The Sierra Nevada - King's Canyon, Mammoth Mtn., Mono Lake, Yosemite.

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The Midwest

Off to the Midwest again for some chilly weather. Many from the Midwest would argue that 32F is not really chilly. True, it could be worse. This time I am flying into CID via DEN. I am hoping I don't have to deal with any ice tonight on my drive to Dubuque - driving tonight since I have a 9am meeting with a customer. I expect to get in tonight at around 10:45 Central time, then drive about an hour into the middle of Iowa.
I did get one First Class upgrade on my last leg going into CID.

This week looks to be good for driving in Iowa and Nebraska - not too many temps below 32 and no precipitation until around Wednesday - at least that's what my weather service tells me.

If you didn't know this about me - I am a NASCAR fan, and NASCAR season just opened last week with the Daytona 500. My Father-in-law and I both do Fantasy NASCAR on Yahoo Fantasy Sports. We have a lot of fun with it. I got to catch a bit of the race this weekend (Avondale Raceway in AZ) during my lunch layover in SFO. Wouldn't you know 2 of my 4 drivers got caught up in the big crash, which means less points. But, we had picked some of the same drivers this week, so he lost as many points as I did on one of those guys. And I had picked Kyle Busch early on but switched last minute. Oh well, I still have him in points going into week three.

I hope to have a safe and hassle free trip this time through, weather seems to be participating fairly well. I took a few pictures over the Sierra - I will send it to the blog a little later. The snow was amazing.

I am getting excited about camping with the kids. We have started talking about it, although it is a bit cold to start camping since we still have lots of snow in the upper elevations. My son and I talked about finding some places to camp that we have to canoe into. I like the sound of that. Minimalist camping.

I am going to sign off for now. Getting ready for my next flight. Hope my luggage makes it.

Mr. Smith...

Many legs, no delays...

So I am going to do this quickly, because I have no delays today. Somewhat crazy to have 4 legs to get home from FSD to RDD. I had to go through DEN and SAN. You may ask, why SAN? Well, it was much cheaper because the same flight number and flight crew flew from FSD to DEN to SAN - like a through flight, only switching planes. Well, I did get two 1st Class complimentary upgrades, and my last leg I will be in a small plane but in seat 9C, which is just about the same as 1st Class on a little EMB120. Those of you that fly know exactly what I am talking about. I must have outranked alot of travelers today.

Had some pretty crazy weather experiences while in South Dakota. It was well under freezing for most of my trip, with exception of today when I went out to the car at 7:30am and it was a balmy 24 degrees. When I left FSD, it was 40 degrees. There was still wind chill, but it was like "shorts" weather. DEN was still pretty cold, but SAN was 71 degrees. SFO is 61 degrees, and I hope it will be warm over the weekend in RDD. Home sweet home.

This was a really good trip for the business. The FA Office people in South Dakota are so friendly and warm, with such frigid temps outside. I did get to visit Aberdeen by car. It was an "ice road" for 70 miles. You just have to keep it slow around the wide corners. On my way back down to Brookings, I started struggling with the winds on I-29 for a good 40 miles. When I got to my hotel and turned on the news, I found out that they closed that freeway not more then an hour after I was off of it. I guess the week before, over 150 vehicles got stranded on that highway because of a blizzard and high winds. The temps were around -17, with an added wind chill it felt more like -35 outside the car. Thank Hertz for seat warmers and All Wheel Drive. Thank God for getting me off the highway safely.

I have to get ready to board now, so until next time (late Feb), happy travels...

Mr. Smith

Once again - into the frozen tundra

I am on my way again to Beautiful South Dakota. Some would say there isn't much there, well, there isn't. And the winters can be pretty harsh. "They" also say that Minnesota can be colder, which I'm sure it can, but this week I am in for much colder weather then last week in Minnesota. Someone told me that at least in MN, we have trees to block the wind. So True! Not many trees in SD. Therefore the wind chill factors in right away. I believe the high for Tuesday is slated to be around 0 degrees - without the wind chill. Well that would be splendid if I were in Sioux Falls for the day, but instead I plan on driving up through Watertown to Aberdeen - about 3 hours North. By the time I get up there in the early afternoon, I think it will be -3 (they were forecasting -21 for 6am). Glad I am staying in Sioux Falls Monday night.

So let's just say I am in for some cold weather. I talked to a guy on the plane into SFO that was heading to Siberia - I thought people only went to places like that in the movies. He was preparing for highs around -25F.

I guess it is supposed to be cold in Redding, CA also - looks like 30F is forecasted for Thursday morning - brrrr.

Safe travels - until next time.

Flying into the Great Storm!

So my Mom was really worried that I was heading to the Midwest during the BIGGEST Storm of the year. But when I look at Minnesota weather, it doesn't look any worse then it was a few weeks back - really cold. After all, isn't that how Minnesota rolls - really cold in the winter. I noticed a commercial lately that they are testing Acura vehicles in MN because of the harsh winters. They say if your winter is colder, then you need to move.

I ended up getting a little warmer clothing to wear back there this week. Remember a few weeks ago when my friend Scott chuckled at the coat I was wearing to South Dakota? Well, hint taken. I now have a base-layer, a mid-layer, and a down outer layer. Also picked up some glove liners for under my heavy gloves, a neck gaiter, a Green Bay colored handmade beanie cap with ears, and all the other warm stuff you can think of.

Hoping the weather will not be too brutal. I am 90% over the pneumonia, I think. I will be driving the roads of MN while there, maybe 300-400 miles, so I will have to get some pictures to share of what the roads look like, if you can see them.

Back to airports - I am flying out of SMF today because it was hundreds of dollars cheaper to drive 2 hours to a larger airport, this time. Normally I can get pretty good rates out of RDD, but this time it wasn't so. I also get to take advantage of First Class today, thanks to a frequent traveler friend - read a few posts back. Scott had a left over upgrade he decided to give to me since it expired in January. Thanks Scott!!! So SMF to DEN to MSP today. Foggy at SMF, but only a 15 minute delay. Snowing in DEN and probably snowing in MSP by the time I get there tonight.

Looking forward to meeting with clients the next several days. Next week I will be back to FSD, but my flight just happens to take me via SAN, why? I have no idea, but I'll take it since it gets me an extra leg toward my 1k status.

Let's hope the skies are friendly today!

Rob

cold just got colder...

Well greetings there weary travelers. Cold just got colder in South Dakota. I ended my trip there with pneumonia last Saturday morning after 5 days of succumbing to the cold. I arrived in South Dakota ready to conquer the cold, instead it took control of my body.

I had a very good time with coworkers during my time there, but always just felt a little cold, never quite warm enough. I spent very little time in airports on my trip back - or at least what I remember. I took some Nyquil at FSD, and slept takeoff to touchdown to DEN. I had a small bowl of soup in DEN, then slept from there to SFO. SFO to RDD was more of the same - sleep. And since I have been home - sleep.

So I met with the Doc Monday morning, had a fever of 102, my resting heart rate was 93, and half of my right lung was full. Bad news. Well, back to the Doc on Thursday, temperature normal, RHR back to around 53 and my lungs still have a bunch of junk in them. So I guess it takes a while to get rid of the fluid in the lungs. Doc says I can't really do much exercise for probably a month or so. Not easy to hear that being an endurance athlete. All the muscle memory I have will be gone in a month, I suppose I will just have to start over.

My next trip will take me back to the great frozen tundra of Northern Minnesota. I just hope within a few weeks I will be healthy enough that the cold won't get to me this time. I will definitely be dressing more warmly this go round. I hope to have better news about my travels the next time we talk. Until then, see you in the air...

traveling friends with more miles then me...

Well, I guess Tuesday is commuter day at RDD. Saw 3 regular travelers, one that is a friend from church, we'll just say his name is Scott to protect the innocent. Scott shared with me that he traveled over 200k miles last year, needless to say, I did not get into the 9b or 9c seat on my commuter flight today. 9b&c is like First Class on the EMB120. It is an exit row, and normally open unless 1k flyers are on the flight - they know and have access to book those seats. So Scott and another friend (we'll call her Annie) were in 9b&c. With only a slight delay out of RDD for a malfunctioning fuel indicator, we landed at SFO with plenty of time to spare to move over to our next flight - Scott just happened to be traveling East today as well.

An uneventful flight to DEN, over the beautiful snow-covered Rockies. Scott offered to have me be a guest in the Red Carpet Club - free internet, coffee, and snacks while I wait for my flight to FSD. While Scott heads off to STL, I have a few minutes to get some emails out and type a short note to you - my loyal followers. I also need to make some phone calls, what a great place to work. Maybe I can talk my boss into letting me get a membership here at the RCC on the company (hmm).

South Dakota is supposed to be pretty cold this week. I think it should be around 0 degrees when I land - and then hoover between 10 and -10 for the week. Should have brought some cramp-ons to walk around in the ice.

Until next time... safe travels....