A Bit of Travel

Time for a break! Patty thinks so, too, since she's been working so hard recently. We're in San Diego now, where she'll be attending a work-related training session at the Mission Valley Resort here in this California City where winter never comes.

I'm seeing some country that I haven't seen for a while. We got here via Phoenix where we visited my daughter Tammy, her husband Art, and their eight year old daughter Katerina.

Yesterday the five of us visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in the Phoenix area. What a great way to spend the afternoon! It's mostly a display of desert plants, including magnificent cacti, and a large butterfly building that's screen in. My camera got left at Tammy's house, but Patty let me use hers. So I have a number of photos that I'll post here later.

Katerina is an amazing kid in many ways: A redhead through both parents have black hair; and a very skillful reader. She read out loud, without hesitation and with proper pronunciation, the contents printed on several containers of food. I mean words that certain adults would have trouble with--among the simplest was folic acid, and there were a number of less obvious chemical names. Later on, she and I made a model volcano from a kit. Katerina read the instructions aloud, which seemed directed at adults, and it looked to me that she understood what she read. Such good verbal ability bodes very well for her future.

Talking with Art, I learned that he worked with a group that did much of the work toward developing modern GPS devices. While I love my new mapping GPS, I didn't develop it! I asked Art why there seemed to be errors in GPS locations now and then (not matching the map exactly). He said this was mostly due to not being able to use one of the satellites--even though that satellite may be shown by the unit to have a strong signal! For example that particular satellite might be blocked (perhaps by the horizon or by something else, or by some other glitch) and not usable right then (though the signal can still be received).

I forgot to ask him about altitude determination by GPS. I've always understood (and have observed) that altitude is the least accurate part of GPS, but I'd like to know more about it. I'd also like to know much more about WAAS augmentation of GPS accuracy--which is what makes it possible to use GPS for instrument approaches in aircraft. My handheld GPS unit detects when a WAAS signal is present for a given satellite.

Anyway, for now I have time here in San Diego to make blog posts, maybe work on some photos, to read, to walk around a bit, and hopefully to learn about some things I wish I understood.

This was a long drive, but we're here. We drove south through Albuquerque to Socorro, and then west to Phoenix on US 60. I hope we'll be coming this way again, and if so we may drive the next highway north (Hwy 53) which goes past an extinct volcano, a cave with ice inside, and other such attractions. All this, and with time to stop for a look!