On The Road Again

Cam and I flew to Seattle to take care of the stuff related to my dad's death, but we road tripped it back to Las Vegas in Cam's "new" Suburban (formerly my dad's vehicle). Cam did ALL of the driving which gave me an opportunity to take a few photos along the way.

This was our return trip in photos!

This is the old Rainier Beer Brewery in Seattle. It has been converted into work lofts, live work lofts, storage space, warehouse space, and commercial space.

I'm not sure where this bridge was (this will be a recurring theme throughout this post), but I love bridges and took photos of all of the awesome ones. I didn't realize that I miss bridges (the closest thing we have in Las Vegas are overpasses) until we crossed so many of them on our way home.

Same bridge ... different view ...

The day we left Seattle was the day of the Amtrak derailment in the Seattle/Tacoma area. The derailment closed I-5 - the major north/south route through Washington. We had to find an alternate route (there are very few) which had us driving on roads like this for hours. It was during this time that I was first made aware of Cam's complete lack of patience. His lack of patience was also a recurring theme throughout the trip.

TRAIN!!! Because TRAIN!!!! I've also missed trains since moving to Las Vegas.

This is the bridge over the Columbia River that takes you into Oregon.

PROOF!

Another Oregon bridge - not sure where we were at the time, but I do know we were still on day 1 of the trip. I also know that our weather looked like this all through day 1.

Same bridge ... different view ...

We stopped for the night in Medford Oregon. When we checked in, we were informed that there was a winter storm warning in effect for the following day. Most of our trip was spent trying to outrun one thing or another. 

We did see some snow on day 2, but not much and never on the road.

Day 2 was also the day of many mountain passes.

This one took us out of Oregon ... 

and into California!

Mt. Shasta was snow covered.

This was the bridge over Lake Shasta.

Since moving to Las Vegas and visiting Hoover Dam, Cam has developed a fascination with dams. When he saw an exit for Shasta Dam he decided he wanted to take a side trip. This is Shasta Dam!

We stopped for the night in Coalinga California. It was a strange little town that smelled like all of the farms had just spread pig manure as fertilizer (my old stomping grounds of Podunk had that same smell). We stayed in the WORST Motel 6 I have ever been in. Don't stay HERE. Although their rooms were recently renovated, the bathroom was not, and was so bad I didn't take a shower. Then there was the issue of no hairdryer, nor shampoo/conditioner in the room. I was never so happy to leave a motel.

Day 3 took us through California's Olive Capital. There were miles and 

miles of olive trees. Now, I am very familiar with the saying "offering an olive branch," but for some reason I didn't associate that with olives actually 

growing on trees. I had in my head that olives were like grapes and 

grew on vines. Yeah ... I know ...

Not far out of the Olive Capital, the temperature actually hit 60 degrees!  This was also about the time that I realized that Cam and I should not take road trips together that last longer than 2 days.

We drove by the Mojave Wind Farm. Although Illinois had several wind farms, I have never seen one this large.

And then it started to look a lot more like Las Vegas.

And the interstate got really straight.

And the mountains welcomed us home!

Road Trip - Part Deux

Does this look like a fun road trip or what? Just under 1800 miles - 26 hours (estimated) - just Cam and I heading across the country! We leave Friday morning.


What's even more amazing about this trip is that, with one notable exception, I've not planned anything. My normal mode of operation would be to equally divide (within about 30 minutes) the driving time amongst 3 days, printed maps for each leg of the trip and hotel reservations in place for each stop. But I've decided to live dangerously.

Cam and I will head out sometime early Friday morning (5-ish) and we'll head west. I'll drive and drive and drive, until I'm too tired to go any farther and then we'll stop for the night. We'll get up the next morning, have a decent breakfast, and start driving again. I plan on being in Spokane, WA (our ultimate destination) early Monday afternoon. EDIT: Oops! I forgot to mention that 95% of my family lives in Eastern Washington. The purpose of this trip is to visit with them - it has been 5 years since they've seen either Cam or me.

The return trip? Same process - possibly a different route - I don't even have a map!

The planner doesn't have a plan! I think I better go hit Google Maps before I have a panic attack ...

Why Public Schools Fail - Reason Number 3,258

Bill Gates and Michael Dell, along with other technology gurus, founded the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). It's a program aimed at improving the performance of students in our schools in - surprisingly - math and science! This initiative focuses specifically on increasing the number of students taking advanced placement courses in these subjects, but not if you live in Washington State, ironically the home of Microsoft. In May, NMSI announced that a 13.2 million grant that was to be given to the public schools in Washington was being scrapped. Why? Well, it seems there was a conflict between how the grant money was to be used and the collective bargaining agreement of the teacher's union.

You see, the grant money was to be used to compensate teachers directly and include extra pay based on how well students performed on AP exams. Gee, pay based on performance? We can't have that in the public schools now, can we?! Under the teacher contracts, the union is the exclusive agent for negotiating teacher pay, not public-private entities like NMSI. In other words, union officials were willing to turn away free money - a lot of it - for their teacher members rather than abide this kind of merit pay.

The odd thing is that ther heavily unionized states, Massachusetts and Connecticut for example, did manage to reach agreements and will receive the math and science money even though they have similar bargaining agreements. Even more ironic? The Washington union has a pending lawsuit against the state for alleged inadequate funding of public schools. Sure, decline $13.2 million in free money, but spend millions suing the state for inadequate funding. Makes you wonder if union officials care more about protecting their union monopoly than they do about about actual student performance.

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Part 2 of Talisman/ChemGeek's "What the hell is that?" SEM image contest is in full swing. Even if you missed Part 1 of the contest, you still have a chance to win, and she's given hints this time making it a bit easier. Click HERE for all of the details and click HERE for the images!

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