Ed Soehnel

Our road trip over Christmas included a 1 day 17 hour drive to California to the parents house - 4 days there - and a 3 day return trip through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Arches National Park. Photos and a Google KML map below.

Colorado to California

California

Grand Canyon

Monument Valley

Arches National Park

Click to download a Google Earth KML file of our route.

I had a quick 2 day trip to Vegas for the GNC Franchise Convention at the Wynn Hotel and stayed at the new Encore wing. Swanky hotel, but expensive. Images below.

I returned Tuesday night and left Wednesday morning for a very quick trip to California for mom’s retirement party. My sister, Lisa, and I surprised both my parents with our arrival, as they were not expecting us. Images below that I took, although I will add more in the near future when I receive more pictures from the retirement party. I returned Thursday morning.

Weekend projects around the house included moving into the recently remodeled A-frame section of the house, lots of cleaning (dust, dirt, etc) and digging a 30 foot trench for an additional gas line we plan to run for gas fireplaces that will be installed. That trench took me more than 3 hours, with a few breaks, and was much harder than I thought. Picture below.

From 2009_06_04_Perry_Park_Fixup

Weekend excitement also included a few cows from the 1000 acre ranch to the north and east of us who managed to bust through an area along the north fence. They did some roaming around our property before ending up on the south meadow. Ron from the ranch came in with his horse and herding dogs, an Australian Shepherd and a Border Collie, to get them back across. I could not catch much video at all of the herding. Instead of coming back into our property, the cattle were herded east from the property south of us and back onto the ranch.

2009_06_21_Home_Loose_Cows_Herding_Dogs from Ed Soehnel on Vimeo.

A few final pictures below from the weekend.

From 2009_Spring_Summer_Views_at_Home

From 2009_Spring_Summer_Views_at_Home

From 2009_Spring_Summer_Views_at_Home

I took one trip in February with my boss in his plane to Seattle. It was up and back the same day, from Centennial Airport to Boeing Field.  I don’t like so much overnight business trips and try as much as I can to schedule day trips only.  From Denver, it is very doable to many destinations. 

Very smooth flight up and back with snow and precipitation in Seattle. Some bumps on our return into Denver, but nothing nerve-wracking. Any route that brings you back over the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area into Denver can be pretty bumpy, in me experience, which is the most direct route back from Seattle. Trip map below.

View in Google Earth (KMZ file)

View in Google Maps

Last two weeks of January included lots of work travel. I was only able to squeeze in one ride from home on January 19:

Conditions: Sunny and warm. 10 C / 50 F
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 45 minutes
Avg. Speed: 9.75 mph
Bike: Mountain
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205

Notes: Had a flight out later that day for Atlanta, so left work early. Beautiful January day with lots of sunshine and warmth.

View in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Bike - View in Google Maps






My travels took me first to Atlanta for a 3-day trade show that included 20 minute meetings with 50 retailers. The very next week, I had a similar trade show in Nashville that included 20 minute meetings with 45 retailers. Pretty grueling weeks with all the meeting and the weeks following these events are also rather busy with all the follow-up required. Both Atlanta and Nashville were cold with wintery weather more comparable to that we find in Denver than the southeast of the U.S. Did not bother me, as I spent the entire 3 days of each trip in the hotel.

Images from our plane ride to and from Atlanta are below. We flew private out of Centennial on a Gulfstream/Astra 100. Smooth flight up till Landing in Atlanta; winds were gusting and swirling, so while it made for an interesting landing in a small plane, we got down plenty fine.

From 2009_01_22_Atlanta_ECRM

I did most of the Nashville trade show myself, so flew out commercial. Flight was late getting out of Denver, but we had a monster tail wind (ground speed of 640 mph), so made up a little time. Coming back, flight late again, and we had a brutal head wind, so it was a long flight back to Denver. A few images of the hotel room in Nashville where we had our meetings are below. The trade show cleared out a hotel room for us and we setup with our product samples and poster. Every 20 minutes, a new retailer walks in for a face-to-face meeting.



From 2009_01_26_Nashville_ECRM

My flight routes for both trips is below.

View Atlanta Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Atlanta Flights - View in Google Maps




View Nashville Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Nashville Flights - View in Google Maps

Links to a few pictures and a video below. Bitter cold weather early in our trip, during our drive to Minnesota and the first few days there. It warmed up after that and was reasonably nice.

From 2008_12_Minnesota

Quick business trip to Cinncinati

11/17/08: Flight from Denver (Centennial) to Cincinnati.
11/18/08: Flight from Cincinnati to Midway/Chicago.
11/18/08: Flight from Midway to Denver (DIA).

KMZ File

View in Google Maps

Takeoff from Centennial - Gulfstream 100/Astra

Colorado Front Range

From 2008_11_17_Cincinatti

Sunset

From 2008_11_17_Cincinatti