Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Vacation

Day 12: Chicago

Well, I’m actually writing this from memory on December 30th, 2019 as I’ve let this slide for quite a while. Now I have daily reminders to do one post a day to catch up on this trip and a later trip to Phoenix. Hopefully, the photos will trigger the memory on what we did and where we went.

Our first full day in Chicago will be to go downtown and explore the city. I’ve had enough of driving for a bit so we take advantage of the hotel shuttle to take us to the train station to catch the META right into the heart of Chicago. By the time the day is done we’ve walked over 22,000 steps, taken 231 photos, got lost once or twice and managed to catch the right train to get back to the hotel shuttle pickup station. For 60 of the better photos head over to the Flickr Album for this day of the trip.

We arrive at the train station and we’re tourist right? Which side of the tracks should we be on to catch the train into Chicago? I even ask a couple of people, and we’re all tourists and nobody is sure. We hang around first on the “wrong” side and then place our bets on the other side. Eventually some locals show up and confirm, this is it.

We’re farther out in the burbs than I though when I booked the hotel and its an hour ride into the heart of the city, but it’s a fun train adventure, complete with tickets purchased on an app that you show the conductor.

Once we’re downtown the adventure begins. Where to go first? We start by heading towards the lakeshore.

Soon, our first destination has been discovered! It’s the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, for a time the tallest building in the world until 1998, and we’re going to the top! Well, as high as they let tourists go, the 103rd floor. See the tiny looking glass protrusions on the building on the right? These little glass boxes are for the tourists like us. They can be retracted in bad weather or pushed out on a rail system for some pretty crazy views. You get 30 seconds at a crack to get your photos and selfies. Speaking of “crack” the glass floor did “crack” later in the year after our visit!

Before we head up, we go down into the lower levels of the building and weave through a long series of displays letting you know some of the key moments in the windy cities history. Thankfully the crowds are light and we motor through the exhibits to the elevators.

And we’re up on the Skydeck! The weather is great and it’s a super clear day this morning and we can see all over town and out into Lake Michigan. This is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,353 feet.

Now for the fun part. We wait a short time in line to get our 30 seconds on the Ledge. The Ledge’s glass boxes extend out 4.3 feet out from the Skydeck. Shirley is all relaxed until she steps out onto the glass floor and looks down. Suddenly, not so relaxed. 🙂

Hanging out over Chicago

Just don’t look down.

The Ledge of the Skydeck selfie

Back down on the street we wander around generally towards the lakeshore and Millennium Park. Along the way we go under the Chicago “L” several times. I’m pretty sure some car honked at me as I stopped in the middle of the street to line up this shot. We gawk at all the different shops and cool building architecture and eventually make our way over to the park.

The big attraction at the Millennium Park? The Bean, aka Cloud Gate of course!

After a bunch of Cloud Gate photos, we continue our exploration along the Chicago Riverwalk.

Tour Boat

Vietnam War Memorial

A local bird

Trump Tower on the left

One of the many lifting road bridges

Train Bridge

At this point we’ve walked quite the distance and we’re at the farthest point from the train station. So, we head back and zig zag through the streets to find our train. Inspire of using Google Maps, I get us lost and we actually walk past the station by several blocks before Shirley asks a guy for directions.

Getting closer to the train station

Again, we locate the departing train track without too much trouble, buy tickets with the app and we’re on our way back to the hotel. A new train “wrinkle” for us though. Apparently, we’re in a “quiet” car where there are no announcements about the stations coming up. This is for the seasoned train riders who want a peaceful ride home after a hard day in the big city. For rookies like us this is not good. Eventually, we clue in and move up several cars where they are calling out all the stops.

The hotel shuttle picks us up and we enjoy the complimentary snacks and drinks in the hotel lounge that are sufficient for dinner, and that’s the end of Day 1 in Chi Town.

More photos of the day.

April 9, 2019
Power outage

A 27 hour power outage follows a violent 5 minute storm where severe winds cut a swath just down the road from us and take the tops of two hydro poles. Where are those candles again?

We’re just getting ready to start dinner and this storm blows through and takes out the power. Nothing too unusual for lake life, but little did we know at the time that this would be one of the bigger outages in our experience of 30+ years. Dinner was to be salmon with hollandaise so we switched to something simpler, mainly because the hollandaise sauce requires the blender, which requires electricity.

We call Hydro One which has a fantastic phone service for tracking power outages and providing updates. 400+ customers in our area without power and an estimated restoration of 8:30pm, then 11:30, then 2:30 am then… we went to bed.

The next morning, still no power. Off to town for some coffee and breakfast. On the way back, there are multiple crews of 6-8 guys each working in our area, yay!

Time for some investigation, I’ve never seen power line repairs up close. It’s 12:45 and the truck below is working on Thunder Ridge Road a short distance from the cottage.

Working the line

This is one of the trees that went down. Being on the Canadian shield these big trees have very shallow roots due to the rocks, and are quite susceptible to being knocked down in a storm.

Downed Giant – The tree on our road that took out a power pole further up the road.

Trees get snapped like match sticks but surprisingly the phone lines stayed intact in spite of being dragged all over the place and phone service was never interrupted.

Wood and Wires – One of the snapped trees and the telephone line, 3 feet off the ground.

Here one of the bucket trucks is working to get things straightened out before replacing some poles further down the road.

Line Work from the Bucket

Here is the culprit for our roads outage. Lines are down to the right (our cottages direction) and straight back to another pole up behind Smith Camps.

Snapped – the pole on our road and in the distance the 2nd snapped pole.

A closer shot. The poles are almost 40 years old. First installed when the road was put in and 6 years before we started to build our cottage.

Snapped Close-Up – line down in two directions from this “T” intersection

I continue down the road and over to Smiths Camps and up a steep hill to where the 2nd crew is working to set a new pole.

Pole Placement – lifting the new pole into place alongside the old.

They have a very cool machine or tracks that can drill hole as well as lift and position the pole. Here its getting the new pole into position to drop into a hole that the backhoe has prepped. But there is a catch, literally. The arm on the machine is at its limit and it’s not quite clearing the old pole. To avoid the delay and hassle of repositioning the machine, the crew boss is up the pole and pushes it over the top.

Up and Over – The machine was at it’s limit and the pole needed a helping hand to get over the top to save having to reposition the machine.

It’s in the hole and they are jockeying it around to get it nice and straight.

Positioning the pole with the very cool machine.

With the pole in place he’s moving on.

Pole #1 is done and the Terrex is getting ready to go. Fallen tree in background.

Moving to the Next Pole – driving by the pole that has just been placed while the lines are finished up.

It’s down a steel hill but no problem for this beast.

Like a tank this thing just motors down a very steep incline back to the road.

From this pole, looking back towards our Thunder Ridge Road you can see the phone line in the air but the hot & neutral power lines are on the ground as well as caught up in the trees across the span to the other pole.

Phone but no Power – That line is the phone line but the two power cables are down on the ground. 300+ yard span to the other snapped pole.

A little zoom shot back to the other pole shows the lines clearer. The black one is the phone line and the two low hanging silver ones are the power.

Looking Back – From the pole behind Smiths back to the pole on our Thunder Ridge Road.

The backhoe is finished his work and is carefully going down the steep hill to drive over to pole #2.

Driver Skill – To get down a steep section the driver is using the bucket as a skid to prevent a forward rollover

Mean while “the boss” is hooking up the wires. All the hardware on the pole is setup and attached on the ground prior to lifting it into place.

Line Boss – This guy was running the show and he kept the guys on the ground hopping with passing up stuff and positioning the gear etc.

Splicing the wires together is quite in interesting procedure. There is a connector device that is a tube into which the wires are inserted by hand. No crimping, no nothing and once inserted into these tube connectors the line is capable of being pulled tight to get the proper sag between poles.

Making Connections – Doing the top “hot” wire 1st

Over at the other site on thunder Ridge Road, a pole is waiting.

Bringing in the new lumber.

Once again the pole is lifted into place and the backhoe fills in the hole and guy wires are attached and tensioned. This time they have the luxury of a bucket touch and the guys working up to don’t have to put on the spurs and climb the pole.

Working the Wire. Two boom trucks required to free the 300+ yard span from some trees

Equipment at work. The track vehicle on the left holding the new pole in place while the backhoe on the right continues to fill in the base around the pole.

The “hot” wire is attached and they are just removing the clamp device that allowed them to winch the cable up. To lift this very long span they attached a bully to the top of the pole and then ran it down to another pull on the back of the boom touch, hooking it onto the trailer hitch. Then they ran the rope over to another truck on the road and used the truck to tension the cable.

Lots of messing around here as when they were lifting the cable, it was caught in some trees down by Smiths parking lot. They sent the other boom truck and had to work quite hard at pulling the cable free before they could finalize the tensioning.

Removing the cable clamp used to pull the wire into place

With everything reattached a decision was made to cut off the part of the broken pole that was now being suspended soley by the telephone cable. Interestingly enough, these guys were only concerned about the power. It was clearly someone else job to come along afterwards and transfer the telephone cables to the new poles. Bell did that the following day.

Up goes the chain saw…

Chain saw hand up

… and off comes most of the old pole.

Off with the old pole

It’s now 6:30pm and the crews are cleaning up and moving on. They were remarkably tidy as no leftover bits of wire snips were left behind. They had to check a few things, remove some grounding wires and do something a short distance away that apparently would not take too long. At around 8:30 the power is on! Yahoo! Good job Hydro One!

August 16, 2015
Cottage Projects

This last week on vacation I tackles a few cottage maintenance projects. Some required by the passage of time, some required by this years unusually high water levels.

Post Replacement

The first was to replace a post that had floated away. At the shore end of the newer dock section I suspect that some serious wave action lifted one of the beams and washed out the post. When I built the dock, the post was very far our of the water and with the weight of the beam and deck boards I never thought this would happen and neglected to physically attach the post to the beam. It’s only 9″ long and is a 6×6 so it didn’t need any bracing. So, today it’s cut a new post, jack up the beam, insert and attach the post to the beam.

The next project is to replace a section of joists that support the walkway from the driveway to the upper deck at the back of the cottage. Apparently we didn’t use pressure treated lumber on this project originally, over 30 years ago, and time has caught up with us.

Out with the old and ready for the new

Wood rot has claimed a good section of two 2x10s at the driveway end. I put in a temporary 2×8 to support one side of the walkway and then unbolt the railing posts and the 2×6 extension boards that support the initial step. Then two offset cuts to remove the bad 2x10s and form a splice for the new pressure treated 2x10s. Bolt it all back together, remove the temporary support and voilá, good for another 30 years, at least this section anyway.

The next project is a little more challenging. The old section of the dock is tilting down on the shoreward side, quite a bit.

It seems that the crib under the dock has shifted/compressed over time dropping down 4-6 inches. Since the upper deck rests on this edge, it has inherited a bit of a downward slant as well. After pulling up a few deck boards it seems I did a great construction job here and toe nailed all the deck joists to the top of the old dock section. This will make it very difficult to separate from the dock which was Plan A. Plan A was to lift up the deck, then raise up the joists on the crib to level the dock and then lower the deck back onto the dock. Oh well, Plan B.

Hard at work fixing up the dock.

Plan B, after swimming around end checking out the crib is to jack up each end of a crib timber and raise both the dock and the deck at the same time. This required cutting out several dock boards to get access, but is successful in the end.

It was a fairly warm day and the water was about 74°F so it was quite enjoyable to work in a bathing suit and be in and out of the water. Plus with the high water levels boat wakes were keeping the top of the dock pretty wet most of the time.

Part way through the day my super-duper cheerleader and awesome wife delivers a dockside lunch that is just fantastic and we take a break to enjoy the sunshine & view.

The whole thing turned out to be pretty much an all day job with many trips up to the cottage for more tools, lumber etc. Once the repair is completed, boards replaces and everything is cleaned up it’s time to call it a day.

August 11, 2014
Muskies on Main

As part of the Kenora Arts Project Arts Fest this year there are displays all over downtown Kenora entitled “Muskies on Main”. Here are a few of my favourites.

July 1, 2014
Cooler Day

First cool (20°) and cloudy day so far this vacation. Up until now it’s been hot & sunny, so a cooler day is welcome. Amazing how you can get lazy and sleep in when it’s not too bright outside. Contemplated a ride this morning, but rolled over for a few more zzzs instead. Caught the last 10km of Stage 8 of the Tour de France over a cup of coffee, followed by some updating of my podcast library, out with the old and in with the new. Always good to have some material on hand for a longer solo bike ride or in the car.

Yesterday I took care of some miscellaneous maintenance tasks. The water intake line was leaking, so a foot valve repair was in order. Perhaps more on that in a separate post later. The starter button on the outboard had a “special” way of working, so it got replaced with a new part and now you don’t need to know the secret spot to push it in order to get the thing going. Also, a few more balusters went up on the deck railing. This one will be an ongoing summer project hopefully completed before the fall closeup. Just under 500 to attach to our upper deck. A trip into Kenora for some lumber and miscellaneous stuff, a great dinner & a movie, an evening boat cruise around Scotties and through The Hades rounded out the day.

This afternoon, if I get out of these PJs any time soon, I’ve been assigned vacuuming duties, and some general cottage tidy-up. I’m likely to work on some more balusters, or perhaps if the intermittent spitting rain seems likely to stop, it’s an afternoon ride as well. Probably all of the above

July 6, 2013
Stillness

A clear sunny day greets us as we slowly wake up to a new day. The lake is so still and calm that the rhythmic paddling of a solo canoeist roused me from a light sleep. John is making his early rounds of the bay in his red Prospector. I slip away again into sleep.

The kind of sleep where your drifting in and out and time seems to stand still. Minutes seem like hours. Each time you drift away into a dreamland and then emerge back into the real world. Or is it all a dream?

July 2, 2013
Ride of the Day

A nice sunny warm summer day as we’re into Day 2 of our vacation. The ride got underway at about 8am to beat the heat of the day.

The route was along some standard roads that I’ve ridden before, but with a twist, a general reverse direction from the normal ride. Encountered an unusual number of riders out on the road, over a dozen other cyclists, most “roadies” going in the opposite direction. I exchanges a friendly wave, and most responded. In Kenora I took another shot at the Harbour Front Sprint KOM, and came up a couple of seconds short. One day soon, I’m going to nail that one.

On the way bacd as I came off Jones Road and onto Hwy 17 East, another rider went by in my direction. He was wearing and aero helmut and had aero bars. I also noticed a PowerTap hub, so a serious rider, probably a “Tri-Guy”. I caught up fairly quickly, he was younger (30-40) going fairly quick, but a little slower pace that I wanted to finish of my ride to the Storm Bay raod with, so I passed him and wished him a “Good Morning”. I fully expected him to jump on my wheel and perhaps pass, but it didn’t happen. I was pulling 275-300 watts and opened up a fair size gap over the next kms. Maybe it was a recovery ride.

I took it fairly easy on the Storm Bay road to the cottage to cool down, and jumped in the lake for my reward for the 90km ride.

June 30, 2013
To Hana and Beyond – Tuesday

Today we’re driving the famous Road to Hana. In hindsight to really do this justice, we should have planned to say a day or two in Hana instead of just driving there and returning to the condo in one day, perhaps next time.

We start of by crossing the middle of the island and stoping in at our old friend Paia, or more correctly the near by Ho’okipa Beach Park to watch some surfers and check up the wave action. From there it’s a leisurely drive along the Hana Highway and we’re taking in the sights as we move through farm land towards the rain forest. First major stop is to check out the Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. We might have driven right by, but there were quite a number f cars stopped so we did too and then we noticed what all the excitement was about.

Next up is a short 1/4 mile hike through the rain forrest, and yes it’s raining, and the whole area is quite damp. The road is starting to live up to it’s billing as it narrows and gets even more twisty. All the bridges, of which there are many, are one car wide and you need to negotiate who will cross 1st if you meet some oncoming traffic.

Now the road is closer to the coast line and we’re enjoying the view from Kaumahina State Wayside park, and a short distance later Honomanu Park where a solo surfer is working the waves.

Speaking of waves, we detour off the highway and out onto Ke’anae Peninsula for some spectacular shore line and pounding surf. The Ke’anae Peninsula is a dramatic half-mile long finger of newer lava sticking out from the cliff line of the Hana Highway where there is a historic old Hawaiian village. After taking a lot of photos, we stop at the snack shack for smoothies, banana bread, and coconut candy, all locally produced.

One of the best side trips of the day is when we head down the Nahiku Road to a park which overlooks the Kipakaon and Honolulu Nui Bays. It’s several miles off the Hana Highway and just as we’re getting close to the park there road is blocked off with a traffic cone and a truck is doing some sort of work on the road. The two cars in front of us turn around and head back. I think about it for a bit and turn around as well, but then I reconsider. There is no sign saying the road is closed, and I turn back just in time to see a car coming out from behind where the road work activity is happening. That’s it, we’re going in. As we edge around this truck a guy is cutting some branches that are overhanging the road, and the road is totally passable. A short distance later we arrive at this beautiful park, and have the whole area to ourselves. The park has a short easy to remember and pronounce name, “Malama keia Aino o Nahiku”

From there we drive on without too many stops until we get to Hana. As I said earlier, we really didn’t give the Hana areas it’s due. By now it’s about 4pm and we’re interested in getting a little further down the road to see the Seven Pools and a couple of the bigger waterfalls before the sun goes down. We drive through downtown Hana and out onto the pier for a quick look at the Hana Beach Park, and then we off, heading down the road.

Next stop is the Haleakala National Park, not up on the crater, but down at the ocean shore where the Palikea Stream flows off the mountain forming the Seven Pools. Apparently, there are more but for the tourist it’s seven. We hike over to a couple of the lower pools and take a refreshing dip. I even swim over to one end of the pool and go under the waterfall, very cool, literally and figuratively.

Now it’s about 6 p.m. and the sun is about to go down. I’d been planning to head back the way we came, but overhear a conversation in the parking lot where a local says the road ahead, which the car rental company and severe tourist magazines say is quite rough and almost impassible, is actually pretty OK and we won’t have any trouble, not to mention its shorter that going back the way we came. I’d really wanted to drive that part of the road and that’s all the encouragement I needed, and we forge ahead for a real adventure.

Sure enough, the farther we head down the highway, the narrower and twistier it gets. It also goes from fairly nice asphalt to crummy asphalt, to gravel, and then dirt and then dirt with some pretty big pothole, but no worse that many Winnipeg streets. By now it’s dark, very dark. After winding along the coast line we head up higher on the mountain and are soon rewarded with a spectacular view from up high of the Kihei beach areas light up like Christmas along the shoreline.

We finish our drive by picking up some dinner and heading home to the condo and another full and rich day is done, good night Maui.

Photos of the day.

February 5, 2013
Haleakala by Car – Saturday

A lazy start to the day and breakfast at the on site restaurant , The Beach Club, gets us on the road just before noon. We’re going right past the Costco so we swing in that way for gas and unbelievably more shopping. Gas is certainly a deal at almost 25 cents below the typical gas station. However, the Saturday traffic in the area is a zoo. This little stop costs us close to 1 hr in a traffic jam.

Wave Rider at Baldwin Beach

Once free of congestion we roll over to Paia and check out a beach noted for boogie boarding and body surfing. The wind is strong and sand is blowing everywhere. This will likely be the starting point for the ride on Monday.

As we head up towards the summit there is one particular turn that we’ve been warned not to miss, but sure enough I blow right through the turn but quickly realize the mistake and turn around. In the car this is no big deal, on the bike it adds up to an additional 1,700′ of climbing to a dead end.

Sure enough the road is an unrelenting “up”. I note only 3 short flat sections. We see about 5 riders going up, two couples and a solo rider in a lime green jacket. I knew about the distance, the grade, the switchbacks, the narrow road in places, the 30°F temperature drop by the time you get to the top, but nobody mentioned the wind! It’s howling today and we have to brace ourselves just to walk around. At one point we spot mister lime green walking his ride. Initially I thought he was tired but later figured out that he was having trouble staying on the bike and on the road in an open section. We later saw him successfully grinding his way up to the summit. I hope it’s less windy when I ride on Monday.

As we’re driving up the scenery goes from uplands cattle grazing ranch country,

to sparse plant growth above the tree line,

and then just volcanic rock.

At Leleiwi, the first of two overlooks, we get our first glimpse of the crater. You have to hike a short distance on a trail and the wind is howling and the temperatures have dropped substantially from the 78F on the beach. Shirley returns to the car and I push on to get a look and take some pictures. I’m rewarded with a spectacular view of the crater and need to hide behind the shelter just to manage to hold steady enough to that the pictures. I intentionally increase the shutter speed just to compensate for getting buffeted around by the wind.

Leleiwi Overlook

Back in the car we continue up to the summit at Puu Ulaula Overlook (also known as Red Hill). It’s a windy walk up to the shelter but really everybody gets their picture taken under the summit sign.

It’s Windy!

Shirley at the Top

At the summit you are right next to the Haleakala Obsevatory also known as Science City. Because of the US Airfoce presence here we, not alowed to go over and explore that area.

Science City

House of the Sun

On the way down we stop at the Visitor Center, just below the summit. It’s already closed at 2pm, (they have really short hours) so we don’t get to see the exhibits, but take quick look around and of course some more photos of the crater.

Further down the road we stop again, this time at the Kalahaku Overlook and get yet another spectacular look at the crater and surrounding areas from a different vantage point.

Crater Cones

Makawao Union Church

We wind our way down the Crater Road and take a slightly different route back hoping over to Kula and then back over to Makawao where we stop to take a few pictures of this beautiful church we spotted earlier in the day.

The Makawao Union Church was built in 1916 in memorial of Henry Perrine Baldwin and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Baldwin must have been quite the force back in the day, a lot of stuff is named after him.

After checking out a couple of dinner options in Paia we decide to find a new guten-free restaurant over in Kihei which is about 45 minutes away. After picking up fish & chips we head back to the condo, another 45 minutes, and enjoy dinner and a movie. Lots exploring, lots of interesting stuff, lots of driving and we’re done for the day.

More Pictures of the Day

February 2, 2013