strudel anyone?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Lori

On Monday i was at the Salt Flats watching cars break land speed records and now i’m in Germany watching kids break gaming records. gamescom2012

i’m in Cologne, Germany at the GamesCom show, which is the world’s largest interactive entertainment expo. i have been to the E3 Expo in LA many times and i knew this show was going to be bigger, but i didn’t realize how much bigger. it’s like E3 super-sized.

the show runs Wednesday-Sunday, and will have over 275k attendees. there are 11 halls total, and the whole convention center is 120,000 square meters. (according to an online conversion chart that is 1,290,000 square feet). a couple halls make up the business area, where i spend most of my time, as it isn’t as crowded and it’s relatively quiet. there are expo halls where companies like Ubisoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, and Activision have their ginormous booths showcasing their games. then there are halls that contain activities like kart racing, bicycle racing, and table top games. a little something for everyone.

i’m off to day three of the show, wish me luck!

photo courtesy of engadget.com

my third and final day

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Lori

sadly today is my last day at the salt. i’m off to Germany tomorrow, so i couldn’t stay any longer.

as the sun rose over the Motel 6 pool, it certainly didn’t seem like we would have to worry about thunderstorms. it would be great if the salt could stay dry today, the harder the surface the easier it is to drive.

we made our way to the pit, and promptly started working on the car. after a tasty breakfast the crew hooked up the car to the truck, and headed on down to line.

and those of us in the pits….you guessed it, waited! one new addition to the pit this year was a solar oven. we tried it out yesterday and made a batch of cookies and some focaccia bread. it turned out ok, but we knew we could do better. today we pre-heated the oven (put it in the sun with nothing in it) and waited until it got to 200 degrees before we put in the cookies. that worked a lot better and i was able to enjoy a tasty treat before i made my way back to Salt Lake City Airport.

while waiting for my flight to board my Dad called. the car ran, and ran well, we hit 224 mph. the record is 231 and our competition this year made it to 229, so we still have some work to do. it’s only Monday though and a lot can happen in three days. hopefully when i land in Germany tomorrow i will have a message saying the car is in impound.

another day at the salt

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Lori

day two at the salt starts with record runs at 7 AM. record runs are for cars that broke a record the day before.
if you break a record you have an hour to get to the impound area and then you have four hours to work on your car. the car spends the night in impound and runs the next morning. if i understand the record setting process correctly, it goes something like this………

say the record is 200 mph and you go 205 in mile 2, you break that 200 mph record. during your record run you need to go over 200 mph again in the same mile, in this case mile 2, and the new record is the average time of your two runs. sounds like one of those problem solving questions from math class right?!

did i mention there was a fair amount of waiting while at the salt? the main attraction in the pits this year is a phenomenal car by Triet & Davenport called the Target 550. it’s not running at this meet, maybe at the Mohave Mile in Sept. or at the Bonneville race in October. i can’t wait to see this baby run, she is a beaut!
a windstorm hit mid afternoon, causing a flurry of activity in the pits, taking down the tents and packing up. the course was shut down for awhile, but eventually reopened. sadly we did not end up in impound today. we made one run late in the day, and ended up spinning out right after the start.

damn soft salt! driver and car are fine, and we received the official okay from inspection, so we should be in good shape for tomorrow. thunderstorms are on the horizon though, fingers crossed they just bypass Wendover.

a day at the races

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Lori

Bonneville National Speed Week runs Thursday to Thursday, and it’s usually held within the first couple of weeks of August.

the racing begins on Saturday morning; Thursday and Friday are spent setting up your pit and getting the car through inspection.

Saturday starts with a drivers meeting at 9 AM, followed by a drive down the course, and then everyone gets their cars ready to get in line and race.

3 out 4 tracks are open today, one is closed due to the rain yesterday, so things are moving a little slowly. we put our car in line about 3 hours ago, and we are still about 18 cars back. i take the opportunity to walk around and take some pix.

a new scoop is on our car this year and a couple of other modifications have been made, so it’s anyone’s guess how the run will go.

did i say there was a lot of waiting? and waiting. and waiting. so i wander and take more pictures.

and we run. 218 mph. good speed for us, but not enough to set the record…….now we wait for the car to come back to the pit to find out how it ran from the driver perspective and to see if anything needs tweaking.

did i mention we wait a lot? and i wander some more.

the car is back and it’s time for the team meeting. this is where every shift in gear is analyzed and they determine next steps. the good news is nothing appears to have broken and we can run again. it’s pretty late in the day to make another run today, but we are in good shape for tomorrow.

testing 1-2-3

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Lori

348s it’s been awhile since i’ve posted while traveling, so i thought i should see if i still remembered the process for posting and including an image. you need to remember i am not tech savvy.

so here i sit at Oakland International Airport writing a little post, killing time until i board my flight to Salt Lake City.

from SLC i will head to Wendover for another trip out to the Bonneville Salt Flats. if you follow my posts you’ll know this is an annual trip to watch my Dad and his racing posse compete in the land speed trials. they run a modified 28′ Ford roadster, and I think we’re in the c/gr class this year.

could this finally be the year we set a record over 200 mph? only time will tell, so stay tuned!

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Lori

as i have mentioned before, travel this year has been very sporadic due the fact that last October i bought a house. but opportunity does knock, and in this case it was a very loud knock not to be ignored. i opened the door and now a trip is planned!

my friend JF lives in Sydney, she’s been there for the last year. she is planning to come home at the end of October, which sadly eliminates the chance for me to see fireworks on New Year’s Eve over the Sydney Opera House, but it gave me the inspiration to get my act together and plan a trip for a visit before she leaves. although the cash is limited, the fact i have a free place to stay helps out tremendously.

so i cashed in my meager stash of United miles and got a one-way ticket to Sydney. my friend and i will then return to the Bay Area together via Honolulu. it worked out to be more cost effective to fly through Hawaii than direct from Sydney to San Francisco, and since that was the case, why not stay for a couple of nights?

i am so happy to have this trip on the calendar and i’m super grateful for having everything fall into place so it could happen. although i’ve got the trip to Cologne first, the Australian countdown has begun!

photo courtesy of naturalwallpaper.net

Germany bound

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Lori

my next international trip is to Cologne, Germany. it’s a work trip so i’m only there for a short amount of time, but as always i will try to make the most of my time.

i’m the queen of buying travel guide books; there is just something comforting about having a guide book in your bag while you’re exploring a new area. i also like to see all of the bigger books on my bookshelf at home. it’s just a reminder of the places i’ve been and where i want to go.

since this trip is short and i’m only going to the one place, i figured i’d get a little pocket guide with a map, those are my favorite. then i saw that Top Sights has a travel guide for Cologne. $1.99 Kindle version available. i do love to travel with the iPad so the Kindle version could be perfect. i’ve spent more on less so i didn’t even think twice, click and done.

will i now carry the iPad with me while sightseeing? will i still buy a pocket guide? that remains to be seen, but i’m excited to see what my newest guide has to offer.

photo courtesy of phonebookoftheworld.com

laugh out loud funny

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Lori

first off, let me just say i think it’s a little crazy that i’m still writing in this journal/blog. i kind of thought i would write a couple more posts after Argentina and call it a day. oddly enough i just renewed my website subscription and i continue to post. i’m pretty sure no one reads anything i write anymore, but hey, does it really matter? i think i determined from the very beginning of this project that it was really for me and maybe someone else would read it at some point and get a chuckle out of it.

which leads me right into today’s post……..

last week i was on a flight home from LA and i was desperately trying to finish my book club book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, as i have been a bit remiss recently in finishing the chosen books. it’s a funny book and there are some seriously laugh out loud funny moments. of course these moments never come when you’re reading in the privacy of your own home, but always when you’re on some form of crowded public transportation. i’m sitting next to a very quiet man on the flight and he’s reading something serious and i’m laughing so hard i snorted. ah geez. slightly embarrassing, but i regained composure, wiped the tears from my eyes, took a deep breath, and then the whole thing happened again. i don’t think he, or anyone really cared, they probably were trying to figure out what i was reading, and making a mental note, but i did feel self conscious for half a second. not nearly as self conscious as the time i was watching a TV show though……….

i was going on a trip (this was quite awhile ago) and needed some TV/movie content to watch while traveling. my Mom had just finished watching the Tudors and said i’d really like it. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and historical fiction, what’s not to like? so i downloaded season one and away i went. i settled into my flight and decided to start the Tudor adventure. what my Mom failed to mention was that in addition to it’s extremely good looking cast and amazing costumes, the show had a lot (A LOT) of nudity and sex included. first 5 minutes, King Henry, the chamber maid, skirt up, over the bed……need i say more? bare everything and sex, not usually an issue for me, unless of course i’m on a flight and seated next to a priest. sigh.

needless to say, i watched the Tudors in my hotel room and kept my flights PG with romantic comedies.

image courtesy of memories.com

it’s about time

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Lori

i used to fly quite a bit for work and personal travel; but until recently, i’m pretty sure my last flight was the return trip from Argentina.

my good friend SA changed my sad travel status by arranging a trip for us to visit our friends in Colorado. Team Colorado is made up of two people from Summit County, one from Denver, and one from Nederland. they have been mentioned previously in this blog, and let me just say i’m one lucky person to have all of these fine folks in my life.

the Colorado visit was great fun, with time spent in both Nederland and Summit County. my friend JW lives in the cutest cottage in Nederland, and that’s where we started the trip. we enjoyed dinner at the Sundance Lodge, evening visiting, a day trip into town to see the sites, including the cool restored carousel, a walk to a nearby lake, a quick stop at a new retreat center and then we sadly said goodbye to JW and headed off to Summit County.

once in Summit County more visiting, eating and drinking took place. my trip wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the Dillon Dam Brewery, oh how i love that place. we made the obligatory cruise through the outlets (i needed some new sneaks), we purchased a group lottery ticket with high hopes of a big win, and i then made my way to Denver International Airport.

time spent with Team Colorado is always too short, but during this visit we did plan the next gathering (December) and talked about some in between visits as well. since the CO trip, i’ve booked some work travel, and i finally feel like i’m back on my travel game.

trips long gone

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Lori

as you may know from previous posts, i recently purchased a home. part of the fun of being a homeowner is determining what artwork will go in each room.

my dining room has a 12 ft. wall facing the entry, and i decided to frame and hang three of my photos. since i didn’t have photos from any of my travels up thus far, i figured i’d pick three favorites, have them enlarged and call it a day. oh……so much easier said than done.

should i choose three from the same trip or three of the same theme? do i go with bright colors or try and create an arty black & white trio? i don’t usually edit my pictures, just the normal cropping, removing red-eye, things of that nature; but i wasn’t sure that my raw images would be interesting enough for the dining room.

my non-computer savvy self decide to look into Photoshop programs that might magically take my images and make them into totally fascinating, gallery-worthy creations. right. those programs, not really user-friendly. i suppose once you know what you’re doing it’s easy, but for the first time user, painful, truly painful. i gave it a go with Elements 10 and Lightroom, and i managed to make some usable prints, but the more i look at them, the more i think, “hotel art”.

one fun thing about picking out the images to frame, i was able to look at all of my travel albums and relive the trips of the past. so many good memories!

international geotastic

a journal of my travel experiences. the good, the bad, and sometimes very ugly.

Author Archives: Lori