Adventures – Page 3 – JohnBollwitt.com

2007 Nov 192007 Nov 19

Free WiFi at Iowa interstate rest areas

I have known about free wireless internet at rest areas in Iowa for a few years now, and every time I hear about or use it, the service impresses me. More so, it’s the fact that it shows how forward thinking the state is with providing access to travelers who pass through the state.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

For instance, we just stopped at the rest area on I-35 near the Missouri border, in between Lamoni and Decateur. Open up the laptop, find the network, launch a browser, and a couple of clicks through the DOT’s web pages gets you in. We checked our email, uploaded some pictures, Beck made a blog post, and off we went. That made for a twenty minute stop, but the scenery at that particular stop, not to mention near 80F, clear sky weather, made it fairly smooth.

In the time before I moved out of Iowa, I had used this service just a couple of times, and it used to be that you had to setup an account with this service. It was still free, but I’m beginning to think that the number of people who would forget their account information between uses and just sign up for another one because they forgot the previous one probably got out of hand. Kudos to the service for changing that.

During this trip, we’ve been through two major airports, Seattle and Chicago, that had WiFi that you had to pay for. $6.95 for a whole day of access in Seattle isn’t much, but what a pain. Why not give me 90 minutes of unlimited access for 24 hours, and then charge me if I want more? Sure, there are people who might try to abuse the system, but monitor the bandwidth for that, right?

If I have a hour to kill during a layover, I’d love to just pop on and check my email. We just made a 20 minute rest stop in southern Iowa with free wireless, and now we’re back on the road. You’re telling me that airports can’t do that?

That also reminds me, check out what a group of local geeks are doing in Vancouver. FreeTheNet.ca is a movement to provide a city wide WiFi network to the metro area. Let’s broaden that to the airports across North America, eh?

2007 Nov 152007 Nov 15

Spent the long weekend in gorgeous Victoria, B.C.

I’m a little late in posting this, but the 52 pictures that I uploaded to Flickr is quite the feat in my department. When we decided to go over to Victoria[googlemaps] with Rebecca’s sister and her family as of the middle of last week, I told myself that I’d do more photo taking.

Passing between Galiano Island and Mayne Island on the ferry

It was just Sunday to Monday, and we were all quite lucky to make it back to the mainland. The storm that slammed into the southern coast of B.C was awesome, hence the facetious “gorgeous” in referencing this last trip. I don’t mean “cool”, but more of a “holy crap”. Waves crashing on shore, winds howling through, rain falling from left to right… while driving down a street in the minivan, Sean rolled down the driver side window. I was sitting in the very back, third row, and the rain got me in the face.

We weren’t sight seeing as much as we were just exploring the island in the midst of a storm. Growing up in the Midwest, that’s pretty usual. It wouldn’t be until hell was falling all around you that the thought of, “Oh yeah, I should go somewhere so that I don’t die now” would finally cross your mind.

Remembrance Day ceremonies in front of the Parliament building

Remembrance Day ceremonies at the parliament building

A visit to the Royal B.C. Museum

Probably the coolest thing ever on this adventure was seeing my first lighthouse. The storm cleared enough that wandering down to the Fisgard Lighthouse wasn’t too bad, but the wind was biting something fierce. Inside was pretty neat, especially for being nearly 125 years old.

Cold and windy walk out to the lighthouse

Fisgard Lighthouse

Stairs up to the lighthouse beacon, locked off from public

There was also a defense outpost at this location, Fort Rodd Hill, originally built during British colonial times and then refortified and used during WWII to defend from possible invasion by Japan.

B.C. Parliament in Victoria, B.C.

I feel like there is always something of interest for us in Victoria. We wanted to do more ghost explorations, but we’ll have to save that for another trip. There was some recording done for a future episode of RZ, but it would have been so cool to snagged some audio from a haunted building or something and then check it for EVP[wiki]. Yeah, I’m a geek that finds the paranormal fascinating, but those are ghost stories for another time. In the meantime, you can view the whole set of pictures on Flickr.

2007 Nov 11

Troubled Hubble – 14,000 things to be happy about

Rebecca has been singing parts of this song all day, so I figured that I would post it because it’s just that good of a song.

We’re island bound tomorrow morning. If that isn’t enough to be happy about, then the fact that we’ll be flying to Iowa in a week kinda is. Will be the first time in just over two years that I’ll set foot in my home state. I wonder if it will smell the same…

And if you are curious to find out more about Troubled Hubble[wiki], please do so. You won’t be disappointed.

2007 Oct 142015 Jan 20

Just a boy among men

Over the past week, I’ve had some really cool things happen. Besides getting onto an elevator with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace this past Friday, the other event to blow my mind was getting the brief opportunity to meet some NHL legends at Standard Building Supplies in North Vancouver during their customer appreciation day on Saturday. I think I can still taste the free, fresh, and incredible vegetable samosas.

Gino Odjick[wiki] and Dave Babych[wiki] are famed men among long time Vancouver Canucks fans. Were they the greatest players to grace the game? That might be a stretch, but they are often referenced by my Crazy Canucks partners in crime, making them all the more legendary. Gino is notorious for his off ice scrapping as much as he was noted for his fist fights inside the rink, and Babych’s facial hair precedes everything before anyone starts mentioning his contributions to the ’94 run for the Stanley Cup.

It wasn’t until we were driving away that I realized exactly who Bobby Baun[wiki] was. When I talked to him, I made sure to shake his hand because I noted two things. One, he was a Toronto Maple Leafs player during one point in his career, and two, the Leafs, one of the oldest teams in the NHL, haven’t won the cup in 40 years.

As Rebecca and I talked about it(and you can read her post about the day as well), we put more and more to the story. Baun played with the likes of Tim Horton[wiki], yes, the guy who started the Tim Horton’s coffee and donut chain. Still, he was apart of the power house that was the team in Toronto to win the cup in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1967. That also made him apart of the last Leafs team to win the cup 40 years ago, and I shook his hand.

Even though my knowledge of hockey is growing with every passing CBC documentary, I’ve known who Bobby Hull[wiki] is for a long time. Let me just say, he is hilarious. We recorded some audio that we’ll put into a Crazy Canucks episode soon with the full story, but the banter we had with him and Richard Brodeur is something I’ll long remember.

Not to pass by “King” Richard Brodeur[wiki], he was the Roberto Luongo of his day, guiding the Canucks to, but falling short in, the 1982 Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Islanders. Still, a genuine man, and the atmosphere that he generated by just sitting next to Bobby Hull in conversation made me forget that there were a ton of people waiting for two or more hours behind me in line, just like we did.

I still made the point to shake all their hands, knowing full well that opportunities like this don’t present themselves all that often. I even brought the recorder along and snagged some liners for TCC, so listen for them in the near future.

Cliff Ronning[wiki] was there as well, but the time was up for him before we got to his place at the table. Being the classy guy that he is, he autographed a bunch of photos and went all the way down the line to hand them out to people that had been standing there just to see him. He got held up by some fans right in front of us, and I asked him about seeing him on Canucks Pay-Per-View again this season. The response he gave me was a little depressed, saying someone there apparently didn’t like him enough that he didn’t even get a phone call about it either way.

“Maybe I stuttered too much, I don’t know.” Aw Cliff, I was a fan.

In times like these, I’m not one to get overly crazed about getting autographs. It’s the experience that draws me in. It sucks that there is no way that I could talk hockey like Dave or even Rebecca can, growing up with or having stories of these individuals passed down to them over the years. What I do know is that these guys worked hard to pursue a passion for a game, and there is a lot to respect for their efforts.

That and Gino was walking around the grounds a little bit after our meeting, spotted us, and gave a nice smile and wave because he remembered us coming through the line. We did the same back and had the same reaction to each other. “Gino!”

2007 Oct 072007 Oct 07

Working when it’s a lot like playing

Last night, I had the opportunity to do something that I have never done before, but it was only a matter of time before it was going to happen. I mean, this is Canada. If you read between the lines enough, you know that I’m back to doing the radio thing in and around Vancouver, all on the technical back end. I’m the guy making things work and the people on the air sound good.

So when I was going through the setup for Friday night on Wednesday afternoon, it struck me. I’m working my first ever sports broadcast, and on top of that, it was a Vancouver Giants hockey game.

That might not sound incredible or awesome to some, but that’s the point where I realized how far I’ve come in my radio career. From those early, blood shot eye, 4AM Saturday mornings at a tiny, 100 watt college radio station to a group of commercial radio stations in the #2 market in Canada, it hit me as I was getting everything in place for the guys doing play by play for the game.

When I saw a semi-professional hockey game for the first time, it was for the UHL Quad City Mallards[wiki], now known as the Quad City Flames (and recently an AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames). I kinda thought that it would be cool to do radio stuff for them, but it always seemed like I might be doing something for the Hawkeyes basketball or football team before something like minor league hockey would come my way. I came close once, but it never panned out.

In all actuality, my first days doing any sort of sports broadcasts was being board operator for Iowa Women’s Softball games at KRUI. That’s when I developed my affinity for good music during sporting events, and you can believe that I took some pleasure in parsing the library to find some killer tracks to play as beds and bumpers. These days, it’s a boarder line obsession with restraint.

The Giants game was simple setup and tear down with some minor sweating as we got the broadcast on the air. There is always that moment where you second guess everything you just setup and pray that when the show goes live, you can breathe again once you’re sure it works.

Crazy thing is, the only fire to creep up on us last night was an actual fire. I usually refer to having problems as “putting out fires” or “having a complete flame out”, but there was an actual fire in the rafters of Pacific Coliseum, just above the goalie on north end of the rink.

At least my night wasn’t that bad, and when it seemed like it might not be all that serious, the flames gave a nice pop and some flaming debris fell to the ice. They had to stop the game to get it all cleaned up and repair the ice for about ten minutes, but it made for an interesting first period. Never worked a hockey broadcast before, and I certainly have never seen a fire like that either.

Best shot I could get with my cellphone.
That small, orange spec near the middle of the shot is the fire.

No damage to really be seen, and it was too high up to see what it actually was. Some guy ran to the location to first see what it was, and then ran back to, presumably, find something to put it out with. Instead, he came back to stomp on it, but then another few guys ran up with a fire extinguisher to kill it.

Giants lost to the Chilliwack Bruins in OT, 5-4, but still a pretty good night.

2007 Oct 042015 Jan 20

Trying to Raise A Reader

Yesterday morning, Rebecca and I ventured around downtown to see what Canucks players we could mug for a photo during the Raise A Reader event that the Vancouver Sun put on. For those unaware, this is an event in which you donate money to people giving away copies of that day’s edition of the Sun in hopes of helping the fight against illiteracy. A great cause for sure, and we’ve been planning on this day for about a month. Last year it caught us off guard, so we made sure to mark it down this time around.

Raise a Reader Day: Hank is going to kick your a$$!

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Basically, to get a picture or signature from the various players that were stationed around Metro Vancouver, you have to make a donation. A stellar idea, and we snagged a few. Hank was super nice, but a little stiff. In fact, I think he looks like a cardboard cutout here, but that’s cool. He can still play hockey better than I ever could. Also got a snap of Rebecca with Kevin “Boom Boom” Bieksa, but we bypassed Byron Ritchie and Rick Bowness. Nothing against them. We were just on the move.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Still, the best image from the morning was this one that I snapped.

When I pulled out my camera, Fin saw me and gave me this great pose. I swear he must have had a liter of coffee before suiting up for the morning. How he does it, I’ll never know.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

When my parent’s first visited Vancouver, we took a ride on one of those exact, same trolleys. Some dude dressed in an orca outfit with smoke spewing out the top of his head never found his way on our tour, and it makes me want our money back. I could only imagine those out of town folks, namely Americans, who had no clue who or what was jumping on board with them and going straight for the driver’s seat, proceeding to lay on the horn like there was no tomorrow.

We also walked by the Vancouver chief of police by the Hotel Vancouver. There were numerous police and fire personnel all over the place, and they are just as much as important as the hockey players around the city. They might not score as many goals, but they’re still important folks in my book. Overall, I think it was a pretty successful morning for the Raise A Reader campaign.

2007 Sep 29

Drinking beer on the Whidbey Island ferry

I’ve been slow to get some of the pictures up from the trip that we took down to Whidbey Island a few weeks back. Every time I look at the pictures of the ferry we took, I can’t get beyond the fact that you can drink beer on this twenty minute ride to the other side. Sure enough, there were a few people drinking while in route, and there was one guy double fisting a pair of suds. He was only half way through one by the time that we decided that the port on the other side was close enough that we should get back to the car.

The other crazy thing was the driving around the island that we did. There were numerous signs asking you to not drink and drive. Underneath each of those signs was a sign in remembrance of someone who most likely died from a drinking and driving accident. Getting into Oak Harbor, it struck me odd that the Applebee’s there had happy hour from 3-6 and 9-11. I guess that makes them happy hours.

We also recorded a bunch of audio on this trip for an upcoming episode of RadioZoom. Just need to get to editing that.

2007 Sep 252007 Sep 25

And now it’s sooner still

Better late than never to make a birthday post, but I’ll do this in a photo and video mix.

It all started with a surprise opportunity to catch the Canucks game at GM Place against the Calgary Flames last Wednesday. Thanks to the day job, we were able to sit in the Visions Lounge, all the way up in the 400 level. Cool seats, 4-0 win over the Flames, and Rebecca got to meet a lot of awesome folks that I work with.

Photo credit: matthewgood on Flickr

Thursday, found us at the Matthew Good show at The Centre downtown. Absolutely amazing. Matt put on one hell of a performance. He snapped this picture from the stage during the performance, and you can almost see Rebecca and I in the back.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Friday was a good night for us to settle in on the couch to get caught up on our (downloaded) TV viewing, but Saturday was a heck of a gathering at our place for my birthday.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

So much food, and thanks to John, David, Pam, Keira, Corinna, Adam, Jenny, Sean, James, Tanya, Bourton, Jennie, Amber, and Dan for coming over. I feel like there are names I’m forgetting, but you were more than awesome to come by if I have.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Corinna and Adam have officially made us apart of the Sock Monkey Army, but I call it a new addition to the family, Montalban Esplendido.

Sunday we had a family celebration out in Surrey, and I got this wicked new messenger bag from my mother-in-law. She also got me the third cake of the weekend, which was outstanding as well.

Photo credit: Mark Blevis on Flickr

Sunday was the Vancouver Podcast Meetup at Steamworks in Gastown. Mark Blevis was visiting on business, and a few of us gathered to hang out for the night. Of course Rebecca was there, but so was John and Dave. I’ll make a longer post about the meetup later, but Mark graciously bought me a round in celebration of my birthday.

My mom sent me the above video yesterday. It’s a very traditional song to hear on your birthday, at least in my family.

Photo credit: Keira Anne on Flickr

This last picture has no relevance to the wonderful dinner that Rebecca and I had at Hapa Izakaya last night, but it is entertaining to me. We’re also embarrassed that we’ve waited this long to try that place out. The food is just as awesome as the feeling you get when you walk in the front door of the place and all the wait staff and cooks yell hello to you in various phrases of Japanese that I half recognize and half have no clue what they’re saying.

And then we had another small gather of folks over last night to eat the extra cake that was leftover from the weekend. It was hardly leftover though. The chocolate cake from Capers was pretty fantastic, as was the red wine from Golden Beaver. Good times, great people.

Also, all the Facebook well wishers has been amazing. If there is one thing that site is always good for, it’s coordinating gatherings and keeping track of everyone’s birthday.

None of this would have been half as good as it was without Rebecca helping to pull it all off. I have to say that I’ve been pretty lucky to have a great birthday (week) if it wasn’t for her. And in all actuality, it won’t be completely over until tonight when we get to see They Might Be Giants at The Commodore. My fifth or sixth time seeing them, and I can’t wait to share the experience with Rebecca.

With that, here’s the TMBG song, “Older”. Seems fitting.

2007 Aug 192007 Aug 19

Working the fair at the PNE

Finding time and energy to make posts has been tough in the past few weeks because of the day job, and all of that has led up to this weekend. The Fair at the PNE has kicked off in full force, and I’ve been on the forefront of getting things in place for the few weeks that it runs. To be quite honest, it’s not unlike the county fair that I grew up with every year, just down the street from my parent’s house.

There are a lot of agriculture related things here combined with the huge amounts of food vendors and people trying to sell the products that you don’t really need but find yourself unable to live without. Truthfully, it’s more like a glorified carnival on steroids, and the only thing that makes me say that are the rides that make you contemplate the ratio of bolts to nuts. They could probably use my leatherman on the hour, every hour for some added insurance.

In all honesty, I appreciate the fair to the extent of what it means to summer. They basically run hand in hand, and it’s not a stretch to say that it wouldn’t be summer without one. That being said, it doesn’t mean that I love every minute of it.

It’s like the line from Clerks[imdb]:

Dante Hicks: You hate people!
Randal Graves: But I love gatherings. Isn’t it ironic?

It’s tough to appreciate fighting the foot traffic, getting bumped, pushed, or waiting in lines. Only having one place to be isn’t as bad, but depending on that location, the non-stop noise can get to you. Sometimes you get lucky, and so far, so good. With even more hope, these next few weeks go by pretty quick because the $7 I had to throw down for my lunch time burrito didn’t impress me. Makes me really lose my appetite for my yearly corn dog.

2007 Aug 192007 Aug 19

F-117 stealth fighter to be retired

I posted this photo of the F-117 Nighthawk[wiki] that I took a picture of at the Abbotsford Airshow a week or so ago, and it prompted some questions about the description that I made about it. The plane is soon to be retired from service, blowing onto the scene in the first Gulf War. So many people simply refer to it as “the stealth fighter”, but the time has apparently come to replace it with something better.

Now, I’m not the most prolific, all-knowing individual about military aircraft, or much about things that fly in general, but what I do know is that the plane will be replaced by the F-22 Raptor[wiki], another jet fighter with stealth capability. Compared to the Nighthawk, this new aircraft follows the general principle of being bigger, faster, and stronger, among other things.

Even though I’ve been on the job like mad these past few weeks, it’s taken me to some pretty neat locations. Still, it’s tough to really enjoy events like this when you still have a job to do.

You can see more of my photos from the airshow on Flickr.

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