Wyoming Trip: Day Three
5:30
I woke up a bit earlier today, and overall it was a much better experience. I’m definitely habituated to the 5:00 AM wakeup, although I suppose I was even before Ella came along; when Grace worked a day shift at the hospital, that was the time we woke up at.
6:00
After a nice warm shower that suddenly and uninvitedly went cold just as I was rinsing my hair, I set about the business of packing up. Departure, for me, is the same as checking out (the motel policy helpfully suggests leaving the keys on the bed and locking the door), since I expect to be working a full day at the Naughton plant.
Here’s a shot of the motel room, by the way:
This is actually a panoramic image that I stitched together from four separate shots; there was no way to fit the entirety of the room into the frame of a single image.
Not that I mind doing a panoramic, good reader. Not at all.
Also, here’s a shot of “The Rag,” a cloth I found perched on one of the counters:
There’s not much more I can think to say, other than to note that this sort of thing is, to my mind, equal parts amusing and creepy.
I didn’t use “The Rag” for anything, I should note.
7:00
The nice thing about Kemmerer, and its position relative to the Naughton Power Plant, is that the drive between the two takes ten minutes at the very most. So after leaving the motel at 6:40, I pulled into the plant parking lot and made my way through plant security by about this time.
Oh, by the way, here’s a slightly better view of the plant:
I took some even better shots today, and I’ll try get them uploaded by tomorrow.
I can believe, now, that this placed ranked on the list of the top 100 polluters in the US; a thin layer of coal dust covers everything — and I mean everything — in the plant. It’s not discernable in the air, but you know it must be there just from how everything is finely coated with soft, black powder.
9:00
I was expecting to have to put in a full day’s work at the plant, but after a couple of hours realized that I’d basically finished everything that needed to be done. I had collected all the necessary information, taken all the necessary pictures…at least that I could think of. I’d been given a checklist to cover off during the site visit, and all but one entry on that list had been checked off…and the unchecked entry was something I had to do on my own anyhow.
So after bidding my contacts at the site farewell, I headed out from the plant, stopping only to take the aforementioned pictures of the facility.
9:30
With most of a day unexpectedly before me, my priority was still to get a lot of work done…but I decided to check out a couple of the other area landmarks that I’d missed. My first stop was the Fossil Butte National Monument, which actually has a pretty nice interpretive centre. But really, it’s the scenery that sells the place: the area around the butte is pretty gorgeous, for a high-altitude desert.
I’m rendering several panoramas of the area at the moment, which I doubt will be done by the time I publish this article. I’ll upload them in their own special article when they’re ready.
Fossil Butte was the site of an old rock quarry, one of several in its immediate area. The density of fossils found in the quarried rock was evidently quite high, and remains so to this day; I noticed at the nearby fossil “museum” (read: gift shop) that there was a trailer out of which was spilling sheets of quarried rock. A sign (which I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture of) indicated that this “scrap pile” was for children no older than 10 years of age…but I cast a cursory glance at the rocks themselves, all the same. While I doubt that one would find an intact fossil in the rock slabs, I did notice several fossil fragments therein, and I suppose this might be fun for some children: it’s not every day one gets to “hunt” for fossils, after all.
10:00
Having sated my picture-taking and inquisitive sides at the national monument, I headed back toward Kemmerer and pulled through the town one last time to seek out the museum that Grace had alerted me to the existence of the night before. I don’t have a picture of the museum ready yet, but in compensation I offer this shot of Pine Avenue, which is Kemmerer’s main street:
10:10
Finding the museum was not difficult, and I wanderer around it for a bit, taking in the history therein. The museum itself is a converted church, possibly a Mormon church. What would probably have been the parish hall has been converted to the main museum body, and the displays there touch on the usual things one might expect to see in a small town: the wars, the local bigwigs (JC Penney, the man), and the local claim to fame (fossils, natch).
Most of the fossils found in the region are of fish, although a few reptiles have also been discovered, and a few dinosaurs as well. But the area bills itself as the Fish Fossil Capital of the World (or some such), and certainly most of the fossil displays reflect this.
10:40
Having seen the museum, I got back into the Ford Edge and set out once more, this time bound for Rock Springs. The drive is apparently on the order of 90 minutes, although I’m told to expect delays due to rampant road construction. Wyoming’s policies toward road maintenance are evidently not so different from those of Alberta, or of Edmonton.
12:00
Despite a bit of a delay somewhere north of Granger, Wyoming, I made it to Rock Springs in better-than-expected time. And no, I was not speeding the whole way, nor any of the way.
I did, however, miss the turn into Rock Springs, due to it being blocked off by road constriction. Ironic, perhaps, but definitely inconvenient. Fortunately, I know the town’s layout well enough, and was able to get to my hotel — the La Quinta — with only a slight delay.
12:30
Evidently, the hotel was not expecting me quite so soon, as I moved my stuff into the room while the cleaning ladies were still working on it. Once they had gone and I’d moved the last of my stuff into the room, I set up the work laptop and got to the business of updating the documentation that had been put together for the Naughton plant.
Here’s a shot of the downtown area of Rock Springs, by the way. I’ll try get some hotel pictures up tomorrow. This was taken on my previous trip to the area, back in April of this year:
1:30
Grace and I chatted for a bit over Windows Live Messenger, which was a nice break from the tedium of reviewing figures and diagrams.
2:30
Grace called me via Skype after Ella woke up from her nap. Such a little cuteface, that one…but it’s becoming evident that she’s missing her papa. She spent the majority of the call hugging the computer, or at least the keyboard. And she giggled and cooed all through the call, as well.
Skype is really such a godsend, good reader; I highly recommend it, even if only for its voice services. The video is often spotty, especially over hotel wireless connections (which are shared unto the breaking point), but the audio is typically crisp and clear. But in the end, spotty video or not, it’s just nice to be able to call and connect with loved ones, to hear them and be heard by them, on one’s own terms. Why pay exorbitant roaming charges or hotel long distance rates?
It’s just nice to hear Grace’s voice when I’m out on these jaunts for work. Cars need fuel, and I need her.
3:15
Ella soiled her diaper, so the Skype call had to end. So I set about the business of getting work done, again. The diagrams and figures are ever-present on this trip.
5:00
Having got a fair bit of work done, I left the hotel in search of dinner. I know most of the eateries in town, and I had a specific one in mind which I did not get to try the last time through: the Broadway Burger Station.
It’s styled after a classic diner, and the music is suitable to the era that the decor suggests. Actually, it’s a pretty nice joint to walk into; it beats the faux-Fifties decor of a Kelsey’s any day.
And to be fair, the food is decent. Oh, it’s nothing to really write home about, but it’s not bad either. The Smoky Sam burger that I ordered was pretty tasty. Not like the Bootlegger Burger, granted, but not bad.
6:00
Having finished dinner, I set out for the local Wal Mart (yeah, I know). My hotel room is decent, but there’s a pronounced lack of wall outlets in it. A 6-port wall adapter should take care of that problem, though.
6:20
Wall adapter in hand, I returned to the hotel, and after installing said adapter got back to work. I’m making decent progress on the diagram, thankfully.
6:40
Grace, with her usual impeccable timing, broke up the monotony of the task at hand with a brief Skype call to chat about her day and mine.
8:00
Having had enough of the diagrams and figures for one day, I set about answering a request from Myles, and implemented an audio samples page and a gallery page on the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus website.
9:30
One final Messenger conversation with Grace brought the evening to a close as I put the finishing touches on this article. In a few minutes, I’ll post the Pic of the Day, and then call it a night.
More pictures tomorrow, good reader…Lor’ willin’ and the crick don’t rise.
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