Day 34 of travelling

Arrived in Sarasota with many old friends and faces from the school district for the STEM workshop....but the highlight of the evening (besides the fire on a lower level that caused us to evacuate and stay outside for over an hour) was a night of bonding with the Feiler family...all 6 children and 2 adults....we chatted, caught up on schools, activities, plays, life events, TV shows, grades, Harry Potter, Alex Rider, Lateral Thinking Problems.....and so much more....

I love my family more than life....but if I had to pick a second choice...it would be the Feiler family (Who, despite the initial fears of Mom, were NOT the reason for the aforementioned fire drill.

Nice Hotel (as seen in the pics!)

Day 33 - Homeward Bound

Usually, when I reach the end of a workshop I have one of 2 states of mind.....either I am really sad that the experience, the visit to the new location, or the friendships and day-to-day contact with these new friends are over....
or....
I am really glad to get out of town.

This one poses mixed feelings. The workshop itself wasn't bad. The briefings by all the Weather Service bigwigs were exceptional and I have learned a great deal about weather. On the other hand many sessions, those taught by the ed staff and the modules (which were little more than worksheets) were exceptionally boring.

Kansas City is a terrific place...one I would like to come back and explore, but not having my own car here put a real damper on the trip....
And as to the people....there were a number I truly liked and would have liked to know better....one or two I never got the chance to know and really wish I could have had the opportunity...but there were a few that I simply could not stand, and one I was forced (with shackles and duct tape) to work with on a project.

All in all, I miss being home, I miss Mary Anne, I miss Molly, and really am looking forward to going back. And I really do wish I didn't have to leave again next week.

Day32 - Nearing the End

Well in the past 2 weeks we heard from
the Education Director of the American Meteorological Society,
the Director of the National Weather Service Training Center,
the acting director of the National Weather Service,
the Director of the National Center for Environmental Protection,
the head of the American Meteorological Society,
the Lead Forecaster from the Space Weather Prediction Center,
the Senior Hurricane Specialist from the National Hurricane Center,
the Operations Chief from the Storm Prediction Center,
one of the heads of the Aviation Weather Center,
one of the heads of the National Weather Service Topeka Regional Office,
the Climate Program Manager of the National Weather Service,
and some other folks....

We created a lesson (seen in the pics) where students made tornadoes, and learned how to make a room sized one with a few fans, incense and dry ice, and traveled around Kansas City eating BBQ. Its time to come home!

Plane leaves tomorrow at 3:25! I am so ready.

The problem is I head to another workshop in Sarasota next Thursday.....

Day 30 - Winds aloft!

After a few lackluster days, we finally hit the big time! The morning was spent with the head of the National Hurricane Center, learning all about the "big ones" and why that hurricane in 2004 (Charley) turned away from Tampa just 3 hours before hitting land....then in the afternoon we walked across the building to visit the National Aviation weather Forecasting Office, those fine folks that do the forecasts for pilots and airports around the world....pictures included!

We are in the home stretch now....just 3 days left before the third road trip of the summer comes to an end.....I have to admit...I am ready to get back home and watch episodes of NCIS in my own house once again!

Day 27 - Field Trip, the sequel

WOW! What a day! First we dug in dirt, then we dug in rocks, then rode around in a bus. Well, its a little better than that...First we took off to an outcrop of loess, the unique soil foundation of the Midwest....followed by a visit to Missouri City, which lies on the banks of the Missouri River, and was the site of a devastating flood back in 1993, that was the costliest in terms of property damage in the history of the US. You can see a picture of a sign showing the water height (about 5 feet) on the opposite side of a raised portion of railroad along side a really wide river.

We the stopped to dig fossils out of an outcropping after visiting a storage area called Subtropolis (Google it!), which is built in an old limestone mine. You actually drive into the mine to the businesses and storage areas inside...lots of pics above... then we capped it all with a side trip around Independence, Missouri, home to Harry Truman. We drove by the library, his house, the ice cream coned shaped Mormom temple, and Harry's statue downtown.

The to cap it off I had a wonderful dinner with a Planting Science partner, Teresa Woods, who is as delightful in person as she is on line handling intenational Skype conferences.

And I got a present for Addison on top of it all...so I am delighted with today. Just wish the lightning hadn't struck the tree at home until I got back....

Day 25 - Field Trip!!!!

What a day! Started wit a 2 hour briefing with the Director of the National Storm Prediction Office learning all about the process of collecting, analyzing, and, if needed, issuing watches and warnings concerning tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and rainfall, flash flooding, and winter weather. Saw some awesome video of destructive weather.

You know those movies where the killer is in the basement and the young college girl starts walking down the basement steps to see why the lights went out, and you are screaming, "Don't go down to the basement!!!!"

Well we were doing that as the idiots were driving into the flash flood waters because they thought they could get across. Wicked cool!

Then we took off to the National Weather Station in Topeka, Kansas to watch the deployment of the daily weather balloon which provides updated temperature and pressure before returning to stately Wayne Manor. Hurricane Center briefing still to come!!!

Day 24 - Plans

One BBQ place down, several to go! Smokehouse BBQ (Monday), will hit Jack Stack on Sunday....and who knows on Friday night.....

Lots of sitting on our butts in these workshops but, while I am getting very little I can take back to the classroom, I am gaining a tremendous understanding of how weather works.

Not if I only learned how the lottery works....

Tomorrow....ROAD TRIP!!!!