On The Open Road

Updates have been sparse for a few reasons. One its summer, two I'm working two jobs, and three I've been traveling a lot.

That said I've got a few minutes to post something before I call it quits for the evening. It’s actually summer finally!!! Last year living in Grand Forks was blah... it was perpetually below normal and cloudy. This year it's been a complete one 180. Temperatures have been mid 70's to 80's on a regular basis; it's been sunny, and really windy. Even though its blows up here. The weather has been perfect for cycling. My LeMond bike and my Iron Horse Mountain have seen more miles this summer than the past two summers combined. So far I've clocked in about 400-500 miles in April and May. That's including the one hundred and six I clocked in the last four days.

The LeMond is in the middle of its transition from racing bike to touring bike. When I'm done will probably come to the tune of 300-400 dollars. Things that are changing include the addition of fenders, new tires w/ slime filled inter-tubes, new chain, rear mounted rack, more bike bags and most likely a break pad upgrade.

I was hoping to participate in the RRIBT (Red River International Bike Tour) this year, but point two put that dream to rest. I had been cleared to go by both of my managers, but during a meeting an Intellidrive online workshop/webinar occurred on June 22-23 right in the middle of the bike tour. Oh well I'll still have a chance to put some serious miles during Memorial Day. Right now I'm shooting for either a half century which would be really easy or a Century, which will push me to my max endurance.

Traveling wise I'm going to a wedding in Bismarck, ND tomorrow for a day trip out and back after the reception. The week earlier I was back home visiting friends and cousins.

That's all I know right now I'll try to post some storm pics from Monday of a shelf cloud along old 81 in a few days.

Best Regards,

-Dan

Classes done, new cell phone and update

The semester has finally wrapped up and things are starting to wind-down in some regards and spin-up in others. I took my only final this morning which went ok I answered everything, but if was right or not is up to Tony. The thing I need to finish up before the end of the semester is my topic proposal which is coming along slowly. Regarding the internship I'm helping with the HD Flip cameras the interns will use are coming in later this week and I have a meeting w/ Fred to hammer out the rest of the media section and start working on the observed surface trends section. I start at Meridian on May 17th to go over basic employee items :-).
Finally my old cellphone (Palm Treo 800w) finally died last Tuesday and I had to was given the opportunity to upgrade to a new cellphone. Good old windows mobile 6.1 was really starting to wear on me with the numerous issues that plagued my Treo so I abandoned Palm and went to a company that I've heard overall good reviews about and had a phone that was running android. I ended up with the HTC Hero w/ android 1.5 and I'm overall impressed with the phones capability and I just love the built-in GPS. The 2.1 update from HTC and Sprint can't come soon enough so Google maps has audible turn by turn directions :-D and a few of the weather apps I use can be used to their full capability.

Best Regards,

-Dan

P.S. The blog went through a minor revision a few days ago graphically.

400 Visitors

Wow! The long winding road just hit 400 visitors. Thanks again for stopping by. As the summer months begin to spin up and classes begin to spin down I should be able to have a more time for blogging once again. Focus will still focus on road weather but it will also focus on automobiles, bicycles, and maybe some cooking.

-DK