Off and running in the clean machine! Tonight - Dayton, Ohio!
May 2005 Archives
Off and running in the clean machine! Tonight - Dayton, Ohio!
First alteration to the route and we haven't even left yet! :-) Since Mary is already asleep, it may not hold (hence the Rev 1 notation), bu I have adjusted the westbound route slightly. To make sure we get at least started tomorrow, our first night will probably by in Ruffsdale, PA at KOA Madison at Tanglewood Lake and our second night at KOA in Terre Haute, IN.
I need to hit the rack so I can get up early and get things rolling, expecially the RV! ;-)
Yeah, we're still at home getting ready for the road trip. We spent a very long day getting stuff together and got the RV sparkling clean, inside and out. A major problem in our modern world is acid rain and how it effects the finish on our vehicles, especially big ones like RVs. So, we spent the day with our bottle of cleaner/waxer, a ton of rags, and many kilojoules of elbow grease to get the exterior sparkling like new.
We have all the clothes and kitchen gear stowed safely onboard. Tomorrow morning, we have to hit the grocery store (for supplies for Dan who is staying home) and get the rest of the gear in the RV. Then, we'll be off and running for Salt Lake City. Now, I need to make some adjustments to the route we are taking. If we can leave my 10:30, we can still make Zanesville, Ohio by supper time. If we don't leave until lunchtime, we will only get as far as Washington, PA by then. Either way, there is a nice campground at both locations. I have to see how it affects the rest of the stops ahead. Leaving tomorrow morning, we can still get to Salt Lake City by Saturday afternoon and keep all our planned stops. Leaving in the afternoon might alter our course a bit. Thank goodness for Microsoft Mappoint - much easier than paper maps when it comes to optimizing the route.
I just added georeferences to all of my posts and activated the very nice Geo plugin from Owen Winkler. While we are on the road, I will be noting the location in the posts. Nice feature in the plugin is the little popup menu that will appear so you can view the location on a number of maps and other sites that use georeference info.
And, no, the latitude and longitude of this post is fictitious :-) Well, it is a real place, one that is disavowed by many. We were just a few miles away from it on last summer's trip. Back to getting ready to pull out on this year's excursion.
Update: changed the location to the other place I frequently inhabit.
I remember fondly the first time around in college that summer meant no classes, many parties, time at the beach and hanging out with friends, and a job to support all of the above. Since I was living at home during those months, I had a roof over my head with meals provided and not much of a care in the world. Now, in my second shot at collegiate life, it is much different. Going to classes has become a 12-month-a-year proposition with me taking courses in both summer semesters.
(This was a draft post from a few days ago.... I think I lost my train of thought....)
Driving a 30-foot RV is not like driving a regular car, not only for a gas mileage point of view (don't ask), but also negotiating mountain roads. Last summer, we travelled over some very interesting terrain, like the 6-mile, curving, 6%+ downgrade outside of Zion National Park. With 9 tons of metal and furnishings, the forces of gravity push you ever faster and the one thing you do not want to do is ride the brakes. They will begin to smoke and burn very quickly and, yes, stop performing the designed function. I learned to drive in low gear very quickly, using the engine as the major braking mechanism.
One of the stops that Mary wants to make on the way out to Salt Lake City is the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Golden, Colorado. I found directions on their web site and noticed one interesting phrase:
Follow the scenic winding road to the top of the mountain.When I see scenic, I say great, but the word winding means that I probably won't have time to enjoy the view. I could just let Mary drive but that would be mean. :-) So, I dropped a note to the contact person at the museum, explained my concern, and asked for advice. I received a very nice note from the Events Coordinator at the Museum with the preferred route for larger vehicles to take. Also, they have an observation deck at the museum which affords a great view. Problems avoided! Since we are stopping at the museum, I have added another stop that I want to take in Golden which just happens to be the location of the Colorado School of Mines.
This is a work in progress. :-) We found that out the easy way last summer on our cross-country trek, deciding to stop and enjoy a spot for more than a passing moment. The good thing is that we both have accumulated a lot of hours behind the wheel of our RV so we can spell each other at driving. We found it comfortable on most days last year to cover anywhere from 350 to 400 miles. This time, we are trying to make the driving time a bit shorter each day and to plan more stops of interest in advance. The best part about crossing the country with six wheels firmly on the ground is that if we see someplace that looks interesting (or strange), we can stop.
So here is the schedule as of this moment!
Westbound
Mon 5/30 - West Chester, PA to Zanesville, OH
Tue 5/31 - Zanesville, OH to St Louis, MO
Wed 6/01 - St Louis, MO to Lawrence, KS
· Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, IL
Thu 6/02 - Lawrence, KS to Laramie, WY
· Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, CO
· Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO
Fri 6/03 - Laramie, WY to Salt Lake City, UT
Sat 6/04 - In Salt Lake City, UT
· LDS Family History Library (Mary)
Sun 6/05 - In Salt Lake City, UT
· Bingham Canyon Mine
Geology of the Northwest Field Course
Mon 6/06 - Salt Lake City, UT to Grand Teton NP
Tue 6/07 - At Grand Teton National Park
Wed 6/08 - Grand Teton NP to Yellowstone NP
Thu 6/09 - At Yellowstone National Park
Fri 6/10 - At Yellowstone National Park
Sat 6/11 - Yellowstone NP to Choteau, MT
Sun 6/12 - Choteau, MT to Glacier NP
Mon 6/13 - At Glacier National Park
Tue 6/14 - At Glacier National Park
Wed 6/15 - Glacier NP to Butte, MT
Thu 6/16 - Butte, MT to Craters of the Moon NM
Fri 6/17 - At Craters of the Moon National Monument
Sat 6/18 - Craters of the Moon NM to Salt Lake City, UT
Eastbound
Sun 6/19 - Salt Lake City, UT to Laramie, WY
Mon 6/20 - Laramie, WY to Deadwood, SD
Tue 6/21 - Deadwood, SD to Bismarck, ND
Wed 6/22 - Bismarck, ND to Menomonie, WI
Thu 6/23 - Menomonie, WI to Chicago, IL
Fri 6/24 - In Chicago, IL
Sat 6/25 - Chicago, IL to Around Pittsburgh, PA
Sun 6/26 - Around Pittsburgh, PA to West Chester, PA
Just a few days away, we are set to commence on our second cross-country journey in our RV. This year, we our heading for Salt Lake City, Utah to meet up with the rest of our field class group, heading for two weeks of geology in Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Parks, and Craters of the Moon Monument and Preserve.
I plan on using this section to show some of the places we'll be visiting and to supplement entries in the weblog. Stop back often and, if you have sugestions for places to stop and things to see, please leave them in the comments (when I figure out how they work on a static page in WP 1.5)!
I cannot believe that in only 15 days we will be on the road again, starting Road Trip 2K5, heading westbound for Salt Lake City and the start of our Geology of the Northwest field geology school. Yes, it is our class this year since Mary is also enrolled in the course! Geology will never be the same. ;-)
My plan for the day is to finish getting the RV cleaned out in preparation for getting it to the Ford dealer on Monday evening for state inspection and a tune up. We also have to go to Lowe's to get a new faucet set for the galley sink. Time to get to work!
The word strata is defined as depositional units or layers of sediment distinguished by composition or appearance. For that reason, I have named the collection static pages within my journal. They are thoughts, ideas, and stuff that I have or will write about over time. Keep watch, read, enjoy, and, at times, comment.
I will attempt to keep a list of what you will beneath the surface. I wonder if there is a feature (or plugin) that will accomplish that feat. I wonder if I should write it myself. For the moment, here is what is contained within...
Editor's Note: This is a new feature of WordPress 1.5.1 and I am playing with it to see just how it works and as a possible means to keep my other web pages more up-to-date. We'll see...
I really should write something about my own personal history. Maybe I will :-)
Of interest, my modifications to some funny facts about where I come/came from!
If this post on TVNewser is correct, I am starting a protest against MSNBC. The rumor is that Rita Cosby is making the jump from the Faux News Network to MSNBC and will be a part of their new primetime lineup. The prediction made is...
MSNBC's primetime amounts to a big question mark at this point. The most logical lineup sounds like this: Hardball at 7, Tucker Carlson at 8, "Crime At Nine" with Cosby (and Dan Abrams??) at 9, Joe Scarborough at 10, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 11 (on tape). "It will all be clear in June," an insider said this afternoon...Keith on tape? The bowtied idiot replacing him? My comment is that it sucks! And, again, the nation's news outlets' obsession with crime. We see far too much about runaway brides, possible pedofile pop stars, and car chases. I so dread the fact that 99% of a news show is taken up with items that should be relegated to local news shows and so little time is dedicated to items of national importance. While the neo-cons develop their new christian communist ideology around us, the talking heads think it is more important to show five minutes of video showing a retaining wall in New York City collapsing. 90% of the television I watch is found on four channels - CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN I, and CSPAN II. I just cannot believe that MSNBC is making such a move with what I think is probably the best one-two punch in network news analysis - Matthews and Olbermann. Time to start writing letters...
The Kubrick style (title pun intended) is a bit different from the old WP 1.x template system but I like it because it is much more modular and easier to tweak. I do have a minor complaint, one that I find with a lot of other folks coding, and that is the use of horizontal tabs for indenting. Personally, I use hard spaces in groups of two. Tabs make the code spread out more than I like. I dislike tab indentation so much that I have a vi shortcut to convert them from the get go.
Anyway, I do like the new WP 1.5 so far and it does seem a bit more efficient, too. I still have much to do with the layouts to make it more me than Stanley. :-) So I am off to do just that, along with the several dozen chores I need to get done in preparation for the 2005 version of the cross-country trek for field school. More on that later, too - I am giving the static pages feature of WP 1.5 a try with that info.
With the new layout, I added a shot from our Structural Geology field trip to Catskill, NY. We spend two days on a series of outcrops spanning about 3 miles. It is one thing to read about folding and to see pictures of folds, but until you get into the field, Brunton and notebook in hand, you really cannot understand how these wonderous geologic processes work.
With the semester over, I finally have a few minutes to get to the task of upgrading to WordPress 1.5.1. There may be some brief outages, but all should go just fine (I hope).
Update: True to the old 5-minute installation promise, the upgrade was just as painless. I have the presentation set to the new default, Kubrick-style layout for the moment. Now, it is time to go through the new controls (love the dashboard) and see how the style works. Also, comments are now moderated - no, you won't see them right away - since I need to tinker with plugins and such before things are 100% back to normal!
First, hello Jay and the rest of the rockheads who have found their way here from my Face Book entry. You are welcome to snoop on my comings and goings and, perhaps, you may even find a reference to you here. Be assured, only good references ;-)
Anyway, our team presentation went quite well in Humans and the Environment this morning. I finally got the takeaway handbill finished around 1 AM this morning. Then the next 9 hours were spent almost entirely on folds and fabrics in preparation for the Structural exam. I am glad that one is over since it is I think the toughest one on my schedule. Now to finish up all the lab rework and field trip report so that I can put this class to rest.
Still on the agenda are the exams in Geomorph (tomorrow) and Paleo (Thursday), as well as finishing up my assignments for Thematic Cartography. I also have to review a few papers for others in Geomorph as well as get mine out to folks for review. First, I think a nap is in order - the mind is alert, but the bones are weary. I will be glad when this semester is over and I can file the notes and move on to the summer adventures! This time next month, we'll be on the road, heading west towards Salt Lake City for the start of Geology of the Northwest. Yogi and Boo Boo, I'll be there soon!
