Thursday, March 22, 2012
Heading Home from AB
I am now nicley at home, in fact I am getting ready to head out for the weekend. I typed a bit in the plane on my way home, but have not had a chance to get it posted. well, here it is. I would comment that for some reason, when I compose the text using Pages the paragraph spacings get lost. Sorry about that. Even if I insert estra Returns, it comes out as a block.
20 March 2012
Grande Prairie: it was -15C this morning when I got to the car at 5:50 am. The frost on the windows scraped off easily, thank goodness, and I was at the airport at 6:10. I love these smaller towns with straight roads and no traffic!
Last night I watched a movie in my room, Jumper. I liked it. The idea is that there are special people called Jumpers that haven figured out a way to teleport themselves. They can go anywhere they can think of, and they need to spend a good bit of time figuring out where they want to go. Another group thinks the Jumpers should all be dead and are trying to kill them, which sets up the conflict in the film. Although it is a bit predictable the scenery is nice since they go all over the world, and the action can be hectic. The characters on the bad guy side a cardboard cut outs of real people, but the British Jumper is a good relief character. The star is the guy who played young Anakin Skywalker, and although he is sometimes very subdued, he is good wheat counts. 3.5 Stars
For dinner I went to Mr. Bills, a local steak restaurant. I has the NY Strip and it was very good. Much better than the last steak I had in Eugene OR at the Outback Steakhouse. Caesar salad and a beer makes a lovely dinner. I was still full this morning when I woke up. Great dreams, I must say. Maybe the combination of the movie with the steak?
I'm now in the plane between Edmonton and Abbottsford. I should be home shortly after noon. This has been. A good trip although I would have prefered to be able to get home yesterday.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Grimshaw AB
I am now in my final spot for the day, Grimshaw AB. This is a small farming/First Nations community in the nothingness of northern Alberta prairie. There is a large hotel in which I am staying, and a few roadside restaurants and gas stations (often together). I had a delicious dinner of KFC watching the NCAA BB tournament on TV in my room.
I had an epiphany on my drive up here this afternoon. I have seen infinity. Infinity means something that goes on without end, right? Well, that is what I saw. It is either the endlessness of the prairie, or the number of abandoned homesteads and sheds that litter the countryside up here. If I chose to change my vocation and took up taking pictures of old sheds and old abandoned houses in northern AB I would be at it for the rest of my life. Literally. It is amazing.
I had an epiphany on my drive up here this afternoon. I have seen infinity. Infinity means something that goes on without end, right? Well, that is what I saw. It is either the endlessness of the prairie, or the number of abandoned homesteads and sheds that litter the countryside up here. If I chose to change my vocation and took up taking pictures of old sheds and old abandoned houses in northern AB I would be at it for the rest of my life. Literally. It is amazing.
En Route to Snow
Edmonton, AB: the weather here isn't as bad as I expected. The ground is mostly bare, and it about freezing. I am going to be on the ground here for about about an hour between flights, on my way to Grande Prairie. My flight Fromm Abbotsford here was packed, as always, but the WestJet flight attendants we good and the flight was fast. No complaints from me. Even the border crossing was a quick and painless.
I ordered replacement headlights for the Prius. The first real problem I've had with it, the HID headlights go out while I am driving in the dark. You can flip them off at the switch and then back on, and that will get them going again for a while, but now they are mostly off. Normally this is a simple matter to change, but in the Prius the recommended method to change them is to take the front cowlings off, and disassemble major parts of the front of the car. I've seen UTube videos showing shortcut methods that don't require this degree of work.
The second problem is that the parts store price for the bulbs is $100 each. I've ordered mine on Amazon for $53 each, and they will be delivered on Tuesday. Still not cheap, but moving in the right direction. I should mention that my Prius has fog lights that stay on, so having the headlights go out is not good but does not mean I have no light by which to drive. I just have less light than I would like.
When I get to Grande Prairie I have about a 2 hour drive north to Peace River where I will be tonight. I drive by Sexsmith, which I have always considered to be a strange name for a town. Where did it get that name, anyway? I'll blog more later when I get to my room.
I ordered replacement headlights for the Prius. The first real problem I've had with it, the HID headlights go out while I am driving in the dark. You can flip them off at the switch and then back on, and that will get them going again for a while, but now they are mostly off. Normally this is a simple matter to change, but in the Prius the recommended method to change them is to take the front cowlings off, and disassemble major parts of the front of the car. I've seen UTube videos showing shortcut methods that don't require this degree of work.
The second problem is that the parts store price for the bulbs is $100 each. I've ordered mine on Amazon for $53 each, and they will be delivered on Tuesday. Still not cheap, but moving in the right direction. I should mention that my Prius has fog lights that stay on, so having the headlights go out is not good but does not mean I have no light by which to drive. I just have less light than I would like.
When I get to Grande Prairie I have about a 2 hour drive north to Peace River where I will be tonight. I drive by Sexsmith, which I have always considered to be a strange name for a town. Where did it get that name, anyway? I'll blog more later when I get to my room.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Madness Begins!
Am I really back in Atlanta? Has it been a month since I've posted a blog about my travels?
I apologize, my patient readers, and can only hope you are Facebook friends with me so you can keep up with my daily (sort of) activities. I've had a busy time at home but not so much with travels as with doing things in my relative neighborhood. I have found that posting pictures on FB is pretty easy, so keeping up with me there is probably a better way as long as you don't mind really short communications.
I am back in Atlanta, and I arrived on Monday evening in the rain and relative cool. My flight was fine, and no problems. I mention this because of the news this morning of a plane that skidded off the taxi way and into a ditch. I was not on that plane. However, I often take a flight that arrives at about that time, so it is possible I will be in the ditch at some future time.
Tonight starts the crazy time of March when the national championship tournament begins - so called March Madness. Missouri is highly rated as the only team where I attended for any time. UNH and OSU are not in the Big Dance, so this is at least one reason you should attend more than one college. I'm currently watching Oregon play LSU in the NIT on TV, which is the alternative post-season activity. Washington plays in an hour. While UW was a pretty good team this year and they won the Pac-12 regular season, they lost in the Pac-12 tournament and so were snubbed by the selection committee for the National title. O well. Feelings were hurt, but at least they get to play on.
I'm going to write the BQ Question next, so I encourage you to have a look. This time I'm doing a question that is a bit different, but one that means a lot to me, and should mean a lot to all people who live in Washington and in the Pacific Northwest in general. I hope the discussion is a good one. It happens on this Friday.
I apologize, my patient readers, and can only hope you are Facebook friends with me so you can keep up with my daily (sort of) activities. I've had a busy time at home but not so much with travels as with doing things in my relative neighborhood. I have found that posting pictures on FB is pretty easy, so keeping up with me there is probably a better way as long as you don't mind really short communications.
I am back in Atlanta, and I arrived on Monday evening in the rain and relative cool. My flight was fine, and no problems. I mention this because of the news this morning of a plane that skidded off the taxi way and into a ditch. I was not on that plane. However, I often take a flight that arrives at about that time, so it is possible I will be in the ditch at some future time.
Tonight starts the crazy time of March when the national championship tournament begins - so called March Madness. Missouri is highly rated as the only team where I attended for any time. UNH and OSU are not in the Big Dance, so this is at least one reason you should attend more than one college. I'm currently watching Oregon play LSU in the NIT on TV, which is the alternative post-season activity. Washington plays in an hour. While UW was a pretty good team this year and they won the Pac-12 regular season, they lost in the Pac-12 tournament and so were snubbed by the selection committee for the National title. O well. Feelings were hurt, but at least they get to play on.
I'm going to write the BQ Question next, so I encourage you to have a look. This time I'm doing a question that is a bit different, but one that means a lot to me, and should mean a lot to all people who live in Washington and in the Pacific Northwest in general. I hope the discussion is a good one. It happens on this Friday.
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