Around Sterling

September 28, 2010

My mom came to town this past weekend and we hung around and did some errands and decided to try some canning. I've never done it before but needing a low sodium diet has led to drastic measures...canning is one of them. I figured if I could can my own tomatoes I wouldn't have to worry about all of the sodium in the cans you buy at the store. We went to an outdoor market and got some tomatoes and did our best. It was a learning experience but things actually turned out pretty good. Here is a photo of some of the cans...It has been raining here on and off for the past couple of days but we aren't getting any major flooding like MN did a few days ago. I took a couple photos of the evening sky, taken from my deck/porch. Seems like more rain isn't far away.

Rain and Bugs

September 22, 2010
A bit of a storm rolled across Sterling this afternoon. It didn't last long, maybe 1/2 and hour but it brought some pretty heavy rain. Luckily it didn't hail. My car needs a break from the hail damage repair shop. Sterling is on the right side of the red area in the radar image.
These bugs (below) are EVERYWHERE around here. They are a bit annoying. They make this loud clicking noise when they fly. I'm not sure if these are the noise makers at night but there are definatley a lot of them around. One of these things flew in my house the other day and I had my TV remote in my hand so I swung at it. I think that is a natural reflex, right? I actually hit it! Who knew I had such good hand eye coordination. The bug was so hard it just got nocked to the ground and I don't think it even knew something hit it....crazy.

I was looking at the Mount Rainier National Park web cam this morning to see if my traveling partners would be getting a break in the rain. It actually looked pretty dry but this image made me laugh. Can you see the little bug in the lower right area of the image. I guess we aren't the only ones that have problems with bugs flying on the glass and getting in images. I guess bugs know just the right spot to be...

Back Across The Country

September 18, 2010

For staying so close to the Seattle airport I was surprised to have never heard one airplane all night. That building was build well! I headed down to the lobby at 9:10am to catch the 9:20 shuttle. A fire truck pulls up and the guys walk in looking for someone in the lobby who called them needing help. I'm not sure what was wrong but someone was sitting on the floor in the hall (with other's around), I hope they are OK. The security line at the airport was pretty long. It took me 45 minutes! I made it to Denver with and had a really short layover. The flight leaving Denver was 30 minutes late leaving because they had problems loading bags. Even with the 30 minute delay they still didn't get my bag on board. I got to Washington Dulles only to find NO bag. I asked the claim lady where my bag was and she said it was coming in around midnight. I wasn't about to wait around so I filled out a claim so they would deliver my bag. I got it around 8:30am this morning. That was the first time in 6 years on the job/flying so much that my bag didn't make it! The delay wasn't bad and since it was delivered to me I wasn't the one who had to carry the bag up the stairs to my apartment!

Seattle and More Rain

September 17, 2010
Today we were going to try to go to San Juan Island National Historic Park but typical of the upper NW rain has moved into the area. We drove to the ferry dock and the rain/heavy drizzle was constant. The web cams for the island showed fog and rain drops on the lens and damp everything. We decided it wasn't worth the cost of the ferry to ship our truck over there today. We headed down to Lacey, WA (south of Seattle) to run a control site. Control sites are used to compare data and ensure the truck systems are working properly. After the control site runs I was dropped off at a hotel near the airport. I am on my way home tomorrow. My traveling partners are going to brave the rain forecast and try to get a few more parks collected.

Here is the view from my hotel room...If I was much closer to the airport I'd have to be sleeping in it! Amazingly I can't hear any airplanes...yet.

North Cascades National Park - Day 2

September 16, 2010
This morning we fixed the laser light that was bad in the truck. The pavement images look normal again. We hit the road around 11:30. On the way out of town I tried to get a photo of the space needle but it didn't turn out very well. It isn't any taller than the surrounding buildings so it blends in pretty well. We made it to the park around 2:00. We drove in and out of rain showers the whole way to the park. Clouds were hanging around the mountain peaks, which was pretty. When we arrived we knew this had to be quick, the rain was right behind us. A couple of the routes were damp in some spots but nothing terrible. We were very lucky to get this park done. Right after we finished we took a few photos at Diablo Lake. Rain started to roll in and the sky got a bit hazy...It was a pretty good day, we fixed the truck and finished a park.

North Cascades, Drive Thru Only

September 15, 2010
I was actually excited for today, finish this park and get back to civilization. Half of the excitement came true, getting back to civilization. We made it to the park and I noticed a problem with our pavement images. After a couple of hours of troubleshooting it was determined that a laser light on the truck could be bad and the company that made the truck wanted to send out a support guy to fix it. We made our way to Seattle. We went about 20 miles away from the park and it started to rain! The park will probably be soaked if we get a chance to go back...uhhh.
A funny story for the day. We get to Seattle and we were at a stop light waiting for a person to cross the road. My traveling partner says "is that a guy or a girl" and I looked up and said "I don't know" and thought about it then said "I think it is a guy, I'm 80% sure." Then I thought about it some more and I said "wait a minute, he had facial hair!" Why was there any question? He did have an umbrella and tight ankle pants and...OK, maybe there is no excuse for the question but it was pretty funny. Maybe you had to be in the truck. It was after a long morning of driving and a long afternoon of troubleshooting.

Rainy Seattle and lots of traffic, no surprise there...

Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area

September 14, 2010
Today we collected Lake Roosevelt. This park doesn't have a general park sign. Each individual area has a sign so I took one at a campground (above). This is my second time to this park and the diving didn't get any shorter. This is a really long lake/recreation area. We started on the North side and ended in the Southwest. It was a long day of collection but we got it all.The scenery in the north is wooded, lots of trees and the scenery south is prairie, lots of farm fields and open range.After driving out in the prairie the roads take you back in closer to the river, something like 14 miles in. I know it doesn't seem long but when you just want to get somewhere you wonder why they build the roads this way. Anyway, I saw this heron by the water, actually I saw several but this one was the only one I could get an OK photo of. All of the other ones were scared off and flew away for some reason. I also saw a fawn and a bunch of wild turkeys today.At the end of the day we had to find a place to stay. I didn't make any reservations because I wasn't sure how much collecting we would get done. We called some hotels in Coulee Dam, WA but they were booked, well they didn't have any rooms at the rate we needed. We did some more calling around and found a resort that offered us a cottage at the per diem rate of $70.00! If we can get a cottage for $70.00 why can't we get a little hotel room for that? Who knows...Anyway, this place is called Sunbanks Lake Resort and it was pretty nice. It has some bad reviews on Google but I thought the place was pretty decent. It is a campground with cottages and is right on the water. The only complaint I have is that the vaulted ceilings had some spider webs and the high windows has no window coverings. Other than that it was a great place with a full size kitchen and washer and dryer...all for $70.00!The view from the upstairs bedroom, out the window.Taken from the stairs looking down to the living room and kitchenLiving room and deck...

Moving West, Again...

September 13, 2010
This morning was a long morning, actually it was a long night that lead to a long morning. My health is not cooperating again but someday (soon) I can hopefully figure things out. We hit the road around 11 am and made it to Kettle Falls, WA back across the time zone and into the wilderness with some sporadic small towns. Kettle Falls is one of those towns. I've stayed here before so I wasn't disappointed when I saw how small it was :). The town sign is interesting....

Glacier National Park - Day 3

September 12, 2010
Today we finished up collection in Glacier. It was a really nice day out and collection went well. We took a couple of photos at Lake McDonald. I would have loved to be out in a canoe on a day like today!


When we were collecting data on a parking area I saw this bug fly by and land....I took a quick photo. I wasn't that close to it, I didn't want it to fly on me :) so this is a zoomed in shot. It turned out OK.
Tomorrow we head back toward the West.

Glacier National Park - Day 2

September 11, 2010
Another day in Glacier. Today was much more productive than yesterday, we got 90% of the park done! We went over Going to the Sun Road. That is the main road that goes through the park and is very narrow and goes above tree line. This photo was taken near beginning of the route looking east.
On the way up...Still on the way up...we passed several waterfalls along the way.Finally, over the summit and on the way down. I took this one while we were waiting for our turn to go through a one lane construction area. Looks like the peaks got some snow yesterday.We saw some mountain goats on the side of the mountain on the East side across from the St Mary lodge. The goats were really far away and the only reason I saw them was because I heard other people talking about them while I was collecting a parking lot. They looked like really small white specks on the side of the mountain. This is the best photo I could get with my camera. You can see them in the center of the photo.Two Medicine area on the East Side...It was windy and chilly all day. After leaving the park for the LONG drive back to Kalispell the wind was so strong a sudden gust of wind pushed the van pretty quickly. It felt like my heart flew out my arm pit. It took me by surprise but after that I was prepared.

Glacier National Park - Day 1

September, 10, 2010
Today was a long day with little productivity. We are staying on the the west side of Glacier National Park but the park is pretty big and we have several routes on the East side, about a 90 minute drive. We decided to drive to the East side to try and get those routes out of the way but we soon realized today might be a bust. The weather said only a 10% change of showers but it rained ALL day in the park. The perimeter of the park was cloudy with some light sprinkles but once we drove a mile into the park it started down pouring. We did get one route done that went up to the Canadian boarder. That was interesting. This is the 2nd time I've collected this route and the boarder patrol have not gotten any better.

In the next couple of photos you can see the clouds just hanging over the park, but blue sky outside the park...no fair!On the drive back to the hotel we stopped at a huckleberry shop and I got a huckleberry milkshake, finally! I also got a slice of huckleberry pie but i haven't tried it yet...I'm sure it will be good.