Congratulations, Sam!

13 December 2014
What. A. Day!
We have added our newest EMPLOYED Engineer to the world.
Sam Mercer, BS PTFE, Georgia Tech 2014
International Paper, Savannah Georgia

Congratulations Sam!!
We are all so incredibly proud of you and wish you all the best of luck and happiness anyone can have.

Back in Romania

It's been what, eight long months since I last posted anything and I know that’s been waaay to long; but I just haven’t been traveling anywhere nor doing anything worthy of posting.  And I apologize for that.

I suppose I should have written about Elise’ wild adventure from LA to LA (that would be Lower Alabama to Los Angeles) to attend the NCAA Football Championship during what was, admittedly, the worst snow storm across America in forever. 


Or maybe I should have written about some of my recent adventures in Pulaski TN, but let’s face it; Pulaski isn’t really as
interesting as China and India and Romania.  It’s a small town so it only qualifies for small publicity, so tune in to twitter for those updates.

 

At any rate, I now find myself back in Romania again. 
Actually, I have been here for two weeks but unless you want me to write about work stuff (no, I didn’t think you did), or the rain (it hasn’t stopped much), there hasn’t been too much to chronicle.  It has literally rained every day since I arrived.  Slight drizzle to fully qualified thunderstorms.  I haven’t seen the Sun for two weeks.  Temps have generally been in the 40’s (F), but the rain just prevents any outdoor activity. 
And in case you are wondering, yes, Romania shares a border with Ukraine, but there are no issues here and those locals I have asked are pretty bored with the subject and have a somewhat defeatist attitude on the whole affair as it is ("Russia will do what they wanna do anyway and we need the oil and gas minerals, and blah, blah, blah)".  But no worries, I have been safe.

But yesterday (Saturday) we managed to get out of town and do some fun activities.  Despite the fact it was supposed to rain again, we made our schedule.  Our local Admin Assistant, Simona (who I called "The Little Match Girl" all day becasue of her scarf, planned to host me and the other American, Brian, for a day in the mountains.  The plan was to drive north to Siniaia (Sinai) to see the Peles Castle then continue to Busteni to visit the Cantacuzino Castle, and then finally on to Brasov to see the Bran Castle, tour the city, have dinner, and then return to Ploiseti.

Of course when I woke up Saturday morning, it was raining hard and I wasn’t really excited to go, but we had committed to doing this and so we just dressed appropriately for the weather, put on our best smiles and jumped in the car with Simona and headed out.

Fortunately, the further north we went travelled the less rain we encountered so our spirits began to climb.  We finally found some patchy snow just south of Sinaia and as we arrived, it was around 32F with some slight sunshine.

Sinaia is the home of Peles (pronounced Pelesh) Castle, home of Ferdinand I, king of Romania (1914–1927).  Ol’ Ferdinand was one of the good guys, so everybody liked him and he apparently tried very hard to pull Romania together. 
The palace was built in the 1870’s and is a beautiful palace as you might expect, but even more so once inside.  There is a fee for taking pictures, which we didn’t pay, so I had to sneak my photos until one of the workers began to really get upset with me.  So I finally played along.  But the hand carved woodwork and paintings and Frescoes were absolutely stunning.  The castle has 160 rooms (of which we only saw around 10-15) and our guide spoke English, so it was really quite interesting to see.

About 20 minutes north of Sinaia is Busteni which boasts Castle Cantacuzino which was the home of the Prime Minister during Ferdinand’s reign.  Obviously much smaller but the Prime Minister knew something about real estate as his view from his front yard of the local mountains is incredible!  The interesting tidbit about this house is that it’s completely empty.  Beautiful woodwork and some incredible Frescoes on the wall of the past monarch family tree - but not one single rug, chair, sofa, book, china, crystal – nothing.  When I asked about this I was told by the guide that the Germans stole everything during WWII and the items have never been located since.  What a shame.  But check out these views outside!  I was more impressed with the outside views of the snow covered mountains, I do admit!

After a nice lunch on the grounds, we walked through a small snow flurry and as the temperature dropped, we drove further north to Brasov (pronounced Brashov) and visited Bran Castle.

I have been to Bran Castle in the past as you may recall, but Brian had not, however I enjoyed the repeat visit.  Bran is the stereotypical medieval castle with winding halls and stairs and fortified buttresses.  After the Crusaders left, Vlad the Impaler used the castle for his home and then Bram Stoker used it for his Dracula story so many tales and ghosts float all around as you walk through.  Brian and I had to run through the obligatory “Young Frankenstein” movie lines.


We picked up a snack of fresh, hot off the grill Kurtos Kolach (Kur-tosh Ko-lac) which is a bread/donut type of pastry wrapped in thin strips around a cylinder, rolled in sugar, cinnamon, and butter then quick fired over coals to cook and believe me when I say it’s a sugar rush, but wonderfully delicious. 
We ate this as drove into downtown Brasov (pronounced Brashov) and walked through the old city and saw the Black Church (so named because it had burned 400 years ago and the inside is charred black).  It was closed so did not see inside.  We also saw the Black Tower (it had also burned) which should not be confused with the White Tower (Brian and I went through a few “Lord of the Rings” references), and finally ended up at the old City Walls from the 1500’s which are still standing.  I just love that all of this history is just interspersed with homes, soccer fields, and everything modern.  It is so very impressive
that these structures still exist and no graffiti, no defamation, and no commercialization.   For those family members reading; I also appreciated that the mountain next to Brasov is the Tampa Mountain.  No relationship.

 

We had dinner in the old city at “La Bucatarul Vesel” (the Happy Cook) which had enough garlic to, well, ward off any vampire within 100 miles for the next 2 years.  It was good.  But it was definitely strong!

We drove back to Ploiesti through some fo the worst fog I have ever seen and after Simona missed three exits for Ploiesti, we finally could see an exit and got back home (which was a good thing – the next stop would have been Bucharesti, and we were too tired for that added 50 miles round trip).

I fly home this coming Thursday, so I probably won't have much more adventuring - but the weather should be better this week, so you just never know.  I do suspect I'll be back here later in the spring - so just stay tuned!
More pictures ...

Peles Castle up Close



Inside Peles Castle (before I got yelled at)

Another View from Castle Cantacuzino

Bran Castle

The Black Church in Brasov



More City walls around Brasov 

More City Walls with Brasov in the background

Spontaneous Wilderness Explorations - Jones Gap, SC

Well I managed to complete my last trip to Xiangtan and return home. This was indeed one of the more frustrating trips I have had there because the suppliers of the raw material components were incredibly frustrating. But not to bore you with details, we did manage to finally receive acceptable parts and we did manage to build one assembly for our customer. Of course he threw a few curve balls at us as well; but we have learned to expect that from this one particular customer.

My flight home was uneventful and after a few days of extreme jet lag (fall asleep into my dinner at 07:00 PM and wake up at 03:30 AM), I think I have recovered and am back on US time.

Which was a very good thing because on this past Friday evening while watching the nightly news and catching up all things I missed going on in the world I hear my daughter call me from the other room … “Hey Dad, Is it OK if Charles and I go backpacking at Jones Gap tomorrow?”

Wow. Where did that thought come from?



Elise and Charles



Now, Elise is very strong and athletic and Charles is as well plus he is a very experienced hiker/camper, so I wasn’t concerned about them going off into the woods for the weekend, but I thought the short notice was a little too short and thought maybe they should plan this adventure for another weekend. Of course, that didn’t sell with them. They counter-argued with their plan of how to manage this on short notice and then thought to invite me and with one look from my wife who said “You know it’ll be fun. Go with them.” and at 10:00 PM, we were pulling out all the gear and packing packs while Elise reserved our campsite online.

Jones gap State Park is a quick hour+ journey from home and we arrived Saturday morning at 10:30. By

10:45 we were at the Ranger Station to check in; but no Ranger! At 11:15 we decided it was tough luck for them and headed out on our hike. Cell coverage was nonexistent, so we couldn’t track our progress with our phones, but after taking a picture of the map we knew we were in good shape.

Our itinerary was (highlighted on map below)

• Jones Gap Trail #1 for 2.5 miles (passing our reserved campsite along the way),
• Coldspring Branch Trail #3 for 2.3 miles,
• Coldspring Connector Trial #7 for 0.5 miles, and then the
• Frank Coggins Trail #15 for 0.9 miles where we would emerge at Caesar’s Head Overlook and Ranger station.

We thought maybe we would camp somewhere up near Caesar’s Head and then return by the same trail or a slightly different trail on Sunday morning.



Coldspring Branch Trail

 The Jones Gap Trail is a flat beautiful section of the forest crossing over small streams and springs. The scenery is breathtaking as we passed several small waterfalls and walked alongside the stream. When we connected with the Coldspring Branch Trail we left the stream and began a steady, constant uphill trudge. A two mile uphill trudge. This was just as pretty, but all uphill! I didn’t bother to tell Charles and Elise that this section is rated “strenuous” until later but by that time they had pretty much figured it out. We crossed several other streams flowing down the mountain and at one point Elise had to take off her shoes to cross. At the top of the ridge we connected to the Coldspring Connector Trail which was a 0.5 mile straight down almost half the same elevation we had just ascended in two miles ... Switchbacks, stairs cut into the trail, and then more switchbacks. The Frank Coggins Trail was 0.9 miles of uphill again to reach the top of Caesar’s Head.

No exaggeration when I say we were completely soaked through with sweat. I looked as if I just climbed out of the swimming pool! I could squeeze the water out of my hat I was so incredibly soaked through. I’m sure the tourists that had driven up the top of Caesar’s Head thought we were the scraggliest threesome to come crawling out from under some mountain rock somewhere. But we had earned our sweat as we calculated we were walking about 2 – 2.5 MPH which we were pleased with considering the 1700 foot elevation climb.

 

We met the Ranger and he just laughed correctly guessing from where we had started. He told us that there were no campsites up there but we didn’t care and just stated we would go back. He told us where to refill our water bottles and where the scenic overlook was located and we rested a few minutes. While taking our pictures looking across the stunning views we noticed a very dark thunderstorm headed our way so we decided it was time to head back down the mountain before it began. Obviously, we weren’t concerned about getting wet, but I was concerned about being caught in a lightening-filled thunderstorm on top of the mountain and knowing the valley would be much safer for us; we headed back down.

  

God's Country - aka - South Carolina



For those who do much hiking, you already know that going downhill uses a different set of muscles than going uphill, so now the burn in our legs moved from lower calves to upper thighs/knees as we trudged on down the hill. I will admit; my legs were burning, but it was so nice to be out in the woods and enjoying what we call “God’s Country” that it didn’t really matter what aches I discovered.

  

Arriving back at our campsite without having any rain, we setup our camp and then enjoyed a nice relaxing rest on a rock in the middle of the stream while soaking our tired feet in the frigid water.

Once refreshed, the rest of the evening involved scrounging for what dry firewood we could find, cooking an amazing one pot dinner (Zatarains Dirty Rice with Vegetable Noodle Soup and Chicken Chunks), discovering several snails, and one small snake – and of course toasting a few marshmallows and playing with Glow Sticks. Only a few readers will enjoy this little inside story; but amazingly enough Nobody Lost Their Glow Stick In The Dark!

  

We hung our “smellables” in a Bear Bag and crashed around 09:30. It was cool and only a hint of a breeze and I think we all three probably snored loud enough to scare away any curious bears!  After 10.4 miles, we had earned the sleep and the right to snore.

  

Sunday morning, we broke camp and had a short 2 mile walk back out of the forest and to civilization.

Elise called this our “Spontaneous Wilderness Exploration” and I am so unbelievably glad that she and Charles decided to include me because it was just a wonderfully relaxing (albeit somewhat strenuous) weekend!

  

I’m ready to go again.  Pisgah in August, anybody???

Mountain Streams



Crossing the Stream



Our Friend Checkin' Us Out



"Good Morning, Sunshine!"



"Dad, Just Go Away!"



Yours Truly Doing His Best "Survivor Man" Imitation



A Day Off In Changsha

We finally managed to get a day off so we decided to head up to Changsha for the day.


Xu Jifu and Yang ShaLi



I ended up traveling with Yang Shali and her husband Xu Jifu.  We could have hired a private driver, but its actually easier to scheduel if we just rode the bus, so that was our decision.  Yang Shali is new to our plant transferring from our Wuxi City facility, so while she speaks the Chinese (of course), she is unfamiliar with the area and where the bus station is located.  She helped ask for the bus ticket, but they depended on me to help navigate the maze they call a bus station.  The ticket is for the Changsha Railway Station which confused her because we weren't taking a train; but she folllowed my lead and was amazed we arrived where we were supposed to!  Imagine that.



Yang Shali & Li Mi



We were to meet Li Mi in Changsha who now works for a different company, but Li Mi and Yang Shali know each other from earlier times.  I was surprised to discover they know each other very well and it appears as though they are twin sisters from different parents.  Jeff and I just laughed at them carrying on together and he commented that it was highly possible they wouldn't talk to us all day they were so engrossed with catching up with each other.  Some things are universal, I have decided. At any rate, the bus ride was uneventful except for some reason there was a big commotion by the ticket lady to make sure everyone wore their seatbelt.  I don' t know why.  Nobody was putting them on.  Nobody was going to put them on.  I chuckled with the young girl across the aisle from me about that fact.  She agreed.



We finally arrived in Changsha and met up with Li Mi.  We went to the YueLu (Yoo-loo) Mountain because as it was a warm day (85 F), we knew it would be cooler under the trees.

This is really a beautiful place.  Home of one of the original 2000 year old universities.  There are some pretty open air classroom buildings, gardens, ponds, landscaping - all that stuff.  Marty and Josh have been there.  I admit that I have never walked all the way to the top of the mountain.  While the path is only maybe 3/4 mile long; it is very steep and not for the unprepared.  Of course, that means ladies in their fancy skirts, dresses, and high heels are scampering up this path like mountain goats. I have been excersizing more lately and was ready (with proper footwear) to tackle it this time only to learn that Li Mi had bought tickets to ride the little tram to the top.  So we rode the tram (golf cart for 12 people).  Honestly, I am glad we did that because I used my phone to map the journey.  As you can see from the picture, the 1st mile (as mapped) was us walking around the bottom through the gardens and flatland.  Can you guess where the tram ride began?  Marty - I'm glad we didn't try to go all the way to the top when you were here back in 2010.  We both woulda died!  I was reminded of the "Assault on Mt. Mitchell" bike race in South Carolina and wondered how those riders would fare on this slope?  LueYu is much shorter, but the steep grade would be just as challenging.

The view was spectacular as we looked at the mountains to the west and the cityscape to the east.  If you look closely, you can see Orange Island in the middle of the Xiangjiang River and at the far end you can just make out the huge bust of Mao perched on the point.



Mountain Ranges to the West.  City View and Orange Island to the East (The bust of Mao is on far right edge of island)

After this visit, we wandered around the old city for awhile and had dinner at the Fire Palace Restaurant.  As always, it was loud with a crazy rush all around you.  Good food; but the pace is incredible.  Yes, Li Mi ordered the Stinky Tofu (Tofu fried until carbonized black) - it is really nasty, but she claims to like it.  Yang Shali and Jeff didn't even try it - and they are Chinese; so what does THAT tell you?

Marty 2010



And since I'm talking about Stinky Tofu, I figured I could pull out this old picture from when Marty "pretended" to like it ...

We finished dinner and caught the bus back to Xiangtan.  The bus was full and nobodywanted to sit next me as the Laowai (old foreigner).  Some 12 year old kid had to do that, but as he slid in by the window seat he turned to me and said "My name is Benny" and shook my hand.  He promptly began to look out the window and then drift off to sleep; but it was nice to see at least someone isn't scared of me!

The whole day provided a good "battery charge" and maybe I can now better face the work days!  Maybe.



And of course - we did stop at Starbuck's for a refreshment!



A New Chinese Sign

Spent the day in Changsha.  More on that later when I have time to write; but here is my "New Favorite Chinglish Sign" found outside the bathroom of the Fire Palace Restaurant (Marty, Josh  should remember this one ... Stinky Tofu, anyone?)

We know the bathroom floor is wet.
We know you are going to fall.
So just be careful when you do!