Zion National Park

October 3, 3009
Today we finished collecting in ZION! It was a pretty good day. We only had one collection error that made us restart the route. The truck still has issues....Today some guy at a rock shop told us we were leaking axle oil on the rear tire. I said "what else is new". There really is a leak and it is pretty obvious but I just like to pretend that I didn't see it and live in ignorant bliss. Just another thing to get fixed. To bad we can't tape up that problem.

I took a couple of more photos from the truck. We didn't really have any time to get out and enjoy the park. There was a traffic jam near the 1.1 mile long tunnel because some camper dumped transmission fluid inside the tunnel. It created a pretty big back up. Other campers were not allowed in the tunnel at all because they couldn't pass the stalled camper. I'm surprised that it wasn't our truck that dumped transmission fluid...that is our kind of luck.

We saw this advertisement on the back of a park shuttle bus (above photo). It looks like our hands when we are done changing controller boards and timer chips.

Zion National Park

October 2, 2009

This morning we left Bryce Canyon and headed for Zion. The drive there was pretty uneventful (which is always good). We collected 2 routes in Zion when I noticed the van was getting hot inside and a computer started beeping. I jumped in the back near the computers and it was really, really warm back there. I looked at the AC controls and sure enough they were on AC but nothing was coming out of the vents. I never would have predicted that would happen today...our rear AC was broken. We had to take a detour to a Ford shop to figure out what the problem was. The mechanic determined that the "door" inside the AC unit was broken. After some discussion we decided that since they didn't have the part to fix it and we don't care how "pretty" the truck looks (as long as it works) we all decided that taping up the door would be the best solution for now. After about 2 hours we were on the road again. We headed back up to the park and collected some more routes. During collection I got an error that a computer was not responding and realized it had shut off. We discovered a bad power supply. We had to take another detour to Best Buy with hope of finding a power supply that would work. Luckily we found one and at 7:00pm we changed the power supply in the parking lot. It worked! At 8:00pm we finally got to eat dinner and at 9:30pm we finally checked into the hotel for the night.

Bryce Canyon National Park

October 1, 2009
Today was a pretty good day. We had some grade errors in the morning but we took out the grade computer and fixed our problem. The rest of the day went pretty smooth. We finished around 3:00pm and decided to take a short 1 mile loop hike. It was pretty and it was nice to get some exercise.

As far as run-ins with people go let's just say I'm disappointed. Here is a little insight as to why...
1st - People shouldn't be so quick to assume they are right especially where there is quite a bit of ignorance on their part. Not letting me get a word in didn't help. I ended up having to just get in the truck and let him continue to complain while I drove away. Little did he know that I also dislike the exact same thing he was complaining about but I guess that didn't matter. I guess I can take the verbal abuse...why not.
2nd - If you are a cashier in a store and someone (like me) walks up to pay for something the cashier should at least ring up the items and not turn their back and tell a gossip story to another cashier leaving me standing there waiting for the gossip session to be over. I ended up just leaving my stuff there and walking out. I'll never understand that one and I'm not about to stand there like I don't matter....

Bryce Canyon National Park

September 30, 2009
Today we spent most of the day working on the truck. This morning the battery was dead because we left the small fridge plugged in. Usually it is OK but when it gets cold outside we can't do it. Last night was pretty cold so this morning we tried to jump it but our booster pac wasn't charged so we just swapped out the battery with our spare. We drove to Bryce, Utah. We turned on the computer systems and realized there was a problem with the auto iris on the pavement cameras. That is not a common issue. We ended up having to take apart a computer. We got that fixed and then I said "next we will have roughness issues" as a joke. Well, about an hour later the roughness computer randomly shuts off. I should have known better. We've learn in the truck to not say anything because as soon as we mention it, it is sure to happen. Today I forgot that "rule" and I learned my lesson again. We spent most of the day fixing various issues and only collected about 18 miles, 2 routes in the park. This is a pretty small park so we still have a good chance of finishing tomorrow if the truck cooperates.

A couple of people asked us about the truck today. One guy was cleaver. When Jeff said "we inventory the roads" the guy said "why do people steal roads or something?". Funny guy ha?

Oh, and just to put it out there I'm at 40 hours for the week already and it is only Wednesday!

Great Basin National Park

September 29, 2009

Today started at 7:30am in Grand Junction, CO and ended at 10:30pm in Beaver, UT. The truck hit a bit of a milestone today and reached 250,000 miles! We drove to Great Basin National Park and stopped by the first visitor center to see if our package of parts had arrived yet. We were told it would be going to the other visitor center so we headed up there and after a few minutes of "where is the package" we finally got it...whew. We installed the new boards and went to work at 2:00pm. The truck was definitely not on it's best behavior which seems very typical especially when we are in a time crunch. We got just about all collection software bugs possible. Around 6:00pm we had 4 campground routes left but the sun was low and was making our images go black so we had to sit and wait for the sun to go down...sounds like fun but not really when you know you have a 2 hour drive to the hotel ahead of you still. We ended up leaving the park around 7:30pm. There was one gas station/restaurant/motel/casino right by the park. We stopped there and filled up and decided to eat quick. We drove on a road for 2 hours only to see 2 cars during that 2 hour drive...middle of nowhere! We rolled into Beaver, checked into the hotel and called it a day. Another 15 hour day today...after working 14 hours yesterday I'll probably hit 40 hours today (in 3 days) gotta love it!

We didn't get to really enjoy the park or see anything other than what we saw from the truck so I took a couple of photos from the truck.