Saturday, May 24, 2008

Red Lion Hotel vs License Plate

If getting a cold while in Austria wasn't bad enough, a construction crew working at AirPark ripped off my front license plate. They must of hit it with some equipment because there is paint missing from a couple of the letters and it was bent in some. They shoved the plate into the front grill and the lower frame bracket was left dangling:


My truck was parked at the Red Lion Hotel Portland Airport which has long term parking, the area I was parked was adjacent to AirPark. The hotel called AirPark and asked them about a license plate on a red F-150 and they know about it.

I'm going to send Red Lion an invoice for the $13.30 for the new frame and $5.00 for labor and see if they have enough class to pay.

Spanish Riding School

On Saturday I went to a performance of the Spanish Riding School. Even though I bought my ticket 5 weeks in advance all I could get were the shit seats 2.5 stories above the horses and along the long edge so I could only see half the performance area. If that's all you can get, don't even bother.


I would have to say I got a better show at Herrmann's Royal Lipizzan Stallions in North Hero, Vermont. Not as flashy but at least you could see the horses.

Conrad Observatory

During the Quanterra Users Group meeting in Vienna we took a bus ride (actually two buses - one for highway, one for mountain climbing) up to Conrad Observatory. The area reminded me a lot of Vermont. The observatory is build into the side of the mountain for maximum stability, front view:


They must get some extreme weather, note the diamond plate shutters and doors: <