I’m on a necessary two week road trip to meteorology related trade shows to show some of my technology and content. Unfortunately times being what they are, the trip was more economical with me driving and hauling equipment than it was to fly and ship. I’m now beginning to question that decision after my 13 hour drive from LA to Albuquerque today. On the plus side, I got to see the section of I-40 that was the inspiration for the fictional town “Radiator Springs” in the Disney animated movie “Cars”. The wind sculpted terrain was right out of the movie as I passed into New Mexico.
But even though I’m away from blogging a lot, every cloud has a silver lining. There’s a 5 day lapse between the two shows, and I’m going to use that time to fill in some missing stations for the surfacestations project if I can.
Our first paper on the station surveys is in late stage peer review, and I hope to be able to announce it soon. This work would go towards a second paper being planned. I can’t go into any more detail on it at this time.
But if anyone can help with the road trip expenses for those 5 days, there’s an orange donate button on the right sidebar.
Of course I’ll post the station surveys as I get them, there’s bound to be an entertaining BBQ or a/c unit somewhere in the mix next to a climate monitoring station.
Evan Jones has been providing planning support, and I thank him for his preparation in getting candidates cataloged. As you can see in one of my previous trips, I’m a glutton for punishment.
Guest authors with ideas are encouraged to submit stories while I’m chasing stations.
Have a safe and productive trip, Anthony!
Happy surface station hunting Anthony. Remember to stop, stretch and take in the air and view each hour or so along the way, it keeps the mind and being fresh. Drive safe.
Is there an address for sending an old fashioned cheque? I don’t use credit cards, and would be very happy to help you with an injection of liquidity. Are there any issues with Canadian cheques?
Happy trails!
Good luck. Good hunting.
Great painting!! 😉
Welcome to New Mexico. One of the best parts of our state, is that the scenic vistas from the Interstates are not cluttered up with those big organic things seen in most places. Let’s see, what are they called . . . ? Oh, yes. Trees.
Not to say that we don’t have any trees. No, no, no. They are what keep our Forest Service people busy most of the year . . . burning them down during controlled burns. With an occasional burning down of a town thrown in just to keep it from being boring.
Don’t forget to make that left at Albuquerque — Bugs Bunny always missed that one!
The better half and I drove through Northern New Mexico and Arizona last summer from Farmington, through Shiprock and then on to four corners and Monument Valley. We saw similar landscapes there – but without the interstate. Truly a joy to my geologist heart.
March is the best time to travel and camp in the SW. We were down that way in 1996 on our honeymoon through Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The temperatures during the day are very nice, but nighttime get a bit chilly.
Drive safe.
Drive safe, Doc.
And say “Hey” to all my friends in one of my favorite places –
if you get there – Winslow, AZ
Especially that girl my Lord,
in the flatbed Ford.
“But if anyone can help with the road trip expenses for those 5 days, there’s an orange donate button on the right sidebar.”
Done.
Thanks Anthony for all you do with this amazing blog.
So whats the driving music in the car then? Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers, Sunless Saturday – Fishbone, Everyday Sunshine – Fishbone, The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin, Sometimes It Snows In April – Prince, November Rain – Guns and Roses, Good Day Sunshine – The Beatles, Sunshine of Your Love – Cream (Gooles your friend). or It’s Raining Men.
Have a good trip, Anthony! I just flung you enough funds to buy a pretty decent lunch.
WUWT readers, look for “Shameless Plug” donation button under the World Climate Widget & whack that baby! I’ve saved a lot of money by not renewing subscriptions to Science etc., so I’m happy to pass these along.
Doug in Seattle,
You noticed the nights were cold???? On your honeymoon????
Regards,
Ed
That image is utterly beautiful. Getting back to life is the rule of the day, now that Global Warming is called off. That’s what I figured too though…two years ago, and last year too.
Don’t forget to live your life.
This caught me as momentarily hilarious, as for some strange reason my brain pictured you making this trip in that EV you posted last month.
I’m from the desert and grew up hiking everywhere, looking for rocks and plants and reptiles. The artists at Disney really nailed it! I was blown away when I saw “Cars”. The colors were perfect, the landscape was awesome, they even got the relative distributions of the flora right.
Janice- I used to do a lot of fire fighting in the SW. Based in Winslow Az. Prescott Az. and
Albuquerque . Those “controlled” burns are always good for a few runs by an Airtanker.
They seem to have knack for setting one off in windy conditions. Love that northern Arizona and New Mexico country. The Sangre’ De Christo’s in particular.
Anthony- Winslow Az. has had a long weather history- back to 1928 as I recall….
Milwaukee Bob says:
March 2, 2011 at 7:07 am
“Take it Easy” – The Eagles
INGSOC wrote: “Are there any issues with Canadian cheques?”
INGSOC
I was very pleasantly surprised when I went to my CIBC branch to ask about buying a money order to send money to the USA and was told that they would issue me with a cheque in US funds AT NO CHARGE!
I presume that they do this only for their own customers. If you don’t use CIBC, check with your bank.
IanM
INGSOC says:
March 2, 2011 at 6:16 am
Are there any issues with Canadian cheques?
There are always issues with foreign cheques (in every country) — send him a International Money order in US funds…
Anthony-
A bit of driving advice. If you find yourself fighting the dozeys, don’t try to fight them off and keep driving. Find a safe place to pull off the highway and doze. Even a few minutes is often enough, and the time “wasted” is far better than a long time in hospital…..or worse. Voice of experience (the dozing, not the time in hospital)..
IanM
Anthony, I would love to donate but my great grandfather once removed worked for Exxon and if Sourcewatch ever dug that up our whole conspiracy would be revealed. [sarc]
Anthony, have a good and productive trip for surfacestations and your other work. Like CRS, Dr.P.H., 7:23 am, the science here saves me from wasting my money on pseudo-science (or fraudulent-science) publications — we all know who they are. I am glad to spend some of it here. (I also “subscribe” [contribute on a quarterly basis] to WUWT, too. I hope others find their own way to do something like that. This site deserves a “regular” income, IMHO)
My car broke down off I-40 in Gallup, NM in 1984 and I never left the area until 1988. The roughest four years of my life, and also the most fun. I could stay at Church Rock campground for $25.00/week, just east of Gallup, back before they paved the place and the huge RV’s moved in.
Gallup was rough, and not too pretty, like a place for drunken sailors amidst a sea of sober sand and spectacular sandstone, but I discovered that if you got away from the Interstate you met the most wonderful people, especially if you didn’t look too much like a tourist. (I looked like a bum because I was a bum…..a bum who took notes.)
That was where my liberal side got mugged, and I became more conservative. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to write a book about it, some day.
I learned all sorts of odd ways of looking at the antics of Washington politicians from the Zuni, Apache, Hopi and Navajo, and also from Hispanics who had lived in the area four hundred years, and considered white men the illegal aliens. It put me well ahead of the curve. It seems it is only now, due to the antics of Al Gore and Hansen and Mann, that others are catching on.
Thank heavens for Global Warming; it seems it might have slapped America awake.
@CRS, Dr.P.H. says:
March 2, 2011 at 7:23 am
Same here, we use to purchase news media daily, weekly and monthly, now nothing save for one gardening mag and that’s not being renewed due to the eco- greenie push/nagging/preaching they do, thereby allowing our budget to make donations to worthwhile bloggers.
NatGeo just sent us a ‘half off’ for their yr. mag subscription – we declined it.
Safe trip. Keep up the good work. Can’t wait for your “Surface Station” paper.
PayPal-ed you twenty bucks for a ½ tank of gasoline. ☺
Clive
From the frozen plains of Western Canada … where spring is not about to happen in the foreseeable future … bah!
If you take the same route back, be sure to turn off into Winslow, AZ. The town was the prototype for Radiator Springs and bears much of the same “charm.” Even the few traffic lights go to blink-yellow after midnight. When there, checkout the La Posada Hotel, an upgraded Santa Fe Fred Harvey railroad hotel whose restaurant features fresh elk which is to die for.
Happy trails!
Is the much vaunted Berkley study acknowledging your input from Surface stations ???
And if not why not ??
INGSOC raises an interesting issue, Anthony. I also am an old fuddy duddy, and do not put money into my I-pad-ped-pid-pod-pud, or raspberry, strawberry, boysenberry, girlsenberry,blackberry etc none of which I own, or would own. I also don’t kindel or facebook or trep, tweet, twitter, whatever.
And I don’t have any paymates, paybuddies, paychums, ot the like.
So I could also ante up via the time honored checkie; I usually use a bank cashiers check, so that hwhoever finds it, doesn’t think I printed it out with my computer drawn on th ebank of nomoney.
Some place to send valuables would be a good idea; although my favorite Uncle is doing his damndest to prevent me from having any.
Have a safe trip; and I second the five minute roadnap; I have a 50 year old funny story about roadnapping, but you will have to wait until one day I send it to Reader’s Digest for their Life in These United States section.
My favorite song from “Cars” is “Life is a Highway”, I believe that is the correct name.
Anthony, you are certifiably mad. I have no idea how you manage to do all that you do. And this is the last straw:-
There’s a 5 day lapse between the two shows, and I’m going to use that time to fill in some missing stations for the surfacestations project if I can.
Shadow- I love Winslow and have stayed in the La Posada many times. It’s a great getaway from PHX.
I will point out to you and the Good Doc that it is my understanding that cars was based on/inspired by the old stretch of Rt. 66 from Seligman and Kingman via Peach Springs (sound familiar?) Valentine, and Hackberry. I mention this not to split hairs but to recommend a drive on that section for anyone who has not done so. Like maybe Anthony on the drive back? 😉
Anyway Dr Roy Spencer’s February anomaly is up now at -0.02C here http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
Amazing they can do it with such accuracy.
I just donated to help the surface stations project. Thanks Anthony.
Ed
If you have a little ‘me’ time, try to make it up to Los Alamos/Bandelier, or Georgia O’Keefe’s ranch. Gorgeous country.
“Take It Easy” – Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey from LP “for Everyman” – also “Redneck Friend” – a great rocker and “Ready or Not.” Kind of a country flavor for wide-open spaces.
Road trips can be great, if you let them. I love music for a soundtrack.
I also love the way “Cars” was researched and done.
Enjoy the driving. It might be better than being Federally groped and fondled, or radiated.
I hear of plans to institute DNA scans next summer in airports to fight human trafficking, which will not work unless they have everybody in the system. What a great excuse to build a DNA database on the whole population. Think of all of the other ways they could use this information.
Of course, they assume that human trafficking is primarily done through airports and not across our open borders.
And, since when is human trafficking the responsibility of the TSA? There is no way that collecting DNA would make the skies any safer.
Just another government grab and invasion of rights and privacy. I’ll be driving from now on unless I can borrow a plane.
Modest tip deposited, limited only by my no longer working status. Have a good trip.
For the Canadian cheque question: The Donate link mentions PayPal. So if you connect PayPal to your checking account, you can donate/purchase through that service. Or, visa.ca says that “Visa Reloadable Prepaid cards” are available, so you could use one of those to isolate online purchases from other payments.
I think 5 in one day is my personal record too. Nothing like that kind of concentration left to me within reasonable driving distance.
Good hunting.
Your continuing dedication to good science and thoughtful communication benefits those of us like me who have a “pedestrian” scientific background (I got a D in organic chemistry and a C in physics, so switched majors as a kid). Great work on the award, and the surface stations project is vital. We love you, Anthony. Thanks for shining light on the darkness. Safe trip.
Have a safe and hopefully productive trip, though your timing could have been better for choosing to do a lot of driving, the crude price just busted through the $100/brl mark this morning. I wouldn’t worry too much about light postings, they’ve managed to stay at a level that is still hard to stay on top of through your other recent necessary absences. For a little perspective on that point, your recent post listing on the sidebar has 15 items going back to Monday. I made a little venture into hostile territory over at RC and this is their 15th most recent post
Overheard in the newsroom
Filed under: Reporting on climate — group @ 12 January 2011
Reporter doing a phone interview: “Please slow down, professor. You’ve been researching this topic for a decade. I’ve been researching it since lunchtime.”
From here (h/t Josh).
Comments (pop-up) (214)
If you broke half of Willis’s fingers, he’d still be able to keep ahead of those guys all by himself.
Welcome to the state! You’re just an hour down the road from me here in Santa Fe. Unfortunately, the view from I-40 from Albuquerque to the state line is far from picturesque. It beats the scenery going east from Albuquerque toward Texas but if you want to enjoy some real scenic beauty take a little road trip up to Santa Fe. This town is absolutely nuts…but if nothing else, it’s beautiful. I don’t imagine you’ll have a lot of time available for sight seeing but this is a very pretty state.
“But if anyone can help with the road trip expenses for those 5 days, there’s an orange donate button on the right sidebar.”
Done
Thanks for all your efforts Anthony – safe journey and good look at the shows.
Slightly OT, but if your looking for extra content, W.M. Briggs has another interesting addition to the chronicles of the Unintended Consequences of Environmentalism up at his site
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=3544
Evidently the requirement for low flow toilets is creating a massive stench problem in the sewer system of San Francisco because the reduced flow isn’t moving solids out of sewer mains. The proposed solution? Massive injections of BLEACH into the mains. Satire is indeed becoming a dying art, because nobody could invent stuff more ridiculous than the news.
Anthony,
Please, credits on the marvelous painting? Artist? Is it a real location? Title?
Thanks,
Blue skies,
Kip
Regarding donations, a VISA card works fine for me. Seems it would work from Canada, no? Not sure about the currency conversion though.
Copy the money order thing. I was trying to get away with not having to go further than my mailbox to slip some toonies to Anthony. However, I’ll gladly stop in and grab a cashiers cheque or money order next time I’m in town, but I’m still at a loss as to where to send it… Is there a PO box or something? I can understand Anthony’ caution in putting any addresses out there, and PO boxes aren’t free. So if there is no way of sending funds outside of paypal I’ll just have to spend the money in the usual way and give it to The Ministry of War and Finance; my personal Piranha Fish, Mrs INGSOC.
Thanks for the tips folks!
Looking forward to the announcement of both papers. The suspense on what the second paper is will be good for learning patience.
[Waits.]
So what is the second paper?
Excuse me, Dr. Dave, but I’m rather partial to the scenery from Moriarity east to the Caprock. The relative state of the grass (greenish, brown, black and smoking) lets me know how much real estate will come visiting in March and April. Granted, the back route from Santa Fe to Las Vegas and down through Conchas is more fun.
Dr. Watts, if you get a moment and are tired of New Mexican food, I suggest Sushi King at the east edge of Downtown Albuquerque on Central. The Vietnamese/Thai place up Central, maybe two blocks west of Sushi King, is very good, too. Um, yes, I’ve scoped out every eatery within two miles of the U of NM campus. How can you tell? 🙂
I love Winslow too-Stood on the corner many times, miss my friends that I made
over the years there, flying Airtankers out of Winslow. I hate Phoenix got stuck there once, tried to get back to Winslow, finally did. 120F on the ramp at PHX, 98F and windy at Winslow, like heaven on earth, by the time we broke out of the Phoenix Vortex..
One friend in particular was a Navajo-Silas White Eagle, he was one who basiscally stood and watched all the follies of the USFS and BLM shenannigans with detached interest and humor. He held that the white man was eventually going to regulate himself out of civilization.
I think he has a point…
I sent $20 via paypal, and look forward to any surfacestations additions for amusement and educational purposes. Have a safe trip, Anthony, and keep up the good work!
TXRed says:
March 2, 2011 at 12:01 pm
…Dr. Watts, if you get a moment and are tired of New Mexican food…
*Sacrilege!!* It is impossible to get ‘tired’ of authentic New Mexican food! 🙂
Of course, “New Mexican” food is not the same as “Mexican” food. They have very different tastes and textures. It’s also very different than “TexMex” which seems to be the usual ‘mexican’ fare in Texas and Arizona. Easiest way to tell is to see how they spell chile. Chile with an ‘e’ = New Mexican, chili with an ‘i’ is something else! If you want a good authentic New Mexican meal in Albuquerque, Anthony, hit Los Cuates on Lomas & Monroe for a combo relleno plate. (Though you might get the chile on the side if you’re not sure of your capsaicin tolerance!)
John Peter says:
March 2, 2011 at 9:35 am
“Amazing they can do it with such accuracy.”
It is also remarkable that whatever the medium used to record temperature, it’s expansionist propensities overwhelm it’s ability to contract, despite the application of the appropriate stimuli.
An interesting subject for a PhD perhaps, and one that would be open to many disciplines…………..
Nice painting, That met station is right next to a tarmacked road, a hard standing and close to a house. I trust that is due to artistic licence?
Thanks to commenters above for reminding me that I’m saving the cost of Science News, which I abandoned in disgust after their inept and false report on sea-level rise in the Maldives (I was going to say ‘amateurish’ report, but as Willis reminds us, that should not be a pejorative). I’ll fling some funds for your trip. Hope to get out there and see some of that country one day.
I notice that the Donate button is for Surface Stations.org, not WUWT, but as it’s all Anthony, I assume that’s not an issue. Is there any reason why neither is a non-profit organization, though? That makes donations tax-deductible.
/Mr Lynn
Yup, “Cars” (by Pixar, and marketed by Disney folks) was a good one. I travel that way when I can, singing the Route 66 song most of the way (until my wife slaps me…usually somewhere between Gallup and Grants…) I think that part of the country is just beautiful!
Mike
13 Hour Drive.
Thank heavens for fossil fueled cars is all I can say.
JamesS says:
March 2, 2011 at 6:48 am
Don’t forget to make that left at Albuquerque — Bugs Bunny always missed that one!
=================================================
That was going to be my joke mister 🙂
As for music, try Midsummer’s Daydream and Little Boy Blues by Triumph on the Thunder Seven album
Now that the Aus dollar is at parity with the $US it looks pretty cheap. Donated towards the trip Anthony. I’ll take that out of the New Scientist subscription I won’t be paying anymore thanks to WUWT :-).
I just wish more Australian politicians and their advisers would take a look at WUWT. Mind you I have done my bit to try and let them know it’s here. Do any ozzies know if there is an attempt in Australia to do a similar project for surface weather stations? Is the US one extensible for other countries?
I hit the Donate button too, after I found it. It *could* be a little more prominent!
C’mon people, Anthony has arrived at a time of life (I’m there too) where his needs may not be excessive, but let’s not be making him to stay in a Motel 6 “for the cause” either!
Yeah, the Cdn$ is at $1.03US$ today. The Obama Discount has kicked in.
TXRed says:
March 2, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Excuse me, Dr. Dave, but I’m rather partial to the scenery from Moriarity east to the Caprock. The relative state of the grass (greenish, brown, black and smoking) lets me know how much real estate will come visiting in March and April. Granted, the back route from Santa Fe to Las Vegas and down through Conchas is more fun.
________________________________________________________
YIKES! I’ve driven the haul between Clines Corners (at US 285) to Tucumcari and back so many times it’s nearly ingrained in my brain. What scenery are you talking about? I lived in Amarillo for over 10 years so I KNOW flat. You don’t get real scenery until you head back north on 285 close to Santa Fe. But you’re right…the trip down from Las Vegas through Conchas is a blast. As an aside, I grew up in Michigan and the 2nd worst winter weather I ever drove through was between Tucumcari and Santa Fe in March. Juggling chain saws would have made more sense!
Anthony:
I lived in Omaha NE for some years. Drove the route, Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis. Thought I knew the most BORING contryside in the nation.
Then I did the drive, Mpls to PHX several times, because of my parents moving to PHX.
That stretch (I-40? The Old Route 66) from TX, across N.M., YIKES! It’s bad enough doing the Albuquerque to Flagstaff part of the route. But I’ve done the PHX to LA route (10) too at times. UGLY! Anyone that really thinks “urban sprawl” is a problem, has no IDEA of the amount of vast “wasteland” left in the American frontier.
You think back to the pioneers and doing those routes with “covered wagons”. God Bless’em, you can figure why the relatively arid CA coast (south of San Fran) seemed to be a “land of milk and honey” after making that trek!
@max Hugoson
Dude. The West kills on the boring scale, unless you are seriously into desolation. Ever driven across Nevada? Unless you are totaly into the comedic value of ‘Secret Air Force Base Next Right”, you just have no comprehension.
I am personally of the opinion that the Sharaan Africa and the American Southwest are goldmines of the undiscovered human experience. . . but they still suck to drive across at the current time. . . .
“But I’ve done the PHX to LA route (10) too at times. UGLY! ”
I *lived* out there for 12 years — between Phoenix and LA, about 10 miles north of I-10 about 80 miles east of Palm Springs. Believe me, the interstates are built thru the flatest, ugliest terrain they can find. Get off the freeway, take a backroad, better yet, a dirt backroad, and you’d be amazed what’s out there. But you have to know where to look.
AFAIK, the prototype for Radiator Springs is Amboy, California. Driving
East from Amboy on the 40 will place you in the state known as “Arizona”,
not that other state.
The drive to the tourist trap above Radiator Springs is a drive to Mitchell Caverns
above Amboy. There is a campground at Mitchell, and another nearby, but
no hotel carved out of stone.
Most of you Colonials won’t know this guy, but he is wonderful & until he was censored by the BBC & other media because he’s a mathematician who doesn’t believe in AGW, he was the “father” of bringing science & maths to young people by making it fun. Now the Beeb has none of this but just greenie propaganda shows, dumbing down as usual because the Socialists don’t want the educated workforce they calim they do, just a controlled one to accept every diktat issued by Big Guvment!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12609782
Happy driving, Anthony – when in Florida as soon as we get the car out of the airport pound I drive my wife nuts by turning the radio to 97.5FM – ‘Ninetyseven Country’ – Yee-hah..!!
Your trip sounds custom made for my truly WEIRD favourite track – C W McCall’s ‘Convoy’…
‘Breaker, breaker, one nine – this here’s the Rubber Duck – you got a copy on me, c’mon..?’
I think I need to go and lie down…
David @ March 3, 2011 at 6:02 am—
“Convoy” was C.W. McCall’s last fling at the country charts. You’ll hear even better writing from Bill Fries (who with musician Chip Davis were ‘C.W. McCall) in “Wolf-Creek Pass”:
Haven’t played that one in while. Thanks for the reminder.
/Mr Lynn (aka Cousin Lynn, “Hillbilly at Harvard,” WHRB-FM, Cambridge, MA, Saturdays 9 AM – 1 PM Eastern, streaming at WHRB.org—shameless plug)