Back home. Time to rest.
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I got the last seat on the 20:00 flight from Newark to Oslo tomorrow While doing the overflight of New York yesterday, I noticed the Intrepid museum. Me being interested in all things military, especially World War II era ships, I decided to go there today. Well, first, a little detour. Since I originally had believed my stay in New York would be shorter, I had only booked a few days at the hotel. When it became clear that it was going to last a while longer, my old hotel was already full-booked. Thankfully, there are a lot of hotels in New York. So, at a few dollars more a night, I found a hotel in Long Island City, much closer to Manhattan, and now that I am in that room, quite a lot better. (Not to mention that the trip to the airport suddenly got 70 USD cheaper.) It is quite a nice hotelroom, comfy office chair, a jacuzzi plazed in the room itself, and not the bathroom for some strange reason. And just a much higher standard. I can probably get some work done here as well as the week goes by. Back to the Intrepid. Construction was started only days before Pearl Harbour, and it was commission in 1943, staying in the Pacific for the duration of WW2. It was later recommissioned as a cold war era jet fighter carrier, adding the horizontal takeoff along with a much improved messdeck, serving as a platform during the Korean war. I started however at the U.S.S. Growler, the first generation of submarines carrying nuclear missiles (the precursor to cruise missiles), which is the only nuclear missile submarine open to the public. It was large on the outside, but being a dieselelectric submarine, it was quite tight fit on the inside. Imagining up to a hundred crewmembers serving onboard the boat for up to 90 days, anyone could get claustrophobia. It was a very interesting tour. Further on was a former British Airways Concorde. I appreciated the chance of seeing this piece of aviation history myself, going aboard it, and just imagining how it must have been onboard the worlds fastests (and therefore quietests, as it outran its engine sounds) commercial airliner. But I guess it was too far ahead of its time. The Intrepid was large, but the areas of the ship available to the public was perhaps 25%, not including the hangar and top decks. While it has been retrofitted with modern heads, a small caffeé and elevators between all decks. It was still worth the tour. Having survived five full on kamikaze hits along with a torpedo, it stands as a testament as to how hard it was to actually sink a carrier. Up on top there was a nice selection of cold war era aircraft, including a U-2. 
Another day in New York goes towards its end, and overall, it has been a nice day. I started out by picking up my clean clothes at 11:00. At 8.74 USD, I found it quite cheap for colour separation, washing, drying and folding it nicely together. Then I planned to go out to Statue of Liberty, along with what remains of World Trade Center. I took the subway to Times Square, and then on to South Ferry, but as I was making my way to the ferry out to the statue, I saw people advertising a helicopter tour of New York city. As I like getting the overview, I went for it. It turned out that the poor fellow had been trying to get people to get a helicopter tour, but his company was fully booked for the day, but he did me a favour, and pointed me to a rival company, named Manhattan Helicopters, offering the same kind of tour. Was a nice tour, and I got some nice pictures out of it. After that, out on to the statue of Liberty. It was too late in the day to get into the statue itself, but with the long lines, just seeing it up close was enough. Random thought of the day: 
Taking a cab to my hotel was not exactly cheap, so I asked for directions for a cheaper route. This route involved the subway, which in Queens, is primarily above the main roads. Thanks to some somewhat outdated directions, I took a few stations too many a couple of times, along with having problems finding main Penn station from the subway station named Penn station. Thinking I had to go to Newark, and then get a cab, I got a ticket there, only to find out when boarding the train, I could go directly to Newark airport. Thankfully the train conductor was understanding and I reached Newark airport only three hours after leaving the hotel. Getting the luggage was a breeze this time (computers do wonders), but the poor cabbie I got this time, had to drive around most of Queens before he found the right place. (Thankfully, its fixed charge trips from the airport.) Its quite interesting living here, seeing how New York is outside of Manhattan. Tomorrow I plan to go there, visit the statue of Liberty, and probably the 9/11 site. Having sent my dirty clothes to be cleaned and picked up tomorrow morning, I am looking a lot more positive on things, than last night, with no luggage or clean clothes after the airtrip. Todays photos as usual, the hotelroom. 
Apr
19
2010
 
17th of April – Las Vegas to New York (and not Oslo Gardermoen)Posted by AndreasB in UncategorizedThe day started well enough. I had found a very cheap upgrade to 1st class to Newark airport. The extra service and legroom was nice, but not worth the price of a full 1st class ticket. But I enjoyed it. I flew to Newark via Houston. When the flight from Houston was delayed, I checked on the Oslo flight, which was unsurprisingly cancelled. I was booked on a flight from New York to Oslo on the 26th, but I think I will be able to wrangle out a flight before that, if flights have resumed at that poing. Otherwise I am seriously considering either travel by ship to Europe, or something even more exotic like the Transsiberian, but I doubt it will come to that. It looks like the ash is not as dangerous as first assumed, as well as some positive weather reports, but only time can tell. When I was rebooked, I had the choice of going back to Vegas, staying in Houston or going on to Newark, as I had decided that playing tourist for a few days could be fun, I chose to go on. My bags on the other hand, chose to stay in Houston without telling me about it. So, when I came to Newark, none of my bags arrived. There was misrouting with all bags routed to Europe, so it took a while to find any one bag. 2 hours passed, and I rechecked, and they went out to search for my bags again. 3 hours passed, and the transport hub manager started looking, but still no bags. Finally though, the poor continental rep. who had to handle all requests, got a computer to search with, and they started to suspect that my bags where in Houston. An hour later, it was confirmed, and I had to head back the next day to retrieve the bags. I had managed to book a small hotel in Queens, New York, quite cheap, quite nice. But my cabdriver actually had problems finding it, despite being on a main boulevard, Queens blvd. Today is/was supposed to be the last day before I go home. Most likely, I will end up in New York, waiting for a plane back home. I considered the situation, and I decided not to stay in Las Vegas, but go to New York anyhow and play the tourist. See the Statue of Libery, pay my respects at the 9/11 site, go on top of the Empire state building, and that kind of things. However, todays tour was great. First four hours of “rafting” the Colorado river. From right downstream Hoover Dam all the way to Laughlin Bay. Great view, nice water, well worth the time. But has to be seen in person. Our guide was quite the character and made the tour all the more memorable. After that, which I actually had forgotten, was a nice Humwee off the track tour of the Nevada desert through something called loosely translated “rainbow plains”, that was a great tour, with a great guide, good trainee on his first tour driving the humwee, and well worth the tour. 
With my work at NABShow done, I had scheduled a tour of the Valley of Fire today. It was a great tour. I had booked a tour with a local tourguide, named Char Cruze, CREATIVE ADVENTURES, LTD., along with a rental car, as it was going to be a tour group of 1. It was the first time in my life I have actually rented a car, but it worked out fine. The Ford Mustang convertiable was quite a nice car, even though I sat in the passenger seat, taking photos, lots of photos, which I share with you below. While I don’t have the time to recite the stories told me, it was a great tour, just not for the view. But for the local knowledge of the nature, and how the Anazazi looked at nature and the places we drove though, along with some of the history of Las Vegas. Now, with the airspace of most of Northen Europe shut down due to the Icelandic volcano eruption, I have no idea how long my stay will be. Will have to check the reports tomorrow before I re-schedule my flight back, but I might just take a couple of days in New York while I wait for the ash to subcide, but only tomorrow can tell. 
Today was also an interesting day, not as relevant as I had hoped, but quite interesting. I attended the Military and Government summit conference track until 14:00, and while it was much more heavier on the military side than I enticipated, it was still quite interesting. The executive summary of the sessions I followed seems to me to be “Use open standards and adhere to those standards”. The US military has a long history of making its own standards for everything they acquire, but the use of COTS (Commercial Of The Shelf) technology is increasing rapidly, as it gives a quicker technology turnaround (and is cheaper than inhouse / MILspec applications.) My wandering through the three halls later on yielded a couple of technology firms and products that I have missed. Just wandering around is quite essential at something the size of the NABShow. Not even Las Vegas can totally absorb it. Even with ten dedicated bus routes, some with multiple shuttles, it is close to impossible to get a cab quickly here during the show hours, something which apparantly is not an everyday occurence, a cab driver told me. On the other hand, I learned that trying to take pictures without a battery in the camera does not work, at all. I had charged the battery while I was sleeping, I disconnected the charger, but forgot to put the battery back in. So todays photos I dedicate to the theme “Why I hate iPhone as a camera.” 
Tonights cruise was just the kind of break I needed. A slow cruise on lake Meade with an exact replika of a Mississippi style paddleboat. The food was great, and so was the view. But now, it is time to catch some sleep. 
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(Wednesday 21st)
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