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.