Throw the Mind [dot] Com » Trip

El Paso Work Trip

Nathan — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:38:55 +0000

Here are a few pictures from my last trip to El Paso for work. Yes those are real coyotes! They came and ate scraps outside of the window at this steak restaurant. I’ll be going back in a few weeks. Hope to go to Roswell NM, and Carlsbad Caverns.

Tags: El Paso, Travel, Trip, Work

Makers Local 256 visits Arch Reactor

Nathan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:12:34 +0000

Raymond, Tim, Justin, and I decided to go to St. Louis for the grand opening of Arch Reactor the local Hackerspace up there. They had made a post to the hackerspaces.org mail list inviting everyone out to there space. I asked a few members if they would like to go, and we made a weekend trip out of it.

I had spoken with a few of the Arch Reactor members beforehand and made arrangements to crash at a members apartment. We left Friday night in the middle of a snow storm. Lucky Tim is from upside down Vermont and thus knows how to drive in bad weather. A 6 hour drive took us 10.5, but thanks to my Droid we never missed a beat with Pandora.

Once in St. Louis we found a McDonald’s to get food and then napped in the parking lot. Then we traveled over to the Arch and did the touristy things. We walked around the museum and rode up in the Arch. Being about lunchtime we headed over to Arch Reactor were we hung out for the rest of the night.

The open house was tons of fun. They probably had 50 or more people show up. They had a Maker Bot and a CNC, along with a bunch of old and new computers. There was some cool art, and a few talks. Tim and I even showed off the photobooth and gave a short talk about it. OH! and they had life sized Jenga!

As expected after only a few hours of sleep and parting all day with only caffeine to keep us awake, we crashed hard Saturday night. Sunday morning we had lunch with a member of their space and headed home. The drive home way way easier than the one going up. On the way through Illinois we saw a sign for Metropolis, IL aka Superman’s Home. Naturally we stopped and saw a giant Superman at the courthouse.

Here are the picture I took, I’ll update it later if anyone else has posted their pictures.

Tags: MakersLocal, Road Trip, Trip

Wisconsin Trip 2009

Nathan — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:31:32 +0000

I took a little vacation over the holidays. I headed up to the coldest place on earth….alright maybe it wasn’t the coldest place, but it sure felt like it. I went up to Wisconsin to see my Dad and Step-mom as well as other people and family.

I headed out early on the 22nd and thankfully I made it there without any problems. I didn’t have any canceled flights our anything like that. After arriving in the frozen tundra the first thing Dad and I did was head to the cheese store. Not to far from the airport is a place where they make fresh cheese. We got a few bags of cheese curds and a couple blocks of cheese. I looked at getting a cheese head hat, but decided against it, because of baggage space limitations.

Most of the time was spent just hanging out with family. We went to see a movie, went out to eat a bunch. You know the normal family stuff.

I did get to see the grave stone of Jessica. I posted about her in a post called 10 years ago… It was nice to see the stone, she was a very good friend of mine, and I don’t think I have ever actually seen her stone. The fist time I was there to see her grave site there was just a plaque.

Also got to hang out with a couple friends including @grinningsoul who I have never met in person but have talked to online for almost two years. It was awesome to meet someone for the first time you have known and followed for a while. <–That sounds very stoker like, thanks social networks.

All in all I had a great time….well except for the cold!

Tags: Travel, Trip, Wisconsin

Hawaii Trip 2009

Nathan — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:30:07 +0000

I went on a work trip to Hawaii in the middle of November. We were on Kauai, which is very small and very old. Not much to do there, but I guess I wasn’t there for vacation so what can I expect. Here are some pictures from the island.

Tags: Hawaii, Travel, Trip, Work

Israel and NYC Pics

Nathan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:15:59 +0000

Last month I had to go on a business trip to Israel. On my way back I had an 8hr layover at JFK and jumped a taxi into the city.

Israel was a pretty cool place to visit. Chicks are fine, and out number the guys by like 3 to 1. The hotel I stayed in was right on the beach and the Mediterranean Sea was beautiful. One day I got to go on a tour around the Sea of Galilee and some other Holy places. Other than being there on a business trip it was a pretty cool place to go.

So I only got to spend about 4hrs in NYC but it was awesome to see. I walked around Time Square most of that time, then made my way to 5th Ave. Found lots of cool places that I have only heard about on TV. I can’t wait to go back sometime and spend more time.

Tags: Israel, NYC, Travel, Trip, Work

Atlanta Trip 2009

Nathan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:51:35 +0000

I had been wanting to see the Bodies Exhibit for year, so when I found out that it was in Atlanta I got some people together and made a day trip out of it. It so happened the Saturday we choose to go, was also Valentines day. Which kind of made it ironic when I saw a bunch of human hearts.

After a crazy early morning drive through the middle of nowhere Alabama and Georgia, we made it to the exhibit. We go in and started looking at the bodies rather quickly. There were some crazy looking things in the exhibit. They displayed, bodies cut open in poses like playing basketball and drawing on a pad. Also there were babies fetuses at all stages of a pregnancy, and a large intestine sprawled out. I didn’t really find anything all that disgusting except for maybe the penis that was cancer ridden. The exhibit was more like a museum exhibit than I thought it was going to be, but it was still awesome to see and I enjoyed every second of it.

After the exhibit, we grabbed some quick food, and headed to the aquarium. But since it was already almost 3pm and they closed at 6pm we decided to find something else to do. We through headed through Olympic Part to the CNN building to try and take that tour, but it was already full. So we decided to hit up a liquor store then head to a bar for a few drinks. After that we went to some hole in the wall BBQ place that has some of the best ribs in the world.

It was a great day trip to Atlanta. Though it sucks that we didn’t make it to the aquarium. I’m going to try again with another group of friends, when we go to Outerz0ne.

Tags: Atlanta, Road Trip, Travel, Trip

WI Trip 2008

Nathan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:00:31 +0000

This year I don’t have one of those “why do birthdays matter” type of posts like I normally do. This year was a hell of a lot better than last year. This year i was back in WI. I went up there because my family was having a 60th Wedding Anniversary for my Grandparents (that’s a long time). It was more a vacation than anything.

Thursday 7/3 – I took off work, parents took me to Logan’s for a Birthday Dinner, then off to the airport. Went from HSV to ATL to Milwaukee then to Central WI. The trip from HSV to ATL was long because the guy next to me wouldn’t shut up. Then I was late getting to ATL so I had to run across the damn airport and just barely made it to my next plan. Once I made it to my destination my checked bag wasn’t there. So I went to my Dad’s with just my computer and the cloths on my back.

Friday 7/4 – Went to see my grandparents, Aunts and Uncles as well as a couple cousins. Headed back home and spent about an hour on the phone trying to find my bag. Then out of the blue a man pulls up in the driveway with it. Cleaned up put on my KATG shirt and headed to some lame ass fireworks, then home and to bed by 11pm

Saturday 7/5 – Didn’t do to much till about 2pm when the party started. Its weird seeing people for the first time in 10 years. Everyone but like one cousin was at the party, and lots of people were drinking. Yep my family brings kegs to parties. After hanging out with everyone all the cousins headed down to a bar in the little town we were at. Its fairly weird to be drinking with people you last remember being 10 years younger, as well as having your aunt buy first round. It was a hell of a night, those people up there are drinking professionals.

Sunday 7/6 – Sunday was kind of laid back. Got up about 11am feeling a little under the weather but not to bad. Went to see my Grandma on my Step-mom’s side, then headed shopping at Wal-Mart for the next day. I also bought a pair of sandals that coasted $1. Yep I’m a big spender. After getting home we just kind of hung out, and went to bed early.

Monday 7/7 – My birthday. We left the house and hit the road about 8am headed to the Wisconsin Dells. We as in my Aunt and Uncles family and ours. We went to Noah’s Ark which is suppose to the the largest water park in America. After 2 years I finally got to go swimming again. It was a great day which I am still feeling the effects of. Since it was an overcast day I figured not wearing sun block would be alright, well it wasn’t and by around 3pm I felt the sunburn setting in. After leaving the park around 5 we went to have pizza across the road. After ordering the pizza I saw my uncle tell something to the waitress in secret. Yep, her and a few other workers came out and sang their happy birthday song, and presented me with ice cream. By the time we got home it was like 9pm. Crashed about 10pm.

Tuesday 7/8 – Chilled out at the house till about noon when Lynn and I went to get some cheese for me to take home. After coming back home, I found out the neighbour’s daughter had come by to say Hi to me. Feeling bad that I haded talked to her yet I went to say Hi. We chatted for about an hour, traded numbers and I went home because we were about to leave for dinner. After dinner lots of people showed up because we were having cake and ice cream for my birthday, as well as my second cousins birthdays. Both my Grandparents from up there came by, lots of Aunts and Uncles and cousins showed up. It was a blast. I got a few cards all of which I loved. Then people started heading home, and saying there goodbyes. I think the hardest goodbye was from by Grandma Warner. I almost cried and promised to see her again next year. After everyone left, I decided to call the neighbour girl and see if she just wanted to hang out. So for the first time since I had arrived in Wi, I was out doing my own thing. We just drove around town talking, it was great and I was sad that we didn’t get more time to hang out. But I guess there is always next time. Got home about 12:30am packed stuff went to sleep about 1am.

Wednesday 7/9 – After about 3.5 hrs of sleep I was awaken by my Dad because I needed to be at the airport by 5:15am. He was off to work, so out goodbye was short, which was probably good because I hate seeing him cry. Plane ride went better than on the way up, but again my bag was lost. This time only for a few hours.

There are a couple things I wanted to do that I didn’t get around to doing because I was just so busy seeing everyone. Late last year I posted about a friend that died 10 years ago. I really wanted to go to the graveyard and look for her stone. I haven’t seen it in probably about 10 years. I also wanted to hit up my old Karate place and say hi. And I never got to go geocaching. I guess next time I will need to take a day and do things I want to do. Hope you had fun reading about my trip.

Tags: Birthday, Travel, Trip, Vacation, Wisconsin

Pic’s from the trip

Nathan — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:53:40 +0000

Ok I’m going to be lazy, and just point you to the dir where the pics are. I don’t feel like doing anything special with them. I would like to make sure you all look at the crazy upside down mansion. That was in the Wisconsin Dells, what a crazy town. Hope you enjoy.

Pics Are Here

Tags: Picture, Travel, Trip, Wisconsin