busted

I made it for quite a while here in California, but my luck finally ran out today. I was heading out of town after getting out of work early and flew past a CHP truck inspection. There weren't many trucks and one of the officers was standing out in the road in the opposite lane and watched me go flying by. I thought for sure he'd come after me, but he didn't. So I was out taking pictures for a little while and came back about 45 minutes later. I was making sure not to draw any undue attention to myself as I passed the truck inspection, but again there was pretty much nothing going on there and the officer watched me drive by again. I watched in my rear view as he got into his car and caught up to me. At first, I thought I was ok because he pulled up next to me, but then he dropped back and pulled in right behind me and threw the lights on. The CHP come around to the passenger side window rather than the driver's side and so I had to open the door to talk to because the passenger side windows don't go down. So I made up a story about being here on vacation for a few weeks which he for some reason bought even though I couldn't even remember the name of our condo when he asked where I was staying, and my hardhat and work stuff was all on the passenger side seat. I told him I was "visiting" the geothermal project here. He said he had noticed me driving around and in and out of town for the past few weeks and I told him I'd be leaving California in another week or so. I plan to push my luck until I get pulled over again for being in California too long without registering my car here. I figure this wasn't even a warning so I'm ok.

September 14

I had a few days off in Portland after leaving the Geysers last week. It was good to have some time off, six weeks straight is a long time without any time off. And two months is a long time to go without seeing your apartment. I made the best of my brief visit and look forward to the next!
I ended up coming back a few days early to the next well in Mammoth because I was led to believe that I'd be getting there after everything was rigged up and just in time to begin logging. As it turns out, we were sort of rigged up and no where near logging. It was nice to get here and have time to adjust to the altitude and sort of adust to my hours, but I don't know if it was worth it. I left Portland to get to Mammoth 9pm on Sunday night. It's supposed to be a 14 hour drive so I figured that if I stopped to take a nap or two I'd get here 1 in the afternoon. I ended up napping along the way for like 2 and a half hours but still made it here by noon. I think I took a pretty scenic route, but since it was dark the whole way I really couldn't say for sure. I plan on going back the same way, and making it a two day trip so I should know for sure who scenic it is then.... whenever that is.
Mammoth managed to get a lot colder over the week I was gone, it's already dropping below freezing overnight. I may need to buy chains to get out of here by the time we're done. But I'm hoping this won't take more than 3 weeks and that I'll have time off afterwards, like a full week maybe.

Back at the Geysers

I thought I was going to be heading back to Portland after the well in Mammoth but instead I had to go to the Geysers for a few days. It's been two months since I've seen my apartment, but I'll be back soon enough. Getting sent here just means I'll have a few less days off before the next well in Mammoth starts up in a week.
I took a more scenic route back here though rather than just heading north to Reno and then west on I-80, I went across Monitor Pass up through the Sierra Nevadas and along Lake Tahoe. It was a really nice drive but took me about 2 hours longer, so I only ended up getting like 3 hours of sleep last night before I had to come in for my shift at midnight. It was definitly worth it though, I think I got some good pictures.
Cobb is just like it was the last time I was here, boring! There still isn't a whole lot to do around here. Today I'm not feeling like doing anything but sleep so I'm glad I won't feel like I'm missing out on doing anything.

A Jeffrey Pine

Pictures from Mammoth
Originally uploaded by jono1515.

The bark of these trees smells like vanilla, really nice.

The Beamer on Lookout Mt.

Pictures from Mammoth
Originally uploaded by jono1515.

C&L Drill Rig #2

Pictures from Mammoth
Originally uploaded by jono1515.

This is the rig I was working on in Mammoth.