Cape Canaveral, FL

February 28, 2010

This morning we took a quick walk down to Cocoa beach. It was a 2 hour round trip walk. We saw the Kennedy Space Center launch pads and were able to take a couple of photos. We also saw a beached whale but by the time we made it to the whale the beach rescue people already had it in a truck to take it to their lab. They said it was sick so they would try to find out why and save it. It is a nice sunny day, kind of windy. We are headed to the ship now...more later.

We took a shuttle from the hotel to the port. We checked in and got our ship pass card. The whole process went pretty quickly. We were pretty confused where to check in for Sylvia's group but we finally found her check-in desk. Our cruise ship was huge and it took a bit of time to learn where things were. We found our room which was small but nice. We stood outside on deck as we left the port and took a photo of another cruise ship leaving.

Cape Canaveral, FL.

February 27, 2010
Today I flew from Denver to Orlando, FL. It was a 3 1/2 hour flight and I slept most of the way. I met my sister at the airport. I came in on United and she came in on American so that was two different baggage claim areas, which made things a little interesting. It also took quite some time for us to get our bags but at least our bags did arrive and they weren't lost. We took a shuttle van to a hotel near the port. On the way we saw the Kennedy Space Center in the distance. It is a pretty great sight to see. The last time I saw it was a few years ago when I was working out here at Cape Canaveral National Seashore and then the view of the Kennedy Space Center was from the other side (North). http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html
We are catching the hotel shuttle to the port tomorrow at 11:30am. I'll write more if we have an Internet connection on the boat.

Upcoming Cruise

February 23, 2010
Several people have asked me where I'm going on the cruise and my answer is usually "I'm not sure". I haven't really had time to think about it much, other than getting the necessary plane ticket and ride to the port. I leave on Saturday but don't plan on packing until Friday :). Packing has become second nature for me, I could do it in my sleep so there is no real rush :). Anyway, here is the cruise itinerary if you are curious. Some of you know that I am not really a world traveler so if I stay on the boat the whole time I'll be content but I'm sure my sister wouldn't appreciate that very much. It should be a good trip and I'm looking forward to a vacation.

This cruise is with Sylvia Browne so our days at sea will be spent at her seminars. http://www.rosetours.com/sylvia/

CRUISE ITINERARY
Departure
Sunday February 28, 2010
Port Canaveral, Florida
12:00PM(board) - 04:00 PM
Monday March 1, 2010
Cococay, Bahamas
7:00AM - 4:00PM
Tuesday March 2, 2010
Day at Sea
Wednesday March 3, 2010
St. Thomas
11:00AM - 7:00PM
Thursday March 4, 2010
St. Maarten
8:00AM - 5:00PM
Friday March 5, 2010
Day at Sea
Saturday March 6, 2010
Day at Sea
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Port Canaveral, Florida
07:00 AM

Back to the Office

February 22, 2010
Today was back to the office. The day went by pretty fast. We took a closer look at the van and realized it would be best to take it to Tulsa for repair. The front laser/bumper it is attached to was bent during our slide into the ditch. We took the van to Ford for some service. It needed an oil change and we also wanted them to look things over to make sure things were OK under the truck.

I'm in a scramble to get papers ready for a lender in Virginia and trying to put some things away in my condo. It is now officially on the market...cross your fingers! I'm super excited about the move. To throw a damper on things I realized last night that my neighbors pipes are still leaking! As some of you know I've had on going battles with the upstairs people having water leaks ever since I've moved into this place about 4 1/2 years ago. Enough is enough! Looking after other peoples pipes is not how I like to spend my free time.

This Saturday my sister and I are going on a cruise. If they have internet on the boat I'll try to post to my blog.

Salt Lake to Denver

February 20, 2010

Today was a long, long, long day. The snow started early and basically didn't end. We hit patches of clear weather but those clear patches didn't last for long. The trip across Wyoming was typical for the winter and not enjoyable at all. We got to Laramie, WY and heard that I-80 was closed over The Summit. That is a pass I've driven many times and often wondered why there was even a road there, it is pretty dangerous in the winter. We found out the road was closed due to an 11 truck pile up. We had to take Hwy 287 from Laramie to Fort Collins since I-80 was closed. Hwy 287 is a two lane road that also has some bad spot. We found one of those spots at 4:00pm! We were headed south bound and started sliding. The struck spun 1/2 way around looking north bound and went into the oncoming lane and we slide sideways into the ditch. We were very luck that it happened where the ditch was pretty flat and there was no oncoming traffic when we spun into the other lane. The whole thing could have been much, much worse. We are all OK. We were very luck to find a tow truck that was able to come right away from Laramie. It took 1 & 1/2 hours from the time we went in the ditch to the time we were on the road again. When we were on the road again it was starting to get dark and it was still lightly snowing. We had another 1 & 1/2 to Denver, on a good day but with the bad weather what should have been an 8 hour day turned out to be a 13 hour day. I got home at 10:00pm and was very thankful to be home and finally out of the truck.

Reno to Salt Lake

February 19, 2010
Today we drove across the entire state of Nevada and 1/2 of Utah. We ended up in Salt Lake City. We hit a few snow flurries along the way and we had to stop at McDonald's for lunch in Battle Mountain, NV. McDonald's is never my first (or second choice) for a place to eat but it was either McDonald's or gas station food.

Yesterday by our hotel in Reno there was a street sign that said "street calming ahead". I've never seen or heard of such a thing. I had to ask what that meant and I guess it means "speed bumps". I don't know why the sign didn't just say "speed bumps"! I looked up street calming on the Internet thinking I wouldn't find much but I was wrong! I guess it is a pretty big engineering topic...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_calming

The photo is of the view outside of my hotel room.

Oh, I found this on YouTube....Shaun White and his private pipe...amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Zoh2JC_XA&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQTodf1Oc28&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ZxPqDnNvQ&feature=channel

Crescent City to Reno

February 18, 2010
Today we left Crescent City. I walked out of my hotel room to put my bag in the truck, pulled my room door shut and felt slime on my hand. What a way to start the morning! I realized that some joker decided to slime all of the door handles. I went to the front desk to see if they had a housekeeper working yet that could clean off the door handles. Luckily there was a lady there who was able to do it before other people woke up to the surprise. It ended up being the talk of the morning at the front desk.

During the drive from Crescent City, CA to Reno, NV we saw a bald eagle and drove by Mount McLoughlin, which was very pretty and none of us in the truck had ever heard of it before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_McLoughlin

I was also keeping an eye out for "Hendrickson Trucking Company" semis. I usually see several of them in CA since they are based out of Sacramento but didn't see any today until 5:15pm! I finally saw on heading west back to Sacramento. I'm not sure if the owner is related to my family line but it might be possible. One of these days I'll have to check into it. http://www.hendricksontrucking.com/Home.html

We rolled into Reno around 7:30pm. It was a long day in the van and I'm glad to get into the hotel room. It took about 1/2 an hour to check in though...confusion with the reservations.

Also, a bit of a side note. If anyone missed seeing Shaun White in snowboarding yesterday who won an Olympic gold you must check this out. I only found one YouTube link and I'm not sure how long it will be posted but what an amazing run! What you are seeing is his 2nd run. His first run won him the Gold so this run was basically for the fans!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcJgFqpUowg
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7VZ1y2vbMU

Redwood National Park

February 17, 2010

Today we finished collecting in the park. This morning there was a lot of fog but by the afternoon most of it had lifted. There is an elk viewing field in the park and there are typically several elk hanging around. Today I was able to get a photo of a couple of them. When we were finished collecting we stopped at the beach for a minute and I took a few more photos.

Redwood National Park

February 16, 2010

Today the sun was out but the roads are still too wet for us to collect. There is no rain in the forecast so we are hoping for a great day tomorrow. To pass the time we went up to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove and took a short hike. It was really pretty but very wet, I got mud on my pants from walking on the trail.

While we were driving we saw a sign that someone altered. They added feet and a fishing pole. I think it would have been more funny to just have the big feet since we are in big foot country and skip the fishing pole. I took a quick photo.

Redwood National Park

February 15, 2010

When I woke up I tried to take a panoramic photo of the ocean standing on my balcony. I quickly realized that the photo probably wouldn't look quite right. If you look close you can see where the two photos are stitched together because the waves are a bit different but overall it is a pretty good photo so I decided to post it.

This morning was a wet morning...not good for us. We left the hotel at 10:00am and after no rain all night the roads were still wet! There is a lot of moisture in the air and with heavy tree cover things do not dry very fast. We were able to collect 3 routes...better than nothing but not great. We had some trouble with the right roughness laser that took a couple of hours to troubleshoot. We are still not sure if the laser is going bad or just getting false negatives from another sensor. Since the roads were wet troubleshooting didn't really delay anything but just added a bit of frustration since we have a new truck. The dream of a perfect truck will have to stay just that...a dream :). Overall it really wasn't that bad and I'd take troubleshooting this truck any day over working on the old truck!

On the way back to the hotel I pulled into an amusement area "Trees of Mystery" that has a statue of Paul Bunyan (mythological lumberjack) and babe the blue ox. I'm convinced they took the idea from Bemidji, MN. The stature here in California is OK but my vote is the one in MN is better :) . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan_and_Babe_the_Blue_Ox

We got back to the hotel around 5:30pm and I was able to take a quick walk on the beach and took a couple of photos. I was able to get a pretty good evening/dusk photo of the light house.

The Drive Up To Redwood National Park

Sunday February 14, 2010
Today we drove North about 6 1/2 hours to Redwood National Park. I'm happy to say that the old truck has been retired and headed back to Denver and the new truck is now in Redwood National Park! We drove through wine country but the vines are bare this time of year. I tried to get a quick photo from the truck...it turned out blurry. We stopped at a gas station and I saw a building that said "high school" then on the same building I saw "wine tasting"...ha! I did a double take because I was thinking that wasn't right. I realized it was an old school converted into a wine tasting facility. WOW...I was going to say "you know you are in wine country when they have wine tasting at high school" :)! About 2 hours from the park it started to rain. It rained the rest of the way. It was foggy and wet but it made for some pretty scenery. We stopped by the visitor center quick, we made it with 5 minutes to spare before they closed. I took a few photos there. I could hear the ocean but couldn't see it! We rolled up to the hotel around 5:00pm. The hotel is right on the beach and I took a few photos of the sun set and the view from my room balcony. The rain has finally ended and I hope the roads will dry up tomorrow.

Point Reyes - Day 2

February 13, 2010
Today we went back up to Point Reyes National Seashore to finish our collection in that park. We got there and the roads were a bit damp but we were still able to collect. As far as the trucks go the older truck was in a bad mood again and caused several problems. Since I was working in the new truck I didn't have to directly deal with the problems. Our collection in the new truck went really smooth...I like that truck more and more. Collection is really simple and once we get a few software updates things will be even better!

It turned out to be a really nice day. The sun came out and the waves were HUGH! It was amazing. I tried to get a couple photos but you can't really capture the size of the waves in a photo.

To add "excitement" to the day some random guy decided to flip us off. I have no idea why. He was walking along the road and decided to show us his middle finger as we drove by. I guess he didn't know we were collecting images...or maybe he did and that is why he did it? The photo may not be totally appropriate for my blog but this blog is about my travels and this is just another thing I get to see while working....this time I got proof. On a better note I did get to meet a lady for a brief minute or so today that ended up giving us a box of chocolate chip cookies. It was nice because it was a long day with no restaurants very close to the park so a snack was nice and appreciated.

This evening I walked down to the wharf to Boudin http://www.boudinbakery.com/ to get some soup for dinner. On the way back there was a homeless person sleeping on the street. A family walks by and the dad said to his daughter who looked about 6 years old..."See that guy, he didn't go to school" an interesting thought for the day.

Rain Day - San Francisco

February 12, 2010
Today we took the older truck to the maintenance shop. They noticed that the transmission fluid was 4 qts low! About 3 weeks ago we took the truck to Ford to have them check everything over. They said they would do their multi point inspection. That came back "normal". I guess their inspection doesn't include checking transmission fluid! I hope that fixes the problem. We also took the new truck to a glass shop to get a new, un-tinted piece of glass in the back of the truck so we will have lighter rear facing images (to read signs). It was a busy morning but a lot of time was spent in traffic. It took us 45 minutes to go about 10 miles...crazy! We drove through Chinatown and that was interesting. It is such a busy area it reminded me of New York City. I was able to take a stroll along the wharf around dinner time and took some photos. I love taking photos of Alcatraz. We wanted to go out there today but tickets were sold out :(. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to clear and we are headed back up to Point Reyes National Seashore to finish our collection at that park.

Point Reyes - Day 1

February 11, 2010
Today was a very, very, very long day. I left my hotel room at 7:00am and got back at 9:30pm. We spent the first hour of the day troubleshooting the new truck. Then spent the rest of the day trying to keep the old truck running...we wasted a lot of good daylight fixing issues with that truck and then hit rain around 5:00 which ended our collection. The list of problems are too numerous to list but one major item is the transmission is going out in the older truck. We had it replaced about 2 years ago so I think it is still under warranty. When the RPMs kept going up and up even when the truck was in park I pretty much opened the door and ran away from the thing. I had no idea what was happening and didn't rule out the possibility of seeing a fire or something come out of the engine area. Luckily it wasn't that bad and Eric (who was driving) turned the truck off so we both could take a deep breath and try to process what just happened.

I did take some photos today but don't have the energy to get them off my camera so I'll try to do that tomorrow and post a couple.

Oh, we did see two coyotes today! That was really neat to see but no luck getting a photo. The truck was actually running at that point so pulling over and stopping was not in the cards.

John Muir, Eugene O'Neill, Presidio Parks

February 10, 2010

Yesterday the roads were wet in the morning but the afternoon was productive and a draining day. The older truck was not cooperating the best and I had to restart the systems twice, which is a bit of a process. I took some pretty good photos of the truck while we were waiting for the roads to dry.

We were lucky with no rain today and we collected some smaller parks that most people may not know about. Eugne O'Neill requires a reservation and is located in a gated community. Here is some information from the park service website http://www.nps.gov/euon/index.htm

"America's only Nobel Prize winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill, chose to live in Northern California at the climax of his writing career. Isolated from the world and within the walls of his home, O'Neill wrote his final and most memorable plays; The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten."

You can find information on the John Muir site here http://www.nps.gov/JOMU/index.htm

We've had some long days working out some kinks in the new truck and keeping the old truck running. The scenery is great though and the weather has been nice so I can't complain.

Muir Woods National Monument and San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

February 8, 2010
Today the sun was out in the morning so we started collecting at the San Francisco Maritime park. It is right by Fisherman's Wharf and full of people. We have four routes to run there, two are "normal" street roads which we ran but the other two are going to be tricky. By the time we got some new software installed on our new truck the area had too many people so we'll have to collect the remaining two routes later. We then went to the Fort Point area that is right under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw a few surfers in the water, collected a couple routes and then headed North over the bridge to Muir Woods. We had one short route to run at Muir Woods but those short routes usually take up a lot of time. The route was covered by tree canopy so it was dark...the camera images came out dark and we reran the route 3 times to try to make it look better. We had little luck. While sitting in the parking lot looking at images I met an interesting, nice guy who wanted to know about our truck. He was from Reston, VA which is very, very close to Sterling, VA where our eastern office is located (soon to be my new home). I ended up talking to him about the truck for at least 15 minutes. His daughter attends an all girls school that focuses on engineering. He thought it was neat that I was a female and in the truck and he was going to share the info I told him about our truck with his daughter and one of her teachers. He was a nice guy and broke up the monotony of the day. It started to rain at 4:00pm so we had to call it a day and go back to the hotel and process our data. All in all the day went well.

San Francisco

February 7, 2010
After working 57 hours this week we decided to took the day off. It was a sunny, nice day. In the morning I decided to go to the Cable Car Museum http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/ . It was 1 mile North from my hotel but looking at the distance on a flat map always looks easier than the actual hike there. San Francisco streets are no where near flat so at least half of the walk there was straight up! It was good exercise. For lunch I took a walk down to the wharf and went to In-N-Out Burger, again there was no place to sit. I ended up walking over by the water and found a spot to sit and eat. I saw these two birds close to where I was so I took their photo :). I then took a walk down to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park where we have a handful of routes to collect...should be interesting. These "roads" are basically walking paths full of people.

Oh, last night I caught the end of an HBO movie "Temple Grandin". Luckily our hotel has HBO as one of their 17 channels...so much for the typical A&E or Travel Channel. Anyway, it is an amazing story about a lady who lives with autism and had become very successful in life. http://www.templegrandin.com/ From the website "Dr. Grandin presently works as a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. " I think after people see this HBO film more people will want to take one of her classes at CSU!

Here are a couple You Tube clips I found...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ycu3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAu6_Llfh2A&feature=PlayList&p=6F7275739B1BB023&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wt1IY3ffoU