Driving home, dinner with Cochrane and my folks, then more driving all the way to home.

I left the Hi-Way Inn Motel, owned by Kenny G (no joke) and packed Phillip Garcia's stuff into the Yukon.   I had packed my stuff the night before.  We headed out of Hobart, OK at 3:00am so that Phillip Garcia could connect with his 6:00am boarding call (Rusty owes me one).  Total trip = 17.5 HOURS.  We watched the sunrise over the windfarm in Weatherford, OK.  While it was still pitch black, the FAA lights were synchronized, which is cool to see ghostly towers light up simultaneously in the distance.

The crop dusters in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and rural TN were out in force, divebombing the fields, spreading deliciousness over all the freerange vegetales growing in the adjacent fields.

I did about 15 walkdowns with Tommy from GE.  He was cool as can be, and helped me out a bunch, he is also really good at "king of the hill" vs. cows.  I owe him a t-shirt, and hpefully I get one of his t-shirts.  Hope to cross patyhs with you again, dude.

Look at this exit, for some reason, it does not feel like the correct exit to take.  I just want to go home...

Same thing in Tennessee.  Grow them crops, cut them, ten we eat them, bollocks to preservatives and growth hormones.

Pulling into Memphis from the land of Arkansas.  I feel like Jonny Griffee owes me a lunch (despite my short exp-ectation of arrival).

Had dinner with my parents and Cochrane Jamison at J. Alexander at West End.  Great meal before I got back on the road to home.  Howerver, I still need to meet Cochrane's girlfriend (to make sure I approve).

I thoroughly enjoy this water, Fastenal, has a great product in this water.  Quenches thirst and keeps a decent balance between the multiple MonsterEnergy drinks that the jouneymen ironworkers consume during the day.                                                                                                            

Finally played real golf yesterday.  We played the Kahite course at Tellico.  I shot 92 which is not great, but after getting in two rounds in 10 weeks, I count it as a win (in addition to playing a course for the first time).  I love golf in the southeast (instead of Oklahoma).  Eat your heart out, Paul Randall.                                                                                                                                          

Thanks to the CLC families for a great "Welcome Home" occasion.  It was great to see all of you on my first day back.  I decided to throw in my high-vis vest, hardcore leather gloves, and my hardhat as well as my steel-toe boots.  I appreciate the effort and I hope everyone had a blast.  Thanks to John Lacey for the movie tickets, I have a feeling Beth will still try and use the gift certificate to go see the movie with Liz one day. Ho well.  Yall are great, and I feelk very missed and and happy to be bcak.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Last few tasks of the project, aim for the evacuation...

We have two towers to walkdown, H1 and G3 (the turbine of doom).  We have some cleaning to do in G3, and a Generator Alignment to do in G3.  We will clean and pack up the QA office and I will hit the road when I am cleared to go.  I am packing some stuff tonight.  Today it was 106 degrees, no lie.  Try climbing a 300 ft coke can in 106 degree heat (my idea of fun).  I took 10 minutes out of my day to watch the final rotor install at G3.  Almost cracked a bottle of champaign when the first bolts went in.  We also found the new MC truck for the next project.  Right hand drive, four wheel drive and no AC... booyah.

Check it out, no lie, it's hot.

Erecting the last rotor at G3.  Finally....  more photos to come soon, internet is being slow.  Sorry.

Loaded the extra pictures, enjoy.

Last rotor installed.  Sweet!!!

14 hour day followed by 3 tower climbs... on the homestretch

Friday was a long day.  I try not to complain alot, but Friday whipped me.  The MC crew took care of three towers.  Basically twice the amount of work done on a normal day.  Good job guys.  At the end of the day, Paul 1, Nick, Matt and Dan were let loose to head home.  Those guys will be back on the job in Iowa by the second week of July.  Great working with you guys.  Nick, I will make sure you fire a gun within the next two weeks.  Saturday I handled three walk downs (final inspection before turnover to the customer (Enel Green Energy)).  Climbing three towers will take it out of you... 900 feet of ladder climbing plus gear.  We have four turbines left to Generator Align, and then walkdown.  Hopefully the winds stay down Monday and Tuesday so we can finish.  One rotor (hub with blades installed) is still on the ground, we are waiting on a GE engineer to sign off on some repair work before it can be installed.  This turbine is cursed (G3).  I have a feeling it is on an Indian burial ground or something.  Below are some photos from the past few days.  Enjoy.

Can you tell who the foreman is on this blkade pick?  On the right is the safety manager (hasn't climbed a tower in 17 years probably).

Tim B. inpecting the underide of the 16000 crane.  He is 5' 8", you do the math, this crane is HUGE.

Found a frog at G3 while MCing on Friday.

Mason from Enel found a horned frog before the walkdown on H7.

Sorry for the lag of posting, Beth came this weekend (thanks Mimi)

We finally got shirts for Rocky Ridge, sweet. 

My grandmother, Mimi, is awesome.  She helped send Beth to Oklahoma to see me.  I picked Beth up at OKC airport Saturday night and we got a decent dinner at Pearl's Fish House.  We spent the night at the Copurtyard Marriott which was amazing.  A pillowtop bed and fully airconditioned room was awesome.  I picked up coffee for Beth in the morning, and we tried out the hot tob and I took a swim in the pool (with Hobart, OK had pools).  We headed to Cafe7 for lunch, I had a pizza with green pepper, sausage and spinach, Beth had Mac & Cheese with bacon.  Both were delicious.  We headed to OKC to ride the boat through the canal in Bricktown, then visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.  Sad, but great place to visit and realize the impact of domestic terrorism.  We had a great dinner at the Back Door Steakhouse in Blair, OK.  Great meal!

Took Beth to the airport this morning, then headed to work.  I pumped out the basement of H-1, then had a full stock of RIC'S work to re-do because he screwed it up.  Thanks Ric.

I took Beth through the Quartz Mountain State Park complex tonight after dinner.  The was a drowning right before we arrived, which is sad, but the views were great (prayers to the family).

Beth is on the way, all is good

Beth is flying to Oklahoma City tomorrow.  I am leaving work at 4:00pm to pick her up.  I am psyched to see her.  We will spend the night in OKC for the night, get a good meal or two before we head back to Hobart, OK.  I will definitely take her out to see the turbines and meet some of the QA guys.  Took the ney guy, Phillip to Nuevo Leon, the mexican restaurant in town.  Phillip is all kinds of Mexican, so he knew what to order.  You rock, dude.  We had our monthly safety seminar today with a catered lunch.  I am full and tired.  Heading to bed.  Piece out.

Also got out project shirts today.  Sweet.

First day of walkdowns, funny antics with cows, etc.

Today, I went on two walks downs, the first for G1 and the second gor G5.  No punchlist items on the first tower, but we were missing one bolt to hold down the "pizza pan" which is the cover that goes over the hole that leads inside the hub) which holds the blades.  A guy named Clark climbed the tower with the bolt and climbed up halfway and I grabbed the bolt and climbed the rest of the way up, out of the nacelle and out into the hub to install the bolt.  Two and a half climbs wore me out, but no punch list on two turbines is reward enough.  Thanks for your help Clark.  The new walkdown guy, Phillip arrived from LAX today.  Nice guy, I look forward to working with him.  He has all kinds of permission to drive my Yukon to Walmart, he said he was hungry and has no truck to drive yet.  When we were walking down G1, there were cows EVERYWHERE.  The huge mound of dirt next to each turbine pad will be used for grading and final landscaping.  The cows decided to play "king of the hill".  On young calf was winning, and Tommy with GE decided to climb the opposit side of the hill and win the game of "king of the hill" in addition to scaring the pants off the cow.  Pictures are below. Enjoy.

Kyle with GE was rolling on the ground laughing after using his "professional camera" to document the occasion.

Which product inspector signed off on this GE turbine label?  Exhaust fan and motor assembly (ovbiously).

Stacked the LAST turbine, found a trarantula in the wild, and looking forward to seeing Beth on Saturday night.

Today, they stacked H1, the last turbine in the H line.  This is the last tuirbine on site.  Granted, there is one turbine on G line that needs a new blade before the rotor is installed, but that is beside the fact. WE ARE ALMOST DONE.  There is a "Safety Stand-Up" on Saturday which is where they cater a banquet for all the iron-workers and all involved in the turbine installs.  They will start shipping folks out to the next job very quickly, but we have Mechanical Completion and Generator Alignment to get done.  We are probably looking at close to the end of June for this job.  Going on two "walk-downs" tomorrow, which is the final inspection of a turbine before it is turned over to the customer and commissioned for operation, and then turned on to produce power (then PAID for, booyah).

Do not pick this up.  It will put holes into your skin...