Thursday, September 29, 2011

Jeep Jamboree - Bethel, Maine

The Jeep Jamboree trip in Bethel, ME starts today. The trails run Friday and Saturday and we'll be home some time in the afternoon on Sunday. Here's hoping the weather holds up and the 4-wheeling is good.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Jeep Jamboree in Less than a Week and More...

It has been a while since I have posted because I have been so busy. I have actually traveled 3 times in the past couple months but all 3 trips were inside the US. I had a trip to Delaware and 2 trips to the DC area in Virginia (not necessarily in that order). During those trips I was working, either installing systems or having a few meetings and the like.  The trips were good but overall were work so there was not really much to report. I will admit that on the second trip to the DC area I was able to get a couple hours in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum which was really cool.  But that was about it. I do have some pictures from that visit even though they came off my cell phone and I will try to post them soon. Since my cell doesn't do image stabilization (for those of us with shaky hands) and has an interesting delay before the actual image is captured many of the pictures didn't turn out so hot. That said, they are better than nothing.

Another interesting development involved my planned birthday trip to Spain. I had booked a flight through Spanair to Ibiza right after I landed in Madrid. That flight got modified so that it would depart at 9:50pm instead of the 10am or so it was originally scheduled for. Spanair wouldn't do anything for me except refund the money. Ironically I was able to find a cheaper flight through Iberia after I canceled the original. It does depart at around noon instead but it is better than having to completely rebuild my plans to either skip Ibiza or do it in different days of the trip. I suppose it gives me more opportunity to make the flight I am delayed crossing the Atlantic. Since there is less than a month to that trip I hope that Iberia doesn't spring any surprises on me.

Typically I have done a lot of planning for a trip by now but since I am so booked solid with work I haven't had much chance to do more than the basics on it. I might have to do a lot of winging it. I hope it works out OK.

This all leads up to the fact that I have the Bethel, Maine Jeep Jamboree starting with this upcoming Thursday. I have the Jeep basically in order. There were no major modifications since the last time I went 4 wheeling and that was expected on my part. I did have some mechanical issues that I had to contend with and that ate up some of the Jeep budget. I think it will be interesting to try the Jamboree in a different location this time. I have heard good things about the Maine trip. However it was sad to hear how much damage Irene caused up in Vermont where we had done our previous 3 Jamborees. The folks up there are really nice and seeing some pictures of how bad the damage was I am sure they didn't expect nor deserve it. Hopefully they can recover in due order and get back to their lives.