Ah.. today turned out be a pretty decent day! 🙂
It also looks like tomorrow will be an even nicer day. I’ll have to get the bike ready to ride! 🙂
Category Archives: travel
Mobile social networking technology – FourSquare
I noted this a couple of weeks ago, that I was starting to play around with foursquare, the mobile social networking tool. It’s primary advantage is as a Smart Phone app. I, of course, prefer the iPhone 3GS (aka The Oracle) platform for my mobile networking, blogging and just plain monkeying around.
One of it’s features, is the ‘Stats’ page. It gives you a rundown of how often you’ve used the app, what cities you spend the majority of your time in, how many check-ins you average on each day of the week. Anyhow, here are my stats (as of this morning). It’s just and example.
But, it turns out that it’s much more than a neat tool for big-brother to keep an eye on your travels (frankly, they already know where you phone is 24×7, heck, they can even turn on the microphone and listen to you without you’re knowledge, so you tin-foil that types can just simmer on down), I’ve found that it’s one of the most useful, real world source for finding places and things to do, while traveling, or just putting around your local area!
The way it works is very simple. Using the geoLocation capabilities of your smart phone (now I’m assuming your phone is actually smart.. and can do this) it will show you venues nearby that people have entered into the system. But the real benefit comes for the following three neat features!
1) – Displays nearby locations
Based on your location, it will display all sorts of businesses, parks, eateries, medical facilities, you name it.
Now in my sample image here, you see an number of medical facilities, primarily because I was near the hospital when I snapped this screengrab (another thing that the iPhone is amazingly adept at doing). The list can be fairly long, or pretty short. It all depends on how densely populated the area you are in is, and how many locations people have added to the system. Even out here in the sticks, I’ve found a lot of places entered into the system, presumably by developers, since almost all of them had no previous visitors when I checked in.
2) – Tips and things to do
Now, this is the one I find the most useful! Using this, in places that I’ve been frequenting for years, I discovered some NEW businesses and interesting things to do (or eat/drink) at them. I see this as a great way to explore a new town, or even the one you live in.
Traveling, not familiar with the area? Why not try foursquare to see if you can get some good tips from the locals on things to do (or things NOT to do), places with deals, specials, whatever. This is my favorite and most used part of the app.
Now a nice bonus feature is the ability for businesses to add ‘Specials’ that will pop up on the screen that you can unlock. For instance (sorry, no screen shot here, maybe when I get into the office tomorrow I’ll add that one) the hotel next to my work offers a free coffee in the morning and a $20 off certificate on a future stay, simply by checking in there using foursquare and showing it to the barrista in the lobby! See, you really can get something for (nearly) nothing!
3) – ToDo lists
This is sort of an extension of Feature 2, but I think it’s useful enough on it’s own to be mentioned.
It’s another neat feature that comes in handy for a traveler. Did you hear about something cool to do on foursquare (a tip) and want to recall it next time you are in the area? Mark it as a ‘To Do’ and it will show up on your list. Simple as that.
“Big Deal!”. you might say,“I can do that with a notepad!”. True enough. BUT, you use the foursquare website to poke around in another city location, look at the tips and remember the ones you think sound interesting, by simply clicking and adding to your ToDo list. And guess what, when you are in the local area, the relevant list items are right there at your fingertip. Seems easy enough!
Final thoughts for today – monitization
Being the semi-paranoid data geek I am, what I don’t get about this application, is how the developers and the operator of the website make their money. I can see where a business might pay a little to offer a deal, but how much $$$ is there, for foursquare, in that? I don’t know. Now I also wonder if they are using this neat pile of data they are collecting on your, and re-selling that to potential marketeers! That would be my biggest concern. And one that I’ll be looking into soon.
For now, it’s fun little app. And honestly, it sort of encourages me to get out of the house more and explore places, looking for things people suggest in the tips.
Unless you are one of those tin-foil hat types, you might check it out.
Sea Lions at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Pier
Sea Lions! Tons of sea lions!. I’m sure that’s and underestimate.
Normally on the boardwalk you would see a few seals up under the main wharf, but it appears that they have invated the Stagnaro’s boat launch, and, well, see for yourself. It looks like the aftermath of some sort of frat party or Roman toga orgy.
A nice (nearly) Spring ride in Kitsap County
No time like Sunday, for a ride.
The Ducati had not been out yet this year. I’d just made sure the battery was charged, tires filled, chain oiled and my riding gear still fit. All systems GO!
WX data indicated I had until 6:00PM to get the thing done, so I headed West, towards the Hood Canal. Reaching the Ridgetop crest on 303, those plans were unceremoniously, canceled. Many fine (and little traveled) roads exist just a couple of miles from home, so a run through the South County became the plan de jour.
There are some really neat little places that you pass along the way. The first of which is Seabeck. A sleepy little town along the Hood Canal. Decent salmon fishing during the season, but the real score is the Dungenus Crab, and shrip fishing. It’s almost impossible not to limit out. 🙂
From there, the road winds southwest, high and inland from the canal, eventually terminating in the little town of Holly.
This is where things start to get interesting. Just prior to the road’s terminus, starts the an even smaller lane + 1/2 road to the little burg of Dewatto. Winding up the hill and across the ridge, views of the Olympic mountains are impressive and picturesque.
Dropping out of the hills, just before the town of Dewatto, you are treated to great vists such as this:
Riding a little further along the water, and the mountains really begin to loom, despite being miles away, across the Hood Canal.
Not far from the bay, is one of the sweet little treats on this run, a steep up-hill right-hand curve followed by an increasing radius turn to the left, finally topping out on the ridge.
It does not really matter which direction you approach Dewatto, it always delivers.
The road continues to wind it’s way back towards the larger towns, providing both technical corners and broad open-sight-lined sweepers where… “you can really breath.”
75 miles and some time later, it seemed fitting to finish off the day at The Boat Shed for a burger and beer. Ah, life in the Pacific Northwest. It’s full of sweet surprises.
A find way to wrap up a weekend.
A few Photos around Bremerton.
I took the 50D out for a little photography at lunch today. Geared up with my 70-200 f/2.8L glass (arguably one of the best Canon ever made), and a Hoya 77mm polarizer, I took a drive across the two bridges, picking up a sandwich along the way.
Olympic mountains can be seen all around town.
The ‘iconic’ Manette Bridge. Soon to be replaced with a rather boring cement version, has served the community of Bremerton, connecting East (Manette) and West (downtown) for over 80 years.
The Boat Shed – one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day. During the warm moths, the deck is packed, and getting a spot on the dock has more to do with luck than anything else. Sometimes during the spring grey whales can be seen in passage.
Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. / Hwy 303 Bridge. Looking West over Port Washington Narrows and the Bremerton Yacht Club (left). Silverdale is far right and the Hood Canal just over the first set of green hills.
One of the massive rain forest valleys that head into the Olympic National Park.
I-205, the Portland Sucker Bet
Here is what the area looks like. Now that you have seen the sign, here are the mapped routes, with mileage. Should the OR DOT be smacked for putting up such a misleading sign? You be the judge.
Measuring the distance along I-5 came to 27 miles. Longer than I thought! No wonder why it seems to take forever to get through there, it’s about a 30 minute drive without traffic!
Clearly, you can see that it’s a MUCH longer route. And the actual path looks, quite different, than the sign suggests.
So, how much of a sucker bet is it? How about 67% longer than the I-5 route?! It’s just a hair over 40 miles!
Traffic would have to be a crawling 30 MPH all the way through and past the city to break even! Now, here is the kicker. When traffic is bad in Portland, it’s just as bad, if not worse on I-205 (been there, parked in that).
So, no matter how you cut it. Unless you are going to the airport, East on OR-84 or WA-4 it’s a sucker’s bet and one you should NOT TAKE!
Traveler beware. The Oregon DOT and that sign LIE!!
ML430 Milage analysis
Having just completed a trip to CA and back in the ML430, I have my first real analysis of it’s highway mileage average. Keep in mind that about 1/3 of that is on mountain roads from Roseburg, OR to Red Bluff CA.
Even hauling the ML and gear up and down those mountains repeated times still netted a pretty decent average for a 4300LB V8 powered AWD brick.
Mileage by the numbers |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total gallons consumed: | 102 | of premium, once I had to pay $3.41 per gallon in NorCal for it.. ouch! | |
| Miles traveled: | 1825 | Bremerton, WA -> San Jose, CA -> Bremerton, WA) | |
| Average: | 17.9 MPG | Note: EPA estimates are 14/17 under new test standard (old standard was 15/19) | |
| Approximate Fuel Cost: | $318.00 | ||
| Bremerton to Eugene: | 18.1 MPG | Mostly flat freeway driving. Significant stop & go due to fog and traffic leaving Bremerton. | |
| Eugene to Grants Pass | 19.2 MPG | Very heavy fog, but little traffic congestion. Able to keep a pretty steady highway speed, despite mountains an fog. | |
| Grants Pass to Del Rio | 18.2 MPG | All 66% 2-lane mountain driving to the coast, and into the Redwood forests of NorCal. | |
| Del Rio to Ukiah | 17.5 MPG | Split between multi-lane and 2-lane mountain driving. | |
| Ukiah to San Jose to Vaccaville | 18.0 MPG | Mostly multi-lane highway. Very little traffic outside San Francisco. | |
| Vacaville to Weed | 15 MPG | Massive headwinds, crappy CA gas from Valero might play a factor too. | |
| Weed to Salem | 18.5 MPG | That was crossing two 4000′ passes and multiple others at uh.. a spirited pace, and also included about 30 miles of stop & go driving in dense fog with heavy traffic. That number really surprised me. | |
| Salem to Bremerton | 18.9 MPG | Flat freeway driving. Very little stop and go. | |
What I found most interesting about this analysis, is that the mountains, despite the perceived effort required to get over them, did not seem to impact overall mileage to a great extent. See Weed -> Salem vs. Salem -> Bremerton. From Weed, several passes, including the highest anywhere on I-5 was crossed, yet the different is a 3.5% loss in mileage.
Also of note was that those headwinds in the central valley alone (it’s flat) cost roughly 17% loss! And looking at the other numbers, even though Weed is in the mountain passes, climbing them seems to have only a small impact on overall performance (in the mileage sense).
Another upside, is that extended duration of more than 3/4 throttle climbs of the hills seem to have cleared out some of the vehicles cobwebs. Maybe the catalytic converters became hot enough to burn out some of the crud building up in them from around-town delivery / hauling.
I’m very heavily re-considering my plan to sell this vehicle. It costs me more to maintain and drive, but insurance is lower, winter driving conditions are almost a non-factor with it’s amazing AWD/4×4 capabilities (well tested during last seasons endless winter). It’s comfortable, quiet and reliable enough for long distance driving. It also has fantastic brakes (by Brembo of course, they are the same components that were on my ’95 Porsche 911!), is not lacking in the acceleration category (thanks to almost 300HP) and offers some nice luxuries.
A subsequent test of mileage while commuting is now underway. I should have the results of that by week’s end.
How many states?
New math. This explains a lot of things.
Interesting Health Care conversation
While riding the ferry to Seattle yesterday, I could not help but overhear a conversation between what was most certainly (in my eye) a heavily Liberal leaning older woman, and a pair of travelers from the UK.
Talk of Tony Blair, George Bush and Gordon Brown (whom the travelers thought was a complete mistake), eventually moved onto the topic of health care. This sparked my interest.
It’s a single point. An opinion from one person whom lives in the UK, and is very familiar with England’s version of Universal Healthcare;
WA Liberal:
“How do you like your healthcare?”
He’s simple frank response.
UK Traveler:
“Rubbish!”“I’ve been waiting since April for a checkup.”
“If you have an emergency, you can get treatment.”
I would certainly hope so!!
So.. straight from the mouths of those the live under Socialized Health Care.
“RUBBISH”.
It was sad, but again slightly amusing, listening the Liberal try to paint our world leading health care as ‘as almost as bad as that in the UK’. Hm.. well, with Obama.. soon our health care will be worse!
At least this Liberal, and I think many more than the Democrats want to admit, think that changing the entire system to help a few with under or no insurance is a BAD idea. Anyone that’s been in a Federal program (like the V.A.) probably has an opinion on the ability of the Federal Government to administer any thing more that nt. purchase of $5000 toilets.
Now, there’s change we can all get on board with, right? Personally, this is not the sort of ‘Change’ I want, and, other than a core group of fanatics, neither does anyone else.
Saturday in Seattle
It was neither dark nor stormy. Discuss.
With my parents in town, and having the need to pick up some parts at Ducati Seattle, I hatched a masterful plan for all of us to have fun, while allowing myself to take care of the essential needs of my beloved Ducati.
We caught a lucky break and boarded the 11:35 AM boat out of Bremerton for the big city. Once on the mainland, we had to contend with a TON of traffic from the combined Sounders F.C. game and the weekend long ‘Bit of Seattle’. As it turns out both ends of the city we needed access too were choked with humans. Why do I ever venture into cities? I always ask myself this, while I’m there.
Regardless, headlong into the breach went we.
Having taken almost 30 minutes to traverse the 4 miles from the ferry terminal to Ducati Seattle, I had to make fast work of my parts acquisition mission. While there Dave R. (owner) made the point of saying hello to me. He always makes a point of saying hello to his customers, even when just dropping by for a quick part, or no part at all. This is why I only do business with David and Ducati Seattle. Personalized, customer service. A lot of businesses could learn something from this award winning dealer.
Having acquired the tank protector I needed, and one more set of tasty blingy bits (yet to be announced), I met the family next door at Boca di Beppos, where we at a late lunch. YUM! We shared a large bowl of stuffed shells, a large mixed green salad and some Peroni Nastro Azzurro. YUMx2. It was more than enough for 6 people.
Lunch took just the perfect amount of time, for I had pre-ordered tickets for the 3:30PM ‘Ride the Ducks Tour‘. The youngest of my clan has been dying to do this, so today I surprised him with this little treat ($155 for the 6 of us later…). He was suitably shocked and thrilled. Few things warm the heart like a genuinely happy child.
Following a very amusing and educational tour of the city, we entered the water of Lake Union and enjoyed one of the great features of these old WWII workhorses… it’s amphibious qualities. It’s not a fast ride (top speed about 7 kts) but also full of good Seattle / Northwest history. Even enjoyed watching a few sea planes takeoff over us on the lake. It was quite a treat, one that I found well worth the price paid. Much merriment was made, often at the expense of the local PWN culture. What’s not to joke about, we’re a bunch of nuts that live here.
Completing our fun, games and a little business in Seattle, it was back to the Washington State Ferry dock on the Seattle waterfront. This time we took the shorter (thus faster) run to Bainbridge Island to execute the last piece of my master plan. A visit to Mora Iced Creamery (review updated on my blog post of 16-Jul).
The ferry system was running a little late on the run, no matter, we had time to spare (well.. I we hoped we did, since it turns out we locked ourselves out of my house when we left – $100 visit from a locksmith at 11:00PM solved that little problem). On the way out, the passengers were treated to quite a display of water cannons from one of the City’s fire fighting boats. Many photos were taken ( by myself at least). I’ll select the best of them an upload at a later date. For now, here is one I just pulled off the pile:
Despite some whining from a certain, rather tired and perhaps over-excited 7 year old, we did enjoy some very fine island ice cream. A wonderful treat, indeed.
It was quite a day, and I think it was enjoyed by all.  It’s always good to spend time with my parents, and also to be able to have my kids spend time with their California grandparents.  And it’s also a treat to have such wonderful weather, all at the same time!