the same symbol the rock band "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" use. Usually pavement markings are for rescue vehicles or helicopters but this area was heavily wooded and no chopper could ever land in this spot...hummm.

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-Asterisk-Logo-Posters_i1767859_.htm

The other interesting sign I saw was for cougar crossing and the sign said "next 10 miles". I forgot to grab the image but I never thought of cougars when I was walking around the north and south rim. If you take a trip there keep your eyes peeled.

More of Denver

December 14, 2009
The good news is that it is not below zero anymore and I'm starting to unthaw. The bad news is that work isn't all that exciting but I'm still being very productive. I found another sign that is a bit odd and had to post it. Why would the park choose to have a sign like this? Not only would speeding kill bears but it can also kill pedestrians! I guess we know where the park's priorities are :). This was in Yosemite.

Yesterday while I was looking over a recipe book I'm making of my grandma's recipes I decided to have the travel channel on TV. There is a new show on called Meet the Natives. I was sort of skeptical but left it on that channel anyway. It didn't take long and I was hooked. It is a great show that shows 5 men from Tanna coming to the United States for the first time. They are on a mission to spread the word of peace. It is an eye opener to see their perspective on the United States. It made me realize how much we have in this country but often take it for granted. They went to Yellowstone National Park and saw snow for the first time. It was funny to see them accidentally come close to a bison and run and then try to figure out what the animal was. They said "that is no cow!" They also asked a man living in Illinois "Why do you clean the grass, so cows can graze?" The American said "Because it looks good" and the Native said "Sure". He defiantly didn't understand why we spend time raking the leaves...interesting perspective. It made me think about some of the odd things Americans do. Anyway, it is a great show and definitely made me appreciate my country a little more. I encourage you to check it out if you can.
http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Meet_the_Natives

The Office

December 9, 2009
Why does it have to be so cold? Typically Denver will have one cold day and then it will warm up but 2 or 3 really cold days in a row is rare. It feels like I'm back in Grand Forks, ND. Temperatures have been below zero and the only good thing about it is that I finally get to wear my extra super warm winter jacket.

This week at work I've been working on post processing GPS from the truck. The process involves quite a few steps. I take the raw GPS from the truck and run a correction program, which can take a long time to run depending on how many miles we collected. Then I have to import those files into a database and run 2 more programs to get the database the way we want it. Then I export the GPS table from the database and manually edit a route if needed. Sometimes we run a route long so I have to cut them off, manually delete points. After the routes are the way we want them I then have to merge each day's GPS together to get one GPS road file for each park. That file has to be put onto a delivery USB for the data processing contractor. I've been doing this for about 10 parks. That is just one thing I've been up to in the office this week. I've also been working on a geodatabase that allows us to visually see all of the parks we are going to in our next collection cycle. That in itself is pretty easy to make but I was putting some data behind the images so that took some more work.

On a different note I read that there is only one living person who has visited all 390 national park sites. I never really thought anyone would make that a goal. I made a rough estimate for how many parks I've been to and came up with 80...sounds like a small number compared to the total of 390! There are some really small parks that you wouldn't really think about like Ford's Theater in DC or the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Site. Those parks consist of one single building, no parking lots or roads.

As I write this I'm watching Wrecked on TV. I have to put in a plug for one of my favorite TV shows. It is on the speed channel and it is about a Chicago towing company called O'hare. If you want to see what tow truck drivers go through this is a great show to watch. Next time I'm in/near Chicago and my work truck breaks down I'm going to give them a call and maybe we will end up on their show :). I'm sure they don't tow many road analyzer vehicles. http://www.oharetowing.com/

Back to Denver

December 3, 2009
Today I flew back to Denver. The flight went well and was uneventful. I didn't watch the movie because it lost my interest in the first 10 minutes. I think it was called "It Might Get Loud".

At the Dulles airport I was going through security and the TSA guy looks at my stuff and says "Oh, it's you. We got a call from the mayor of Denver and he said you couldn't fly back on this plane today." Uhhh TSA humor, gotta love it.

After landing in Denver I was walking to the train and heard an agent on the speaker talking to passengers going to California saying something along the lines of "this airplane has a possible engine problem so they need to do a test loop around the airport to get a better idea of what the problem is." I would not want to be those pilots that had to do the test loop in the sky...no way! Anyway, it happened by coincidence that one of my friends landed at the Denver airport about 30 minutes after I did. She was on her way to Nashville. I waited for her and we ate lunch together before she got on her next flight. It was fun and good to see her again.

I'm back in Denver for a couple of weeks until I go to MN for Christmas.

Sterling, VA Meeting

December 2, 2009
Yesterday and today our program had a Kick Off meeting with the company that will be processing our data and building our new truck for our next collection cycle. It was a full two days and we got a lot done.

Yesterday at the hotel we ran into someone that works in the FHWA Western office whom often works with us in our program. It was nice to run into a familiar face. We all went out to dinner last night and it was a good time.

Today at lunch the representative from the processing company said "do any of you have kids" and we went around the table and everyone said "yes" except for me. The guy said "you are probably too young to have kids" and I just laughed and said "what do you mean, how old do you think I am? I'm sure I'm the same age as you" and he said "no way" and then guessed I was 26...nice! Looks like I'm still lucky to have people think I'm in my 20s. Turns out that him and I are the same age...I knew it! He said "I look way older than you". I don't know about that but it is funny how often my age comes up when I first meet people. I guess I'll take the compliment while I can :) .

Tomorrow I fly back to Denver.

Travel to Virginia

November 30, 2009
I left my house at 8:00am to fly to Sterling, VA (Washington Dulles Airport) for a meeting at the FHWA Eastern office. Flights to/from Dulles are often full of business travelers and they are often over sold flights. I was hoping to get a free flight (give up my seat) to use when my sister and I go on a cruise in March...I was soooo close, but no luck this time. The United agent told me she had me booked on the next flight but she just needed to get my the free flight voucher. I said OK and was waiting around. Then this lady comes walking OFF of the airplane (weird) and I was then told that she couldn't go on the flight because she was having an anxiety attack and they didn't need me to give up my seat anymore...dang it! I was seated in business class "for my troubles". I would have much rather gotten the free ticket. I do travel a lot but I've never sat in business class. It is basically what first class is on "regular"/smaller airplanes. The stewardess came up to me and asked me if I'd be eating lunch and I said "what do you mean" (what a dumb thing to say) and she said "I mean, will you be eating lunch" (duh) then I said "Do you mean like buying a box meal" and she said "No, we are serving a chicken salad". OK, I had NO idea they served free lunch in business class...live and learn (and look dumb at the same time). Anyway, it was a good flight and I got to watch the movie Four Christmases. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369436/

On the way to the rental car building the rental car shuttle got pulled over by a police officer. That was a first for all of us on the shuttle to experience. We didn't know what had happened. The officer came to the window and said "do you know you almost hit my vehicle." The shuttle bus driver got a ticket for a reckless lane change! Wow, I was surprised but at the same time happy that a police officer actually held someone accountable for reckless driving.

Moving Along...

November 25 to 27, 2009
On November 25 we packed up the car and headed back to Phoenix. The trip went smooth and we stopped in Yuma, AZ at the Yuma State Historic Park for lunch. When we arrived in Phoenix we headed straight to the grocery store to get food for our Thanksgiving dinner. We spent Thanksgiving in Phoenix and had a great dinner, which included an awesome fruit pizza. I think we will make that a new Thanksgiving tradition! It was 80 degrees Thanksgiving day and I think that was a first for all of us, we are used to snow and cold. On Friday we couldn't pass up the opportunity to shop on "black Friday" so we checked out all of the ads and decided on a couple of places we wanted to go. We were at Kohl's at 4:00am and we were in line to check out around 4:20am and we waited in line for one hour, yep one hour! I don't know how that many people could find what they wanted and get in line only 20 minutes after the store opened! The wait was worth it though because we got some pretty good deals. My flight left Phoenix on Friday at 2:50pm and I made it back to Denver in one piece. It was a great vacation for all of us!

Cabrillo and Mission Beach

November 24, 2009
Today was a day for the beach. In the morning we went to Cabrillo National Monument, yep I went to a park on my day off! We watched a short movie and then walked up to the lighthouse. There is a really great view of San Diego from Cabrillo. We then went down by the tide pools and enjoyed the view for awhile. I found another sign of someone falling with their hands up in the air...I'm starting to see a pattern here with this sign and the Blue Ridge signs I saw.We then headed North and went to Mission Beach. We spent a few hours there and could have spent more time there but it was late afternoon and we wanted to head downtown by the dock where the USS Midway (aircraft carrier) is located.

San Diego Zoo

November 23, 2009

No trip to San Diego is complete without a day at the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is pretty big and we spent the whole day there. We headed over to the pandas first thing to avoid the lines that usually form later in the day. They had two pandas we could see but there was a baby in the "back" but shown on a TV screen. I think my favorite animals were the meerkats but we saw many animals, too many to name them all. We also went to a sealion show. It was a long but fun day.

Balboa Park - San Diego

November 22, 2009
Today we went to Balboa Park which is next to the San Diego Zoo. http://www.balboapark.org/. We walked around the park and had lunch and then watched a performance at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion. Here is some information about the organ "John D. and Adolph Spreckels donated the Spreckels Organ, one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs, to the City of San Diego in 1914 for the Panama-California Exposition. This unique organ contains 4,530 pipes ranging in length from the size of a pencil to 32 feet and is housed in an ornate vaulted structure with highly embellished gables." In the photo is me, Isaac (in the stroller) and Ben with Zach. My friend Jamie was taking the photo. After spending time at the park we headed over to Coronado Island to see the Hotel Coronado. It is an amazing hotel right on the beach. We got there at sunset and took some really great photos. The historic hotel is defiantly a sight to see and I'm glad that I was not the one who had to drive us across the long bridge to get to the island!

To San Diego, CA (Vacation)

November 21, 2009
I flew into Phoenix, AZ very late Friday night. My friends and I were on a mission to take a vacation and we decided that San Diego would be the perfect spot. We got up Saturday morning, packed the car and hit the road. Along the way we passed several cattle farms which I didn't know existed in the southwest. The big difference between SW cattle farms versus the ones in Nebraska is that the in SW the cattle have shelters with fans. The heat is pretty bad down there in the summer so the cattle get some comfort having shade. They are pretty big operations down there and you will know when you pass one because the smell is pretty strong. We also passed some sand dunes. The dunes went on for miles and there were several people camping with their dune buggies along the interstate at Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. We were very close to the Mexico boarder traveling along I-8. We could see the boarder fence and we were stopped at 3 boarder check points along the interstate. We didn't have any problems at the check points but stopping traffic along the interstate does create a bit of a back-up. I am still grateful for their efforts. There was a sign at one of the check points with statistics stating how many pounds of drugs they have seized etc... It was pretty amazing. We finally pulled into our La Mesa, CA hotel around 5:30pm, unpacked and then headed out to dinner. Overall the travel day went very well and the two kids (Isaac and Zach...with an h :) ) handled the long ride very well.

More Signs

November 18, 2009

Today I found another sign along Blue Ridge Parkway. It is similar to the other one I posted but I think this one is even better. Apparently someone had time to change the design of the sign so they have different curves that the biker gets to fall off of. I think this one is "better" because he is really going over the side and on the other sign he just had his hands up in the air but the road was still underneath him....weird. I had to post it so you can compare and see what I mean.

Today I had envisioned some quiet time at home after work with no rush to really do anything. Nothing ever turns out as I plan. Rather than getting to come home I spent 2 hours in urgent care. After my hand shakes wouldn't go away (but my blood sugar tested fine) and a few other symptoms I decided I'd better not risk it. Turns out I have low blood flow and am dehydrated and I think I have some kind of infection but nothing that looks to be the flu (either strain) so I guess I'll take it. Just once I'd like to spend some time at home without getting sick...not this time. It could be worse though...I don't think it is anything a few days time won't cure (finger's crossed).

Another Denver Snow Storm

November 15, 2009

It started to snow around 4pm on Saturday and kept snowing until Sunday afternoon. I was out of town for the first big Denver snow storm of the year but this time I wasn't so lucky. Attached is a photo I took from my porch...not the best photo but it shows about 7 inches. It was still snowing when I took that photo. I guess November is Denver's 2nd snowiest month. I'm sure all of this snow will be melted in a couple of days. That is one great thing about Denver's weather, if you don't like it wait a few hours.

Friday the 13th

November 13, 2009
So I made it through most of the day not really realizing that it was "Friday the 13th". I got home and was grabbing a glass out of the cupboard and as I grab one another one falls out! Yep, into pieces on the counter and on the floor. It is rare that I break a glass but I'll leave it to my luck to happen on Friday the 13th!

In The Office

Road Log Example:

176.528 - INTERSECTION - PAVED ROUTE (VA ROUTE 603 / NON NPS) - L

October 11, 2009

Many people have asked me now that I'm home what do I do. Well, I still have to work...in the office. Then the response is "OK, so what do you do". I decided to let everyone know a little about what I do when I'm in the office. One task that takes up a lot of my time is going through something called "road logs". It is basically a log of all intersections, parking lots, bridges and overpasses that we come across when we drive the route. After we collect the route I have to watch all of the video and update the road logs. I make sure all of the intersections are there and in proper order, I make sure the entries fit our program's format, and most importantly I add the updated mileage. I posted one entry above as an example.....imagine a whole .xls list of these and on a 500 mile long route (like Blue Ridge Parkway) can take up a lot of time. While I'm doing this I also look at the GPS we collect with the truck and compare that with the parking lot shapes our program collects (image of GPS is above). Oh, and if you were wondering...YES it is boring, but the pay check is always nice :). I also do other things in the office but I'll save that for another post.

Funny Sign

November 6, 2009

Today I was watching some video from when we were working in Blue Ridge. I came across this sign. It is a pretty funny sign. If you are on blue ridge parkway be careful because if you take a curve too fast you might fly off your bike with your arms up in the air! Ha! A park service guy told us that people steal those signs all of the time so they started selling something similar at their visitor center and they also put the image on t-shirts.

So Many Miles

November 3, 2009
Today I tried to find the truck mileage from when I first started this job. I found something close to when I started. Over the past 5 years and 3 months I've been in the truck for approximately 131,500 miles! What a journey. That is a lot of miles and a lot of parks. Not all have been easy, as you have read the truck has put up a pretty big fight over the years. I'm glad the truck is going into hibernation for a few months. We will take that truck out one last time in February but from then on everything will be collected with a brand new truck.

The Drive to Denver

November 1, 2009
Today I made it back to Denver. We drove the truck back so we took I-70. It seems that no matter how many national parks I've been to nothing compares to the Rockies, especially when there is blue sky and snow on the mountains. The drive went pretty smooth but we stopped in Eagle, CO at a rest area only to find out the "real" bathrooms were closed and they had outhouses/porta potties/biffies...no thanks. We went to Wendy's instead. Maybe some of you have heard on the news but over the past few months mass budget cuts in several states means closing rest areas. Which is OK if they cover up the signs on the interstate so you don't waste time going to a place that is closed. The rest drive was pretty uneventful until the last 10 minutes when there was the moment of panic when I thought I might be getting pulled over for speeding. The cops have this pretty sneaky hiding spot on I-70 east of town and today I wasn't thinking about it. Sure enough a cop was there and as I pass his lights go on BUT luckily the guy next to me was the one getting pulled over. He was in the left lane and I was in the right lane, he was passing me. I have no idea who the person was but "thanks for taking one for the team!" After I dropped off Jeff to get his car (near the airport) I decided to wash the ARAN for one last time before it hibernates for a couple of months. I then took the truck to the office and headed home. What a weird feeling. No more trips in that truck...one last trip will be in February but then all trips after that will be with our brand new truck. I can't wait!

Even though I will not be traveling in the truck over the next couple of months I will still make periodic posts to my blog so keep checking. I will still be traveling over the next couple of months but it will mostly be for meetings (and a couple of vacations I have planned). I am definitely looking forward to less stress and getting things done around the house.

Oh, all of the snow that fell in the Denver area last Wed./Thrus. has pretty much melted. There is still some snow on the grass but the roads are clear and dry. We timed that one perfectly :) !

Colorado National Monument

October 31, 2009
Today we collected all of Colorado National Monument. The pavement computer had a bad morning, I had to restart it three times before it was happy. We also had a campground to collect and since it is off season two of the loops were locked. We had to go to the Visitor Center and track someone down to open the gates. We ended up spending about an hour in the campground that only had 4 routes dealing with the pavement computer and locked gates....that is a long time so such a few number of routes. After that the day went pretty smooth.

This is the last park of our program's cycle 4. This means that this is the last park I had to collect with this truck! The new truck is currently being put together and should be ready in January! I'll write more about that later but I'm pretty excited. Today was a big milestone and it means I've traveled a lot of miles and been to a lot of parks.

To Grand Junction, CO.

October 30, 2009
Well, today is Friday and were are also checking out of our hotel and have all of our stuff in the truck...that is two strikes against us even before the day starts. Yesterday I had some problems with our grade reading in the afternoon, nothing horrible but something needed to be fixed. We took out the grade box and looked at all of the connections and cleaned things up hoping that would help but no luck. This morning the grade readings were still bad. After some pondering I thought it couldn't really be the grade sensor itself so we decided to take out one of the computers and take out the grade timer card. We cleaned things up and replaced the card and it fixed our problem. It was only about a 20 minutes set back. On the way to the South end of Canyonlands the roads were pretty wet and there was a pile of snow in the middle of each lane. It was very discouraging. It was that way for about 25 miles and then when we were about 3 miles from the start of our route it was like magic...the roads cleared up and they were dry! It must not have snowed that much in the park. I can't believe how much luck we have had on this trip. It seems I only have bad luck with the truck and the weather but this trip we have been so lucky and we are getting things done without any real delay...crazy! Maybe this will be how my life is when we get the new truck...little problems and less stress. We finished up Canyonlands today and drove to Grand Junction and will collect Colorado Monument tomorrow.

I posted a photo of an arch in Canyonlands called wooden shoe arch, it looks like a wooden shoe!

Oh, and just an FYI - in Canyonlands the view from the North side is much more impressive than the view from the South side. The North side looks similar to the Grand Canyon!

During the drive to Grand Junction a radio station was asking people to call in with Halloween jokes. I thought this one was cute...
Q: Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
A: Because he didn't have any guts!

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

October 29, 2008
Today I woke up to a dry parking lot! I was surprised it didn't snow overnight. What luck. The roads were dry in Arches and the North section of Canyonlands. We collected about 101 miles today which is a pretty good day. We found a few more arches today...not even close to the 2000 that are supposed to be in the park but I might be up to 15 if I'm lucky. The parks here are pretty empty I think because it is so cold. We didn't have anyone ask us about the truck today....amazing.

To Moab, UT

October 28, 2009
Today I expected to wake up to snow on the ground but there was nothing in Flagstaff. The 5 1/2 hour drive North to Moab, UT went well. That is the 2nd time I've driven that same exact route during this job...annoying. There isn't much to look at along the way and only a couple of small towns. There is a pretty big snow storm over Colorado and it was supposed to hit Eastern Utah but in Moab there are only a few flurries and nothing on the ground (yet). I'm happy about that! We arrived in Moab around 3:30 (back to MTN time) and decided to go to Arches to check out the roads. They looked slightly damp so we didn't collect. We decided to take a few photos and go on a short hike...very short because it was cold outside. The park was not really what I was expecting. We only saw two arches but apparently there are over 2,000 arches in the park so I'm still looking. I was also surprised to see a lot of sand. I was expecting more rocky soil. The picture of the snow I took using my zoom. There is no snow in the park but looking South this is what we could see. Tomorrow could be a bust if it snows a lot tonight or it could be a pretty good day...it is too early to predict.

Wupatki, Sunset Crater and Walnut Canyon National Monuments

October 27, 2009
Today we collected three smaller parks in the Flagstaff, AZ area. Wupatki (dates back to the 1100s) and Walnut Canyon (dates between 1125 to 1250) both are ruins of old communities. Sunset Crater is an old volcano "Sunset Crater Volcano was born in a series of eruptions sometime between 1040 and 1100. Lava flows and cinders still look as fresh and rugged as the day they formed." http://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm
It was very windy outside today. The truck was blowing around and sage brush was hitting the truck with quite a bit of force. I took a photo of some sage brush blowing across the road. Despite the wind the truck held up pretty well. I only got 2 errors that caused a re-run. The pavement cameras didn't initialize right one time but those were the only three issues we had today. We were done collecting around 2pm so we took a short 1 mile hike in Walnut Canyon to look at the ruins there. It was a nice hike but there was an 185 foot elevation drop at the beginning, which was fine on the way down but on the way back up asthma set in again...so much for living in denial. Looks like another DRs visit might be in my future to get an inhaler (which I haven't had since about 2001)...uhhhh.

Montazuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments

October 26, 2009
I called for a cab to pick me up at 8:30am from my friend's house...the door bell rang at 8:10am! Luckily I was ready but not happy to cut my visit 20 minutes short...every minute counts you know. I grabbed my bags and was off to pick up the truck at a Ford dealer shop. The truck is really a money pit. I know that was a movie once (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091541/) but I just want to say that money pits really do exist...I drive one. I'm very, very glad we are getting a new truck! After getting the truck I headed to the airport to pick up Jeff and then we headed North to Montazuma Castle and Tuzigoot. Those parks are really small and the truck was cooperating so we finished the parks in no time. We were able to take a couple of short walks to see the old dwellings. I attached a couple of the photos. Oh, It was 85 degrees in Phoenix and then we get up to Flagstaff and it is only in the 50s!