Mick’s Miscellaneous Meanderings

On Thursday, July 27th I received an email from a web developer newsgroup acquaintance asking if I was interested in working on a 3 month long website project. But this wasn’t just any acquaintance from a newsgroup. This was my programming mentor. This was the guy whose applications I’d studied and torn apart when learning ASP, XML, and XSLT programming. And this was the guy I bugged when I ran into a stumbling block and thanked with chocolate chip cookies. So, considering the source, I was willing to do what I’d have to in order to say yes.

After a couple SOS phone calls lining up three months worth of help with my already overloaded band instrument repair work load, I emailed back with a definite yes. I received a phone call about 30 seconds after I sent the email. The company was going to fly me out for two days of training early the next week. I booked my flights and hotel online, made arrangements for a dogsitter, and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off to finish the work that needed to get done before and while I was gone.

Cancellation #1

I managed to get a few hours sleep Monday night before getting up at 3 am for a 2 hour ride to Philly for a 6am flight. When I walked into the airport I was greeted by a helpful United Airlines employee. I told her my flight number and asked which line to get in. She informed me that my flight was CANCELED! *Gasp!* I was supposed to be in Oklahoma by mid-morning to set up the laptop in preparation for the 1:30 training session. So, I stood in line to get rebooked. They sent me over to American Airlines where I got a 12:30 arrival. Two hours later but it would have to do.

Fortunately, both flights got in early so I got to OKC and took a shuttle downtown to the company where I waited in the lobby to meet Kindler for the first time. It took me a minute to recognize him without his “pimp outfit”. Luckily, I had seen a real picture of Kindler during our newsgroup banterings and recognized him when he came through the security gate.

We got right to work after taking care of important chocolate chip cookie business. The rest of the day and the next was spent setting up the company’s laptop I’d be using and getting an overview of the website I’d be working on.

Cancellation #2

At 4:30 on Wednesday I headed back to the airport for a 5:45 flight back home….or so I thought. We boarded the plane a half hour late and then sat on the tarmac for an hour before returning to the gate. The flight was canceled due to severe storms in Chicago. Nothing was coming in or going out of Chicago and wouldn’t be for a while according to the weather report. This flight was the very last departure from the OKC airport for the day so there was no re-routing. I waited in line to get a new itinerary. The ticket guy booked me on a flight going through Denver the next morning – a 7am departure/ 2pm arrival in Philly. I was going to see the Rockies from a plane! So I left the airport for another night at a hotel in OKC.

Cancellation #3

Arrived at the airport for my 7am flight and walked to the self-checkin counter. I was having trouble bringing up the correct itinerary in the computer (embarrassing for someone who works with computers a lot), so I walked over to a ticket agent and found out….you guessed it….my flight was canceled AGAIN! No Denver – dang.

The guy rescheduled me for a 7:30am departure/ 1:45pm arrival in Philly going through Chicago with a FIRST CLASS TICKET!!! Yehaw!! I eventually made it to Philly at 3pm due to late flights. And of course I stopped at Famous Dave’s for a BBQ meal before the drive back home.

Back to work….

8,100 miles through 19 states in 15 days. Yeah, I’m crazy.

It was a great trip. I saw everything I wanted to see:

• Rocky Mountains
• Cascade Mountains
• General landscape of the western states
• National Music Museum in Vermillion, SD
• Microsoft Campus in Washington
• Did I mention the mountains?

got everywhere I needed to get on time, and accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish:

• recorded enough clinics to be able to add streaming videos to PROBIRT at regular intervals for the next year
• took a break from the daily grind and did something different while still doing something productive

No tickets, no accidents, and no need for the AAA Plus membership I signed up for a few months ago. Ol’ Bessie (1997 Saturn) did a fine job as long as I fed her a quart of 5W-30 every 3rd or 4th fuel-up. She hit 100,000 miles in Washington.

Weather was great for most of the trip. Other than driving through a storm in the Midwest with tornados that killed nine people the first day of the trip and a few short snow squawls, weather was extremely tame.

Most Memorable Moments
Hilarious:
Stopped for gas in Salina, KS. An SUV full of teenagers/early twenties at the next pump tried to drive off with the pump handle still sticking out of their tank. They got about 5 feet before their memory was “jarred”…literally. The driver bounded out red-faced, finished the fueling and left. Duh.

Disappointments:
1. The Pacific Crest Trail (a long distance hiking trail that runs from Canada to Mexico through WA, OR, and CA) was under 6 to 10 ft of snow in the OR and WA passes so I didn’t get to even set foot on the trail.

2. Stopped at Mt. Rushmore on the way through South Dakota. The weather was pretty clear until I got near the top of the mountain where the air became thick with fog. This was all I could see of Mt. Rushmore…nothing.

Some Statistics
Highest price paid for gas – $2.61
Lowest price paid for gas – $2.27
Total number of Famous Dave’s (a BBQ rib restaurant) in the USA – 140. Number I saw – 7. Number I stopped and ate at – 4.
Number of places I wouldn’t mind settling down in – 6
Number of mountains I saw and would like to hike – ∞

Visited some neat people:

• Stopped at the Votaw Tool Company for an hour on the way to Texas. It’s always a treat to visit their efficient operation and chat with John and Carl.
• Although I still didn’t get to meet his wife (starting to wonder if Cynthia really exists!), it was great to see Larry Mueller again. Larry covered another three topics on video tape despite still waiting on me to edit the other 10 hours or so of clinics we recorded in September.
• Met Bob Baier and his wife Monica in a quaint little Texas town (now THIS was how I had pictured Texas!) for breakfast and a half day of video taping some excellent info on care and maintenance of band instruments. Bob sent me off with his copy of “The Devil’s Horn”, a history of the saxophone. I, of course, devoured the book in the spare minutes at the hotels and had it read by the time I reached the National Museum of Music in Vermillion, South Dakota. Perfect timing – I got to see examples of some of Adolph Sax’s horns mentioned in the book.
• Met Rich Feldman and his wife, Diane for the first time. On my way through Oregon, I stopped at his shop where he showed me some cool tools and tips. Couldn’t get him to do a video clinic this time around. But I got him for the next video tour…if he resists, I’ll just threaten to divulge his boroscope antics. Went to breakfast with Rich and Diane and laughed my head off. They’ve got a twisted sense of humor…just my type.
• In Bellingham, Washington David Laws picked me up from the hotel and took me to a cute cafe with live, acoustic guitar music. With David being a fellow avid hiker, we exchanged some trail stories over omelets and French toast. When our trekking appetite was satisfied, we headed to his home and shop where he did a very comprehensive clinic on fitting and silencing rotary valves. Afterwards, we took a hike with Lucky the Wonderdog on the trails behind his house past waterfalls and a fish hatchery. Absolutely beautiful area! Came back to some Quiznos subs (my favorite!) his wife Judith had picked up. Afterwards, I reluctantly left to head east away from this beautiful part of the USA, but not without first trying to coax Lucky into going with me.
  
• Made a quick stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at West Music for Peter Hart and Ben Schildgen to do a “Time Saving Shop Tips” clinic in between their hectic schedule and a pile of horns.
• Met Ed Strege at Badger State Repair in Elkhorn, Wisconsin for a tips and tricks marathon. I had seen him give his clinic at a NAPBIRT convention and knew it would be a fast-paced, content-rich clinic. Little did I know that the 1.5 hour clinic was only a small portion of what he had prepared. We split the taping into two sessions with lunch in between for a break where I got to know “the man of many talents” better. Did you know Ed played drums in a combo band up until a few years ago? And that he had once been a locksmith and had had a t-shirt business in addition to being a repair tech? Ya just never know.

Didn’t get to take a whole lot of pictures of the mountains and such…there weren’t many places you could pull off the road at scenic areas. Here are a few:

I was talked into going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with some friends. :-\ We left from Annville, PA on Saturday morning, Nov. 12, and returned Monday evening, Nov 14th. The drive took about 10 hours each way.

I snapped a few pics that I thought people would appreciate:

This one is for Dave. No explanation necessary!

For no one specific, but thought “The Love Shack” was hilarious.

This is for Dad, just in case he runs out of ideas for building projects, he can always build a porch on top of Dave’s 5th wheel!

Despite the motorhome/travel trailer stuff, it was a fun trip. Got to go running on the beach a couple times. And took a dip in the ocean the morning we left in 50º air temp! The ocean water was warmer than the hotel pool water!

Just before sunrise and my morning run:

The morning run:

Taking a dip in the ocean after the sunrise run:

And a view of the hotels down the beach: