Wide Rule

Really neat little town in Kentucky called Carrollton.

Also, as seen on 421 through Kentucky:

Yep. Yep.

I am again on a plane.

My travelling goes in spurts – I technically travel 25% of the time, but it regularly comes down to not travelling for 2 months and then travelling for an entire month.

I got to go to the top of Miller

That’s Miller Field in the background.  Did I mention this was a really cool trip?

The Ambassador Hotel; Random Trivia I will look up when I’m off the plane

Promise.

Edit: I lied.

The Ambassador Hotel: My stay

The hotel had a lot of things I liked: In room environmental controls (electronic!), real TV (not awful hotel TV) and a very nice bed.

 The whole place had this air of being older than the fixtures.  The floors creaked and you could hear the building continuously settling around you.  It was a comforting place to spend a few evenings.

 After spending all day at the Brewery, I wanted to spend a quiet night in the room instead of wandering around Milwaukee, so I ordered room service.  I don’t normally order room service because I can normally get better food from carry out (or the hotel simply doesn’t offer it).  I ordered the Ham and Brie sandwich and was pleasantly surprised.

 I actually told the gentleman who came to my room to pick a local, favorite beer for me.  He came back with SOMETHING SOMETHING COW.  The whole meal was wonderful and endeared me more to the hotel.

You know what didn’t endear me to the hotel?  This:

 That’s just creepy.  I know you’re trying to be all “we’re here for you.” But I know how easy it is to put that on a screen.  Seeing my name every time I turn on the TV is creepy, hotel. CREEPY.

Note: The TV was designed for devices to be plugged into it.  You can’t see it in that photo, but the bottom right has an input box including RGB, HDMI and S-Video.  This is something EVERY hotel should have and tell you about on their website.  Had I know, I would have brought my PS3.

Final Thoughts on the Trip

This is honestly one of the more entertaining trips that I have ever been on. I wish I could have taken pictures inside the brewery to share, but all you get is the view from the top.  The hotel was amazing by NIMBLY standards (where, yes, Hotel 8s can get four star ratings).

Now I am on a plane, I smell like beer (I was sprayed with Milwaukee’s Best and this is the only hoodie I have!). I have tomorrow off from work (so don’t expect a post until Monday).

NIMBLY:  Not In My BackYard

I work for a company that develops software and specialized PLCs for continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) for environmental compliance reporting.  The easiest way to explain my job is to say I’m a control systems engineer with regulatory experience.  I have a lot of knowledge of air quality regulations and will probably be branching into water the next couple of years. 

One of the more entertaining parts of my job is that I am required to be onsite for things like power plant startups, equipment change-outs, and other general maintenance.  I travel all over the continental US (normally to the middle of no where) and see places that not many others travel.

I’m going to do small updates about where I am and what I’m doing without going into too much detail. I will not include pictures inside any of the facilities that I visit, so please don’t ask.

MillerCoors Brewing Company

I said I normally travel to the middle of nowhere – my first trip seems much more spectacular than it should.  This trip is to the MillerCoors Brewery in Milwaukee, WI.  I am staying in a historic hotel right next to Marquette University and I will probably talk all day tomorrow about the hotel.

Today was just a neat day. 

I got onsite at eight central and met my contact.  I worked until noon and let me tell you, the inside of that building is a maze.  Even being shadowed by an employee, I felt like I could take a wrong turn and end up in a vat of citric acid.  It was all old, beautiful buildings, one on top of each other so that the most production could be put into each square foot.

Lunch was at the Harley Davidson Museum.

After lunch I somehow ended up at a car crash test facility.  Please don’t ask me how that happened, I was offered the ability to go, I went.  The test they were setting up for was a head on collision with a pole.  I did not get to see the actual crash, but I was privy to the results of previous crashes.

Back to the facility where I did more work and then was taken on the “hardhat” tour. 

Today I got to see beer being brewed, kegs being cleaned and filled, MGD and Miller Light being bottled and THE BEAST being canned.

This was one of my more interesting trips

Tomorrow I head back to Knoxville, spending most the day flying.  I’ll probably spend that time working up the post for tomorrow about my hotel, which is a really interesting place and deserves a post of it’s own.