From Albany to Rochester, Part 2

Once I left East Tennessee I headed straight up through Virginia and West Virginia. I had never been to West Virginia before and I've always thought of it as one of the most backwards places in the nation. What I didn't realize is how beautiful it is. The highway I was on went right over New River Gorge Bridge.  It is the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  Wow was it a sight to see.  The way it spans the New River Gorge is incredible.

The weather was like 75 degrees which made it for a perfect day to get out and do some exploring.  The first place I came to was an overlook that was easily accessible from a parking lot right off the highway.  It was pretty hazy that day, but some of the photos still turned out pretty nicely.

View from the visitor center overlook.

Cool stairway I had to take to get down to the overlook.

One of the coolest things I learned out this gorge is that it was carved through a plateau which gives it a spectacular aerial view.  It is quite the site to see from above.  Follow this link to an awesome slideshow of aerial views of the gorge/bridge.

From the overlook I could see a very narrow road below.  I just had to figure out how to get down there. Luckily it wasn't very hard to find and ended up being a true "scenic route." Too bad I couldn't spend more time there.  I drove past multiple trail heads, each one leading to some cool place that I hope to explore someday. 

"This rock will have to do until I get a tripod."

Taken from a bridge below.  River rafters in the distance.

From Albany to Rochester, Part 1

About a week ago I was traveling from Albany, GA up to Rochester, NY for work.  It is a long drive but I took my time stopping along the way when I saw something interesting.  I've decided that is the way to travel. My first stop was in Vienna, GA at "We're Nuts".  It is a pecan company and they had a pretty big retail store with about 25 different flavors of pecans....YUM!  I tried almost every flavor and decided I ought to buy some.

Next I looked at the map and thought about how else I could make the drive interesting. I saw Knoxville as a potential stopping point, especially since cousins Winston, Connie, and Martin Dickey live by there.  So I called them up to find out that they were at the Appalachian Fair near Johnson City, TN where Martin was showing farm animals.  I didn't get to see Martin cuz he stayed back at their campsite, but Connie, Winston and I had a great time looking at the different exhibits, checking out all the hillbillies and even enjoyed a country music concert by Justin Moore.  We also rode the swings. Winston brought his camera on the swings and filmed the whole thing!  All in all it was a night to remember!  They are really fun to hang out with.

"This way"

Tobacco!!

Best Friends!

Good thing we eat them and they don't eat us.

"This ain't no wig!"

Tybee Island, GA

About a week ago I spent my last day in Savannah so I decided to head out to Tybee Island.  I heard there was a real, old lighthouse there and that it was a pretty neat beach town.  I had also heard there was an old fort there too.  It was already sort of late in the day when I decided to go so I said to my buddy, "If we hurry we'll make it to the fort in time."  The lighthouse was cool, but the fort wasn't that impressive.  Still, it was beautiful and relaxing!

Me training.  Very candid shot.

Staring at this is so relaxing.

Doesn't this look soo cool?

I'm thinking rent this for a big family vacation??

Interesting bumper sticker spotted on the way there.

Dublin, GA

I was in Dublin, GA for about 6 weeks.  It is known across the state of Georgia for The Redneck Games.  As far as my work schedule would permit, I went to the games to see what it was all about. Here are a few photos I took while I was there. **Zooming-in on these photos may cause temporary loss of eyesight.  Enjoy!

"Look at my beer torch!"

Nominated for "Who's Who Among the Dumb and Ugly in GA"

Little boy: "Hey mister, will you take a picture of my hat?"  So, I did.

Will someone please explain this one to me??

Belly-flop contest....in the MUD!!  Cool man!

The Moon

I read somewhere that my camera can take decent photos of the moon. So the other night I decided to give it a try.

Gators!

While I was in South Florida I lived about 5 miles from the Everglades.  I instantly gained a fascination for alligators and learned that they are actually pretty aggressive.  Here are some of the photos I took.

Blue Heron

Blue Heron eating a fish.

Vulture

Chomp Chomp!

This man told us if you stand by the bank, the alligators will begin to gather around because they think you are the next kill.  So we tried it out and he was right!  Gators start to just pop up here and there.  You have to be careful cuz they are super sneaky!  I had one jump while I was standing down by the bank...YIKES!!

Hot? Yes. Hell? No. South Florida? Yes!

Well, I have now been in South Florida for exactly 20 days!  To be exact I am living in Parkland, Florida.  It's just a little northwest of Ft. Lauderdale and thank goodness it is one of the nicer areas around here.  The drive was VERY long from Utah to South Florida but luckily I have an amazing sister who lives in Iowa and wonderful parents in Alabama, so I had places to stay and rest along the trip.  Still though I was exhausted and dazed after the long trek.  This is how I looked and felt.

For the most part I have been extremely busy with work.  Some days I start working at about 9am and then finish at like 11pm, some days even later!  But most of this didn't come as a surprise to me since this is my fifth year working for Vivint.  I'm the operations manager for our south Florida office, which means I manage the whole installation side of things - everything from scheduling to inventory to making sure that at the end of the day the customers' systems are installed correctly and in a timely manner.  Most of my technicians this summer are new.  Like fresh off the boat new.  But they are learning quickly and I'm excited for them to earn a good living.

Surprisingly I've only been to the beach twice in the three weeks I've been here.  Can you believe that?  Once I get a more routine daily schedule I'll be able to go more often.   Nevertheless, here are a few photos I took at the beach the second day I was here.  By the time I actually made it over there, it was nearly dark so I had to take these pics with the shutter speed slowed way down and they are sort of blurry.

My apartment which also serves as the office where the sales reps have daily meetings.  I get the master bedroom all to myself!

 The kitchen.

Bedroom

 Bathroom

 Closet

 View from bedroom window.

View from the back upstairs.  I was hoping there would be alligators in this pond but I haven't seen any yet.

Well, I gotta run for now.  My next post will be about a couple of my alligator excursions.  I took some AWESOME photos so stay tuned!