03-23-2010

03-23-2010

Houston we have Uh-Oh....



I awoke this morning many different times…I was not able to sleep very comfortable since I was sharing a queen size bed with Daniel. Mr. Moose, and John were in the other bed. It would be very hard to give an accurate number on how many hours I slept. But if I had to guess…I would say it would be in the ball park of no more then 4 hours.


Finally around 8:30 am the group began to stir. I was not in need of getting up early since I was not going skiing. So I just laid there. Around 9:30 they left for the slopes. I finally got around and got ready by about 10:30 headed out on my way towards Denver.











Once on the road I made good time on highway 40. It was spitting snow at first but as I climbed in elevation to go over the pass the snow became more and more intense. Nearing the peak of the pass the conditions became near white out. I had to slow to around 15 mph. Even at this speed I was still sliding around a lot. I was doing fine for the most part going up the pass but coming back down was a whole different tiger. I used a combination of tapping on the brake and lower gears to successfully traverse probably the worst snow conditions I have ever drove in.



Needless to say the picture below looks bad but that was taken when the snow had eased up some. Thankfully there are 5 lane roads essentially going over the pass.










Over the pass and heading towards Denver...the storm looks pretty from here.













Once I got into Denver I proceeded to head to the place was at earlier in the week. That’s right I went back to Pete’s Greek Café. Traffic was pretty tense but I made good time with the help of my phone giving me directions.







Here is a picture of the snow storm from earlier catching back up with me. I am between Denver and the airport.













Here is a picture of my rental car when done...













A picture from inside the Denver airport. I took a couple shots. I stopped because the security guys started coming my way. No need to give them a reason to lock me up. I got to the airport at about 3 and my flight was not till 7 so I had plenty of time to look around and do nothing...and be bored...









I was again flying Frontier Airlines...68 dollars to Houston...take note of the storm again...










Each of the terminals at the airport had a different theme...this one was a Aztec thing (Indiana Jones anyone?)...one had a neon light theme. The last was a western theme.










In the subway that takes you from terminal to terminal there are little fans that spin as you drive by. I tried to get pictures of them...I did get video of them but dont know how to post it...










Ah the storm has hit the airport.










The mountains must have played some weird effect on the storm as it just hovered over the airport. Flights started getting delayed at 6pm. Our plane finally pulled up to the gate at 7:45 or so. We finally boarded at 8pm. The pilot was determined to get us out of Colorado that night.









Once we taxied out we had to get sprayed down for snow and ice. We sat and waited from about 8pm till approximately 11:45pm before the sprayer guys even made it to our plane. Many flights had been canceled by this time and I was honestly hoping ours would be as well. I had the very last seat which was unable to recline. They did give us free tv to watch though.













Can you guess what this picture is? This is the picture inside an airplane when it turns completely off. This happened to us 3 times. Apparently the airplane version of an alternator was going out? I honestly have no idea to be honest. This increased my desire to get off the plane significantly.













Finally at around 11:45 the crews made it to us. For the next 15 minutes they washed us down.













They look like something straight out of a terminator movie...or mad max perhaps.










I finally got into Houston at 3:15am...I got a hold of Matt Walker...he came and saved me from the airport. He was rather groggy because he stayed up waiting for me to land and finally went to sleep. After the drive and finally getting back to his place at 4:15 he was dog tired.

03-22-2010

So when we left off last time I was spending the night with Mr. Tibbit. All I knew is that we were staying some where west of Longmont. I could not see a thing because it was pitch black night. Well here is what I woke up to. It was nice and very pretty! Here are some pictures I took that morning.

I like this picture...something about the tree being in focus and the "hill" behind it being slightly out of focus...best depth of field I could pull off with my camera.

This is the 2nd daughter of the Tibbit's. Cute as a button and look at those eyes. I didnt get a picture of the other. She was hiding for the better part of the morning it seemed.

And again...she was rather shy to say the least.

After going back to town...Matt dropped me off at the rental car which I left at the church over night. Had a slightly tense moment of where are the keys to this car at....they had slipped between the passenger seat and the console of Matt's vehical the night before. Talk about panic haha. I left Longmont and headed towards Boulder. Boulder was a very interesting city. Seemed much like what Fayetteville is. It is a college town and they still have the old downtown feel that Fayetteville has...I got lost there a couple times trying to follow the directions on poorly labeled streets. Little did I know this was going to be a constant problem for Colorado as you will see.

I was attempting to take the scenic route from Boulder to I-70. Right out side of Nederland I found this awesome dam. Yes I stopped and wasted about 45 minutes taking pictures and stuff of this area. Turned out it was a reservoir for Boulder...long way for the water to go.

Mmmm another view.

Probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip. I love the depth of field...totally follows the one third rule...it looks sweet....oh and it has a dam in it...Civil Engineers love dams....right? All honesty though I do like this picture.

Make me wonder why they quit painting it...

Maybe the drop is why they quit painting it? The next step is a lulu type of thing?

There are some really big round rocks in the middle of this lake...random statement...obviously the lake isnt completely full at this moment.

in that little city (Nederland) there is a round-a-bout. I had to pull off the road to take a picture of it. I believe this might be the first round-a-bout I have drove...about.

Also they were erecting a totally sweet wooden skeleton statue with a guitar...wait...what? Odd...I am guessing there are some major Grateful Dead fans in this small little town...

A little city that was nestled in the mountains. I was totally lost at this point because Colorado does not put any type of signage up on their roads. Thankfully I can identify location due to the fact the iPhone geotags all the photos it takes.

Some cool tunnels on highway 119...
I eventually wound up in Golden Colorado which is a sweet little town outside of Denver. But it was totally the wrong direction. Oh well all is well that ends well. Made it into Winter Park at about 4pm...took 5 hours for a google map predicted 2.5 hour trip.

A out door ice skating place in Winter Park. We thought this sign was funny since we were both on the ice with shoes.

Daniel with the Moose sign behind him...

BTW Winter Park completely shuts down at 9pm at night...Odd.

Riding the buffalo

And me!


And a picture with a bear. And then the battery died. I stayed with Daniel in his hotel room that night. I love free places to stay.

03-21-2010

Well here we go again...this day was mostly all shutting down the fort and everyone leaving to where ever they came from. Attendance for today (Sunday) seemed to be about half of what it was the day before.


This was a picture during the middle of the day. I went to the 2 remaining sessions of the conference. The first was taught by the folks from Rice University. They talked about how to set up a project and all the details of working on site. Basically the dynamics of working in the field. The next session was this guy that had been working out in the field for years. He talked about the importance of the people owning the project. He used an example of seeds being brought to farmers. The farmers would not accept the seeds (which their lives depended on) due to the fact if it didnt work then they would not have food for the next year. A lot of money was spent by the scientist to get the seeds in the hands of the farmers but they would not use something they did not trust. Finally the guy that spoke to us convinced a farmer to try some of the seeds in a small part of the field. They worked well. Over the next several seasons the farmer began planting more and more of his crop with these new seeds. Eventually he had people begging for seeds like his and with in 5 years the seeds had spread over a hundred miles.

After everything was said and done, I packed up and got out of town...for a short period of time. I had found out the night before that the NCSU people were going to Red Rocks...I had never been there so I decided to join them. Before I could I had to get my rental car from the airport. It was cheap. 46 Dollars for 3 days...cant beat that deal. By the time I made it to the airport and then back on the other side of Denver to Red Rocks, the NCSU people were about ready to go. So I missed them sadly. I still had a good time by myself though taking in the sites. Probably had better picture opportunities without them though tbh. 

The picture above was how I got the rental car...yeah it wasnt even full...an I am sure the rental people charged them that as well...about ran out of gas while driving around Red Rocks.

There is Denver while out some where between the city and the airport.

After Red Rocks I cam back and picked up Jenny. We went to this place to eat. It was really good. Apparently pretty well known across the country.

Out side of duffys



The stamp proving I was at least 21.







The Denver Airport looks a bit like a prison dont you think? Take that you dumb birds.



After I dropped Jenny off at the hotel, I went up to Longmont, CO to see Matt Tibbit. I got in so late that he offered to let me crash with him. I was very glad that he did because there was no way I wanted to drive the 2.5 hours to Winter Park to stay with Daniel.
This was their youth room above...not a clue what is going on with the chairs...



This is the gym at his church.





Below are all of the pictures I took at Red Rocks. I figured I would put them at the bottom since there is a lot of them. I fell in love with the place. It really is pretty. There were people everywhere. Some tourist...some locals...some locals working out.