More DC Fun

I just figured I would mention I had to move out of the hotel I was originally set in because of a SNAFU. I moved to a hotel in a slightly easier to deal with location called Shirlington in Arlington, VA.  When first they gave me a room I found there was a lot of stuff in it, like say, a laptop, luggage and clothing.  After getting that sorted out they did give me a breakfast coupon. This trip has been amongst the most unpleasantly eventful trips I have ever taken.  I expect at this point the flight home will be delayed forever...

In any event I have uploaded the DC pics I took here.  Notice that the lens got smudged along the way and I didn't catch it. That's how this trip has been going...

Washington DC

I got in to Ronald Reagan airport at about 11am but the rental place didn't have a GPS for me to rent with the car. I had already spoken to the guy around here and I wasn't really going to have anything to do today. I tried to use my iPhone with google maps to get to the hotel but it kept losing tracking of my position just before crucial turns so I ended up missing them. It was over 90 out by the time I started this by the way.  In getting lost by this method I accidentally ended up at Arlington Cemetery and decided I should make the visit and regroup. It was incredibly hot but I managed to walk just about the whole place and saw the major monuments as well as a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  When I was done there I again tried to navigate via iPhone to get to the hotel and it took some doing and me getting lost a couple more times before I managed it. The hotel has all sorts of construction going on on the streets just outside it. I was a bit confused on how to get there but eventually managed.  I got settled in. I won't get into the gory details online but it was as much a mess as not having a GPS. I found a cheap lunch and then headed to the Metro and rode the yellow line to L'Enfant Plaza where I toured the National Mall and Monuments on foot for a couple hours then headed back to the room where I got room service and crashed for the night.

Virginia Followed by Connecticut

Straight out of the Jeep Jamboree I was in Dallas for the better part of the last week. I am heading out to Arlington, VA (where I might get some time to see DC) depending on how Monday goes.  I am bringing my camera just in case. When I return from Virginia I will be home for a weekend then heading down to Danbury CT for the better part of two weeks.  The trips since the Jeep Jamboree will be for work. About a week after I get back from Danbury I will be flying out to Denmark with my Nephew William (he likes to be called Will).  That will be for vacation. From there I hope I can scrounge up some time to familiarize myself again with my plans for Italy. It has been a while since I have looked at them and usually I am deep in the process by now.

Pics of Jeep Jamboree Killington 2010

I have posted the few pictures I took of the Jamboree here.

Killington Jeep Jamboree 2010

Just got back from the Killington Jeep Jamboree for 2010 yesterday. We got back kind of late and I had a lot to do to get myself in order for traveling to the Dallas area for work so I didn't get to post this then or download the pictures from my camera yet. I honestly did not take a ton of pictures because we spent most of both days driving and moving rather than waiting for people to clear obstacles.

On Thursday I got up early and drove to my brother's house where we went shopping for the weekend. We had managed to get the trails only version of the trip because I got up really early on the day we were supposed to register. We bought food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks each day. After that we had to drive to my nephew's work so he could pick up his check. From there we drove up 93 to meet up with a few more drivers and grab a quick bite to eat at the Burger King there. We met Sean, Rob and Carol and headed up to 89 where we met up with the rest of the convoy traveling with us. That was Dave, Michal, Lindsay, Dan and Sue. We were supposed to have Carl with us but his Jeep had troubles and he had to drive up solo. We made it to the lodge by about 3pm and then waited for tech inspection and trail registration.  Things went much more smoothly than the first two years. You could register and sign up for trails right after completing tech inspection and things went quickly. There were no long lines.  We signed up for a new trail called Chateguay on Friday and for Saturday we were doing 5 Corners.  We went down the street for dinner where I had a decent pulled pork sandwich. After that we got settled in the room and everyone came over for a few beers.

Friday's trails were very good at the beginning but a bit before lunch they got very dull and stayed that way the rest of the day. No one got stuck in the early going and we even had a stock 4 door JK X on street tires that managed to clear the trails with some help spotting.  The weather was odd and overcast and humid and it spit rain during lunch but after that it did not get happen to thunderstorm like they were expecting and we got in mostly unscathed. The trail guide was good but the trail needed to have one more interesting technical section that took a while to get through after lunch. It really turned into mainly dirt road driving.

Saturday was my 3rd time on 5 Corners trail. Wendell was the guide again and he changed up the trail again. We spent the whole day on the move. The section we entered on the trail with was incredibly fun and even the areas that were rather dull dirt road he made fun by taking us up the sides of the trail and such to get more technical as we went along. I was able to line up directly behind him and was there all day. Wendell's been wheeling for 60 years he said and it showed. I learned a lot by watching him. We managed to see a red deer and a moose on the trails though I think I'm the only one who saw both.  We would have had no carnage on the trail but one guy opted to do a water crossing that no one else tried and it was fairly deep which caused him to melt the wiring on his electric engine fan.  That caused him to start to overheat but we were able to get him out of the trails. After the run I went to the fire station to get cleaned off and air up.  It was the first day of wheeling I had no rain whatsoever and it was the first time he was able to take a group through all the trails he wanted to for 5 Corners he said.

Both days everyone came over for drinks after the trails. We met up on Sunday morning and went as a group to Blanche and Bill's Pancake House again and had breakfast before finally hitting the road and getting home, which I did at about 3pm.  From there I had to get ready for departure to Dallas.  All in all it was a great weekend. I should point out the other carnage on the weekend was my brother's left front universal joint which kept him off his trail for day 2 and Carol's Jeep had some stalling issues which kept her from driving the trails both days though she did get to drive with Michal for a bit of day 2.  Other than that we managed very little damage though I scratched my leg fairly bad on day one.

I will post the pictures as soon as I can though they are few.  Hopefully on Friday of this week.

Pics of the Jeep Just before the Jamboree

I have posted some pictures of the Jeep since the lift and the new tires here.

Traveling for Work

Hello from Newark, Delaware.  I should mention I've transitioned from the position of Digital Imaging Senior Support Specialist to Digital Imaging Technical Trainer in the past few weeks. As part of the transition into training I am doing a bit of traveling to get some training of my own. This week I am taking a course in Image Quality in Newark and also spending some time with the technical support group in the office here. They support the field engineers who work on our products.  I am here until Friday. After this week, next week I have the Jeep Jamboree in Killington, VT.  Directly following that I will be spending a week in the Dallas area working with a field engineer and the week after that I will be in Arlington, VA working with another field engineer.

Following those two I am in Danbury, CT for two weeks for another training course.  After that I will be spending my long weekend in Denmark where I am dragging along my nephew.  In short I won't be home much until September then in October is my Italy trip where I have to find some time to pre-plan myself a bit better than I have.  In December my job will take me to Belgium where I will be instructing students from Europe.  I've got a lot ahead of me but I think it should all be very fun and interesting.

For the record I am not really recording the business trips as I don't expect to get much me time, but I am going to list the newly visited states in my catalog.