On The Road

This screen shot taken at 17:55 MST from abcnews.com shows one of two things: That the whole Toyota recall is a little more serious than I thought or news organizations have become so lazy and unprofessional that they can’t even take the time to proofread what they’re writing before posting it.

Judging by the HUGE amount of grammatical errors that abcnews.com posts on a daily basis I’m guessing it’s the second option, but just in case, I’ll assume all Toyota owners are part of ‘A Very Serious Plot’ until I’m told otherwise.

Thanks Disney Corp. for making us all a little dumber

UPDATE:

I was curious to see how long it would take abcnews to catch their mistake or tell me that I can start trusting Toyota owners again and it turns out the runaway Toyota’s are now causing ex-VP Dick ‘Let’s Torture Everyone’ Cheney to have chest pains!!  Someone has got to stop these Toyotas!!

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

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.

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.

Quick Note From The Previous Post:  I realized the day after I posted that, that I did indeed forget to mention that I was able to successfully blow up the Death Star.  So you may all sleep well tonight.  (Before the show Josh took me to the arcade not too far from his house and I blew up the Death Star but was unable to defend myself in a weird soccer/paddle type game against Josh.  Oh well, it was a lot of fun anyway.)

———————–

So the next morning we kinda lounged around again.  Well, actually, I lounged and Josh slept.  Eventually we were both up and about and it was time for me to go and pick up McKenzie at the Burbank airport.  So I headed downtown on the bus to catch another bus that would take me all the way to the airport.  Then I picked up Kenz and also picked up a rental car to make the rest of the trip a bit easier.

When we got back to Josh’s we helped finish preparing the food for Food Not Bombs.  After the cars were loaded up we headed down to Pershing Square.

As we walked up into the square with the first armfulls of stuff to feed the homeless I saw tons of people in fairly simple dress clothes, long beards and some were wearing hats.  The Amish! (I thought)  The crowd of them had dispersed by the time we got set up but we would later find out that they were in fact Born Agains from somewhere in the south.  But they would have blended right in in good old Lancaster, PA.

Anyway, after feeding the homeless there we headed down to Skid Row.  Whenever I go to help Josh out with Food Not Bombs, Skid Row is always an interesting place to visit.  I would kinda call it the headquarters for homeless people on the West Coast.  There’s also been a lot of reports lately on how the cops and hospitals dump people on Skid Row when they don’t know what else to do with them so there are people there that really shouldn’t be but there are also some really interesting people that are more than willing to talk to you (especially if you have red hair as Kenz found out).
This visit to Skid Row was better than the others because the supposed Amish people were already there right in front of the San Julian mission where FNB always serves food.  They were out there with mics and amps and singing away.  They actually had a pretty good chorus and a lot of the people down there liked it too.  (I had to chuckle though cause they were singing about religion and being good to each other and we were the ones actually out doing something.)

Well, after we finished up there and I was done pouring gallon after gallon of water for all the thirsty people we headed back to Josh’s to clean up everything.  Then Kenz and I headed inland to Upland to visit Grandma!

There’s always a lot to do when I visit my Grandma but I was pretty tired when I got there so I didn’t get too much done that first night but I started my gardening early the next day.

Josh had given me two tomato plants to take and replant at my Grandma’s.  Since I pack light, I only had one pair of pants, the one’s I was wearing.  That meant I had to do chores around the house and yard and try not to get them any dirtier than they already were because I still had to look neat and clean for my stand-by travel home.  I was able, with the help of Kenz, to pot the tomatoes and move the large pots to a sunnier area and help water all the plants without getting too dirty.

Before I left CA this trip I was determined to make it to the Vans outlet store, so after the yard work we all went to Ontario Mills so I could buy yet another pair of vans (for super cheap).  I also got Little Jake some, I think he likes them.  After the shopping there was just enough time to eat at my Grandma’s favorite mexican restaurant, pack my stuff, and head to the airport speeding along on the often treacherous Pasadena Freeway.  Well, that’s what everyone says anyway but I don’t think it’s all that twisty turny compared to the PA Turnpike, but that’s just my opinion.

I made it to the airport in time after wandering around looking for a gas station, got my seat assignment, and headed back to Provo after another successful super fast trip.  Not too shabby if you ask me.

Since my attempted travels to Baltimore for a concert have been destroyed because the concert is sold out, I have chosen to rant.

Living in Utah in a predominately Mormon community I hear about presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) all the time. He’s always seemed a bit too conservative for me. (Along with almost everyone in Utah.) Tonight I was watching a rerun of the Colbert Report and they mentioned Romney’s view on Guantanamo. Since that show is on Comedy Central I seriously didn’t believe that he said what they said he did, so I looked it up online to confirm it. Here it is:

ROMNEY: I am glad [detainees] are at Guantanamo. I don’t want them on our soil. I want them on Guantanamo, where they don’t get the access to lawyers they get when they’re on our soil. I don’t want them in our prisons, I want them there. Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo.

Really? So in the fog of war, all of the people that the Northern Alliance rounded up and handed over to the U.S. Marines are terrorists? Interesting. I don’t buy it for one second. Here is a quote I would like to submit in response to Romney’s:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

If they were on U.S. soil it would be too hard to use the term ‘enemy combatant’ and deny them of said unalienable rights. The bill of rights would quickly come into play and the U.S. would have to come up with hard evidence against these so called ‘terrorists’ who would be allowed legal representation.

I really feel like I’m just going over something I think we all started learning about when we were kids. This is basic U.S. government, the foundation of everything in this country, and I feel like it’s glaringly obvious the problem with what he is saying.

I know there are those who agree with him and they’re allowed to. But personally, I don’t get it. We want to force democracy onto every nation in the world. We do it with bombs, blockades, embargoes, sanctions, and occasionally we actually use diplomacy but we just want to preach it, not actually practice it. Baffling.

Side Notes:

Interestingly enough, (or ironically enough) the following paragraph in the Declaration of Independence states that when a government becomes destructive of these rights and has a ‘long train of abuses’ it is the right and duty of the people to abolish such a government.

Other Romney Quotes:

I think Guantanamo is a symbol of our resolve.

The fact that we’re ’staying the course’ in a losing war is also symbol of our resolve. Just because you have resolve doesn’t mean you’re right. The Southern States showed great resolve to secede from the North.

I’ve only walked the battlefields at Gettysburg a few times, so please refresh my memory; How did that Southern resolve work out for them?

I do not want to see the legal system in this country potentially opened up to terrorists and feel we’re better keeping Guantanamo in place. And if we need additional space, why, we should be expanding Guantanamo.

WTF

The picture of everyone in front of the gate is a bunch of people, including a NBC affiliate newsman and the security guard, watching to see if I can pop a lock using an aluminum can.  In the end, it didn’t work.  I think some WD-40 would have helped.

The second to last picture is of me on a little contraption that spins you around.  I was so dizzy and disoriented that I have no recollection of Sam being there taking pictures of me.

And that was our trip.

Ok, I know I went to Pittsburgh and have written nothing about that trip and then last weekend I went up the canyon with some friends to have a bonfire and haven’t posted any pics… well, I’ve been feeling less than inspired so I actually have no intention of posting anything along those lines. Sorry.

I will, however, rant about a stupid person/customer that I ran into today. Ok, first of all, if you have kids you are required to control them. If you can’t, don’t bring them in a paint store. It’s not a playground. This lady has her four kids in the store who are all of an age where they should know you don’t just grab stuff off the shelves and play with it but apparently they didn’t know this. Since it was only me and one other part timer I took the matter into my own hands since their mother was indifferent to the situation. I told the kids that I can’t have them running around my store messing up my merchandise. I made no attempt to mask my annoyance either.

A few minutes later the kids were playing with the merchandise that I had taken off a shelf to reorganize it and the mother asked the other employee, Bjorn, if they should not play with that stuff. I could tell he was about to say, “Oh, no, it’s perfectly o.k. if they play with the chemicals and razor blades on that table.” Seriously, do you have to ask?

On top of all of this she was ignoring the answers to the questions she was asking, trying to get her paint project done for the same price as buying a gallon of milk, and had no clue what she actually wanted. Listen, if I answer a question it’s because I know the answer, I don’t make crap up and if I don’t know I’ll tell you so. Also, paint costs money, a lot more than a gallon of milk. Don’t come to a store that specializes in quality paint if you want wal mart prices. Even then, you’re only saving a few bucks up front. And lastly, I can give advice on what colors match what or what product will apply best over a specific substrate but if you don’t know the color scheme you’re going for don’t ask me. I’m not planning your house, I don’t know what everything else in your house looks like, and quite frankly, I really don’t care.

So all that aside I just about punched her with her last comment she made to me before she looked away and I left the sales floor. At this point she had taken her kids somewhere else and came back to pick up her paint. I was closing one of the registers and she sarcastacly said something to the effect of “Don’t try to look to so excited.” I brushed her comment aside and said “I’ve had a really rough day.” To which she responded, “Me too, I had be out in this rain and snow today.” Here’s the best part and will explain why I was not in a good mood through all of this: I looked right back at her, visibly ticked off and said, “I had to go and meet the paramedics who were reviving my delivery driver who was found in diabetic shock in a parking lot this morning.” She shut up so fast it finally made me chuckle inside. (more…)