So, I've made it about 1,420 miles, and that puts me at over half way.

I drove through Sturgis, but most of the bikers were out on the Interstate... but you can really tell that nearly everyone here has come for the festival.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired.  I got on the road at about 7:30 this morning.  I Filed an insurance claim for my camera, and they are sending return addressed box for me to return the camera in.  It really is too bad that I have to deal with my phone camera.  I have just been letting my phone upload new photos as I take them, then I move the photos over to the album when I am sitting around.

I have mixed feelings about using my phone camera.  For the first leg of my trip, I had a tripod that I was using to take pictures, but with my phone, it already has a dashboard mount.  That means I can just hit the button every once and a while to snap a photo.

Anyway, I still have a camera to use, but I don't think I'll take any more picture with Jaani and I in them... oh well.

So, once arriving in Wall, I still had some sunlight to take advantage of.  I didn't realize how much earlier the sky gets black in the mountains.  Here on the plains, I feel like I get an extra couple hours of sunlight.  Anyway, I decided to walk over to the giant dinosaur. I have seen it several time from the road, but I wanted to stand next to it.  So, Jaani and I walked over there from the motel room, and looked around for a while before I realized how hungry I was.  I guess when you drive all day...  anyway, I left Jaani in the room while I went over to Wall Drug to take a peek and got something to eat.  I might go back over there again, but I am feeling pretty tired.  I might just lay down and go to bed then start going early in the morning.

I might start before the sun... that way I can make some progress before it starts to really heat up outside...

I guess tomorrow will come soon enough.

Later,

     SteveO

A quick update this morning.  I did a lot of driving yesterday, and I made it to Bozeman Montana.  Although, as was meant to be... because I was on a trip where one of my main focuses was to take a ton of pictures... I dropped my camera.

It was crazy... on the Hotel room, I was going to take a picture and say goodnight, and it slipped out of my hand. It landed on the lens, and now it gets a lens error.  I guess the good news is that I purchased accidental damage insurance, but the bad part is I lost my super awesome camera.

I'll post a picture later, but it's a little bit of a bummer to loose the camera.  Hopefully, SquareTrade will make the warranty claims process really easy.

Later,

     SteveO

I think it's Day 2? I'm calling it two.

So, It's day two of my journey... or lack there of.  I've traveled 119.8 miles, and I'm right back where I started.  Today I (and by I... I mean Anthony...) changed my break pads, and then I got an oil change.  I stopped by Eric's storage unit to leave his key there and drop something off... I also went to my storage unit to leave a couple things there and to pick up a couple little items that I put away by mistake.

After all that, I tried to go to the Mac and Jack Brewery, but they had closed 20 minutes early today, so I just missed them.  So, because it's just next door, I went over to take Jaani for a last run over at Marymoor Off-Leash dog park (as seen in the photo...).

I did stop by one last time at Jet City earlier in the day for some coffee, and then I was going to meet up with a few guys from work earlier today, but that didn't quite work out... or at least it seems that way.  I will either hear back in the next 20 minutes from someone, or I will start driving (because rush-hour traffic will be over...)

Anyway.  That's all for today.  I don't think I will be going south to Portland anymore.  My timing is just off, and I guess it would be neat to see Wall Drug during the peak season. On that note, my thought is that it would be nice to make it over the mountains today.

The outcome from that will be revealed tomorrow... so, until then.

Later

     SteveO

So, my trip begins with a frantic rush to empty my apartment.  It's down to the wire... I've been cleaning for two and a half days, and in four hours I have my move out inspection.  I am scrubbing everything... If it is off white, rub it a few times with a cloth...

The few remaining signs that I lived in this apartment are gathered near the door.  My car is packed, and my instruments are ready to be taken away for storage.  However, the instruments are too delicate for a storage unit, I am taking those to my friends Anthony and Brandy, who will watch over them while I'm traveling.

I have a half hour left until my move out inspection, and my top-down cleaning process has left me with some dirty floors to clean up.  I scrub and scrub... and then finally 30 some of square feet of floor later, I declare that if it aint clean, then I aint cleaning it.  I toss all of my cleaning supplies into a cardboard box that I have left over, and I cram it into the remaining space left in the car.

The moment of truth is here at last.  I finally open up the door to take out my last bag of trash, and there is the guy coming up the stairs to inspect my apartment.  Perfect timing!  We spent about 20 minutes looking at the apartment and making small talk; in the end, he tells me it will cost me $5 for a small hole that my couch made in the wall.

I'm happy.  All that effort, and now he tells me that the apartment is just how they want it, and the worrying about nightmarish stories people have written about $2,000 move out fees, ridiculous inspections, and all that seem unwarranted.  Who would have known you can't believe everything you read on the Internet...

Anyway, that was yesterday.  Rush rush rush rush rush.  Then, after the whole move out thing, I had a relaxing cup of coffee at Jet City... and now I'm down in Spanaway.  Where I have the above shown view of Mt Rainier, and I don't really have much of a care in the world.

This morning, I washed the car, and then we went to a diner for breakfast... at some point today, I plan on replacing my front breaks; however, for now I have a beer.  Jaani and I have found a cool shady spot to hang out and relax.  Tomorrow I keep moving, so I'll probably write something about that in a bit.

Until then, Later,

     SteveO

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New Blog theme... with less clutter...

Hi everybody!  No picture today... just pointing out that I trimmed a little of the "fat" on my blog...  I dumped the whole 1990's themed bazillion pictures and ads along the sidebar thing I had before.  I also chose a different color theme (that I'm sure nobody will notice the different)... plus the main page logo moved about 12 pixels to the left... the page is 24 pixels narrower the sidebar is 20 pixels narrower...  and... umm... oh yea, I added these cool social network sharing buttons to all the posts... actually those were always there, but one of the HTML changes I made screwed it up... it also screwed up the mobile site... so.  I fixed it.

Funny how I do stuff like this when I don't have any work...

Actually, every day I get reminded of one of my favorite Primus/Les Claypool quotes: "...No dreads about the working day effort though... funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed... they don't mean so much, 'cept you get to hang out with your workin' friends."

In the grand scheme of things, I really just wanted to add a Google +1 button to my posts.  I have been going around and clicking on +1 every time I like a search result... or a blog post... little +1 buttons are popping up everywhere, and I for one love it.  You see, one problem I always had with the Facebook Share buttons is that I'm not always logged into Facebook.  I'm always logged into my Google account.  That's just the way I roll.

So, anyway...  I guess that's enough rambling for tonight.  I'll write a real post soon.

Later,

     SteveO

So long, and thanks for... something

     So, that's it.  Another contract done... another year gone by.  It was a good year though.  I really got a chance to own an operation, and help keep the world going round... so to speak.

    I think one of the biggest lessons I learned about this is to keep an eye on every team that your team depends on.  We had a few sketchy situations that I think I have learned how to spot early, and getting to coordinate moving the lab from one location to another was a really good experience.  Seeing the circus of PMs, GMs, electricians, laborers, movers, technicians, Managers, and then us... the customers all working with and against each other opened my eyes to aspects of large projects like this that I never had exposure to before.

     So now... it could be another blogging season (let's see how long this one lasts shall we?)... I could have a lot to write about... I've been reading some neat books that I bet everyone would love to hear me regurgitate and give my two cents on... or perhaps I'll get around to writing an Android app or two... who knows, if I can sell a million copies of something, I might not need to go back to work :P.

Anyway, for now, I'm going to start going through all my stuff... probably start posting some stuff on craigslist... and then perhaps I'll start packing my stuff into storage or a new home (depending on if I get a new job or not.)

So, more to come.

Later,

     SteveO