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 Pendleton, OR

Hello from Pendleton, OR

Friday evening ,  November 15, 2013   (Seventh travelogue of this trip).

We are in Pendleton Oregon at the Holiday Inn Express (map).  We have started our drive home.  We are trying to schedule the travel so that we can arrive in Gunnison, CO at a time that will work with our grandsons’ college schedules.  Today we left Kent and drove on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.  At times it was snowing, but it did not stick to the road.  We had hoped to stay at a casino close to here, but they were booked full (weekend).

Last week I started my certification to teach another class at Boeing (Machine Tool Position and Accuracy).  It is the final class in a series on “laying out” multi-axes machining centers (checking/correcting all mechanical components that affect machine accuracy).  That class was held the first four days of this week on the first shift (6:00AM – 2:30PM). 

In the last post, I meant to talk about the weather on our tour of the Olympic Peninsula.  On that day, the weather was half way decent.  That was about the only day that it was not rainy and cold.  We lucked out. 

One day, the clouds cleared a bit and we could see Mt. Rainier.  After I got back to the hotel, I got Pat and we drove down towards Auburn and got the picture below.  It really is not a good picture, but it does show how majestic it is.  It has a altitude of 14,411 ft.  That is about the same altitude as Pike’s Peak, but Mt Rainier’s base is just a bit above sea level.  Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  It is active and could produce greater devastation than Mt. St. Helens. 

That is all for now.