Weekend Thoughts for 2/20/2010

I had written this rather long post about the Olympics, and how unhappy in general I am with the coverage that they're getting. Apparently I was pretty angry when I wrote it, because it reads like I was. Needless to say, I decided not to post it. But I will include a few of my thoughts with my weekend thoughts today.

The Olympics

• Bob Costas annoys me. It just doesn't seem like he's a good fit for the coverage. 
• NBC, take note: Sporting events generally do not need drama added to them. So please stop trying to create it in some of these events. 
• Curling is surprisingly entertaining. Since I now understand some of the strategy and rules a little better, it actually looks like a pretty difficult sport to play.
• Short-track speed skating looks like the most dangerous and also most entertaining sport that is in the Olympics. 
• The U.S. and Canada are quite a bit better at women's hockey than everyone else. A LOT better.
• I'm not thrilled with the tape delay on things that could be live. Apparently there's not a lot of people who are. Especially the people in Seattle who could go to an event in Vancouver, and potentially be home in time to watch it on television.
• Cris Collinsworth should stick to reporting on football. Or not do that. Either would be fine with me.

Murray State

• We went to the Bracketbuster game today for Murray State. For those that aren't familiar, essentially ESPN takes a whole bunch of the better mid-level Divison 1 college basketball teams, and pits them against each other. A majority of these teams will not play in the March tournament, but in many cases it can give some really good games. 
• The game was televised on ESPNU, and as a result had an 11 AM start time, which was unusually early for a Saturday. 
• The arena wasn't sold out, but it was easily the biggest crowd of the season. The place was electric, and it was a very unique feeling.
• Murray State won their game, and extended their winning streak to 17 so far. They are going to be the favorite to win their conference's automatic bid into the March tourney.

We leave Murray on Monday, and have enjoyed parts of our time here. The weather today decided to show us what it could be like, with 66 degree weather most of the day. Stupid winter.

On another note, I've mentioned before that I have been writing another blog about baseball to help fill my time. The blog is doing well, as I've been getting between 20 and 30 visitors a day. Something good has come of this as well. I will also be writing for a fantasy baseball blog called FakeTeams. It's a member of the SportsBlog Nation, which is a group of blogs that follows nearly all major teams and leagues, both professional and college. It's not a paid job, but they are pretty well-read, and the exposure will definitely be a good thing for the blog as well. I'm looking forward to it, and we're both really excited about it. It should help to fill some more of my time too :)

Weekend Thoughts - 1/31/2010

Well, as many of you probably saw on the news, the Southeast was hit with a pretty good size snowstorm on Friday. Initially expected to hit overnight between Thursday and Friday, it didn't really start snowing until mid-day Friday. And then it just kept on snowing. When we woke up on Saturday morning, it had gotten to somewhere between 8-10" of snow.

We also had some friends visit over the weekend, getting into town before the snowstorm hit. All in all, a very fun weekend. You've got Brynn and Audrey feeding the giant cow outside of Sirloin Stockade here. (It wasn't quite as hungry as you would think a cow that size would be.)

The state of Kentucky and all the local groups did very well with clearing the roads of snow, so we actually took them around a bit of western Kentucky and southern Illinois. Right across the border from Paducah, KY is Metropolis, IL. The town of Metropolis is best known for being the home of Superman. So they have gone for it, with a Superman museum and a statue in one of the town's squares.

Strangely, this statue (which is about 25 feet tall), is not even the tallest statue in this town. There is a giant statue (probably about 50-55 feet tall) in front of a grocery store of a giant grocery clerk. It was a bit strange to see actually.

Metropolis is also home to a riverboat casino (Harrah's), which was fairly standard of a casino. (Also got $20 of our money as well, so definitely a standard casino).

We also made our way back to Paris, TN, in search of their Eiffel Tower that we had heard about. After a bit of searching (and following the signs), we did find the Tower in a park in the center of town. It was not nearly tall enough to be seen from anywhere else in town, which wasn't really a surprise. The town is hilly, and the park was in one of the small valleys of the town.

All in all, a very fun weekend for everybody, in spite of the snow.

Weekend Trip - Mammoth Caves

The last portion of our trip over last weekend took us to Mammoth Caves National Park. Mammoth Caves is about 30 minutes northeast out of Bowling Green, KY (or about 3.5 hours from Murray). The Caves were naturally formed by the local watershed, and is the world's largest cave system.

We signed up to take the history tour, which was a 2 hour, 2 mile round trip hike led by a park ranger. Two of my favorite quotes of his: "I was born and raised here in Kentucky, so I speak Kentucky English", and "Many of you tourists are from the North. We appreciated you sharing your intelligence and money."He took us to the historical entrance to the cave, which was initially discovered in the 18th century. Originally, the owner of the land figured out that he could charge people to enter the caves, and started it as a tourist attraction.

Eventually, the US government purchased the caves and all the land around it, and made it into a National Park.

Inside the caves, the temperature and humidity hardly varies at all, year round. The temperature is usually within 1-2 degrees of 54 F all year, and the humidity is within 5% of 80% humidity as well.

The National Park service has begun the process of replacing all the lighting and wiring that is in the caves with LED lighting, so that they can help to cut down some of the costs related to bringing tourists into the caves. I thought that they did a pretty good job of lighting it well enough to be able to see things, but not to the point where it overpowers what you're experiencing.

People had tried to work in the caves during the 18th century, and one of the projects that we saw were the pipe system built in the caves to help bring water in from the surface. They essentially took long logs, which they had used an auger to drill a hole all the way down the length of. They then connected them to each other as well. This particular set of pipes was used to help drop it down from higher up in the cave, and was probably a couple hundred feet into the cave at that point.

Another view of the cave walls, near the same location as the last photo.

During the 18th century, a lot of people who went into the caves would use candles to burn their name into the walls of the caves. Sadly, there have also been people who have put graffiti over some of these signings in some other areas of the caves.

This sign was placed at a particularly tight portion of the cave tour. The area was approximately 15" wide at this point. But with the height and layout of the cave, it was a passable area at least.  There had also been other areas with either height restrictions or width restrictions, but nothing quite that tight. As the tour guide put it, "There are children on the tour, so if you go to name the rock after you've hit your head with it, make sure it isn't one of those nice 4-letter names."

As we approached the end of the tour, we started ascending back up toward the top of the cave, and were left with this view of the cave walls to our sides. As you might imagine, it was a long way down.

The view looking out over the stairs' railing.

Overall, the tour was extremely interesting. While we didn't see any stalactites or stalagmite, we knew that we were unlikely to see those on this particular tour before leaving the visitors' center. Brynn tells me that there are a lot of caves/caverns back in California, but that none of them are nearly as intense or large as the ones here in Kentucky. The tour guide did tell us that they offer tours of 11 miles of the cave, but that they have mapped over 365 miles of the caves over time.

Anything for 9 Weeks

Apparently, I should have named this blog You Can Do Anything for 9 weeks. For the 2nd time in as many assignments, the hospital Brynn is working at has given a 30-day notice, and shortened her contract. We will be leaving Murray about a month sooner than we had initially expected, but we knew that this was a possibility (just like any other assignment).We are obviously a little bit better prepared to handle it this time around, as we've been through this process before.

It is a bit of a mixed bag for us, as we are just starting to explore the area around Murray. We have, realistically, 3 more weekends with which to explore the Kentucky/Tennessee area. Over the next couple of days, I'll have a few posts up about the exploring we did this past weekend.

So of course, the next question is: Where are we headed now? Well, Brynn has licenses in California, Michigan, and Kentucky. Also in process are licenses for Maryland and Georgia. They are still working on getting her next assignment lined up for her, so hopefully we will have a better idea in the next few days here. In the mean time, enjoy the upcoming posts about our travels to Nashville and Mammoth Caves.

Weekend Thoughts for 1/17/10

Well, the weather has finally gotten better here in Kentucky. We've been experiencing "normal" weather for Kentucky for the majority of this week, getting temperatures up into the high 50s most days. Which has allowed us to venture out of our warm house a lot more than in previous weeks.

We attended our first Murray State basketball games on Thursday. That brought all sorts of entertainment:

• MSU games are only $7 for general admission seats, which are higher up but still probably within 100 feet of the court. Realistically, we can see everything involved in the game just fine.
• When I started looking for tickets, I checked online. Once I got to Ticketmaster's website, I stopped checking online. They wanted the same $7, along with a $3.50 per ticket convenience fee. And if I wanted to print them at home, it would cost another $2 per ticket. So for those keeping score at home, for a $7 ticket, and to use my own printer and ink to print them out, I could pay another $5.50. So I went over to the ticket office (about a 5 minute drive) and bought them in person instead.
• Murray State's mascot are the Racers, what with being in Kentucky. Which translates to a live version as a man in a horse costume. And also a man in an inflatable horse costume, with a jersey that says "Air Dunker". It was interesting to say the least.
• It was also $1 night at the game in this particular case - hot dogs, soda, candy, and popcorn all for a buck!
  
• They actually won both games (womens' and mens') pretty handily, which has apparently been the norm for the teams this season.

Some other thoughts from our travels this week:

• We went out to Land Between the Lakes this weekend, and you can read about this in my previous post.
• On our way back, we stopped at an EXCELLENT barbecue joint. Hutchens BBQ has been there since 1946, and serves some excellent barbecue. Their sauce is fair, but the ribs and brisket were both amazing. And it came with a trio of sides and a bread. Throw in a RC Cola for each of us, and Peach Cobbler for a total of $31 with tip!
• We're just now starting to get some rain here, which should also be nice. Frankly, I'm just happy that the humidity is going up again so we won't keep shocking each other due to the static electricity.
  

Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

We went to go see Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area today, and found an amazing park. The LBL was originally a much larger area of land that was originally between a pair of rivers, the Cumberland and the Tennessee. You can read more about the history of it here, but basically, as a part of the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority planned to construct two dams here. The dams proceeded to create Kentucky Lake, and Lake Barkley. The area was finally declared a National Recreation Area in 1963 by President Kennedy.

The area is about 25-30 minutes away from our home in Murray, and lies partially in Kentucky, and partially in Tennessee. The weather has finally cooperated enough for us to want to be outside for longer than 5 minutes.

There is also a lot of wildlife here, including a reserve for bison and elks. We took these from about 100 feet away from the animals.











We also went on a scenic drive near the north end of the park, and saw a bald eagle too! I'd never seen one before, and very surprised to see one at all.






The place was very beautiful, and we're very likely to go back and explore some more! We spent the better part of 2 hours driving through only one half of the park. Definitely warrants further exploration.

I'll have some Weekend Thoughts up tomorrow hopefully.

Travels and the Holidays

We spent a little more than a week back home visiting with our families in California. It's really hard to argue that air travel is inconvenient, since you can catch a flight from one coast, and arrive almost anywhere in the country within 8 hours of leaving.

• I really look forward to living somewhere closer to an airport than we have in the past two assignments. Murray is just shy of 2 hours from Nashville, and that would definitely qualify as the closest airport. As a result, to catch our 8 am flight back to California, we left the house at 3 am. Not a whole lot of fun to be sure.
• Nashville has a really nice airport. I think I may have been through there before once, but I can't be sure. Either way, it was very comfortable waiting for our flight there.
• Our flight stopped over in Las Vegas, and the slot machines do not take change in the airport. Not that we had remembered to bring any, but I guess I could have gotten some cash out of the ATM, but I was not really feeling it. Probably saved myself some money that way I imagine.
• It is amazing to me how many flights end up being early arriving. I know that they leave themselves some leeway, and it seems like something I probably shouldn't be complaining about.
• Leave it to air travel to cause me to get sick. I spent the majority of the week being sick, and a large portion unfortunately sharing as well. Sorry to all my relatives that caught this. It's awful.
• We had a great Christmas, and really enjoyed the time spent with the family. It had been a couple of months since we had seen them, and was definitely enjoyable.
• We flew American on our return flight, which was our first time flying with them. They actually provide a pretty good experience in terms of a flight. The plane was comfortable, the seating not too close together, and the staff very easy going. All-in-all, a very pleasurable experience.

Now that we're back, we're hoping to really start exploring the surrounding area.

Weekend Thoughts for 12/20/09

We've been in Murray for about a week now, and we've just begun to explore.

• There is no Starbucks here. Which is excellent. Fidalgo Bay Coffee is better. The locals all swear by it, to the point where they actually have a setup in the hospital Brynn's working at.
• Hardee's IS NOT the same as Carl's Jr. It was truly disappointing when we went in and found no Western Bacon Cheeseburger to order. A Thickburger is not the same thing. Period.
• They are not kidding about Southern Hospitality. Everyone we have met has been extremely nice and welcoming. 
• The city, while highly intertwined with the university, almost has a feel like the college is hardly there. It remains to be seen if this is related to the fact that they are not in session right now.
• We are less than 20 minutes to Tennessee, we found. And we've even had wine in Tennessee as well already.
• If I haven't mentioned it before, Murray is situated in a dry county. That means only alcohol can be served at restaurants larger than 100 seating capacity, in this case.
• As a result of being a dry county, when you cross into Tennessee, and the non-dry county that is the first over the border, they know you can't get alcohol in Kentucky, and advertise that they are the first stop for alcohol on that side of the line.

We are both looking forward to being home next week for Christmas, and spending time with our family and friends back home.

The Road to Kentucky

We managed to get out of Michigan before too much snow fell. Apparently they received almost 2 feet of it in the week after we left. Hooray for missing that!

 

Now that we finally have internet, I figured it was time to share some of the things we saw on our short (1 day anyway) trip from the Chicago suburbs to our new home in Kentucky.

• Not unexpectedly, Lincoln is HUGE around the states here. Indiana has on its welcome sign that you are in the "Boyhood Home of Lincoln". Illinois is the "Land of Lincoln". Kentucky is the "Birthplace of Lincoln". They all lay claim to having some part in creating him. Although I never thought of Indiana or Kentucky as relating to him ever before.
• The town of Effingham is home to a gigantic cross. I didn't believe it would be there until I saw it, and it is still a bit strange to me, but there is apparently no church attached to this cross.
• We passed through the town of Metropolis, which is home to this Superman statue. I guess it makes sense, since Superman's home was Metropolis. But it was still a bit strange to see.
• I'm not entirely sure where we passed it, but apparently there is a 1920's jail museum along the road to Kentucky as well.
• The town we live in, Murray, is home to Murray State University. A giant billboard on the side of the road informed us that they are "Kentucky's Public Ivy University". I have honestly no idea whether or not the education is that good here, but I have to imagine that they aren't making that claim for nothing.

Our Next Assignment, and the Fun that Ensues

You know, I had started this post a couple of weeks ago, as you probably guessed from the fact that I said I would have an announcement soon. We had been working with Brynn's recruiter, and had nailed down our next assignment, and were just waiting for the contract to come in. That contract came in, and we were all set. Or so we thought...

Turns out that there is a clause in her contract with the facility she is working at (and apparently all facilities she works with) that allow them the opportunity to end the contract early for a number of reasons. This list of reasons includes low patient census. Now you'd think, well, that not having a lot of patients in the hospital is a good thing, right? And it is. We definitely think it is. But that said, the facility she is working for did, in fact, ask to end her contract early, for this very reason. So our time in Michigan is actually coming to a sooner end than we had initially anticipated.

Now, this came as a complete surprise to us that it could even happen. Her recruiter even said that it was extremely unusual, since it is very rare that a facility brings in a traveling physical therapist, and finds that they don't have a need for them during the assignment. Both the facility, and her recruiter, made it very clear that it was not a reflection on the work she had done.

This left her recruiter (and us) scrambling. Her last day at her assignment in Michigan would be 12/4. The new assignment that he had already lined up would not start until 1/4/10. A month without work, simply put, was not an acceptable option.

Another issue came from the fact that each state has its own licensing process for physical therapists. Currently, Brynn holds a Michigan license, and her original California license. Anywhere that he would have to look would have to either be one of those two states, or be a state where they could be reasonably sure that they would be able to quickly get her a license.

Over the past 2 weeks, they worked on finding her an assignment, and were able to get the final touches put on the contract for it late last week. Unfortunately, the previously committed assignment (starting in January), was no longer where we would be going.

Instead, we are now going to:

Murray, Kentucky

Now, you may ask, where is Murray, Kentucky? Here.

Murray is:

Home to Murray State University (and their D-1 sports programs)
About 3.5 hours to Memphis, TN
About 2.5 hours to Nashville, TN or Evansville, IN
About 4 hours to St. Louis, MO
About 8 hours from here in South Haven, MI

You can find more information about them here: Wikipedia, City of Murray

Now, you may notice, that this town doesn't appear to be a whole lot bigger than South Haven. We're alright with this. And the main reason is Murray State itself. The college pretty much ensures a couple of things:

1. There's going to be work in the area, due to the need to support the college.
   
2. There are going to be things to do and things to see, due to the college being there.
3. There are bound to be a lot of people around our age there, due to the college.
4. Murray State is a division 1 school for athletics. This means that there is a possibility that they will be playing meaningful basketball games in early February through March. Also the potential for some baseball and softball games to watch as well.

So, we now know where our adventure is going to lead us next. I'm hoping to have a few more posts in the coming week.