Prepared an ALTA survey for a closed-down old "motor court" (motel) on Highway 66. The place apparently hadn't been open for business in years. One of my guys reported he thought there was a homeless guy living there, I didn't pay much attention.
I was field checking the drawing and heard one of the room's door close behind me. When I turned around I saw the tattered drapes in one of the rooms drop closed quickly. Definitely a creepy feeling. There was a rail spur behind the place. Not long after the first incident I caught a glimpse of a raggedy fella running away down the tracks. Must have been the "homeless" guy the crew had seen.
I mentioned it to the client's attorney. He was more than a little interested, to the point I had the feeling that "something's up". A few days later on the news I watch the local police take this fella away from the old motel in cuffs. My next conversation with the attorney revealed the story.
Motel was owned by an elderly lady. Her adult son lived with her at the place. After her death he was in and out of a mental hospital and was also in trouble with the police. Apparently the conditions they lived in were less than optimum. He had apparently walked away from the loony bin some months back...and was back residing at the old motel with no utilities.
Creepy.
I'd rather stumble over a meth lab than meet Anthony Perkins at the Bates Hotel...;-)
An accidental death survey. Fella got electrocuted and fell 20 feet. Very precise work.
> An accidental death survey.
Same here. Nothing unusual about the survey per se, but rather the conditions that precipitated it: a young lady was driving on I-80 on a breezy day when a eucalyptus tree fell and landed on her car. She died of massive trauma, but not before continuing along the freeway for another 1/4 mile. The sad fact of a young life being taken so randomly was compounded by the fact that her parents were following in the car behind. They were uninjured, save for the emotional trauma of watching their daughter get killed.
The survey was to determine who owned the tree.
This goes along with the original post. Did a survey of an old abandoned mental hospital, underground tunnels, the whole 9 yards on the level of spooky. There is an old bldg on site that has been turned into a history museum, well there was a genius guy who broke in and stole old jars that had brains in them that were the were specimens of the mental patients from long ago. He was selling the jars on eBay and got caught! This all went doen while we were conducting our survey. Not easy going around a lot of police red tape and having to wait around to get access to certain areas. Interesting place none the less.
electrocution surveys
Working for a utility company I have done a few of these. Some of the conditions we would see were right out of the Darwin Awards. Some of these victims had to really work hard to be able to fry themselves.
But I think I've seen the last one. Last summer I got a call from the legal department concerning a metal grain elevator, a 15kV primary, a ladder and a dead guy. They needed a survey and probably a court room exhibit.
I mentioned another firm that contracts from the same utility company that uses their laser scanner for sub-station work and gave him their number. The attorney got all excited about a 3-D laser scan in court. Never heard from him again.
I bet I've seen the last one of those...and I'm happy about that. They drag on forever and the subject matter is gruesome.
Just a couple weeks ago I had to get over or around an interstate R/W fence (I was in the highway). I walked a bit until I found one of those handy solid posts with the 45 deg angle posts where they hook the next roll of 4 ft woven wire taunt and tie it all together with some field installed wire ties. I think they're about 500 ft rolls??
Having learned long ago how to get over such a fence, I inserted my right foot into the fence about a foot above grade. Flip the other leg over, and insert that foot into the fence in the adjacent opening, 180 deg from the other. Always worked before, especially next to a support post.
Opps, musta been lunch break when they hooked the two rolls of fencing together. Could be this stupid MI Rust Syndrom. After a bit of "WTF, I ain't that fat", I realized I was a victim of inferior installation since I'd only done it about a thousand times before. Shook it off, tried to put the fence back together, and walked back to the truck more gingerly than originally planned. I also learned long ago to always put the rod leaning against a post 10 or 20 ft away from the proposed leap over.
Don't talk to me about hopping chain link or god forbid a 6 ft wooden screen fence.
electrocution surveys
Odd how these types of surveys come to be, but the "electocution" headline did catch my eye. I did the survey about 20 yrs ago to measure a lighted sign about 30 ft tall in front of a restaurant. It seems that the light bulb changer guy on a boom truck forgot to ground himself, and the attornies wanted to verify the height of said sign (think OSHA)
So I did all that elevation stuff, tied in the curb & appropriate building issues.
The CAD guys got a little chuckle from the seeming accident, which likely could have kept the young light bulb guru alive as opposed to fried. They took it upon themselves to change the wording on the sign d'jour from "Today's special - Fried Catfish" to something like "Today's special - Fried Freddies Light Bulbs".
The revisions never left the office, but it was kind of stange. Then again, some of those accident surveys do tend to get gruesome.
Surveyed in "Dream Land", (aka, Groom Lake,aka Edwards Air Force Base, aka Area 51) but this was a while ago.
There was a large sign inside the security badging office, "We take security seriously, no jokes". That prompted the young guy who was my helper to wise off to them; "so where are the alien bodies kept"?
They did not appreciate the joke, per their sign. He was booted out on the spot.
I had to phone for my son, who was available on that weekend, to drive into town to replace him. We were put onto a bus with our gear. Bus had black viny or tape over the windows so we could not see outside to our route through the base. The front window of the bus was part taped off so only the driver could see enough outside.
They dropped us off at a 'secure area' in the desert to do our leveling on a landing strip made of square sections of metal-like or ceramic material I could not identify. Don't ask questions, look straight ahead and do your work.
There were the regular military police, and on one occasion we were observed from a distance of about 100 yards by two guys, (don't laugh) dressed in black suits, black formal hats, and dark glasses. So there are Men in Black, I swear to God.
Groom Lake and MIB
> ...So there are Men in Black, I swear to God.
Even though there have been plenty of stories about MIB, I haven't been able to find any documented stories about them..
wait..a bright flash..wow..
uh...what were we talking about? 😉
Oh, the runway material. Now I've NEVER been there. And I've NEVER sat at a bar next to a guy that has...but the runway is a special soil-cement concoction (utilizing the material of the lake bed) with a high percentage of its aggregate passing a 200 sieve...the cementious binder (you called it ceramic) is not far off. It's a high temp polymer. Hopefully declassified by now, or I'm in trouble.
wait..another bright flash..wow..
uh...what were we talking about? 😉
Surveyed a property just south of Mile High stadium for a long time real estate broker who has turned investor in Colorado's new "green" industry. The site was a typical survey for this area with existing street monuments for control and two buildings located on the property. One of the buildings was inhabited by the busines venture, the other by the current property owner.
I had spoken with the current owner prior to the site visit, but when I arrived, found that the owner's place was fenced and locked up with security cameras watching every which direction. With no luck contacting him, I went ahead and tied in control, located structures, fences, parking, etc. then headed back to the office. I worked up my preliminary plat then gave the owner another call to let him know I would be back out the next day and would need access to his compound to look for the northeast property corner.
As I arrived the next day and rounded the corner, there was a foul stench in the air. Two grown men (one being the owner) who had been around that block several times, were standing in the middle of the street watching a black and white striped animal writhe and squirm in an adjacent parking lot next to the place.
Turns out a skunk who had been wandering through this part of town had been hit by a car and decided to make the adjacent auto shop lot his last stop. I watched for a while until the animal was removed by the unlucky shop employee then finished up and headed back to the office. I could smell that stench for the better part of the rest of the day, but just had to laugh at the scene I had witnessed.
So long 2014, I have enjoyed it all.
I think that the strangest survey I made in 2014 was one of a tract that had been conveyed as containing 5 acres, but turned out to actually contain 4.08 acres and that had more than a mile of boundaries, roughly half a mile of which were called to run with an old wire fence that had a total of 18 angle points on it (and which had since been rebuilt in a somewhat different position).
It was in an area where many of the surveys made in the 1940's and 1950's had been made by a surveyor who was so incompetent that he had been unable to describe the same line twice even remotely similarly, leaving disrepancies of 50 ft. over about 200 ft. between corners that are still marked by the original monuments in place before he arrived.
The whole project was like surveying in The Twilight Zone.
A client wanted me to certify that his lot is greater than 100m from an existing gas station so he can lease it to a gas station retailer. Apparently city ordinances prevents gas stations to be built less than 100m apart. Does not say how or where to reckon the 100 m limit.
Problem is his lot was shaped in such a way that 1 corner is located 100 m.:-P
Surveyed and prepared a base map of a few natural and few seemingly man made land marks for a rancher who was convinced that Cortez had left clues for a fortune in hidden treasure.
I have to admit that I was and still am very intrigued by some of these markings.
His grandfather and Father was obsessed by this also.
Was shown some found artifacts that have been verified to be of that time frame. But I have been sworn to secrecy.
Randy
Hey Kent...
If you look on Google Earth at the Devil's Backbone Tavern it looks like your truck is parked in front....I'm guessing you were just "researching"...hmmm?
..twilight zone for sure.
Hey Kent...
> If you look on Google Earth at the Devil's Backbone Tavern it looks like your truck is parked in front....I'm guessing you were just "researching"...hmmm?
Not my 2005 Tundra with the sportside bed, though. As you can see, my truck was parked beside a 4000ssi in a field that was littered with stone artifacts of Texas Indians.
What? No Street View?
Where is this? The end of the Earth?
What? No Street View?
It just looks like Kent's buggy.
> Where is this? The end of the Earth?
...probably pretty close, but I bet you can't get a cold Lone Star at the end of the Earth.
Hey Kent...the other 2005 Tundra
>...Not my 2005 Tundra with the sportside bed, though.
Best truck I've ever owned, but looks different than yours with those funny fender dealy things. 😉 That truck will go anywhere my jeep in the background will go
Hey Kent...
And finding those 18 angle points in the fence described in the deed of conveyance took some work in most cases since so little of the fence was left. Here's an example of one of the angle points:
Hey Kent...the other 2005 Tundra
> >...Not my 2005 Tundra with the sportside bed, though.
>
> Best truck I've ever owned, but looks different than yours with those funny fender dealy things. That truck will go anywhere my jeep in the background will go
Yes, the older V-8 4WD Tundras are the perfect size, weight, and durability for off road driving. I probably should have taken photos of some of the places I've driven mine. The new Tundras are unfortunately too big to be as useful and I'm not sure how comparable the new Tacomas are to the older Tundras.