Monday, February 11, 2013

Hello from Atlanta, GA

Hello from Atlanta, GA

Monday evening   February 11, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, what do you know, a travelogue about a trip that is more than 100 miles {grin}. 

I am in Atlanta to audit/co-teach an NTT Mechanical Drives class.  The class is one of a series being taught to maintenance folks at Emory University (info)

Sunday I flew from Denver to Atlanta.  Getting to the airport was a bit tricky, as the roads were pretty iced over in our canyon that leads to US 285.  After I got out of the canyon, it was not all that bad.  The flight was OK (I don't enjoy the hassle of flying).  I paid to upgrade to a better seat, since it was a long flight.  That gave me lots of leg room (exit row).

I am staying at the LaQuinta (map).  This is an old hotel that could stand some remodeling, but the bed is comfortable and the room is clean.

The weather here is very rainy.  There is some localized flooding.  I sure wish that we had some of that rain back home.

Today I taught the belt section of the course.  I will probably do another session tomorrow.

That is all for now.

Update:  somehow blogspot is adding advertising links to my post.  I can't find a way to eliminate the ad links - sorry.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Hello from Fort Collins, CO

Hello from Fort Collins, CO

Saturday evening   February 9, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, actually I am cheating a bit, since I am writing this from Evergreen, CO.  However I wanted to document a fun day trip that we took yesterday. 

Our granddaughter (Amanda Kassel) qualified for two relays and two individual events in the 5A Girls State Swimming Championships.  The event was held at the Edora Pool Ice Center (EPIC) (map).  This facility is in Fort Collins, CO – about 90 miles from our house. 

From the time she was very young, we have been amazed by Amanda's swimming skills.  She has worked very hard to develop into a competitive swimmer.  Her goal this year was to make it to “State” in one individual event.  She exceeded that goal by qualifying for both the 50M and 100M freestyle.

The big challenge was getting tickets for the event.  Our daughter Kelly camped on the computer and got 4 ticket for her family.  I was also camped on the computer but the tickets were gone within minutes and I missed out.  We were bummed, but resigned to follow the event via texts.  However Amanda's mom (daughter Lisa) was able to get us two tickets and we were elated.

Tickets for these events are generally in tight supply, but this also happened to be Missy Franklin's last high school swimming event.  We got to witness, firsthand, what an amazing swimmer she is!

Amanda did not qualify to go to the finals in the individual events, but her relay team did qualify for the finals. 

As an added note, both of Amanda's brothers are on swim teams and seem to be wonderful swimmers.  Kelly and Damon's two daughters have just started swimming in club competition this year at ages 9 &7.  Looks like we will be going to more swim meets!  Then you add in Judy and Tom's kids band events and basketball games – these grandkids keep us hopping.

Attached is a photo of Amanda and Missy:




That is all for trip