Hello from Houma, LA

Posted on June 10, 2014 by admin
Hello from Houma, LA
Monday evening,  June
9, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)
Well we got home from Iowa on Friday and I flew to New
Orleans on Sunday.  I am currently
staying at the Wingate hotel in Houma (map).  This trip is do
teach a shaft alignment class at the BP training headquarters.  It is a two day class and I fly home tomorrow
night. 
The BP training facilities are fantastic.  The building appears to be very new and  training rooms are very well equipped.  They provide free a buffet breakfast and lunch
for the folks attending the training classes (several going on at once). 
There are five students and they are really great to work
with.  This is the second shaft alignment
class I have taught with the new laser alignment equipment.  It makes a huge difference in the quality of
the class.  Besides that, the student
love to play with our new “toy”.
Last night and tonight I have eaten Cajun food (I am in the heart of Cajun country). 
Sunday night was an OK tourist type place, but tonight another instructor
and I went to a well known local restaurant (1921 Seafood bar (link) ).  I tried the
boiled Crawfish (see photo below) and it was great.  I also had two (!) bowls of fantastic “After
the Boil Soup” which is kind of a seafood gumbo.  YUM! 
And I am not a seafood lover!
That is all for now (been up since 3:00 and getting very
tired).
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Hello from Prescott, IA

Posted on June 5, 2014 by admin
Hello from Prescott, IA
Wednesday Evening, 
June 4, 2014   (Second post of
this travelogue)
I wanted to make another couple of observations about the
truck show.  As I was walking the rows of
trucks for the third day (Saturday), I did something I hardly ever do at these
shows – looked at some of the attendees. 
I could not believe my eyes – our next door neighbor (diagonal to the
rear from our house) was walking down the aisle with his wife.  He is a truck nut as well.  Small world! 
He told me that at the dinner the night before, they announced that there
were 687 trucks at the event!
My trip back to Prescott was uneventful, albeit a bit
long.  Sunday we went to Guthrie Center,
IA to attend a pig show that two of our young relatives were participating
in.  It was a really fun event.  They also had a goat and sheep show as well,
but we did not stick around, as it was getting pretty warm.
As we normally do, we have been making the rounds of the
relatives.  That is always fun!  They are great folks back here and I always
enjoy learning about the lifestyle and hearing some of the fun stories.
We love to travel here in the bus.  Each morning we wake up to a beautifully view
of the rolling Iowa hills and the beautiful crops.  We have literally been watching the corn
grow.  Since we arrived, the corn has
grown perhaps 10 inches.  The photo below
does not do justice to the beauty of the area.
Last night was a bit eventful.  The national news had been talking for two
days about a huge storm that was headed our way.  Indeed, it was huge and created quite a bit
of damage in the area.  At our location,
we only got a small amount of hail, but we got almost 4.5 inches of rain in a
very short time.  South of us they had
softball size hail, very high “straight line” winds and some places got over 7
inches of rain!  Today Bill and I drove
around the area south of Prescott and saw some of the damage.  Many of the fields were stripped by the
hail.  We saw one machine shed that had
been blown across the road and two silos that were destroyed.  The TV showed many cars that had large
amounts of damage.
Tomorrow we start home. 
It looks like we will be travelling in the rain a bit.  Hopefully the wind will not be a problem.
That is all for now.
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Hello from Springfield, MO

Posted on May 31, 2014 by admin
Hello from Springfield, MO
Friday Evening,  May
30, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)
I am staying at the Candlewood Suites (map).  I have two
activities that brought me here from Prescott, IA.  The first is to attend an amazing Antique
Truck Historical Society (link)
annual convention/show.  The second
activity was to meet with a person that I am doing some joint work with. 
Let’s step back and catch up with the rest of the trip so
far.  We left Denver on Saturday 5/24
after attending our granddaughter’s graduation party.  We left from the Thornton area about 4:00 Pm
and drove until it started to get dark. 
We parked the bus in a great rest stop in Julesburg, CO.  The next day we drove a bit over 400 miles
and arrived in Prescott, IA in the late afternoon.  Our bus is parked in its “reserved” spot at
the Birt house.  We spent Memorial Day
decorating graves and attending a special luncheon at the local church. 
Thursday morning I drove the PT Cruiser to Springfield, MO (about
6 hour drive).  I will return to Prescott
tomorrow.  The ATHS show (their national
convention) is amazing.  There are hundreds
of trucks.  The photo below is not the
best, but it shows a long shot of some of the trucks.  There are all shapes and sizes and
years.  I would guess that about half of
the trucks are semis.  I have been there
for a few hours Thursday and Friday and will go back for a couple of hours
tomorrow morning before I start back.
This is my third ATHS national convention.  I have been a member for many years. The
national conventions are almost beyond description.  The owners are very friendly and love to show
their trucks.  As I said, the variety is
amazing.  Each time I make a lap around
the huge fairground, I see something new and interesting.
That is all for now.
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Hello from the Sacramento

Posted on May 2, 2014 by admin
Hello from the Sacramento
Thursday 
afternoon,  May 1, 2014   (One post travelogue)
I am in Sacramento doing a couple of training sessions for
NTT.  This week it is two days of
Mechanical Drives and two days of Vibration Analysis.  Mechanical Drives is old hat for me, but
Vibration analysis is a new class for NTT. 
To put it nicely, the course was not well developed before it was released.  The class is based on a text book, but the
slides were very primitive.  I have spent
MANY hours developing new slides that present the data in a better format.  Luckily, I am co-teaching with a person who
has a great deal of experience in the latest technology. 
My part of the vibration class was to set the stage for
advanced discussion by the other instructor. 
I did the first three chapters and discussed how we used to do vibration
analysis on belt drives with very basic tools.  Indeed, most of my work was in the late ‘60s
or early ‘70s.  To put that in
perspective, personal computers did not become available to the public until
the mid to late ‘70s!! The computer based “tools” today are amazing!
This is a “regional” class.  What that means is that the students come from
different companies and the classes are held in a hotel.  That kind of class is quite different from
what we call onsight classes where we go into a plant and do a class specifically
for a business.  Boeing would be an
example of the latter.  In my first NTT
employment (2000-2002) most of the classes were public at hotels.  Today most are onsight.  I much prefer the public class
atmosphere.  There is always a broad base
of experience and the students seem to be willing to exchange examples that
reinforce what we are teaching. 
The other nice feature of public classes is that they are
held at normal hours {grin}.  At Boeing,
we teach on either first shift (6:00-2:30) or second shift (2:30-11:00).  A week of that kind of schedule will really
mess up your internal clock!
I am staying at the Hampden Inn in Sacramento (map).  The class is
being held at the same location.  When I
searched out the location on Google Maps, I noticed that they had changed the map
format significantly.  It will be
interesting to see how the above link displays.
Surprisingly, I am actually posting this blog before I leave
town (at airport).
That is all for this blog.
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Hello from the Seattle Airport

Posted on April 14, 2014 by admin
Hello from the Seattle Airport
Drafted:  Friday
Afternoon,  April 11, 2014   (first post of this trip – and only one
{grin})
Posted:  Monday  April 14, 2014 from home.
I often mention that this blog is really a travelogue.  I only post when there is travel related
stuff to talk about.  The readers that we
have certainly do not want to read about a lot of minutia taking place in our
lives {big grin}.
I have been in the Seattle area since last Sunday.  I taught Shaft Alignment and Mechanical
Drives courses this week on the early shift (6:00 AM – 2:30) at Boeing.  Normally these are my fun classes to teach,
but I had 3 out of 5 of the students who kicked back, put their feet on the
table and went to sleep!  No attempt to
hide the fact that they were sleeping.  I
finally got a Boeing person to read the riot act to them.  Since they are technically our customer, I
did not feel like I should really come down on them, but I gave them plenty of
comments to let them know I was not a happy camper.  In all my years of teaching and presenting
seminars (over 45 years) I have never had that many really rude students.  The two that did not sleep apologized to me
about the terrible behavior of the other students.  I know that it really affected my
attitude.  I tried my best to give them a
good session, but I could tell that I was not at my peak.
If you follow my blog, you will recall that the last few
months of 2013, I was in the Seattle area a large percentage of the time.  Then the spigot turned off.  Boeing made some demands of NTT for course
revision and that resulted in no classes being presented for the first three
months.  In addition the other instructor,
who was also an interim manager of the group, returned to an instructor only
position and has priority over the schedule. 
Where that leaves me is anybody’s guess. 
I really got tired of all the travel last year, but I would
like to do a class a month or so.  Like
so many things, it seems to be feast or famine.
As usual, I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Kent.  Unfortunately they are converting to a Ramada
property next week.  I detest Ramada
Inns!.  The location of the hotel is
ideal for our classes, but I will find another Holiday Inn that will work.
During the hiatus,   I
started a major shop project – the rebuild of my ’59 BC-150 International
truck.  I am having a ball working in the
shop!!! I have been averaging maybe 25-30 hours a week – not bad for an old
fart {grin}.  I have been trying to
document the project at:  http://beltguy.com/bc150/bc150.htm  I am having some problems with the
website.  It works but some of the
thumbnail pictures do not display.  The
thumbnails that don’t display will produce the larger version.  The software I am using (MS Frontpage) is no
longer supported by GoDaddy and that causes all kinds of problems.  I will begin converting to WordPress format in
the near future,  In the meantime, you
can get a feeling of the size of the project.
While our blog has been rather sparse the past few months,
our travel plans suggest that we will be on the road a bit more over the next
few months.  Stay tuned.
Per my usual track record, I did not finish this post in the
airport – thus the delay in posting.
That is all for this trip.
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Hello from Evergreen – Catching Up

Posted on February 3, 2014 by admin
Hello from Evergreen – Catching Up
Sunday Evening ,  February
2, 2014   
Wow, I can’t believe that my last post was November 19,
2013.  Several of our friends have called
to ask if we are OK.  Part of the problem
is that we still have not sent out our Christmas Letter!
I started a blog on December 13, but never completed or posted
it.  Here is what I had written:
Yes, I am back in Kent.  Indeed, I was also here last week as
well.  Last week, I taught for three days
and flew home Wednesday night.  Actually,
I got to the house at 1:15 AM Thursday and the temperature was – 21 degrees!!!
Sunday I flew back out and have
been teaching a 5 day class.  The class
is on the second shift and I think I like that better than the first shift
where I have to get up at 4:00 AM
The weather here continues to be
cold (some frost in the morning) and we have had some heavy rain a few
days.  As I have noted before, the air is
very moist and with a bit of wind, the cold seems much worse than the
thermometer would suggest.
I really don’t know where to start catching up.  Both Pat and I were pretty darn sick for all
of December and a couple of weeks before and after.  Mine started out as Whooping Cough and went into
pneumonia and Pat’s started out as a sinus infection and then pneumonia.  Neither of us remember being that sick for
that long.  When I was teaching the two
classes in December, I kept getting sicker and by the time I got home I was
down and out.  We could barely make it
from the bedroom to the living room.  Fortunately
we are both doing much better now.
We have had some fun animal photo opportunities the past few
months:
 
Elk in the back yard
Nov. 24 2013
Fox on the back deck
Dec. 24 2013
Elk in the front yard
Jan. 13 2014

My teaching schedule has changed significantly.  I was scheduled to do two classes in both
Jan. and Feb., but Boeing has halted all training until NTT revises some of the
classes.  I am tentatively scheduled for
a class in April.  March schedule is
unknown.  All thing considered, the
change in schedule has not been all bad. 
The 2013 schedule was way too hectic. 
While the money is good, the travel is a pain in the tail.
During this hiatus, I have started rebuilding my ’59 IHC
truck.  I have really enjoyed getting
back in the shop doing somewhat creative fabrication.  I also enjoy doing all the “parts research”.  I updated the project page (click here) .  The rebuild will be extensive.  The engine will be updated to a large V8 IH
engine, a 5 speed truck transmission, a
Brownie 4 speed auxiliary gear box, a 36 inch frame stretch and a period-correct sleeper.  This is a typical
Shepherd project {grin}.
Probably lots more that I could add to this blog, but at
least you all know that we are alive and doing pretty well.

 

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Hello from Gunnison, CO

Posted on November 19, 2013 by admin
Hello from Gunnison, CO
Tuesday morning , 
November 19, 2013   (ninth
travelogue of this trip).
Sunday we drove about 400 miles to Green River, UT and
stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (on points {grin}).  Monday we drove to Gunnison (a bit over 200
miles) and got here about noon.  We are
staying at the Roadway Inn (map). 
Last night we went to dinner with Thomas (grandson) and his
girlfriend Klara.  We also did a bit of
catching up in the rather tiny motel room. 
It is great to hear about their lives and frustrating to hear about the
challenges of being a college student on a tight budget.
We planned this trip for several reasons.
First, we wanted to just plain get away.  I was tired of flying to Seattle so often and
fighting the airport logistics.  That
also meant a lot of time away from Pat.
 Second, we wanted to
take a tourist-type trip through the north west part of the US.  We have seen some magnificent country,
visited some great friends and drove a lot of miles (close to 4000!).  I think we did pretty good on that goal.
Lastly, I wanted to pick up a sleeper I bought for my ’59
IHC BC-150 truck (link to background).  If you visit the linked site, you will find
out that this truck is very special to me. 
I have been collecting parts for a complete rebuild for several
years.  One of my crazy goals was to extend
the frame and put a sleeper on the truck. 
It was never built that way from the factory, but I think it will look
neat and give me some storage room.  I
had looked all over the US for a period-correct sleeper and finally found one
that was about 5 miles from the hotel in Kent, WA.  I went to see it a couple of months ago and bought
it.  Then I had to figure out how to get
it home.  The photo below shows my methodology
{grin}.
That is all for now.
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Hello from Twin Falls, ID

Posted on November 17, 2013 by admin
Hello from Twin Falls, ID
Saturday evening , 
November 16, 2013   (Eight
travelogue of this trip).
Today we traveled about 350 miles.  We are at the Holiday Inn Express (map).
I was looking at my Holiday Inn Rewards page and noted that
for 2013 I have spent 70 nights in their hotels.  That does not include the past couple of
weeks.  I have attained the Platinum
level which tends to get you some perks. 
Tonight they upgraded us to a really nice suite.  With a little luck, we will be able to use
our points for 7 nights on this trip.
We went over some reasonable high passes (for this part of
the country). What is often
referred to  as Cabbage Patch hill (just
east of Pendleton and rated among the worst by some truckers) goes on for what
seems like forever.  We
hit some pretty good snow – both falling and on the sides of the road.  We saw an SUV that hit the huge rock face on
our side of the road and a jack-knifed semi that hit an embankment on the other
side.  There were periods of sun, but not
much.  The temperature never got over 50
and with high winds and humidity it felt really cold.
Tomorrow, our goal is Green River, UT
That is all for now.
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Hello from Pendleton, OR

Posted on November 16, 2013 by admin
Hello from Pendleton, OR
Friday evening , 
November 15, 2013   (Seventh
travelogue of this trip).
We are in Pendleton Oregon at the Holiday Inn Express (map).  We have started our drive home.  We are trying to schedule the travel so that
we can arrive in Gunnison, CO at a time that will work with our grandsons’ college
schedules.  Today we left Kent and drove
on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.  At times
it was snowing, but it did not stick to the road.  We had hoped to stay at a casino close to
here, but they were booked full (weekend).
Last week I started my certification to teach another class
at Boeing (Machine Tool Position and Accuracy). 
It is the final class in a series on “laying out” multi-axes machining
centers (checking/correcting all mechanical components that affect machine
accuracy).  That class was held the first
four days of this week on the first shift (6:00AM – 2:30PM). 
In the last post, I meant to talk about the weather on our
tour of the Olympic Peninsula.  On that
day, the weather was half way decent. 
That was about the only day that it was not rainy and cold.  We lucked out. 
One day, the clouds cleared a bit and we could see Mt.
Rainier.  After I got back to the hotel,
I got Pat and we drove down towards Auburn and got the picture below.  It really is not a good picture, but it does
show how majestic it is.  It has a
altitude of 14,411 ft.  That is about the
same altitude as Pike’s Peak, but Mt Rainier’s base is just a bit above sea
level.  Mt. Rainier is considered one of
the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. 
It is active and could produce greater devastation than Mt. St. Helens. 
That is all for now.
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Hello from Kent, WA – yet again

Posted on November 11, 2013 by admin

Hello from Kent, WA – yet again

Sunday evening ,  November 10, 2013   (Sixth travelogue of this trip).

We finished our trip up here with a direct drive up I-5, last Sunday.  A bit less than 200 miles.

Monday through Wednesday I taught a “Ball Screw” class.  It was held on first shift, which meant that I got to get up at 4:00 AM to be all ready to start the class at 6:00 AM.  It was a small class, but we got some great things accomplished. 

Thursday, was a “day of rest” at the hotel.  We did go down the Pike Market Place and had the great seafood bowl at the Crab Pot.  We described it in this post (link)

Friday we drove up the east and north sides of the Olympic Peninsula.  Their site (link)  describes the area as follows:

Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Hood Canal and on the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula is anchored by the majestic Olympic Mountains. No other place in America can match its diversity in terrain and weather in such a compact geographic area.  

By far, the most beautiful part of the drive was highway 112 on the north side of the peninsula.  The highway is a mix of near rain forest and beautiful shore.  I have included one photo that does not do the scenery justice. 

Highway 112 ends at the border of the Makah Indian Reservation.  If you drive another few miles, you come to Neah Bay, WA.  As we pulled in, there was a neat rainbow over the bay (see photo).  It appeared that most of the boats in the marina were fishing boats. 

Neah Bay is described as the most northwest point in the continental U.S.  Looking at the computer map, it appears to be the western most location in the continental US, but not the northern most location.  Here is to Google Map (link) which shows just how far north and west we were.

We commented that we have been at the southern most location (Key West) and close to the northern most location in the continental US.

The drive up the Olympic Peninsula and back was right at 400 miles!!  Long day, but worth the effort.  The only down side was the we got into the “rush hour” traffic.  I have to say that most any time of day is dicey in Seattle, but both Thursday and Friday nights were close to gridlock. 

That is all of now.

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