My Trip to Houston: Day 4

My last travel day was very short, and also very boring. Unlike Utah, Colorado, or even New Mexico, Texas is the opposite of scenic. It's very flat, with a lot of farmland from what I could see. It's also very hot, but that much I was expecting. I wasn't expecting Texas to be that boring from the northwestern point all the way to the southeastern coast. It was kind of disappointing, but I only had to drive 3 hours, so I wasn't worried about the scenery as much as I was just getting there.

I left the hotel around 10am, which was later than I had the whole trip, but still 8am Portland time. I wasn't fully adjusted, and I could tell when 10 felt like 8. About 2 and a half hours of the trip were flat and boring, going through different levels of po'dunk towns. But when I got about a half hour away, it started becoming Houston.

Now, Houston is a huge city, so I was basically driving through it for about 15 or 20 minutes, without traffic. And I wasn't even going into Houston. I"m on the northwestern side! I think a few of the current trainees are going to show Nick (my roommate) and I around downtown this weekend, but I haven't even gotten into the heart of the city.

But I got to my place, which is in a gated apartment complex that a bunch of the trainees live in. It's nice, with a nice living room and dining room set, and fully furnished. It's 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a living room/dining room, and a big kitchen for an apartment. We don't have to pay rent or utilities, and someone comes to clean it every other week. It's pretty cool.

I don't really have pictures from day 4, because it was so boring, and when I got around to trying to take pictures of the apartment, it was too dark to get any decent shots with my camera. So, that will have to wait (because I didn't take any today either). But, I did snap some pictures of 3 specific cities along the way: Franklin, Jerome, and Bryan. Yes, those are all city names, and also happen to be friends of mine. So, that was kind of cool.

In other news, I started work today! I have much to say about that, so stay tuned for my next update. Until then, keep checking Twitter, because while I didn't update much today, I will be in the days to come.

My Trip to Houston: Day 3

I got a lot of driving in today, more, or at least what felt like more, than the two previous days. For that reason, and simply the fact that it's day 3, I'm a bit more tired than I was the last 2 nights. However, today was relatively boring, so it works out that on the night I'm more tired I have the least to say. So, with that in mind, let's get to the boring story of my day 3.

I woke up to some female employee knocking on my door asking if I needed any services. Now, I simply said no thanks, but what I thought was much deeper in the gutter. If you're thinking works like mine, which I know some of yours does, you can imagine me giggling inside during that short pause in between when she asked and when I replied. A "that's what she said" moment, but this time, in real life, with a stranger... that actually said it. Anyway, that was a funny little way to wake up and start my day.

I had a little breakfast, packed up, fueled up, and headed out, just like every other day. I hit Albuquerque in under an hour, with MacBreak Weekly keeping me busy. I ran into a bit of rain, about 5 minutes worth, but I was going fast enough that the wind kept the bed of my truck dry. After that, it cleared up, and eventually all the clouds burned off.

It was pretty flat and straight until I hit Amarillo and had to do a bit of paying attention in order to get on the right connecting highway, but after that, it was more boring, straight highway all the way into Fort Worth and beyond.

While I was driving through Amarillo, I saw 2 Waffle House restaurants, which I fondly remember from my trip to Atlanta with my dad and brother when I was younger. After I got over the nostalgia, I got to thinking: Houston is the fattest city in the nation, or so I've heard/read. So, am I going to have to try harder to stay in shape? Is it the actual city and places in it that make you fatter? Or is it just the people there that are prone to national record-setting fatness? I guess I don't know yet, but I plan to stay in shape regardless, so it really doesn't matter. Just an interesting thought that kind of got my mind further wrapped around the idea of living there for half a year.

So, I kept driving through Fort Worth, and eventually just made it to Waco. It didn't seem too long of a day until it got dark, and then I started planning to stop. But I listened to a lot of podcasts, finished Blink, and the driving just kind of took care of itself. Mountain Dew helped, too.

I'm holed up in a Country Inn after going to a Motel 6 first. I was waiting for the desk clerk to do whatever it was she was doing, but it was taking forever, so I just left and went across the street. It's only about 3 hours to Houston tomorrow, which is WAY less than I expected. That means I've driven about 2,000 miles in 3 days. Not bad. They weren't too hard, but I'm very glad tomorrow is going to be short. The whole driving thing is getting old.

Anyways, not much happened today, but here are some pictures showing some of the trip. Enjoy.

My Trip to Houston: Day 2

After another long day of traveling, I'm here once again to tell the story of the day. I don't think I need to intro it anymore than that, since most people who read this already know the details. So here we go.

I woke up this morning around 8:45a Mountain time, which should have felt like 9:45a since I'm used to Pacific time, but it actually felt like 6:45a. I think part of the reason for that was that I got to bed at 2:00a Mountain time and thought that was only 1:00a Pacific time. So that lapse in thinking kinda got me. But, to be fair, Mallrats was on HBO, so I couldn't turn it off. You all should understand. Anyways, I went down and indulged in a pretty good continental breakfast, checked out, and headed on my way.

I was about 60 miles from Salt Lake City, so one episode of MacBreak Weekly got me there in no time. I was seeing a lot of new sights and a lot of things I thought were cool, so I was doing a lot of Twittering. It seemed like overkill at points, but then I thought, "you know, I don't care if people think I'm flooding Twitter today, I'm doing this more me at this point, because I think these things are cool!" On a tangent, when I got into the hotel both last night and tonight, I had about 3 new followers each day, so apparently flooding Twitter with my travel thoughts does have its audience.

So I got through Salt Lake, and from there to the Colorado border was a very scenic and temperate drive, but pretty straight and pretty flat. When I hit Colorado, though, it got hot. I would say it was in the mid-90s, but with the "wind chill" (if you can even call it that when it's that hot), it felt about 85 in my truck. A bit cooler than outside, but for those of you who know my temperature habits, I'm uncomfortably hot in anything above 72. So, needless to say, I was sweating.

Colorado provided both the most scenic and pretty part of the drive and the worst roads of the drive. I past Arches National Park and the Colorado River, so the canyon country through there was beautiful, but the condition a lot of the highway through there is in is awful. At least by Oregon standards. Actually, a lot of the drive today was on crappily maintained highways, but Colorado was the worst stretch. Yes, I was driving on one-lane, desert highways, but still, there was a lot of traffic for them to have let it deteriorate so much. But enough of that.

In the middle of Colorado, I hit a mountainous stretch, which meant shade and cooler weather, and that was a very welcomed relief. However, it only lasted for about 30 minutes, and then it was back to desert and heat right before I hit the New Mexico border. The northern portion of New Mexico was pretty uneventful, but all my podcasts, as well as Malcolm Gladwell's Blink audiobook, keep me pretty preoccupied.

I stopped in Shiprock, which was the place I was originally going to stay the night, but because I got there in such good time, I was able to have dinner there and keep going. But, before I left town, I gassed up and had dinner. Now, there was a dilemma. After my premature tweet saying it was between Taco Bell (which I knew) and Whataburger (which I had heard of once, but never tried), I saw a Sonic. So the dilemma was between Sonic and Whataburger. At that point, the advertising kicked in, and I chose Sonic. I have knocked Sonic for advertising in Eugene forever, because there isn't a Sonic within 100 miles of Eugene.

I will never hate on them again. It paid off.

So I tried Sonic for the first time, and was happy with it, though not blown away. I didn't try any of the drinks, though, so I think that was my mistake. After I ate, I headed on my way.

About an hour down the road, I saw a storm that I was heading straight for. With a few things loaded in the bed of my truck, rain wasn't what I was looking to drive through. So, I got within about a mile of it, and at that point you could see the rain and there was lightning to boot (which I will need to get used to seeing often). The highway veered just enough for me to miss it. Whew. See the pictures below to see just how close I was to needing to use the dryer tonight. (Honestly, I would have pulled over and put the tarp over it, but I hate stopping, so it was more of a relief than you might think).

So, I was probably driving on the edge of that storm for an hour and a half, and had a total of 2 combined minutes of sprinkling on my windshield. It was awesome. I got a false sense of invincibility during that, and was cheering to myself a little in the car throughout. Hey, it's only me out there, so if I feel a need to burst out with something, I'm gonna do it. I am my own audience.

So, after I hit I-40, which goes due-East through New Mexico, it was smooth sailing until I hit Grants, which is where I'm holed up tonight. Grants is about 70 miles from Albuquerque, and I think if I sleep in a little and get on the road around 9 or 10, I'll miss all potential traffic along the way. Hopefully I won't run into any rain tomorrow, but just in case I think I'll put the tarp on in the morning so I don't have to worry about it.

One thing that sucked today is that my phone's touch screen broke. Well, actually, it's kind of hard to explain without knowing the terms, but the touch functionality is still perfect, so I can still tap and it will be responsive, but the display screen underneath it got some kind of crack in it, so half the screen is black. Like, the pixels are out. So, the touch functionality is essentially useless. I didn't drop it or hit it or poke it with a pen, it just happened somehow. It's only 6 months old, so I assume it's still under warranty, but has anyone had this problem before? If so, if it was with Verizon, how did they handle it?

Anyways, keep checking Twitter and KevsPix, I update the on the drive, then back here tomorrow night for a post-game wrap-up. Without further ado, here are my fave pics of the day, in chronological order, of course.

My Trip to Houston: Day 1

So, today was my first day of traveling on my epic journey to Houston. It was a long day today, about 12 hours on the road, which is more than I originally planned, but I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to keep on trucking. I made it to Tremonton, a city in Northern Utah, and I'm holed up at the Hampton Inn. The room was a little more than I wanted to spend, but after getting up here, I'm not upset. King bed, free internet, 32" HDTV; hell, it's a really nice room even without those things. If you've been following me on Twitter you'll already know these details I'm about to go into, but here's the story of day 1.

I left today at 9am on the dot. It was the first time I think I've left on time for anything in a long time. I stopped at a gas station in Eugene after getting some breakfast, and I was wearing a shirt I got at the Olympic Trials last night, so the attendant strikes up a surprisingly knowledgeable conversation about the meet last night. He wasn't even there but he knew all about it. I guess that's why it truly is Track Town, USA when your gas station attendant is a regular track aficionado.

After I gassed up, I headed out for Bend. The drive was pretty nice. It was cloudy, which meant it was cool, but there were a few early sprinkles, and with stuff in the bed of my truck, I didn't want to see that. They went away pretty quick, and in 2 and a half short hours, I made it to Bend.

A few dozen miles outside of Bend, it was flat, boring, and real sunny, but still temperate. About half a mile ahead of me, I saw a big dust cloud go up. Immediately, I thought it was an accident, but then I just figured it was some truck going down a dirt road kicking it all up. Then I saw break lights ahead of me, so I started to slow down. As I pulled up, I see a bunch of crap all over the road, and what looks like a Uhaul truck. So, then I figure the Uhaul somehow lost a bunch of stuff out the back.

But as I slowed to a stop, I saw it was much worse than that.



As you can see, it looks like the white van either collided with or swerved to avoid that semi truck that's towing a Uhaul truck, and rolled, coming to rest in the ditch on the side of the road. All their stuff had come out of the van and littered the highway. Now, it looked really bad, but from what I could see, the passenger's head was bleeding, but she was up, walking and checking on the driver, so I think that might have just been a bad cut. The driver, however, was laying on the ground in front of the van, where I think the people who came to help had laid him. He didn't look as good. His arm was up in the air, but I really couldn't see his hand. When I got a look, I didn't see his hand, so either it was mangled pretty bad, or it wasn't there anymore. There were about 10 people already assisting with the situation, so I didn't stay, but nothing looked life threatening, so I hope everyone involved is alright. It really got my heart going, and I drove cautiously the rest of the day.

After that, it was flat and pretty into Burns, where I stopped to gas up and get lunch. I finished up, grabbed a Mountain Dew, and I was on my way. next stop: Idaho.

The speed limit in Idaho is 75 mph, so it went a little bit quicker. I stopped once at a rest stop, but that was it. I was on autopilot at this point, listening to podcasts and just driving. When I hit Twin Falls, I felt good, so I decided to head on to the next town.

Well, about 2 hours later, it was starting to get dark, and I had hit Utah, so I pulled into the next town with a hotel, which happened to be Tremonton. Overall it was a pretty easy day. I like driving, and have plenty to listen to if I ever get bored. I think this is going to go by faster than expected, but I'll be hot, be eating bad, and probably sleeping little. I just want to get there and check out my new place! See you tomorrow for day 2.

I update Twitter all day from my cell, so check that for intra-day updates, and I post to KevsPix too, so check those for more frequent updates. Below are a few of the many pictures I took along the way today. These are my personal faves. They're in order. Post some comments about anything and everything, and I'll get back to you.

It's Summertime, Folks!

Finally, summer has reached beautiful Eugene, Oregon. It's been a long time coming, with some seriously cold and crappy weather creeping all the way into the early days of May. No matter what you believe about weather in the Northwest, this year was not normal. But it's been sunny and hot the last 2 days, so all of that is behind us. Now, thoughts of summer activities start running around in my head. The beach, the golf course, camping, road tripping, etc. Basically, vacation.

However, this will be the first summer I will (hopefully) be working. I am graduating this June, and actively pursuing multiple job opportunities, so fingers crossed that some opportunity comes through. But that's not going to stop me from going somewhere and doing something this summer, even if it's just on a weekend.

One thing I've been thinking about is a trip somewhere across the country. Normally, I would think about a road trip, but that would definitely take longer than a weekend, so for me and anyone else I go with had a job, we would have to take time off. Being a new employee somewhere, I wouldn't have any vacation time to take yet, so no luck there.

That's where flying comes in. We may not have time to road trip, but we will have a bit more money to be able to afford a cheap plane ticket. We could make it there late Friday night and come back Sunday night. Maybe to catch a Braves game! That would be an amazing weekend trip I would gladly take. But the issue that brings up is, how do I get around once I get off the plane?

Rental car. But on the cheap? Oh yeah. Try Advantage. Advantage is a rental car company with deals as low as $19.99 per day until June 30. Their website makes it really easy too; easier than if you did it through a package site like Expedia if you ask me. Simple 1-2-3 car rental process, and less than $20 per day.

So, assuming a pretty cheap plane ticket, we could get on a plane bound for Atlanta Friday night after work, touch down, rent a car, head to a hotel or maybe one of my relatives, if they're close, head to a Saturday Braves game, maybe even catch a Sunday game too, that would be a great. Then, return the car, catch a Sunday night flight, and be back to work by Monday morning.

So, friends, who wants to go to Atlanta this summer?

[This post sponsored by Advantage]

Dad's New BMW 328i

This past weekend my dad picked up his new ride: a 2007 BMW 328i. He ordered it sometime last month, but it had to be shipped over from Europe, so that's why he just got it this weekend. Now, I'm posting from my phone, as I tend to do often now, so the picture is from the phone's camera, and doesn't do the car justice, but hopefully you can get the idea that this thing is sweet. It's metallic black with a tan interior, and I just got a chance to drive it today. Even though I didn't really get to open it up and see what it could do (like Dad would let me do that anyway), this thing is quite the machine. From what he's told me, he absolutely loves it, and can't wait for his road trip up to Seattle soon. I remember that same feeling when I got my truck, just wanting to drive it around for a while, but the truck is hardly the vehicle that this puppy is. Maybe Dad will go on a trip soon and not want to park at the airport, so he'll ask me to drive him? In this? Hey, a guy can dream right?

Toyota Prius Can't Pass Georgia Emissions Test

The Toyota Prius was launched in 2004, so now in 2007, early buyers' tags are expiring, so it's time for a trip to everyone's favorite place: DEQ. Ah, DEQ. The place that made me sell my Acura because it just wouldn't pass. No matter how many damn times I took it through, no luck. Too bad. Aside from the fact that I didn't really fit, I loved that thing. It was my first car, and I had lots of good memories with it: my front window being broken out at Lloyd Center, it getting stolen in front of my apartment, and of course, who can forget all those times I forgot to shut the lights off at Putnam and made Frank, the campus monitor, come out and give me a jump after school. Those were the days. But I digress.

So Prius owners in Georgia are having troubles of their own with DEQ. Troubles like, say, none of them pass. NONE. Every single Prius that has gone through DEQ in Georgia has failed. But wait, before you go calling Toyota all kinds of names, maybe you should hear who really deserves the scorn: Georgia. Those bastards! Here's the story:

The Prius is designed to idle with its engine off, to save gas. So, when the DEQ tries to test its emissions, it has none. So, because Georgia has equipment that isn't up-to-(hybrid)-date, it issues the Prius a failing grade due to an incomplete test. And rather than saying, "oh yeah, our equipment doesn't support hybrid cars, we should probably upgrade", Georgia still requires Prius owners to pay the $25 "aborted test" fee that gives them this sheet that says they didn't pass which they then have to take to 1 of 5 waiver centers to get approved for new tags. 1 of 5 in the entire state of Georgia. Hopefully located next door to the DEQ, but probably not.

Like the guys over at Autoblog said: "Don't ya love bureaucracy?"

[via Autoblog]

Top Gear (with British hosts) may come to the U.S.

Top Gear is the incredibly popular BBC automotive show that had 8 million people watching it's season finale this year, and the BBC has reported that there are plans to bring the show to the U.S. again. They tried it once, but as a replication of the British version with different hosts, and it didn't catch on. This time, the plan is to incorporate American cars and celebrities into the British show format, and hopefully appeal to American audiences better.

While there hasn't been anything confirmed yet, I'm going to go ahead and get my hopes up. I loved the show the few times I saw it on the Speed Channel back when we had the free preview. It's very well done and the hosts are extremely knowledgeable about and good at what they're doing. While the hosts do tend to dog the American auto industry (and Americans in general), maybe getting up close and personal with a few of the greats will change their minds. Or, better yet, why not just syndicate the British version on the Discovery Channel like they used to? I don't care, I just want to watch it.

[via Autoblog]

The New Shelby Cobra GT500KR

Ford plans to unveil this baby at the NY Auto Show this week. As if it doesn't look cool enough, it's got 540 hp, and "KR" stands for King of the Road. But you better hurry; they're only making 1000 of them.

[via Autopia]