Ok I'm in Reno now. Turns out Tim coming along wasn't to happen. He heard that the guy he was working for had more work for him so he, rather logicaly, decided to stay and work. So now I'm out here by myself, which is totally rad. I mean it would have been fine if Tim or Skipper er someone wanted to come along, that would have been way cool too. But this way I do get to walk in the door to the hotel room and drop all my clothes and just be naked all the damn time. Which is just too much fun. Living in this housing situation I have been living in for the past few years isn't so bad, I mean I'm always at work anyway so it doesn't matter too much what it's like there. But every time I do stay somewhere by myself I always think about how nice it'd be to not have the possibility of people coming into y living quarters at any time of the 2 er 3 hrs that I'm there awake.
But anyway, the trip is coming along super smoothly. Like, I can't belive how smooth things started going once I finally was able to toss off the baggage that constaintly follows me around when I'm in so cal. Once I got a move on it was smooth sailin the whole way. Well, almost. Tim has the power adapter to my toughbook to use with his laptop that Eric gave him (Eric got a new kick ass Dell gaming laptop so he doesn't need the ol' pII 500 lifebook). He's got it all chopped up anyway, and these fuckin' toughbooks aren't named that for nothing. You can just straight hook a damn car battery up to the shit with bare wires and it'll keep right on chuggin. Just stick the wires right in the jack and it's like "Oh, dirty ass tap water, that'll do me just fine." Although the bare wires touched and much sparking resulted about 2hrs into the trip and the toughbook seemed not quite so tough no more and wouldn't work with the way I was doing the wires into it. I decided to leave it just incase it still worked and just trudge on without any tunes. It was tough, but I managed, ya know
I usually drive without music nowadays anyway. When I was riding my bike I'd always have music going and then one day I thought "Ya know? I don't really think too much when I'm listening to music." and kindo got a feeling like "I'M BEING CONTROLED BY THE MAN!!! IT'S A CONSPIRACY!" and decided to stop listening to music so much and let my mind do it's own thing. So not having the laptop wasn't a big deal whatsoever.
Anyway, sorry got off on a rant there. It was something like 7 when I left and my truck ain't the fastest ship in the sea so it wasn't until 3 that I got to Sacramento so I dicided to find a hotel along the way and sleep in Sacto for the night.
Got a hotel room in a small motel and the guy's all "Ok $75 for tonight" which seemed outrageous for a Thursday but I wasn't gonna spend another half hour looking for another place that would, hopefully, ask less so I took up residence there for the night. I woke up just a few minutes before checkout time all perfect like. I thought to myself "wow man, that's so cool, everything is going so smooth-like on this trip".No body called me saying "hey fucknut we need to make up your room! Get the fuck down here and give us your key!" like happens every time at every motel i've ever been to before. Again, thinkin' to myself "whoa, bonus."
I was really kicking myself for not going to Frys Electronics and getting a power adapter for the toughbook, especially when I thought how I was already on the 605, I could have just gone right up it to the 60 and there's a Frys there. But I knew that there was one in Sacramento, which played into my decision to stay there for the night. Pretty much decided it infact. I looked up what the address was in the phone book and wrote it down. When I went to check out I happened to notice the address of the hotel on some pamplet thingy the counter guy gave me and it was the same street. Bonus, I wouldn't have to ask the guy how I could get to that street. Then I looked at the address and fuckin Frys was right the hell next door. Just by the grace of god I just happened to stop at a hotel that happened to be right next to where I had to go the next day. I thoght to myself "Fuckin hell dude, can things go any smoother?"
Pretty much the whole day was just like that. Smooth sailin the whole way. When I got to Stead Field it was about 3:30pm and it was pretty god damn cold here. Most everyone had left. I took a somewhat side street and parked over off by the pits where there was primo up front free parking (it's like $15 in the parking areas which are dirt just like where I parked). Again. Bonus.
The rest of the day was uneventful, exactly how I expected the trip to be. Had to stop off at 3 er 4 hotels here in Reno `til i found one that wasn't booked up or too expensive and had internet. Right now I'm at the downtown Holliday Inn, which isn't like most Hollidy Inns. It's Hollidy Inn Reno/Vegas/Laughlin style. Big, sparkly, and quite nice in the rooms. And this is the first hotel I ever stayed at where I plug the network cable into the network appliance and bam. Working IP and I'm online.
So far this has been a pretty kick ass trip. and the weather is supposed to be near perfect tomarow and sunday for the final race. Qualifying today was prety cool. I knew that there was pretty much no way I was gonna be able to get here in time to see the F1 and Biplane classes. So missing that, whatever, I didn't even think I was gonna get to see anything today. When I got into the gates though the Sport Class was just barely taking off. I finally got to see John Sharp and the NXT fly. Again BIG BIG bonus. This is a hell of an airplane kids. He's not far off the Thunder Mustang and Lancair that have been leading and we can tell John ain't runnin much manifold pressure (meaning he's not giving it all the gas he can). Sunday he just might be able to give those guys a run for their money and let the bigwigs at the skunkworks who designed the thing something to be proud of for a change.
But anyway, the trip is coming along super smoothly. Like, I can't belive how smooth things started going once I finally was able to toss off the baggage that constaintly follows me around when I'm in so cal. Once I got a move on it was smooth sailin the whole way. Well, almost. Tim has the power adapter to my toughbook to use with his laptop that Eric gave him (Eric got a new kick ass Dell gaming laptop so he doesn't need the ol' pII 500 lifebook). He's got it all chopped up anyway, and these fuckin' toughbooks aren't named that for nothing. You can just straight hook a damn car battery up to the shit with bare wires and it'll keep right on chuggin. Just stick the wires right in the jack and it's like "Oh, dirty ass tap water, that'll do me just fine." Although the bare wires touched and much sparking resulted about 2hrs into the trip and the toughbook seemed not quite so tough no more and wouldn't work with the way I was doing the wires into it. I decided to leave it just incase it still worked and just trudge on without any tunes. It was tough, but I managed, ya know
I usually drive without music nowadays anyway. When I was riding my bike I'd always have music going and then one day I thought "Ya know? I don't really think too much when I'm listening to music." and kindo got a feeling like "I'M BEING CONTROLED BY THE MAN!!! IT'S A CONSPIRACY!" and decided to stop listening to music so much and let my mind do it's own thing. So not having the laptop wasn't a big deal whatsoever. Anyway, sorry got off on a rant there. It was something like 7 when I left and my truck ain't the fastest ship in the sea so it wasn't until 3 that I got to Sacramento so I dicided to find a hotel along the way and sleep in Sacto for the night.
Got a hotel room in a small motel and the guy's all "Ok $75 for tonight" which seemed outrageous for a Thursday but I wasn't gonna spend another half hour looking for another place that would, hopefully, ask less so I took up residence there for the night. I woke up just a few minutes before checkout time all perfect like. I thought to myself "wow man, that's so cool, everything is going so smooth-like on this trip".No body called me saying "hey fucknut we need to make up your room! Get the fuck down here and give us your key!" like happens every time at every motel i've ever been to before. Again, thinkin' to myself "whoa, bonus."
I was really kicking myself for not going to Frys Electronics and getting a power adapter for the toughbook, especially when I thought how I was already on the 605, I could have just gone right up it to the 60 and there's a Frys there. But I knew that there was one in Sacramento, which played into my decision to stay there for the night. Pretty much decided it infact. I looked up what the address was in the phone book and wrote it down. When I went to check out I happened to notice the address of the hotel on some pamplet thingy the counter guy gave me and it was the same street. Bonus, I wouldn't have to ask the guy how I could get to that street. Then I looked at the address and fuckin Frys was right the hell next door. Just by the grace of god I just happened to stop at a hotel that happened to be right next to where I had to go the next day. I thoght to myself "Fuckin hell dude, can things go any smoother?"
Pretty much the whole day was just like that. Smooth sailin the whole way. When I got to Stead Field it was about 3:30pm and it was pretty god damn cold here. Most everyone had left. I took a somewhat side street and parked over off by the pits where there was primo up front free parking (it's like $15 in the parking areas which are dirt just like where I parked). Again. Bonus.
The rest of the day was uneventful, exactly how I expected the trip to be. Had to stop off at 3 er 4 hotels here in Reno `til i found one that wasn't booked up or too expensive and had internet. Right now I'm at the downtown Holliday Inn, which isn't like most Hollidy Inns. It's Hollidy Inn Reno/Vegas/Laughlin style. Big, sparkly, and quite nice in the rooms. And this is the first hotel I ever stayed at where I plug the network cable into the network appliance and bam. Working IP and I'm online.
So far this has been a pretty kick ass trip. and the weather is supposed to be near perfect tomarow and sunday for the final race. Qualifying today was prety cool. I knew that there was pretty much no way I was gonna be able to get here in time to see the F1 and Biplane classes. So missing that, whatever, I didn't even think I was gonna get to see anything today. When I got into the gates though the Sport Class was just barely taking off. I finally got to see John Sharp and the NXT fly. Again BIG BIG bonus. This is a hell of an airplane kids. He's not far off the Thunder Mustang and Lancair that have been leading and we can tell John ain't runnin much manifold pressure (meaning he's not giving it all the gas he can). Sunday he just might be able to give those guys a run for their money and let the bigwigs at the skunkworks who designed the thing something to be proud of for a change.