We’ve gone transatlantic

Well, not really…just across a few states and a bunch of desert. But it was the only music reference that came to mind (Curious Yello, Luke Graner’s former band), and I wanted to make one today!

This week in Vegas was my first time on an airplane in 20 years. My last time was in 1986, and I’ve successfully avoided it ever since. Typically my reason is that I’m hauling motorcycles and gear with me, and those don’t fit in an overhead compartment. But I’ll admit the thought of getting on an airplane didn’t exactly thrill me. Lots of guys who race motorcycles don’t like to fly. The current AMA Superbike points leader doesn’t fly if he can help it, but last year’s champ just got his own plane and pilot’s license. Go figure.

It was interesting…I was nervous and curious at the same time. Thankfully I had the luxury of an exit seat on the wing, so I could see what the airplane was doing. As we accelerated down the runway and lifted off, I had to laugh and exclaim, “I’ve gone plenty faster than this!” I looked it up, and sure…and MD-82 series lifts off at about 140mph. At that speed, I can still get the front wheel up, and I’ve got two more gears! Once we’re in the air, though, that’s another matter.

My only regret is that I wasn’t able to circle Bismarck-Mandan for a while. That would have been so cool, but our route actually didn’t afford us a view of the cities. Once we lift off, we bank left and head south, so there’s no way to look down at Bismarck or Mandan. Coming in was a little better; I was able to get pictures of the Memorial Bridge. But I couldn’t get anything on the left side of the aircraft, i.e. Bismarck. I saw my parents’ house south of Mandan, but only briefly.

While trying to calm myself on the flight down to Nevada, I thought of how I’d spend an evening wrenching on one of my motorcycles, then get up in the morning and wring its neck at triple-digit speeds all day on the track. I never had a bolt come loose there, and I don’t even have a checklist like aircraft mechanics do! I also remembered what it’s like to dive into Turn 1 at Brainerd on the first lap: the wind is so bad from 60+ bikes hitting top speed down the straight and into the corner that riders are buffeted back and forth like rag dolls, clinging tenaciously to the handlebars. Air is NOT smooth. Turbulence is normal. So is creaking. And if the wings didn’t flop up and down like that, they’d snap off. Physics is a wonderful thing. Gradually nervousness dissolved into curiosity; I was planning on sleeping all the way down, but instead I rarely even blinked.

On the flight back I sat next to a very nice Christian lady, I’d guess in her 50s, whose dad was an airline pilot. She’d obviously spent a lot of time aboard jets. She also had a portable GPS with her, so we had a grand time watching the boundaries go by and that sort of thing. She also was starting a new Clive Cussler novel, so we talked about different authors and stuff. I told her all the favorable things I’ve heard about Ted Bell and Vince Flynn, since she likes intrigue. Someday I plan to dive into their novels too.

Then we touched down, and here I am. I took the big bike out today on a blast to Beaver Bay, only to find out that Bosch’s Bayside, the restaurant I enjoy for a double bacon cheeseburger, has closed since the water’s gone. What a disappointment. So I turned back around, blazed home. From a seat-of-the-pants impression I was accelerating faster than the MD-82, but I don’t have any way to compare other than that.

It sure is good to be back in Bismarck! Did I miss anything while I was gone?

My first view of the outside world in four days

This is the view from the window of my suite here in sunny (I presume) Las Vegas. I’ve been working here all week and have been so busy that I have yet to look outside… obviously I haven’t left the building. But it’s a big building: the place I’m staying has a casino, a hotel, an equestrian facility, a bowling alley as big as anything we have in Bismarck, a 9-screen movie theatre, seven restaurants…the list goes on.

It was nice to come down here…it was 112 in Bismarck, but only 104 here! And it’s a dry heat, too. It’s a cake walk. The first guy I met when I walked out the airport was a Christian, too.

So far I’ve had the opportunity to work 14-16 hrs each day, do a lot of camera and tripod lifting, shoot video and stills. I got to work with a nice lady from the FBI and get some nice FBI swag (souvenirs for you old folks). I also worked a little bit with a guy who used to be on the crew for Sesame Street before coming to Nevada. My friend is the general manager of the FOX television affiliate here in Vegas, and we’re gonna go out for dinner shortly. Then I guess I’ll see the sights.

I have a lot of observations and may do a word dump later, but for now it’s time for a nap. I’ve had roughly 3-4 hours of sleep each night between the time I shut off the cameras and go back to my room and the time I stagger downstairs for a Red Bull and two dollar breakfast. The food here’s cheap, they try to keep a guy happy so he gambles I suppose. Anyway, time for a brief combat nap before dinner. Drive safely.

About that new Scheels…

As you may have heard, the new Scheels store in Fargo opened its doors on July 1st. I was down there for a freelance telecast just two days prior to the opening, but didn’t get a chance to get down to the store until last week. It’s quite impressive! Here’s a quick tour:

This store has just about everything…lots of different beverages are on sale right when you walk in, and there’s a little food/drink area in the back of the store on the main level.

There are various displays of different US Presidents all over the store, and you’ll notice the aircraft hanging in the background (minus its engine…that’s fake). There are also numerous benches located around the store, some next to the Presidential displays, where you can have a seat and just have a look around.

Before you can get on the escalators going upstairs, you will pass the ferris wheel in the center of the store. You can have your picture taken on the wheel and put on a t-shirt for a fee.

Upstairs there’s a shooting gallery you can play for fifty cents, and other shooting games etc. near the gun department. I also saw a couple of AR-15 rifles there I’d have loved to bring home, but those may have to wait a while. There were also a ton of LCD flat screens playing DVDs in many departments.

This Scheels is the corporate headquarters now, which explains the size of it. In addition to having more selection than before, they have gone the whole outfitter route like Cabella’s has, in addition to having even a souvenir / home decor section. For things like bikes and that sort of thing, they don’t have a selection that’s any more impressive than any other Scheels store I’ve visited. That’s not to say that they’re lacking, though. And the gun section, to which our crew made a beeline, is pretty large.

Now it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the Bismarck Scheels, once they move into the current Target store location.

I just got better looking…

…because this suit covers most of my face! This is the kind of neat suit one must wear to enter the Class 10,000 clean rooms at the NDSU Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, located in the new technology park on NDSU’s campus in Fargo.

I got to spend much of the day in some of the clean rooms, biotech labs, an aquarium, and chemistry labs where cutting edge technology is advancing through cooperation between NDSU and private businesses. For a geek like me, this is like being a kid in a candy store.

I was hoping I’d get the suit with the little plastic helmet on it, like Dr. Evil wore in the Austin Powers movies…then I could pretend I was in this Postal Service music video, one of my favorites of the 21st century.

It was fun watching the robotic equipment print templates for tiny circuit boards, while other robots would attach the components to the board, while techs would examine finished products under microscopes. There were other guys doing microscopic alignment of templates for extremely tiny circuitry, and tons of gadgets everywhere. One of the interesting items manufactured by Alien Technologies, one of the partners here, is RFID chips the size of a pepper flake! The work on nanotechnology is wild; for example, they’re working on these nano-IC’s (integrated circuits) that are so small, you can fit a bunch of them inside the “D” stamped on a Denver-minted US dime.

There was SO much cool stuff for a geek to see here, and it’s a shining example of the enormous effort our state government is making toward North Dakota’s future development in technology and industry. More to come…

We’ll see your painted ponies, and raise you some painted bison

Yep, Fargo’s doing it too…but they’ve got painted Bison instead of painted ponies. I saw this one at the Downtown Street Fair, which opened today (Thursday). There was a cooler one over by the F-M Community Theater, but I didn’t have the time to snap a photo of that one.

Obviously the only retaliatory response is to begin planning on the Catch a Painted Moose campaign; while not necessarily bigger than a bison, it would certainly be on par — and cooler.

I imagine these were chosen over ponies because of NDSU’s mascot, the Bison. One has to chuckle at the though of Grand Forks following suit. Can you imagine the outrage over a “Catch a Painted Sioux” campaign? Ouch.

Pelicans and Potholes

As I drove through the “Prairie Pothole” region east of Bismarck, I noticed that the water levels in a lot of these tiny lakes are VERY low. We need rain badly. I also saw a lot of these big white fellas. They were apparently in a pretty good mood, too, because normally I haven’t been able to get near them with my camera. I’ve tried at a number of wildlife refuge areas around North Dakota.

Pelicans are neat looking birds, and large ones too. These guys were hanging out in a lake just east of Medina. Monday was a pretty nice day, sunny and lightly breezy…perfect for swimming and flying, I guess. While the birds kept a reasonably safe distance, they weren’t as shy or skittish as the ones I’ve encountered in the past. Still, I pushed my telephoto lens to the limit to get these shots of them.

Something so big can still look pretty graceful, can’t it? Notice how his feet are tucked in behind him…he’s got retractable landing gear! My little lovebird, Scooter, does the same thing when he flies. It’s pretty cool to see. This pelican circled around quite a bit, gliding and flapping those enormous wings. He looked very graceful…

Until he augered in on the landing. That would be me if I were a pelican…as soon as a camera comes along, I eat it trying to land in calm water. “I meant to do that,” as Pee Wee Herman would say. Oh well, I still think he’s a remarkable creature. He was able to compose himself and glide proudly along, preening his feathers as he bobbed around in the water. And I hopped in the truck with a smile on my face, ready to continue back home to Bismarck.

Hopefully our new bridge will be this cool…or cooler

This photo was taken on the bridge between Fargo and Moorhead, on Main Street. If you remember the old bridge, it was downright spooky. The new one is very nice and was well overdue. It’s also got a wide pedestrian area and the nice lit architecture shown in this photo.

There’s something similar planned for the new Liberty Memorial Bridge between Bismarck and Mandan. I can’t remember exactly how it’s going to look, though. My friend Alex did the architectural drawings for it, and I got some footage of it while videotaping the dedication ceremony, but I’m not sure where I put the pictures.

Because our bridge is a memorial to veterans, there will either be a monument in the middle, or one on either end. I’m fighting a migraine this morning, so I’m unable to think back far enough to remember.

In any case, it was neat to spend some time hanging out on the bridge in Fargo; it’s not just a walkway across the river, it’s a wide open area. There will be something similar on our bridge, and we’ve got a much nicer view than the muddy ol’ Red River.

Holiday at the HoDo

Last week I was able to treat my wife to a birthday vacation at the Hotel Donaldon in downtown Fargo. For those of you who are not aware of this place, it’s definitely a must-see!

The hotel was originally built in the late 1800s and served as the lodge for the International Order of Odd Fellows. It was purchased in 2000 by Karen Burgum and renovated with outstanding style. If the name Burgum is familiar to you, Karen was married to Doug Burgum, the Great Plains Software (and now Microsoft) guy.

The entire building is decorated with work from North Dakota artists. There’s a lounge and a fancy restaurant downstairs, and the hotel begins on the second floor. From the entry to the halls to each individual room are works of art ranging from sculpture to photography to paintings to pottery…well, you get the picture. When you check into your room there’s a metal picture frame that opens into a book describing all the artwork and artists featured in the building, their bios, and where their work may be found. There are CDs on the nightstand next to the bed and the Bose music system, and if you like any of the artists you hear, you may keep the CDs for a $15 charge. This could save some legwork, considering some of the artists aren’t exactly someone whose work you’ll find at Sam Goody.

This is the Oddfellows Reading Room, a commons area on the third floor, which has music piped in 24/7 and a small library of local-interest books featuring North Dakota and its people. It overlooks the street through the archway seen here. There’s a similar room on the second floor where the front desk is located and breakfast and wine/cheese are served.

Every room here is different. We chose room 17 because we had been told how cool it is…and we were not disappointed! This room consists of three levels. On the first level is the bar, the sofa, and the first flat screen TV. On the next level is the jacuzzi tub (more on that in a moment) and the bathroom with heated tile floor. On the third level is the king-size feather bed, closet, music system, and the second flat screen TV.

The tub is the hook for this room. Not only is it large and deep, but it fills from the ceiling! That’s not all that make it special. It’s like having one big square tub sitting in another big square tub. Once the tub overflows, the outer one fills up, and that’s where the jacuzzi jets are fed from. So once you get this thing full and up & running, you’re sitting in an overflowing fountain for the duration of your bath. Talk about cool! And the pad it’s on is like a pool deck surface, perfect for your wife to put romantic candles on.

We didn’t take their pictures, but the staff of the Hotel Donaldson are the greatest. We toured this hotel when seeking a honeymoon destination last year, and they were very kind, accomodating, and professional. Now that we’ve stayed here as actual paying guests, we can attest that their professionalism is an everyday part of staying at the Hotel Donaldson. I’m sure it must be cool to work in such a place, because all the staff we met seemed very happy to be there and were very conversational.

Our room was so cool we didn’t even have a chance to go out and spend time in the hot tub on the roof, the workout room, or the dining downstairs. Maybe next time!

We had a great time at the Hotel Donaldson. I’d recommend it to anyone. The prices are what you’d expect for such a fancy place but not out of line; our room cost about $220 per night once you figure in the taxes and stuff. But my wife is worth it, and it’s her birthday! If you’re looking for something special to do for your sweetie, you may consider taking her to Fargo for a day or two. I’d suggest Suite #17!

You can find out more about the Hotel Donaldson on their website or by paying them a visit the next time you’re in Fargo