San Francisco

Jessica and I went to San Francisco for the weekend because her mom was in town. It was a great time and beautiful weather. We did a lot for only being there two days. We drove down Saturday morning and got there in the afternoon. Jessica got to see her mom briefly and then we went got ready to go out and meet Danielle and Tim to see the Gourds.

The Gourds put on a great show. The opener was the lead singer doing a solo set, and then they came out and played for two hours. They played all the great songs you'd want to hear. They even played the always requested but rarely played "Gin and Juice." I couldn't believe it, after I told Danielle all night that they weren't going to play it. I was hoarse by the end of the night from yelling and singing along.



Sunday we got up and took on the city. We wanted to take the Cable Car but couldn't get on with our coffee, and we were at the top of the largest hill when we'd finished so we just took it all on foot. It worked out great because we saw some amazing sights. We walked up to Coit Tower and overlooked the city, then to the pier and saw the Sea Lions barking and playing. Then we walked back through downtown, and saw the homeless guy who hides behind branches and jumps out to scare people.



One of the most amazing things to me was in the Coit tower. In the elevator was a US map amongst other maps and posters. A foreign tourist was looking at it and finding Portland, Seattle and other places probably on his trip. So I glanced at it and saw that it had included Winnemucca on it. I was amazed. After looking closer, I'm not really sure what the "Active Geyser Region" is referring to, but I'm sure Winnemucca is the smallest city listed on the map.



We went to the Modern Art Museum which had amazing well put together displays. Unfortunately they wouldn't let you take pictures there, so they are all images in my head. But it was well worth the time and trip. Then we met up with Jessica's mom for dinner and drinks, and then later that evening for a little post party relaxation.

Monday we had to head home. First we stopped by Haight - Ashbury to look around. It was a tourist attraction and didn't have the character it was famous for, but it was neat to see the places and houses that have been in pictures over the years.

We left through the north via the Golden Gate Bridge. It was as amazing as people make it out to be. It was also the first time we really saw the ocean on the entire trip. But we had gorgeous weather and stopped at many different viewpoints for it.


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Click here to see the pictures in google earth.

The trip was great and made San Francisco one of my favorite cities I've been to.

Impound on the Range

This is my first official post for this blog. Up to now it was tests and demos, but this is going to be the real deal. My goal is to combine story's and pictures of what I'm up to along with a map where these things happened. So you can read the story and then see the pictures and where it was all of it took place. I think geography can play a crucial role to stories that is often left out and overlooked.

So to start it all off, I'll discuss our cow impound. I work for the Bureau of Land Management and we manage land for cattle grazing. Now there are people that let their cows on our land with out a permit. One in particular had been warned several times, so on MLK day we went to collect her cows.

She was none to pleased we were taking her cows, and there was even an incident where she hit an ATV rider with her truck. The whole thing even made the news.
It was all pretty exciting.



So after we gathered these cows, we took them back to our office and kept them in pens in the yard. Not your typical place for a cattle hold. So for a week I got to play cowboy helping round up and then sort the cows. We even had a couple born while they were here.



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Click here to download these into google earth.

Let me know what you think of the setup and style, I think this should get more exciting as it warms up and I go on more trips!