They had a big company logo on the side of the rig from an outfit down near Unc' Paden. Up here doing a cell tower site. polite and all, but seemed like maybe they'd had their fill of the treasure state......
Hope they are getting paid for their time and enjoying the trip. I have enjoyed the few out of towners that I have done but heard that not everyone has as positive an experience...keeping the drinking down is key if I have my head wrapped around things.
Project manager showing up with hookers for the crew, knife fight instigated by party chief at a property owned by the client, chainman walking off the job in a neighboring state and demanding a ride back from management are a few out of town stories that come to mind.
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I had a crew (3 plus myself) running topos on county roads about 300 miles from home one week.?ÿ I had one recently married young rodman on the crew and it was apparently his first time out of town.?ÿ He liked to hang on the phone with his bride and didn't like using the phone in the motel room.?ÿ One evening after supper he borrowed the truck to drive to the diner and use the only pay phone in town that was indoors.?ÿ I didn't think anything about it.
The boss called my room at 6:30 the next morning.?ÿ I was just fixing to walk out of the room.?ÿ He had just gotten to the office (300 miles away) and the truck (with all the equipment) was sitting in the parking lot.?ÿ I guess my love-sick rodman couldn't stand the time away from his wiffy.?ÿ He never even came back to pick up a small check he was owed.
Spent the whole day waiting for the boss to drive up and drive me back to the office.?ÿ I made it back up to the motel late in?ÿthe evening?ÿwith the truck.?ÿ I found my other two hands on their 5th. or 6th. pitcher of beer at the local watering hole.
Days I would like to forget....
Funny. I spent years on the road and just treated it like another day at the office.?ÿ Guys I was working in NM were "saving" money staying at a hotel that had a murder in it while staying there.?ÿ I notified them with the news paper the next morning.?ÿ They had heard some shouting upstairs and thought nothing of it.?ÿ Good thing they saved money.?ÿ I stayed across town in my inside doors with free laundry hotel.?ÿ Made the long days easy to wash away and relax.
Not for everyone I suppose.
chainman walking off the job in a neighboring state and demanding a ride back from management are a few out of town stories that come to mind.
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A couple of years ago we went overseas to do a bathymetric survey at a wharf. Client supplied the boat and skipper. First day, Skip looked none too pleased. Second day, and for the remaining 3 days thereafter, Skip refused to come out. Not sure if you can mutiny your own vessel, but we considered it as such and skippered it ourselves - job got done.
Reminds me of the occasion some 30 years ago when I was out in Malta to carry out a survey for a new container terminal. We had to interface with a bathymetric survey being carried out by an Italian outfit. They couldn't speak English. we couldn't speak Italian. After some head scratching we realised that I and one of the Italians had both done Latin at school - problem solved (after a fashion). Don't ask me to do it now. Great coffee on the boat!
never liked the out of town hotel room trips. It doesn't matter where you stay, the airconditioning unit always smells like an old dead wet dog - but, of course, you can't smoke in those rooms.
Did the cheap nationwide-chain- hotel thing once, and after almost two weeks I thought I needed to visit a neck doctor for the worst neck pain I'd ever had.
Just on a chance I stopped and bought another pillow, and the next day was like having a brand new neck - those cheap pillows are miserable.
Red Bluff, CA 1980 - field crew killed a deer, gutted and butchered it in hotel shower and mopped up with towels.?ÿ They were late for work and did not have a chance to clean up.?ÿ The maid came in to clean, saw the blood and screamed.?ÿ They were asked too leave.
never liked the out of town hotel room trips. It doesn't matter where you stay, the airconditioning unit always smells like an old dead wet dog -
Ain't that the truth. I've had some so bad that all I could think of was?ÿLegionnaires'?ÿdisease, and thinking about it would keep me awake so just don't use them.
At lot of the hotels we stay in, they give you the TV and aircon remote when you check in, and you have to return them when you check out - presumably this is to try and stop folk pinching them. But the way things are, "TV" comprises something like 4 satellite channels, 3 of which are unviewable due to poor reception, and the fourth is a foreign language news station, without subtitles, so these days I don't bother taking the TV remote.?ÿ
Like many of my fellow RPLS ??posters,? I have spent quite a bit of time ON THE ROAD over the last 50+ years of surveying. I long ago lost track of all of the places that I have called ??temporary home,? whether it was for a few days, or several months.
The accommodations ranged from high end Condos in Ski Resorts, to dirt floor tents in the mountains and/or deserts of the Western US.
I will say that ALL of the dirt floor tents were several steps UP from some of the dirtbag motels I have had to endure from time to time.
In fact, some of my favorite digs were a Hunting Lodge (Maine), Ranger/Guard Stations in the High Uinta Mountains, a Fly Camp on Prince of Wales Island (Alaska), several quaint but CLEAN motels in historic Mining Towns across the Great Basin (Utah, Nevada, etc.), and a number of Tent Camps in the the middle of nowhere!
Obviously the high end Condos (Sun Valley Idaho, Black Hills So. Dakota, etc.) and multi-star Hotels in some of the larger Western Cities were nice, I would rather stay in a rustic log cabin next to a trout stream.
Your mileage may vary
Loyal
I was staying at a motel in a small town for a survey project.?ÿ After work I showered and was watching tv when I heard a noise in the bathroom.?ÿ It was your typical 5'X8' bath, door, commode, sink and the 5' bath w/shower in that order when you walked in.?ÿ I stuck my head in and noticed that the ceiling fan was on but ever so slowly.?ÿ So back in those days I was, or thought I was, mr. fixit.?ÿ So I got out a screwdriver and proceeded to take the lightswitch faceplate off.?ÿ Well when I did, the faceplate fell to the floor and proceeded to end up in the bath and bounce around.?ÿ So I looked at the wiring in the switch, couldn't figure anything out and proceeded to walk over to the bath and pick up the faceplate and screw it back onto the lightswitch.?ÿ?ÿ I walked out of the bath and started thinking...hmmm how did that faceplate end up in the bath??ÿ I went down to the guy at the front desk and said there's something weird going on in that room...you're going to have to get me another.?ÿ So I spent the night in another room.?ÿ I never did return to that motel.?ÿ
