Gear Reviews, Tech & Photography
Here are a few photos from some of the sights that we have seen while in Rome. They are rough photos and so far I have taken about 800 photos just in Rome. The photos below are from the Vatican, Spanish Steps, and the Coliseum. Rome was very hot but here in Umbria it is much cooler, windy and a bit of rain. We are also loving the plentiful wine and fantastic food in the country. Keep checking the blog here and as we have time and internet access I will try and make a few blog posts with photos.
I recently got back from a family vacation in Las Vegas. For me this vacation was extra special because it was over my 21st birthday. We flew out on my birthday and upon arriving we checked into our hotel (Ti). We had some great food over the 4 days we were there, amazing Mexican at Isla, some good Vietnamese noodle soup, Thai food at The Lotus of Siam, Some great sandwiches at Canters deli in Ti.
Gambling was interesting. I am not really a big card player and stayed away from the tables so I would leave with some money. However I found the slot machines fun. Nickel slots were great. You could put in a dollar and play for a while. The first day I put in a dollar and my mom and I played. I cashed out at $5 because we went to eat dinner. Little did I know I should have stopped here and not played anymore for the trip. I ended up spending that $5 playing slots for quite a while. Over all I ended up $-4. Not too bad because my mom ended up winning a fairly significant sum from nickel slots. Over all the family came out in positive territory.
Shows in Vegas are great. If I ever go back to Vegas I will definitely go see some more shows. We saw Wayne Brady. He had a comedy/variety show that was great. Everyone was laughing and he would pull people up on stage and base that act on the answers they provided. It was a lot of fun and a good value for the money.
Hoover Dam was really neat. Despite temps that were well into the triple digits it was fun. We were able to go down inside the dam to see some of the huge pipes that feed the massive hydroelectric generators. I was also able to take some of the best panoramic photos that I have ever taken of the dam and Lake Mead.
Below you will find many photos from the trip. Mostly the photos are of Hoover Dam and of the Strip on the flight home. Be sure to check out the gallery for more photos. Enjoy.
Hoover Dam Panoramic
Lake from the Dam Panoramic
Lake Mead Panoramic
Lake Mead HDR
Inside Hoover Dam
Hotel Ti
The Strip from the air
The Strip from the air
Downtown Las Vegas
Show Girl Fun
Well Last week on Memorial day I got my stitches out of my fingers. It actually took longer to get the stitches out than it did to get them in. The doctors office was slow and they were having some computer problems. My fingers look good and they are healing nicely. I am putting tape on them for the next few days to make sure they stay together and heal well.
Tuesday I drove Audi A8L about 650 miles across Nebraska. I went from Lincoln to Overton to Lincoln to Council Bluffs, IA to Lincoln again. An employee of my dad and I went to evaluate the condition of several semi hopper trailers. I was mainly the driver and photographer for the event and the employee knew all about the trailers and what they were worth etc. Wednesday I took him back to the Omaha airport to fly home. The car is just a great car to drive. It is the only car I have ever been in where you dont get pains in it and your not tired from driving at the end of the day. It also communicates what It is doing on the road very well. The speed warning is a nice feature so you can keep in a somewhat legal speed because its really easy to pass someone at 90+ MPH. The navigation system is also a great tool on a cruiser like this is.
Today I had my wisdom teeth out. Over all it was an ok experience. The worst part so far has been the no eating or drinking before surgery. I was given an IV to be put out. However, towards the end of surgery I woke up. I could not feel anything but I could open my eyes, look around, and hear what was going on. I could see the nurse and doctor with a large silver looking screw driver in my mouth. I tried my best my moaning and pointing with my fingers that I wanted more drugs. They just kept saying that I was almost done. They said that they were backing me off of the anesthetic and this was normal. But the next thing I remember was the doctor saying he was all done and was going to set me up right. I was not happy that this had happened because the IV was suppose to prevent all of this. They gave me another shot of Novocain to numb one side of my lower jaw in which they had to drill and split a tooth and dig out several small roots.
One of the worst things had been trying to eat. I could not feel my lips or chin for about 6 hours. I had to eat in front of a mirror in order to find my mouth. You don’t realize you much you religh on tough to eat. The pain is controlled right now but people say the 2nd and 3rd day after surgery are worse. I hope not and I will find out soon.
Yesterday I went out to Broken Bow, Nebraska to participate in the annual fun shoot. I had a very good time shooting all of the guns. I shot several guns that are normally only seen in the movies and video games. Some of them included a 50 caliber Sniper Rifle, an AL-47, A Tommy Gun, and others. Below I have posted some photos and videos of me and some friends shooting all of the guns.
Facebook users please view page on my actual web page to see the videos. www.LiquidRetro.Net/Blog
Group Photo
Me with the AK-47
Ben with the AK-47
Me in the classic dictator pose with the dictators favorite gun.
Amber with the M30
Videos
50 caliber Sniper Rifle. I hit the metal goat at 600 meters.
My Dad with the Sniper Rifle. He also hit the Goat.
Me with the Tommy Gun
Ben with the AK-47
Ben with the Sniper Rifle
Ben with the Tommy Gun
Amber with the M30 Machine Gun
Loading of the AK-47 Golf ball gun. This was a cool gun. After a golf ball had been loaded by shoving it down the specially made aluminum tube a blank cartridge was loaded and the gun was fired. It shot the golf ball well over 100 yards.
As Spring Break ends tonight and Classes begin tomorrow morning I think about what I have done the past week. My dad and I drove 2800 miles in 6 days averaging 467 miles a day. This was actually more fun than it sounds. We got as far south and east as Tallahassee Florida. With the exception of adding 1 qt of oil the A8 worked wonderfully. I came to realize that some of the stereo types that are though of about the south sadly still exist today.
It was amazing to me that the speed limits meant nothing to the persons driving on the interstate. A speed limit of 70mph really means 80mph and if your doing 80mph your in the slow lane. Traffic moved between 85-90 and at times faster. This combined with the very fast lane changes leaving little room for error makes me think that everyone thinks they are a driver for NASCAR. Lets just say that the German A8 had no problem keeping up with the NASCAR fans.
Stopping in Memphis on the way home was fun. I took a tour of Gibson Guitars and saw how they were made. I always love to see all that goes into a product or item. I also took a tour of Sun Studios. This is where Elvis, BB King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee and many other artists recorded at. It was neat to see all of this because I had learned about it in my History of Rock and Roll class this semester.
Here are some photos of the trip. Facebook viewers you must got to my webpage to view the photos. Http://blog.LiquidRetro.Net
Here is the route of where we went.
Miles
The Quitman, GA office.
The Ocean
Gibson Guitars
Gibson Guitars
Gibson Guitars
Sun Studios
The Million Dollar Quartet
The vocal Mic that all of the Sun artists used to record
The Audi A8L in Color
The Audi A8L in B&W
Day 1 of the road trip went well. Lincoln, NE to Saint Louis, MO. Nothing too eventful happened. We had a great dinner at “Tony”
Day 2 started off well after a good nights sleep and a great breakfast at the Embassy Suits Hotel. South of Mount Vernon, IL the Audi warned us that its oil was low. After stopping at a gas station a manual check of the oil confirmed that it did indeed need some. But not every truck stop stocks synthetic 5W-30. After a quick call to Onstar to locate a auto parts store and short drive to another town we purchased a quart of full synthetic oil and the car was happy for the rest of the day. Its getting great gas millage 23.8 mpg through the mountains at 80MPH.
Stop for Oil
Mountain Driving
Well I have an update. The car was taken to the doctor yesterday and I must say service is very good when you drive in with the flagship car. It seems the dealer is the only one who actually know what the car is.
He called today and said that the reason the check engine light came on again was the catalytic converters were blocked with carbon. The reason for this was because the car was driven approximately 500 miles with the bad ignition. The dealer said he also suspected that the previous owner or the dealership we bought it from did not always burn premium fuel in the car and this led to the failing of the ignition coils.
Audi is replacing the cat’s which cost $1800 a piece under warranty. He said if the car was not under warranty he would of said it will burn off if you drive it. He also said it is a very long process of replacing them and the mechanic would spend all day or more on this. He also said that the car looks great and is in great shape and should have no more mechanical problem and he hopes not to see it back till it needs its normal service.
Well last Thursday the car arrived on a flatbed truck from Topeka, KS having been repaired. The issue was the ignition coils. This problem plagued many earlier Audi/VW cars but not the A8L. With only 5 miles on the car sense repair the check engine light came on again. This is a rather concerning issue. The Audi dealer in Omaha does not have time to look at the car till the later part of this week. After talking with him he thinks that it would be very rare to actually have something mechanically wrong with the car. Instead he thinks a wire was not fully pluged in or something jiggled loose. I will keep everyone updated with this situation as it progresses.