On The Road

After two years of traveling almost every single month my travels have been drastically scaled back to save up for some big trips in the planning stages right now.  So with no flying trips to write about I figured I could post about the small trip made this past weekend to Hill Air Force Base.

This week was Air Force Week in Salt Lake City followed by the Hill AFB Air Show.  Hill AFB is a huge sprawling complex about seventy miles north of my house.  In reality, most of Utah is either a National Park of some sort of Military playground.

I haven’t been to an air show in a while and I’ve never been to one in the West and Karleigh and Ryan had never been to one so I was looking forward to it all week.  Plus I needed a pick me up after watching game five in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (It’s still painful to think about.)

The layout was a bit different than the airshows I’ve been to in the past but that’s just because of the location of the hangars on the base so it kinda broke up the static display area into two different areas.  It also wasn’t as big as the others but that’s because I’ve been spoiled with the Dayton air show and the Andrews AFB/Department of Defense Open House.  It was still awesome and had plenty to see.

They only had a few planes that you could go through and the lines for those were pretty long.  The line for the C-5 for example was the length of the entire aircraft which is a bit too long of a line for me.  The main thing I wanted to see though was the aerial demonstrations.

Right as we got there an F-16 screamed overhead then as we walked closer another one took off along with a P-51 Mustang and an F-4 Phantom.  Then there were some aerobatic demonstrations which are always cool and I saw my favorite move, the hammerhead, a few times.  Then there was a C-130, F-16, A-10, and an F-22 all flying in formation then the F-22 broke off and did a few maneuvers which was way cool because I’ve never seen one of those in real life before.  Then there was an F-18 demo and some bi-planes followed by the Thunderbirds.

Just as the Thunderbirds were getting ready to go a huge rain cloud started rolling overhead again.  It had rained earlier in the day but it was mostly cleared up by around noon.  The Thunderbirds took off and started their show but halfway through they had to stop because it started raining a ton and it even hailed for a bit (which kinda hurt).  Luckily they stayed airborne and after the clouds rolled through and visibility improved they finished their show.  It was awesome and I kinda laughed when they would scream overhead and all the little kids would start crying.

After they landed we walked around and got a few more pictures then headed home for some Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner.  In the pics I’ve posted keep in mind, my wife is the professional photographer not me, we forgot the zoom lens in the car, and the light was pretty bad with all the crappy weather.  So if it’s a cool pic, Karleigh probably took it

Ok, so I guess it’s about time for another post especially since what’s been going on in the past month.  I haven’t posted recently because my whole point for this blog was to track my travels not my personal life… but I suppose getting married is noteworthy (plus we did travel some).

Karleigh and I got married a month ago on February 12th.  It was pretty much a blur so I have to look at pictures to really remember what happened but it all went pretty smoothly and fun was had by all (I’m pretty sure anyway).

Karleigh’s blog has all the pictures so I’ll just link to that for wedding pics since I never had a chance to touch a camera that day plus I was really the subject of all of the pics

After the wedding we went up to SLC for a few days and just hung out with our phones turned off and went shopping up in Park City.  Then we headed back down to our place in Orem to open up all the gifts and try putting our apartment together.

We relaxed for a few days then headed to Pittsburgh for some sightseeing and an open house.  We left Wednesday night on a red-eye and Karleigh’s parents and brothers left Thursday morning and we all met up in PIT. (Pictures Here)
In PIT it was a bit cold with near hurricane force winds kicking up snow in our faces.  Well, it was windy anyway.  But we braved the wind and cold and toured Pittsburgh Thursday afternoon and into the evening and picked up again on Friday morning.

We managed to see most of the Pittsburgh staples like Mt. Washington, the Duquesne incline (and the Monongahela incline for some), Station Square, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Strip, and driving through the Ft. Pitt tunnel to the Ft. Pitt bridge.  We also ate at Primanti’s, the Hunan (in Moon), Wholey’s, and had a few different flavors of Pierogies from Forgotten Tastes (also in Moon).

On Saturday night, after decorating all day, we had the open house.  A ton of people came including Colby, who drove all the way from Philthydelphia to hang out for just a few hours and drove back in the morning.  It was great to see all of the people who showed up since I hadn’t seen most of them in a pretty long time.  After everyone left we just hung around in the living room with all of the family that was there (the Dobson’s out numbered the Haglund’s in Moon Twp.!) and then the younger crew went to Eat’n Park for some dessert around midnight.

Sunday was when everyone started to head home.  Colby left before we even got up then Doug, Julie, Ryan, and Dustin took off after breakfast.  Karleigh and I left that afternoon while my mom and dad finished taking down a few decorations around the house.  Since we had to connect through JFK our flights of course didn’t go too smoothly. (Travel Alert: Avoid JFK at all costs!)
After ground holds and taking forever to get de-iced we took off for JFK a few hours late.  After flying for a little while we were put into a holding pattern then released from that one and put into another one a little bit closer to the airport.  By this time I was getting queasy and ready to be on the ground.  We finally landed and both Karleigh and I were nauseous.  We stumbled into the airport where our connection had left over an hour earlier.  Luckily we had shiny new keys to my parent’s apartment in Queens.  We made it to the apartment and promptly crashed.

In the morning we left for San Diego.  Yes, that’s correct, San Diego.  In order to get back to SLC at a reasonable hour we decided to fly through San Diego and make it back around six.  Luckily the flights that day went pretty smoothly and we made it home in time to go to sleep again and go back to work on Tuesday after a week and a half off.

Now the gifts are all put away in the apartment and things seem to be back to normal.

The past month my boss and I have been trying to use up the rest of our vacation before we lose it at the end of the year.  The problem is that Uncle Sherwin just laid off our third key so we have to work open to close while the other one is on vacation and it’s not too much fun.  So I realized a week or so ago that I actually had four days off from Sunday through Wednesday so I decided it was time to go somewhere again.

I checked the flights and I could make it pretty easily to Long Beach to see my brother but then I realized I also had enough time to go hang out with my sister and her family in Maine.  The flights were wide open so I mentioned the trip to Alexis and she asked if Karleigh was coming so I asked my dad for a buddy pass and he said no problem.  It was kinda last second for Karleigh so we weren’t sure if it would work out for her to get time off so that was left in the air for a bit.

On Saturday Karleigh picked me up from work and on the way home as I figured out what time I needed to leave to catch the red-eye to JFK she got a text from her boss saying she could have the time off.  So we quickly figured out a schedule, packed some bags, and went to the airport.

(more…)

Ok, part three is finally here.

We took a short flight on US Airways from Philly to Pittsburgh where they tried to get us to pay for everything from the first checked bag to the formerly complimentary glass of water.  Other than that the flight was ok.

We found the car in the long term lot at the airport and headed off to my old house!  We got there and I showed Karleigh around the house with all of my mom’s furniture from around the world and all the trees and greeness everywhere.  It was pretty much lunch time by this point so we headed off to Primanti’s for some tasty ’sammiches’.  Then we headed downtown to check some stuff out.

Luckily we had some really nice weather for our drive and the awesome entrance to the city through the Fort Pitt tunnel and across the Fort Pitt bridge.  We drove through Oakland (where PITT and CMU are) and then across the Hot Metal bridge to the South Side.  We went to the Southside Works to go to H&M and so I could not put enough quarters in the meter and get a parking ticket.  We had a good time at H&M and I got a new suit and then when outside and found my ticket on the windshield.  Ooops.  Oh well, it was only like $11.

We continued our tour of the South Side and went to Station Square where I found an awesome store to get some black and gold stuff with Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers logos for my car.  Then we took the incline up to Mount Washington.

Mount Washington, for those who don’t know, is the hill above the Monongahela River (one of the Three Rivers) that looks over the city of Pittsburgh.  And the incline is an inclined cable railway or funicular that goes up the side of Mt. Washington.  On top there are lookouts that stick out off the edge of the hill that give you an awesome view of the city.  Then we took the incline back down and headed off to my friend Mike’s house.

The next day we went down to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art (same building actually).  Of course there were a ton of cool paintings and sculptures which I try to check out almost every time I make it home.  We also went to the new Dinosaur Hall which was really cool.  On the way out there was a wall with ribbons stuck in the wall that had wishes on them.  You could take a wish and then write a new one down on paper and stick it back in a hole on the wall so we each took a wish.  Mine says ‘I Wish I Knew’.
Also at some point in the museum there was a dead cat.  I have no idea why or what the theme of that exhibit was but it was hilarious.  Please enjoy –>

We did some other stuff over the next few days that I really don’t remember the exact chronological order to but it was fun.  We got dressed up and went to the Church Brew Works for dinner which is an old church with cool stained glass windows that is now a tasty restaurant.  We also went to the mall by my house and ate breakfast at Eggs ‘n-at.  And one night the remnants of hurricane Ike blew through and knocked out the power and a really big tree in the yard and a piece of the neighbors tree into our yard.  (Which I tried to clean up the next day along with mowing the lawn.)

It was a really good trip to Pittsburgh and a lot of fun to show Karleigh around.  And it was a good trip all over the east coast and fun was had by all.

Philthydelphia

When I told Mike I was going to Philly for almost four days he asked me what on earth there is to do in Philly that could take four days to do.  I wasn’t really sure but it turns out there is plenty to do.

On Monday we went and did some of the historical stuff.  We went to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and other assorted sites in that area.  We tried to go to the U.S. Mint but it closes at 3:00 and we were a bit late for that.

That night Karleigh’s nephew, Lincoln, wanted to play Twister so Karleigh, Lincoln, and Colby (Karleigh’s brother) played twister for a little while which was quite entertaining.  Fun was had by all.

On Tuesday we decided to go to Valley Forge.  First though, it was Lincoln’s first day of pre-school so while he was doing whatever little kids do, we went to visit Trader Joe’s.  I showed Alyssa (Karleigh’s sister-in-law) all of my favorite stuff there and I think she found some new favorites of her own.  After that we went home, dropped all off the goodies, picked up Lincoln and we took off for Valley Forge.

Alyssa borrowed a CD that gave an audio tour so after a quick stop in the visitor center we drove all over Valley Forge which was really pretty cool.  We skipped the twister that night and just watched Colby and Karleigh do a little sibling butt kicking for a bit which was also quite entertaining.

On Wednesday we went to the USS New Jersey.  The USS New Jersey is the largest battleship in U.S. history, the most decorated battleship in U.S. history and the last operating battleship in the U.S. fleet.  It was really cool.

The ship was commissioned one year after Pearl Harbor and it’s final decommission was in 1991.  It actually served off the coast of Lebanon during the whole Beirut fiasco of the late ’80s.  It was also the first U.S. naval vessel to fire a tomahawk cruise missile.

We took the guided ‘Firepower’ tour which took as all over the ship and even into one of the main 16″ gun turrets.  Those things are huge.  If anyone goes to Philly I serious recommend seeing it, it’s really cool and has a ton of history.  The ship is still floating unlike some other naval vessels that become museums which I think is pretty cool.

Since the tour took about two hours, Lincoln was pretty tired after all of the climbing and stuff so we went back to Colby and Alyssa’s place and chilled for a while.  We went to feed the ducks in a stream not far form their apartment and just kinda hung out.  Colby went off that night to work his rounds at the Emergency Room at some downtown hospital and we got ready to leave.

At eight the next morning we said our goodbyes and were dropped off at the airport to head off to Pittsburgh.  Thus ends part two of the East Coast Extravaganza.

Karleigh and I decided to take a trip back east to see her brother in Philadelphia and to see my family and friends in NYC and Pittsburgh.

Part one of our trip started with a three hour delay in Salt Lake City due to weather in NYC.  Followed shortly thereafter by moderate to severe turbulence through most of the flight and ending up in an eighty mile radius holding pattern somewhere over the PA - NY border while still getting bumped around at 40,000 feet.  When the fuel was running short we landed at the beautiful Wilksbarre-Scranton airport where we waited for the weather in NYC to clear a bit and for our stomachs to calm down.  I’m not sure what I did different but instead of just being sick to my stomach at 40,000 feet, my face actually went flush and I almost passed out.  The tingling feeling over my entire upper body was actually a welcome relief to the sickness in my stomach.  Anyway, we were eventually cleared, got more fuel, and hopped over to JFK.

The one bag we checked full of baby clothes to give to Karleigh’s brother made its to San Diego instead of NYC so while it would be there soon, we didn’t want to wait so we met my parent’s out front of the airport and went to a Brazilian churrascaria.  For those who have never been, it’s a ton of Brazilian food and tons of red meat.  Quite tasty.

After that we went for a drive around Brooklyn and across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and around Time Square, past Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Then back across the Queensboro Bridge and to my parent’s apartment in Rego Park.  We got back around one a.m. and my parents still had more energy than me or Karleigh.

I thought the sixty percent humidity in the apartment would make it hard to sleep but I passed out and slept pretty well.

We got up the next morning and headed out for Battery Park.  We took the subway down to Ground Zero and walked along the Hudson River down to Battery Park.  The lines to get tickets to get on the ferry to go over to Ellis Island and Liberty Island were too long so we got a good view of them from the pier then headed uptown to go to the MET.

We checked out a ton of good art in the MET along with some amazing sculptures and one amazing artist sitting there drawing the sculptures.

After that we met my parents in Central Park for a picnic then grabbed a cab down to Penn Station and caught the train to Philadelphia.  The train ride, like the plane ride, did not go as smoothly as would be hoped for.  We stopped in Newark and filled the train up with passengers from another train that was apparently disabled or something so that delayed us for a little bit but we eventually made it to Philthydelphia and Colby picked us up.

Not bad for being on the east coast for about twenty four hours.

In July I took a trip back home that ended up being slightly crazy, even by my standards.  When I got home I was glad I survived so I kinda forgot about even writing anything here.  Well, now I’m on another trip and figured I should backtrack for a second and write about my trip back home in July.

I decided to try and fly home to go to the Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh with my dad so we could display the Karmann Ghia that me my brothers (mostly Adam) and my dad restored.  It turned out that Brook and Linwood were also going back east that same night.  So we all flew back on a very uneventful flight and my mom picked us up from the airport in NYC where I convinced her to come back to Pittsburgh (even though she had just gotten back from there) to go to the car show.  So after a brief hour or two outside the airport we went back to the airport and flew to Pittsburgh.

When we landed my dad picked us up at the airport in the Karmann Ghia and we went straight to Schenley Park where the car show was being held.  Well… we didn’t quite go straight there.  We overheated about a mile before we got there and had to stop and let the smoking engine cool off for a bit but eventually we made it.

The car show was pretty cool and there was a lot of interest in our car.  We talked to some other VW owners and eneded up giving a guy some spare parts from our garage after the show to help him with his restoration.  Mike and KT also came up with Howie and hung out for a while.  We also overheated the poor Ghia on the way home but made it without stopping.  That poor air cooled engine just isn’t what it used to be.

That night I went out with some friends and ended up staying up till around three a.m. watching some UFC fight then crashed on Mike’s couch for a few hours, got up, went home, woke my sister up and had her drive me to the airport to go to Maine.

I made it to Maine without any real problems and got to hang out with Alexis, Ian, Little Jake and the newly arrived Benjamin.  It was a lot of fun, and since I had taken a red-eye flight the first night, and stayed up way late the second night, I got to take a nap with Little Jake that afternoon.  But the relaxation would not last.  My dad called me to let me know that the flight I was planning on taking had been cancelled the next morning so I’d better try to get out right then.  So after a quick trip to the coast to see some lighthouses and a little more of Portland, I was dropped off at the airport where I waited for a few hours to finally make it back to NYC.

 
I got in to NYC, took the AirTrain to the subway and made it to my parent’s apartment around three a.m. where I was greeted and offered root beer floats as always.  I declined and crashed on the couch for a few hours then it was time to get up again and try and fly home.  By this time my plan was to fly to San Diego then back up to Salt Lake.

With my dad and his badges we made it through security rather quickly and I made all of my flights as planned and finally made it home.  I got to see a lot of stuff and hang out with a bunch of people on that trip but it was seriously exhausting.  But I guess that’s just the kind of traveling I do.

Another trip that I haven’t posted about is my epic journey to Chicago.

My old roommate and my driver for those days we just wanted to skip class and go skiing got married on 7-11 (yes that was on purpose).  Mr Cory Stonehocker actually somewhat settled down and got married, quite surprising I know.

Carter and I planned on going to the wedding and then adding another trip on the end of it, like NYC or Boston or something but because of our work schedules and what not it didn’t happen.  (Oh, my roommate Carter who has been living in Belgium is now living in the U.S. and of A again.)

I bought my tickets to Chicago but planned on flying standby home.  As has been the case in the past for me, it is sometimes more eventful to fly as a revenue passenger than as a non-rev.  To save a little bit of money I got a ticket that connected through Cincinnati.  No big deal I thought.  It only adds a few hours on to the trip but saves me a fair amount of money.  Well, that’s what I thought when the flights were on time.

When I got to Cincinnati I walked to my new gate and saw that there was a gate change.  It was only to the next gate over so no big deal.  What Delta for some reason neglected to have the courage or the professionalism to announce was that in addition to the gate change our flight was delayed for at least three hours.  I have no idea why they didn’t announce this and I think they’re a lot crappier of an airline now because of this.  So through murmurings and whisperings everyone in the boarding area figured out about the delay and then five minutes after the flight should have left Delta kindly decided to inform us of a delay but not a reason for the delay.

So I went a found a place to sit down where I could plug in my laptop and watch a movie or something when a strange announcement came on.  “Attention all employees and passengers in the B concourse, at 9:00 we will be shutting off the water for the whole concourse and the bathrooms will no longer be available.”  Seriously? It was now 8:50 and the flight didn’t leave till 11:40.

Unfortunately for me this was the least of my problems.  Because of the delay I would not get in to Chicago until after the subways and trains stopped running.  A cab ride to Cory’s house was about as much as my plane ticket and since it was the night before the wedding no one that I knew in Chicago would have a Blood Alcohol Content low enough to drive to the airport and pick me up.  So this was my chance to add Chicago O’hare to my list of ‘Airports I’ve Slept In’.

My flight did eventually leave Cincinnati around midnight, and in Chicago I was able to lay on the cement floor with a thin layer of damp carpet and an airline blanket and close my eyes long enough to have to move again for the carpet cleaning crews until around 5:30.  At 5:30 I realized I was surrounded by people because I had moved from my unoccupied gate to one that had an early morning flight.  So I decided to make my way downtown to catch a train to get me out to Cory’s house.

Besides my shoulder feeling like someone had stepped on it and being extremely groggy, I made my way downtown on the subway, caught the right train, and Cory and Carter picked me up at the station way out in the suburbs.

Apparently the plan was to go golfing before the wedding which I of course was not appropriately attired for so I borrowed Carter’s polo shirt (which fit wonderfully) rolled up my pant legs cause it was really hot and did my best at a game the I don’t really get.

After that it was time to start getting ready for the wedding.  Carter was in the wedding party so I took his camera and basically became an unofficial photographer with his camera.  I took over a hundred pictures and I think at least two of them turned out ok, so I’m on my way to becoming a professional I think.

The wedding was nice (and short) and the reception was quite the event.  It was a lot of fun and I met some pretty cool people but around 1:00 am I was feeling a bit tired.  I went to the front desk of the hotel where the reception was and where we were staying and scheduled a taxi to the airport (we were a lot closer so it was cheaper) and a wake-up call and went to sleep.  After a restful 3 hours of sleep I got up, went to the airport and was on my way home (via Long Beach) after only 24 hours spent outside of the airport.

Perhaps I became a bit laxed in my posting habits.  I have (of course) been traveling since my visit to Belgium all the way back in May.  It’s just that some of the trips weren’t documented too well which is my own fault of course.

Anyway… In June I went to Los Angeles in search of a new car.  I figured, hey, the cars are cheaper, there’s no rust on those cars, and it’s a lot nicer weather down there, so why not go down there with Karleigh, look for a car and road trip back.  It was a good idea but of course it was a flawed idea.

The weather was nicer, the gas was more expensive, and the used cars are WAY more damaged.  Every single car I looked at had been in a fairly severe accident.  One guy even stitched the airbags shut because he said they were too expensive to replace so this way it at least looks good. What!?

–Male, 27.  Dies in survivable accident because missing airbags didn’t deploy.  But boy oh boy did that dashboard look sharp.–

Retards.

So in the end I got to hang out with my brother and Grandma and show Karleigh a slightly different Southern California than she had seen before.  At the last second I found some cheap tickets on US Airways, flew home, and found a nice green Honda Civic about a week later right here in Utah County.

As I sit here on the floor in the Philadelphia Airport, listening to gate changes, delays, and cancellations because of the lovely weather outside, my fingers are crossed that I can make it on one of two flights to Vegas so I can make it home to SLC very early tomorrow morning.  The first flight I’m trying to get on is delayed so that gives me time to update my blog as long as this super crappy AT&T connection doesn’t fail me.  (I had to show student I.D. to get a login number, otherwise they charge for Internet at this airport, which I find odd considering the city is supposed to be blanketed by free Wi-Fi in the coming months. Anyway…)

Sunday was the Iris Festival in Brussels.  Apparently the Iris is a national symbol of Belgium and even though the flower was on many flags that day, the real thing was almost nowhere to be found so I’m still a little confused by that.

The day started off by fighting through massive crowds to see the Red Bull Soap Box  car races. They were pretty funny but kinda hard to see with the bazillion or so people packed on this small street.  A few people wrecked into the hay bails and one guy’s car was pretty crappy and he had to be pushed across the finish line.  But a majority of the cars made it across the finish line under their own power and relatively unscathed.

After that we wandered over to a greek restaurant to get some lunch and on the way there we saw some bands playing, a fire and rescue squad doing rescue demos on a car in the middle of the street and a bazillion more people.

Pretty much that’s what the day was, just wandering around watching street performances and other oddities.  We did also go to the parliament building and walked through it.  That was pretty cool to see the whole inside of that building but it’s such a small country the building really wasn’t too big.  Also it was weird because in the main assembly room there was this band that I guess was supposed to be a jazz band but wasn’t really jazz, playing on the floor.  It was just odd.

Later we went to a big park and just chilled for a while people watching and avoided being hit by errant soccer balls.  After relaxing for a while we took off to get some Sushi back by Carter’s house which was quite tasty.

After dinner we headed downtown again to see some more bands.  We got there in time to see the end of the cover band ABBA Mania.  Ridiculous!  Those Europeans love their cover bands and they love their old music.  The crowd was seriously loving it and singing along and doing these weird seemingly spontaneous synchronized dances.  And half the people had horrible rhythm and couldn’t clap along with the beat.

When that wrapped up we headed to the college area of the city to get some dessert with one of Carter’s co-workers that lives over there.  We just chilled at a table on the sidewalk for a while until it started to get chilly so a little after midnight we headed home.

I made it to the airport this morning and am still sitting here in PHL just hoping that I can get on this flight to Vegas then connect to SLC and get in at 2:15am.  Then drive home, sleep, and be at work by 9am.  We’ll see.

Whatever happens it was worth it.

UPDATE: I made it to Vegas, now I’m waiting for that last flight to finally get me home.  I figure from door to door it’ll be about twenty four hours of traveling.  I think I’ll stay put for a week or two after this.