Update From the Desert

So if you look way back to my first post (Eric), I warned you upfront that I could not be relied upon for regular updates to the blog... but finally, without further ado I give you... a new post---





Well, it's been a very quick month trying to get settled in, so I'll do this thing by topic so I don't get wordy on you.

WORK




The least fun of the topics, but the reason we are here. Aprill is off and running at the office since she is really doing the same thing as before. As for me, I'm heavy in the learning curve... still trying to find my place in the office and doing more than my fair share of reading and training.



Don't want to bore you with the mundane regarding day to day stuff... but I will tell you about what this place is all about (cause it's pretty nuts). We're working as part of a DOE project to clean up the area where the first plutonium (and a lot more after that) was made for use in atomic bombs. The reservation is about 2/3 the size of Rhode Island and has 6 or 7 reactors along with dozens of support buildings.





So yadda yadda... all of the production has stopped, and there isn't much left here but a mess. Making this stuff created thousands of tons of radioactive waste and all the buildings are teeming with contamination... not to mention some of the stuff the buried in steel drums and tanks is leaking towards the river. So the goal here is to take all this stuff down and get everything contained and into long term storage (like 1000 year storage).

So we work as part of the support folks to make sure it all gets done safely. And that's like 75% of the work here, safety... like the plant I am working at literally shut down for the last two weeks because of some small(ish) injuries (ok, one was kind of major). So we probably waste some of your tax dollars here (and thank you for that), but at least we make sure your tax dollars don't kill anyone (glass half full?).


Chillin'
So while work is all well and good, fun always seems to be better. Between happy hours on our three day weekends, an extra long kayak trip, and even a batch of margaritas in a coffee pot we've managed to stay pretty entertained.




This weekend, we actually had a full 4 days off... so I figured, why not spend a day on the water? Well I suckered Aprill into a 4 hour, 14 mile kayak trip down the Columbia river. It was relitivley scenic (don't mind the power lines in the picture :/), and the river was cruising for the first 10 miles... then it widened up, and the last four miles took an hour. About 24hrs later, Aprill can't bend her arms!



So I guess other than that, the only really noteworthy weekend was the local brew jam. It was the most expensive beer fest ever... but all this Northwest beer is something special (no offense, South)


Living


Well, we're gluttons for punishment and just couldn't take apartment living much longer.... so we're in the process of closing on a new house (and in case you're wondering, no our other still hasn't sold). Hope to have that wrapped up mid-month... so you'll probably hear from us again around then!

--Adam

Wine Country

So this is my first post as a resident of south eastern Washington. Out first weekend was pretty good, my photo collection isn't really up to par, but I can at least tell you 'bout it.

Aprill and I kicked off our weekend with a 10k walk for the march of dimes. We did this with a few of her friends she has made in her time here over the last couple of months. The town we are in runs along the Columbia river, and for the most part, there is a long park that runs the length of the town next to the river... And thus, the walk made a loop around a portion of this park.




But as for more entertaining info: we apperently live in the Napa equivelent of the Northwest (i.e. Mom, whenever you come to visit, better make enough time for 2 weekends!). So the remainder of the weekend was filled with wine tasting and enjoying the good weather before the real hot stuff kicks in.





This is a portion of the new crew.... (L to R) Adrianne (local), me, Aprill, Darren (southerner), and Ashley (local). Really, it's just a good thing Aprill had roped in some good folks... after landing in town, for a couple days I think it's safe to say I felt a long way from home! But nothing like a weekend of wineries and views to settle down the nerves.

Tomorrow makes me officially a member of the workforce again. So wish me luck, and have a great week!!

-- Adam

Location:George Washington Way,Richland,United States

Made It

After a slight delay in order to get some much needed rest, I am now following directions from my facebook hecklers and providing an official "we're here" post.
How about some driving stats?

Miles: 2900 (even, wow)
Gas Mileage: 25.2 (we had a rooftop box that put a hurtin on our little car)
Gas Used: 115 gallons
Time on the road: 43.5 hours
Traveling Days: 6
Carsick dogs: 0 !!
Bugs Splattered: ~35,000
# of times I plan on making this drive again: ~0





So we made it shortly after my last post and got settled into our new temporary home. It's a pretty nice little apartment all furnished up. Hopefully we can strike a deal to stay here after the company stops paying for it while we wait for the house to sell (which at this rate will be sometime in 2015).



So here we are in the Tri Cities in south central Washington. So far, I really like the town(s). Aprill had made it out to be pretty much like Hickory, but it's far from it. Population is probably ~ 200k in a pretty tight area. So it really feels like a large suburb (really reminds me of Richmond). It's strange though, because it's a suburb without a city... it's more of a suburb in the middle of farm land. As far as we know, the main industry is the DOE work (which is what we are both working on), so thank you for your patronage to the IRS!

The pictures above are from a hike we took to the top of the local hill (and it was pretty tough, poor carter isn't moving much today!). There was one other picture that I couldn't get because it was a bit to hazy, but you can see Mt Rainer from here... and wow it's big. We are probably 150 miles away and it's still the tallest peak on the horizon. So if she blows... well, lets hope she doesn't!

Well, I'll add to this every now and again to keep you up to date. Hopefully I can post some pictures of some monster trout sometime soon!

All the best,
Adam

I-90, Day 3

After 3 days on interstate 90, we finally took to last exit to the highway that will lead us to our new home.












Today consisted of hours and hour and hours of mountain passes and curvy interstates. A really pretty drive actually... I had never seen that end of MT so it was new to both of us. We stopped in missoula for lunch, and that is quite the cute mountian town (with a high desity hippy population).




The dogs have had it with all the driving. But they have been amazingly good the whole time. Even carter, who has a car sick thing, has made it the whole way (including a 3+ hour mountain drive today) without incident. As you can see above, he has established quite the set of sea legs.

Sydney, on the oher hand, has been good in the car... but today at the park in Missoula, she decided to hop a retaining wall to get down to the river to cool off. Well on the other side was a 3 foot drop to a rocky landing. Oops. We slipped the need for a vet visit so far, but she has a little shiner where she face planted.










Well, we're about an hour out of town now and back into the flat lands. It is starting to turn to desert as we go along, so we must be close! Hitting the WA state line really drives it home that we have moved almost 3000 mi from home! But last night with family helps to keep us grounded to at least some familiarity.

Tomorrow will be settle in day and then Aprill has to work Friday. I'm still unemployed till Monday, but all my fishing gear is on the moving truck :(. I'm sure I'll spend some time crusing town and getting the lay of the land. I'll update you all again soon!

-- Adam

Location:Connell,United States

Rushmore to Billings

So Rocky Top will always be home sweet home to me, after 2200 miles, we're back to my original home of Montana.




We spent the evening spending time with the grandparents, Ryan (brother), and Angie (girlfriend of brother). The dogs met their grand brother Toby, and while I lack any pictures of the chaos, Carter and Toby were quite the couple... if you know Carter, think snarls.







The day started with fulfilling our patriotic duty by visiting mt rushmore. Again, not being toursit season, we had the place to ourselves, which was nice. But on the not so bright side, Keystone (the gatlinburg of the west) was a ghost town, so we didn't get to partake in any adverturous activities such as the concrete luge (to aprill's utter dismay).
But back on the bright side, we got our first taste of western wildlife in th form of tame mountain goats... also, Carter found a carving of a grizzley while pulling into a gas station... lucky for the bear, the windows were up (we just hope if he meets one in real life his reaction is decidedly opposite of this one).














Other than that, it was just a short 6 hour drive up to billings in preperation for the final push tomorrow. We have about 11 hours of drive time, so we are planning a 12 - 13 hour day to bring it on home to Washington.


-- Adam

Location:Crawford Dr,Billings,United States

Sure is Flat 'Round Here

Today, we crossed the line that seperates the Midwest from the west west. Not sure exactly where it was, but you can tell when all the trees go away and you can see the earth curve in the distance.








We finally got around to some "epic" tourist attractions. Starting with the wild and wonderful Corn Palace---







So I guess they remake this place every year and make murals out of different colored corn. But since it's not tourist season, we were the only ones there and there wasn't much else going on... so it was more of a pee break than anything.

But to make up for that, we stopped at the WORLD FAMOUS Wall Drug--














As you can tell by the parking lot, it isn't tourist season here either. But there are still plenty of fringed leather jackets! BTW, Aprill loves Jack-a-lopes, and she finally met one up close!

A fun Wall Drug fact: from Omaha, there are exactaly 87 billboards dedicated to this prized location. That was the game of the day, I guessed there would be 100, Aprill guessed 75 (the first was about 250 mi out). For all you math majors out there, that means I lost by 1... so tomorrow we're going back so we can recount.

Now, I know what you're thinking: what about the license plate spotting? Well we passed about 100 cars in 9 hours on the road today... And 92 of them were from SD. We are still working on it, it's just slow now.







This is random and out of order, but Aprill has requested the addition of the black squirel (sp?) we spotted in Omaha. As per the Google, the black variant frequents thoes parts.






Tonight we landed in Rapid City, SD. Found a good dinner, but that's about it. Tomorrow, it's Rushmore to the max, and a night with the Grands.

-- Adam

Location:Knollwood Dr,Rapid City,United States

Omaha: Misjudged in Mid Ameica

Well, Omaha, I owe you an apology. You are not nearly as lame as I had pegged you for prior to arriving here. Not to mention, I had been here once before and remember thinking you were pretty cool then too.











We had dinner at a really good sushi resturant, and then spent some time in the park. The dogs are being vocal at the hotel tonight (probably karma since I didn't claim the dogs to try and save $20), so they got to come with us. Which worked out well since the trip to the park was dog-tastic.




Carter was quite intrigued by the goose. He was snarling and barking, but that was before I could capture his fury on video... so I was relegated to capturing a still image of his stand off for you to enjoy.




So tomorrow it's off to South Dakota and a date with some dead presidents carved into a mountain. So till then.......


-- Adam

Location:Abbott Dr,Omaha,United States