On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Wilsonville, OR

Saturday evening ,  November 2, 2013   (Fifth travelogue of this trip).

We are just south of Portland at a Holiday Inn (map).  We are staying here two night (using points – Yea).

Yesterday our trip continued up US 101 along the Oregon coast.  One of our stops had a great view of the ocean.  A couple of the people at the stop pointed out several sea lions swimming not too far from shore.  Indeed, some were right below the cliff we were on.  You could see them, but they don’t show in the photos.  We could even hear one “barking”.  The photo below is from that location – the sea lions were out of the photo on the left.

We continued up the coast until just north of Lincoln City where we headed towards Portland on OR 18.  Again this was a 200 mile day, but took many hours.  Well worth it, however.

This is a planned stop so that I could visit the shop of a Bonneville racer.  Marlo has been building a streamliner that is designed to be the fastest wheel drive car in the world – 550 MPH target.  He has an amazing website (link).  That website documents, in great detail, a project that was started over 14 years ago.  I was involved in the early stages of the project when I was with Gates.  We worked out the details of both the blower drives as well as the traction drives.  The car has four wheel drive with a common drive shaft.  The two blown alcohol engines are connected to the drive shaft via two unique belt drives.

The car is a work of art!  Marlo said the he has recorded over 60,000
billable hours.  Those hours are spread over several master craftsman
whose work is phenomenal.  I have included a photo of the car and the
“carrier”.  The carrier is also a mind boggling  piece of “engineering”.

That is all for now.

Hello from Coos Bay, OR

Friday  morning ,  November 1, 2013   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

Another quick update.  We are staying at the Mill Casino Hotel (map).  Most casino/hotels room rates are about half of normal hotels – not this one.  However, there are not a lot of options here.  Either cheap or expensive.  The positive side is that Pat had a lot of fun with the slots.

Yesterday was a gorgeous drive.  Shortly after we started driving, US 101 became a “coastal highway”.  It was amazing to see huge redwoods one minute and beautiful ocean waves the next.  We stopped a couple of times to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  One stop has a trail that led to an overlook of Arch Rock (see photo). 

Yesterday I mentioned the “Avenue of the Giants”.  I found a wiki site that describes the route (link).  I sure wish I had read that before we drove the route.  For one thing, we detoured back onto 101 before the end of route.  It looks like we missed what is termed the “Immortal Tree” which is 950 years old and has withstood things that would kill a normal tree.

We were disappointed about the Redwood National Park.  It is not well marked.  US 101 drives through the park, but we only saw one small sign.  We had hoped to go the typical park visitor center, but there is not one in the park from what we can tell.  Most national park visitor centers have lots of information and great videos.  That said, the drive was still amazing.

We often comment that short mileage days turn out to be long days.  We only drove a bit over 200 miles yesterday, but it took most of the day.  When we set our minds for a long drive the day seems to be shorter.  Doesn’t make much sense, but it seems to be hold true for us.

We also often comment how convenient it is to travel in the bus.  For this trip, it might not be all that bad that we are traveling in the rented truck.  Some of the roads we have been on could be negotiated by the bus, but it would have taken full concentration to drive the winding narrow roads.  It would also have been difficult to pull off in the scenic view areas.

That is all for now.

Hello from McKinleyville, CA

Thursday  morning ,  October 31, 2013   (Third travelogue of this trip).

Another quick update. 

Yesterday we drove from Grass Valley to the coast via California 20.  We then picked up US 101 and plan to take that to just south of Portland.  We are staying at the Holiday Inn (map). 

The drive here was great.  The weather has improved significantly.  The drive on CA 20 took us through some very picturesque farming country.  We saw a large number of rice fields (they do not appear to call them paddies in the US.  Rice farming is quite an amazing process.  The fields are flooded and the seed is planted by airplane.  A good explanation is found here:  (link).

Once we hit 101, we began to see redwood trees.  At one point we took a detour called the “Avenue of the Giants”.  It is amazing to drive though the thick forest of huge redwood trees. 

Our drive today should include the Redwood National Park where the trees should be even more impressive.

We have about 450 miles to travel in the next two days in order to end up in Aurora, OR so that I can visit another friend from the racing world (Bonneville in this case).

That is all of now.

Hello from Grass Valley, CA

Tuesday morning ,  October 29, 2013   (Second travelogue of this trip).

I wanted to do a quick post today.  I will catch up on Wendover Airfield in another post.

Yesterday was an interesting day of driving.  We turned the windshield wipers on when we left the hotel and had them on virtually the whole trip – about 500 miles.  During part of the trip, we hit some pretty good snow.  The local TV stations are making a big deal about the big snow on Donner pass.  We did see a lot of snow, but the roads were fine.  We were not concerned, as the truck is a 4X4.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Grass Valley (map).  With all my traveling, I build up a  lot of points.  We are staying here using some of those points.  That is a good thing, since the rates are in the  $150 range.

In a few minutes I will be heading out to visit a great friend.  Steve is the owner of RCD Engineering (link).  I first met Steve in the ’90s when I was the blower belt representative for Gates.  We became good friends and try to see each other when we can.  Some folks liken us to twins.  Indeed, he is as close to a brother as I can imagine.  Tonight, we will probably go to dinner with our wives – both are Pat.

That is all for now.

Hello from Wendover, NV

Sunday evening ,  October 27, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, at least the title is different on this post {grin}.

As I have noted, I have spent almost all of October in Seattle.  I taught 5 days last week and flew home Friday evening.  While I was flying home, Pat picked up our rented truck.  We left Saturday about noon, on our way back to Seattle.   Our first stop was in Green River Utah, were we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Today we drove a bit less than 300 miles and arrived in Wendover about noon.  We are staying at the Rainbow Casino (map).  We chose Wendover because the hotels are inexpensive, Pat could drop a few coins in the slots, and I could tour the Historic Wendover Airfield.

During World War II Wendover Airfield  was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit that dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs.  Considering that there has been minimal restoration activity, it is in amazing condition.  When I first visited the facility many years ago, I commented that they could whitewash the barracks and replace some glass, and film a WWII movie.  This site has good details about the history of the airfield (link)

I hope to post a few pictures and more details.  However, it is late and I will only post one photo for now.

That is all for now.

Hello from Kent, WA

Sunday Afternoon ,  October 13, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Or, should the title be “Hello from Kent, WA – for the umpteenth time” {grin}

Yes, I am back in Kent and have been for the past two weeks.  I was able to fly back for a couple of days (Oct. 4/5), but I am staying over this weekend.  I will fly home on Thursday and then fly back on the following Sunday.  If you got lost in that sentence, it might be easier to say that I am here most of the month of October.

The good news is that Pat and I will be traveling back to Washington the last week of October and will return to Evergreen a bit before Thanksgiving.  During that time, I will teach two classes and we will play tourists for a bit over two weeks.  You can’t believe how I am looking forward to that trip.  We have some neat sightseeing plans and plans to visit two great friends.

When I was here several times before this hectic October schedule, the weather was great.  However, it has been quite rainy and cold this month.  It sounds like next week will be a little better. 

Part of the reason for all of the October activity is that I am getting qualified to teach additional classes at Boeing.  Most of the new ones deal with checking for geometrical alignment problems on large machining centers.  I have done my audits for two of the classes and will finish the co-teach process next week and the following week.

That will give NTT a lot of flexibility with resources.  They are in a bind right now.  It will also keep me about as busy as I want to be.  Indeed, I am scheduled to do two Boeing classes a month for November through February (as far as the schedule goes right now).  In addition, NTT has a very aggressive “public” schedule for the first half of 2014.  I suspect they will ask me to do several of those classes as well.

Traveling has always presented a “health” problem for me, as I tend to not be as active, nor do I eat well.  I did a mini physical a couple of weeks ago when I was home and the doctor was very pleased with my health status.  Obviously we both agree that I need to loose weight, but he did not bring it up.  I kind of wish he would have lowered the boom on me {grin}.  However, I took the bull by the horns and have been eating healthy salads for lunch, cutting back of my typical “comfort foods”, etc.  In addition, I have been riding the exercise bike for 30 minutes most days.

Unless something comes up, I probably won’t post again until Pat and I start our “road trip”.

Hello from Rochester, MN

Tuesday evening ,  September 17, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

I am in Rochester, MN at the Hampton Inn (map).

As you may recall, I was in Seattle last week.  I got home late Friday night and left of this trip Sunday afternoon (left the house about 9:30).  Just enough time for Pat to wash my clothes.

This week I am “auditing” a vibration analysis class.  This class is new to NTT and two of us will be prepared to teach the class.  I am excited about this subject, as I did some related work when I was with Gates.  It is a pretty technical subject and will be a bit of a challenge to teach it to non-engineers. 

I will be here for three days.  The customer, an independent power generation plant is out in the boondocks in very beautiful farmland.  The weather yesterday was great, but today it is misting rain and pretty cool.

As I write this, things are going crazy with my schedule.  Pending some decisions by NTT, I could be in Seattle the first four weeks in October and traveling with Pat (via car) back to Seattle the fifth week.  Quite a bit of this “overload” is to bring me up to speed on two classes involving 3 and 5 axis machining centers.  When I first heard about these classes, I kind of wished I was involved, and it looks like that will happen.  You can’t believe how many times I have said “be careful what you wish for…..”

Getting prepared to teach these new classes (I am already on the schedule to teach them in the next three months) is really challenging my love to learn new things.  My poor old tired brain is really squirming inside this old bald head {big grin}.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Kent, WA

Thursday evening ,  September 12, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well,  I am back in the Seattle area again this week.  I left Denver Sunday morning and am staying at the now familiar Holiday Inn in Kent, WA (map).  Not very fancy, but it is convenient and the folks are friendly.

This week I am teaching Shaft Alignment (Monday and Tuesday) and Mechanical Drives the last three days.  This week the classes are being held at the Boeing Auburn “Craft College” on the early shift (class begins at 6:00AM).  The advantage to teaching the early class is that the building does not get really hot until after we are done.  The bad news is that I have to set the alarm for 4:00.

Both classes had several young apprentices for the maintenance program.  I talked to them in some detail and they have a very structured curriculum (4 years I think).  They make wonderful students, as they are eager to learn.  Boeing has 40 folks just starting the program and are looking to hire 20 more.  Like a lot of companies, Boeing is facing a significant population of folks qualified for retirement in the next couple of years.  I think that bodes well for NTT.

Yesterday Seattle hit a record temperature of over 90 degrees.  That is very unusual for this time of year.  Indeed, 90 degrees is not the norm – even in the summer months.

I have been keeping track of the horrible weather in Denver.  The national news (even the local TV station) has shown videos of the extremely heavy rain and terrible flooding.  I fly home tomorrow and they are warning of delayed flights {frown}.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Gunnison, CO

Drafted:  Tuesday morning Sept. 3, 2013 (eighth travelogue of this trip).
Posted:  Tuesday evening Sept. 10, 2013

Sunday we drove from Grand Junction to Gunnison.  We are staying at the Rodeway Inn (map).  Our stop here is very special – to visit our two grandsons who attend Western State Colorado University (link). It was a fairly short drive and we were able to have a late lunch with Thomas and Austin and their girlfriends (Klara and Kai).  That evening, we went to McDonalds to have an ice cream cone.  The reason I mention this is because both Thomas and Austin work there and both just got promoted to “swing manager”.  About the time we were going to take their picture, the restaurant got very busy {frown}.

Monday,  we got to spend quite a bit of the day with Thomas and Klara.  Klara was born and raised in Crested Butte, CO.   Pat, Thomas and I drove up there to have lunch with Klara and then we went to the coffee shop where she works and had a great cup of coffee.  That evening, we had a wonderful dinner with them.

Tuesday we met with Austin for a few minutes before leaving.  The photo below was taken as we dropped him off at Western. 

We then got a quick tour of  Hurst Hall where Thomas takes most of his geology classes.  The photo below was taken in one of the labs where he was preparing a geology map of one of the oil fields in Wyoming.

We follow our good friend’s full time travels in their email blog.  Stevi and Ed post some great photos – many of which are very artistic.  I can’t begin to duplicate their skills, but I thought I had better post something a bit artsy.  The photo below is of a rock that has “water pockets” that look kind of cool.  In Capitol Reef, there are whole cliffs covered by what the ranger called water pockets.   As I looked for a good reference, I find that the “creation” of the rock formation resulted from what is called the “Waterpocket Fold” (link).  Here is the picture:

I wanted to talk a bit about the formation of the “Colorado Plateau”.  This plateau is the huge area that contains Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyon Lands.  The link above has a pretty good description of the formation of the plateau.  Parts of the area were “raised” over 7000 feet and millions of years of erosion have formed the beautiful areas that are now National Parks.

Being old is not all bad.  When I turned 62, we obtained a “Golden Age Passport”.  It gives us free admission to all National Parks.  On this trip, we toured five of them.  In each of the parks, at the visitor centers, they have wonderful movies that tell about the parks.   Most are about 20 minutes long and are very professionally done.

We returned home on Tuesday 9/3/13.  That was one day short of four weeks.  Part of the trip was very hectic (at least for me – working) and the rest was quite relaxing.  We visited some of the most beautiful sights on this planet (at least we think so). 

I have to apologize for the late delivery of the final post of this travelogue.  Things have been very hectic.  I was home for just a few days and then flew to Seattle – back to the hectic life {grin}

Till next time.

Hello from Torrey, Utah

Drafted:  Friday evening August 30,  2013
Finished:   Sunday morning Sept. 1, 2013 (Seventh travelogue of this trip).

Thursday we toured Bryce Canyon and then drove to Torrey, UT.  We are staying two nights at the Broken Spur Inn (map).

Bryce Canyon is another spectacular National Park.  One of the distinctions between Zion and Bryce is that you are on the floor of the canyons in Zion, while you view Bryce from the top.  Both are magnificent!

In Bryce National Park, we took the shuttle to Bryce Point and then drove the car about 18 miles out to Rainbow Point.  Everywhere you looked the views were magical and quite varied.  Without question, I could post 100s of pictures and not do any of the park’s beauty justice.  Indeed, my  rather simple camera can’t begin to capture what the eye sees.  That said, here are two pictures that attempt to show the spectacular beauty of the park:

The trip from Bryce Canyon to Torrey is via Utah 12 which is designated a Scenic Byway (link).  Wikipedia describes it: “ …. also known as “Highway 12 — A Journey Through Time Scenic Byway”, is a state highway designated an All-American Road”.   Indeed, it is a magnificent 120 mile drive.  Part of the highway is designated “the hogback”.  It is a narrow road with steep drop-offs on each side.  I tried to find photos or Youtube videos that adequately describe that area, but could find none that depict that part of the drive.  The drop-offs are at least a couple of hundred feet.  It gives a new meaning to “pucker power”.  You could spend several days exploring the side routes, but we were tired and wanted to get to Torrey.

Friday we drove to Capitol Reef National park.  That is a short distance from Torrey.  The park straddles Utah 24 and has several “pull-outs” that allow you to take pictures of beautiful rock formations.  One side trip to Goosenecks Overlook” lets you look down into a steep canyon where the river has carved several bends that do indeed look like goose necks.  Part of the park is the historic site of Fruita.  A few of the buildings have been restored and one cabin is used as a small museum. 

Most of the sites describing the park talk about driving the  10 mile “Scenic Drive” road.  When we got to the end, there was an open gate that let us take a dirt road into a narrow, steep canyon.  On the map is is called “Capitol Gorge”.  At times the road is the riverbed.  It would not be a good place to be if a rain storm came up.  By far, it was more picturesque than the “Scenic Drive”.  I took several picture trying to capture how small the car was in relationship to the steep canyon walls.  Unfortunately, the perspective of the car in the photos does not begin to show the height of the canyon walls.  Here are a couple of photos:

As noted in the beginning, I am late in finishing this post.  Indeed, we are in Grand Junction at the Candlewood Suites (map).  I will try to catch up in the next post.

That is all for now.