(no subject)
my car made it, suprisingly enough. the three of us in our own vehicles (one of which was hauling a trailer loaded up with beds, couches, desks, books, odds and ends) hit the road at around seven pm out of tallahassee. that night we made it half way through louisiana before bedding down at a best western. the next day we crossed into texas. texas is huge. we were probably in texas for half of our 2000 mile plus journey. anyways, we lost an hour thanks to two overturned semi trucks in rush hour traffic in houston. i just shut my car off because it was over-heating and we weren't moving anyway.
after san antonio the terrain changes to mountains and then desert. we slept somewhere perhaps a hundred miles west of san antonio.
the third and final day was problematic. the heat in the desert of west texas and new mexico was killing my car. i'm not really sure what was wrong, because the engine wasn't overheating as long as i was driving but i couldn't go more then like 45 mph. without the engine coughing and losing power. after disconnecting the temp sensor and waiting for nightfall (temperature drops) we pressed on.
we crossed the continental divide. rivers began flowing west to the pacific instead of towards the atlantic. hardees became carl's jr. 4500 ft above sea level.
we stopped in tucson for petrol around 10:30 pm local time. arizona is three hours behind eastern standard currently, but not always. they dont believe in daylight savings here. we only crossed two time zones. we finally arived at the chosen house in mesa (suburb just east of phoenix) sometime between one and two am. two very drunk neighbors came running out to greet us and to welcome us to the nieghborhood. they ended up talking to us for about 45 minutes, repeating themselves over and over, before we even got inside the house. nice neighborhood. lots of friendly people.
we spent the whole week setting things up in the house. we decided to paint some of the bedrooms, and completely renovate the basement. the previous ocupants were mormon and had stockpiled years worth of food and supplies. the basement had shelves from floor to ceiling. we tore those out along with the carpet. we knocked out part of a wall and began builing a sort of mini bar area. we looked into projectors. yesterday we tiled the entire basement floor with 16x16" ceramic tiles.
i've enrolled in three classes for the fall semester:
graduate level linear algebra
orbital mechanics and mission design
space systems engineering
they are all things i've studied before. i've taken courses with the exact same titles, but apparently these are supposed to be continuations of those for graduate students.
now i'm at the mesa public library, which is closing. i'm trying to think of what things i must remember to do before i leave for mexico on tuesday.
if anyone would like a post card from central america, comment me your address, or email it if you like to carlhippner@hotmail.com. put something interesting in the subject. i'll be gone six weeks and i'll be everywhere from mexico down to costa rica. the main countries on my very very loose itenerary are mexico (yucutan), guatemala, nicaragua, and costa rica. TTYL.
after san antonio the terrain changes to mountains and then desert. we slept somewhere perhaps a hundred miles west of san antonio.
the third and final day was problematic. the heat in the desert of west texas and new mexico was killing my car. i'm not really sure what was wrong, because the engine wasn't overheating as long as i was driving but i couldn't go more then like 45 mph. without the engine coughing and losing power. after disconnecting the temp sensor and waiting for nightfall (temperature drops) we pressed on.
we crossed the continental divide. rivers began flowing west to the pacific instead of towards the atlantic. hardees became carl's jr. 4500 ft above sea level.
we stopped in tucson for petrol around 10:30 pm local time. arizona is three hours behind eastern standard currently, but not always. they dont believe in daylight savings here. we only crossed two time zones. we finally arived at the chosen house in mesa (suburb just east of phoenix) sometime between one and two am. two very drunk neighbors came running out to greet us and to welcome us to the nieghborhood. they ended up talking to us for about 45 minutes, repeating themselves over and over, before we even got inside the house. nice neighborhood. lots of friendly people.
we spent the whole week setting things up in the house. we decided to paint some of the bedrooms, and completely renovate the basement. the previous ocupants were mormon and had stockpiled years worth of food and supplies. the basement had shelves from floor to ceiling. we tore those out along with the carpet. we knocked out part of a wall and began builing a sort of mini bar area. we looked into projectors. yesterday we tiled the entire basement floor with 16x16" ceramic tiles.
i've enrolled in three classes for the fall semester:
graduate level linear algebra
orbital mechanics and mission design
space systems engineering
they are all things i've studied before. i've taken courses with the exact same titles, but apparently these are supposed to be continuations of those for graduate students.
now i'm at the mesa public library, which is closing. i'm trying to think of what things i must remember to do before i leave for mexico on tuesday.
if anyone would like a post card from central america, comment me your address, or email it if you like to carlhippner@hotmail.com. put something interesting in the subject. i'll be gone six weeks and i'll be everywhere from mexico down to costa rica. the main countries on my very very loose itenerary are mexico (yucutan), guatemala, nicaragua, and costa rica. TTYL.