Tim Dachtera » Vacation

Riding, Oklahoma and other fun things

Tim — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:08:01 +0000

Spark Show - Photo by Tim Dachtera

So, the last few weeks have been pretty fun, and the next few weeks are shaping up to be pretty fun as well. Here’s a little recap of what’s been, and what will be!

Running: Well, I’ve given up on the whole trying to run/ride after work at night. There are just too many things to do. So, I’ve opted to get my ass out of bed at 5:30am instead, and trade off between jogging and riding. So far it’s been working, especially if I can drag myself out of bed at 5:30 on a Monday morning. The scale did manage to tip in the favorable direction last week, so I’m quite happy about that.

Shows: A bunch of us ventured down to Pawnee, OK for the show down there last week, and it was certainly a good experience. It was fun to travel 700 miles across the country, and still be in the company of new people who know the people you know from back home. We were 6 Minnesotan’s that came down to run a steam engine, who talked funny according to the OK residents. I sure had a good time running the Baker engine. Here’s a few photos from Facebook, and video clips on YouTube.

We’ll be headed up to Rollag for Memorial weekend coming up here soon, which should be an exciting weekend for a handful of reasons. With some new upgrades to Cushman 2.0 (we might be on v2.3 by now) for the camera boom, the new set of batteries and more camera toys to play with, this years DVD for Rollag should be pretty good. Being it our 5 year anniversary of doing the DVD’s for Rollag, we’ll be putting in some fun clips of behind the scenes and how we get the shots we get. Also, in June, I’ll be attending Steam School, in prep to get my MN boilers paperwork, so I can run an engine if the opportunity is presented.

MS-150: The 2011 MS-150 is quickly approaching. While I do have some funds raised, I need to get a handful more to reach my goal. If you’d like to support me, please click this link to do so! I’m looking forward to getting back together with a bunch of the team I used to ride with, so pending weather, it should be a good weekend! Feel free to visit us at Grand Casino, or celebrate our return at Century College.

Stupid House: Still have the house on the market, and it just needs to go away. It’s a wonderful house if you have no kids, or 1-2 kids that can sleep alone since the master suite is upstairs. Huge back yard and 2.5 car garage with lots of space. Recent paint in most of the rooms and refinished hardwood. We just need more garage space actually, and a mortgage with no past attached to it.

Freelance: I’ve been keeping busy working on my TractionCMS platform for some of my clients that are still 100% home rolled, and also been working with a number of other clients to create new, or update old sites to some present web trends for better usability, e-commerce and improved SEO functionality. If you know anyone who is looking for a website, please send them my way.

That’s pretty much it in my world for the moment!

Seattle adventure – Day .5

Tim — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:23:22 +0000

Photo by Tim Dachtera

We started out our trip to seattle on a pretty OK point. Arriving to MSP earlier than needed as usual, because I’m not going to be missing a flight on my watch, we checked out bags and made it thru the TSA checkpoint with little issue. This was one of the first flights in many that I haven’t needed 4 tubs for all my crap, so I guess I really packed light this time only needing one tub. I guess seeing as my luggage was only 28lbs vs. the normal 45 I guess I packed light this trip. No need for business and casual attire, no need for jeans, long sleeves or anything. I could have gotten away with a carry on roller bag, but now I have room to bring back any goodies I might find out here.

We decided to find some food before getting on the plane and stopped in at O’Garas right near out gate. Seeing on the flight board that the 5:20 flight to SEA had been cancelled, we noticed a hoard of people milling around our gate for the 7:05 flight that had been bumped. We ordered our food and a drink, Mer got a burger and a glass of wine, and I got a tall glass of Red Hook and the Selby Chicken, cajun style.

As the clock ticked on, we were still waiting for our food and decided to get it to go and go down to our gate as it was quickly approaching the boarding time, and since we had Exit row seating, we’d be first to hop on.

We paid our tab and gave our Waitress a decent tip as she was very nice and quick with the service and to make sure we had everything we needed. Not have eaten at the real O’Garas in St. Paul before, I don’t know if the service was on par or not, but I was happy, and that’s good for me.

We took our food out to the seating area and I was less than pleased with appearance of my food. I was hoping for a decent size chicken breast with some cajun seasoning to it. What I got, was a medium size wad of chicken, that looks like it was sprinkled with the 5lb jug of generic cajun. The seasoning was only on one side and not evenly spread out. The fries on the other hand, were pretty good. Nothing to write home about (I guess I’m doing that anyways) but they weren’t greasy or overly salty so I was happy with them.

As it ended up being, we could have eaten out meal in the Pub, because they didn’t start boarding until 10 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, oh well I guess. We ended up leaving only 20 minutes late which I guess is OK. First time I’ve left late for a flight in many flights, so considering the cancelled flight, I can’t complain too much.

Photo by Tim Dachtera

We arrived into SEA about 20 minutes beyond schedule, oh well – We got our bags and were shuttled off to Enterprise to pick up our car. We had reserved a full size sedan, and were offered a Kia Optima… I asked what else they had – Mainly because I’m not a fan of Kia, and I wanted something a little more.. American make (or more american made) We ended up scoring a 2008 Malibu. It was nicer than I expected with great pickup, a smooth ride and decent options for a rental, and at 25-30 miles to the gallon we should be good to only need a tankful of fuel this weekend.

I fired up the new Garmin Nuvi200w I picked up this week and punched in the address for Mer’s grandparents in Olympia and headed down Hwy 5. We pulled in about 11pm Seattle time, 1am MN time, and after saying a quick hello we headed to bed.

We woke up today in Olympia to a cloudless day and warm weather, so it should be a great opportunity to get out and about, hopefully all weekend. The last time we were here in Nov. 2006, we visited during the rainiest month in recorded history.

I think for today, we are going to check out a local restaurant/pub with their own brews if I recall correctly, and try to get down by the Capital tonight for some photos.

Saturday will bring us thru Bremerton to pick up our friend Lori and take the ferry over to Seattle for the until Monday. more photos, food, a ball game and Pike Place.

A much needed vacation

Tim — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:01:39 +0000

While Our main destination isn’t really Universal Studios, We may swing by there if we have time, as I’d really like to check our land of the Parrotheads, or Bob Marley’s place again for some food and drinks. We are headed down to Orlando for a family wedding on Meredith’s side of the family and more or less overtaking 1/2 of a hotel or something like that.

Me, being the geek I am, am packing a hoard of camera gear, laptop and my friend Capt. Morgan as well. – He and I have traveled on many trips recently, and he’s always been a great friend to have with.Anyways, I’m hoping to bore you all with at least one entry a day or some nonsense, but I’m glad I’ll be out of MN for a few days, and away from the job.. – Both of them. Between hunting for a new job, working the current job, and my consulting gig (along with remodeling my significantly remodeling my office, the holiday madness and general chaos the last month, it will be nice to step into the flip-flops, cargo shorts and Ray-Bans for a few days.