I was feeling the need for one more road trip with Roxy – and actually pulled it off. He wanted to go hiking on Rainier with our Park Ranger buddy Sierra. An overnight hike isn’t my cup of tea – but at least I got him up there. Sierra will run him back down the hill to Enumclaw afterwards and he can catch the bus home.
Yep, his bedroom window looks out on Mount Rainier. And here is the common room. Glad to see the Rangers drink beer:
Ranger Sierra was leading the 3PM walk – he switched from the 1PM so we could do it, not realizing I had to leave at 3. As it turned out later, I made phenomenal time getting back to Seattle and probably could have made the walk and still make my 7:30 appointment with a house appraiser. Here he is in a park poster:
Since I was going to miss it, Roxy and I set out on one of the easy trails…yes, I’m hiking AGAIN.
Here are some of the better shots from our outing:
And finally the one that was taken by a German Tourist of the three of us, just before I left to head back to Seattle:
New York isn’t someplace that I really want to visit in July due to the heat and no cheap plane tickets.
Flew into Newark (EWR) on United, using a ton (50,000 miles) for my First Class seat. Before the airline switched to “dynamic pricing” of its award seats, it would have been half that. But I had them in the account, so why not (other than it would have gotten me one-way to Europe in Busienss). And I did get my favorite seat…
Nothing like a pre-flight cocktail when you had to get up at 4:30am. And then there was breakfast:
Actually got a couple of hours of sleep on the plane – must be exhaustion since I don’t usually sleep on planes.
And, the plane was running about 45 minutes late. Add being next to the last stop on the airport shuttle, I was almost 5pm by the time I got to the condo – but boys (Gnarlene and Scott) had already been hanging out for an hour in the lobby – pooped from walking.
Nice place The Colonels got us:
Sadly, no balcony, though there is a communal one up on 33 – we are on the 20th Floor. Decent place, decent view:
A big shout out to Scott for the FABULOUS pictures from his iPhone. Compare his to mine – mind you, it was evening when I took mine.
From the 33rd Floor common area which was PACKED with people. Lots of things lit up in the city to celebrate World Pride this weekend, which we will miss.
The first evening we had company… Ranger Sierra, who is now a Park Ranger for Grant’s Tomb.
Heavy appetizers and more whiskey than Sierra is used to. Made good use of the fold-out couch!
Everybody in the condo slept in with all the travelling, and it being Sierra’s day off. Nice to have someone make coffee!
With the UN being just a couple of blocks away, we decided to get tickets for the tour:
I had taken the tour a decade ago, but Sierra hadn’t ever, and it was on his list.
Without an oven in our kitchen (though it does have a four burner stovetop), most of our dinners in were heavy appetizers from the Amish Market just up the street:
Not the cheapest, but they have an amazing amount of stuff packed into that space.
And then Russ (another friend who lives in the city) showed up with a more substantial meal of empanadas and salad.
I met Russ during my Microsoft days – I don’t see him often enough.
We all took in the sunset up on the balcony:
Lovely evening….always nice hanging with friends you haven’t seen for years.
The next day found me at Grant’s Tomb, though Sierra tour was cancelled sadly.
3
On my NYC adventure I’ve been trying to just do one big thing a day – blame it on the heat, or my laziness. Final day’s “thing” is dinner with Gnarlene and Scott in Chinatown.
Well – I made two entries from the road yesterday, and they seem to have gone into the ether. Greetings from the Creel Ranch Lodge in lovely Creel.
Late morning we board the train for lunch and the start of our journey to El Fuerte which we arrive at around 7pm this evening. The weather is very much like Seattle at the moment. Dripping and cool up here in the mountains.
Yesterday´s recap:
Up at 5:20am for 5:45am luggage call, 6am breakfast, and 6:45am departure — except that there is one group that doesn’t´t seem to get it and we leave 15 minutes late. This is the same group that causes seating havoc all day because they couldn’t all sit next to each other (because they showed up 15 minutes late, because they were still eating while the group orientation meeting was going on the previous night and didn’t bother to send a delegate).
Lunch was your average Mexican mixed plato, good because I was starving, and the margaritas helped as well.
Rest of the day was spend on the bus driving, driving, driving — accompanied by the movie ¨The Treasure of Sierra Madre” with Humphrey Bogart. Twisted movie to match the twisted roads when we finally hit the Sierra Madres. It was raining by the time we got to the lodge — or shall I say the collection of casitas. Cute little bungalows, but of course, that meant a walk in the rain.
Dinner was preselected on the bus — my hope that “chicken in house gravy” would be a mole sauce was misplaced — it was your basic gringo chicken and gravy, should have gone for the mixed plato.
Free margaritas with dinner, and one with, and a small, very loud band that finally pushed me out of the restaurant and back to Swandas for a last cocktail before watching the east coast news at 9 and the beginning of David Letterman at 9:30 and it was off to bed with me.
Having a few moments of spare time between baking bread for tonight’s dinner at Gnarlene’s place and running errands, I’ve had time to sit back and think about that trip to the Copper Canyon last week. It already seems like such a long time ago. Today I unearthed the group photo from the trip. Joyce and a couple of other are missing as they didn’t do the bus trip that day, but this will give you a feel for the group.
What jogged my memory of the trip was an email from Chris/Swanda about his recollections from the trip. He is an event planner, so I allow love hearing of his adventures from the eyes of someone in the business. You can find his commentary at this link: http://www.twango.com/media/markso.CopperCanyon/markso.14306
Were I to do it again, I think that I’d take the Sierra Madre Express that leaves out of Tucson (Nogalas). It trims down the bus trip portion of the tour to Tucson and Nogales and back — which is a pretty straight shot rather than the winding roads from Chihuahua to Creel which left many of our travelling companions green at best and projectile hurling in the bus bathroom at worst.
The viewing platform car:
and the layout of the single roomette car (The Chile Verde):
and now for the downside… Instead of the approximately $1500 (not including airfare) for the Caravan Copper Canyon Tour, the Sierra Madre Express is $2995 for the single room and couples accommodations from from $3695-3895 (for two). So, basically it is twice the price and I knew I couldn’t get Kate and Eric to go for that much money (or Swanda as well). Oh well, there is still time in this life for that adventure.
And do I really care about the super bowl? It’s all about the commercials, which will be on-line after the game. Off to dinner at Gnarlene’s Place.
The score from last night was: UncleMarkie’s van arrived first (after leaving last) at 7:45pm after stops for Chinese take-out and booze, Jamie, Paula, and crowd at 8:45pm (they left first) and Matt and crew at 9:45pm. Good thing WhiteWater knew where the key was!
Up at 7am this morning to wash, pack, and organize all the raft gear. The van is totally trashed inside from all my stuff, sleeping bag and pad out for last night’s night in the van (cats in the house). Left at 11:30am after much of the scut work (washing coolers and cans) and headed for the Sierra Trading Outlet in Reno on the way to Chico. As much as I like the crew of the trip — I’m ready for a change.
Small world — I ran into Jay in the bathroom at the outlet in Reno. Too funny. He ended up buying some ostrich cowboy boots for $225 (regular $700), but I found nothing.
Next stop Chico in a couple of hours. Maybe (or not) more then — what I really need is a shower (decided to kit the road before the water was warm).
It’s just a long damn bus ride from the canyon to Chihuahua. It didn’t help that Pedro showed a video of the Sierra and whatever tour out of Tucson/Nogales that is mostly train (rather than train/bus) that just made me want to be on a different tour. Add projectile vomiting in the bus bathroom by Ms. Cranky (rendering it unusable until and emergency stop) and you have a lovely day.Dinner a little cold due to our delay, but at least there was shopping for booze at the former Gigante, now Soriana.
I think Swanda was correct when he said “he doesn’t do well with tour groups” or something like that — actually he said something better but it is lost to me at this point.
We have two nights here in Chihuahua — which is nice. Hopefully there will be ice in the ice machine tomorrow. Nice hotel — just needs ice.
Oh, the joys of organized travel. 5:20 wake up call. Bags out by 5:45. Breakfast at 6:00 and on the road by 7.Border reasonable quick, didn’t even need the $20 for inland permit. Something about $2 in the passport with the paperwork. Welcome to Mexico!
Pee stop at 10. Chris bought us tequila for later. Chihuahua for lunch and the natives (I mean fellow travellers) are already squawking about seats. Hopefully it will calm down otherwise it’s gonna be a long eight days.
More later from Creel.
PM UPDATE:
So… Treasure of the Sierra Madre was on the TV on the bus. Maybe it helped the cranky people.MANY hour bus trip… MANY. At the ranch by six… Drinking shortly after. Rain greeted us but the tequila helps.
And tomorrow we board the train before lunch…. And that, for me, is when the adventure begins.
It’s just a long damn bus ride from the canyon to Chichihuahua. It didn’t help that Pedro showed a video of the Sierra and whatever tour out of Tucson/Nagoles that is mostly train (rather than train/bus) that just made me want to be on a different tour. Add projectile vomiting in the bus bathroom by Ms. Cranky (rendering it unusable until and emergency stop) and you have a lovely day.
Dinner a little cold due to our delay, but at least there was shopping for booze at the former Gigante, now Soriana.
I think Swanda was correct when he said “he doesn’t do well with tour groups” or somthing like that — actually he said something better but it is lost to me at this point.
We have two nights here in Chichihuahua — which is nice. Hopefully there will be ice in the ice machine tomorrow. Nice hotel — just needs ice.
And early breakfast with Jameson and the babe — 8:15am, which is good because I have a flight back to Seattle this afternoon.
Out of the condo at 11 with a stop in Carson City for lunch, and to do the train museum located there, but somehow when I got to the parking lot I’d lost my momentum to go in. Maybe I needing an nap, which I also didn’t get.
Next stop is the Sierra Trading Company Outlet Store, and just like before the Grand Canyon Raft Trip of years ago, I found nothing at a price that I was willing to pay. And the same at the Goodwill across the highway. Just not my day.
Headed to the airport with hours to spare, got the car turned in (saving $20 since I didn’t need the extra hours on the rental with my delayed arrival on Tuesday), and went to check in. Or went to TRY and check in. With limited flights the counter didn’t open until 3 so I was surprised when someone actually showed up at 2:15.
Gambled a little. Put in $5, cashed out at $9.25, then got bored later and lost the four singles. Up 25 cents.
Flights on time, be crowded, but not crowded enough to bump me. Damn, it really isn’t my day.
Finished Running With Scissors on the flight home, what an ODD, ODD memoir. Trying to think who to pass this on to, possibly Swanda.
Speaking of Swanda, I swung by the apartment to pick up four packages and hang out with Rob and Jodie for a bit before heading home to start installing various bits and pieces of today’s arrivals.
The most important piece? The new Qwest DSL modem. With not much trouble I got it set up, names and logins changed, and most importantly changed its IP address to match all the network printers that I have connected. Simpler than changing all the printers. So, by the time that David Letterman was done with his monologue I was done with the installation.
How’s my speed doing?
Old ClearWire setup:
3.95 mbps down, .48 mbps up
New Qwest setup:
6.15 mbps down, .73 mbps up
Not as fast as Swanda’s cable set-up (but twice my old speed):
16.08 mbps down, 2.18 mbps up
Now, if I hadn’t broken the handle on the washer/dryer off, but that will be an adventure for tomorrow.
I haven’t been to the Radical Faerie Gathering at Brietenbush Hot Springs in a couple of years, but since it was being put on by Lightning and DancingBear, thought I should give it a whirl. It’s a lovely spot up in the mountains an hour east of Salem, Oregon. These shots should give you an idea:
Above is the Main Lodge, belowis my cabin:
This summer I’m sharing the cabin with Mags and H.O. Though it’s totally against the rules, and probably because of that, there is a tradition of the afternoon cocktail party hosted by Punch, who, like his name, makes Punch every afternoon from a whole lot of fresh squeezed fruit and handles of booze. The turn “handle” is one I’d never heard before to descript ½ gallon (1.75liter) bottles of spirits — because they generally have handles.
In addition, Punch also put out things like hot sweet and sour meatballs and pulled pork sliders as an appetizer to our wholly vegetarian meal in the lodge. Thank you Punch! And for the curious, the buffet line in the lodge:
Gathering started on Wednesday and wrapped up Sunday – I was less participatory than usual, making it down to the lodge for lunch and dinner, doing part of the talent show and all of the auction/fashion show that I was in wearing my zebra lederhosen. I do have a people of my buddy Sierra wearing them before the gathering:
There is another tradition that I follow at “The Bush” – the ritual breakfast in town, this time with H2OBlanco, at the Cedars. I went for the biscuits and gravy, H2OBlanco, the steak and eggs:
Sunday, prying H.O. from the gathering was a chore as he’d fallen ass over teacup for this guy from Portland – me, I just had a little fooling around on the couch in the lodge. It also meant that I had the double bed to myself for all but the first night.
But off we went to Bend on what turned into a fool’s errand. The original plan was to hook up with my buddies Stan and Denise, and then look at some old cars on the way out of town but H.O. started having serious stomach issues after our dinner down the road from the WorldMark Eagle Crest where we were staying. The place was Niblick & Greene’s. The meal was good, but it was just too much food for his skinny little system to handle.
I had the fish tacos, he went with the American Dip – and I SHOULDN’T have helped him finish the fries as that left me feeling bloated for the rest of the evening eating tums. Guess those would have been Freedom Fries to go with the American Dip
In the end, by the time morning rolls around, H.O. had been hurling all night and was travelling with his trusty Ziploc barf bag so I bailed on lunch and even bothering to stop and look at used cars – felt I needed to get the boy home and to his bed.
It was an interesting drive to Portland on Highway 26 – there was a stretch of 30-40 miles that was completely burned except for the houses that they managed to save. There was still smoke in the air from the fire two days ago.
Too funny that my wine shop business partner Jim and his girlfriend Suzanne (who were also visiting Stan and Denise) drove this road two days BEFORE the Warm Springs Fire and H.O. and I drove it two days afterwards.
The final photo of this post is of my other Portland area ritual – a burger and a glass of wine at Burgerville at the 1-5/1-205 interchange in Vancouver, Washington.
I had the Pinot Noir because I hadn’t tried it – other times it’s been the Merlot which I think was a better match. All of their wines are from local Oregon wineries. Classy touch for a burger joint.
Got H.O. delivered to Everett, then headed back to Seattle to unpack and start load after load of laundry.
Nothing like a $160.10 round-trip flight to get me motivated to travel – add complimentary upgrades to First in both directions and I’m in.
Staying with Jameson (faux-nephew) and his girlfriend Carolynn at their place a couple of blocks from old town Folsom. Got my own cat-free room – yes, the cat is the downside to the trip.
I had planned on hitting some wineries after meeting up with Paul the German CouchSurfer who is attempting to hitchhike from Vancouver, BC to New York City using NO CASH. I hosted him in Seattle last week, and it turned out we were in Sacramento at the same time so hooked up for lunch and dropped him at a freeway entrance as he was headed to Reno. And it turns out all the Placerville Wineries are closed on Tuesdays (some Wednesday to Sunday, most only weekends).
Lunch? Max’s Bar and Grill in Auburn – at the start of the Sierra foothills. For picking it at random (search restaurants, Auburn, CA – look for ones close to the highway) it turned out to be the best Rueben that I’ve had in years. Pair it with a Manhattan, and it was heaven. Paul and the Manhattan:
Said best Rueben in years:
Turns out the freeway entrance I wanted to put Paul on didn’t have any place to pull over so we backtracked an exit to one with a gas station – turns out it was also Downtown Old Auburn with not much traffic. He waited five hours and ended up hitchhiking in the dark. At least he made it to Reno – by 9:30pm.
I got to Jameson’s place before he did – but check out the “economy” rental car from Advantage Rent-A-Car – apparently the economy is very good in California if you get a Kia Sedona LX mommyvan as an economy car:
Cute house. Great food – the first night what started out as a pork loin turned into a Carolina-style pulled pork with a side of creamed yams and a salad – plus a couple of bottles of wine I brought.
Wednesday was the designated “winery” day. Slept in late to make up for the prior days up early, fortified myself with another Rueben at Deb’s Frosty in Diamond Springs, California. Not nearly as good but $7.50 rather than Max’s $15 (plus Manhattan).
And the sign has seen better days. Would be interesting to try other items on the menu, which seems to be half burger stand and half Tex-Mex food.
And now for the winery report:
One of the lesser known, but fascinating California winery regions is Eldorado County, an hour east of Sacramento. Unlike the bustling regions of Napa or Sonoma, these smaller regions offer inexpensive tastings fees (if any at all), and offer up some great wines and stunning scenery.
As you can see from the map, there are no shortage of wineries in Eldorado County, many of which are only open weekends. Most everyplace you stop in will have maps of the area, including special maps for the sub-AVAs of Fairplay and Placerville. It being a Wednesday afternoon, my choices were a little more limited so I hit two that were recommended (and next door to each other) and one (Miraflores) that I just stumbled upon.
While none of the wines from the three wineries I stopped at are available at the shop, this is more informational about off-the-beaten track wine regions.
First up was Windwalker Winery in the Fairplay area of El Dorado County California. They produce 9-10,000 cases of wine a year with 10% being estate fruit. Of that production, 1/3 are white wine varietals, including dry-style Albariño (unusual for California) and a Viognier (both tasty, but I bought the Albariño). If you are a Chardonnay fan, their Chardonnay won the prestigious Golden Bear award at the California State Fair (front and center in front of their other medal placing wines).
As you can see from the chalkboard, they have an extensive and varied production. I even had a chance to chat with Ben, their winemaker:
Next up in the day’s adventure was Perry Creek Winery, which is just one long driveway away from Windwalker. Unlike Windwalker, most of their grapes are estate grown.
As with Windwalker, the major portion of their wines are red varietals (Chardonnay and Viognier being the two whites). I worked my way through them, finding the Zinfandels to my favorites – and oddly, the ZinMan Zin (which I bought) tastier than their Reserve Zinfandel. I ended up trying both the whites and half a dozen of the reds.
Last on the list for the day was Miraflores Winery, visually the most stunning of the bunch – no wander they have a full schedule of wine/food pairings, weddings, wine maker dinners.
So, when you are travelling around the country, explore the less explored wine regions – when doing the research for this article I found a map for the wineries of Indiana – who knew.
Got back to the house before Jameson and Carolynn – but not enough time for a nap, just enough time to clear up email.
Another damn fine meal, this time with Eldorado County California wines (the Albariño and the ZinMan – taking the Syrah home with me). And while we are talking about the accommodations – said overly-friendly cat:
As usual, Carolynn heads to bed before Jameson and I, and no sleeping in for me in the morning – an 11:30 flight. But again, at least I’m in First.
And the flight comes with lunch – a yellow beat salad with focaccia (and cocktail):
One of my self-serving pay-it-forward (can you actually do that?) is to put together trips for friends (and me) who are of more limited means – example – friends of mine who are teachers, lower level office workers, etc. This week’s trip is for my buddy, Bliss, who is on winter break from the school where he teaches IB (International Bachelorette) English to high school kids. Talk about a 12-hour-a-day job plus weekends grading all those college-level papers you’ve assigned.
He needs a break. And it doesn’t’ start well – his alarm didn’t go off. Luckily (for me) we are:
Travelling separately to the airport
On different record locator for our flights
Luckily I’d been texting him my progress through the morning and he finally got a clue it was time to get out of the house – and he’s a SLOW one in that regard. That said, I can chill in the Board Room. If he misses his flight, he can try for the Tuesday flight. Breakfast is served! Well, OK, it was self-serve with the exception of the Red Baron, which they have to make:
Followed by one of their world-famous Bloody Marys:
He finally made it with just enough time to slam down two drinks – which he’ll need since he’s in coach and I snagged an upgrade to my favorite seat (1C). Funny thing happened at the end of the boarding process – a customer from the shop (Madrona Wine Merchants) went flying down the aisle with her daughter in tow. Later I can to find out that her daughter noticed me and said to mom, “The think I just saw our wine guy sitting in First Class.” Bliss used miles (plus I think $5 or something like that for a ticketing/tax fee), I had a $138 one-way ticket – which when you end up in First Class for the non-stop Seattle to Albuquerque isn’t bad.
Nor was lunch:
It was only a two-hour flight, but it was nice to get a hot sandwich (and a couple of cocktails).
Landed, grabbed bags, grabbed the shuttle to the Rental Car Center (I hate those things – a giant time sink), got what they call an economy car (Nissan Altima with Bluetooth phone connection) and off to Santa Fe we head. With a stop at Albertsons where I picked up four half gallons of Evan Williams and two fifths of Swedka Vodka, a six-pack of Vernors, and a twelve-pack of Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale – Bliss picked up six (count ’em six) bottle of Jose Cuervo Cinnamon Infused Tequila, which he likes, and was on closeout, and got an additional 10% for buying six (as did I).
To save on expenses we are staying with my sis-in-law who is married to my bro-in-law. How that works is that she is my dead brother’s widow, and Kennan is her husband. It’s amazing to me that this extended family likes each other, actually loves each other, warts and all – and enough to have me AND a friend stay over.
Tonight’s dinner is:
Minus the dressing step which makes me want a crock pot – guess I should forward this to Salamander and DancingBear, who do have crock pots.
Beautiful sunset before dinner:
Watched the Academy Awards and the Pruett/Souder/Girdner clan headed to their usual early bed.
Slept in, and then it was off for some sightseeing that included hiking (yes, I said HIKING)
I was surprised that on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of February that the parking lot would be close to capacity!
Best fuel ourselves up with a Green Chile Cheeseburger at the gift/snack shop at Bandelier National Monument:
Messy but good! I feel a Trip Advisor review coming on.
As I do every couple of years I decided to purchase the yearly National Parks Pass which has some useless name like “The Inter-Agency Multiple Park Pass”. The real name is Interagency Annual Pass (aka The America The Beautiful Pass) – but here it hangs on my rear view mirror. It was $80, but the entrance fee to Bandelier was $20, so all I have to do is visit Rainier (where a car is $30) a couple of times and it will have paid for itself. I find it odd that the individual park entrance fees have gone up, but not the price of the pass. I try to buy my passes at the smaller national monuments because they get to keep a chunk of the pass money and they need all the help they can get.
Bad shot, but you get the idea – I put this on mostly for my buddy Sierra who is a park ranger. Speaking of which, he is at Denali this summer – might have to use the pass again up there!
I’ve been to Bandelier many times but this is a first for Bliss – a lovely day for a light hike:
It’s a pretty amazing place just an hour twenty minutes from Santa Fe, very close to Los Alamos if you want to combine a trip – no time for us this round.
Got back to the house in time for cocktail hour before Jen and Kennan got home from work to make Ginger Scented Shrimp (sorry, no recipe or picture). And then after dinner drinks:
I guess we know where my priorities lay…
Up earlier the second morning in Santa Fe – want to hit a museum or two before we leave for Albuquerque in the afternoon. But first, breakfast at Tia Sopia’s just off the plaza. Bliss had the Wednesday Breakfast Special (quesadilla) and I had the Green Chili Stew with flour tortilla:
Bliss really wants to see and original Shakespeare Folio at one of the museums – it takes us two museums to actually find it – both pretty much on the plaza of Santa Fe – and both members of the North American Reciprocal program which I got because of my Tacoma Art Museum membership (see blog post here on what I saw and why I joined).
The Folio itself was not terribly inspiring…
And the rest of the surrounding exhibition looked like an afterthought – they should have combined the two exhibits (there was peripheral materials at the New Mexico History Museum), but it was nice to spend some time downtown…
After the musems, it was time to return to Albuquerque, and because we had the time, stop by the Gruet Winery for some bubbles! Some of you will remember my post from December on the sparkling house the Gruet built. I didn’t even have business cards with me this trip but we managed to get the production manager to AGAIN give a tour – when I found out the disgorgement line was running I got super excited. This is the process where they freeze the necks of the bottles and blow out all the yeast before adding back a little wine and sugar to get the bubbles going.
And then onto popping the corks, refilling, and cork/wire/label:
So fun to see the process in action – and so fun to taste the results!
The unlabeled bottle is of a “no dosage” Rose sparkler – the advantages of being in the business is you get to sometimes taste “experiments”. I highly recommend stopping by for a visit if you are in Albuquerque.
They even have a little museum of old champagne equipment:
But we are on a schedule – next up is to find some distilled water for Bliss’ C-PAP machine, grab lunch (the Sonic Burger joint does a Green Chili Cheeseburger that is REALLY good), gas up the car and return it to the airport – did I mention gas is cheap in New Mexico?
Dropped the rental car and hailed an Uber for the trip to the train station with our many bags and boxes.
Next up, the train from Albuquerque to Seattle via Los Angeles.
Nope, not getting rid of the Miata, but there are times when it would be nice to go to Home Depot in a car that will actually hold something. And then there is the only having two seats thing.
I still miss the Ford Focus that I bought from the University of Washington Surplus Store. Institutional white with grey upholstery. I sold it to the neighbor who needed a reliable car for $4,000 – about twice what I paid for it – sounded good at the time. I’d put a new stereo, curtains, new battery, gotten all the sticker residue off. It was a nice reliable car:
Turns out that was a little over 4 years ago! Here is the blog post about the purchase – CLICK HERE.
Funny, the new one is also institutional white with a grey interior!
It being park of the City of Seattle fleet (more on that later), of course it still has some stickers on it…my favorite:
The numbers are coming off, the FREQUENT STOPS is going to stay.
When I picked it up, not only was there a full tank of gas, but a set of winter chains and a fire extinguisher mount:
Needs vacuumed, the seat steam cleaned, and gooping off the last of the stickers – but how many cars these days come with a full size spare?
Or a several hundred dollar laptop mount (made down the street by RAMounts, biggest employer in the neighborhood):
Sadly, the backlight is out on the radio, so that’s on order. Less than a hundred dollars and I’ll have a CD player with Bluetooth, USB, SD-/Card, and AUX inputs. Arriving next week while I’m on the road.
This is what I find most interesting — a dual-band low profile roof antenna:
Not so odd on a city fleet vehicle – but why did they leave a LIVE wireless data connection box under the front seat?
They had to have been under there to unplug the ethernet cord when they pulled all the computer and radio equipment. It doesn’t offer wireless, but it’s got ethernet, RS-232, microUSB. And when I say LIVE, seriously – the thing boots when you turn on the ignition. To test this, I put one of my laptops with an ethernet connection on it in Airplane Mode so it wouldn’t grab the signal from the house. Yep – it works!
It’s not a terribly speedy connection – yes, I downloaded to manual for the router – best I can figure, looks like it MIGHT be a 3G device.
The sticker on the Sierra Wireless AirLink LS300 router identified it as Seattle Public Utilities, our local water/sewer/garbage provider. Guessing it was a water meter reader, but who knows.
In that vein, I did try doing a speed test….felt more like EDGE/GPRS to me. Couldn’t even get the speed test to load! But free is free. In all my poking around, also discovered the second 12v outlet isn’t work – guessing that a fuse – which I found a SECOND fuse box. One under the hood, and then this unexpected in a panel under the center console.
More work to do on the new beast, but it’s good to go for now. The auction house handled emissions testing (or ignored it), licensing, title transfer, the works – maybe I should have gotten Evergreen plates for it!
Better known as the Atomic Testing Grounds north of Las Vegas.
The tale of this trip starts last June when I’m on the NNSS site trying to get a tour (http://www.nnss.gov/pages/PublicAffairsOutreach/NNSStours.html) which book up about nine months out as they are thirty people, once a month. Upside is that it is free. We finally got accepted in early July 2018 for a March 2019 tour. And, apparently, we all passed our security clearances.
Booked a three-bedroom at the WorldMark Las Vegas Boulevard for the week of the tour…and then it’s the waiting game to get airline tickets, rental car the rest.
Four of us (Myself, Rache, DancingBear, Jonathan) flew in on a variety of flights with Jonathan and I arriving first and picking up a rental car and some groceries….
Yes, I rented a pickup truck – it was supposed to be the HUGE F-150. What I got was a mid-size Nissan Frontier. I should have gotten the Jaguar F8 ragtop from Sixt! And, yes, I re-parked the truck better after the photoshoot.
Part of the groceries were fixings for breakfast sandwiches for Tuesday, the day of the tour. DancingBear got up early to make them, so we had some food in our stomachs to show up at 7:30am at the National Atomic Testing Museum where the tour began (museum ticket not included in the free tour):
If you look closely, you can see our 85-year-old tour guide Ernie in the front window of the bus – he’s worked in the field for most of his adult life after growing up as a farmer in Nebraska.
Here is the itinerary of the full-day tour…
And with Jonathan on the tour, he marked a copy of map with all the stops the night before the tour:
Notice how close we are to Area 51? I notice the map doesn’t show the airstrip in Area 51 that a jet lands everyday from Vegas for commuters to commute. Also, Area 25 isn’t on the tour as that was the Nuclear Rocket Engine test site.
At the museum (the following day), Rache found this on display – from the Jackass and Western Railroad which was a spur line that moved around the rocket engines:
I bring this up because Rache and I had the opportunity several years ago to ride on the switch engine (I was the engineer!):
If you want to see the whole post on that adventure: CLICK HERE
Thanks, Rache for these web-scrapped photos since we were all required to leave our phone in our cars – to photos, no booze, no, well, lots of things. Here is the poster:
But back to the tour…it’s an hour and a half on a bus before you see this sign.
You get a clue about the terrain, but here is a better shot of the 1350 square miles where we also saw Predator Drones doing “touch and goes”:
Here is the link to the Wikipedia link about the site: CLICK HERE
With the 90-minute bus ride, first stop is a bathroom/snack bar stop, which is good because I’m out of liquid, then we are off to Icecap, which could be reactivated in a year if we decide to no longer ban testing (which, with our current administration, be tomorrow).
Which I really wish I’d had a camera for – it’s a building in 40-foot chunks that san be craned off and shipped to the next test site – well, before they blow a big hole in the ground.
Speaking of big holes in the ground, our next stop was Sedan Crater, which was the most sobering of visits of the day, when 12,000,000 short tons (11,000,000 t) of earth of material were moved in 11 minutes.
Standing on the rim looking down, which was TRULY sobering, they could have ended the tour after this and I would be satisfied – but we had five more hours (starts at 8am, ends at 5pm).
More driving before we arrive at the Apple II houses – structures that they built to see how the “blast” from a bomb would react with structures….this one was fine except all the windows were blown out:
Thank god the next stop was lunch at what was basically a commissary that had a bus-load of people showing up at once. Guessing the cheeseburger would have been better as a one-off rather than done ten at a time.
And there were also train trestles that were bent by the shock waves – which all the photos are heavily copyrighted, but the warping was three feet across twenty feet.
You should also be aware that during all these tests, soldiers were out there watching. It was a coveted assignment – watching something big blow up.
We were shown wooden benches on hillsides still in place (and rotting into the dessert).
All-in-all it was a fact-filled-feast with someone who was there throughout the years.
Personally, I was exhausted by the end of the day – but they did send us a commemorative photo collage of our day around radiation. The big photo is on the rim of Sedan Crater, the inset from in front of the museum:
In a little bit of weird, the world is a small place, we met a friend of our friend Sierra, another Ranger, who was on the tour, along with a bunch of SpaceX/Tesla folk (though not “on business”).
One of the downsides of the Wyndham New York Midtown is the 10am checkout. It’s a serious drag to get packed up, bags put in storage for the afternoon since my flight isn’t until 6:30.
Caught an early lunch with Russ (11:30am, when they opened) at The Grand Central Oyster Bar – close to where Russ works, and just a couple of blocks from the condo. About 11:15 a line started forming…
Nothing like a breakfast Beefeater Martini…
Followed by oysters…
Followed by Lox Eggs Benedict….
Great way to finish a trip to NYC with Russ:
Found this picture of both Russ and Ranger Sierra after the last post, so, randomly, here it is:
Back to the condo for the bags, then back to Grand Central to catch the train to JFK…
Got slightly misdirected getting to the airport, but finally found my way – though I was sweaty when I arrived, and not to the terminal I was leaving from. I wanted to see the new TWA Hotel, the 60’s JFK icon repurposed into a hotel. Downside is that the JetBlue terminal it’s attached to is a long walk from the SkyTrain.
They are still working through the last bits of the Punch List, but it’s a cool space, though underutilized, and a long haul walking (especially with luggage). They should pick up a couple of Checker Aeroporters and runs a shuttle from all the terminals. I couldn’t check my bags until four hours before my flight, so I was plenty tired by the time I hit check-in (which, thankfully, was quick). This should give you an idea why…
As I was in the short line I got a text that my plane was now delayed by at least four hours…though about going back to the TWA Hotel for a cocktail in the restored Connie, but I was done walking any further than the lounge.
Nice office, right? And great plane spotting! A BA 747 in the retro-BOAC livery.
And their usual livery…
And then all the random national airlines like Air Serbia, and Aerolineas Argentinas…
If there is a silver lining about the flight delay, it’s that I looked on-line, and they swapped aircraft. I was supposed to be on old Virgin America metal, now I’m on one of new NEO’s with the updated interior…and the new First Class seats!
And on the flight we have a boat load up high school juniors on our flight:
Not that I care, since with the new interior, there are 16 first class seats as opposed to 8 – and I got one!
And the new interior!
And it came with dinner – which is good because the lounge shut down at 10pm – and they’d pulled the soup and salad at eight.
I was surprised that they had DigiPlayers on board, thought those were being phased out. Ended up watching The Aftermath – set in WWII. Worth watching, though not a light drama.
Didn’t get to bed until 2:45am, but actually managed a couple of hours of sleep on the plane – a rarity.
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