On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Phoenix

Draft Started Thursday evening – June 7, 2018   (First post of this travelogue)

Posted Sunday June 10 2018

This was another trip to present an NTT class.  It was what they call a regional class which means that it is held in a hotel and folks from various companies attend.  The class was Mechanical Drives which covers bearings, belts, chain, gears, couplings and other mechanical components.  This class was held at the Holiday Inn Google map link.

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Mechanical Drives is a three day class – in this case Tuesday through Thursday.  There were only 5 students with is not so good for NTT, but great for me.  We have a total of 5 different trainers for the various types of mechanical components and that takes up a lot of space in the room (four extra tables).  NTT ships this equipment in two very large crates that weigh a total of 1500 pounds!

Three of the students traveled from out of town – two from Pennsylvania and one from Canada.  It is always fun to have  folks from different  companies and parts of the country.

It is always a challenge to get all the equipment packed up and then make a dash for the airport.   Fortunately the students are always good to help.   The equipment is packed in large Pelican cases and it takes quite a bit of effort to get all the parts of each trainer in the correct location. 

I was able to get to the airport in time to have a quick dinner.  It was a fairly late flight and I got home about midnight.  That sure makes for a long day.

That is all for this trip

Hello from Sacramento

Saturday morning – May 12, 2018   (First post of this travelogue)

This trip was to present a NTT class.  It was what they call a regional class which means that it is held in a hotel and folks from various companies attend.  The class was LRSA which concentrates on bearings, lubrication and shaft alignment (including the use of dial indicators and a laser).  This class was held at the Lions Gate Hotel Link to Google Map

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LRSA is a four day class – in this case Tuesday through Friday.  They could not get me out  Friday evening, so I am flying home today.  I flew out last Sunday so that I could visit with my good friend Steve Leach on Monday before the classes started.  As I have said many times Steve and I are almost like brothers and we even look a bit alike.  I met Steve in the late 80s when he was a Gates customer selling blower belts to the fuel teams in NHRA drag racing.  It did not take long for the relationship to change from customer/vendor to friendship.  Pat and I  have visited Steve and his family a few times and I try to get out to see him whenever I am in the area.  He is also a car nut and has a couple of fantastic projects going right now. 

It is a fun drive to his location which is in North San Juan about an hour and a half from Sacramento.  The drive is beautiful.  His home and business buildings are very remote and are located next to a huge gold placer mine Link to Google Map.  If you look at the map, the pin is at his house, and the manufacturing facilities (race car parts) is to the right.

The class went very well.  There were six students and we were able to have fun dialogues during the class.  They were quite attentive an did well on the trainers.  I enjoy teaching the various classes, but when the student group has good participation/dialog, it make it even better.

That is all for this trip

Hello from Clarkston, WA (belated)

Draft started Saturday evening – May 12, 2018   (First post of this travelogue)

Posted Sunday May 20,  2018 (schedule has been kind of hectic since we got back including two more graduations of grandkids).

This is a quick trip so that we could celebrate our Grandson’s graduation from the University of Idaho with a masters degree in Geology.  The university is in Moscow, Idaho  about 25 miles north of here.  Motel rooms are hard to find for the graduation weekend and prices are quite high.  As a result we booked an Airbnb in Clarkston (Google Map  Link)

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If you look at the map, we are right on the Snake river.  It is gorgeous here and the apartment is really neat.  Unfortunately, our short time here has been very hectic and we have not had much time to enjoy the amenities. 

Thursday we flew into Boise and drove about 6 hours to get here.  The difference in airfare was significant as compared to Spokane.   Besides, we were told that the scenery on the drive here was great.   Well, the term “great” does not adequately describe the amazing rolling hills, mountains and rivers along our route.  This is wheat country and the rather steep hills are covered with beautiful young green wheat crop.

Friday we drove to Pullman, WA and met with the Jeute family for breakfast.  Pullman is where Thomas and Klara live.  He commutes to Moscow,  ID for classes – about 20 miles.  After breakfast we drove to Moscow and toured the campus, with an emphasis on the Geology building.  We got to see Thomas’ office and some of the class rooms where he taught classes.  In the evening we had a wonderful family dinner at a restaurant in Pullman.

Saturday we met at the University for the graduation ceremony.  The ceremony was very special with a parade of the graduates across the campus led by a bagpipe band.  The keynote speaker (the lead rocket scientist at Space X) was great.  After graduation we met in the park across from Thomas’ apartment and had a fun cookout.  Then we headed back to the Airbnb.

 As noted earlier, our Airbnb was in Clarkston, Wa.  The adjacent city is Lewiston, ID.  Both of these towns were named for the Lewis and Clark expedition that explored the area.

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View of Clarkston, WA and Lewiston, ID

Sunday we set the alarm for 3:00AM and left at 4:00 for our 6 hour drive back to Boise.  As noted earlier, the scenery was breathtaking. 

That is all for this trip

Hello from Las Vegas, NV (Belated)

Saturday evening – April 7, 2018   (First post of this travelogue)

Note:  I prepared most of this post on Saturday,  but I was not able to finalize the draft until today (Wednesday).

Well, we are in sin city.  Unfortunately we are too old to do much sinning {grin}.  We flew in very early Thursday and will depart early Sunday.

We are here for Pat’s Stampin’ Up! convention.  The convention was held at the Rio (Google Map Link).

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We are staying on the 15^th floor of the Masquerade Tower.  If you look at the google map, you will see that the Rio has two towers.  One is in the shape of three spokes – we are in the other tower.  In between the two towers is a huge convention center.  There are several very large meeting rooms and the whole area is very ornate.  Stampin’ Up used two of the meeting rooms and they easily accommodated over 600 people each.

Friday we were hosted to a special meeting/dinner for higher level managers.  Today was the main meeting day.  As a part of the meeting Pat got to walk across the stage in honor of her achieving Gold Elite level. 

Today I went to the national drag racing even at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  This is a fabulous complex that includes a NASCAR track, dirt oval track and a modern state-of-the-art dragstrip.  They just rebuilt the track to include 4 wide racing.  It is amazing to experience 4 top fuel/funny cars racing side by side – each putting our over 10,000 horsepower!  It was fun to spend the day at the track.  Pat and I have attended several races at this track and each has been fun.  Obviously she did not go this time.

Pat was able to play the slots a bit and they were pretty kind to her this time.  She just cashed out tickets worth over $380.  Not bad for penny slots!

Tonight we had a group dinner with Pat’s downline (some with spouses).  It is always fun to see the enthusiasm of these ladies. 

Well, since this is late, I will add a few more details.  Our flight home was uneventful albeit pretty darn early.  I always say that sleep is overrated.  As we approached the house, we saw a large elk  herd in the back yard (well over 50 head).   Later Sunday we saw a small herd of Deer in the front yard.  We don’t often see both at the same time.   I guess they just wanted to welcome us home.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Everett, WA

Wednesday evening – March 7, 2018   (First post of this travelogue)

Wow, this has been about the longest stretch between blog posts that I can recall.  As we have noted many times, this blog is a travelogue and we have not traveled since early our October/November trip.

This trip was made to teach two different classes at the Boeing Everett facility:  Shaft Alignment and Mechanical Drives.  Most of the classes I teach at Boeing are at the Auburn plant which is south of Seattle.  The Everett plant is north of Seattle and it the main assembly plant for a variety of the Boeing passenger planes.   It is a huge facility with many acres under roof (several 747 size planes can be assembled at one time in the main building). 

The classes are going well.  We have completed the Shaft Alignment class and have started in on the Mechanical Drive class.  There are 12 students, which is quite of few and the space is very limited for setting up the trainers.  It will be quite a challenge to get the labs done.

As is typically the case, I am staying at a Holiday Inn Express (Google Maps Link)

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This is the first class I have taught since my knee replacement.  I was very concerned about being on my feet for five 8 hour days, but it has not been a problem so far.

The class is being held from 6:00 Am to 2:30.  The alarm goes off long before I am ready to get up {grin}.

Friday should be a scramble.  I will need to pack all the equipment and then head to the airport.  On paper, I have quite a bit of time (7:55 PM) departure but I have to drive nearly 40 miles though some of the worst traffic in the world.  Should be fun.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Richfield, UT

Post started: Wednesday morning    November 8, 2017   (Sixth post of this travelogue)

Posted to blog Thursday Morning   November 9, 2017

Well, the tourist part of this trip is about done.  More in a minute.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Richfield, UT  (Google Map Link) 

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We have been here for two nights – mostly as a holding location until we travel to Salt Lake for Pat’s convention.  We have traveled through Richfield on our way to California many times, but never stopped.  I have always enjoyed to wonderful mix of rock formations and beautiful hay fields.  Last night we ate at a local café and just kind of absorbed the small town environment.

Now, let’s catch up on our tourist fun for the last few days.   After we left Kanab we traveled to Bryce Canyon and stayed at Ruby’s Inn.  We toured the park for about a half day.  For the first time on this trip we had to put on our heavy coats.  The temperature was not all that bad, but the wind was very cutting.  Bryce Canyon is the opposite of Zion in terms of how you view the beauty.  In Zion you are on the canyon floor looking up at the incredible sheer rock walls.  At Bryce you are on the rim looking down at mind-blowing  geological beauty.  I have included one photo.  But again, it does not begin to do justice to the splendor of rock formations.

Sunday (11/5) we travelled to Torrey, UT which is close to the entrance of Capitol Reef National Park.  The route from Bryce to Torrey is via Utah 12 which is a real adventure to drive.  Lots of curves, and one part of the road is at the top of a ridge with very steep drop-offs on both sides of the road.  I really had to pay attention to driving, but I still got to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  This highway is so unique that it has its own website:  (link)

Our stay in Torrey was in a fun cabin (see photo).  The cabin would have been even more enjoyable, but you had to be prepared with your own provisions (such as coffee).  Also we had very little cell phone signal.  We had thought about staying two nights, but the minor issues got to be too significant.

We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday morning touring Capitol Reef NP.  It is a geological wonder with the layers that were formed over millions of years, displayed in canyon walls that are hundreds of feet high (at one location, 400 feet).  I  have attached a photo that barely does  justice to the  grandeur of the area.  I pirated these comments from another site: 

Like other parks in Utah, Capitol Reef is about geology. It is said that the area got its name because early visitors thought some of the rock formations, especially along the Fremont River, reminded them of the dome atop the U.S. Capitol.

The land inside the park is part of a 100-mile buckling of the Earth's crust, named the Waterpocket Fold by explorer John Wesley Powell because of indentations in the rock that catch rainwater.

I think I will “ring off “ for this post.

Hello from Kanab, UT

Friday evening    November 3, 2017   (Fifth post of this travelogue)

Monday we drove from San Diego to Primm, NV where we stayed in the Buffalo Bill Hotel.  Primm is right on the CA/NV border and it used to be a booming location with about three hotels and a large campground.  The campground was the site of at least one Bus Conversions Rally in the early 2000s.  The campground is long gone and the hotels are pretty run down if ours was an example.  The gambling floor was almost deserted.  The room was clean and fairly inexpensive, so that was a plus.  Pat even got a bit ahead on her gambling fund.

Tuesday we drove to Zion National Park where we splurged and spent two nights in a cabin that was special to us (529) (Google Map Link) 

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Four years ago we stayed in this cabin and sat on the porch, almost overwhelmed by the sheer cliffs on both sides of us.  The cabin is at the far end of the resort and very private.  This time it was a bit chilly, but we still spent a bit of time on the porch.  I have included a couple of pictures, but they do not even come close to showing the beauty of this park.  This is a very deep and narrow canyon and the sun only hits the floor of the canyon for a few hours a day this time of year. 

The road leading up to the lodge (and on up the canyon) is limited to the tourist trams and cars used by the guests of the lodge.  From the lodge, only the trams are permitted.  We rode the tram to the end of the road and then I hiked in about a mile and saw some amazing fall colors.  They said that most years the colors are not all that great, since it tends to freeze before the leaves turn.

Thursday we made the relatively short drive to Kanab, UT.  It is less than 100 miles but it is a tight twisty drive.  The drive was a bit more difficult as we left slightly before sunrise so that we could make a 9:00 appointment in Kanab.  On the drive, in the twilight, we saw something big on the road.  It turned out to be 5 or 6 buffalo.  By the time we got to them, they were off the road.

Our appointment was a pre-arranged tour of the Stampin’ Up! manufacturing facility.  We were told ahead of time that some parts of the plant would be off limits.  However our tour guide (Julie) took us on a very detailed tour and we got to watch all the processes right next to the machines.  I even got a quick tour of the  maintenance shop!

We took a side trip to a neat park in Kanab where the playground is covered with sever inches of ground up scrap rubber stamp material.  It is very colorful and quite soft.

We checked into the Holiday Inn early and Pat did some laundry.    Today we cooled our jets (I caught up on a bunch of computer projects and Pat read and did a bit of stamping stuff.  Late this afternoon, we took a ride out to Johnson canyon.  It was a relaxing, scenic drive.   Then we had a great Mexican dinner. 

That is all for this post.

Hello from San Diego, CA

Sunday evening  – October 29, 2017   (Fourth post of this travelogue)

We are at the Holiday Inn Express in San Diego (Google Maps Link)

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I wanted to catch up on some items from my week of teaching.  First of all, the weather was very hot.  It was over 100 degrees for at least two of the days and well in the 90s the rest of the week.  This was quite a bit higher than the average temperature for that time of the year.

During the week a large brush fire broke out a couple of miles from the hotel.  The last I read, it had consumed over 850 acres (but no structures).  It was weird leaving the motel in the dark and seeing the red glow.

Lastly, my commute was about 14 miles each way.  At the times I traveled, it was not a problem.  I had picked the Holiday Inn in Lake Elsinore without a lot of thought other than it was about the closest Holiday Inn property.  It turns out that it was not all that great of location or hotel.  Apparently there was a much better location in Temecula at about the same distance.

Now for our reason for travelling to San Diego:  The USS Midway Museum (Wiki Information).  This was among the very best museums we have ever visited.  The decommissioned USS Midway aircraft carrier has been converted into a museum.  It took us 5 hours to tour the complete ship. 

The Midway was in service from 1945 to 1992.  It is 1001 feet long and is 69,000 tons total weight. It has 18 decks and 12 boilers feeding 4 steam turbine engines.  We were up and down a bunch of stairways but it was worth every minute/step/stair.  One of the best events was a lengthy talk by a former pilot about the aircraft main deck layout and the process of landing a plane on a moving target with an obscenely short “runway”.  The planes had to catch one of three cables stretched across the deck.  Surprisingly the hook that caught the cable was only about the size of your fist.

I have included two photos.  The first one was pirated from the internet and shows an aerial view of the museum.  The second photo shows the machine shop that could fabricate most any part for the ship.

That is all for this post.

Hello from Lake Elsinore, CA

Saturday morning– October 28, 2017   (Third post of this travelogue)

Last Sunday we traveled to Lake Elsinore and have been staying at the Holiday Inn Express.  This is kind of the bottom of the barrel as far as quality for this brand.  We did get a King Suite and that let Pat have a good work space for her stamping.

I “survived “ five days of teaching.  Fortunately they were only half days (left the hotel about 5:00 in the morning and returned a bit before 5:00 in the evening – about 12 hours and that is half a day {big grin}).  The other challenge was that I was teaching a class (shaft alignment/bearings/couplings/lubrication) that is normally a 4 day class and I had to do two 2 ½ day classes.  Each class had 16 students, so that was also a challenge.  When all was said and done, it turned out great.  The students were mostly experienced, so the work with the trainers went well.  They were also a great bunch of guys with good senses of humor.

This morning I got to sleep in and we have arranged to have a 1:00 check out so that I can catch up on a bunch of computer work/correspondence. 

I have talked in previous travelogues  about going to Trader Joes to get meals that can be prepared in the room.  The Trader Joes food is great and easy to heat in the microwave.  We did that this time and have eaten every dinner in the room, plus Pat has had food for lunch and I have had food for breakfast (leave before the breakfast room opens).  We even have enough for lunch today and will leave a couple of meals for the maid.  All of that for a bit over $100 and NTT will pay for about half of that.  It was great to have a good dinner in the room each night, as I was too tired to go out to eat.

Pat has enjoyed her time in the room, with one exception:  the fire alarm has gone off several times.  One time she had to walk down the stairs from the third floor to the first.  Even with her new knees, that is not a lot of fun.

That is all for this post.

Hello from Barstow, CA

Sunday morning– October 22, 2017   (Second post of this travelogue)

Yesterday we did some more tourist stuff.  Shortly after leaving Flagstaff we exited off I 40 and took the old US 66 route for about 50 miles (from east of Seligman to Kingman, AZ).  Most of you are too young to appreciate the great history of historic “Route 66” (link to Wikipedia).  This highway was the beginning of the national highway system and ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.  It was started in 1926.  There are still parts of the highway that can be travelled and all kinds of museums and building from thet era. 

One of the reasons for taking this route was to visit the Caverns Inn – site of the ’03-05 Bus Conversion rallies.  We were vendors there for two of the three years. The place has not changed much.  It is in pretty rough condition, but it was still fun to visit and recall fun times.

We have travelled other parts of Route 66 in the mid-west and those have quite a few remaining buildings from the era.  This route, with the exception of Seligman, is pretty much devoid of historical buildings.

I had mentioned that we rented a great vehicle.  It is a 2017 GMC Terrain.  I am quite impressed with it.  It seems to get pretty good mileage and has all kinds of features.  I was concerned about the 4 cylinder engine, but it is mated with a 6 speed automatic and that provides pretty good performance.  The only “challenge” is the electric power steering.  As far as I know, this is the first car I have driven with that feature.  It seems to be a bit oversensitive for my liking.  By the second day, I seem to have adjusted so that I am not darting around in my lane.

That is all for this post.