[Catching up] Even on good days things can go bad

The Wasatch Mountains as seen from Salt Lake City International Airport

The 10-day trip started on October 29.

It was a nice day. I'll have you make note of that fact. It was a very nice day. So obviously everything was bound to get fouled up somehow.

On this day I was traveling with a character you haven't been introduced to before. I'll call her Stephie the Pharmacist. (I am introducing her because she'll likely appear in a few photos I'll be posting from this trip and I don't want you wondering who she is.) Anyway, Stephie and I head to the airport bright and early to catch our 6:35AM CST flight. We were to be flying out of Central Wisconsin Airport heading to the city of Grand Junction in Colorado. Our trip was to be a multi-leg affair, with stops to grab different flights in Minneapolis, MN, and Salt lake City, UT.

CWA is a tiny regional airport in the town of Mosinee, WI, and I don't mind flying out of there. Lines are short and security is generally not much of a hassle to get through. However, because it is such a small airport if there are mechanical problems with a plane there's generally no quick alternative options to get onto a different flight. Such was the case this morning. When we checked in at CWA they re-booked our flights for the day, in case we missed our flight in Minneapolis, so instead of arriving in Grand Junction at 12:40 PM MST we'd now be arriving at 6:35PM MST. Of course, there was the possibility the plane would get fixed quickly and we'd be on our way earlier than they expected, but no, the plane we were supposed to catch that morning was 2-hours late arriving, and because we were tightly booked we didn't have much wiggle room between our flights.

Let's get this whole thing going again

After my little trip I thought I'd have a lot of motivation to get back to the blogging business. However, I discovered that I was instead filled with a lot of blegh about the prospect of sitting down and doing write-ups about 10 days worth of  “everythings.” And as each day crept along the everythings I could be blogging on built up and . . . well, you get the picture.

It was my own fault, of course, I had planned on keeping a running diary while I was on the road down into New Mexico and southern Colorado, but I left my trusty laptop sitting in a guest bedroom in Grand Junction, CO. If I was a real writer/blogger I'd have made due with collecting some paper notes as I traveled, but I didn't do that. I am not called the Lazy Geographer for nothing, folks.

So what did it take to get me blogging again? Bribery. Yes, I was bribed to get this blog back into order. Amazing, isn't it.

So how do I get things back on track? I abandoned all of you just as Indonesia was still suffering from the dual disasters of the eruption of Mount Merapi and a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra. I wrote briefly on those, but I won't be returning to them for the time being. Instead, I'll be covering the trip I took earlier this month.

I hate going back to the beginning, that was near the end of October, after all, but sometimes the beginning is the best place to start.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig? Maybe in a Bit

I was so amused by the balanced pebbles that I totally forgot
to take a picture of the actual balanced rock.

I am currently poaching some wi-fi that I found so I'll give a fast update here.  I'll be heading home two days from now.  Hopefully, things go smoother than the flights out here (it took 17 hours).  Toured four states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and a small sliver of Arizona.  Saw a lot of desert, visited a lot of fun places and took a lot of photos, so look forward to some original content regarding all of that in the coming days.  Tomorrow I'll be out exploring a small part of the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness, so I'm not done with my travels just yet.  however, if I can get some internet tomorrow I might be able to get a solid start on blog updates then.

See you all on the flip-side,

The Lazy Geographer

Traveling

Okay folks, I am going to be traveling out West tomorrow and will be gone for awhile.  Not sure if I'll be able to squeeze any updates in or not while I am away as internet access may be a bit sketchy.  I haven't done a good job on following up on the Indonesian tsunami, and several other short articles have been put on the back burner for the time being, but packing and getting the house into order took a little precedence.

When I get back I am hoping to have some interesting things to share with you, hopefully all of you will stick around for that.  If you haven't yet, consider following this blog's rss feed or signing up for the daily email reminder so you'll be informed when I get things rolling again.

See you all on the flip-side,
The Lazy Geographer

Megasized Loads for Alberta's Oil Sands turns into Fight in Idaho

Proposed route

Alberta Canada's Athabasca oilsands are booming and expanding. One newly proposed open pit mine is the Kearl Oil Sands Project, a joint operation between Imperial Oil Resources and ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., has opened a can of worms in the U.S. State of Idaho, far to the south.

The two oil companies are looking to move giant oil extraction modules to the location of the proposed oil sands mine where production is likely to begin in 2012. To reach the mining site, the modules, 207 in number, will leave South Korea where they have been manufactured, and be transported to the port of Vancouver. From there they will be taken by barge up the Columbia and Snake Rivers to the ports of the western Idaho city of Lewiston. In Lewiston, the equipment would be loaded onto specialized trucks, Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMT). The convoy of the 210-foot long juggernaut SPMT and its escort – three pilot cars and two police cars – would travel at night along the 134-miles of US 12 in Idaho and enter Montana at the summit of Lolo Pass on the third night. With top speeds of 35 mph, the 510-mile trip between Lewiston and the Canadian border would take one of the truck convoys nine nights to complete.

While the legalities have yet to be hammered out, ExxonMobile already started to ship its megaloads to the Port of Lewiston in advance of gaining any permits from Idaho or Montana.

Dozens Dead in Merapi Eruption; Graphic Video Shows Devastation

Kinahrejo village covered in ash following the eruption
of Mount Merapi, Indonesia

A pyroclastic flow, an eruption of hot ash and gas, has killed at least 30 people, including one infant, as Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted on Tuesday. Another 14 were injured with burns of varying degrees of severity.

Evacuations continue as many houses have been destroyed by volcanic debris, and the ruins covered in a thick coating of ash. Men have tended to stay behind in the many villages flanking the volcano to maintain livestock and protect possessions while sending women, elderly, and children to shelters further away from the volcano. The villagers have been told to not return during a current lull in volcanic activity, however many have ignored these warning and returned to their homes for fear of loosing their crops and animals.

Midwestern Pressure System Sets New Low; Ruins my Day

♫ I don't know where I'ma going to go when the low pressure blows! ♫

A low pressure system slinking its way across the northern Midwest of the United States has set a new record  as its central pressure is now the lowest on record for a U.S. non-tropical land-based system with a barometeric reading of 956.31 mb 954.95 mb in Minnesota.  To put this into some perspective, a Category 3 hurricane usually has a atmospheric pressure of 964-945 mb, but unlike a hurricane the pressure system does not have a large, warm body of water to feed itself with so it isn't quite the same. 

The center of the storm is off to the northwest of me, and our local barometer is reading 979.68 mb.  The wind is howling, rain is coming down in sheets, and I need to walk the dog still.  Ugh.

Update: Walked the dog.  So at least that is out of the way.

Are you getting slammed by this storm?  Is the weather ruining your day?  If so consider the comment section open for our own private pity party.

NASA Earth Observatory Earthquake Map

NASA Earth Observatory has released a map showing the location of the 7.7 earthquake and its numerous aftershocks which caused the tsunami that has left over a hundred dead and another five-hundred missing on Indonesia's Mentawai Archipelago and the island of Sumatra