Day 4; Leaving Our Mark
Today was probably the best day we've had so far. The people in Jamestown are so great....the tempatures...are not so great. It didn't get above 6 all day long....the fact that we spent a good deal of it outside....allowed the tempatures to leave quite the impression on us. We got up and went to the plant here in Jamestown. At this Goodrich facility they create flooring for cargo units. It's sorta hard to explain but basically they make floor panels covered with roller ball things...it's really pretty neat to see. They're used in all sorts of miltitary and commercial planes and they pretty much gave us free reign of the plant to look around. The facility here is a good bit smaller than the plant in MN so we were almost finished up by the time lunch came. We went to lunch with 2 of the folks here, Trent who is sort of the head of the program & Jessica who is right around my age and basically his right hand gal. Really really really sweet people. We ate lunch at this really good place called the Buffalo Grill that serves all sorts of Buffalo meat. It was deeeeelicious. After lunch we went back and mingled at the plant for a little bit before deciding to call it a day. Me and Brady were both pretty tired so we decided we'd spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and catching up on other work back at the hotel. BUT I still wanted to get some really good snow pictures so we took the long way back to the hotel to see if we could stumble upon some senic routes.....we most certainly found one.
The Jamestown resevior is an absolutely huge body of water that seems to go on for miles and miles. We were driving along it a while before we even realized what it was. It absolutely frozen solid. It's weird because it's almost like a frozen ocean, it just seemed to wind along forever. Well we decided to see if we could find somewhere to stop and pull off to get some good pictures and look around a bit. We came across a boat ramp entrance and decided it was probably our best bet so down to the lake we went. It was SO neat. We walked probably 500 feet out on the lake...played around in in the snow banks and just sorta checked stuff out for as long as we could stand to be out in the weather. (It was probably right around 1 or 2 degree's) After we'd had our fill of adventure we got back in the car and started back up the hill....only one problem....we could only make it about 1/2 way up before we started sliding back down. This was no good. So I got out to investigate and it turns out that the whole ramp was covered in about 5 inches of ice....needless to say, our tires defintely weren't getting any grip. We decided that Brady would keep trying to see if he could somehow manage to lodge the POS rental up the hill while I looked around for something to possible break the ice up. During fishing season the boat ramp has a little snack bar area and some bathrooms that are open for business so I thought maybe someone had left a shovel or something like that around that we could borrow. I took about 4 steps away from the car and sank past my knees in the snow. At this point if you'd come across me and Brady you would have probably thought we were crazy....we were both laughing hysterically. I had no luck finding anything and although made some really, really, close calls...he had no real luck launching us to the top of the hill. Our only real option was to call for help....so I grabbed my phone to call Jess back at the office....and wouldn't you know it...before she picked up. My phone died. This sent me and Brady into another sleep deprived laughing fit and I could hardly explain to Jessica on Brady's phone where we were because I absolutely could not stop laugh. Anyhow Jessica and another really great guy named Jodie came to our rescue. They help manuever us up a different snow covered ramp and we ended up making it out with the car in one peice. We had planned on going to this historical Balistica in town and to try and see the white buffalo....buuuut after our good hour in the below freezing temps...we both just wanted hot showers.
We met some folks from the plant for dinner and of course they had all heard about our gread adventure....turns out we weren't the only ones who thought it was funny. At least it was a great ice breaker!! I am a little sad to leave here tomorrow, I wish I had another day to spend with these folks! I have a feeling that my next trip will be really fun...and hopefully without any getting stuck adventures. Our flight out leaves here at 6 am....and let me tell you. We are flying on a literal crop duster out of here. I swear the entire airport is smaller than a standard size highschool gym. There is 1 person who checks you in, prints your tickets, checks your bags, walks you through security and takes your rental car....tomorrow should def. be intresting. I'm a little nervous about our flights, it's supposed to be extremely cold tonight and there's a chance of really bad ice and snow so hopefully we'll be able to get off on time tomorrow!! It's about ten below right now...hopefully it'll be warmer than that in the morning!!
The Jamestown resevior is an absolutely huge body of water that seems to go on for miles and miles. We were driving along it a while before we even realized what it was. It absolutely frozen solid. It's weird because it's almost like a frozen ocean, it just seemed to wind along forever. Well we decided to see if we could find somewhere to stop and pull off to get some good pictures and look around a bit. We came across a boat ramp entrance and decided it was probably our best bet so down to the lake we went. It was SO neat. We walked probably 500 feet out on the lake...played around in in the snow banks and just sorta checked stuff out for as long as we could stand to be out in the weather. (It was probably right around 1 or 2 degree's) After we'd had our fill of adventure we got back in the car and started back up the hill....only one problem....we could only make it about 1/2 way up before we started sliding back down. This was no good. So I got out to investigate and it turns out that the whole ramp was covered in about 5 inches of ice....needless to say, our tires defintely weren't getting any grip. We decided that Brady would keep trying to see if he could somehow manage to lodge the POS rental up the hill while I looked around for something to possible break the ice up. During fishing season the boat ramp has a little snack bar area and some bathrooms that are open for business so I thought maybe someone had left a shovel or something like that around that we could borrow. I took about 4 steps away from the car and sank past my knees in the snow. At this point if you'd come across me and Brady you would have probably thought we were crazy....we were both laughing hysterically. I had no luck finding anything and although made some really, really, close calls...he had no real luck launching us to the top of the hill. Our only real option was to call for help....so I grabbed my phone to call Jess back at the office....and wouldn't you know it...before she picked up. My phone died. This sent me and Brady into another sleep deprived laughing fit and I could hardly explain to Jessica on Brady's phone where we were because I absolutely could not stop laugh. Anyhow Jessica and another really great guy named Jodie came to our rescue. They help manuever us up a different snow covered ramp and we ended up making it out with the car in one peice. We had planned on going to this historical Balistica in town and to try and see the white buffalo....buuuut after our good hour in the below freezing temps...we both just wanted hot showers.
We met some folks from the plant for dinner and of course they had all heard about our gread adventure....turns out we weren't the only ones who thought it was funny. At least it was a great ice breaker!! I am a little sad to leave here tomorrow, I wish I had another day to spend with these folks! I have a feeling that my next trip will be really fun...and hopefully without any getting stuck adventures. Our flight out leaves here at 6 am....and let me tell you. We are flying on a literal crop duster out of here. I swear the entire airport is smaller than a standard size highschool gym. There is 1 person who checks you in, prints your tickets, checks your bags, walks you through security and takes your rental car....tomorrow should def. be intresting. I'm a little nervous about our flights, it's supposed to be extremely cold tonight and there's a chance of really bad ice and snow so hopefully we'll be able to get off on time tomorrow!! It's about ten below right now...hopefully it'll be warmer than that in the morning!!