Traveling for work...again!

[510Freak]

The boat brings on the term ice fishing
the cost of everything must be a fair bit more there?
Byron had a couple canadians
Good thing you were not in a tent ,At great speed head out of the tent with projectile lol

[Byron510]

Glad to be back home. It's funny, on the trip back I touched down in Norman Well, then Yellowknife, then Edmonton. Each time I disembarked the plane via a walk across the runway, and each time it felt noticeably warmer as I came south. Norman Wells -18, Yellowknife 12, Edmonton -6. Honestly, Edmonton felt balmy which is just plain weird. 10 degrees here at home feels great!
Got in to work this morning and have already been assigned to Seattle for the weekend – I haven’t even had a chance to see my daughter yet , I’ll stop by the daycare on the way out of town.

Byron

[rnorrish]

i'll drop those parts off tonight on my way to chilliwack.
you'll at least have them for when you get home.

[Byron510]

Anyone on the site in Holland? I've been gone again for work for this past week. The weather in Zurich and Amsterdam has been pretty good, timing has been alright - but I'd much rather be home driving the 510 back home. I'll have two trips to Switzerland this year for work, I'll be back again in 6 weeks. But I have to admit, there really does seem to be a lack of old cars here. Even now that I'm in the Netherlands, no old cars and not a single "Datsun" sighting as of yet. I have a couple more days left before returning home, so we'll have to see. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Byron

[Byron510]

So I'm headed back up to Inuvik tomorrow, thought I'd look at the forecast. Now if you haven't looked at a map, this is way the hell north! A hellava long way from where I call home here in Vancouver, so I thought it prudent to look up the weather.
It states:
Today - 19 and sunny - that's good
Tonight - 9 and sunny - ?
Tomorrow - 20 and sunny - still good
Tomorrow night - 9 and sunny - ????
So I look at the sunrise/sunset times - they're blank.
So it's at just over 68 degrees north, which is higher than most of Alaska - man it's up there!

Well, so the land of the midnight sun, here I come. I wonder how low in the sky the sun gets at night?

Byron

[jason]

I just talked to a customer in White Horse, he tells me that the bugs are big enough to carry off small children this season ! Sounds like snow is almost preferred .... Can I have your steak Byron ?

[Byron510]

Yep, I'm a bit worried about the bugs; They'll be out in full force. I can olny pray for wind to keep them down.
So if the sun is up 24/7, I wonder what tim eof day the bugs get to be the best/worst?
Guess I'm about to find out.

My AGM steak is all yours, Jason! Have fun.

Byron

[jason]

You know, I still think they'll come out in force when the temperatures start rising. The sun thing must be confusing for the wildlife! Thanks for the steak Bryon, now, all I gotta do is get in front of Aron again !

[rnorrish]

i'll beat you there Jason... I'm a starving student!

[jason]

Yeesh, first Aron, now you too Rich ? How can you possibly be starving, you must still be 250lbs !

[Ash510]

Jason I will save you a spot in the line.. just behind me

Aron

[Dimebag]

My AGM steak is all yours, Jason! Have fun.

Sorry guys, since Byron said he's not coming we didn't order one for him...

We only had 15 confirmed steak eaters, but Jamie is planning for 25 just in case.

[Byron510]

I’m in the far north – Inuvik again. Well, after all I've heard about bugs - there aren't any here! Actually it's beautiful and sunny...at 10pm! It feels like 2 in the afternoon right now, judging by the suns angle. As I was walking back to the hotel after dinner, I saw a shadow cast from a power pole, and wondered if it would be kind of cool to set up a camera on a tripod and to a 24 hour time elapse photo of the shadow going 360 degrees around the pole!
I walked down to the boat launch and ended up talking with a guy who said he'd been here for just over 25 years. He confirmed the previous story about how cold it does get here. I reiterated the comment in an above post about throwing a glass of water in the air at -45 degrees and asking if it would be frozen solid when it hits the ground. He replied, saying that you can take a piss at -45 degrees, and even thought it's body temperature when it leaves you, it's also frozen solid by the time it hits the ground. And he even gave me an audio analogy – he said, when you frozen piss hits the snow, it sounds like gun shot hitting cardboard. I shook my head; it's just hard for me to believe. So he gave me another example of how cold it really is here in the winter. Last year he said he drove down to the liquor store and bought a case of beer, 12 bottles in a cardboard box that was taken from a display at room temperature in the store. He dropped them in the box of his pick up, and drove home, about a 10 minute ride. Parks his truck, takes his booty inside his house, cracks one and its frozen solid! I can believe the ten minute part, because there are no roads longer than that in town! So just think of the energy that was lost; 12 bottles inside a cardboard box, from room temp to frozen solid in 10 minutes. That's impressive - man was not meant to live (or drink beer) here!
But right now, in the land of the midnight sun, it's actually quite beautiful.
Byron

[Byron510]

Well, as usual I like to share the many photos I take while traveling on works dime!
My trip this past week had me driving NW out of Calgary to Rocky Mountain House, back to Red Deer, north to Edmonchuck, then west again to Edson and Jasper; I hit some 20 clients (past, present and some hopefully future) but got these shots along the way.
The fog driving into Rocky Mountain House on Monday night on Hwy 11 was crazy thick. You could almost hold it in your hand. That coupled with -15 degree temps, and the effect the next morning on the trees with bright sunshine was nothing short of spectacular. I must have taken 30 shots, but this gives you an idea of how it looked on Tuesday as I headed across the prairie to Red Deer.



After completing the last part of the leg on Thursday, ending in Jasper, my GPS said I could make Calgary via the Ice Field Highway in good time. I'd never driven that chunk of road before and if the GPS wasn’t lying to me I could get the rental car back to Calgary, on a flight and home a day early. So I hit the road, averaging over 100 km/h most of the time. I have to admit, this is a completely boring chunk of highway from a driver’s point of view, but the scenery was nice so I took various shots; these are the favorites. The scary part of this drive - 2.5 hours at 120 km/h when I could - I passed 2 cars in my direction, and 8 cars went by the other way in that whole period!, not to mention of that whole travel time, I had no cell range for 2 hours. How's that for "out in the sticks!". I’ll bet in the summer, however, the RV’s piloted by spry 80 year olds line this road and the average speed is 30 km/h!
Anyway, here are the shots through the Ice Field Hwy on Thursday afternoon/evening.







The road was clear and dry out of Jasper where it was an unseasonably balmy 9 degrees and clear and sunny. By the time I hit the Columbia Ice Field an hour later it was -17 degrees, dark and overcast. A little further down the road it warmed up to -5, but I hit a snow storm and had to slow to 40 km/h for about 30 minutes, then in a 5 minute span it was 4 degrees, road was clear and dry, the sun was out again and I was back at 120! I had it all – and I made my flight that I booked in Jasper 4 hours before. Actually Westjet moved my flight to one hour earlier which was a bonus because I’d made good time to Calgary International.

Byron

[Byron510]

Traveling for work again - I'll be in Edmonchuck for the week, not sure what the schedule will be. Any avid 510 guys available for an evening of bench racing?

Byron