Sunday morning I had brunch with Rafi at a sidewalk cafe near his house. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with bananas and strawberries but actually got the lemon ricotta pancakes which were very good. We had a big meal planned for that evening so brunch was perfect to hold me over til then.
Every now and then you see someone who's eyes are so beautiful that you can't look away. Well, a young girl and her mom (I'm guessing) sat next to us out on the sidewalk. The daughter had some similarities to Keri Russel with these light blue eyes that were perfectly arranged between her nose and forehead. She ordered a mimosa so she must've been at least 21 which made Rafi and I feel a little better that we weren't checking out a teenager :)
My head was hurting from Saturday night so we went back to Rafi's and relaxed. I watched a few recorded episodes of House. It's a show about a doctor with the last name of House who goes about treating his patients a little bit different but with good results. Around 5 o'clock we headed out down to Brooklyn for our 6:45 reservation at Peter Luger's Steak House. We showed up about 30 minutes early after changing subway trains 3 times. Going North or South through Manhattan on the subway is quite easy but once you have to get across town or over to the lower east side it actually takes quite a bit of time. I guess you can't really complain though, at $2 per trip no matter how many trains you take it's a lot cheaper than a cab.
We walked up to the host to let them know we were there and a bit early. They couldn't find Rafi's name anywhere on the list. I actually think the guy didn't believe us and tried to tell us that there was no way Rafi had made a reservation within 2 weeks for 6:45pm cause that slot fills up 1.5 to 2 months ahead. Rafi let me listen to the voicemail from Peter Luger's confirming our reservation and spelling out the date and time. Anyways, we got seated within about 20 minutes! We had a porterhouse for 2. It was a little more rare than medium rare but it was still good. The giant shrimp cocktail appetizer was very good as well.
After dinner, we went back to Rafi's apartment to try to find a comedy show to go to but they were all sold out. We ended up a bar called Prohibition on Columbus. They had a good band there playing covers of artists like John Denver, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, etc. Our waitress was from Sweden and had lived in New York about 7 years. For a Sunday night it was pretty dead so we had fun cutting up with Julia. We tried to drink enough so that our tip woudl help cover the $150 dress she bought that day.
Monday morning we had brunch at the Popover Cafe near Rafi's. Ham and cheese omelette for me and Rafi tried soem crazy Crab, mushroom, special... it didn't look good!
We went down to the giant Macy's to check it out. The place has 10 floors and takes up the entire block. I'd hate to pay the rent there. I towed my luggage down to Penn Station and saw that the next train that I needed was leaving in < 2 min so I ran down some steps and hopped aboard. I had a round trip ticket already in my wallet from the train ride in. My goal was to get back to ISLIP airport for my 4pm flight and it was now 12:31pm.
After stopping at every stop between Penn Station and the end of the line at Babylon, I got off the train. I had ridden 70 minutes in a car with no A/C and was sweating a bit. After getting off the train I realized that I had left my ticket on my seat so I had to go in and buy another 1way ticket to ISLIP. $2.25 later, I was good to go. Next train to ISLIP leaves at 2:26 and it was about 1:45. Hanging out on a train platform in the middle of no where with a bunch of people you don't know isn't all that cool but there I was. They had 3 platforms to choose from and I finally decided at the last minute to get on the train at platform 2 being that it departed at 2:26 and someone confirmed that it went to ISLIP. 5 stops later, I get off the train at ISLIP, the train pulls away and I look around and think... Ummm, where's the airport?
I stop a man who was also on the train to ask him for directions and help and he suggested that I call a cab. Well, without a cab phone number that wasn't going to be easy. A jamaican woman who overheard my conversation offered to help and said she would drive me to the airport. HOW NICE! She was a very nice, religious woman named Olive. We listened to praise music on the 20 min drive out to the airport and she told me all the good places to visit in Jamaica. In my limited knowledge I didn't realize that the town of ISLIP is different than the ISLIP airport and the two aren't even in the same place! It was now 3:25pm as we pulled up to the airport terminals. She told me that earlier that morning she had prayed to God so that he would let her help someone today and that I was that person. It was nice to meet a stranger who was willing to give her time to assist in my despair. I handed her a couple of $20s for the trip and she said she would give them to her church. Thank you Olive!
Boarding pass in hand, I now stood by my gate. The plane was delayed about 25 minutes so I wasn't really late after all. 1 stop in Baltimore and then a 3 hr flight back to Austin. My friend Miranda met me in Austin and drove me home.
7 days out of the office, 6 days in New York and some rainy fireworks over Town Lake. My 4th of July was quite fun and I definitely look forward to getting back to New York.
The Bodies
Friday morning I woke up with plans to see a few things. After turning on my computer to check email, work email, and get an idea of what subways to take to which stops I was out the door. The only thing that screwed me up is that my laptop's time clock is 1 hour behind so when I thought I was leaving the apartment at 9:04 it was really 10:04 and about half a block down the road I realized that this meant I wouldn't be making the 10am boat tour. There was another at noon so I settled on that one and figured I would go to the Empire State Building first.
I made my way downtown, stopped and had an omelette breakfast at some strange deli as well as one of these Black and White Cake cookies that I see everywhere. They're tasty! I found the empire state building by using my handy little NYC folding map but the line was HUGE and the wait was over an 1 hour. I decided instead to go down to pier 78 to catch my New York City Harbor Tour. $22 for a 90 min boat ride in the harbor with a guide and plenty of photo opportunities. Our guide was an older man in his 60s who had a few jokes that had been tried out on many boat patrons before me. The facts he offered as we scooted down the river were interesting though. I saw the empty air filled gaps where the twin WTC towers once stood, I saw pier 59 which is not much of a pier at all but it's significance being that it stood there waiting for the Titanic which of course never made it across the Atlantic.
We crossed under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the financial district on our port side and Queens on our Starboard we went a bit up the river crossing under the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There were interesting views down the valleys which are lined with the tall buildings of downtown Manhattan. Through one of the valleys you could see all the way to New Jersey.
After the boat ride I decided to walk up the pedestrian path on the Brooklyn Bridge and look around. There were a lot of people walking, jogging and riding bikes up and down. I walked about 1/3 of the way across which was enough to get to one of the two arched pillars of the bridge. While up there I got a couple to take a picture of me with the financial district in the background. Talking to them a bit I found out they were Miss St fans from Starkville. I hung out with them for a bit and we went over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock. There was not wait to get to the look out platforms on the roof and although not as high as the Empire State Building the view is very similar. You get a great feel for how large Central Park is in comparison to the city surrounding it.
I took the elevator back down to the ground level and said good-bye to my Mississippi friends. I headed a few blocks over to O'Casey's to meet up with Rafi and his work friends. We had drinks there before heading back up to Rafi's and changing and then back downtown. Of course it rained on us as we made it to the subway. We tried to get in to some club but it was sketchy so we changed plans. I found a good pizza spot on the way home and then a cab and the night was done.
Saturday morning we headed down to South Street Seaport to see The Bodies Exhibit. We had lunch at Katz's Deli along the way. I had a huge pastrami sandwich which was great. The have a sign hanging in the place that denotes the table where the famous faked orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. After lunch we walked down to the seaport. We met up with Ally and entered the exhibit.
The Bodies was an amazing exhibit of The Body! All of the bodies were of chinese men or women and were dissected in a lot of different ways. They had bodies that showed the skeletal muscle systems and how they attach to our skeletons. There were bodies that had been sliced perfectly in half leaving either a left and right side or a front and back side. Some bodies had been sliced into 3, 4 or more equal parts showing cross sections of our organs and bones. The coolest part of the exhibit that I thought was definitely the section on our circulatory system. They had a process by which they replaced the blood in the veins with a red liquid that hardens. Then using chemicals they were able to remove all other parts of the body leaving a life size web of veins! They had several pieces that were localized such as the hand or the heart or the lungs but the coolest of all was the one that was completely intact. I thought that I would be grossed out by some of the stuff we say but it was done in a very scientific way. If you have a chance to see The Bodies, I highly recommend it!
Saturday night I went down to the Village to meet up with An. We had a few drinks on the rooftop of Samba Sushi and then met up with some more friends around the corner at a small bar with live music. Kind of a cheesey cover band but they had a good sound and added a little touch of their own to the songs. We had fun there, danced a little and then headed home.
Brunch in the morning and a big steak for dinner tomorrow!
I made my way downtown, stopped and had an omelette breakfast at some strange deli as well as one of these Black and White Cake cookies that I see everywhere. They're tasty! I found the empire state building by using my handy little NYC folding map but the line was HUGE and the wait was over an 1 hour. I decided instead to go down to pier 78 to catch my New York City Harbor Tour. $22 for a 90 min boat ride in the harbor with a guide and plenty of photo opportunities. Our guide was an older man in his 60s who had a few jokes that had been tried out on many boat patrons before me. The facts he offered as we scooted down the river were interesting though. I saw the empty air filled gaps where the twin WTC towers once stood, I saw pier 59 which is not much of a pier at all but it's significance being that it stood there waiting for the Titanic which of course never made it across the Atlantic.
We crossed under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the financial district on our port side and Queens on our Starboard we went a bit up the river crossing under the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There were interesting views down the valleys which are lined with the tall buildings of downtown Manhattan. Through one of the valleys you could see all the way to New Jersey.
After the boat ride I decided to walk up the pedestrian path on the Brooklyn Bridge and look around. There were a lot of people walking, jogging and riding bikes up and down. I walked about 1/3 of the way across which was enough to get to one of the two arched pillars of the bridge. While up there I got a couple to take a picture of me with the financial district in the background. Talking to them a bit I found out they were Miss St fans from Starkville. I hung out with them for a bit and we went over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock. There was not wait to get to the look out platforms on the roof and although not as high as the Empire State Building the view is very similar. You get a great feel for how large Central Park is in comparison to the city surrounding it.
I took the elevator back down to the ground level and said good-bye to my Mississippi friends. I headed a few blocks over to O'Casey's to meet up with Rafi and his work friends. We had drinks there before heading back up to Rafi's and changing and then back downtown. Of course it rained on us as we made it to the subway. We tried to get in to some club but it was sketchy so we changed plans. I found a good pizza spot on the way home and then a cab and the night was done.
Saturday morning we headed down to South Street Seaport to see The Bodies Exhibit. We had lunch at Katz's Deli along the way. I had a huge pastrami sandwich which was great. The have a sign hanging in the place that denotes the table where the famous faked orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. After lunch we walked down to the seaport. We met up with Ally and entered the exhibit.
The Bodies was an amazing exhibit of The Body! All of the bodies were of chinese men or women and were dissected in a lot of different ways. They had bodies that showed the skeletal muscle systems and how they attach to our skeletons. There were bodies that had been sliced perfectly in half leaving either a left and right side or a front and back side. Some bodies had been sliced into 3, 4 or more equal parts showing cross sections of our organs and bones. The coolest part of the exhibit that I thought was definitely the section on our circulatory system. They had a process by which they replaced the blood in the veins with a red liquid that hardens. Then using chemicals they were able to remove all other parts of the body leaving a life size web of veins! They had several pieces that were localized such as the hand or the heart or the lungs but the coolest of all was the one that was completely intact. I thought that I would be grossed out by some of the stuff we say but it was done in a very scientific way. If you have a chance to see The Bodies, I highly recommend it!
Saturday night I went down to the Village to meet up with An. We had a few drinks on the rooftop of Samba Sushi and then met up with some more friends around the corner at a small bar with live music. Kind of a cheesey cover band but they had a good sound and added a little touch of their own to the songs. We had fun there, danced a little and then headed home.
Brunch in the morning and a big steak for dinner tomorrow!
The Big Apple
My first 24 hours in New York... This is a big place, I mean in most downtowns you have a handful of buildings taller than 20 stories but here you can walk for 50 blocks and every single block has enormous skyscrapers.
We had dinner at a cozy little Italian place on Wednesday night near Rafi's apartment. He actually has a pretty nice place on the Upper West Side. I was expecting smaller, it's not HUGE but it's comfy. After dinner we had drinks at a bar across the street and an old high school friend from Louisiana School showed up to say hi. Linda Okereke, who was moving to Cleveland today, came across town to have a beer with Rafi and I. I hadn't seen Linda in probably 11 years since her graduation in 1995. We hung out for a few hours and then we were off.
I slept in a bit this morning and finally made it outside by 10am. I took a stroll through Central Park, the place is completely different than I thought it would be. You could get lost on the walking trails through there. They had a few playgrounds filled with kids and moms and on trail the entire side was lined with people reading or napping on blankets as if they were waiting for tickets to go on sale to a rock concert.
I had lunch with Rafi in Bryant Park. Snapple was doing a promotion on their light teas so they had 3 hot air balloons. They were more like round spheres of light gas with a harness and two guys on the ground holding ropes. People would strap in and be lifted to what seemed to be about 50 or 60 feet up. After my sandwich I tried to get in line to take a turn on the balloons but they were closed. Rafi went back to work and I walked around a bit more. I made my way back up to his apartment and crashed on the couch.
I got dressed to head out to the theatre. It was drizzling a bit when I got outside and i walked about 3 blocks to the subway. 4 stops towards downtown and I came back above ground at 50th and Broadway. By now it was storming! The homeless guy selling newspapers automatically turned into a homeless guy selling umbrellas! I waited for about 10 minutes as it stormed. People's umbrellas were being blown inside out by the swirling winds and everyone was getting soaked. I was wishing I hadn't worn my nice leather shoes but I wasn't gonna go back and change. The rain finally slowed and I went up to the street level and crossed to get to Ellen's Stardust Cafe. A touristy place where the waiters/waitresses sing show tunes. The food was fine and we made it over to the John Golden Theatre at West 45th to see Avenue Q.
The show was hilarious! The main members of the cast each played 2 different puppets. It's about finding your purpose in life and when you finally do how happy that makes you. Of course there was a puppet sex scene as well. The soundtrack was really funny including songs like "It Sucks To Be Me" where a Gary Coleman look a like who plays Gary Coleman makes fun of his life for having peaked before 15. A short subway trip home and I'm off to bed to get rested for tomorrow. I'm gonna try to go see a few things around town like Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Museum of Modern Art, etc.
Good Night!
California sans humidity
I found my way out of LAX and onto the 405 South. I was headed towards Long Beach and down to Ocean Blvd to the Hilton there. The hotel was really nice and had a massive lobby area. If you like sitting on stylish furniture in rooms with 30 foot ceilings then you would've liked this place. I had a room on the top floor, #15 with a good view, although this area is mostly industrial with lots of cranes and shipping containers.By the time I got ready for dinner all the restaurants were closing and it was only 9:30. I found a Sports Bar and Grill and had some Mac 'n' Chicken, it was OK.Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30 CST which was 5:30am in my room and couldn't get back to bed. I watched some TV and killed time until 11 and headed out for lunch and the beach. When I walked out to the valet stand there was a rolling luggage bag on the ground alone. I handed my ticket to the valet and he retrieved my car. I placed the bags I needed in the car and some towels and such in the trunk. After lunch, I got down to the beach and opened the trunk. I noticed a strange bag in there but for some reason it wasn't strange enough for me to investigate. I grabbed the towels and went to get me a strip of beach going. (Travis, that's for you!) The sunshine on the west coast in southern California is warm but it is countered by the wind which averages out the temp to about 75 degrees. It's fantastic weather until about 6pm when the sun gets lower in the sky and the temp drops into the 60s. About an hour of being lazy on Long Beach and I was ready for a change. I drove up the 405 towards L.A. and then headed down to Redondo Beach. Walking along the boardwalk, I found enough ice cream stands to satisfy a thousand kindergarten classes and for some reason people here really like chocolate covered frozen bananas! Picture this, you're standing in an open area surrounded by people you don't know and 1 out of 10 are eating a chocolate covered frozen banana. For me, California is the only place I've witnessed this.
Back to the part about the strange luggage. I finally get back to the hotel around 6pm and as soon as I walk in the room the phone is ringing. No one knows which hotel I'm staying at so I can't imagine who is calling me. I answer and its the front desk. They ask if I noticed a strange bag that may have been placed in my trunk. I laughed and said yes and told them that I had just given the car to the valet and they could retrieve the bag. Poor guy, I had his laptop and briefcase for over 6 hours. I'm sure he wasn't happy with the valet dude!
Monday morning I was up and off to Pico Rivera, a town just east of L.A. where one of our Peterbilt dealerships is located. I got there about 8:30 and found the crew of guys who were out replacing PCs. I met the GM for that store as well as the Regional GM and spent some time with them to make sure any issues that may currently have were being handled. I was able to round up a golf game and later that afternoon we headed back down to Long Beach to play at a nice city course there. At $25, it was quite a bargain, the carpet like greens were so plush, something I'm not used to in the blazing heat of Texas. I placed my clubs on the cart next to Pete Davis' and ironically my LSU Tiger head cover sat starting at his stuff USC Trojan head cover. We didn't talk about the season at all nor did we fight over who REALLY won that year. I drove the ball extremely well, finding the middle of the fairway on about 9 of the 14 driving holes. Putting was a different story as the soft greens were hard to read and hard to adjust to. I missed more 3 footers than I normally do but I walked away with an 85.
Tuesday morning I was off to LAX by 7:30 for a 9:25 flight. I filled up the tank of the rental car with $3.19 87 octane regular unleaded. Since I had changed my flight to return to San Antonio instead of Austin I wasn't able to Check In online and therefore ended up with a C boarding pass. (Southwest uses A, B and C groups for boarding, A is good, B is ok, C sucks!) I ended up sitting next to a mother and daughter who were both of reasonably small size so I was able to use my own armrests and not feel crowded. I'll land around 2pm in San Antonio and head into the office for a short afternoon of work. Back to the real world in the morning. It was a fun, golf-filled vacation. I made some new friends, have a standing invite to a USC game and got to play golf in California.
I'm off to NYC in 15 days.
36 Holes
As a young teenager, I would often play 36 holes of golf in a day and they would be separated by a cheeseburger served to me by Simon. Those days were half my lifetime ago, the course was Indian Hills CC in Opelousas, LA and Simon was our favorite bartender.
This day of 36 holes was different, we tee'd off on the first 18 at the Milwaukee Country Club at 8am sharp, after a good breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes, a favorite of mine, along with some toast (pre-trimmed edges!) and jelly. The course was tough but fun, the place is barely played as the 225 members are only allowed 9 guests a year and it's located in a state that only has 5.5 months of golfing weather. The greens had almost no ball marks and the visible ones had been repaired and rolled as flat as any part of the green. The fairway lies were like carpet in your hallway, flat, not fluffy, but comfortable and springy to walk on. I shot 44 on the front with 8 fives and 1 four. At the turn i grabbed a water and a couple of Ritz crackers with fresh peanut butter to spread between them. Much better than those prewrapped peanut butter cracker packs. I was still playing with the same ball when I tee'd off on the 10th. I try not to think about that much b/c it's a sure way to SHANK the next shot into the drink and then be digging in your bag for another Titleist. Another 9 holes of fast paced golf filled with some great views and we were done. 42 more strokes for me on the back to round out at 86. I had to par the 18th to finish with 85 but a duffed SW shot after a great drive kept me out of the money. We packed up our bags and were off in the limo to the Milwaukee airport. There we would grab a rental, say bye to Bill Hooper from Qwest and Scott and I were off to our next tee time.
We pulled up to Thunderhawk Golf Course in Beach Park, Il and were greeted by Scott's cousin Craig and his wife Cathy. Both are very good golfers. It was about 2:15 in the afternoon and we were up on the 1st tee about to start our 2nd round of the day. I hit the fairway on the first hole with a 270yd drive and I was feeling tired but good. At the turn I was sitting at 39, I'm usually in the low to mid 40's on each side so a 39 was good for me. The course wasn't easy but I just kept the ball in play and made a few putts. Still playing with the same ball from the morning that had encountered NO hazards and hence NO penalty strokes in the last 27 holes. I was thinking now about the possibility of shooting a sub 80 round. The temperature was dropping and was in the mid 50s with wind gusts approaching 20mph. Club selection was difficult, especially on the Par 3s. 1 double bogey on the back and I ended up with a 41 to shoot an 80. I missed my 70s round but was very happy with my score. 36 holes with no penalty strokes and no lost balls isn't something I do often. The highlight of the round for me was when I holed out with my lob wedge from about 25 yards. It was the first time I had ever done that on a fly. The ball came off my face with good loft and landed perfectly into the hole. It never even touched the edge of the cup as it banged into the flagstick and dropped to the bottom. Unfortunately it was to save Par as I had to punch out of the sand on the previous shot.
Craig and Cathy joined Scott and I at Outback steakhouse just up the road from the course for dinner. I had the chicken and shrimp fettuccine which was very good, I was also quite hungry so my stomach isn't as picky then.
After dinner we drove down to the O'Hare airport area and found our Westin hotel. Nearly 10pm we checked in and found our rooms. the Westin is always nice, i had a huge king bed with about 8 pillows, a shower with DUAL shower heads (soon to be my next purchase) and a comfy chair. I showered and changed and went down to the bar to get a drink. We found a sports bar around the corner but I learned a good lesson. If you want to have fun in Chicago, you gotta be downtown. There was NOTHING going on in the O'Hare area that we could find.
We decided to cancel our Saturday morning golf round due to cold/rainy weather. Good choice since I didn't rise out of bed ‘til almost 9:30. We got up and drove over to Hoffman Estates, Scott's old neighborhood. We drove around a few places, Scott's home that he grew up in, his grade school and high school and had lunch at Barnaby's A Family Inn. Pepperoni and Pineapple pizza for me which went well with my semi-hangover. Feeling all better now, I found my way to Midway Airport and am now waiting for my flight.
More to come from Los Angeles :)
Milwaukee in June
There are times in life when you're surrounded by a handful of good friends and everyone's having a good time and you'll remember the evening for a very long time, and then there are the experiences you have with people you'll probably only meet once. This weekend would be defined by the latter.
I'm sitting in my nice room at the Milwaukee Country Club on a Thursday evening. I had a great dinner of steak, potatoes, and chocolate cake tonight topped off with some Bacardi and coke and a little red wine. I flew up today with my boss, Scott to meet with Barry Allen, an Executive V.P. of Qwest Communications and basically the #2 guy in the company. I can't say that I have dinner often with the millionaire type but Barry was very engaging and a great listener. Qwest currently provides my company Rush Enterprises with a data and voice network that services about 60 locations across 9 states.
After dinner we took a quick walk around the club house and a few of the tee boxes and greens that we'd be playing on in the morning. The course looks tough but it's the kind of layout that looks like it's been manicured with a set of tiny shears. Every tree has a perfect circular edge traced around it as well as every sidewalk. The edges of the fairways have a perfectly even 4 foot wide strip of slightly longer, darker grass before becoming rough. I stood on the 10th tee box and looked down at a dog leg right par 5. I scoped at the sand traps on the left side of the fairway that sat about 275 yards from the white tees. The tips play about 7400 yards so we'll probably play one tee in front of that. We should have caddies in the morning, but the caddies are high school students and this being the last week of school in Wisconsin, we're not sure how many will be available.
After the 18 tomorrow, we're going to pick up a rental car and head towards Chicago. We're gonna play another round in the afternoon and then go at it again on Saturday morning. Then it's off to Los Angeles and finally back to Austin on Tuesday. I hope to keep a lot of mental images from tomorrow in my mind for a long time, but I'll also take some pics just in case I forget.
I-10
After a 3 day weekend in Louisiana for my cousin's wedding and a small family get together, I headed west on I-10 towards Austin. About 40 miles outside of Houston, the traffic on the interstate came to a halt and didn't appear to that it would be clearing quickly. I turned to the navi system to try and find another route. The only way around the mess that I could find was to detour about 17 miles north of I-10 to meet up with US-90 and then head west into the 610 loop in Houston. This detour took about 90 minutes but it did the trick and soon we were back on I-10.
I finally found a radio station with an update to the Houston traffic problem that mentioned a haz-mat spill. Traffic probably backed up for more than 50 miles by the time they started diverting the drivers. I'm just glad we were able to get around it and not have to spend the night in my car on the side of the road.
Further along as we're heading up TX-71 towards Austin and the last 90 miles of the 400 mile journey, we came across another bizarre scene. I was driving in the left of the 2 lanes and about 1/4 mile ahead in the oncoming traffic I saw one car turn into the median and then back onto the road. Another car followed closely behind him. My first reaction was that I was witnessing a police chase but as I scanned the area and didn't see any flashing lights, I ruled that out. As I was passing the scene I was able to see the problem. Lying on it's right side and covering both lanes of traffic and extending onto the shoulders was an 18-wheeler rig and trailer with it's belly exposed to the oncoming cars. The two vehicles I had seen had obviously not been able to stop and were forced to drive into the median to avoid collision. Several cars were already stopped but the incident must have just happened as there were no police or firemen on scene yet and there was no traffic backed up. It was a tanker truck carrying 7000 gallons of gasoline. No one ran into it and there were no big leaks. I'm glad it was on the other side of the road though.
We finally made it down to San Antonio after picking up some clothes at my house. We had to drive through the rain storm that had moved in and this added about 40 minutes to the normal 1:15 drive from my house to Martha's. I was asleep by 2am and at work by 8am ready for a new week.
After a 3 day weekend in Louisiana for my cousin's wedding and a small family get together, I headed west on I-10 towards Austin. About 40 miles outside of Houston, the traffic on the interstate came to a halt and didn't appear to that it would be clearing quickly. I turned to the navi system to try and find another route. The only way around the mess that I could find was to detour about 17 miles north of I-10 to meet up with US-90 and then head west into the 610 loop in Houston. This detour took about 90 minutes but it did the trick and soon we were back on I-10.
I finally found a radio station with an update to the Houston traffic problem that mentioned a haz-mat spill. Traffic probably backed up for more than 50 miles by the time they started diverting the drivers. I'm just glad we were able to get around it and not have to spend the night in my car on the side of the road.
Further along as we're heading up TX-71 towards Austin and the last 90 miles of the 400 mile journey, we came across another bizarre scene. I was driving in the left of the 2 lanes and about 1/4 mile ahead in the oncoming traffic I saw one car turn into the median and then back onto the road. Another car followed closely behind him. My first reaction was that I was witnessing a police chase but as I scanned the area and didn't see any flashing lights, I ruled that out. As I was passing the scene I was able to see the problem. Lying on it's right side and covering both lanes of traffic and extending onto the shoulders was an 18-wheeler rig and trailer with it's belly exposed to the oncoming cars. The two vehicles I had seen had obviously not been able to stop and were forced to drive into the median to avoid collision. Several cars were already stopped but the incident must have just happened as there were no police or firemen on scene yet and there was no traffic backed up. It was a tanker truck carrying 7000 gallons of gasoline. No one ran into it and there were no big leaks. I'm glad it was on the other side of the road though.
We finally made it down to San Antonio after picking up some clothes at my house. We had to drive through the rain storm that had moved in and this added about 40 minutes to the normal 1:15 drive from my house to Martha's. I was asleep by 2am and at work by 8am ready for a new week.
Digital Photography
Well it was Christmas in February for me as I decided to upgrade my camera equipment. I decided to sell my old Canon EOS 20D camera body and get the new Canon EOS-1D Mark II N. My new Canon arrived on Wednesday and within an hour or so of getting the package at work I received an email from one of the companies that I shoot pics for asking me to cover an event this evening. I spent about 5 hours last night going through all the buttons and menus and making sure I knew my way around the camera so that I didn't show up at the event and not know how to use my camera.
The event was at the home of a lady named Nona Niland who is associated with the People's Community Clinic. Her home was gorgeous with a small pool laid out in the middle of a very large deck that surrounded most of the front of the home. They were holding a thank you event for their donors and I was asked to shoot candids and some posed shots of the guests.
Camera, flash and all worked flawlessly and pictures came out great. I even got to snack on some yummy roast and spinach tucked into a small roll.
When I got home, it was time to open the rest of my photography toys. I also treated myself to a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. I rounded out my purchases with a Custom Brackets flash bracket and some other minor accessories. The new camera and lens are gorgeous, I can't wait to get out and snap some pictures.
2006 Toyota Prius
I've been in one of those moods for a while now where i've wanted to get a new car. I've looked around and researched a lot of models. Lexus ES330, Lexus LS430, VW Passat TDI, Mercedes E320 CDI and Toyota Prius.
You can probably guess from the title of this post what I ended up with. Today I bought a 2006 blue Toyota Prius package #8 which includes navigation, blue tooth, voice activated, leather, mp3/wma 6 disc cd changer and more while delivering 45-55mpg.
I'll post some pics soon.
If you're interested in hybrids check out www.GreenHybrid.com
I've been in one of those moods for a while now where i've wanted to get a new car. I've looked around and researched a lot of models. Lexus ES330, Lexus LS430, VW Passat TDI, Mercedes E320 CDI and Toyota Prius.
You can probably guess from the title of this post what I ended up with. Today I bought a 2006 blue Toyota Prius package #8 which includes navigation, blue tooth, voice activated, leather, mp3/wma 6 disc cd changer and more while delivering 45-55mpg.
I'll post some pics soon.
If you're interested in hybrids check out www.GreenHybrid.com
Cell Phones
My cell phone plan renews in 30 days and Verizon is being nice enough to let me get a new phone at $100 off the lowest advertised price of any phone they carry. I plan on stopping by a store on my way home today and seeing what my next gadget will be. I know that the megapixels of cell phone cameras have been increasing to where they are now more than 2MP on some phones. For me, taking pics with my cell phone isn't that important. I have a small 5MP Canon camera that I carry around with me anyway. My choice is going to be based on how the phone feels in my hand and can I send text messages without looking at the phone AND spell all the words correctly.
I've had an LG phone now for over a year and I've liked it a lot. I think the number of times that I've dropped it on it's head is the reason behind the screen doing funky things but I'll be done with that problem soon... if I can decide on a new device.
Phone Scoop is a great website if you want to do some research before buying your next phone.
I'll let you know which one I pick out.
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