Moving On...

December 13, 2010

Things have been slow on the travel end. The truck has been stationary while the data processors create some park databases. In the meantime I have gotten a new job! One that will only require travel with in one county! After 6 1/2 years on the road and with the same program this will be a new adventure. I probably won't update this blog so check me out on Facebook!

Thanks to everyone who "followed" my travel adventures!

Black Friday

November 26, 2010

Gotta LOVE black friday! Last year at this time I was in Peoria, AZ doing my black friday shopping and this year in MN! Yep, I was up at 3:15am to partake in the craziness. It actually wasn't all that bad and I didn't feel super rushed. It was a nice, early morning spent with my sister driving to various stores. We had our list and only missed out on a couple of things due to low store supplies. I think my brother-in-law got the worst of it at Wal-mart when he went at 11pm for the midnight deals. He said it was really crazy and the $4.00 zhu-zhu pets flew off the shelves pretty quick!


Here is a picture of me and Rori. She turned away from the camera at the last minute but she is still pretty cute. She had her sunglasses on because the sun was coming in through the window and she said she couldn't see. I guess it was a little bright, I'm squinting a bit too but sunglasses in the house...kids :).

Flight to MN

November 24, 2010

Home for Thanksgiving, what could go wrong? The trip wasn't all that bad, it was just a late night. My flight was scheduled to leave around 6:30pm from Dulles but had a 1/2 an hour delay due to maintenance problems. That was just enough of an delay for me to miss my connecting flight in Minneapolis down to Rochester. I had the last flight of the night which didn't help matters. The airlines offered to pay for two meals and put me up in a hotel but Rochester is only 1.5 hours South. I asked them if they would pay the $30.00 to put me on a shuttle...they said "no". I guess they would rather spend over $100.00 to put me up in a Hilton. The flight to Rochester the next morning wasn't until about 10:30am so I decided to pay the $30.00 and get on the shuttle bus. I got home around midnight.

One good thing was I met a guy on the plane from Dulles to Minneapolis who also happened to be from Rochester...and he wasn't "old" :). Pretty crazy I think since Rochester is a "smaller" town. We ended up talking for most of the flight which made the time go by fast!

Washington DC for the Afternoon

November 20, 2010

I decided to go down to the National Mall today and walk around for a bit and eat lunch. It was a nice day out. Here are a few pictures I took along the way.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial - My favorite memorial!
I just started reading the book Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter. It is interesting to think of Abe Lincoln as a Vampire Hunter! The first 60 pages have been pretty good...


Washington Monument

Washington Monument with a Marine One chopper.

Minneapolis Snow

Saturday November 13, 2010

I flew to MSP on Saturday only to be met by the first big snow storm of the season. I think they ended up getting about 12 inches! No airport delays though and I even had a layover in Chicago! I arrived about 15 minutes early...I love United Airlines!

MSP had a line of plows on clearing the pavement...

Me and My Sister...

November 13, 2010

Home to MN and Back

October 8 to 11, 2010

This weekend I went home to MN. It has been too long since I've seen my nieces and nephew. The flight home on the 8th went well. On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch to get a couple of pumpkins to cook and a couple to carve. Little Aurora and Abbi came with us. Here are a few pictures. Rori really is a happy girl :) I think she didn't want her picture taken at first...On Sunday my aunt, uncle and cousins came up from Iowa. It was nice to see everyone again. We all met up at my Grandma's house and hung out for an hour or two catching up. I was at my sister's house in the evening and the kids were playing. Aurora (Rori) was jumping on me then went in the play room. She came back out and ran toward me like she was going to jump on me. My sister said "Aurora, don't even think about it." Aurora turned around and went in the play room and said mommy scared me...sad. Then two seconds later the protector Leonora comes out of the play room scolding my sister. She looks at us and says "Did you scare her? (pause) Did you? (pause & shaking her finger at us) Because that's not nice!" then she went back in the play room. It was pretty funny to hear a 3 year old say that and stick up for her twin sister! I wish I could have gotten that on tape or at least taken a photo. Here is a photo of the little protector riding her bike.Monday the flight back also went well. When I landed I took a couple of really cool photos of the sunset with the wing of the plane in the picture....then the unthinkable happened. The touch screen on my cell phone stopped working! There is no saving it. My cool sunset pictures are lost forever. It is going to take 7 days to get a new phone so I'm using a non-touch screen phone. It is OK but it takes some getting used to again. It is going to be a long 7 days.

Traffic That Never Ends

October 7, 2010

I've known for quite some time that the traffic out here was pretty bad but now that I get stuck in it, uhhhh is all I have to say. During the week it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to go about 20 miles. On a good day/weekend it takes about 35 minutes.

I've come to realize that the stop lights out here are extra, super looooonnnnng. I timed a couple of them and it took 3 minutes to get the green light. It wouldn't be so bad if there were only a couple of lights but when they are on every block it is hard to get anywhere.

During my journey today I tried to take a couple of pictures with my cell...not the best but hopefully you will get the idea. The above photo was taken around 5:15pm. There are 5 lanes of traffic on each side, 10 lane highway, jam packed.The photo below was taken around 7:15pm. The only difference is it is dark out. You can see the stream of lights in the distance...all cars. I think it is time for the DC metro area to build some more bridges over the Potomac River so drivers have more options.

Random Things Around Town

October 6, 2010

Here are some things I've noticed around town while I've been back. It has been really nice being home. Above is a picture I took with my phone of the sunset. Not the best picture but you get the idea. The weather is much cooler these days so more people are outside with their animals. There are more animals in this apartment complex than I thought. I saw a guy outside with his little dog who was taking a bathroom break. The owner said to the dog while it was doing it's job "good boy" over and over. Really!?! I know when a dog catches a ball or a Frisbee people usually say "good boy" but when it is going to the bathroom...does a dog really need praise for that? Hummm, I thought that was odd. I also saw a guy who had a pretty big black cat on a leash. I thought OK, he doesn't want the cat to walk/run away but when I passed them in my car they crossed the street and the cat in the lead! I've never seen a cat being walked before.

I went to visit the dentist the other day and went into the restroom. The building was an older building but the bathroom looked newly remodeled, complete with a TV! What in the world? In between the mirrors was a TV playing Fox News. I guess it was OK to listen to but I've never seen anything like that before in a bathroom. Technology is everywhere.
One last thing....
I was reading a paper I got from a dietitian that listed baked kale chips. I've never heard of such a things. I looked them up on the Internet and it seems people like them. I can't image how they taste, I think they might taste like grass but I've only read good reviews. It might be worth a try!

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....