Category: North America

Helene and Milton

SDSpiveyLeave a comment

Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit us recently.

Helene was not really powerful in our area, being on the north side where the wind was coming across the state.

There was a oak tree blown over. We have never had any significant sized branches lost before, but because of the highway widening project, the state has removed 4 businesses from near the house and every single tree on those properties. We have no wind buffer anymore.

The damage.

The large oak in the front yard, next to the Georges’ house was uprooted and fell over. Fortunately, it only hit the corner of the portico roof. The only real damage was the crappy wall that Bob had built, it was already wobbly and I should have pushed it over before the neighbors had moved in. It was directly in front of my RV, but it went the other way, phew.

I had noticed it late that night, because it was blocking most of the light from their front light. I went out first thing once the sun was up and began cutting away some of the smaller branches away from the walkway.

The next day, I was at Tru-value rental first thing and reserved their 50′ man-lift. They won’t let me tow with my car (insurance reasons) so I went home and reserved a truck from Enterprise, then went to their office to wait for them to open.

After sitting outside quite a while, I get a phone call. The agent says they have no trucks available, despite the website saying they do and the fact I can see several sitting there. I call others in the area and only one has a truck, but when I ask to verify it has a tow hitch, he states they never allow towing with their vehicles, even though I specifically have rented a truck there before with the precise purpose of towing.

After giving up, I went back out to Tru-value to cancel the man-lift, but I find out they can deliver it for another $125, which is cheaper than the truck rental was going to be anyway. I had it rented for Saturday with Sunday included.

Saturday went smoothly, but since I had used my car to reposition the lift and I was parked in the road, I moved it at the end of the day. Sunday morning I placed it back, but could not get it to “level”, every time I tried to use the controls to lift or move the basket, the siren would blare. Not a sound I want. I tried multiple times, over 5 hours, repositioning it, lifting and retrying to get it even. Every time, the bubbles were showing level, front-to-back and side-to-side. WTF!

They are closed on Sundays, so there was no one I could even call. Monday I was able to get someone on the phone. Turns out, there is a small sensor wheel on the bottom of each of the outriggers that has to be fully extended, otherwise the machine won’t work. One of the sensor wheels was cocked just a bit and was hitting the side of its slot and wouldn’t extend out. I wasted an entire day because of that. I later had to pay for another day (and delivery), without them even giving me a discount.

All that I could do myself.

I spent 6 days cutting branches and piling them up, using the man-lift to get the majority.

Unfortunately, the man-lift could not reach everything (there were branches that were in the way of the basket), and I was left with the main trunk and one branch poking into the ground, which supported the trunk. If I tried to cut that branch, not only would it absolutely pinch the chain saw bar, but it would also fall right on top of me, there was nowhere to run once it started to come down.

I had to call for actual tree guys to come to “finish” it. One company came out and gave me an estimate of $11,000, which was higher than the estimate I had gotten a few years ago to remove the entire tree (before the roof was redone). I did get one to do it for $350, but their skid steer did tear up some of the grass. It will grow back eventually.

My pole saw started sparking internally, so i bought a new one. After dissection, one of the brushes was “frozen” and wouldn’t make good contact any more. Normally the spring pushes the graphite brushes against the rotor, but this one was stuck in place. Oh well, I bought it at Harbor Freight, so what can you expect.

All in, I spent almost $3,000, not counting the money lost from not working.

 

Milton is only a week later. Hurray!

While there was no significant problem with the wind or rain, we did loose power for nearly 72 hours. The power flicked a bunch that evening, but around 10:30 it just went out.

After a few minutes, I could tell it wasn’t going to come back on, so i shut down my computer and web-server and their UPS’s, and having nothing else to do in the dark, so we went to bed.

The next morning, I was worried about another tree that I would have to deal with, but nothing was wrong. I was surprised and relieved.

The neighbors brought out a generator and proceeded to run it for many days and nights. Right outside my window.

I ran an extension cord from the RV to keep the fridge and freezer cold. But I ended up disposing of most of the fridge anyway.

Unlike some people, I have little in the freezer anyway, so little loss there. Before going to the store to refill the freezer, I did do a defrost and cleaned it well. Have to do it sometime, so might as well when there isn’t much to shove into the fridge overnight.

I did not run the generator all the time (unlike the neighbors), after I had turned it on Friday morning, I heard a load screeching coming from it. Either I have a loose belt or my generator’s water pump is froze up. At $300 per hour, I really hope it is the first. Either way, I can’t get my hands or tools in there to do anything myself.

We had power by Friday afternoon, but I still could not go to work as the gas was in short supply in the area. Good, more lost income. I did not work for 18 days, over half the month.

I was able to go to Gainesville for the UK game, it was Homecoming, so I did make a bit of money, but not enough to cover all I have already charged up.

 

I still have a huge pile of debris from the oak tree, too much for the city to collect for free. I want to rent a chipper, but it is $400/day plus delivery, so i will have to wait. Maybe the city will get tired of the pile and give me a break and take it away. Fat chance.

Eclipse

SDSpivey

Mom and I went to Mexico to see the eclipse.

We flew out on Saturday, to Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo Leon. It must not get a lot of traffic, as the airport only had one baggage carousel.

We had a car rented, so we went to the rental area. The attendant took our info and led us outside to get a van to the pickup area. While we waited, three pickup trucks go by, nothing unusual about that, except they had flashing red and blue lights and masked guards in the back along with a mounted gun. Crap, where have I decide to come?

I go into the rental building and the lady taking care of me doesn’t know any English, of course. She asks a few questions via Google Translate, but spends a lot of time tapping on the screen. She then has me “sign” the screen and runs my credit card. She takes me outside to the car, a Yaris. It is white (thankfully in that sun) and I immediately notice the lack of the metal portion of the gas tank cover and a large dent on the trunk.

There are also “streaks” in the trunk from luggage wheels. She documents everything and then Mom and I load up and leave.

I have the address for the hotel, but Waze gives me some bad directions. For example, it might say I need to turn left in 3.2 miles, so I get into the left lane, but as I get close, it suddenly changes to take an exit on the right. I would have no way to cross 3 or 4 lanes in such a short distance, much less doing it safely. I would have to continue on, and make a U-turn as soon as I could. I don’t know if this is common, but they do have many “retourno” lanes marked. I later tried Google maps, but got similar results.

After checking in to the hotel, we went out to get snacks and some water for mom’s CPAP. We ate out and then crashed out, it was only 8, but that’s 10pm back home and it was a long day.

We headed out fairly early the next morning. It was 3½ hours to Torrèon, in the next state over, Coahuila.

The drive was mostly uneventful, the town of Saltillo is near Monterrey, but there is almost nothing after that. We were mostly about a mile or so from a mountain range on each side of us, and just cacti and scrub bushes on a flat sandy ground between.

There were ruins of adobe buildings every so often. We stopped near one so mom could get a smoke, and I went behind to wee.

Occasionally, we’d come upon a small village. By small, I mean less than 10 buildings, total. Calling them villages is an exaggeration, but I have no word for anything smaller. The buildings also were better than the old adobes. At least one was obviously just pallets attached together to make walls and a tarp as a roof. There is very little rain, so that should be enough.

Most villages would have huge speed bumps to make you slow down. They were not so tall that the car would scrape the bottom, but they were not easy on the shocks (or our bodies). I’d have to go over at about 5km/h, otherwise it was too much. A few had local police ready to ticket anyone who didn’t obey. With the speed bumps, how could anyone speed? I couldn’t even get near the posted limit.

The car did not start out with a full tank, so I did have to stop. I think all stations are “full” service, I didn’t see any that you would be able to operate yourself. No different that New Jersey, in that respect.

It came to about 800 pesos, around $45, so no different than filling my car would have been. I was able to pay him directly, but mom had gone inside to buy stuff. Only I had all the cash, so I still had to go in as well.

I used the translator on my ipad to ask the service agent about checking the air in the tires, but he said something and shook his head no. That was another problem with the car, when I picked it up, the “check tire” light on the dash was on. I had done a check, by pressing on each tire, all seemed to feel the same. Crossing the desert with a low tire light is not fun.

We managed to get to the AirBnB in Torrèon a few hours early, so we started looking for lunch. I found a nearby place that had a sign advertising “street food” I ordered 2 of the “regular solos,” which apparently was just a cone of fries with sauce. They had no seating, so we sat in the car to eat. In the plaza, there was a Little Caesar’s with drive through line literally around the building. There was also an agua fresca stand (water with fruit), a cinema with all American movies, and another police truck with gun mount.

There is a securiy gate at the AirBnB, but it was open all weekend, fortunately, bandits take Saturday and Sunday off, so we were safe.

We went for some breakfast food, since we had a kitchen and a fridge. Honey Cheerios do not taste anything like Honey-nut Cheerios. Perhaps because they are made by General Mills, here, but by Nestlé in Mexico. The orange juice was good, but a little bitter.

First thing Monday morning, I made a bunch of peanut butter and apple marmalade (which had small chunks of apple) sandwiches to take to the eclipse. I wanted to eat something local, but I knew that there would be a lot of people there and I didn’t know if many places would even be open. The peanut butter was unusually smooth, no risk of tearing your bread.

Nazas, in Durango state, is a small town. There was a group of police at the start of town (of course) and some locals handing out flyers listing various events that were going on. The flyer also had phone numbers at the bottom that we could call and someone would translate for us, for free. I know that no one here would do that.

I had a spot picked out north of town, down a small dirt road. It looked good on aerial view, but Google had no street view, so I didn’t know if I’d have been able to pull off safely. There could have been a fence or a “curb” where road graders had dug down.

We decided to try out the local’s event. Following signs down a very dusty road, we wound back to a small park next to Rio Nazas, a modest, but fast moving river.

There were lines drawn out onto the ground for campsites, which many had taken advantage of. They had a section filled with various food vendors as well as the obligatory trinket hawkers.

They played music from speakers on a raised stage, that they also “narrated” the eclipse from. From what I listened to, it was all American music. So much for “local culture.”

The sand was super fine, like confectioner’s sugar. This must be what walking on the moon feels like. Unfortunately, it was too easy to kick up and my shoes were quickly nasty looking.

Someone offered mom their chair in the shade. I then noticed really tall grass nearby, it was wild corn growing beside the river. No ears dang it. On the ride back, I did notice some occasional bunches of corn near the highway. It must fall out of trucks.

I briefly spoke with a Japanese man from near Tokyo, who came all the way just to photograph the eclipse. I suppose that’s no crazier than the two of us going.

The eclipse at that location was about 4:28 of totality, the longest along the entire path, hence our reason for being there. It really didn’t feel like it was that long. There was just one bright spot (a Baily’s bead) near the lower right.

In 2017, I saw mini eclipses on the ground, because of the thousands of gaps between the leaves, acting as camera obscuras. I saw the same this time, but the trees were mostly long needled, so the effect wasn’t as pronounced. Also the kids I pointed it out to, either didn’t care or didn’t understand.

After the end of totality, most people were leaving. There was more to see of the eclipse, but most don’t care. There were other events going on, including live music and a canoe race down the river.

Obligatory “staring at the sun” photo.

We waited, but still managed to get stuck in the traffic.

I didn’t see anything on the route out of town, so good thing we had sandwiches.

After getting back to the room, we washed the dust off and then went out to eat.

One of mom’s patients told her about a statue of Jesus, the largest in North America. I found it on the map and figured it would be better to go there first before the restaurant. Once we arrived, there was a small walkway going up the side of the mountain. Hell no, neither of us was going to climb a mountain on foot. So we skipped it.

While sitting at the restaurant, on the 2nd floor, I am looking around at the scenery and spot something atop another mountain. I pull out the iPad map and it was the statue we had been looking for. I have no idea what the first place was, it was 30 minutes away, so definitely not the same. I couldn’t find it on the map again, either.

I had a “Hawaiian” burger, 2 beef patties with small ham cubes and chunks of pineapple. I don’t understand why people want to make tall burgers, if it is larger than my mouth, it is too big. It did taste great and had a wooden skewer holding it together, which I poked myself with several times as I ate.

There was a park next door, with carnival rides and such, so we browsed it briefly, before going to see the statue.

It was about 20 minutes away, so as I’m driving up, it is getting dark, the first time we’ve stayed up long enough to see it. The parking area is only partway up the mountain, so we would still have to climb. Again, no.

Strangely, with the majority of Mexicans being Catholic, I only saw a small number of churches, maybe 4 total. There were small shrines along the roadways, however. Even 20 miles from any building, there one would be. Who was visiting or maintaining these?

All the fun was over, we had to drive back to Monterrey to fly home. If there is one thing more boring than driving through a desert, it has to be driving the same road again.

I had originally decided to drive along the freeway, partly to see the local sites and stop if desired, and partly because I didn’t want to pay a toll and then have the rental company charge me again.

Well, there really were no local sites to see, and the toll was about 22 bucks, so I was going to risk a small double charge.

The freeway mostly travels between the mountains, on the level ground. The toll road travels mostly parallel, but does go through more passes. At one point, we are going uphill. There seems to be a half lane on each side. I see a couple of semis, without trailers, riding along this half lane. I presumed it was so I could see past them if I was to pass. Nope, it was because 2 trucks, with trailers were basically riding across the center line, passing others on their side. Geez.

I notice some electronic signs, something about migration of monarch butterflies. I saw a few pale yellow butterflies, but I think monarchs are orange.

I really wish I had a camera on the front of the car with a screen that had live translations. Too many signs I have no idea what they meant. I am certain I broke a law or two, simply because I didn’t know better.

Some of the multi-lane roads had different speed limits for each lane, like 60-50-40 km/hr, with them painted on the roadway, but most were worn away or faded.

On the way to the airport, I see a couple of men trying to chop the flower stalk of a yucca or agave plant in the median. I had presumed they didn’t want the more than 20 ft tall stalk to fall into the road, or that they didn’t want the plant to spend energy on reproduction. But shortly after getting home, a video was posted that compared asparagus and agave plants. Perhaps they were going to eat it.

Returning home

SDSpivey

I awoke on Wednesday morning, about 8am, that would be 1am at home. I quickly showered and dressed, loaded the remaining items and left.

My checkout was easy, I had asked the day before, just leave. They don’t issue any keys, so nothing to return. They collect the money at check in, so nothing left to pay.

A quick metro to the train station and walk out to the platform. I realize that the platform was brand new, the tracks had the granite stone holding everything in place, but there was still a gap between the tracks where you can see the dirt. Also, the rock isn’t covered in brake dust yet and no trash was present.

Russians have very few benches, for some reason, so I stand and wait. Not long, the train pulls up and I enter.

The AeroExpress was just as long as before, slow. I had done a Google map test, it was faster to drive a car to the airport, than to take this train, even though the train doesn’t have red lights. It would have also been faster to take the metro to the end of Line #2 and then the airport bus. But since I had already paid, and I have no car here, this is the route I must make.

Besides, I have many hours prior to boarding, so I really am in no hurry.

SVO artwork

We arrive at the SVO airport platform and must enter a security checkpoint. Just a quick x-ray and metal detector. Apparently normal at Russian airports.

I enter the large “common” area. There is a extremely large wall display of the upcoming flights. When I say extremely, I mean it. It must have been 50 feet tall and 300 feet long.

Despite the size, my flight was still not showing. I was that much early.

After browsing around a bit, checking all the restaurants, I see my flight listed, but check in isn’t for another 4 hours. I told you I was early.

I decided on a “bar” that had a clearly posted menu, with English. The prices were reasonable. I ordered a pork hamburger and fries, 840₽. I handed her 850₽, she gave me 10₽ in change, but it was all 1₽ coins.

The pork was good, but had no sauce. The fries were a bit soggy and had no salt. I see no salt anywhere and the clerk had disappeared. This is breakfast, so I eat anyway.

I was going to order a salad, not only for nutrition, but to use the all of the last of my coins. I already know that probably no exchange in the world will take coins, the bastards. But the food is lackluster and I don’t see her any where, so screw it.

Finally, check in time arrived. It was a quick and painless process. I enter the door for customs, nothing to declare. The guard asked me if I had more than $10k equivalent, I denied, I’m not rich after all. He allows me to pass.

Another door and security checkpoint. Again, simple, put everything on the conveyor and walk through metal detector. No shoe removal, no electronics separation, no BS, no problems. TSA PreCheck is easy, but not as easy as going through Russian checkpoints (but there are a lot more of them).

Last door, then passport check. The officer asked for my continuation documentation, I handed over my flight printout from Orbitz, not really proof, but accepted. Passed.

I then have to walk down the hall to the end, because of course my gate is all the way down there. Every store in this area is “duty free.” There is Beluga caviar, wines, perfumes, hand bags, expensive electronics, etc. All the duty free shops accepted rubles or Euros, I guess in case you had already exchanged your money.

I see a PS5 for €699, about $750. But after a quick check of Amazon, I could buy one for only $500. No savings, no thanks.

I verify the display at the gate is right, then sit at a seat with power. And wait. I still have over five hours until boarding.

I pull out my iPad and watch some TV episodes. (After I arrived home I find I watched 14 hours of video, probably about 17-18 if there had been commercials, just from sitting at airports.)

At some point a plane docked and unloaded at the gate, good my plane is here. Later I see a mechanic covering the engine cowls, odd if they are going to be leaving soon.

Flight is at 9:15pm, boarding is about 8:50, so I watch one last video that will end at 8:30. That will ensure I can go ahead and hit the toilet and re-fill my water. But as I finish the episode and stow everything back in my bag, I notice the gate has gotten much emptier. I recheck the display, the next flight is showing, not mine. I then have to go down the hall to find a master display, they’ve changed my gate to the other end of the hall. Seems oddly familiar, as if this happened recently.

The hall is quite long, maybe 200 yards and I had to go down an escalator. arriving at the new gate, they were boarding.

This was the first time anyone had ever separated my boarding pass. I had just been wondering why the boarding passes have a perforation, if no one ever separates. Well I guess some do.

Stepping passed and walking down the small hallway, we all step out side, another bus to the plane. Geez, does no one in Russia get to step directly in or out of a plane to the terminal?

My approximate flight path.

I had looked at my flights recent paths. I see it stays well away from the Ukraine border. Originally I was going to take Turkish Air from Moscow all the way home, but I had Aeroflot credits so I opted to use them for this flight.

There is no way Ukraine would fire upon a Turkish airliner, but I didn’t think about how I wasn’t going to be in a Turkish plane for this flight. I didn’t think about it, until now. Oh crap.

Needless to say, I did not die in a fiery explosion. We landed smoothly and parked at the gate in Istanbul.

I am on an international flight and leaving on another international fight, not entering the country proper, just the customs territory, no security needed.

Oh, things are not that simple.

I had to walk down about a mile to change terminals.

I had to check in with Lufthansa to get my next boarding pass. Then passport control and security. WHY?????

I had just exited a plane and had no access to check baggage. What could I possibly have done to require a new check of my stuff?

While at the gate, I see that I haven’t worn my coat since I arrived in Russia, so I jam it into my suitcase. I also determine that I don’t want my backpack at my feet. My foot had gone numb on the latest flight, the bag took all the space, so I couldn’t move.

You are supposed to place the case in the overhead bin and your personal item is to go under the seat. Nope, I immediately placed both in the overhead. If I need something, I can get it later after takeoff.

Oh, so much better.

I have a one hour, fifty five minute layover at Frankfurt, great. If things ran smoothly.

We load onto the plane and the plane pulls out from the gate, but then captain makes an announcement that Frankfurt airport has a landing strip closed for repairs, so we have a tight window to land. OK, sounds simple. We had to sit 37 minutes waiting for the right time to leave. Why didn’t they just have everyone wait in the terminal? Why sit there burning fuel for no reason?

I did crash out before we took off though.

I realize there is a bad side to using foreign airliners, the safety briefing is in the native language and then again in English, twice the boredom.

The landing and take off in Frankfurt is at the same terminal and both flights are on Lufthansa, maybe this will be easy.

Nope, arrivals and departures are on different levels and to access the other you must go through security.

Because of the change of gate at SVO, I didn’t get a chance to refill the bottle of water. At security, I still had the bottle, which was confiscated and disposed of. No problem, I have another bottle. I can just fill it at Frankfurt.

Because of the take off delay and security, (and another gate change) I arrived after they started boarding. I am way back, but I was able to get both bags stowed. The doors closed very shortly after I sat. So close to being left behind.

Okay, I have a 10 hour flight, no water and I didn’t get to go to the toilet. Great.

Plus side, I had no neighbor, so I could stretch out a little more and I had double pillow and blankets. I had tried laying down, but the seats have just enough contour, that they have a hump as you lay across two. No good. I could move over and stretch my legs into my seat’s leg area though.

I did sleep a bit, but not enough.

The meal was quite good, but small. I’m glad I ate at SVO.

An hour before landing, I need to go, but I’ve never used an airplane toilet. I don’t really want to, it doesn’t seem like something to yearn for, but if I am delayed, I might not get the van to Warner Robins.

We land at ATL. Hurray!

Goodbye Russia, hello real toilet paper.

Even though I am in the section of passport control exclusively for US citizens and permanent residents, there seems to be several people who are not.

The officer at passport control asks where I’m coming from, I answer and he gives me a quizzical look.

“Is this the best time to be visiting Russia?” he asks, like he’s my mother. I explain the need to go now versus loosing my flight credits and my visa expiring soon. He returns my passport and welcomes me home.

I’m not out of the woods yet, I have to find the shuttle to domestic terminal, so I can get the van back to Warner Robins. My email from the transport company stated, “A quick 10 minute ride.” BS, it was over 25 minutes, but I arrived at the van right on time.

I spoke briefly to the lady next to me, who was also on my flight. She lives in Frankfurt and has family in Warner Robins. Coincidence.

I get to Ari’s house, but when I try to put my bags in the car it is locked. Everyone knows I never lock my car. I go in to get the key and press the unlock button, nothing. I get closer and retry, still nothing. Ari says she had just moved the car a few days ago to mow, but now I have nothing.

A jump start attempt latter, still nothing. The battery is on the trunk and I can’t open the trunk without power. But an internet search later, I find out there is a key slot on the trunk, completely filled in with grunge, I had seen it before, but thought it was nothing.

We are able to jump directly on the battery, but as I run around the neighborhood charging the battery, I notice a little bit of a thump. Checking the tires, I see one has exposed steel. It is almost 8pm, very few places are open. The one I check, is open, but is booked with appointments.

I am able to buy a new battery, just in case, and they loan me tools to change it. Cool.

I decide, I have a spare, if it does go flat, then I can fix it then. Didn’t blow out, so no problem.

It is a long way home, we arrive right at 1am. I arose at 1am on Wednesday, it is now Friday. I’ve spent 48 hours on a plane, in a terminal, or in a car. I’m really to go party!

By “party” I of course mean sleep.

I grab my phone and iPad out of the car, but leave everything else, it can wait.

I do a quick check of the house, all seems normal. I go to bed and fall asleep almost right away. I haven’t done that in years.

TSA, part 2

SDSpivey

After passing security and finding my gate, I had the munchies, more boredom than hunger.

I browsed around the terminal for something that looked good and found a gourmet pizza place that had reasonable prices. Not just airport reasonable, but outside reasonable, less than $11 for a 3-topping medium.

Only, they have an ordering kiosk and it only accepts credit cards. I have cash and don’t want to use my card, just in case it triggers a security alert with the bank.

All restaurants and stores, at least inside the secure area, only accept credit cards. I’m sure it is so that the airport gets a cut of sales.

Unfortunately, the banks and credit card companies no longer have a method of telling them that you’ll be traveling. So any transaction may be the one that sets off their algorithm, and cuts off my ability to use it.

Obviously, I won’t be able to use it in Russia, because of the sanctions, but I may need it in Warsaw, Istanbul, or Frankfurt airports or in Tallinn.

Also, the benches at the gate had AC and USB plugs, but none of the ones I tried worked, but later I managed to get the seat next to the wall, with an outlet.

I noticed my boarding pass was “Group 8.” Crap, I was in the last group to get on, so I had to put my case several rows forward. Worse, I was in row 32, out of 33. There were only 2 people behind me. That’s what happens if you don’t pony up more moollah for an assigned seat up front. Also, I was on the window, so I had to wait for the guy next to me to get up and leave first.

No real problems, but just aggravating.

The real problem was that I had to change terminals in O’Hare, and  that means going back through security. Wait… my second boarding pass doesn’t have PreCheck on it. Crap and more crap.

I asked the guard and they said if it doesn’t say it, I don’t get it.

So I get to trod along with the other peons through a not too long checkpoint, but I had to remove my shoes and electronics.

I asked the “terminal manager” (his words) and the answer is that even though I paid fro Precheck, the airlines have to also pay. I guess Polish Air won’t. Still, the boarding passes were printed by AA and it should have carried forward.

My 2nd and 3rd boarding passes don’t have any gate info. Looking at the departure listings, my flight was too far down the list to be shown. That’s OK, I look at the Orbitz app. Umm, it doesn’t have a gate, either. I pull up the Polish airlines app, no gate there, either.

Even my “flight tracker” app won’t tell me. It has ALL the answers.

I went pee, then refilled my water bottle (which I had to dump because of the checkpoint) and found another departure board that had a second screen, so I had my gate number. Hurrah!

Interestingly, my iPad was able to change time zone on its own, even in airplane mode and at 28,000 feet. Not sure, but I presume that since I was getting GPS, it “knew” I was in Central.

But, on the ground, my phone could not find the signal, not for several minutes.

Plus one for Apple’s TZ recognition, but then minus one again for the bad reception.

TSA PreCheck

SDSpivey

I recently paid the $78 to sign up for TSA PreCheck. I was going to get the Global, but didn’t have time before the trip.

I did not think it would really be that significant of a time difference. I spent about 2 minutes goin through security. Compared to the estimated 25-30 minutes for the “normal” people, I don’t want to be normal.

It also allows you to leave your electronics in the bag and keep your shoes on. Those alone are worth the price.

Houston, Days 2 and 3

SDSpivey
747 that carried the shuttle back to Florida

We went for breakfast, then headed down to Johnson Space Center.

It was just 35 minutes down I-45, but the directions were for the employee entrance. Apparently this happens a lot, the guard simply gave us directions and we U-turned.

As we drove up, we could see the 747 that carried the shuttles back to Florida, and it had a shuttle mock-up, the Independence, built in Apopka. The shuttle is a “fake”, but was built to the NASA blueprints and is now owned by NASA, so I suppose it is “real” now. They only built 6 shuttles and 2 are now gone, so a mock-up is as close as we can expect.

I was amazed how small it really is, a good hallway length, but only as wide as the 747 it rides. The boosters and external tank make up the bulk of the assembly.

The black tiles at the nose all have dot-matrix numbers on them. I presume these are tracking numbers, if a tile is lost, then a new one can be made that will fit precisely. Most of the black tiles are not rectangular.

After browsing a bit, we took a tram around the complex and to Rocket Park. The park a little bit disappointing as it only had 3 rockets, but one was the Saturn V, just about the largest thing ever flown. It is over 360 feet long, more than a football field, including the end zones. My car could have easily fit inside one of the rocket cones, while the Command Module had less room than a Smart Fortwo car.

We walked above the training lab, where we could see some of the robots they are developing.

They also have a local school’s Ag class’ cattle, Texas long horns, of course. They have horns about 4 feet long. Long indeed.

Another tram took us to the original Control Center, showing original mission footage of the first moon landing. One screen showed a chart with a X and Y lines and circles indicating distance, with a paper Command Module in the center. A hand then pushes another cut out indicating the field of view of the camera, then as the astronauts exit the ship, cut outs of them are placed on the chart and later moved around manually. Ah, the high tech of the late 60’s.

It began raining lightly prior to the second tram, so when we hear they were closing soon, we were not as disappointed as we could have been.

After returning to town, it was too late to go anywhere else, especially in the rain. No zoo or parks for us.

We went out for dinner and to bed early, Mom had a 9am flight and I had a 15 hour drive home.

After dropping Mom off at the airport, I drove to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

I did not expect too many people at 9am on a Tuesday, but there were several school buses and a lot of kids inside. With Houston being the 4th largest city in the US, I suppose they have field trips just about every weekday, during the school year.

They had a 3-story, 2-ton pendulum swinging, showing the precession that occurs through the 24-hour rotation of the planet, every 10 minutes a small block on each side would be knocked over, making the whole thing a half-daily clock.

I decided it would be easier to take the elevator up to the 4th floor and work down, letting gravity work for me and avoiding most of the kids.

The 4th floor was all about oil drilling and fracking, it is an oil state after all. They had a “ride” where you were shrunk down to Hot Wheels size and flew down a drilled hole, experiencing what went on during the fracking process. The 360 view was not bad and the whole thing was a little interesting. Fortunately, they did return us to our original size. It would’ve been real hard to drive home otherwise.

There was an Egyptian exhibit, but after seeing the real King Tut, at Highclere Castle, it didn’t appeal to me.

I browsed a mollusk shell collection, but it was a bit repetitive, pretty but not enough variation. I passed the obligatory dinosaur bones and fossils.

Aurora Butterfly of Peace under normal light
Aurora Butterfly of Peace under florescent light

There was a mineral collection. So many colors and shapes of crystals. They were so vibrant, but I couldn’t capture their beauty on camera. Near the entrance is the Aurora Butterfly of Peace, a butterfly shape with 240 naturally colored diamonds, which fluoresced . I didn’t take a photo initially, so I returned as was leaving. A lady and girl were looking at it, she lifted the girl to see better and the girl noticed right away that the center diamond was shaped like a heart. Good eyes.

The collection also included Fabergé eggs and jewelry from the Russian Imperial household of Tsar Nicholas II.

Dik-diks

I had always presumed Fabergé was a Frenchman, but was from St. Petersburg, Russia. According to the film playing, Fabergé only made a few of the objects, most were designed and created by his employees. Much like Steve Jobs taking credit for the design of the early Apple computers, when he had no electronics knowledge or training.

If our visas come in, perhaps we will be able to see more Fabergé in St. Petersburg. Update: I did.

They had preserved animals from Africa, including what I consider to be the cutest deer, a dik-dik. It stands 12-15 inches tall. I think these would sell well in the US, but hard to raise as they need about 6 acres each.

The Art of The Brick was on display. An artist created pieces wholly out of Lego, including some recreated famous paintings and a T-rex skeleton.

When I was about 10, we drove around the southeast states in my dad’s schoolbus yellow pick-up truck with camper-top. One morning we stopped at the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile bay. What boy doesn’t want to check out a battleship?

I don’t know why, but we didn’t tour the ship. Too early? Too expensive? I the past decade, I have passed it 6 times, without being able to stop and tour. It is always too late.

I determined that if I left Houston before 11:30am, I might get there before closing at 6.

I left the museum just after 10, but I didn’t get to Mobile until 7pm. AHHHH, will I ever get to see it? At about 7 hours from here, I really don’t see it coming to be.

After leaving, I drove home. Both directions, I was able to cross Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana without stopping. Prius, Whooo!

I wasn’t sleepy until after I went through Perry, FL, on US19. I had just finished all my podcasts and an audiobook, so nothing but music to keep me alert. It was only a few more hours to get home, so I pushed on. There is a riverside park in Fanning Springs, so I did decide to stop there and crash out for a few, but as I pulled up, they now have a gate across the parking lot. No luck there either.

I really didn’t want to park on the side of the road, there isn’t much room between asphalt and ditch. So I had to continue. Only a little more than an hour away and almost no one on the highway.

Coincidences: Tuesday night, I went to YouTube and in my subscribed list, there was a video about Russia’s/Belarus’ name and another with the Hiho kids trying “astronaut food”.

After getting home, I had several podcasts or TV shows talk about or mention Johnson Center, the Saturn V rocket, the Lego exhibit, or the 747 shuttle plane.

I had 3 different Uber passengers who had taken a cruise to St. Petersburg. I had mentioned my trip many times before this week.

Saturday was the anniversary of the Columbia breaking up over Texas.

I’m sure these are just a case of overly noticing, like when you get a new car and suddenly that same model is everywhere.

Not a coincidence, but I have noticed more Texas tags in Orlando than Georgian, but I’m sure that’s due to population differences, than to closeness. I also see more NY tags, snow birds.

 

 

Houston, Texas

SDSpivey

Mom and I are meeting in the largest city of Texas, today. We are here to apply for travel visas for an upcoming trip in June, to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Originally, we were going to fly and meet up at the airport, then go to our AirBNB before hitting the consulate to apply for the visa.

A slight snag was found, we would arrive around 9am, but couldn’t check in until 3pm. Also, I found that an Uber from the airport into town was about $30, each way. Ah, a solution, I can rent a car. Then we have somewhere to stow our stuff while we’re at the consulate and give us a bit more freedom traveling around the city. So, I placed an order for a rental car, $140 for the three days we’d be here.

A few days ago, I was thinking (a dangerous thing, I know). I was going to be paying $30 to park my car at Orlando airport, plus the rental. It would only cost me about $100 in gas to drive to Houston and back. I really didn’t want to put that many miles on the car nor drive that many hours, but I just spent more than a week laying in bed sick. So I needed to reduce my spending a bit, plus I had over 30 hours of podcasts accumulated since I wasn’t in the car listening.

I canceled the rental car, but my flight was non-refundable, so I just had to eat that.

I left out from home on Sunday evening and turned on the Uber app with a destination of Pensacola. That served multiple points; I would only get requests going in the right direction, any trips were extra money, and I had plenty of time and distance so pickups would help break up the trip. I am only able to Uber in Florida, so Pensacola is the furthest destination I could do anyway.

Driving up US19, I saw an orange light up ahead. My thought was “that’s weird, it looks like fire.” As I got nearer, I could tell it was a fire, a decent sized one too, but why would someone have a fire that close to the road? As I approached, I could see that it was a truck on fire. The back end was almost on the ground, either the axle melted or it was lost somehow, causing the fire. Passing, I could feel the heat all the way across 4 lanes and a wide median.

There were already plenty of people there, so I didn’t bother reporting it. I’m sure someone already had. Still, I didn’t see any police officers until I was past Tallahassee, then I saw a lot. They are rampant on that part of I-10.

I had a plan to jump up and travel through Alabama a little, capturing a few counties I haven’t visited before, I did have plenty of time after all. But just as I was contemplating that, I did get an Uber request. I saw that it was a 78-minute trip south west. What? That would put us into the Gulf.

Nevertheless, I proceeded to the exit, and pulled into the parking lot of a small combo Burger King and convenience store. Strangely, I had been to this store before. I had previously picked up a man in Panama City Beach and taken him to the Merritt Island area and he had wanted to stop to get a drink or snack, I just picked that exit because it was the next one after he asked to stop somewhere. Out of all the exits on I-10, that just happened to be the one I picked.

The passengers, a truck driver and wife, got in and I saw the route was going south west down some back roads, but not into the Gulf, thankfully.

I took about an hour and 20 minutes to drop them off. I headed back towards the interstate, that took a while to go through the small roads back the the highway. I did a quick google map and saw that I was about 10 hours until I would arrive at Houston airport, where I needed to pick up Mom at 9am.

But my diversion cost me a bit of time and now I had to haul ass to get there.

I was pulling into Houston just as the sky was getting light, meaning I left in the daylight and now it was daylight again. I literally drove all night.

My plan was to get to the airport then crash out for an hour or so, but I had not accounted for morning traffic. I arrived at the airport at 7:40. I checked my flight tracking app, her flight was early, now scheduled for 8:30. Oh well, no nap for me. I went ahead and parked and went in to wait for her.

I found her and we went to find food. It was still early so many places were not open yet, but we found a Whataburger and ate in. Pretty good food, but also I was hungry.

We then headed to the Russian consulate. It was in an office building. The security guard took our information and printed out passes for us and instructed us on the elevator. We had to select the floor we wanted from the panel that then told us which elevator to use, there was no control inside, it would only got to the floor already selected.

The consulate office had a few people in it, but not too many. The agent informed us that we since didn’t have an appointment, we had to go to a different branch, but he went over our applications first, Mom needed another previous job to be listed, already had 20 years, but that wasn’t enough. I had my computer so I could have made the changes he wanted, but I had no internet yet and certainly had no printer, so we would have to pay extra for the visa agent to make the changes.

The other office was only down the street a bit, so no big deal. We went in and were able to see the agent right away. She took our applications and re-entered them into her system, asking a few questions along the way.

Total was $608, for both of us. That’s as much as 3 weeks of AirBNB in Moscow and St. Petersburg. There was a $28.83 charge for photocopy. We didn’t need a photocopy and she only copied my passport, not Mom’s.

Unfortunately, the approval process would take about a week, so we opted for the return by mail. I was not going to drive all the way back just to pick them up.

Since we were not getting them while we are here, we really don’t need to stay 2 more days, but Mom’s flight home can’t be changed and I’m too tired to drive home anyway, so we are going to stay.

The visa application took a while, so it was almost time for us to check into the AirBNB, but the app was giving me problems, I couldn’t load the check-in instructions. I was able to send a text to our hostess, and we got in and we both crashed out for a couple hours.

Originally, I had hoped the approval would only take a day or two, then we could book our flights to Russia, but we don’t want to buy a ticket if we can’t go, we have to wait.

It is a bit strange, we are having to do things in the wrong order. We have our rooms booked and now our visas applied for, but still have no flights. Normally, you’d book the flight and then rooms and then any visa you might need. Most country’s visas are not this difficult to get.