Just an illusion

Paul McCartney In Toronto, August 8, 2010

2010-08-16T23:25:00.001-04:00

So I went to see Paul McCartney at the Air Canada Centre last week. Needless to say it was an awesome show. For a 68-year-old guy, he still knows how to rock.

Just about ended up in fisticups with some ignoramuses sitting straight in front of me who decided they’d stand up at the first hint of a song without any regard for anybody behind them. That settled, things calmed down in the stands but heated up on stage. But then again, Macca’s had lots of practice. He’s been doing this for the last 50 years.

Not much can be said that has already been said. However, I am always been struck by the liner notes for the album ‘Beatles for Sale’ (1964) written by Derek Taylor (long since deceased). In part I quote: “None of us is getting any younger. When, in a generation or so, a radio-active, cigar-smoking child, picnicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatle affair was all about — 'Did you actually know them?' — don't try to explain all about the long hair and the screams! Just play the child a few tracks from this album and he'll probably understand what it was all about. The kids of AD 2000 will draw from the music much the same sense of well being and warmth as we do today.” I am sure he didn’t believe of a word of this nonsense when he penned it way back then, but nonetheless it does have a grain of truth to it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, some guy I vaguely know ‘Teiteltje’ shot a video of ‘Mull of Kintyre’. The pipe band appearing on stage with Sir Paul was The Paris Port Dover Pipe Band from right here in Norfolk County. I had a spare second ticket which I ended up selling to one of the people involved with the pipe band, so his wife could attend the show!

Note that this clip is best seen in 480p. YouTube seems to default to 360p.

Here’s another shot the same guy took and he kindly let me borrow it:

Olympic Torch Run Hits Simcoe

2009-12-22T18:21:00.001-05:00

The Olympic Games in Vancouver are still a ways off, not starting until February 12th. However, the Olympic Torch has already been on the road for almost two months now, doing a cross country run, starting in Victoria, British Columbia and then heading east to Newfoundland. Now it is heading west again, and in the process hitting every nook and cranny of this country. Today was Simcoe’s turn. It was a perfect winter morning, about –10 C with just a skiff of snow on the ground (to be sure, 1 skiff equals 1 mm).

Dumb little old me thought that the torch was actually run on foot by different athletes all the way. Not quite. From town to town, it is being driven in a van, Actually it is surrounded by a whole raft of vehicles, sort of like the caravan in the Tour de France, advertising such vital items as soft drinks and banking services.

We strategically placed ourselves at a spot where a relay takes place. Well, actually, it was plain luck.

The Torch is heading south on Norfolk Street. Almost here!

The handover takes place.

The runner is on his way. Each runner covers 500 metres at the most.

You can actually follow the torch run live via webcam (if it ain’t broke that is). Then again, it is quite a technological feat and it provides a neat glimpse of small town Ontario in a winter setting. Should be equally as interesting in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and lastly British Columbia.

Dutch TV (…and Flemish too…)

2009-12-18T14:18:00.001-05:00

My brother-in-law had made me aware along time ago that world wide reception of a Dutch TV channel was possible. I finally got around to seriously looking into this a few weeks ago.

Of course, anybody can go out and have a satellite installer come in and do it for you, but that is no fun. One of the parameters of any job should be cost and this one was no exception.

I had a surplus Bell satellite receiver taking up space in the basement, so I traded it with my son-in-law Greg for a satellite dish surplus to his needs. After I did some checking (well, actually a lot of checking) on the web, I found that the LNB (Low Noise Block, sometimes called the ‘eye’ on the dish) was not compatible with the satellite (AMC4) that I was trying to pick up. It had to be standard LNB, rather than circular LNB. Who knew?

Ebay to the rescue. For $8.00, the correct type of LNB arrived in my mailbox. Next trick is how to mount this. The focus point on the dish is crucial to the reception: out by just a little and obtaining a strong signal becomes next to impossible. So I decided to tear open the old LNB with the idea of perhaps mounting the new one in there. It turned out that, although significantly different in shape, with a lot of filing and cutting I was able to mount the new LNB in the old bracket. Three cable ties hold the hold thing together, and voila, Bob’s your uncle.

Next I mounted the dish onto the roof with a surplus tripod I happened to have kicking around. With the aid of a helper, aiming it was a fairly easy operation, once I discovered the true vertical alignment mark on the dish mounting bracket, which was hidden behind a mounting bolt. Duh!!!

The dish in the foreground is the “regular” Bell TV dish, pointing to Nimiq 2.

Although signal strength is not the greatest (82%), the picture displayed on the receiver is very good. The receiver, by the way, I had lying around after it become no longer useful, due to the fact that satellite pay TV encryption became (seemingly) unbeatable.

To display, since I am the only Dutch speaking person around here, I just use my notebook for viewing. A video capture device (from Belkin) leads from the S video port on the receiver to a USB port on the notebook. Install the right drivers, and all you need then is an application to display the video stream. To find that application actually took a long time. I finally settled on TV Viewer, a shareware program.

BVN is the organization that actually delivers the channel. It appears to be a joint venture between VRT (Vlaamse Radio en Televisie Omroep) and RNW (Radio Nederland Wereldomroep).

And best of all: no commercials, yeah!!!!

New Bridge

2009-11-04T18:20:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to tearing out the old bridge across the little ditch behind the house. The bridge gives easy access to the woods, but had been in very bad state of repair ever since we bought the house and probably way before too.

This is the perfect time of year to work on a project like that: the ditch is dry, since the ground water level is way down. Also, there are no mosquitoes and the temperature is bearable, not too hot and not too cold.

Tearing out the old bridge was not much of a problem, didn’t take more than 10 minutes. At first, I thought of using the wood from the old deck in the wood stove, but on second thought I decided to take it to the dump as it was just too deteriorated to burn properly. They will actually recycle it into wood chips for ground cover.

First I dug four holes for the piers, placed them and attached cross members for strength. Then I backfilled around the posts with concrete.

Let sit for a day or two, then, after measuring carefully, I cut the pier tops to the proper height. Since sawing a 4”x4” piece of lumber horizontally is a bit tricky, I employed pieces of scrap lumber as guides, which worked perfectly.

I actually used a hand saw, something I hadn’t used in a long time. I had trouble finding it.

Next came attaching the bridge girders. They are seated on the each ‘shore’ in a bed of crushed gravel, unattached, in case they need to be raised on lowered in the future.

Then came installation of the deck. I precut the deck members back by the house, as running power tools on a 200 ft (65 m) extension cord is never the best of things to do. However, I did use one of my power drills to drive the screws through the members into the girders. It got mighty hot.

Backfilling the approaches to meet the deck was the last step involved. All done. Now I can drive my lawn tractor across and drag firewood logs back to the house for cut up.

Toronto!

2009-10-31T18:07:00.001-04:00

We spent a few days in Toronto this past week, staying at the house of friends of ours who themselves are on a month long European Holiday.

If nothing else, it is certainly a very cosmopolitan city, with residents who stem from every corner of the world. From black to white and every imaginable colour in between, all living in (seemingly) relative harmony.

Architecture wise, there isn’t much in Toronto. The nice stuff built in the late 19th century has mostly been torn down. The newer stuff, built since about 1950 only manages to impress at times because of its sheer size. However, if it ain’t big it will almost certainly be ugly. I surmise that this is caused by the fact that builders are only in it for the money: slap something together quickly, so you can have tenants in it quicker. Governments, forever looking to expand their tax base, aren’t too eager to press too hard either in case the developer looks elsewhere to build, so the end result is mediocrity at best.

This is ugliest ‘strip mall’ I know of in the Greater Toronto Area: Yonge Street, just south of Finch. However, many competitors are striving to take its crown with even uglier sites all over town.

Hydro wires are still exposed everywhere in the older portions of town, the ones left unscathed by the wrecker’s hammer. Who needs trees, when these contraptions can provide shade too?

Once in a while a bit of green provides a glimmer of hope in the desolation formed by broken concrete, rutted asphalt and mud filled potholes.

The Blue Sea Restaurant, I presume, has been at its present location for quite a while now, by the looks of things. Literally steps from the downtown core, you wonder how it can survive.

What’s this? A public phone? How do you work one of these? Looks like it’s been a while since the phone company gave it a good cleaning.

At the edge of the ever expanding ring of condominiums, this building is slated for demolition, to be replaced by a ten story-or-so apartment building. Should one by happy or sad?

We had lunch on the patio at Jack Astor’s high above Dundas Square. The CN Tower weaved in and out of the low hanging cloud.

As downtown as downtown gets in Toronto, this is the intersection of Dundas and Yonge. Here, the city is experimenting with Pedestrian Priority Phase, which simply means all traffic lights turn red and for the next 30 seconds or so you can cross the intersection in whatever direction you want.

Right next to the intersection is Dundas Square, a newly formed public space. Definitely an improvement over what was there before. This is a panorama of the area, probably close to 160 degrees. On the right, Dundas Street runs west, into the distance. In the middle is the Eaton Centre (shopping yes!), with the skyscrapers of the financial district in the background. In the foreground Dundas Square. Photoshop stitched this together on its own, out of 4 photographs.

Inside the Eaton Centre, shop till you drop is the self-respecting consumer’s main mantra. Even we couldn’t escape the urge to slap down plastic.

Install Telescoping Flagpole

2009-10-24T12:34:00.001-04:00

In order to attract more attention for “her” Green Party, Anne decided to purchase a flagpole. Surely, all passersby would notice this new feature on our front lawn.

As is customary, purchasing the item is the easy part of the work involved (although payment in my view is an extraordinarily painful process). Be that as it may, the request was passed on to me to install this “thing”.

This is not just any flagpole either, it telescopes, making raising and lowering of the flag quite a bit easier. Also, the pole actually sits in a sleeve in the ground, on a bolts which passes through the center of the nylon sleeve, so it doesn’t really touch bottom. This allows for removal of the entire flag pole if you intend to go on vacation, or if you are a local yahoo reading this blog and you want to steal my flag pole.

Anyway, the first order of the day was to dig a hole 30” (about 1 m) deep. The diameter was suggested at 12” (about 300 mm), but since our soil tends to be rather soft, I made it 18”, about 450mm. Then, as specied, put in about 6” (150 mm) of crushed stone, and force the sleeve into it for about 2” (50 mm).

Next, get some bags of concrete mix (in my case four) and mix till the cows come home. I tried to be a real pro here, by using as little water as possible, which will increase the strength of the concrete tremendously. Most people are totally ignorant of the fact that more water means a less strong concrete product. In order to keep the pole plumb, I inserted it into the sleeve while pouring concrete and then used the level to plumb it.

Here’s the hole filled with concrete and ready for backfilling with topsoil.

Wait a day, then hook the flag to the top and bottom hooks and extend the post all the way up (20’ or close to 7 m)

Another happy customer…

Of course, if the Dutch National Team were to ever win the World Cup, the tricolor might have to replace the Maple Leaf for a day or two…

Mazda Rear Bumper Cover Replace

2009-10-21T21:58:00.001-04:00

And so it came to be that our Mazda was driven home into the garage thusly:

Two bolts on the right hand side refusing to let go, otherwise it would have been lost on the road.

Anyway, with all bolt holes and brackets broken off and a previous dent not helping any, it needed another bumper. My first thought was to take it to an auto body repair place. But then I started to think (a process which does not come naturally to me) and slowly but surely I figured out how this bumper was actually attached to the car. Previously, I had never shown any interest in bumpers (why should I?), so to my amazement I discovered that this part is not actually called a bumper, but a bumper cover!

Armed with some technical advice from son-in-law Greg, I decided to tackle the job myself. First task was to find a matching cover at an auto recycler (politically incorrect term is junkyard). I got lucky there: Woodstock Auto Recycling had a ‘97 (ours is a ‘98) in the right colour. So I drove up there (30 minutes) along with some of my tools. The cover was already off the car in the parts area, but I needed some other smaller parts, so they told me where the car was. Lo and behold, all the parts were still in one piece on the old car and were fairly easy to take off.

Next task, remove tail lights and inner lining of trunk so you can get at the bolts that hold the ‘real’ bumper to the car.

Then, remove the bumper, which is basically a aluminum beam, very light weight.

Now fit the bumper into the bumper cover and attach with clips. Notice how the aluminum bumper rests within a bed of styrofoam.

Next, lift the bumper up into its final resting place and have an assistant hold it in place while you check for fit (or go for coffee).

All done. Time elapsed: about 3 hours. A pro could probably do it in less than an hour. Total cost $113, plus gas back and forth to Woodstock. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Waterford Car Show

2009-10-21T21:24:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was Pumpkinfest in Waterford. Ghouls and goblins galore. In addition to the antique car show of course! It was the biggest show in Waterford ever and covered the entire football field, parking and adjacent area with overflow going onto the baseball diamond. There must have been close to a thousand cars present. That show the enormous interest in this hobby. From a cursory inspection of the entrance tickets posted in the windshield of most cars, it appeared that most participants lived in a 50 km radius of Waterford, i.e. Simcoe, Brantford, Tillsonburg, Woodstock etc. All these cars hidden in garages somewhere. Ginormous. Picture below shows only about a quarter of the participants.

This is a 1981 gull winged Delorean. The neat thing about it is that it’s stainless steel. It may appear to be gray paint, but you are looking at bare metal here. The underbody is fibreglass. About 9,500 of these cars were made over two years (1981-1982) before the company went bankrupt.

There was also a complete ‘funny car’ team present. The owner of the car, a 40 year employee of General Motors, now retired, races this car on the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) circuit. The car he drives (and maintains, aided by his sons) is a funny car (engine up front) as opposed to a dragster (engine on the back), fuelled by alcohol, attaining top speeds over a quarter mile of 250 miles per hour, something like 385 km/h. The car drives with a fibreglass or carbon shell, so that it looks somewhat like a real car. The term ‘funny car’ apparently originated in the mid sixties when the rear wheels on an ordinary looking car were moved forward to improve traction. So, when you looked at the car form the side, it looked ‘funny’. Next race for this team: Gainesville, Florida, sometime in February.

Notice the red fire extinguishers up front. The car also packs two parachutes, which are released at the end of its run. Fuel consumption: something like 80 litres per run. Fuel tank up front, immediately behind it the oil tank.

And now for something totally different: as a teenager, Anne was a car hop at A&W. A&W was one of the very first fast food restaurants, even preceding McDonald’s. The way you got served there was, you parked you car in the lot, the server would come up to the car, take your order and come back with your order on a tray that got suspended from the window. As the server, she was accountable for the mugs that the root beer was served in. If some diner absconded with one of these, it would come off her pay. So this brought back memories for her, some good, some not so good.

Inevitably at these shows (that is, if you are old enough), you start looking for your first car. I didn’t quite find it, but got fairly close: a 1967 Dodge Monaco convertible, whereas mine was a 1968 Dodge Monaco hard top, with a 383 cubic inch engine, that’s about 5800 cc. Heavy and simple. No pollution control equipment, not even a PCV valve. So big, you needed to pack a lunch in order to walk around it once.

And here is the latest in today’s humongous, ginormous trucks: a Doge Ram, with the little boy to give it some perspective.

Shell Camino & Bounty Hunter

2009-10-13T21:27:00.001-04:00

We paid a visit to the Simcoe Fair last week. Officially, this is known as the Norfolk County Fair and Horse Show, but since that is too long to type, I’ll just call it the Simcoe Fair if you don’t mind.

Not really being all that interested in monster trucks, we found out that that very night they would be performing in front of the grandstand. So we casually decided to pay a visit.

Would you believe the entire grandstand is just jammed with people? Not a seat to be had. I guess I just live in a different world. From parents with very young children to senior citizens, they were all there.

Anyway, it wasn’t very long before the monsters started to truck. I tried some shots, but it was just too dark. The best I could get was this:

The body is a 1972 Chrevolet El Camino. The vehicle is driven by a woman from Plymouth, Michigan, Shelley Lujack. Unfortunately, she lost in car crushing finals from a dude by the name of Jimmy Creten driving the “Bounty Hunter”:

He came all the way from Kansas City, Kansas. Probably making the rounds on all the fairs in the area.

Reportedly, horse powers are in the range of 1600 to 2000. Jimmy’s truck supposedly has a 555 cubic inch displacement, that’s about 8 litres. Another subculture I know nothing about.

Cruise on a Great Lakes freighter Episode 5

2009-09-29T11:30:00.001-04:00

The ship, loaded with 15,000 tonnes of stone destined for the drywall plant in Caledonia, Ontario, arrived in Hamilton at around 7:00 am on Monday morning. Literally within minutes, the self unloading boom was moved into out over top the designated spot on the dock and unloading began.

This was the scene at around 8:00 am

And 2 hours and 5,000 tonnes later

All the while, the crew is inspecting bearings to ensure none of them overheat and seize up.

The ladder control for broke, so John and Carlos managed to find a previously used one in the parts bin and were busy making the appropriate solder connections.

The base of the self unloading boom with the newly formed pile in the distance.

Within 5 hours, the ship had unloaded itself. While being unloaded, the holds were being spray cleaned with water to make them ready for the next load (grain), which was to be taken to Toledo, Ohio.

Here’s the company’s motto: “Don’t give up the ship.”

At this point, we unloaded as well. All in all, it was a most enjoyable trip. We came away very much impressed by the amount of hard work being done by the ship’s crew under sometimes very difficult circumstances. Nonetheless, the crew seems a very homogeneous unit, collaborating with one another very effectively.

Our thanks to Lower Lakes Towing and to all involved for allowing us to witness and experience firsthand this unique corner of the shipping world.

More pictures can be seen here:

Hamilton to Cardinal

Cayuhoga unloading in Hamilton

Cruise on a Great Lakes freighter Episode 4

2009-09-28T10:20:00.001-04:00

This post could be subtitled “Visit to Engine Room”. Deep down in the cavernous aft section sits a hungry monster that growls and snarls 24 hours a day. It’s called an engine. A diesel engine. A Caterpillar 3608 4-stroke cycle in-line 8 cylinder 3,084 b.h.p. diesel engine to be even more precise.

When visiting the engine room, you are immediately overwhelmed by 3 environmental issues: heat, noise and cleanliness. Hearing protection is mandatory. If you want to strip to fight the heat, that’s fine, you can do so, but it is not required. And it’s clean. Spic and span everywhere. Kind of like the interior of my car (not!). After entering, you must first stop by the engineer’s station, which sits in the corner of the engine room. Here, several computer monitors show various control parameters.

The one on the left in this picture shows the state of ballast tanks. These tanks, depending of the load of the ship, either contain water or are empty. During loading, water is pumped out of the various tanks. If we are loading the front, then the front ballast tanks are first emptied. If we are loading the back then those tanks are emptied. Ditto for the middle section. Not doing this in the proper sequence could put undue stresses on the hull of the ship, possible leading to cracks. In this case, Travis was monitoring the unloading of the tanks.

This is Travis fine tuning the engine.

Another shot of Travis performing his magic.

Originally, the ship had a steam engine. This was replaced in the early part of this century with a diesel engine, which is a lot, lot smaller (but more powerful) than the original steam engine.

Engine from up top. Note the exhaust pipe.

Exhaust pipe. I wonder if this same pipe would fit a green 1995 Ford Aspire (with rear spoiler)?

From up top. You can clearly see the size of the engine room.

Drive shaft. Approximate diameter 16”. That’s 400 mm in the real world. It is hollow though, to allow for control systems to pass through to the screw to change their pitch.

Of course a well stocked work room is required as sometimes, as unbelievable as this may sound, things break.

In addition to the engine room, there is a boiler room, its sole purpose being the generate heat for the ship and its systems.

Then there is the generator room, which is even warmer and noisier than the engine room.

All in all, you cannot leave the engine room without being thoroughly impressed by the sheer power and finesse of all this equipment. Raw power converted to useful energy by skilled hands. If that’s not art, then I guess I am missing something.

To be continued… (1 more time)

Russian Hydro dam blows up

2009-09-16T21:22:00.001-04:00

Back on August 17th, the Sayano-Shushenska Hydro Dam in Siberia suffered a major accident, which cost at least 74 people their lives. It was not well reported in the press, certainly I didn’t see any pictures.

Now the Boston Globe has put together a major photo essay with amazing shots of the damage suffered, both in terms of human and material losses. Something worthwhile seeing. Time well wasted.

Reportedly it will take close to 880 million euros to fix.

Russian train gets hit by tornado

2009-09-16T21:07:00.001-04:00

I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Youtube, but I stumbled on this one quite by accident. It is hilarious. The original caption on Youtube reads: “Oh My got! The train has got to tornado epicentre.”

What puzzles me is, why do they have a video camera on a railroad car?

Cruise on a Great Lakes freighter Episode 3

2009-09-16T12:31:00.001-04:00

With the loading of the stone complete, the ship took off up river back to Hamilton. As luck would have it, the first four or five hours took us through the 1000 Islands portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in daylight on a warm Sunday, which translated in many interesting sights. Along this portion of the river, one can find many interesting houses, mansions, even castles, as well as interesting landscapes. All pleasure boat traffic adds another dimension.

After half an hour or so, the town of Brockville, Ontario popped up along the shore. It is not often in North America that you see a skyline so dominated by church steeples. Seems to me though, that all this effort building separate churches would have been better spent in building houses for the poor and old folks. Wouldn’t one church have been more than enough? Oh wait, I digress.

Then there is Boldt’s Castle, talk about excess. But at least it is unique. Built by a wealthy industrialist eager to show off his fortune, it dominates the river’s shore for a good little while. This is one of the “outhouses” belonging to the castle, added on later.

The other extreme of living on the river is this:

But at least there isn’t a lot of grass to cut.

Lots of boat traffic must have meant a real headache for the captain and his crew.

Seadoos are a dime a dozen when the weather is right.

Cormorants make the most of a dead tree. I bet they are saying, ‘Finally a friggin’ tree without leaves. Now I can see properly. Why don’t they build more of these?’

And the Cayuhoga plowed forward, piloted by Duane, the first mate, who knew every nook-and-cranny on this sometimes very narrow waterway.

The company’s motto is displayed on the flag:

Actually, it says don’t give up the ship. I think I shot about 10 shots trying to get it right. Failed. What else is new….

And the company’s flag:

After the bridge at Gananoque (leading to the US), the river becomes wider and a little less interesting.

Once we exited the river and were back out onto Lake Ontario, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

To be continued…

Cruise on a Great Lakes freighter Episode 2

2009-09-09T17:57:00.008-04:00

The actual route we took was this: (our route in red)

Lake Ontario from one end to another (east to west) is around 310 km. At the east end, we entered the Saint Lawrence Seaway and from there it is another 125 km to Cardinal, which is situated on the Canadian side of the river, just past the town of Prescott.

While out on Lake Ontario we deemed ourselves to be in the Caribbean. The air was warm, the water blue with just a few wispy clouds on yonder horizon. The crew told us though that things aren't always this quiet, especially in late October, November when the winds blow. When out in the open, the ship is basically on auto pilot, although 2 of the crew keep a sharp eye out at all times in the wheelroom.

After 12 hours of sailing, we entered the Seaway, just when darkness fell. We then retired to our room and watched a movie on satellite TV, The Poseidon Adventure. By the way, on a trip just before ours, an electrical surge had taken out most of the electronic equipment on board, such as TV's, satellite receivers, stereos etc. Apparently, they all lit up like Christmas trees. The second mate Ralph kindly donated his receiver for the duration of our stay.

The ship arrived at the corn unloading dock in Cardinal at around 3:00 in the morning, but we had no personal knowledge of that, as we were sound asleep. We did wake up not too much after that though went to motors for the self unloading boom were started, generating a noise so loud we thought a tornado just struck the ship.

The ship did not always have the option to unload itself, this contraption was added in the early seventies. Before self unloading was added, the ship had to use the unloading cranes offered by the various ports. Being able to unload itself allows it to visit a far greater range of ports, ports with or without unloading facilities.

Anyway, when we opened our door to go for yet another excellent breakfast in the galley, we immediately saw a feature that would be with us for the next 36 hours: white corn dust. It took that long to unload the ship, since the accepting hopper on the corn silo could only accommodate a tiny portion of what the unloading boom was actually capable of delivering. Fortunately for us, during the entire time the wind was away from our cabin, so that the actual dust we had to contend with was fairly minimal.

But the crew! Unbelievable how they were affected by this snow! Yet they all did their jobs throughout the long day, into the night and then into the day again.

Since it was another beautiful sunshiny day, we decided to disembark and explore the town of Cardinal. Now, Cardinal is not much of a town, there's the "Boars' Nest" (the local bar) and a few stores and restaurants and that is about it. A one horse town in its classic definition. But folks sure are friendly in Cardinal. Everybody we talked to wanted to talk some more. We met an 82-year-old man originally from Hong Kong who had just driven a van from Vancouver on his own, in order to meet his son who lives in Kingston. Then we met a fellow from Gatineau, Quebec who was there in his totally custom Western Star mini truck, which was actually a Toyota 4x4 Highlander converted. It had a sleeper, which he used for camping, dual fuel tanks, air brakes, air horn, air ride, and dual set of wheels on the back. Superb paint job on top of that. We also talked to some locals, who told us all about the glorious and not so glorious history of the Casco, the corn processing plant.

All that talking sure makes a man thirsty, so we ended up quaffing a few cool ones at the local (Royal Canadian) Legion, which just so happened to have a beautiful patio overlooking the river.

Next, we made it back to the ship. As we made our way thru security (we had to sign in and out every time we left), the security guard, who, apparently, had already talked to the locals about us, stated that if he would have known about us before he came on shift, he would have come and picked us up to drive us to a beautiful beach just down river near his home. Then, he said, I would have gone back home, changed into my work clothes and come here to work. Talk about friendly...

After supper, with the unloading process going on, we drifted back to the Legion once more to support their financial situation. Slightly inebriated, we were able to negotiate the ladder up to the ship's deck, where the dust created interesting halos around all the lights, the effects of which somewhat amplified by alcohol.

Despite the enormous roar of the self unloading boom's motors, we slept like rocks. The next day, same old thing, more corn dust. Hard working crew. Seagulls. Legion.

Finally, around 7:00 Saturday nite, the unloading finished up. Quickly, the ship was prepared for sailing and at around 8:00 we were moving, heading for Prescott, just up river to take on a load of stone for Hamilton. Now, maneuvering a 600 ft ship in a fairly swift moving river is no child's play, so we watched intently from this wheelhouse as the captain and his crew guided the ship to its new mooring place at the Prescott docks. Almost as soon as the ship stopped, the holds were opened and 3 front end loaders started dumping rocks onto stackers, which in turn, dumped their prized possessions into the holds of the ship. This went on throughout the nite, so, looking for a diversion, we decided to call a taxi to take us into the wild town of Prescott. Well, that is a bit of a lie, 2 bars, the first looked like it was a converted old K-mart type store with the lunch counter still in place. Slap a few draft dispensers on that very same counter and you got yourself a bar. Add some very loud music from a not so talented band and the scene is complete. The second establishment, just across the road, was of the strip club variety, so just as high class as the first one. After trying to chat up the woman in the taxi stand place (no go), we headed back to the ship. Loading was rapidly progressing. Too tired to help, despite many requests, we went to bed. Just as we got up again, loading was about to complete.
To be continued...

Cruise on a Great Lakes freighter Episode 1

2009-09-04T15:24:00.006-04:00

Whenever the word 'cruise' is mentioned, people immediately tend to associate this with something exotic, like a cruise in the Caribbean on some monster passenger cruise ship, where everything is shiny and new.

Not so with the cruise we took last month (August 12th through 17th). This was a really different and quite unique cruise.

Great Lake freighters ply the lakes, usually moving bulk cargo such as grain, corn, salt, iron ore, coal and the like. Due to ice conditions, the ships are usually 'laid up' between late December and early April, when once again most of the ice has melted. For 9 months of the year, they scoot from one port on the lakes to another, from the Canadian to the American side.

Normally, they don't take passengers. The only reason we got to go is that this trip was offered at a fund raising dinner as an auction item. Since it sounded like something out of the ordinary, we bid and happened to win.

So early last month we got the call. Our ship was to be the Cuyahoga, a ship built in 1943 in the United States, its sole purpose being to aid the war effort in ferrying iron ore across the lakes. Its length is approximately 600 ft (200 m), with a beam of 60 ft (20m). Originally, it had a coal fired steam engine, later switched to fuel oil. Around 2000, the steam engine was replaced by an Caterpillar diesel engine, which, by the way, probably occupies about a tenth of the space the old steam engine did.

Around 1993, the ship was laid up (moored) for a couple of years, because the previous owners didn't think running her was economically feasible no longer

.
A brand new company from Port Dover, Ontario, Lower Lakes Towing, decided to give it a go, had it towed to Sarnia, Ontario for some repairs and a paint job and renamed it the Cuyahoga, the first ship in their fleet. They now have 12. Where others couldn't, they made it work. After spending almost a week on the ship, we now understand why.

With a little bit of apprehension we reported at the designated hour at Pier 25 in the Hamilton Harbour. After all, we didn't know what to expect. But it didn't take long for us to figure out that the crew was about as welcoming as could be. We were shown our room and shortly after met the captain. Now, when you think of captain, you think of a grumpy old guy with a curly moustache, cussing and swearing while smoking a pipe. Wrong... Captain Colin was a very young guy, immensely knowledgeable about his ship and well versed in the latest technologies. To boot he knew how to handle the ship's crew.

Later that day, Ralph the second mate gave us a safety briefing, told us where our muster station was in case of emergency and explained how to launch the lifeboats. Fortunately for us during our trip, all this information was useless.

He took us around the ship, to the galley, the crews and officers mess, a quick peek in the engine room and then down through the tunnels underneath the holds back to the bow of the ship up to the wheelhouse, where we got a sneak preview of all the navigation equipment on board. After that it was time for dinner, so Doug the cook served us the first of many enjoyable meals, which we ate with the rest of the crew, while being introduced to all 17 of them.

Meanwhile, the ship was taking on a load of corn, 10,000 or so tons, to be shipped to the Casco plant in Cardinal, Ontario for processing there into corn syrup, starch and a host of other products too numerous to mention. Since there is only one sleeve loading the corn is tends to be a little slow, about 15 hours to load the ship. The entirely ship was loaded by 6:00 o'clock the next morning and it is a good thing that something woke us up (the lack of coffee in our veins) at that hour, otherwise we would have missed leaving port.

Soon we approached the bridges that allowed us out of the harbor. On a beautifully warm sunny morning, it was a sight to see, worth the price of admission alone. Fortunately, even the lift bridge was up, so we didn't have to ram it in order to get out.

Quite quickly we got out into Lake Ontario, leaving Hamilton behind us. The ship, when out in open waters like that makes around 11 knots, which equates to 20 km/h. What is interesting is
that the engine runs at more or less the same rpm all the time, it is the pitch of the blades that is changed, which in or decreases speed.

Not long after entering Lake Ontario, the outline of the City of Toronto became visible through the slight summer time haze, also known as smog. It was about 50 km away.

To be continued...

Birds

2009-06-10T14:58:00.003-04:00

Hmm, some imaginative title, isn’t it?

Anyway, some shots from the last few days. First off, a female Baltimore Oriole at the feeder. They actually don’t eat ‘regular’ bird feed, but are attracted to the sugar water in the humming bird feeder.

Next, we have two shots of turkey vultures. The first one shows it being chased by a much smaller bird. Why, I don’t know, because vultures only eat dead stuff, so they are no threat to anything alive. So, instead of wasting its time and energy the dumb chaser bird could just be sitting back and relaxing. But I guess now I am into overanalyzing.

The last one is just of a vulture in mid-air showing off its wings. They tend to do a lot of gliding on air currents. all the while searching for dead stuff. Garbage (wo)men. Hope they are unionized.

Done…finally

2009-05-05T08:46:00.001-04:00

I had some time yesterday afternoon to wrap up the siding of the gable end. Also was able to install the missing pieces in the soffit ceiling. So… all done now, save for some landscaping. Hopefully it will pass building inspection.

This was the design:

And this is what it looked like originally…picture from September 2007

Who were these guys and where are they now?

2009-04-22T17:48:00.002-04:00

Something that has always intrigued me about the picture in the previous post is the presence of the three guys in the bottom of the shot. I enlarged and cropped them this time, just to see if more can be discovered.

Who are they? Possibly Martinair employees? Mechanics perhaps, at least the two on the right, judging by their cover alls. The one on the left a supervisor perhaps. What were they doing?

And, even more intriguing, where are they now? The young man on the far right appears to be in his early twenties. That would make him in his early sixties today. Possibly retired, grandchildren, health problems, false teeth, etc. The other two appear even older, could be approaching seventy.

Sometimes life just seems to evaporate in the twinkling of an eye.

It was 40 years ago today…

2009-04-21T14:04:00.001-04:00

…that this big ol’ airliner carried me to The New World, in a literal as well as figurative sense. If I recall correctly, the plane left Amsterdam Schiphol at around 11:00 am, arriving in Detroit at 2:30 pm. A non stop flight. Eight short hours from a closed in, tightly controlled society with (still) old fashioned norms to a world where newness and non conformity seemed to be the thing of the day.

The plane itself, a Douglas DC-8 55F, serial no 45824/267, shown here with the registration number PH-MAS, was delivered to Overseas National Airlines (ONA) in June of 1966. It was then sold to Martin’s Air Charter (or Martinair) in October of 1968. Martinair then used it until early 1977 when it was sold back to the manufacturer Douglas Aircraft. After that, it was used by a variety of airlines, the last one being a Venezuelan outfit called Avianco, who used it as a freighter. It was last spotted in 2001 sitting at Miami International Airport in something called ‘Corrosion Corner’, likely an area used to store planes for stripping parts off them.

My picture above is actually a composite of two, taken with my Rollei Magic, which I had acquired a few months before the start of this trip. Second hand, of course. Unfortunately, I lost that camera on a later plane light in November of 1972. Color photography was still somewhat rare back then, because it was expensive. This shows the old style MAC livery colors very well. As far as I can tell, this is the oldest picture of PH-MAS on the web.

Windows Live Writer

2008-01-06T19:39:00.001-05:00

Since creating a blog post with Blogspot's own editor is a huge pain in the neck, I decided to download Live Writer, a blog editing tool, free, from Microsoft.

Rick Strahl says is the greatest thing since sliced bread and who am I to argue with him?

Just to see how it will handle pictures, I inserted the above shot of a recent snowfall.

Now it's time to see if this works! Let's publish!

Directions from Toronto International Airport to Simcoe Part III

2007-09-14T09:59:00.001-04:00

Again, once you are on the regular, 3 lane portion of Hwy 403 towards Hamilton, stay in the second lane from the left, the middle lane. This takes you exactly to where you need to go. This picture shows where the Lincoln Alexander branches off from 403. About 2 km past this point, Hwy 403 narrows to 2 lanes. If you are in the middle lane, then you do not have to do anything.

You can breathe a sigh of relief now: traffic should get a lot lighter. From the Lincoln Alexander to Hwy 24 South to Simcoe is about 40 km. You'll pass through the city of Brantford. Note that there is also a Hwy 24 North exit, you do not wish to take that. You'll end up in Cambridge.

Here is the actual exit off 403 to Hwy 24 south. Once on the exit lane itself, stick to the left. At the end of the exit lane (ramp), there are traffic lights. On green, turn left onto Hwy 24.
Hwy 24 is 2 lanes, so it is not an expressway!

Hwy 24 can be divided in roughly three parts. The first part is done when after about 10 km, you reach a set of traffic lights. At the green light, drive straight through to the next set of lights (about 15 km). Once again, keep going straight. After that, at about 2 km, you will see the blue 'Norfolk County" sign. You are getting close!

From here on in, you will start seeing signs, spaced 1.2 km apart, pointing to Windham Rd 2, 3,4,5 etc. (There are also Townsend Rd going left (east) but ignore those. ) The road you are looking for is Windham Road 12. It obviously follows Windham Rd 11. There is a green and yellow John Deere farm machinery dealership just past Windham Rd 12. If you miss the road, simply turn into the parking lot of the dealership and make your way back through this parking lot to its Windham Road 12 exit.

Once on Windham Rd 12, there is a stop sign after about 3 km. (Speed limit here is 80 km). STOP and give right of way to ALL traffic on the crossing road. Proceed with caution. Drive another 3 km. On the side of the road, you'll see house numbers mounted on metal posts, green signs with white numbers. Our number is 801. The two numbers prior to that are 827 and 823, so once you pass 823, SLOW DOWN. From that point it is about 150 metres. Pull into the driveway. You have arrived!

Directions from Toronto International Airport to Simcoe Part II

2007-09-14T08:48:00.000-04:00

Once you are on Hwy 403 (during rush hour this stretch could be slow to very slow travelling), then after about 3 km, you get to the point where the two separate parts of 403 meet. The trick here is to be in the second lane from the left.

By far, the best point to travel from here on in on the expressways is the second lane from left. This, at most points, automatically leads you to where you want to go. Note that at this point on the 403, the far left lane is reserved for High Occupancy Vehicles, that is, cars with 2 or more people in it. This special lane continues for about 15 km. If traffic is extremely slow, use it, otherwise don't bother, just stay in the middle lane of the three regular lanes.

At this point, about 15 km after Eastgate, about 1 km after Winston Churchill Boulevard, Hwy 407 branches off from Hwy 403. You want to stay on Hwy 403 towards Hamilton. Best point to be is in the middle of the 3 regular lanes. This is the advance warning sign.

This is the actual point where 407 branches off of 403. Stay in the second lane from left. This leads you automatically onto 403 towards Hamilton.

Once you get past the 407 branch off, you need to once again get into the 2nd lane from the left on 403. Then, after about 5 km, Hwy 403 and QEW meet up. You'll see Lake Ontario in the distance and a huge Ford car factory with giant chimneys on left at that point. Slowly work your way over to the 2nd lane from left and stay there. This is what it looks like for the most part on QEW. If your luck is bad, this can be a slow stretch during rush hour.

After about 25 km on QEW, Hwy 403 reappears and branches off from QEW. This is the advance warning sign at Brant Street. Be in the middle lane here.

Make sure that you stick to the right hand side of the middle lane here. That will guide you onto Hwy 403 Hamilton and Brantford.

Directions from Toronto International Airport to Simcoe Part I

2007-09-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

These are the directions to get from Toronto International Airport (technically called Pearson International Airport) to 801 Windham Rd #12, Simcoe, Ontario

First some points to make things clearer.

There are no roundabouts in Ontario.

Expressways (minimum 4 lane divided highways) all start with the number 4, for example Hwy 400, 401, 402, 403, you get the picture. The only exception is the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), the expressway that leads from Toronto to Niagara Falls via Hamilton.

Speed limit on expressways is 100, on 2 lane highways it is 80. Now, that's the theoretical limit. If it isn't rush hour, most people will drive between 110 and 120 on the expressway and 90-100 on 2 lane roads. It is best to judge what other traffic is doing and keep up with the flow: neither too slow nor too fast.

On any road with more than 1 lane going in each direction, it is perfectly legal to pass on the right. That's right, on the right. So if you are changing lanes to the right, you need to make damn sure no one is trying to pass you on that side.

If a road narrows from 2 lanes to 1 lane (or 3 lanes to 2 lanes), it is generally the right lane that disappears, so that the person in the left lane automatically has the right-of-way.

There are no speed cameras mounted on the side of roads anywhere in Ontario. None. Police presence on highways is minimal.

The quality of the roads is generally acceptable to mediocre. Think Belgium and then take a step back.

A brief description of the route to take:
-from the Airport, enter Hwy 427 SOUTH (+/- 2 km)
-from Hwy 427, enter HWY 401 WEST to London (+/- 3 km)
-from Hwy 401, enter Hwy 403 to Hamilton (+/- 10 km)
-from Hwy 403, enter QEW to Hamilton (+/- 30 km)
-from QEW, enter Hwy 403 (again) WEST to Hamilton, Brantford (+/- 35 km)
-from Hwy 403, enter Hwy 24 SOUTH to Simcoe (+/- 50 km)
-from Hwy 24, enter Windham Road 12, stop for STOP sign after 3 km, then straight through another 3 km to number 801 on the right
-pull in driveway

OK, the first picture is an overview of the entire trip. Overal distance is about 125 km and general direction is to the southwest.

From the jumble of roads within the airport, you need to look for signs that take you to Hwy 427 south. Pay close attention as there are a lot of roads right within the airport area and you might have to cross some lanes to get to the correct lane. Make sure it is safe to change lanes. Generally there are 2 large signs, spaced about 1 km apart, that warn you of an upcoming road change.

Once on Hwy 427, you'll follow it for a few kilometres. You will need to stay in the right hand lanes and observe signs closely, looking for Hwy 401 WEST. The advance warning sign looks something like this:

The actual exit ramp from 427 to 401 looks like this:

Once on 401 (the airport's runways are just across the fence on the right hand side) you need to look for Hwy 403 WEST to Hamilton. It is about 4 km from the Dixie Road exit.

The advance warning sign for Hwy 403 Hamilton look like this:

The actual exit sign looks like this. Notice that Hwy 410 branches off to the right with the 2 right lanes, so you need to be at least in the third lane from the right at this point. Start moving over there once you pass Dixie Road (well signed)

Point Pelee, Canada's most southern mainland point

2006-12-16T13:08:00.000-05:00

We visited Anne's sister and brother-in-law in Kingsville, Ontario last weekend. On Monday we made a short trip to Point Pelee National Park, which just so happens to contain Canada's most southern mainland point, at something like 41.90 degrees north, about the same as Barcelona, Spain and Rome, Italy.

The park consists of mostly wetlands, which I
cannot help to find nothing but a euphemism for swamp. There is also some forest cover, containing some rare trees (for Canada, that is). It is a birder's heaven as the north shore of Lake Erie is a migratory path for many bird species.

The weather was warm for this time of year, the park deserted. Lake Erie was quiet, with just a bit of sunlight peaking through the clouds here and there. It always evokes a feeling of desolated beauty in me when it is like this.

Christmas Sign...must be a sign of Christmas

2006-12-14T20:56:00.002-05:00

Years ago, around 1990-1991, I wanted to have the fanciest Christmas ornament on the block. I must've have gotten that idea after watching Chevy Chase's Christmas vacation. Anyway, I designed a sign made up of probably 250 to 300 leds. Power consumption between 11 and 27 watts.

It writes 'Merry Christmas' out by starting on the left and continuing to the right. When the last LED is lit, the whole thing resets itself, all the LEDs go out and the pattern is repeated, ad nauseum. There are some different patterns available though, twinkle, blocks of LEDs switch on and off, as well as different speeds can be had.

I'm afraid I was responsible for the entire design, including the clock and all other circuitry. I guess I always did like tinkering with resistors, diodes and the like. "Ummers and puffers" as we used to call them. The heart of the clock circuit is the ubiquitous 555 timer, the devices that light up the LEDs are 74LS164N 8 bit shift registers. You can think of it as a bucket brigade. The LEDs are the cheapest kind available.

The overall size is about 1 meter by .25 meters. After designing the circuit boards, I had them printed in a silk screening place, where they normally do logos on T shirts, so this was quite a different job for them. Then I etched them at home myself and then drilled the holes for all the components using a drill stand and a portable electric drill. This was tricky, as the holes are very small and the bits break easily.

The case was made out of plexiglass (or Lexan) .

We have had this in and around our house during the Christmas season for the last fifteen years or so. However, this year when I got it out, it didn't work! Having totally forgotten how this thing even worked, I had to tinker with it to get it to go. A cold solder joint was the problem. Found it by pure luck. I did manage to blow 2 power supplies though, while testing. Luckily, I had a third, which was a DC one, so I had to bypass my original AC design.

Now I'm confident it will likely work for another fifteen years.....

Sorry about the crappy GIF, but I do have a life.

Notebook as energy saver?

2006-11-30T19:11:00.000-05:00

I've been hard at it, the last five weeks or so, doing a rush job coding a web application. I initially had intentions of doing this coding on my desktop computer downstairs. Somehow, though, I kept putting that idea off, because the couch is so damn comfortable..... It ends up I did the whole thing on my notebook, a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 1150 with a sticky keyboard.

Last year, I bought this little gadget (Kill-A-Watt meter) that can track energy consumption for individual devices, e.g. a stereo, a TV, a computer. I bought it initially to prove to myself that the freezer in the garage was an energy hog and that it had to go. Wrong....., it only consumed a kilowatt a day. So the freezer is still there. I also had it plugged into my desktop computer for a while and that device seemed to consume around 120 W an hour. If you think that the power supply on it is rated at 480W, that doesn't seem too bad. After that, I forgot about the gadget for a while. It was gathering dust until I decided last week to plug it in between my notebook computer and the wall outlet.

Turns out that the notebook is a real enery mizer as compared to a desktop computer. First off, I never turn off the notebook, though it does go into hibernation after half an hour. While up, it runs a slew of applications such as Visual FoxPro, SQL Server Express, Visual Web Developer Express. Still in all, while running, it only consumes around 22 wats. It's funny to look at the meter while you're opening an application: it shoots up to 40 or 50 watts for a few seconds and then fall back to 22 or so.

On average, it consumes 11 watts an hour for each of the 130 hours or so that it has been plugged in. Not bad eh?

Just think of the phenomenal energy savings that could be had by replacing all desktops with notebooks....

By the way, just for fun I plugged in my USB light to see what it consumes. Answer: 1 watt....too bad it's bloody useless.

First Snow!

2006-10-12T19:36:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe, October 12th and it's snowing! The Impatiens and Cala lilies are still in bloom, but that failed to stop the snow from falling. It didn't last long, but there it was ... a harbinger of things to come.

Property Bar location using GPS (and Visual FoxPro) Part II

2006-09-06T13:33:00.000-04:00

Ok, so in the last post I threw out some generalities regarding the project. This time we'll try and get down to some specifics.

I tend to attack projects from a proof-of-concept point of view. First, I'll try and get a rudimentary version up and running of whatever idea I'm working on. That keeps me interested. Once that has been successfully accomplished, that will motivate me to round it off with user interface etc, all the boring stuff that I've done for too many years now. That's not considered good practice, but hey, I'm the boss around here so I offer no apologies.

And so it went in this case.

Cost is always primary in my mind: it is a sport to keep software costs down. I purchased a Holux USB GPS module on eBay last year, which included a purported legal version of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005. (I should point out that, even though this is a USB device for a hardware point of view, it presents itself as a serial port device from a software point of view.) The GPS works fine with MS S & T, but I was hoping that it would also include an ActiveX control, which I could then use to program the GPS from my own applications. However, it didn't, so I hunted around for other GPS serial port ActiveX controls on the web. There's quite a number out there, but the price is somewhat steep. So I decided to see if I could use the serial port control included with most (or all) versions of Windows, MSComm. After the usual amount of trail-and-error and some research on the web, I got it to work with the GPS. The GPS reports its status every second when it rattles off a number of phrases all of which start with a $ sign. Of the 3 or 4 phrases the Holux offers, I only used the $GPGGA one, which dissects as follows:

*$GPGGA,123519,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,1,08,0.9,545.4,M,46.9,M,,*47
*!* Where:
*!* GGA Global Positioning System Fix Data
*!* 123519 Fix taken at 12:35:19 UTC
*!* 4807.038,N Latitude 48 deg 07.038' N
*!* 01131.000,E Longitude 11 deg 31.000' E
*!* 1 Fix quality: 0 = invalid
*!* 1 = GPS fix (SPS)
*!* 2 = DGPS fix
*!* 3 = PPS fix
*!* 4 = Real Time Kinematic
*!* 5 = Float RTK
*!* 6 = estimated (dead reckoning) (2.3 feature)
*!* 7 = Manual input mode
*!* 8 = Simulation mode
*!* 08 Number of satellites being tracked
*!* 0.9 Horizontal dilution of position
*!* 545.4,M Altitude, Meters, above mean sea level
*!* 46.9,M Height of geoid (mean sea level) above WGS84
*!* ellipsoid
*!* (empty field) time in seconds since last DGPS update
*!* (empty field) DGPS station ID number
*!* *47 the checksum data, always begins with *

Of course, I didn't figure this out on my own, but got most of it from
http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm.

The MSComm control has a property RThreshold (for receive threshold). I set this at 2. By default, it is set at 0. When set at 2, it makes the control receive 2 characters before it fires the OnComm event. If it is set at 0, the OnComm event does not fire at all. The OnComm event is really the heart of the MSComm control, this is where the action takes place. Simply put, all the characters are received and the string is parsed for the values contained in it. These values are then logged to a database table, and depending on what action we are currently executing, a method is called to execute that action.

The next major item is the graphing software. As I said in my previous post, I used NTGraph for this, another ActiveX control. To do plotting, simply feed 2 values to the PlotXY method and as long as they fit in the range of the graph (which can be dynamically altered), it will plot the values. If it is outside the range, you can change the values of the range, and all previously plotted points will automatically be replotted on their new spots on the graph.

The third major item is the computer voice. Now this is where it gets really easy. The voice is done using an ActiveX control included in all Windows version. I simply instatiated it in the init of my form, as such

thisform.oSapi=CREATEOBJECT("SAPI.spVoice.1")

then all you need to do to have it speak is the following:

thisform.oSapi.Speak("Keith is one helluva guy")

Of course, I didn't figure this out on my own, Calvin Hsia showed me the way.

Ok, that's it for today, before information overload sets in.

Property Bar location using GPS (and Visual FoxPro) Part I

2006-08-29T20:18:00.000-04:00

I worked on this project back in the spring of this year (2006). What I was trying to do was find property bars on our property using GPS. When you're out in the forest, it is very tough to keep yourself oriented properly. Looking for a bar that way is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Your best chance to find one is to trip over it.

The idea to use GPS in aiding the search sprung from other projects where I used a GPS to do location logging, plus the fact that there are supposed to be some property bars in our forest which have yet to be found. Now, knowing exactly where our property line is is not that big a deal, just curiosity really, but still. There's an area, particularly in the southwest corner, where I'd like a bit more clarity as to who owns what. It seems funny that this whole area was surveyed about 8 years ago, but now not even 1 bar is to be found anywhere...looks like somebody would rather not have them found.

Anyway, the general idea is as follows:

- have a property plan
- have a computer program where you can enter the azimuths of the various lines that constitute the property limits as well as the distances between the various points where these lines intersect.
- have the computer plot this plan so that the plot is oriented properly with respect to true north.
- take a GPS and have the computer track and log the information received.
- program the computer so it can establish a latitude/longitude position for anyone of the points of intersection of the plan (a 'bench mark' position)
- program the computer so it, given the latitude/longitude position of anyone of these points, can calculate the lat/long of all the other points on the property line.
- program the computer, so it can plot the current position of the GPS on the above plan.
- program the computer, so it can 'home' in on a certain point, with a computer voice telling you in what direction the to-be-found point is and how far off we are.
- program the computer, so it can provide an average plot of the last number of GPS readings

First off: what is azimuth? This is the direction of a line, measured clockwise around the observer's horizon from north. So an object due north has an azimuth of 0°, one due east 90°, south 180° and west 270°. There, that was easy.

You can tell there was a fair bit of programming involved. The GPS logging stuff I had already done for my previous efforts, so that was re-used. To display the various plots, I used a free ActiveX control called NTGraph. Since we are now looking at Microsoft Vista, the name NTGraph will be more than enough to scare off some people. Not me. I've used it for a number of projects and, although a bit quirky at times, it is certainly very stable and very flexible.

Surprisingly enough, to calculate the lat/long of Point B, given the distance and azimuth to it from Point A, is fairly complex. A fellow by the name of Victor Fraenckel wrote a Visual Basic program to do this. His program was based on T. Vincenty's article "Direct and Inverse Solutions on the Ellipsoid with Application of Nested Equations" as published in Survey Review, April1975. In this article, Mr. Vincenty stated that "In selection a formula for the solution of geodesics it is of primary importance to consider the length of the program, that is the amount of core it will occupy in the computer along with trigonomic and other required functions." Obviously, the term "software bloat" was still to be invented.

Anyway, I rewrote Vic's VB program into a Visual FoxPro library. Then I added the interface around the various parts. But more on that soon....

Just an observation...

2006-08-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

...but why is it, that when the price of gas drops by more than 10 cents (to around $ 0.94 a litre), virtually overnight, no one says anything about this? No mention of this in the newspaper, on radio or TV? No one complimenting the government or the oil companies for doing such an efficient job? Strange. Just an observation though, I didn't mean to criticize anyone.

Finishing up the bedroom basement

2006-08-20T20:54:00.000-04:00

Back on June 11th, I did an analysis of basement subfloor options and then decided to go with a product called OvrX. OvrX comes in 2 x 2 feet tiles. The product itself is a 1/2" Styrofoam layer mechanically bonded to 5/8" OSB. The styrofoam has grooves cut (or ground might be a better term) on the bottom, to allow for air and moisture to pass through. Total thickness is 1 1/8" or 29mm.

So off to the local lumber yard I went. I ordered the OvrX and lo and behold, they had it in stock. I was able to load all 43 tiles (i.e 172 square feet) into my little Echo, so I guess you could call that an advantage.

Now, when I got futher into checking out the condition of the walls and the insulation contained within them, I just made an on the spot decision to tear it all out. Like Mike Holmes would say: "It's all gotta come down!". On the outside wall, there was about 1" of beaded styrofoam, but only at the upper 3 feet, the rest had nothing. This was overlaid with, count them, 2, not 1, layers of drywall. The drywall was held up by 2" x 2" strapping. The beaded styrofoam sat between this, with lots of air gaps. In addition, some of the inside walls had mould on the bottom of the drywall. Not a good situation. The fun part about ripping out drywall is that it goes very quickly. The drudgery part is cleaning it all up. Next came the strapping. Down to clear bare concrete walls.

I decided to do the outside walls with extruded polystyrene, commonly called styrofoam pink. These sheets I applied straight onto the concrete wall. That way, you have an continuous, uninterrupted insulation barrier. No gaps, no nothing. If you cut the sheets just a fraction too wide, they'll stay in place because of the friction fit. No glue or anything necessary. Somewhere I had read that you should then apply 1 x 3 strapping every 2 feet and attach your drywall to this. I followed a slightly different technique by using plywood instead. I went to the lumber yard, bought a sheet of half inch plywood, then asked them to cut it into 12 strips of 3 7/8, which they were happy to do of course at $ 0.50 a cut. Then I simply applied these strips to the wall instead of the strapping. The reason I did this is because the 1 x 3 strapping tends to be very cheap spruce, and when pierced by drywall nails, it can split very easily. When this happens, its holding power is obviously severely diminished. This will not happen with the plywood. By the way, I attached the plywood strips to the wall by first drilling a hole through the plywood, the styrofoam and then finally into the concrete, making sure that the total depth of the hole was a minimum of 3 1/4". Then I used 3 1/4" Tapcon screws to do the final attachment. Overall, the wall operation (i.e.styrofoam and plywood strips) went fairly smoothly. The pink styrofoam is easy to work with. It comes in shiplap, and to accommodate electrical cables, I simply cut off the shiplap from one piece and routed the cable through the channel that became available because the shiplap was no longer there.

Since I used 1 1/2 styrofoam, the total insulation value of the outside wall from top to bottom is R 7.5. Not quite code, but a heck of a lot better than before.

Next, I applied the OvrX. Hmm, wish I could say this was a snap to install. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I had one heck of a time keeping the tiles aligned. The tiles are tongue-and-groove and I suppose that it doesn't take much for OSB chips to clog the tongue, forcing you to bang away at the other end of the to-be-inserted tile. Too much banging puts the previously laid tiles out of alignment and so round and round we go.

In hindsight, what I would have done is attach the first couple of tiles to the floor with Tapcon screws. That way they would be kept nice and steady and theoretically wouldn't budge easily. So I struggled at floor level, tapping and banging and cursing, all at the same time. I took me about 4 hours to do a 160 square feet floor, not exactly record speed, in fact very slow. When almost done, I discovered that using a piece of 2 x 2 and a sledge hammer, I could lay the tile while standing, which made for quite an improvement in my working conditions.

It is also very hard to get the last row to fit in properly, since you have no 'banging' room. I used a tool for applying laminate flooring to get at least some leverage, but still, it was a struggle. In the end, I decided to drive some Tapcon screws through some of the pieces where the seams weren't all that close together. This is something I rather would not have done.

I had run a temperature check on that room, prior to laying the OvrX tiles. Over a 24 hour period, the temperature difference between ceiling and floor temperatures was close to 4 degrees. After the tiles were laid, this difference went down to around 2 degrees. Once the laminate floor went in, it further decreased to 1.5 degrees.

Next on the agenda was the drywall. I wanted to minimize the amount of joints required and so we used 12' sheets for most of this. Ronny helping me out with this made it all that much easier. Taping and mudding went fairly easily, along with applying primer paint. I don't know about the finish paint, as the design for that and the application of it was done by Amanda!

The laminate floor went in without a hitch. Then I hung the doors (huge pain, as everything is crooked!) and applied the trim, caulking and painting. Now it's done. Almost. The brown cabinet hiding the electrical panel still needs to be painted white. But then, you should always leave something to look forward to, shouldn't you?

Weather not fit for any umbrella

2006-08-15T22:16:00.000-04:00

Mid summer was not a good period for our lawn furniture. Let me explain why.

- On July 2, a short, but violent mid afternoon thunderstorm managed to create havoc with the above named furniture. Specifically, the backyard table, complete with umbrella, the lawn chairs, the single pole umbrella as well as Anne's new installed 'book case' with glass shelves were all blown over. The single pole umbrella had 2 70 kg blocks of concrete holding it down, to no avail. You can see one of the blocks thrown over the side of the deck by the force of the wind. We were able to repair the umbrella by attaching of piece of aluminum to the only rib that was broken. We placed the umbrella back on the deck and, as further reinforcement, added a couple of lag bolts screwed into the deck to hold it down more. We cleaned up the rest of the mess. Some damage was done, but not too bad.

- July 15th was a bit windy, but otherwise a beautiful summer's day. Ronny and I were installing a cabinet in the shed and Anne was watering the flowers on the deck. All of a sudden we hear her scream. We look over and the next thing you know, we see umbrellas flying everywhere. What I suspect happened is that this was a dust devil, a mini tornado, minus the dust, so invisible otherwise. It did just a fine job on the single pole umbrella: the concrete blocks and the lag bolts didn't budge this time, but something had to give so it was the top pivot point, where the umbrella is fastened to the post, that gave way. It was twisted at about a 45 degree angle, making the entire umbrella useless. Solution: demolish it. Ronny got to use his brand new hack saw on the aluminum posts. The table umbrella magically survived again.

- July 20th. Well, we needed shade on the deck, 'cause otherwise it is hotter than blazes back there. I made the mistake of reading the Canadian Tire flyer, in which I spotted a four poster 'sun shelter' for only $ 50. After some humming and hawing in the store, I decided to buy one. Another mistake. After we got it home, we noticed how extremely flimsy it was. We got it up allright, with a little bit of improvisation. The shade was great while it lasted (the shelter, that is). On that fateful July 20th, the rains came. Well, that's a bit overdramatic. Let's just say we had a pretty good shower. Now, one of the key properties of water is is that it is fairly heavy. It started to collect in one of the pockets of the cover of the sun shelter. Once enough water collected, it just plain collapsed. Shoulda known. It was a sun shelter not a rain shelter. Back to Canadian Tire to get my money back.

- August 2nd. So far we had blamed all our troubles on Ronny, my nephew from the Netherlands. After all, all this began the day after he arrived. However, he left on the 22nd of July and on August 2nd, we were once again hit by a terrific thunderstorm, in the middle of the night (1:30 to be exact). It woke me up, and it seemed to come on so fast that I told Anne: "Into the basement!" So we scurried on down, into the storage rooom, to wait this one out. Once things settled down a bit, we went upstairs and peeked outside, to see the table + umbrella blown over again (the umbrella was down), along with chairs and, once again, Anne's bookshelf with the last of the glass shelves now broken as well. We did a closer inspection at first light and noticed that the umbrella, which had landed against the kitchen window, had produced a hairline crack in that window. Umbrella busted for good. Solution: junk it.

Now, this last thunderstorm did quite a trick on trees in the neighborhood as well: there are about 10 trees down in our forest, with the path completely blocked. It took the top out of the very tall maple in my neighbour's yard, which, of course, had to land in our front yard, so now I'm stuck with it.

More about the storm here and here. Surprisingly, we never lost our hydro.

This storm was the end of five days of 35+ weather. Some days produced humidex readings of 46! Talk about your wet blanket!Now we've been down to 25+ with fairly low humidity readings, just perfect!

Crop Duster

2006-06-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

Living in the country and in this part of the country means that you have to put up with certain nuisances city dwellers can only dream of.

One of those is crop dusting. On a regular basis in late spring/early summer, the local crop duster will deliver his poisonous load to farm fields surrounding our house.

Now, to be sure, he always chooses nights when the winds are totally calm, so very little, if any, drifts over our way, so we only cough our lungs out for a couple of hours.

Besides that though, there is the plane buzzing overhead, making you think you were caught up in a remake of the Darryl F. Zanuck movie 'The Battle of Britain'. The engine whines, howls, screams, but fortunately so far, hasn't coughed, sputtered, nor died. Fortunately for us, because we'd be dead too.

Tonite, he was at it again, so I went out and shot some digital film. In this particular venture, he was dusting a potato field, just west of us.
Notice the hydro wires. Do planes and that type of equipment get along?

Average height over the field is probably 10 feet or so. At the very last second, literally, he'll pull up and just barely clear the tree tops before making a hard turn and coming in again to do the next pass. Why fight your way through traffic to see the Labour Day Air Show, when you can see it all in your backyard? Sheesh....

Toyota Echo Gas Mileage

2006-06-14T20:51:00.000-04:00

Sure it's ugly. I agree. But for gas mileage, you can't beat it. The Toyota Echo that is.

Too often when 'gas mileage' gets mentioned in a conversation, incredible numbers get thrown around, usually by people driving monstrous gas guzzlers. "I get 40 miles to the gallon in my Cadillac Escalade." Another good one is: "This minivan of mine, I easily get 600 km out of a tank." Well, yeah, too bad your tank can hold 50 gallons, oops, 225 litres.

And so, to set the record straight, to throw out the gauntlet, here are the stats for the Echo. It was born in the year 2000, has standard transmission, and lacks airconditioning (unless you wanna count the open windows). Engine size is 1.5 litres.

On my last tank, which started at km 7435 and lasted to km 8143, it consumed 35.51 l of gasoline, standard unleaded (octane level 87). That's 708 km, of mostly highway driving, but some stop-and-go as well.

Here we go with the calculations:

First, the official Canadian version: 35.51/(708/100) = 5.0155 litres per 100 km
Next, the old Canadian version 440 miles/7.81 Imperial gallons = 56.34 miles per Imp gallon. Woohoo!
For our US friends 440 miles/9.38 US gallons = 46.91 miles per US gallon.
Now the old European way (don't know how they currently do it over there): 708/35.51 = 19.94 km per litre.

Not bad eh? With gas mileage like that, who needs hybrids?

My first car, a 1968 Dodge Monaco, with an 8 cylinder 383 cubic inch engine (that's 6.3 litres folks) got something like 18 miles to the gallon. Thank God they don't make 'em like that anymore!

Update 2006/06/22: On my next tank, I got 56.5 miles per (Imperial) gallon or 4.9905 litres per 100 km! I am below the magic 5.0 level!

Basement subfloor decisions...

2006-06-11T20:57:00.000-04:00

Recently, our basement got flooded. That in itself is a story and a half, but I won't go into that. Suffice it to say that the water just managed to get over the edge of the sump pump well and then wicked through all the carpeting throughout the basement. So all the carpeting had to be removed (it was a load a crap anyway) and we are now back down the the bare concrete floor.

That floor is in remarkably good shape. It is even, with only some hairline cracks here and there. No spalling or delineation anywhere, so that's good. However, it is cold. Very cold. Even this late in spring, the floor temperature hovers around 14 °C. So that's not good.

Now, as we all know, hot air rises and cold air sinks, so theoretically, that cold air doesn't readily mix with the warmer air at higher elevations. Therefore, the heat loss through the floor is a lot less than if, for instance, the ceiling were at 14 °C . Nonetheless, some loss must occur. Furthermore, especially this time of year, warm, moist air from outside enters the house, gets into the basement where it cools, causing the humidity to skyrocket down there. This, in turn, forces us to run the dehumidifier, which is noisy, hard on the hydro bill and needs periodic maintenance.

So I started looking for a solution to these problems. Rather than just taking a wild guess (or doing some research and doing a best guess), I decided to get all scientific, by setting up tests with different materials and options to insulate the basement floor.

Design criteria:
- warmer basement floor
- lower humidity level
- ease of installation of the product
- cost
- small loss of headroom

Products to test

- Dricore

Dricore ( www.dricore.com ) consists of half an inch OSB glued onto a polyethylene sheet, from which cleats protrude, allowing air to circulate under the floor, to remove humidity. Total thickness is 7/8" or 22 mm. It comes in squares of 2' x 2' (61 x 61 cm), which have a tongue and groove. The tile is put down and the next one is tapped into the groove to complete the assembly.

The manufacture claims an insulation value of R-2
Cost: $ 6.99 per tile

- OvrX
OvrX ( www.ovrx.com ) is 1/2" Styrofoam mechanically bonded to 5/8" OSB. The styrofoam has grooves cut (or ground might be a better term) on the bottom, to allow for air and moisture to pass through. Total thickness is 1 1/8" or 29mm.
It, too, comes in squares of 2' x 2' (61 x 61 cm), which have a tongue and groove. As above, assembly is through the tongue and groove system, no screws are driven into the floor.

The manufacture claims an insulation value of R-3.2
Cost: $ 7.99 per tile

- 1" (25 mm) Styrofoam sheets (2' x 8' or 61 x 244 cm) overlayed with 4' x 8' ( 122 x 244 cm) sheets of OSB or plywood. Pilots holes are then drilled through the plywood, the styrofoam into the concrete floor and Tapcon screws are then driven into these holes. No picture for this, as I am sure you can well imagine what this looks like. Styrofoam would be R-5, with OSB .2 for a total of R-5.2
Cost: $ 13.11 per sheet of Styrofoam and $20.00 for OSB.

First, I wanted to test for the insulation values. So I set up a test bed, consisting of the material to be tested, the bottom portion of a picnic cooler, a 27 W soldering iron and a temperature monitor. I used the soldering iron, to get a nice steady heat source, which would be the same for all the tests. The temperature monitor comes from http://www.ibuttonlink.com. It is a 1 wire device, which hooks up to the serial port on a computer, and reports the temperature every time the computer program requests it. I wrote a Visual FoxPro application that makes a request every 30 seconds and then logs the result into a database table.

Here is the setup, soldering iron on the left, temperature monitor on the right, spaced about 1', I mean 30 cm apart. In this case, they are positioned on top of the OvrX material.

Here's the complete setup, with the cooler positioned over top to minimize the influence of the ambient temperature. You can see the Dricore tile on edge on the left and a leftover piece of 2" (51mm) Styrofoam on the right. You could probably argue and say that, hey, there was an air gap caused by the wires forcing the rim of the cooler up, but my answer is that that applied evenly to all the tests, so the net effect was zero.

Next I ran the test for all the materials. Note that I only had a 2" (51 mm) piece of Styrofoam, since I had this left over and I was too cheap to buy a 1" piece. Basically what I did was, I put the material to be tested on the floor, put the soldering iron on it along with the temperature monitor, about 30 cm apart. I then put the cooler upside down over top and plugged in the soldering iron and started the monitoring and logging process. Once I saw that the maximum temperature had been reached (i.e. the temperature wasn't going up anymore), I unplugged the soldering iron and waited for the whole thing to cool down, still continuously logging.

I repeated this four times. Once for each of the materials tested and once just on the bare concrete floor. Then, I did some data manipulations and graphed the results using Open Office Calc ( www.openoffice.org ) Basically, Open Office is a free replacement for Microsoft Office.
The graphing turned out to be a huge pain in the neck, it would have been better to use my trusty old Graph NT ActiveX in Visual FoxPro, but hey it's done now, so who cares.

Here's the graph:

The 2" Styrofoam itself manages to drive the temperature all the way up to 53 degrees, whereas the bare concrete floor only makes it to 24 degrees. Quite a difference. The styrofoam backed OvrX makes it to 41 degrees, beating out Dricore, which gets up to 36 degrees.

Analysis

Insulation

- OvrX scores significantly better than Dricore. A 1" piece of Styrofoam would obviously be best.

Cost (in Canadian dollars)

According to the manufacturer's web site, I need 44 tiles for both Dricore or OvrX

- Dricore: 44 x $ 6.99 = $ 307.56
- OvrX: 44 x $ 7.99 = $ 351.56
- 1" Styrofoam/1/2"OSB = (11 x $13.11) + (5 x $20) = $ 244.21

Installation

- Dricore and OvrX should be equal to each other here. Both should beat the combination of Styrofoam/OSB sheets handily. Handling large sheets of OSB over top fragile exposed Styrofoam, then drilling holes through all that into the concrete and driving screews does not exactly appeal to me.

Loss of Headroom

Dricore comes out best here at 22 mm (7/8"). Ovrx is second at 29 mm (1 1/8"). Styrofoam/OSB last at a whopping 1 1/2" or 38mm.

Conclusion

OvrX beats out Dricore in terms of insulation. OvrX also beats out the Styrofoam/OSB combination due to ease of installation. The cost is higher, but my blood pressure has got to be worth something. The difference in headroom between Dricore and OvrX isn't significant enough to make a difference. So that's it! On to the ordering stage.

Tomorrow, I'll install temperature monitoring in the room at eye level as well as floor level. Then we can do a before and after installation comparison, and see what difference there is.

Google Sketchup

2006-05-20T20:49:00.000-04:00

Google has done it again. On March 14, they bought up a small startup software company called @Last Software. This company produced Sketchup, a 3D modelling tool and sold it for $495.00 per copy. On April 26, Google released it to the world...for free. I should say that you can still buy a professional version of Sketchup, but for the average Jill or Joe, the free version should do nicely.

Be careful...it is very addictive. The easiest way to get started after you download your copy (around 20Mb) is to follow the quick video tutorials offered on the Google Sketchup web site.

We're planning an addition to the house to be built sometime this year. Basically, a 1 room extension, dimensions 14' x 20' (or 4.6m x 6.5m). So I got started, drawing this in Sketchup, just to get an idea what it might look like.

So far I'm up to version 13. Whether or not you can do actual final construction drawings using this, I don't know, the jury is still out on that. It might just be too finicky.

The neat thing is that you can drag the cursor all around and rotate your drawing every which way, see things from the top, the bottom, sides, zoom in for very close detail.

After you download and install Sketchup, you can download my drawing as well. Amazingly enough, the whole drawing only takes up something like a 130 k.

Google Planimeter and Rain

2006-05-08T18:42:00.000-04:00

Huh?? First of all, what's a planimeter? A planimeter is a device which allows surveyors, cartographers and other people with weird interests to quickly compute the area bounded by a number of points by setting the counter on the device to zero, then dragging one arm of the device along the outline of the area while keeing the other arm stationary. Once you come back to the original point, i.e. you complete the circle or loop, you can read the approximate area off the dial. Now, mind you, it's quick and dirty: I wouldn't use it to calculate the amount of concrete in a complicated structural component, as you're liable to have a whole lotta concrete left over. (Quick, where's the nearest pothole?). While working for MTO in the seventies, we used the planimeter extensively to compute monthly estimates on road contracts.

In doing research for converting Latitude and Longitude to UTM, I came across Jeff Poskanzer's web site (www.acme.com). While perusing his site, I noticed one item that piqued my interest: Google planimeter. It allows you to calculate the area for either large or small areas and anything in between, with a good degree of accuracy! How it's done, I don't know, but it sure is interesting. In short, it shows you a Google Map, you place points on it by clicking your mouse and when you think you've got enough accuracy, you read the total area displayed just below the map. Way cool!

So, there was a massive rainstorm in the US on April 29th and 30th (2006). From Accuweather.com I copied the map showing the average rainfall expected for the area involved. Then, I used the Google Planimeter involved to compute the total area. As you can see, the area measured 1.292e+6 km2, which equals 1.292 million square kilometers (I only measured the 2 inch rainfall area.) 2 inches equals 5 cm. To calculate the total amount of rain:

1,292,000,000,000 x .05 = 64,600,000,000 cubic meters. That's 64 billion 600 million!

From www.intellicast.com, I got the actual situation as of about 7:30 am April 29th.

Can Keith come out and play...?

2006-04-22T19:43:00.000-04:00

Sitting down at my computer in the basement, I heard a rustle in the leaves collected in the window well. This drew my curiosity, as it drew his. The stare-off was a draw: he went his way and I went mine, though not until after I had rattled off some shots on the 20D.

Spring has been very mild this year, and everything is way ahead of normal. I already saw some fruit trees in bloom. The birds, well they do what comes naturally this time of year. They're all lovy-dovy. Just check out these mourning doves who where carrying on (and all now) in the crab apple tree up front.

The hours around dawn and dusk are what photographers call the magic hour, since that's when the light plays tricks on our eyes with its softness and long shadows. At that time, I love to take a walk to deep in the back yard, and then just stand there, looking back. Usually this time of year there is little wind then, so everything is so still and quiet, except for the cardinals singing their majestic song. Spine tingling/bone chilling. Here's the shot from way back there. I tried to record the cardinals' song, but I'm going to have to run out to Radio Shack to git me a microphone pre-amp, as it just wasn't loud enough. You really do need to see the larger version of this shot to even remotely get an idea as to what I'm talking about.

Then I took a walk in the forest, and lo and behold, I saw a trillium in bloom! In April! Most of our trilliums are red, white ones are somewhat rare around here for whatever reason.

On the way back out from taking this picture, I almost tripped over a rusted-out-long-ago-abandoned oil filter. Damn!

Now I'm good 'n mad...

2006-04-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

... because this freakin' male red bellied woodpecker keeps visiting the bird feeder and I just cannot get a decent shot of him. This is about the best I could do today, but I'll get him, I'll get him in the end, oh yes I will (name that tune?)

Today's White Thursday, but I presume this doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot to too many people out there. To me, it conjures up images of being liberated from school for 2 weeks (Easter vacation), daffodils in bloom, selling cheese to fat Germans driving mid sixties Volkswagen beetles, eating hard boiled eggs (and lots of them).

The odd year White Thursday coincides with my birthday. And so it was in 1959. I remember getting a soccer ball as the main present. Actually, calling it a soccer ball is a bit of an exaggeration, since it was a cheap plastic ball, oblong to boot (pun intended). It also sprung a leak about a week after I got it. Lo and behold, it was replaced with a better version! Woohoo!

Still in all, happy memories. Or should I say bittersweet?

Birthday Girl

2006-04-13T11:29:00.000-04:00

For those of you not in the know, Amaryn celebrated her first birthday last week (April 6th to be exact), blissfully unaware of the whole thing, as a 1 year old should be. She did manage to play the part though in the traditional stick-your-hand-in-the-birthday-cake-and-smear-it-all-over-your-face routine that all 1 year-olds have to undergo.

It is only my personal opinion, and therefore easily dismissable, but I do believe she is going to be a genius in languages, as already she is saying 'bye bye', 'thank you' in a quite audible manner. Of course, languages are not necessarily restricted to human communication only... I mean, what would you call Visual FoxPro?

Latitude/Longitude Conversion to UTM in Visual FoxPro

2006-04-04T13:04:00.000-04:00

And now, for something completely different:

A friend of mine works for Rogers Communications, a huge cable company in this part of Canada. He's involved in 'plant': that part of the business that deals with physical assets in the field i.e. the location of swith boxes, cables, routers, switches, hubs and the like. He wanted to know if I knew anything about conversion from latitude/longitude to UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) Coordinate System. I said I didn't and we left it at that.

But then for fun I got poking around on the web and found a version in PHP done by Jim Studnicki. He, in turn, had translated this from a function originally written in C by Jef Poskanzer. I spent some time converting Jim's PHP version to Visual FoxPro and after the usual minor problems I got it to work. I must say this is the first time I used the DTOR() (degrees to radians) function in VFP. (not that function is hard to mimic otherwise: pi/180).

Anyway, here it is. It ain't pretty, but if you need it, you can fix it up yourself. Once you have it up and running in VFP, test the results against any of the UTM conversion calculators on the web to verify your results.

Hopefully it can help some other VFP developer in the future. This is what is so absolutely fabulous about the web: the free sharing of information. Ten years ago, getting an answer to this would have been a real problem. Now, anybody with half a brain can do this.

*Keith Hekker 2006-04-02
*Translated from a PHP function by Jim Studnicki
=ConvertToUTM(43,-80)

Procedure ConvertToUTM()
PARAMETERS Latitude, Longitude
* convert decimal geographic coordinates to UTM
*
* param latitude as decimal
* param longitude as decimal

cOldDecimals = SET("DECIMALS")
SET DECIMALS TO 6

* square of eccentricity of equatorial cross-section
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED = 0.00669437999013

* eccentricity prime squared
ECC_PRIME_SQUARED = ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED /;
(1.0 - ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED)

* radius of Earth in meters
EQUATORIAL_RADIUS = 6378137.0

* scale factor
K0 = 0.9996

* make sure longitude is between -180 and 180
IF longitude < -180.0
longitude = longitude + 360.0
ENDIF
IF longitude > 180.0
longitude = longitude + 360.0
ENDIF

* get UTM letter
DO CASE
CASE latitude <= 84.0 and latitude >= 72.0
utmLetter = "X"
CASE latitude < 72.0 and latitude >= 64.0
utmLetter = "W"
CASE latitude < 64.0 and latitude >= 56.0
utmLetter = "V"
CASE latitude < 56.0 and latitude >= 48.0
utmLetter = "U"
CASE latitude < 48.0 and latitude >= 40.0
utmLetter = "T"
CASE latitude < 40.0 and latitude >= 32.0
utmLetter = "S"
CASE latitude < 32.0 and latitude >= 24.0
utmLetter = "R"
CASE latitude < 24.0 and latitude >= 16.0
utmLetter = "Q"
CASE latitude < 16.0 and latitude >= 8.0
utmLetter = "P"
CASE latitude < 8.0 and latitude >= 0.0
utmLetter = "N"
CASE latitude < 0.0 and latitude >= -8.0
utmLetter = "M"
CASE latitude < -8.0 and latitude >= -16.0
utmLetter = "L"
CASE latitude < -16.0 and latitude >= -24.0
utmLetter = "K"
CASE latitude < -24.0 and latitude >= -32.0
utmLetter = "J"
CASE latitude < -32.0 and latitude >= -40.0
utmLetter = "H"
CASE latitude < -40.0 and latitude >= -48.0
utmLetter = "G"
CASE latitude < -48.0 and latitude >= -56.0
utmLetter = "F"
CASE latitude < -56.0 and latitude >= -64.0
utmLetter = "E"
CASE latitude < -64.0 and latitude >= -72.0
utmLetter = "D"
CASE latitude < -72.0 and latitude >= -80.0
utmLetter = "C"
OTHERWISE
* returns "Z" if the latitude is outside the UTM limits of 84N to 80S
utmLetter = "Z" *
ENDCASE

lat_rad = DTOR(latitude)
long_rad = DTOR(longitude)
zone = INT((longitude + 180) / 6) + 1
IF latitude >= 56.0 and latitude < 64.0;
and longitude >= 3.0 and longitude < 12.0
zone = 32
ENDIF

* Special zones for Svalbard.
IF latitude >= 72.0 and latitude < 84.0
DO CASE
CASE longitude >= 0.0 and longitude < 9.0
zone = 31
CASE longitude >= 9.0 and longitude < 21.0
zone = 33
CASE longitude >= 21.0 and longitude < 33.0
zone = 35
CASE longitude >= 33.0 and longitude < 42.0
zone = 37
ENDCASE
ENDIF

* +3 puts origin in middle of zone
long_origin = (zone - 1) * 6 - 180 + 3
long_origin_rad = DTOR(long_origin)
N = EQUATORIAL_RADIUS / sqrt(1.0 - ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
sin(lat_rad) * sin(lat_rad))
T = tan(lat_rad) * tan(lat_rad)
C = ECC_PRIME_SQUARED * cos(lat_rad) * cos(lat_rad)
A = cos(lat_rad) * (long_rad - long_origin_rad)

M = EQUATORIAL_RADIUS *;
((1.0 - ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 4 - 3 * ;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 64 - 5 *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 256) * lat_rad - (3 * ;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 8 + 3 * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 32 + 45 * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 1024) * ;
sin(2 * lat_rad) + (15 * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 256 + 45 * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / ;
1024) * sin(4 * lat_rad) - (35 * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED *;
ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED * ECCENTRICITY_SQUARED / 3072) *;
sin(6 * lat_rad))

easting = K0 * N * (A + (1 - T + C) * A * A *;
A / 6 + (5 - 18 * T + T * T + 72 * C - 58 *;
ECC_PRIME_SQUARED) * A * A * A * A * A / 120) + 500000.0

northing = K0 * (M + N * tan(lat_rad) *;
(A * A / 2 + (5 - T + 9 * C;
+ 4 * C * C) * A * A * A * A / 24;
+ (61 - 58 * T + T * T + 600 * C -;
330 * ECC_PRIME_SQUARED) * A * A * A * A * A * A / 720))

IF latitude < 0.0
* 1e7 meter offset for southern hemisphere
northing = northing + 10000000.0
north = .F.
ELSE
north = .T.
ENDIF

? "Easting = " + TRANSFORM(easting)
? "Northing = " + TRANSFORM(northing)
? "North = " + TRANSFORM(north)
? "Zone = " + TRANSFORM(zone)
? "UTM Letter = " + TRANSFORM(utmletter)
SET DECIMALS TO &cOldDecimals
RETURN

Fun With Numbers

2006-04-01T20:38:00.000-05:00

The incredible forces of Mother Nature have always intrigued me. Consider this for a minute:

Yesterday, we had a rain storm across Norfolk County. It was the usual scenario, one that has been playing itself out for thousands or years and will continue to do so for at least the foreseeable future, climate change notwithstanding.

It had been a warm day, up to a maximum of 21 C. It rained moderately for a couple of hours just before a cold front swept through, dropping the temperature behind it to 10 C. According to the Environment Canada website, 12 mm of rain fell at Delhi, just down the road. No big deal, it happens all the time.

Where things get interesting is when you start looking at the numbers. The area of Norfolk County is 1,609.95 square kilometres, about 2.5 times that of the City of Toronto at 661 square kilometres. Assuming that the rain fell evenly across Norfolk County, we do the calculation for the total volume of rain in cubic metres as follows:

1,609.95 x 1,000 x 1,000 x .012 = 19,283,400 cubic freakin' metres!

Yes, that is right, more than 19 million cubic meters. If one were to lay these end-to-end, the wall of water, 1 metre high and 1 metre wide, would reach halfway around the world, before it would run out.

Now, let's take this one step further. That water just didn't happen to get there on its own. It had to evaporate from the ocean to get here. In yesterday's case, it most likely came from the Gulf of Mexico. OK, it takes 600 calories to evaporate 1 gram of water, so that's 600,000 calories for 1 litre or 600,000,000 (600 million) for 1 cubic metre.

This is where it gets really handy to have the Command Window of Visual FoxPro handy, as the numbers get so large, it's easy to lose track. (Even handier to have the _CLIPTEXT system variable available). To evaporate all that water

19,283,400 x 600,000,000 = 11,570,040,000,000,000 calories are needed

Sorry, but I don't know how to pronounce that number. Nevertheless, we carry on. We convert this number to Joules. By the way, 1 Joule is about the equivalent to the amount of energy you expend when you lift a small apple 1 metre off the ground.

11,570,040,000,000,000 calories = 48,409,047,360,000,010 Joules

Now, although a beautiful unit of the metric system in its own right, the Joule is exceedingly meaningless to most people. So let's try kW (kilowatt-hour)

48,409,047,360,000,010 Joules = 13,447,065,175 kW/hr or roughly 13.5 million Megawatt/hr

To put this into perspective, the Nanticoke Power generation station on Lake Erie generates 4,000 Megawatt/hr. It would have to run 3,361 hours (that's about 20 weeks) at full bore to generate that amount of power.

Yet another way:

48,409,047,360,000,010 Joules = 45,891,776,897,279 BTU/hr

An average house furnace is about 100,000 BTU/hr, so it would take 458,917,768 (that's 458 million) house furnaces burning solid for 1 hour to evaporate the water involved.

And I'm only talking Norfolk County!

Furthermore, I haven't even talked about the energy involved to transport the water vapor 2,000 km from the Gulf of Mexico to Norfolk County.

Some useful formulas:

1 calorie = 4.18400 joules

1 Joule = 2.7778×10⁻⁷ kilowatt-hour (or otherwise 0.00000027778 kilowatt-hour)

1 Joule = 9.48×10⁻⁴ BTU (or otherwise 0.000948 BTU)

It was forty years ago today...

2006-03-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

...that the Rolling Stones played a venue known as Brabanthal in Den Bosch, Netherlands. And I was there. This was my first big rock event. The Stones had made a name for themselves over the previous couple of years and their lone previous appearance in the Hague (Scheveningen) had ended in a major riot where the 'audience' destroyed the concert hall. So this sounded like fun. That day (March 26th) was my birthday (still is, as a matter of fact). My brother Gerard had been able to somehow obtain 4 tickets for this concert and was kind enough to invite me along. He had, under false pretenses I might add, also been able to borrow a Volkswagen Beetle off some guy he knew at work. Not that the car was an absolute necessity, but it sure made getting there a lot easier than having to take public transit to Den Bosch as it was about 100 km away. So off we drove, late in the afternoon, the 4 of us squeezed into the bug. The venue was normally used to auction cattle, so since the place was already a pigstye, I guess the organizers figured this was the ideal place for a rock concert. Not that the word concert was actually used for an event like that back in those days: that term was strictly reserved for classical music events. To call a performance by the Stones a concert would have been sheer blasphemy. Total number of spectators was extremely low as well: 9000. The entrance fee was pretty steep though: 10 guilders, which converted to about $3 US back in 1966. The warm up acts were Dutch groups, among them the Outsiders and the Bintangs, both now revered in Dutch pop history. The late Wally Tax was the leader of the Outsiders, and a legend in his own mind even back then. I remember we made our way in through some kind of small side entrance. The hall was already packed and the concert was in progress. There were no seats, everybody just sort of piled up against the stage. Talking about the stage, it wasn't exactly up to today's standards: very few, if any spotlights, no massive amplifier banks and speakers. The only fireworks would have been Keif smoking on stage. Mick was his usual trade mark self. From the setlist I don't remember much: the only thing that comes to mind is '19th Nervous Breakdown', the end riff where Bill Wyman's bass sonically mimics a person slide into a state of mental anguish.

The next time I saw the boys live was at Sarsstock in Toronto in 2003, 37 years later. Number of spectators: 500,000.

Thank you, vandals...

2006-03-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

...for if it wasn't for your destructive behaviour I never would have found out about the Waterford Heritage Rail Trail. You see, some time ago there was a report in the local newspaper about some fences being destroyed on this trail. So, with a little bit of sleuthing, we found out where the trail runs. Turns out it is just about under our nose, well, say 6 km directly east of us, just east of Hwy 24 on Townsend Road #12.

Today, we decided to take it for a test spin. And it's certainly worth exploring. It runs through, as the brochure describes it, a 'pastoral' landscape, consisting of about 60% farmer's fields and the rest bush and thickets. As luck would have it, just 20 minutes into our walk, three deer appeared from behind a low hill to our right. We looked at them, they looked at us, then off they ran, white tails being waved like fans on a summer's day.

The trail is around 6.2 km in length, of which we did the top 4 return. In addition to that, we walked into Waterford and had a coffee/tea in "The Cafe".

Then, on a sidestreet in Waterford, I spotted this door. Seems like the contractor miscalculated the depth of the basement.

Even though the temperature was right around zero again, at times, it felt a lot warmer than that when the sun was out. Could it be true? Is spring really on its way? Nah, don't get too excited.

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

2006-03-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

Along the northern shoreline of Lake Erie, east of the sleepy little fishing town of Port Burwell, contractors are currently constructing 66 wind turbines. Each of these turbines is capable of generating 1.5 MW (megawatts), so the total project's potential is 99 MW, enough to power 30,000 homes. As a comparison, Toronto's lone Exhibition Place generator is capable of producing .75 MW, enough for 250 homes.

Since this project is now in its advanced stages, we decided today to take a field trip out to

the site, approximately 50 km to the southwest of where we are. The weather was partly cloudy, with the temperature hovering around zero degrees celsius, a little cool for this time of year, but not too bad.

The turbines aren't hard to find, just drive in the general direction and sooner or later they will pop out above the tree line. Then just home in. If you miss them, you'll find yourself swimming in Lake Erie.

Now I must say, these things are humongous. Not only that, they

are very big. Produced by GE (General Electric), they are of the SLE type. The hub (i.e. the tower) can reach heights of 61m to 85m. The total rotor width is 77 m. There are about 25 in Norfolk County, the rest is in Elgin County.

We were lucky: just as we got there, the giant crane used to assembled the turbines was raising the nacelle for Turbine 52, which, as we all know, is positioned just west of Houghton Centre and south of Lakeshore Road. The nacelle is the giant box that contains the generator and the gearbox to which the rotors are attached. Rasing the nacelle was a fairly quick operation, all in all it took about 20 minutes. Obviously, these people had done this before. No sooner was it positioned in place or we could hear the ratchet air wrenches being used to tighten the bolts fastening the nacelle to the tower. In order to prevent the nacelle from slamming into the tower on the way up, two cables were attached to a dozer winch, which slackened while the nacelle was being hoisted.

We stuck around for a while, hoping to see the rotors going up as well, but no such luck. So we drove around a bit, eating the lunch Anne had lovingly prepared in advance. Most of the turbines are somewhat far from the nearest road, usually 2 to 300 m, but there is one on Concession Road 2 ENR, which is only 50 m max into the field. This road is the first one west of Norfolk County Road 28 and runs parallel to it. We stopped at this particular turbine and with the Sigma 10-20 mm set at about 17 mm, I was able to get the whole turbine in the shot, while virtually positioned directly underneath it. Way cool.

Across the road, I framed a ready-to-go turbine between two weather beaten trees.
The Lakeshore tends to be very run down at this point, hopefully, these turbines will give it a well deserved economic boost.
The turbines aren't in operation yet: electrical lines still have to be run and I'm sure there's lots of testing to be done. Supposedly they'll deliver their first power to the grid sometime in April.

I sure hope it works and that it is a profitable venture. Allow me to be a bit skeptical: where we are, wind seems to be something that only occasionally kicks up a storm (pun intended). Most of the time calm days seem to prevail. But then, I've been wrong before...

Things you can do with a bathroom window

2006-03-16T12:52:00.000-05:00

Enjoyed the glorious March sunshine this morning, it was a perfect day, cloudless and windless. I let the sun stream on my face while taking a walk in the forest, among the towering oaks, pines and maples. Buds are starting to develop, though there is still a long way to go... Birds are starting to get excited. Common grackles and robins have returned in the last week and now the mornings are a cacaphony of sound, grackles carrying the main tune.

After the walk I had lunch, and while eating this in the sunlit chair in the living room, a bird of an unusual kind visited the bird feeder in the front yard. I rushed to my camera bag, fired up my trusty Rebel and took about 10 shots with the Tamron 28-300 mm through the bathroom window.

Looking through the 'Birds of Ontario' book helped me make the identification: a red bellied woodpecker, rather rare in Ontario. It's a female. Whether or not the male is close by, I do not know. This species reaches the northern limits of its habitat right around Toronto, but is quite common across large portions of the US. In Ontario, it's only found in areas with large tracts of Carolinian forests. It is supposed to be found year round, but I ain't never seen no such critter before.

Update: the male was at the bird feeder this morning (2006/03/20). However, it got away before I was able to get a shot of it.

I did a quick copy from the camera into Picasa, then minor edits in Photoshop (cropping, sharpness, noise)

(By the way, you guys do know that double clicking on the picture produces a larger version?)

Arizona Trip Wrap Up

2006-03-12T18:01:00.000-05:00

Well, actually, we did more than just Arizona. If you care to study the map to the left (which you probably won't), you'll see that we visited, in this order, Nevada, California, Arizona, Mexico, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. The majority of time of course was spent in Arizona.

I did some quick queries in Visual FoxPro and came up with some interesting statistics gathered by the logger:

- total records generated: 232, 570
- total distance travelled: 5,390.03 km
- highest elevation attained: 2,480 m above sea level on SR 152 between Silver City, NM and Truth Or Consequences, NM
- lowest elevation attained: -14.70 m (below sea level), south of Yuma, AZ near the Mexican border)
- average speed: 82. 877 km/h
- top speed: 133.307 km/h (allright I admit it, I was speeding)

About the car: Saturn Ion, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate it a 6. It being a brand new car, you would not expect any mechanical trouble and we didn't experience any. However, ergonomically it is poorly designed, the usual North American approach to looks over functionality. All those rounded lines really cut back on the amount of interior space available. The car's overall responsiveness to accelerating, steering and braking were not more than average, in fact, getting back into my Toyota Echo was a real joy. I couldn't readily track gasoline consumption, so I'm not sure what it was like, but again, compared to the Echo, it would not be good.

About accommodation: for the price you pay, the hotels and motels are a real bargain. They are also readily available, whether in the north or the south, so booking ahead is not really required unless you intend to visit a really small town, such as Kayenta, near Monument Valley. Accommodations are clean and well kept wherever you go. Most have continental breakfast thrown in. Staff, for the most part, are very friendly, with a few ignoramuses thrown in here and there to keep you on your toes.

Roads: Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada have excellent roads, some of the best in North America. Oddly enough, gasoline in these three states is a lot cheaper than in California ($2.30 US vs. $ 3.10 US), yet the roads in California (at least the ones we drove on) were in a lot poorer shape. I'll leave it to the pundits to analyze why.

Food: we bought a cooler the first day in Vegas and then stocked up on food at Von's, which is associated/owned by Safeway. A friendly cashier inquired whether we had a loyalty card, upon which I answered no. She thought for a sec, and decided to get us one, and it is a good thing she did, because it saved us money 'big time'. It works like a discount card: after the final tally, you swipe the card and like a slot machine, the cash register starts working away, calculating the varying discounts on each item you purchased. This usually adds up to about 33% of the total, causing the customer to leave the store sporting a huge smile, which is exactly what Safeway wants. So everybody's happy, supposedly. Anyway, this allowed us keep the grocery bill down to reasonable levels.

With the cooler topped up, we had excellent lunches and munched on things like carrots and fruits while driving. Not having to search for a place to eat, then ordering and finally eating lunch, saves a huge amount of time. We usually ate dinner at a middle-of-the-road restaurant, which are normally easy to find and priced very reasonably.

Weatherwise we were very lucky in that it was a dry winter: normally Flagstaff and other places north get a fair amount of snow. Except for a dusting in Kayenta, we didn't see any.

Arizona and the surrounding area are certainly very unique in their landscapes and are well worth visiting. The highlight: Monument Valley. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, from start to finish. I'd love to do Utah next, but for that it would have to be a little warmer overall, e.g. October. Sounds good to me!

Just some observations about Arizona that perplexed me a little:

- recycling seems to be non existent. Whereas in Ontario we fanatically recycle newspapers, plastic, food scraps, cans, etc, none of that appears to be happening in the Great Southwest. The only reference to recycling we found was in the Grand Canyon where the signs announced 'The National Park Service proudly recycles'.

- although Arizona gets something like 300 days of sunshine a year, there was very little done to capture any of this in terms of solar energy devices. A few traffic signs, the odd house, but nothing more. Makes ya wonder...if not here then where? What it definitely establishes is that conventional fossil fuels are too cheap at this point in time.

Lake Havasu City, AZ to Las Vegas, NV via Laughlin, NV

2006-03-01T02:04:00.000-05:00

I'm doing this post from the Las Vegas airport. Our flight is delayed by 2 hours, so it won't leave till 1:00 in the morning here. Fortunately, there is a free wireless connection here at the airport so I won't be bored.

To offer evidence for the rant in my previous post, I render this photograph, which I snapped just as we were leaving our motel in Lake Havasu City. This boat was parked at the condo next door over night. The owner or driver had to take a couple of stabs at getting it out the gate and onto the road. And let me tell you it by far is not the biggest one I saw.

But enough of that. We were heading for Laughlin (pronounced Lofflin). Since we had come down from Laughlin on Friday, I wanted to take a different road to get back there again, just for the heck of it. This was to take south to Parker, then west over the Colorado River into California to the hamlet of Vidal Junction, then north on 95 till we would turn east on 163 just after we crossed the Nevada state line. 163 then leads straight into Laughlin. Roughly this is a rectangle.

Overall, that was a mistake and a waste of time, let's be fair. The drive to Parker is nice enough, but into California the desert becomes somewhat monotonous and the state of the roads is such that the driver really has no time to sight see. Furthermore, there is an awful lot of traffic on the road.

Anyway, one bright moment did occur when I spotted a desert golf course. Literally no grass, just dirt. Some people were out on the course as you can see. I wonder if they knew the location of the sandtraps. At least they wouldn't have to replace any divits...

The other interesting bit is that once again the approach to Laughlin becomes a long descent down a mountain slope. Though it isn't winding or twisting, nonetheless it is a long slope which finally delivers you to Laughlin. This time we stayed at the River Palms, a slightly older hotel, though still in very good shape.

After we settled in we went for a walk along the river, with the ultimate goal of getting a drink somewhere. We made a little detour and took the free train at the Ramada Express, very cute and authentic, narrow gauge rail. Still not having found a cheap place for a drink, we were getting awfully thirsty. Finally we struck gold back at our own hotel, where Happy Hour had just begun. Since the drinks were so cheap, we had another and well you get the picture. What they didn't tell us is that Happy Hour turns into Sleepy Hour and while you're at it you might as well stay in bed for the night. So that took care of Sunday nite.

Monday morning we were up bright and early and why shouldn't we be after twelve hours of sleep. We had an early cheep, cheep breakfast, it's amazing how far $ 2.22 can take you. Then we hit the tourist info again to get information on more, you guessed it, mountain walks. Having procured the necessary documents we headed for Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which isn't really a lake, but more of a mountain area. We parked the car at the Grapevine Canyon and found ancient Indian petroglyphs next to graffiti proclaiming that Jason loves Amy.

We actually also found a bit of a creek, the odd thing about it was the higher you went, the bigger the creek became. Reason for this was that the creek ran over a gravelly type surface which absorbed the water as it progressed downwards. Very strange.

Not quite ready to call it quits after this walk, we continued on the dirt road that led us to Grapevine Canyon in the first place. Higher and higher we went, all by ourselves. Naturally I was looking out for geological oddities which I spotted with some regularity. The best one was this huge rock in the middle of a fairly level stretch of ground, sitting there all by its lonesome self. Somewhat below the top of the ridge, I turned the car around, as the road was getting very rough and I din't fancy the prospect of the car hung up on an axle, front wheels spinning useless in mid air, with Anne frantically pushing from behind, me encouraging her from behind the wheel to give it all she got.

About half way back down the dirt road I spotted another rock formation and threw the car into park while doing about 30 km an hour. This it didn't like. However, that's not the reason for mentioning this little incident, for as I got out of the car, I spotted what appeared to be a stick right in front of our car, actually about 10 meters or so. Wanting to make sure it was just a stick, I walked over and discovered it was not a stick but a snake, a live one, not an unfortunate victim of a traffic accident. So I shot some photographs of course. I found out I had to employ a trick in other to get it to stick
out its tongue: any movement would do it. Which I used of course. I haven't been able to identify what kind of a snake it is as of this writing, but you're in the desert so rattle snake immediately comes to mind. However, I've got pictures of the tail and no rattles are visible. Anyway, more on the kind of snake once I find out what it is.

Update: It appears to be some kind of non venomous gophersnake. That's my guess anyway.

At still another curious rock formation, undoubtedly solidified lava flow because of the molten look it had, we actually spotted the town of Laughlin deep down below.

Once back in Laughlin we shopped at the pawn shop and the outlet mall, then went for dinner, extremely reasonable prices. This is the granny/grampa gambling capital of the USA no doubt, but you can sure get some good deals.

Next morning we had to pack to get ready for the flight home that night, so I made sure to make myself scarce for that event. Actually, I hauled several loads to the car, which wasn't all that close. Then we headed out, back to Vegas, just as the rain started.

Halfway there, I snapped a few shots just south of the hamlet of Searchlight of a particular long straight stretch of Hwy 95, I estimate it to be about 25 km or so.

The first people to lay eyes on us after we arrived in Vegas were the outlet mall security staff, because that's were we headed first. However, frantic searching for more than a few hours only yielded a pair of sandals for Anne.

Absolutely famished, we found a Mexican restaurant, where we ordered a bunch of stuff, don't ask me what, I was to starved to really care what we ate. While eating I spotted an employee of Starbucks make good use of the trash bin, so after lunch that's were I gave our trusty cooler the royal heave-ho.

Having a few hours to kill yet before the plane left, I parked the car on the strip somewhere and we went for a long walk, north on Las Vegas Boulevard ('The Strip'). Exhausted from that, we drank a very expensive tea at Bally's ($5.39! yikes), and rested like two bag people on a bench in the convention hall at Bally's. Like school children, we poked fun at whoever went by, especially the guy with the red shoes and tie, it turned out he was the piano player at the fancy restaurant, it did occur to me he looked at lot like Liberace.

We gassed up the car one more time, drove to the airport, couldn't find Alamo, since their car drop off is the only one of the car rental companies nowhere near the car rental return park. But what else is new on this trip, one of the days I'll start using GPS...

Next post will be a wrapup, with good things, bad things, tips and tricks for others to use.

Laughlin, NV to Lake Havasu City, AZ

2006-02-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

Since the weekend was coming up, the cheap hotel rates in Laughlin were no more. They quadruple during that period. So we decided to vacate and look for cheaper lodgings, down south in Lake Havasu City, a town we already visited briefly on our first weekend here. After much searching and grumbling, we finally found a place close to the lake which was reasonably priced.

As always, the first thing we did after getting settled in is going to the tourist info for information on walks and such. They gave us a nice, 4 page leaflet describing walks on all sorts, lake shores walks, mountain walks etc. We chose the lakeshore walk first, because it seemed rather idyllic.

The first 500 metres were. Unfortunately, after that, we ended up on a rocky, slimy shore and the only way around it was through unknown thickets, through which over time a path had been created by living things unknown.

Now, I realize I had never heard of the presence of alligators and crocks in this part of the US, but hey, there's water, sort of swampy in some places, brush, and warmth and I can put 2 and 2 together about as well as anybody. Seems like the right combination to me, so the only gallant thing to do was to let Anne lead, since, if one of those guys were to grab her by the leg, somebody would have to save the damsel in distress by running for help. Anyway, except for a roadrunner and a rabbit, no dangerous wildlife was spotted.

Lake Havasu was formed when Parker Dam, downriver about 30 km was formed I believe in 1938. The city itself got its start in 1962 and has grown to about 55,000 inhabitants according to the 2001 census. However, around 20,000 or so snowbirds move in in the wintertime.

Now, Lake Havasu City is not without problems. One of the main problems is an imbalance. An imbalance between the amount of money people have and the braincells required to do something intelligent with that money. We were appalled by the number of monster speed boats on the lake, and I mean monstrous, 30, 40, 50 feet. These emit a low grumble when idling which is audible all day long when you are anywhere on the lake shore, especially when it is multiplied by a factor of 100.

Of course along with the boat goes a trailer and an equally monstrous pickup truck, some of which seemed to be custom built, as I ain't never seen that kind of truck before. Everything is gleaming to boot. So you're likely looking at a million dollars just to get you're boat in the water. You'd probably need a fuel tanker to follow you around to keep your tank somewhat filled up.

The next morning, Saturday, we decided to get away from the lake and go on a mountain walk, which again we chose from the leaflet given to us by the tourist info. Heading away from the city, we reached the end of a paved road and followed the dirt portion up another 2 km or so till we parked at the spot indicated on the leaflet.

We got out and started to walk towards the mountains following the dirt road, but it really wasn't all that interesting, it looked like a huge gravel pit. And what do yahoos like to do in gravel pits? Right, shoot target practice that is. And so it was here. No sooner had we gone up this little hill to get a better view of the city below or this convoy of jeeps pulls up below us, guys jump out carrying rifle cases, from which they (surprisingly) take their rifles and start to load up.

That was enough for us. We headed straight back out. While making our way back to the car, the gun fire started in earnest and it felt like Iraq (or Detroit) for a while. When we got to our car, some other yahoos were firing upon an abandoned car wreck not too far away with a semi-automatic. While driving out along the dirt road we saw a father training his 8 or so year old son in the use of a gun. I sure was hoping the kid wouldn't swing his gun around in our direction and accidentally fire.

So much for that walk.

We finally found a State Park, that had a decent walk. Half way we stopped for a Corona, had a boat ride, then walked back. That was a lot better.

Dinner was had at a noisy Mexican Restaurant, Casa Serrano, though the food was delicious and the prices were reasonable.

Tomorrow we're off the Laughlin again, where I've been able to snag a hotel room at the River Palms for $ 20. And that's Canadian.

Grand Canyon, AZ to Laughlin, NV via Kingman, AZ

2006-02-25T19:34:00.000-05:00

We decided, for no good reason, to make Kingman, AZ our next stop. Well, may be there was a reason, a bit of one, we wanted some warmer weather, and in this part of the world that means lower elevations. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is at about 2100 m, Kingman is at 700 m. That translates in a significant temperature difference. So we drove to Kingman, via Williams, about a 3 hour drive.

Now, Kingman is not exactly a beautiful city, in fact quite the opposite. It is a perfect example of urban spread gone bad. First the town developed on an east-west axis, along Route 66. When I-40 bypassed the town and Route 66 fell in disuse, many of the buildings along that section were abandoned. A new development axis, along a north-south line, started to take shape. Big box stores of every imaginable franchise moved in. Now, rampant development involving big box stores seldom results in a good example of city architecture: that is especially true here. So here we found ourselves, in a motel along a busy highway, which was under construction to boot. Anyway, we had dinner in a simple, but nice Mexican restaurant and turned in early.

Next morning, not exactly looking forward to another nite in Kingman, I looked on the map to see what other towns, places were available. So I spy with my little eye Laughlin, Nevada, just across the Colorado River from Bullhead City, AZ, a mere 40 km from Kingman. I did a search in Expedia and found a whole series of hotel rooms at fire sales prices. Turns out Laughlin is a mini Las Vegas, seemingly used by mostly senior citizens, with big hotels and a casino strip. So, at $30 (Canadian) I decided to book a couple of nights.

Close to Kingman is a mountain range, the Hualapai Mountains, and tourist info in Kingman had given us a nice map showing a hike in the County Park. We drove the 20 km or so and parked our car, where we had a nice chat with a couple from Buffalo (did anybody in this country vote for Bush? We haven't found one yet.)

After some searching, we found the trail head, and started our 2 hour, beautiful, uneventful walk. On the way up, we spotted some cabins that you can rent, we might check that out next time, they looked really good.

Then we drove back to Kingman for our trip over to Lauglin. From Kingman you first head over a low mountain range heading west, then into the Dome Valley, about 20 km, before you get to another low maintain range, the Black Mountains. One you reach the summit there, you start a very, very,very long descent at 6% for 18 km to the Colorado River level, about 1 km lower. Off to the right you see "Runaway Truck Ramps", so I kept checking my rearview mirror to see if we were about to be crushed, because after all, you want to know in what fashion you are about to die. Seeing no trucks barrelling down on me, we coasted to a stop at the traffic lights on the bottom of the slope, before we made the turn to cross the bridge to Laughlin, NV.

Driving into Laughlin provides quite a few stunning sights, with numerous hotels 25 stories high, garish neon signs everywhere beckoning gamblers to come and harvest riches. We registered ourselves in our hotel, the Ramada Express and went for a walk, exploring the riverside, because, after all, we just came from a mountain hike, so what's another 3 or 4 km over hot pavement?

Anyway, the riverside walk is very nice, the Colorado flows very fast at this point, almost rapids. It is also very clean, we saw very large fish, eyeing little kids on the river bank, so that must be a good sign. More importantly, we spotted a happy hour sign, which we could not pass up, so we imbibed, but only in moderation. Now, I'm not much of a gambler, but I got myself signed up anyway at the Hotel Frequent Player's Club, since that gives you discount on food, and why not, like my Dad used to say, a dollar in my pocket looks a heck of a lot better than a dollar in their pocket (actually he used guilders, but you catch my drift). Since it is my duty (and everyone else's as well) to rip off large corporations, I felt very good performing this public service.

We then had a wonderful buffet, watched the Canadian women beat the world in the 3000 m (NBC had no American heroes that night, so English speaking Canadians were a wonderful substitution), and called it quits, i.e. went to bed.

Next morning, we put the frequent player's card to the test again and had a nice breakfast, mostly at hotel expense. We booked a 'cruise' on a river sight seeing tour, where the captain or somebody up front-because-we-never-did-see-him did a very good narration, about how Laughlin was formed. Laughlin's only about 40 years old, started basically after the completion of Davis dam, a little brother to Hoover dam on the Colorado River. Before all the dams were constructed on the Colorado, the river was a shade of reddish brown, because of all the sediments it carried. Something I never knew was that Baja California is a basically a giant sand spit created by the runoff from the Colorado River. So if you want to know what happened to all the material that was carried out of the Grand Canyon, look to Mexico, to Baja California, where is was all dumped. May be the Americans will reclaim it one day and make another state out of it. After all, it is their material. After Iraq, anything is possible.

Nowadays, none of the Colorado River water makes it down to the Sea of Cortez: it is all consumed by thirsty Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, and giant irrigation schemes around Yuma. What little is left at that point is usurped by the Mexicans for drinking water and other purposes.

Depressing enough at that sounded, we just had to have a picker upper, which of course can only be provided in either alcoholic fashion or seeing the Canadians beat the Russians in ice hockey. Yeah, I won't go there.

So now we are completely in the dumps. That is, until my favorite person (Anne) invites me to dine with her in the most expensive restaurant in the Casino. No stuff-your-face-buffet for a change, real waiters carrying fancy bottles of wine, not that that means anything to me, but hey, I can pretend, can't I?

Before we went downstairs to the restaurant, I shot her official portrait. Actually, I was playing around with lighting (some call it lightning), and this is the only one (of the 40 odd shots) that came out half decent. But then, with digital, you can do this.

Dinner was wonderful, but oh my God, the portions were so big. I had a 12 ounce New York Strip Sirloin, the size of Manhattan. My baked potato was the size of Prince Edward Island, to say nothing of the vegetables and salad. The wine was Kenwood Jack London from California. Here I thought all a Kenwood was good for was haulin' logs.

We had a wonderful view of the planes taking off on the airport, just across the river. The Arizona side is at that point almost completely devoid of any development, save for a Home Depot franchise, and a Mr. Lube. On the Nevada side, now that's where things are happening. Well, at least for some, because you can clearly see that one gambler/drinker/cigarette smoker had one too many "High Gravity" lagers.

Finally, some may remember 'Vegas Vic'. Well, he was transported down to Laughlin on renamed 'River Rick'.

Here's today's KML

Kayenta, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

2006-02-21T22:33:00.000-05:00

We got up in the morning only to find that it was snowing! Now, I wouldn't call this a Great Lakes type snowstorm: a light dusting is all that it was. As soon as the clouds parted and the sun came up, it started to melt. We had our breakfast and headed out, straight for the Grand Canyon, about a 300 km trip. At first I paid close attention to the road, you never know there could be black ice on stretches sheltered from sunlight. None materialized, so I picked up speed. After an uneventful drive, we reached the outer limits of the Grand Canyon National Park. In winter, you can only go to the south rim, as the north rim is closed due to snow.

Since we had some lingering low hanging cloud from the overnight snowflurries, the north rim was hidden beyond cloud. That didn't last too long though, soon the entire canyon was revealed in its splendour. The crowd at this point, the most easterly viewpoint called Desert View, was minimal, just a few cars. Just the way we like it. There are numerous view points along the rim from there to Grand Canyon Village, about a 40 km drive. At about the second viewpoint we read a sign that said "Grandview Trail". Reading further we learned that this was one of the trails that can take you right down to the river, 1500 m below the rim. (FYI, the south rim is about 2,250 m above sea level, the north rim is another 300 m higher. It's about 20 km across). Anyway, a couple of hikers just happened to reach the top as we stood there. I took their picture and you should be able to discern by the looks on their faces how exhausted they were. Emaciated might be a better term. They had been on their way, climbing steadily, for almost 6 hours, with heavy backpacks.

We moved west and the further we went, the thicker the crowds became. And this in February! It got so bad, that in the main parking lot there wasn't a spot to be had. This sort of put a damper on things, as we're used to being alone just about everywhere we go. Not only that, the crowds are noisy and boorish. We saw a family where Dad positioned the kids precariously on a set of rocks right above the rim (100 m drop immediately behind), while Mom up top shot a picture. So, all in all, it was a bit disappointing and we decided to retire early to our the Quality Inn in Tusayan, about 10 km south of the rim. (You can actually stay in National Park Service lodges right in the park, but I was too late, they were all filled up).

Feeling somewhat depressed after such a tough day (tongue firmly in cheek here), we chose to attend the local IMAX theatre, where, surprise, they showed a movie about the Grand Canyon. Wow, even tough it's over 20 years old, it still looks pretty good. We stuffed our faces at the buffet dinner at our hotel and since we wanted to be up early to avoid the crowds during the rim hike, we retired early.

Cold and clear was the weather when we got up. Again, the 4 litre bottle of water was frozen solid. Every time we want to use it, it's frozen solid. We picked up some much needed groceries at the very expensive food mart across the road and hopped in the car for the very short drive to the rim.

Our luck was turning. Instead of human wildlife of the worst kind, we saw animal wildlife of the best kind. Just before we reached the rim, a couple of deer, calm as ever, wanted to cross the road. Ever the gentleman, I let them go ahead.

We started off on the rim walk, which you can make as long as you want: if you feel you're sick of it, just turn around and walk back. For most people, this point is reached after about 30 seconds. Us, well we thend to hang in a little longer. We barely got under way when we spotted some elk! I banged off a couple of shots. and we moved on. What would be next? We headed further east, meeting the occasional hiker or hikers, until we reached Grand Canyon Village, where we succumbed to the need for a coffee. We acted snooty, standing by the fire place in one of the most expensive lodges, before reality set in and we went back on our way. At the village, there is another trail that descends, the Bright Angel Trail. Just to say we had been below the rim, we descended a few steps, but came back up. We began our return trip on the rim. Just then, we spotted some condors, so I took a few more shots, one of them of an airborne condor, the other where the birds are resting on a rock. These birds have been marked with giant numbers on their wings, sort of like soccer players, maybe they were in the middle of their game and this was their tea break.

Further east we went, and then, miraculously, I spotted some mountain goats on the trail. They were indeed very subdued, so subdued in fact I think they were on Prozac. I was able to get some nice shots before we let them be.

Some parting shots, literally of the Grand Canyon. You're a big hole. It's been good to know ya.

Kayenta, AZ to Kayenta, AZ

2006-02-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

If the title of this post sounds a bit like a stage in the Tour de France, then please accept my sincere apologies. I really don't know how else to describe the loop which brought us from Kayenta to Kayenta. We start out fairly early on Sunday morning, after continental breakfast and head north on Highway 163 towards Monument Valley again. The snow I hoped for didn't materialize: unfortunately, because that would have added an extra special touch to my pictures. At least there are lots of puffy clouds in the sky. As I said in yesterday's post, we had decided to do the 5 km walk in Monument Valley today.
On the way to Monument Valley, quite close to Kayenta actually, you get to a hill in the highway. Once you crest that hill, you get to see the most amazing sight. On the right, there rises the solidified core of a former volcano ('El Capitan') to a height of almost 300 m above the surrounding plain. The core is the only thing remaining of El Capitan, the rest has eroded away over time. On the left, the remnants of a former butte rise up, looking very much like a statue. But what statue? From various angles it always looks like a different statue. In the middle, there is the lonely highway. Before you ask, no, I'm not scared of standing in the middle of a highway taking a picture. The reason why is simple: you can hear traffic approaching from a long way away.

We reach Monument Valley, pay our $10 entrance fee again, that gets me sort of bummed. However, it is still a bargain for the sights you get to see. We sign in at the visitor's centre, supposedly you have to do this before you leave and sign in again after you return. I see that for this year there were only 30 or so entries in the book. We head out, on top was windy and cold, hats, gloves, winter coats are definitely required. Once we get going though, we warm up quite nicely, aided by the fact that the valley floor is well sheltered from the prevailing westerly wind.

At the outset, a sign tells you what not to do and what to look out for. Don't stray from the trail and do look out for venemous reptiles and insects. I presume they mean snakes and scorpions, but I'm sure these critters won't be out in the cold weather we are facing. The trail itself is moderate to easy and well marked, so getting lost is definitely difficult. The 5 km trail leads around one of the main buttes, called 'West Mitten Butte'. Since nothing but the birds and the wind, as well as the occasional click of the camera shutter may be heard, it makes this extra special to be there next to these giants who seem to take on human qualities with their shapes and sizes. The views again are spectacular and it seems like the trail's end arrives sooner than anticipated. We meet no one. I sign out and we leave Monument Valley for other visitors to enjoy.

Having still most of the day ahead of us, we decide to follow Hwy 163 north into Utah, then go east on 162 into Colorado and then take 160 back again to Kayenta for a circle tour. Just north of the Arizona border, in Utah, the views are quite spectacular, especially that of Monument Pass looking back towards Arizona.

However, the rest of the scenery in Utah is awesome as well. One can only wonder what shapes of nature created the landscape, but one thing's for sure: the area was a cauldron at one time. When we cross the San Juan River, we come to a place called Mexican Hat and I wonder where did they get that name. Well, it isn't very long before I come around a bend in the road and see this. Puzzle solved. I find a spot in sight of the Mexican Hat, we eat our lunch there, hmm, cucumber sandwiches. After lunch, I decide I must get a shot of the Hat, so I walk across the desert for half a kilometre in order to clear some hydro lines. Take the shot, then walk back again. We drive off, only to clear the next hill and see a driveway right up to the flaming rock. Let me tell you, folks, it doesn't pay to be brainless. On we drive, more spectacular Utahian (sp?) scenery. We try to make it into the Valley of the Gods, but the smallest of creeks flows across the mud access road and I chicken out. Stopped by water. In the desert. Hoodathunk. The terrain gets even wilder with red colors, striations going every which way, then levels off somewhat as we head for the Colorado border. There, we 'hang' a right onto Hwy 160, and proceed on to the Four Corners.

Four Corners is the only place in the US where 4 states meet. At the exact spot is a monument placed by surveyors. The place is wholly contained in Indian Country: The Ute Nation in Colorado, the Navajo in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. You pay $ 3.00 entrance fee to get near the place and for that you acquire the privilige of visiting hundreds of stalls selling jewelry, blankets and the like.Sort of like Costco, only out of doors. We instead have some Navajo Fry Bread, which tasted yummy, but don't ask me what was in it, flour I presume.
Next of course comes the customary and obligatory photographs. And, by the way, who sez a woman can't be in one place at the same time? I've got the pictures to prove differently: Anne equally divided in four states. I wonder which Sheriff would have to 'bring her in' if they hear the profanities she offers while I take her picture.

By the way, I placed my logger directly on the Monument, and, according to the way I see it, it is in the wrong spot by at least a couple of metres. Pity the poor surveyors who a hundred or more years ago had to run line to get to this point, far away from home and only marginally closer to the nearest saloon.

We continue our way, now westbound, to Kayenta. Fairly close to Kayenta, I stop for yet another exposed volcano core (there are actually quite a few in this area). Church Rock, it is called. Appropriately enough, it is Sunday.

We reach Kayenta and have to settle for Burger King, since every other restaurant except McDonald's has closed for the evening. Hoodathunk.

Today's KML file is here

Sedona, AZ to Kayenta, AZ

2006-02-20T19:15:00.000-05:00

Day and night: that's the difference between Sedona, Arizona and Kayenta, Arizona. While Sedona is home to the rich and famous, latte consuming crowd, busy with many expensive shops and restaurants, Kayenta is on the Navajo Nation, very spread out, with few stores and even fewer restaurants. Nonetheless, the beauty that can be found near Kayenta, is, in the writer's eyes, second to none. But more about that later.

To get to Kayenta, you find your way back northbound on I-17, then at Flagstaff I-40 for a few short kilometres, exit at Hwy 89, up to 160 to Kayenta, about 250 km of easy driving. Except for one incident when I was going up a grade at legal 120 km/h and a truck pulled out in front of me, in order to pass another, even slower truck, which forced me to slam on the brakes. Should've known: the truck that pulled out was from la belle province.... Even this far from home we have no problem being prejudiced.

We arrrived in Kayenta around 1:00 in the afternoon, and, after checking out the town (which took all of 2 minutes), we decided to head on up to Monument Valley. Now most of you, I presume, have watched TV at some point in your life. In particular western movies, the shoot-em-up-look-very-serious-die-in-the-end kind. Well, quite a few were made in or around Monument Valley, solely because of its dramatic, err, umm, dare I say it, monumental landscape. (Also, quite a few character actors were available in the area, at reasonable rip-off prices) And by gosh, golly gee whiz, they're right, it is a truly spectacular sight, it should be included in the wonders of the world. This only made the whole trip worth it. Giant buttes (pronounce: bjoots) rise up to 300 m high from the desolate valley floor below. It all has to do with plate tectonics within the last 30 odd million years or so, the details of which I will spare you.

We first perused the gift shop, since you never know what you might find there. Alas, no luck, very expensive. On the other hand, that made our earlier purchases look good. We noticed there was a walking trail, so we decided to reserve that for the next day, Sunday. Today, we'd drive the 25 km, so called "Valley Drive". How do they come up with these names? It's actually a dirt road with many sections suffering from either washboarding or rocks protruding out from the surface, not to mention dust flying everywhere but away from you. However, it's only a rental car, so who cares if you have to plug the oil pan with the root of a sage brush yanked from the desert floor. Fortunately, it didn't come that far, but I was passed by quite a few people in Hummers and other SUV's who can now brag to their friends at home they did Monument Valley in 10 minutes. Do I sound bitter, just because I had to eat their dust?

I hate it when I get carried away like that. The drive. It should be about the drive. Which is breathtaking, stunning, exceptionally beautiful and also very nice. There are waypoints where you can stop for scenic lookouts. When all traffic noise dies down, the solitude that creeps over you when you look at these strange rock formations that should not be, rolls up your spine, grabs you by the neck and makes you think there is a ... Looking at these 'things', it isn't hard to imagine that the natives came to believe their Gods were in this valley. It is very easy to see faces, shapes, human form in the rocks that rise up to the heavens. But have a look for yourself, even though the pictures cannot, by any means, convey the depth and magnitude of the landscape.

After the drive finished, I wanted to wait until closer to sunset, so the buttes shadows would be longer, giving a more dramatic effect. So we had some tea in the visitor centre restaurant. Wouldn't you know it though, this time of year, the sun from the visitor's centre is right in your back (Notice the shadow from the helpful amateur photographer in the pic of Anne and I). So that took care of that. We headed back to Kayenta.

Now what's there to do in Kayenta on a Saturday nite, you ask. And why shouldn't you ask. Well, since we'd been on the road for over two weeks, our supplies of fresh undies was getting precariously low. In fact, the prospect of recycling crept ever nearer. In order to head that off, we drove to the local laundromat, which is a truly happening place, so packed with people and noise, in fact, that if you closed your eyes you could imagine yourself being on the dance floor in some swanky Ritz hotel. Open your eyes though, and it is still only a laundromat in Kayenta. There we stood, like two klutzes, totally lost, surrounded by these peoples who were all experts in running these machines. Fortunately, we were aided by a few very friendly people, in particular one, I would say, 13 to 14 year old girl, who kept on her eye on us, and was ever ready to give advice on how to properly start the dryer for instance. Otherwise, we'd still be there. Either that, or we'd be kicked out long ago, because of the laundromat flooding.

With bags full of fresh smelling laundry we made our way to Hampton Inn, one of the only restaurants in town, for a very good meal, indeed.

Tomorrow, Kayenta again (Spanish translation: 'Quando Calienta el sol'....)

Today's KML file here

Sedona, AZ

2006-02-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

First the bad news: there will be no logging for the next two days. Reason being: we are staying put in Sedona and only use the car for errands such as getting groceries, booze and getting to trail heads. We didn't even use the car at all yesterday as the trail we selected to walk started right in our backyard. Or so I thought, by looking at the map. Actually, it started about 1.5 km away from our back yard at the end of Jordan Avenue, the road on which our motel is situated. So that added to the overall length of the trail, which was to be almost 4 km one way. Brilliant sunshine greeted us as we headed out, jovial mood, backpack full of supplies, water, alcohol, jalapeno chips, all good sustenance. Alas, I lied about the chips and alcohol. Almost immediately I spotted a blue bird (appropriately named) in a tree and fired of a couple of shots with my Rebel. We really haven't seen much wildlife in the way of birds or mammals, I suppose the lack of moisture makes it very difficult for it to survive.

Speaking of moisture, nearby Prescott broke a record today with 121 days without rain ( never mind snow). Although today was cloudy, and it actually rained in Phoenix, there was no rain in Sedona. It is very rare indeed to see free standing water here. That's why, when it's cold, it's a "dry cold". I don't know how many times I heard that phrase before and scoffed at it, now I'm afraid I am forced to pick crow from the menu.

I believe the explanation for dry cold goes something like this: Since there is little moisture in the air, not much of it can deposit itself on your skin. Therefore, only a little heat is extracted from your body in order to accomplish evaporation of this moisture.

The explanation for dry heat is this: since the moisture content of the air (relative humidity) is low, any perspiration a person produces readily evaporates, making one feel cooler.

But once again I digress. The trail was relatively rough, with quite a few steep inclines. After an hour, right at the top of the trail, we met some people who told us to make a loop out of it by joining up with another trail. Easily convinced, I fell into the trap. This trail took another 1.5 hours to complete. At the very end of it, almost adjoining the first suburban houses of Sedona, we stumbled upon this truly massive sink hole, measuring roughly 100 m by 100m and 30m deep. You can only wonder what forces of nature were at work to create this enormity. The most fascinating feature though was the fact that all walls were undermined and on the north side a ginormous rock, the size of a small apartment building had broken off from the underside of the upper ridge of the cave. This must have happened sometime between yesterday morning and 10,000 years ago. The fractures lines are so clear, that if one had enough strength and one happened to have a (non leaking) bottle of Krazy Glue in one's pocket, one could pick up the rock and glue it back into place. For perspective, I asked Anne to stand on the last remaining piece of the cave bridge, which she reluctantly did, although cries of "Hurry up" and "Am I being paid for this?" were clearly audible across the canyon floor. I told here to not to worry, that the bridge would likely stand until the next earthquake, but somehow she seemed to attach very little value to my well analyzed statement. Note that if you doubleclick the boulder picture, you might just spot her with hands in the air, as if grasping for straws.

Having safely cleared the sinkhole, we were at the end of the trail, at the outskirts of Sedona. However, we were nowhere near our motel. So now we had to complete the loop by walking back to the motel along a 4 lane highway, with cars zooming by at the rate of 100 per minute. Needless to say a fair amount of grumbling was being done, as we had already walked for 3 hours in the hot blazing sun. Some phrases being carefully formulated and finally uttered were "dyin' of skin cancer", "suckin' up gasoline fumes" and wanting equal time on my blog. I sheepishly decided to avoid a confrontation , bite my tongue, which I did until it bled profusely.

After an hour, we reached the first latte house of Sedona, where I was instructed to order coffee and something good to eat. I desperately searched for jalapeno and cheddar chips, but ultimately only came up with macadamia (sp?) cookies.

We gathered the last strength our legs could muster and walked the last half kilometre home, Anne noticing by the way that this severe senior citizen couple walking ahead of us seemed to go faster than we did.

Finally, we reached home and we had showers and rested. Anne prepared a turkey lasagna we bought at Safeway earlier and it was grand.

Technology wise, I worked on creating a KML creation and upload utility (program), which is now finished. It uses the shareware version of West Wind wwclient classes to perform the FTP action up to my own server. So now, at the end of the day, all I need to do is supply a few parameters and I'm done.

Now the good news: it appears we will live to see another day...

Holbrook, AZ to Sedona, AZ

2006-02-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

Holbrook, Arizona. Hmm, not exactly a familiar name. And there is a reason for that. Reason being, there ain't nothing to see in Holbrook, save for the Wigwam Motel ('Have You Ever Slept In A Wigwam?') and remnants of Route 66 road side infrastructure. Delapitated buildings with faded signs. Closed up motels with 50's style blown out marquees. The landscape itself is a featureless relatively flat desert, only here and there are small outcrops of red rock protrude the monotonous landscape. Back in the late 1880's, the town did have it's share of fun though: 26 people were killed in gun battles, in a town whose population probably did not exceed 500. Until Sheriff Perry Owens (no relation to Buck) straightened them all out in 1887 that is, by gunning down 3 outlaws all at the same time, in their own house no less.

And so it was that we left Holbrook behind that sunny morning. But not before we had made a quick stop at the local lumber yard, to pick up a 20x24 piece of quarter-inch plywood, to be used by Anne for a backing for her art work. Back onto I-40 we went, west bound, sailing right past Winslow, Arizona only famous for "Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see" from the Eagles song "Take It Easy". The local Chamber of Commerce has even erected a statue to commemorate the momentous line, but we didn't bother to stop and see it. Onwards to Flagstaff Arizona, whose snowless San Francisco Peaks (4000 m) can be seen from 80 km away. Then south on I-17 to Hwy 89A, descending from a plateau at 1800 m to the valley below at 1200 m. As the canyon widens the views get more and more beautiful, with red peaks and spires all the way around the viewer. Finally, after 30 km of descending slowly down the winding and twisting canyon road, you arrive in the little town of Sedona. Well, little, at about 10,000 inhabitants or so. This is a haven for residents from Phoenix trying to escape the summer heat. Because of the elevation difference, temperatures here are about 10C lower than in Phoenix. So if it is 45 in Phoenix, it is only 35 here, which you might say is downright cold.

While driving from Holbrook to Sedona, the wind picked up and became stronger and stronger until I feared dust storms would engulf us. Fortunately, it never reached that point, but nonetheless the ferocious winds made walking somewhat unpleasant.

The motel we are in is the only prebooking I did prior to leaving (except for Motel 6 the first night) It is a suite, with beautiful mountain (actually canyon wall) views on three sides. We did a little hike into the canyon, then went back up and joined the crowd strolling mainstreet, before we curiously found ourselves at the local Goodwill Thrift store buying hats. Mexican dinner was the food fare tonite, and we enjoyed the live flamenco guitar music with our dinner, until the band members abruptly 'up and quit' at 8:30. What's up with that? It appears anybody visiting Sedona is near senior citizen age and 8:30 is mandatory bedtime. Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow.

Today's GoogleEarth KML file is here

Gallup, NM to Holbrook, AZ

2006-02-14T22:33:00.000-05:00

When I said the other day that it can get pretty cold in the desert, I wasn't kidding. We had left a 4 liter jug of drinking water in the trunk of the car, only to find it frozen solid this morning. Yet during the day, the temperature shot up to 10 Celsius.

The hotel (Microtel) had an average continental breakfast, no fruit, so that was a bit of a bummer. Anyway, at breakfast, we ran into a couple from Brighton, Ontario who had just arrived, by car (Toyota Celica), from Ontario and who were just starting their tour of Arizona. We had a nice chat, exchanged stories and tips and we were off.

First, as per the usual, to the grocery store to get fruits and vegetables, as we were all out. Next, it was off to Red Rock State Park, which needs no further explanation as the name says it all. We had a bit of trouble finding it of course (read: we got lost), but after some time arrived at the foot of the Pyramid Trail for a 2 hour hike. The peak is about 250 m higher than the foot of the trail, but most of the climb is fairly gradual, so it is a good workout and no death defying stunts (read: leaping across 2 metre crevices) are required to reach the top. Half way up we met the man who designed the trail, the self professed "trail boss", who was busy cleaning graffiti of the rock walls. On the very top, we met MaryJo from Ohio, who had left her husband and 2 children (8 and 3 year old). In the hotel, that is, while she did her morning workout climbing Pyramid Mountain.

The three of us descended together, which in this case was a snap. It had gotten windy, so the dust was blowing around pretty good. Small dunes were forming on the side of the road.

Main Street, Gallup was our next target. It is part of Old Route 66, with lots of "Indian Trading Posts" and pawnbrokers. The stuff for sale (mostly jewelry, pottery, and rugs, very few CD drives, USB hubs and the like) is all equally beatiful, so choosing what to buy is very tough. Nonetheless, with enough effort, Anne was able to procure some unique and precious stuff. We did enjoy a delicious coffee, before heading out on I-40 westbound, destination Holbrook, AZ, about 120 km. Where last night I explained about flea bag motels, well tonite we are living it. Anyway at $25.00 who can complain. No ice, but wireless Internet yes!!!!.

Speaking of wireless internet, it is truly amazing how fast that has spread. Unheard of 2 years ago, now about 50% of hotels, motels have it. I pity Motel 6, which I believe had every room wired with a special phone line a few years ago, which are now pretty well useless.

Our cooler, purchased the first day in Las Vegas, leaked and the whole back seat was soaked. Fortunately, it's only water and secondly it's a rental car, so no worries. We went to the local dollar store and purchased a sturdier one. Tonights dinner was buffet at Pizza Hut, delicious.

Tomorrow we are going down to Sedona, via Flagstaff. Sedona is supposed to be beautiful.

Here's today's KML file

Santa Fe, NM to Gallup, NM

2006-02-13T22:56:00.000-05:00

We got up early this morning, making sure that we were the first guests in the hotel to enjoy the hot breakfast. Wrong. Another couple beat us to it. Anyway, the breakfast was great, and after we packed up we hit the grocery store to stock up on some necessities like chocolate bars and the like. Next, we drove to downtown Santa Fe, parked the car and searched every where for the promised Visitor Centre, only to find it closed. So we had a delicious coffee instead while planning our next move.

Santa Fe is another city that has an incredible number of art museums, galleries, street vendors (mostly Native Americans) selling art. The city isn't all that big, and multi storied buildings are fairly uncommon. It is situated at the foot of a montain range (Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which I presume means Blood of Christ Mountains), on which you can actually see some snow on the top.

Towards the south, the high desert stretches as far as the eye can see. Tumbleweeds grow and die, very short brittle grass occupies some space, most of the ground is covered in coarse stone.

But I digress. Our next move was paying a visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It isn't all that big, but it does feature a wide cross section of her most important work.

Having our fill of Santa Fe, we headed south, back to Albuquerque, then east from there to Gallup, NM, to spend the night. On the way to Albuquerque a giant tumble weed, about 1.5 metres in circumference, blew on the highway right in front of us. At first not knowing what to do, I swerved at the last moment, but managed to keep the Saturn on the smooth part. I probably could've driven right through it, but who knows what it might have done to the vehicle. After that experience, the other smaller tumble weeds didn't present much of a problem.

From Albuquerque, we took I-40 destination Gallup. At first the terrain is kind of boring, but about 50 kms in, red sandstone cliffs like mesas start appearing on the north (right hand side). At one particular spot, we exited the highway and drove mere meters up a dirt road just to enjoy the view of these massive bright red cliffs glowing in the sunlight. Almost immediately, a pickup truck driven by a Native American pulled up, asking if we had car trouble. When we answered 'no', he told us very politely that these were tribal lands and we really shouldn't be there. So, we turned around sheepishly and hit I-40 westbound again...

There are huge Indian Reservations in this area. Notice the use of a politically incorrect term in Canada. This is what they are called here however, so that's the terminology I'll follow while I'm down here.

Anyway, we continued our trip, with the cliffs still appearing now on non native lands. So I pulled of the highway again and got some in the fading sunlight. A cross continental train drove by, adding some contrast to the scene.

Tonight we are in Gallup, population 50,000. Our motel is right on Historic Route 66, that's the street name, actually it now is State Road 118. There are numerous Indian Trading Posts here, some we will undoubtly check out tomorrow.

The motel is again very reasonably priced, $ 30 for the room, including breakfast. We saw rooms as low as $17.95, but then you're probably expected to clean and disinfect and delous your room first.

We found out that the way to get a decent rate at a hotel is to pick up a hotel discount coupon flyer at a visitor centre. You'll find these in just about any half horse and over town. This way you get to select before hand what you want and what price you're willing to pay. Very convenient.

Today's GoogleEarth KML file is here. See yesterday's blog entry from more info.

Socorro, NM to Santa Fe, NM

2006-02-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

The motel at Socorro even had a good continental breakfast thrown in with the price, so naturally, we bulked up. While doing so, we had a nice chat with some people from Colorado, who had family in Picton, Ontario. Small world. We commiserated in the state of the political world (read Busch-Cheney), before each party went its own separate way.

We set out for Albuquerque on a clear cold morning. The thermometer in this part of New Mexico fluctuates wildly, rumor has it people need to buy the heavy duty kind around these parts, since otherwise environmental distasters re spilled mercury occur too frequently. Today's high 12 Celsius, tonite's low -10 Celsius.

We first found our way to Old Town, the oldest part of the city, established in 1706. Today, this section of town consists of boutiques, art shops, coffee shops, with once again left leaning tendencies, so watch for an exposé on Fox News any day now. After posing next to a Hummer (owned by a church goer), Anne bought some gorgeous jewellery (after some hard bargaining). I, meantime, walked around the area and had a hearty laugh when a spotted a bumper sticker laden vehicle. 'Heck uv a job Brownie' was my favourite. We enjoyed a coffee and were on our way again, this time to Sandia Tramway.

Sandia Tramway is a cable car (of course it has to include the widest span in the world), that takes you to the top of Sandia Mountain. The weather was perfect, on top it was 2 Celsius, but absolutely no wind and brilliant sunshine, so I think I was a little overdressed in my parka. We chose a safe 2 hour round trip hike to the very top, only to get to a parking lot, because you can drive up the other side of the mountain. Normally, this mountain get almost 3 meters of snow each winter season, but this year, the hills are closed, since they have received nary a trace. On the way up in the tramway we had a moment of silence for 16 people who died in 1955 when a Super Constellation flew in the side of the mountain. You can still clearly see the remnants of the plane scattered about the area.

Next we drove to Santa Fe, about 80 km up the road from Albuquerque, where we found a Holiday Express, including hot breakfast for less than $40. Mexican Restaurant is where we are headed in a few minutes.

Most of the driving here is extremely simple. Virtually all road surfaces are in very good shape, and traffic is light so cruise control is used a lot. 75 mph is the speed limit on most freeways. Price of gas fluctuates around $ 2.30 for a gallon, which equates to $ 0.68 a litre Canadian.

Since I knew a full moon would be arising, we decided to look for an elevated spot with a view to where the moon would breach the horizon. After a bit of searching, we found such a spot and waited, for what seemed to Anne to be an eternity. But sure enough, right in the spot predicted by Keith, a silvery moon rose over yonder horizon. Whether it as all worth it, I'm not sure, as the shot(s) were not all that great, but hey, it was worth a try.

I finally got around to uploading a KML file to my own website. What is a KML file you ask. Good question. You may have heard of Google Earth, a free software program from Google that uses satellite photos to show you virtually any place on earth. Now Google allows you to several neat things, one of which is to use coordinates to show a line from place to place. So what I did is use the coordinates from the logger, export them to a text file, fill in some other KML template stuff around them (much like XML, for those in the know). Now, after you download the KML file, and you've got Google Earth loaded on your computer, the 'movie' should replay, showing you exactly the route we took. (Note: you may to right click while hovering the mouse pointer over the download link and then choose 'Save Target As...'). It is best to have high speed internet access, otherwise Google Earth cannot keep up loading the pictures. Initially, it will show a static picture of the route we took, to play the movie press the blue right arrow button on the bottom of the 'Places' panel.

You can manipulate how fast the movie plays and the angle of incidence, or camera tilt. You do this by going to the 'Tools' menu of the main menu bar, then selecting 'Options', then clicking on the 'Control' tab. Now place a check mark in the 'Advanced' check box and more options will appear. Set camera angle to 50, set camera range to 1500 metres, and slide the speed slider to about 33%. Note that you cannot do this while the movie is playing: it will abruptly quit and you have to start all over again.

If you can, set the camera angle to 75, that way you get a nice horizon with sky and mountains, making it more realistic. I found, however, that using that setting, the movie will stop after a while, for reasons probably unknown even to the Google engineers. Have fun and let me know if you need any help.

Lordsburg, NM to Socorro, NM

2006-02-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

After having enjoyed mild temperatures in Arizona for the entire week, New Mexico seems downright cold. When we got up it was downright blustery. The wind was making it feel a heck of a lot colder than it actually was. We intended to drive to Socorro, NM, and I like to keep the tank topped up, since gas stations are not exactly like Tim Horton's around here. While trying to count out one dollar bills to pay the cashier (outside), one of them got away on me. I made a half hearted attempt to chase it down, but I had to make a quick decision: look half stupid now by giving up, or completely stupid by chasing after in the bushes, across the road and further into the ditch. I made a wise decision and did the correct thing: I gave up. Some lucky New Mexico bum will secretly thank me I'm sure when he finds it some day.

Then off we went, into the desert, which slowly rises at first, then the incline becomes steeper, and before you know it, you've reached the Continental Divide, which doesn't seem all that high here. Then, it's a gradual descent to Silver City, a mining town, I'll leave it to you to guess what mineral.

We strolled around for a bit, to get our bearings. Turns out this is a combined arts/mining town, with lots of cute little shops. Today was dress up day in town, we bought a book of the author and got to snap a picture of him and his wife. When I made an attempt to pay for the book, I noticed I didn't have enough cash, so I decided to go to the nearest ATM, leaving Anne in the store, having great confidence she would not get a rare attack of shyness and refuse to talk to the proprietors. I walked and looked for an ATM, nothing is sight, even though I am downtown Silver City. WTF. I ask the owner of a dog, who I suppose is fairly knowlegeable about the town where he lives, "First left then right". I should have known. Nothing. I keep walking, finally hitting a shopping centre with a Chase Bank. Phew, finally, 20 minutes have passed since I left Anne in the store. Then I open my wallet, look for my bank access card and to my consternation cannot find it. Look everywhere, double check, nada. Now, it is not such a big deal, I have my trusty VISA, which works beatifully, but still. I finally get back to the store, no Anne, she has bailed, I meet her in the street, crying (well no, that part's made up). We go back, pay, have coffee, but deep inside I'm worried sick about my card. Where is it? Did someone nab it? Is my bank account now depleted and should I go back to Lordsburg to retrieve my dollar now?

Anyway, we hit the road again, on our way to Truth or Consequences. To get there though, you need to pass through a mountain range, and I mean big time mountain range, with hair pin turns and signs stating at the outset "No plowing at night and on weekends". Fortunately, it was sunny, so no fear there. After driving like that at speeds of 30-40 km/h (check the speed graph below) for one and a half hours we finally get to the other side. Back to the desert. Truth Or Consequences. Beyond its name, nothing interesting, a town well worth skipping. Entering I-25 we engage cruise control and sail into Socorro about an hour later.

In a desperate attempt to find my bank access card, I turn the car upside down (well, not literally), but come up empty handed. So I decided to phone TD who cancelled it for me. I was happy to hear it had not been used since I last withdrew some cash back in Tucson.

Socorro appears to be a University town, the restaurant where we ate was filled with undergrads marking papers. Motel prices have dropped siginificantly from what they were in Arizona. Tonite is $35.00 for a nice room, fridge, micro wave, high speed internet. My guess is the motel has a vacancy rate right now of 75%.

The portions we had in the restaurant were absolutely huge, 1 meal would have sufficed for both of us. So we had to walk it off, in the dark, past Walmart, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC (advertising their 'chicken steak fried' specialty) and Esonic, America's favorite drive in. It seemed like a throwback to the 50's and 60's.

Tomorrow Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Douglas, AZ to Lordsburg, NM

2006-02-11T01:24:00.000-05:00

Now when you book a room at Motel 6, I fully understand that they don't have to give full disclosure of the local environs of the motel. I was however I little surprised when I go up this morning that the place next door is a prison, full of prisoners (unless orange jumpsuits are suddenly a fashion statement) On top of that, our room is at the end of the building, as close as you can get to those would-be escapees. So, where we should have been trembling in fear all night, waiting for someone to break down the door in desperate search for beer, we slept in ignorant bliss. Such a missed opportunity.

Anyway, our reason for choosing bordertown Douglas was so that we could slip across the border into Mexico and purchase some goods. So we headed over bright and early at 8:00 thinking commerce would be thriving. Wrong! Even though stores advertised their opening time at 8:00, 90% were still closed at 9:00. So, while Anne did her morning prayers in one area of a restaurant, I ordered breakfast, consisting of eggs and some other stuff. It tasted just fine. Worked our way across the border again and headed north to a park called Chiricahua, a mountain park.
Montezuma's revenge struck suddenly and without (much) warning. With the car stopped and Anne taking a picture of the desert and mountain background, I was forced to unload, taking great care not to get any on me. Fortunately, the road was deserted, sparing any unwiling spectators the gory details of this gruesome event.
Towns are sparse in this part of the US and money in those towns is even sparser. Most houses are technically classified as 'shack' (category 1) or 'poor excuse for a shack' (category 2). Nonetheless, their inhabitants are fiercely patriotic and flags are flying wherever one's gaze lands. The landscape, in the eyes of the writer, is extremely beautiful. Wherever you travel, you are always surrounded by mountain ranges, perhaps not extremely high, but mountain ranges nonetheless. In between these ranges is the desert floor, relatively flat, consisting mostly of coarse gravel, more or less the consistency of a parking lot after a building has been torn down. Topsoil appears to be at a premium.

One of those mountain ranges was the target of our visit. The Chiricahua Mountains were formed 27 odd million years ago when a volcano blew its top with a force 1000 times greater than Mount St. Helens, though I'd like to know who is counting. The type of lava it spewed out was instrumental in leaving behind the most wondrous rock formations I have ever seen. Thousands upon thousands of spires all looking towards the heavens for help, but ultimately all will fail and fall.

We made sure that this time we got a nice, easy 2 hour walk over relatively flat terrain. The scenery, along with the most gorgeous weather ever, made for a wondrous event. We left the park, put the car into cruise and didn't stop until we ended up in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

Nogales, AZ to Douglas, AZ

2006-02-11T00:23:00.000-05:00

First stop : grocery store. We bought a little styrofoam cooler the first day in Las Vegas, whih serves as our fridge. This is working out very well indeed. It contains cold cuts, vegetables, drinks as well as the odd bottle of alcohol, after all you don't want to see that go bad. After stocking up on food (and sneaking in some wine too), we headed up to Patagonia, our first stop of the day.

Patagonia appears to be an artist colony. It's Main Street is filled with studios, art shops, coffee houses and the like. In fact, everybody is so wrapped up in painting that even the local chain gang was at it when we drove into town: they were painting the curbs a beautiful shade of red to mark the no parking areas. All kidding aside, Patagonia renders a completely different atmosphere then Nogales, which is a typical border town. I was going to do some photography while Anne browsed the artists' work spaces. Unfortunately for me, the chain gang had moved out, leaving me only to photograph the results of their work (see the saloon shot, look at the curb in front). Also, there was a franchise of PIGS (Politically Incorrect Gas Station), although I believe the number of franchises actually is only 1. This is where the last remaining redneck in town still reigns supreme.
Somewhere in our travels (err umm, actually we were lost), we ended up in Rio Rico, a horse town where cattle graze in the fire department parking lot.

We had a picnic lunch in the park in Patagonia, before hitting the road again, this time setting our sights on Tombstone. Surely Tombstone needs no introduction. It's gunfight at the OK Corral is renowned world wide. People shooting in the street, bodies dropping and all that stuff, how romantic. Actually what we feared was going to be a tourist trap, turned out to be a quite neat little outing. Anne browsed the shops while I took some shots of the town, which sure looks a lot like the perfect movie set. When I met her on the wooden sidewalk sometime later, "Beholdin' to you ma'am" was all I could utter. "Howdy partner" she replied and off we trotted to the washroom. We looked to buy a western hat, but alas, we failed: the prices were just too high. So we hopped back in the car, restarted the logger and headed to Douglas, another border town.

Talking about the technology, it is working quite well, I have been improving it as we go along. It is a bit of a hassle though to start it up, so tomorrow I hope to set it up in such a fashion that it will start immediately once the machine gets going. There will be a 30 second time out, allowing for someone to interrupt startup before it gets going, in case you do not want it to log. So far, it has accummulated about 150,000 records.

Before we left I acquired a 12v to 115V power converted from Canadian Tire, greatly reduced on sale, a 200W. This converted provides 115V power to the computer's power supply. Unfortunately, it doesn't start up automatically and I need to ensure it is running before it runs the computer's battery dead. So far, so good.

Totally unexpected we bumped into another artist colony named Bisbee, tucked high up in the mountains. Bisbee was a copper mining town, that fell on hard times when the mine closed. The artist have moved in and it appears to be thriving one again. I sincerely believe that not one redneck lives behind its walls: Kerry-Lieberman stickers were still all the rage. Anne bought some lovely hand made, made-on-the-spot jewellery from a local artist, while at the same time I managed to wipe out on the loose stones while trying to get to just the right vantage point, overlooking the town. Damage done: a few scratches on the Canon Rebel and a minor cut on my hand.

In the darkness we drove on to Douglas. Suddenly, I saw what appeared to be lightning flashes far away. As we unloaded at Motel 6 the lightning got brighter. When we went out for dinner, we promptly got half soaked running from the car to the restaurant. Locals told us it hadn't rained since last November...

Tucson, AZ to Nogales, AZ

2006-02-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

Tucson, Arizona. The mere mention of the phrase conjures up all kinds of romantic images long ago created by books, movies and songs. Reality, as always, is quite different. A warm city, mind you. On the 8th of February temperatures where in the mid twenties with bright sunshine.

We drove downtown and found the visitor's centre, where we gathered info on museums and city walks. Decided to do the walk first, to get the lay of the land. Unfortunately, as with most North American cities, you do a lot of walking to go from visual stimulus to visual stimulus. To boot, it is hot, so the fun derived from such an event is minimal. So we decided to try the art museum next, which showcased mostly contemporary artists. The highlight of the museum tours for me though, was a visit to The Museum for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. which was featuring one of the premier photographers of the 50's and 60's Harry Callahan. Some awe inspiring work, where each image seemed to be better than the next. All of it in black-and-white. Personally, I adore sharp images, and most of his work was done with 8x10 cameras which can produce extremely sharp results.

Since we had a late start, the day just seemed to fly by, and we had a late lunch/early supper. Then I had spotted that the top level of the parking garage of the University of Arizona had a beautiful open view to the north, looking out at the Santa Catalina Mountains. So we hung around for a little while waiting for the sun to set, which it did shortly after six. I managed to grab a few shots of the mountains in their evening glow, even though my Canon 20d locked up completely with an error 'Err99'. I had to take the battery out to 'reboot' it. First time that that happened. It seems to work fine now though, and all images were preserved as well.

As is traditional with us, we got totally lost trying to get out of Tucson. What seemed so simple in theory (or at least in my mind), was extremely difficult in practice. Having driving 25 km where 10 would have sufficed, we headed south on I-10 to Nogales, AZ, which is on the Mexican border. We arrived at Motel 6 an hour later, checked in, went to Walgreens for supplies (hair coloring, suntan lotion, blank CDs for me), then watched as a hapless driver forgot that there was a concrete island between the north and southbound lanes while he was turning into Walgreen's and promptly managed to rearrange the positioning of all exhaust related equipment on the underside of his vehicle. He did what I would have done if I were in his position: sped up and pretended that nothing had happened. There, but for the grace of God...

Gila Bend, AZ to Tucson, AZ

2006-02-08T10:42:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful time at the Travelodge in Gila Bend, very reasonably priced at $ 55 a night, with large rooms, and comfortable accommodations. Staff was more than eager to please and very helpful. In retrospect, should've stayed there longer...

We headed south, trying to find Hat Mountain. Of course we missed the turn off, since driving at the speed limit of 65 mph (about 110 km/h) seems so much fun, everything wizzes by. Furthermore, of course we didn't notice that we missed it until we got to the outskirts of the next town Ajo. Feeling robbed, we decided to drive back to the turn off to Hat Mountain which was probably about 20 km. When we did find it , it turned out to be an Air Force Gunnery Range. Not feeling very brave, we decided not to breach the fence, never mind ramming it with our rental car. So, we headed back to Ajo, in search of better luck.

We did find it there, luck that is. We stopped by at the very helpful Chamber of Commere, who told us how to get to the local museum and how to reach the lookout for the abandoned copper mine, apparantly the second largest open pit mine in the world, abandoned in 1984. The 'hole' is about 1.5 km across and 350 meters deep. That's is also the level of the ground water!

We stopped by the Museum, which although small, is filled to the rafters with extremely interesting stuff, from ming gear to an old dentist office. The volunteer guide, Jim, was very helpful and we had a nice chat. Turned out he is as interested in photography as I am, we got hime to autograph his prize winning humming bird shot, published in the latest edition of the local newspaper.

From Ajo, we headed southeast on SR 85 and 86, towards Organ Pipe National Guard, where we stopped by the visitor's centre and obtained some information about hikes. We decided on a hike up to the Arch, which is a natural bridge, towering high above the surrounding plains in the Ajo Mountains. Now, you always have to approach these hikes like home renovations: if you knew ahead of time what was facing you you would never start them. So you do the obvious and try to forget about possible difficulties. The sign at the bottom said the hike was 'relatively easy'. That is the problem with the word 'relative'. Relative to climbing Mount Everest I would say. Especially the second part of the hike is strenous, with climbers (notice I didn't say hikers) having to crawl on your knees over rocks, negotiating precipitous cliffs. One false move and I'm headed home in a pine box. If they can ever find me, that is. Anyway, we did enjoy ourselves, proving that at our age we can be fit and stubborn at the same time. The view at the top was gorgeous, though you cannot see the arch from up there. Going down is proably as tough as going up, we had to think of our 10-month-old granddaughter Amaryn, who is a pro at bum scooting, a process, where she sits on the floor and pulls herself forward with her feet. Well, that was us on the rocks, as their is no other way of doing it, save for sliding down face first. Exhausted, we arrived at the bottom.

We then headed to Tucson, about a 180 km trip from Organ Pipe. Since it is just north of the Mexican border, the NBPS (National Border Patrol Service) is out in full force. Quite a few roads have checkpoints, there is one just at the exit of the Organ Pipe Park where we stopped and 'interrogated'. Actaully that is a supreme exaggeration, when asked for our citizenship, Canadian, 'Go ahead, have a nice time' was the next phrase. Since it was getting late, we were faced with the drive to Tucson through a darkened, lonely desert. Fortunately, there was a moon out, and even more fortunately, this moon had a huge ring around it, I hadn't seen a ring like that in a long time.

Tucson announces its present from quite a distance away with beckoning lights. Unfortunately, we felt kind of cheated when the advertised motel room rates were worth about as much as the paper they were printed on on the real rates were about twice that. Being cranky and tired, we were in no mood to argue (does that make sense?). So we put up. Then came the dining experience of a lifetime: McDonald's, since the crankiness had not dissipated between us moving in to our room and heading out for dinner. There just seemed nothing else around. Oh well, tomorrow is another day...

Yuma, AZ to Gila Bend, AZ

2006-02-06T23:26:00.000-05:00

Day 3 saw us first head south from Yuma the 30 km or so to the Mexican border where we parked the car at 'Friendship Park', which is a bit of a misnomer as the heavily fortified border line would indicate otherwise. Anyway, we crossed the border into Mexico on foot. Now, mere feet across this border the full blown street life of Mexico commences, with the usual scene of men hanging out on street corners. I was immediately approached by someone asking me if I needed a doctor. Hmm, do I really look that bad. The second store front read 'Dentista' so I assume a lot of US citizens get their teeth fixed here. We stumbled around town somewhat, a typically Mexican town filled with stores of every kind. Stumbled I say, because we kept tripping over the uneven sidewalk which is prevalent everywhere, something we are not (yet) used to. We spotted a cantina and our urge was too great: we succumbed to having a Corona at 9:15 am. Breakfast? the waitress asked Cerveza! we responded. We had a nice little chat, watched a bull fighting movie, paid our bill and walked back to the US. Anne managed to balance first on the Mexican side of the red line, then the American. Going back into the US wasn't a big deal: the line up was long, but the border guard was friendly. Next thing we had to solve a cross continent financial problem for one of the kids via cell phone and text messaging, while driving through the verdant valley of vegetables surrounding Yuma on all sides. That being solved somewhat, except for the pain in my cell phone bill, we headed east on I-10 towards Gila Bend, aptly named because there is a bend in the Gila river real close. On the way we stopped at Petroglyph Park, but I'm afraid I was more interested in the Organ Pipe cacti we saw on the way to getting to the park. Next, Gila Bend Travelodge where we educated the manager about all things good Canadian. We unloaded the car into our large room, had tacos at Sofia's Mexican Restaurant (very good), then walked our asses off, trying the lose the very same tacos we just ate. Go figure. Had a brewsky while watching HBO. Life is sweet indeed.

Lake Havasu, AZ to Yuma, AZ

2006-02-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

Today's trek took us from Lake Havasu City to Yuma, Arizona. Weather was warm but very windy, so much so that our walk along the lake seemed more like an exercise for desert storm due to dust. So we decided to head further south along the Colorado River. First we saw Parker Dam, kind of like Hoover Dam. Supposedly the deepest dam in the world. It's big anyway. The lake formed by it, Lake Havasu supplies water to LA, San Diega and Phoenix, among others. Then, it was on to Parker itself, where we rummaged around a yard sale for a while, before heading south through the desert to Quartzsite. Just south of Parker, the landscape flattens out dramatically, nearfby mountain ranges, so present everywhere else, are now distant. That make it all the more amazing when you finally pull into Quartzsite, which must be the RV/gemstone capital of the world. Coupled with the fact that it is totally ugly, this gives it a certain charm all of its own. Once again, fuel consumption like there is no tomorrow seems to be the norm, every second vehicle is a massive RV pulling an SUV to boot. Every driver of course loudly complains about the price of gas. Gem stones sales are everywhere, one massive outdoor market we found must have had more rocks than all of Ireland combined. I spotted a pedestrian overpass over I-10, so in order to get some elevation to take some photographs, I headed over that way. This is a free thrill. Even though I am a trained professional, you can do this at home folks! Since the fence on the overpass, is a chain link fence, this make it really cool when monster trucks head straight for you, making the bridge shake with their wake.

I had a little bad luck with the GPS tracker, today, loaded the wrong map chart, which forced me to create a replay button tonite, something I had intended-to-do-but-never-got-around-to anyway.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to load the GoogleEarth KML files.

Las Vegas, NV

2006-02-06T00:33:00.000-05:00

We started our month long trip to Arizona and adjoining states with a rather uneventful flight from Toronto to Las Vegas. That is say, except for the annoying people who in the seats ahead of us had the sound on their DVD player turned up full blast making it next to impossible for the rest of us to think. Not that that comes naturally in the first place. Now, when WestJet says they've got inflight entertainment, be skeptical, be very sketical. They may mean the cabin crew perhaps, because the proudly advertized onboard Bell ExpressVu satellite link was sadly missing, forcing me to miss Friday night's edition of I Love Lucy, making me very cranky indeed. Anyway, after I got over that, getting of the plane, getting our luggage and car, and checking in all went smoothly, so that by 11:30 Friday night we were walking on the strip, looking for a place to gamble, errr, make that a bite to eat.

Las Vegas must be North America's most decadent city, Vancouver of course excepted. It seemed seedier this time as compared to last, with alcohol consumption going on everywhere in public places, a new Hooter's hotel that just opened up and the streets littered with little cards advertising 'escort' services. Nonetheless, we managed to find a Wendy's and had a burger, because we were starving.
Then we made our way up to Ceasar's Place, went into the casino, where we stood, once again, dumbfounded by all those idiot people, gambling their money away. We walked back to our Motel 6, talking a short cut through the MGM Grand, where Elvis once performed. (I managed to mention Motel 6 and MGM Grand all in one sentence). At 2:30 in the morning the card playing tables were still packed, by conservative estimate there must have been 1000 people still there goin' at it. Another thing to be amazed at is the complete and utter waist of fuel everywhere, passenger cars seems to have disappeared, the only version still in use is the limo. However, it too is in danger of becoming extinct, to be replaced by the truck limo or Hummer in limo version. Didn't Mr.ush just say the other day that "We must end our dependency on foreign oil?". Well, I can tell you that that is not going to happen in my lifetime, and I ain't planning on dying just yet.

The next morning we awoke to hazy sunshine, and decided to walk off the last remnants of the Wendy burger by taking in the sights in the early morning light. Never having Luxor up close, we took it in, architecturally, they sure did a nice job. What a waste!

That's when we had enough and wanted to hit the road. We loaded up the car, drove off and promptly got lost, stumbled into a grocery store, stocked up on supplies, found our way back and headed south on Nevada State Road 95 to cross into California, onto Needles, where we crossed the Colorado River into Arizona. Then we ran into Darrell from Alaska, who was kind enough to sell us a huge bag of grapefuits for $2.00 and then threw in some delicious oranges to boot. After a nice chat, we drove off, trying to find the ghost town of Oatman. Of course, we promptly managed to make an enormous detour, but ultimately we did end up in Oatman. Some excited tourist told us when we got there, You'd better visit the Oatman Hotel, that's where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon. That's nice, but whose Clark Gable? Anyway, the ice cream was good, the taste of it blended peculiarly though nicely with the smell of fresh burro dung, which is spread throughout all of main street, which is, by the way the only street in town. As a side note, Main Street is Route 66, of Route 66 fame. After leaving Oatman, we meandered over to Lake Havasu City, via Route 66 and SR 95. Having arrived at Lake Havasu, we needed to be real quick to get the obligatory shot of London Bridge at sunset. Getting lost does not help, as the sun does not wait for anyone to settle (To some this may be a surprise). Anyway, we did find it, and the result of the shot is here somewhere on this page. For those of you not in the know, London Bridge was originally built in 1831 and spanned the Thames River in London England. Much to their dismay, the British found in the 1950's that it was sinking into the riverbed. So this enterprising American bought it and brought it over, stone by stone, to Lake Havasu City and rebuild it here across an artificial channel.

As an experiment, and as mentioned in my lead off blog, I'll try to log this entire trip using GPS and my custom made application. Day 1 actually went fine, though the logistics of getting everything setup are somewhat cumbersome. The application is still a little rough around the edges, but hopefully, if I have time, it'll practically run itself :) The computer rides on the floor in the back seat, and as you drive you can every one in a while hear the artificial voice murmur some coordinate or speed, which is basically my clue that Visual FoxPro hasn't bombed. Not that it would ever do that in the first place. Today, it wrote 30,000 records in the main table, but that roughly only occupies about as much space as 1 digital photograph in RAW format with my Canon 20d. Below are the results of the screens for the day, the first one showing our route (including unwanted detours), the second our speed versus time.

In the speed graph, you can clearly see that we've got cruise control. The dips are stop signs, stop lights and pee breaks.

Ya gotta start somewhere

2006-01-24T19:47:00.000-05:00

and this is where it is at.

Mostly at test, this post, to see what it looks like in real life. The title of the blog? Just an illusion? Well, may be life is, like Ray Davies said oh so many years ago.

Hopefully we'll be using this blog on our travels through Arizona, starting February 3rd, 2006. We'll fly into Las Vegas, will stay one nite in one of Las Vegas' most glamorous locations (Motel 6 of course), then we'll drive on to Arizona the next day. Where exactly we will go, who knows.

I'd also like to use this blog to report on some of the projects I'm working on. My devious thinking is that it might keep me more motivated to get going and then to complete them. Currently, I'm working on a 1-wire project to report on the efficiency of my ClimateMaster geothermal furnace. It seems to work fine allright, it's just that I'm nosy and would like to know exactly how fine. So I got myself a LinkTH from www.ibuttonlink.com, along with some of their MultiSensors. After I received it, I plugged the LinkTH into the serial port of my PC, then cobbled together a small application in Visual FoxPro 9.0 (not that version 5.0 wouldn't work just fine too). So far, this application gives commands to the LinkTH to report the sensors data, then parses this data, stores it into a table and publishes the results for the last 24 hours to the web at http://harmony.anikast.ca.

My other project I hope to be using in Arizona has to do with GPS: I plan to log the GPS data using my notebook, then create a KML file every day, publish this here, so you can follow our travels using Google Earth. For this, I got myself a Holux GPS unit, and wrote an application in Visual FoxPro to store the data. I got a little carried away there, it uses speech synthesization to announce the coordinates every 30 seconds, along with speed. It also plots the current position on a map, and at the same time draws a graph of the speed and the actual distance travelled, using a freeware ActiveX control.

One of my design goals throughout all this is to spend as few dollars as possible in coming up with the final result. As someone I know remarked quite a few years ago now, anybody can buy something with money, it's a sport to get it for free. Not that I'm into stealing anybody's software, it has to be published, or already included with some other software, otherwise I'll write it myself. Since I'm fairly good at hacking with Visual FoxPro, I'll use it as my tool of choice.