Hello From Sumner, WA

Hello from Sumner, WA

Friday Morning,  April 17, 2015   (First post of this travelogue)

First of all, I wanted to let folks know that I (we) are still alive and kicking.  This blog is predominately a travelogue and we have not traveled since November of last year.  We are really anxious to get the bus wheels turning and will do so next month. 

This trip, I have traveled to Washington to teach Mechanical Drives and Shaft Alignment classes at Boeing in Auburn WA.   I am staying at the Holiday Inn Express (map).  From my hotel, I get a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier (see photo).  It is unbelievable how majestic that mountain is!

These classes are debuting new hands-on training units.  They are significant improvements over our old equipment.  That said, we anticipated “teething problems” and we have encountered quite a few.  The manager of my NTT group traveled with me and we have worked together to resolve the mostly minor issues.

I am teaching the second shift (2:30 – 11:00).  I rather enjoy that shift, as it gives me all of the morning and part of the afternoon to catch up on some computer projects.  Probably the only drawback is that I have to travel home on Saturday.

My assignments at NTT have been rather sparse in the past year.  That is a mixed bag.  I have really enjoyed being home and working on my car projects, but the hobby/travel fund has taken a big hit.  I have been offered quite a few classes for the second half of this year, but they are public classes, subject to cancellation if they don’t get the minimum number of registrations.  I was scheduled to do a few the first half of this year and none of them met the minimum registration goal.

As I write this, I have been communicating with Pat and we have over 20 inches of snow at the house and it is still snowing hard (see photo).  The weather here has been a bit chilly and there has been some rain, but that is a whole lot better than what is happening in Evergreen!

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Ontario, CA

Hello from Ontario, CA

Saturday  evening,  November 15, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)

I have traveled to Ontario to teach a Mechanical Drives and Shaft Alignment class.  This is what is called a “regional” class where folks from various companies attend the class in a hotel.  NTT also offers “On Site” classes where we teach at the customers business location.

This class was held at the Holiday Inn Express (here).  The class only had four students, but that made for a great group. 

I had NTT make plane reservations so that I could stay over Saturday and attend one day of the National Drag Racing event in Pomona.  When I was the “Blower Belt guy” at Gates, I attended quite a few races at this rather historic track.  I had hoped to see several old friends, but the pits were very hectic.  I did get to briefly say hi to a good friend who is also a major Gates customer.

Friday after class, I decided to visit the NHRA museum.  It is not a huge museum, but they have a significant number of historic race cars.  Many of those cars were racing when I first got interested in drag racing (over 50 years ago).  Lots of fun memories.

The weather has been pretty decent – mostly 70s during the day.  Unfortunately, I left Pat in the middle of a record setting cold spell in Denver.

Tomorrow I catch a very early flight (6:05 AM) back to Denver.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Sacramento, CA

Hello from Sacramento, CA

Friday morning,  September 19, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)

Posted: Sunday evening September 21, 2014

As happens too often, I started this post and was not able to finish it till I got home.

I traveled to teach a four day class.  The first two days were bearings and lubrication and the last two days were shaft alignment.  This is a “regional” class which means that it is held in a hotel and the students are from various companies.  I really prefer this type of class (as opposed to an “on-site” class held at a company with their employees attending).  In the public class, you often get better discussion because of the varied backgrounds.

The class is being held at the Holiday Inn Express (here).  The meeting room was very large for our small group (5 students).  That is great, as we have to set up the shaft alignment labs and that takes a fair amount of space.

In the past, the shaft alignment class used rather simple tools (straight edges, calipers, and dial indicators).  When the class had somewhat experienced students, it was difficult to fill the full two days.  We recently added laser alignment equipment and that really makes the class powerful and fun!

For a change, the travel went well.  The flight out was typical, but I had a good seat.  When I went to pick up the rental car they said that the company had reserved a premium car.  That is not the norm, but the lady that does the scheduling had a special offer and gave it to me.  The bad news was they did not have a premium car so I had to “settle” for a Camaro {big grin).  Sure wish I had had an opportunity to “open it up”.  The flight home was about half full and I had a great exit row seat. 

My fun rental car

I arrived in Sacramento early Monday afternoon.  That allowed me to drive the Camaro up to Nevada City to have dinner with a great friend.  It would have been a good route to have some fun, but the traffic did not permit very aggressive driving.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from the Sacramento

Hello from the Sacramento

Thursday  afternoon,  May 1, 2014   (One post travelogue)

I am in Sacramento doing a couple of training sessions for NTT.  This week it is two days of Mechanical Drives and two days of Vibration Analysis.  Mechanical Drives is old hat for me, but Vibration analysis is a new class for NTT.  To put it nicely, the course was not well developed before it was released.  The class is based on a text book, but the slides were very primitive.  I have spent MANY hours developing new slides that present the data in a better format.  Luckily, I am co-teaching with a person who has a great deal of experience in the latest technology. 

My part of the vibration class was to set the stage for advanced discussion by the other instructor.  I did the first three chapters and discussed how we used to do vibration analysis on belt drives with very basic tools.  Indeed, most of my work was in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s.  To put that in perspective, personal computers did not become available to the public until the mid to late ‘70s!! The computer based “tools” today are amazing!

This is a “regional” class.  What that means is that the students come from different companies and the classes are held in a hotel.  That kind of class is quite different from what we call onsight classes where we go into a plant and do a class specifically for a business.  Boeing would be an example of the latter.  In my first NTT employment (2000-2002) most of the classes were public at hotels.  Today most are onsight.  I much prefer the public class atmosphere.  There is always a broad base of experience and the students seem to be willing to exchange examples that reinforce what we are teaching. 

The other nice feature of public classes is that they are held at normal hours {grin}.  At Boeing, we teach on either first shift (6:00-2:30) or second shift (2:30-11:00).  A week of that kind of schedule will really mess up your internal clock!

I am staying at the Hampden Inn in Sacramento (map).  The class is being held at the same location.  When I searched out the location on Google Maps, I noticed that they had changed the map format significantly.  It will be interesting to see how the above link displays.

Surprisingly, I am actually posting this blog before I leave town (at airport).

That is all for this blog.

Hello from Kent, WA

Hello from Kent, WA

Saturday evening August 24,  2013   (Third travelogue of this trip).

Wow, a lot has gone on since I last posted.  As I noted, I taught two different sessions of what we call Shaft Alignment at the Waste Water treatment plant in Las Vegas.  By Friday night, my butt was dragging and I could not figure out why.  Then it dawned on me that I taught three 10 hour days (plus 4 hours on Monday and Friday).  When I teach, I am basically on my feet the whole time and moving around a lot.  Those long days got to me.  That said, I somehow survived {grin}. 

Saturday we flew to Seattle.  We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Kent (map).  I taught a class called Ball Screw (a very critical part of large machining equipment) on the swing shift Monday-Wednesday.  As was the case with Las Vegas, the “off-shift” hours (2:30 – 11:00) messed with my sleep pattern.

For the past three days we have been doing some really neat “tourist” things.  We bought a book of tickets (“City Pass”) that covers the cost of the major tourist attractions and saves a significant amount of money over the individual costs. 

Thursday we drove out to Mt. Rainier National Park.  Once we got into the park, the road was lined with huge pine trees.  At least one tree in the park is said to be 25 feet in circumference.  We were a bit disappointed that the majestic mountain was shrouded a bit by clouds.  The mountain is an active volcano that raises 14,410 feet above sea level.  Unlike our mountains, Mt Rainier's base is close to sea level.  This was a fun 200 mile drive.

Friday we toured the The Museum of Flight (link).  On the tour, we got to go inside the first Presidential Jet (a Boeing 707 labeled “Air Force One” when the president was on board) and a Concord supersonic passenger jet.  The Space Shuttle training craft was also on display and we got to walk inside the bay.  We also saw a 3D movie about fighter jet training at Nellis AFB.  The aircraft and spacecraft collections were amazing.  One of the best displays were the toilets that were used in the Space Shuttle and a Russian space craft.  The display had videos of the astronauts telling how the systems worked. 

We then drove downtown and rode to the top of the Space Needle and then took an Argosy Cruises Harbor Tour. 

After the harbor tour, we had a very unique seafood dinner at the Crab Pot on the wharf.  As you can see in the photo, they bring a big stainless steel bowl of various mussels, shrimp, crab, corn on the cob and boiled potatoes.  They “dump” them on butcher paper and you dig in, putting the shells in the same bowl that they set on the floor.  They also give you a block of wood and a wooden hammer to crack the crab legs.  Delicious!

Dinner at the Crab Pot

Today we toured the Pacific Science Center and the Seattle Aquarium.  The Pacific Science Center was a great visit.  It is aimed at kids with tons of interactive displays of all kinds.  The highlight of this stop was the Imax movie:  Hubble 3D.  This Imax theater is the latest technology and the movie had a very large amount of footage from the Space Shuttle during several repair missions.  Then we went to a really neat laser show that had fantastic laser “art” set to various kinds of music.  It was almost like a fireworks display at times.  The Seattle Aquarium is on the wharf and has a large number of aquariums with a vast number of different and colorful fish, sea otters and seals. 

All of our stops the past three days was fantastic. 

Tomorrow we fly back to Las Vegas and start our slow, sightseeing, journey home.

That is all for now.

Hello from Centennial Colorado

Hello from Centennial Colorado

Thursday evening July 18, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Last week I was in Everett Washington teaching an NTT class and this week I am teaching a class at the NTT headquarters (map).  This is a four day class that is a combination of other classes.  It focuses on Bearings, Lubrication and Shaft Alignment.  Tomorrow will be the last day.  It has been a small group (five folks) but that sometimes works well.  The students have been great and that makes my job even better.

NTT is good about putting me up in a hotel so that I don't have to fight the traffic getting here.  I am staying at the Staybridge Suites (map). 

I came down here on Monday to set up the classroom.  After class on Tuesday, I drove back to the house to pick up Pat, Madison and Molly.  We were taking care of the granddaughters while Damon and Kelly were out of town.  Kelly got back to town Tuesday night and picked up the girls about 10PM.  The next morning (at 4:00 AM) I took Pat to the airport so that she could fly to Salt Lake for her Stampin' Up! convention.  I made it back to the hotel to have breakfast and then go over to NTT for the class.  Kind of a crazy schedule.

There will be a second travelogue for this trip, but you will have to return to find out the details {grin}.

That is all for now.

Hello from Everett, WA

Hello from Everett, WA

Saturday afternoon   July 13 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

As I have mentioned before, I am a contract based instructor for NTT (link).  I was an instructor for them from 2000-2002.  I was recently retained to do some training.  It appeared that I might do a couple of classes a year.  That has changed, as I have joined a team of instructors who are teaching at various Boeing facilities.  This is a major contract that is reported to extend into 2014.

I enjoy teaching.  My main subject is what is called Mechanical Drives (bearings, belts, chain, gears, couplings, etc).  I have now expanded into other subjects as well.  This week I taught Mechanical Drives for the first three days and Shaft Alignment for the last two days.  The students are generally trades people – mostly mechanics. 

Mechanics and related trades are not fond of engineers.  We have a lot of fun with that.  I tell them that Pat does not think I am normal {big grin} and, for sure, I am not your “normal” engineer.  By the end of the class, we generally have a good relationship.  I try to make the class fun (hard to do with a boring subject), and I think that most of the students, do indeed, have fun (at least most tell me they do).

I am staying at the Holiday Inn Express (map).  I am training at a special Boeing training facility (map).

The training facility is a bit remote from the huge Boeing facility here in Everett.  This plant assembles/produces the 747, 777, and the new 787 planes.  I had really hoped to get a tour of some of the facilities.  Pat and I took a “tourist” tour here a number of years ago, but a “contractor” tour would be much better.  Maybe some time.

The only “negative” part of this teaching is that you have to fly to the location.  I hate to fly!  I hate the security lines, the “cattle drive” loading the planes, the very tight seating, etc..  However, I am not a white knuckles flyer.  I often tell the story about reading an NTSB investigation report on the 1982 plane crash at Reagan National Airport (details) as we were landing at the same airport.  The stewardess saw what I was reading and about flipped out.  She asked if the report made me nervous and I told her no.  These investigations and resulting corrective actions are what gives us so much better “odds”.

My flight home yesterday was a good example why I don't like to fly.  The plane was delayed over four hours (mechanical issues on the inbound flight and then the crew ran out of “hours”).  I ended up arriving at the gate in Denver at 2:50 this morning and into the driveway at 4:43!!!

As seems to be the case lately, I start the post in the place I have traveled to and then finish it somewhere else.  In this case, home in Evergreen.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Kent, WA

Hello from Kent, WA

Thursday morning   May 23, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Wow, a lot has happened since we left Fiji.  I will discuss this trip in a minute,  but let's catch up on things.

We left the hotel in Fiji at 6:00 PM on Tuesday which was midnight Monday evening in Denver time.  We arrived at the house at midnight Tuesday.  In other words, we traveled 24 hours to get home.  The Fiji to LA flight was a bit less than 11 hours.  As was the case going over, it was terribly crowded and this time we did not sleep as well. 

I also wanted to talk about food prices in Fiji.  At both the hotel restaurants and at the marina, the food prices were outrageous.  A hamburger and fries were about $40 Fiji (about $22 US).  SU gave Pat a check for a bit over $500 for food and we probably came out about even.  We always ate a large breakfast and then skimped on lunch (often splitting a sandwich).  For dinner we often split the dinner and ordered extra fries.  Dinners in the main restaurant started at $90 Fiji (about $50 US)!  Even with the high cost of food, we certainly did not starve!

While the sleep/awake cycles were not all that different, we really had problems with jet lag after we got home.  To top it off, Pat picked up some sort of bug that had her system pretty messed up for a few days.  We are back to “normal” now – whatever that is {grin}.

We spent a week catching up on sleep and family events.  We celebrated both Mother's day and Easter on the same day, since we were out of town for Easter.  It was a ton of fun, as the whole family got together – even the college boys.

Sunday (5/19) we left Denver and drove to Prescott, IA in the PT Cruiser.  You may recall that we left the bus in Iowa and drove home so that I could teach a class and we could fly to Fiji.   We wanted to be in Iowa for Memorial day, so it made sense to drive the car back and forth and leave the bus there.

Wednesday, I flew from Des Moines to Seattle (via Denver) and I am staying at a Holiday Inn in Kent Washington (map).  I am here as a part of my NTT “employment”.  NTT has a large contract to do training for Boeing.  I have been selected to present several classes over the next few months.  This trip is to “audit” a shaft alignment course.  This is my cross training so that I can present the class in a few weeks.  NTT is designing several new courses for both Boeing and the public.  I have been asked to become a member of the team that will teach these classes.  As I have said before, that is a mixed blessing.  I love to do the teaching, and the money is great – but travel by plane is just plain not fun.

That is all for now.