Having Fun with the Students in Houten

We enjoyed a bicycle tour of the City of Houten to explore the unique design of the ring road and the bicycle highway that runs through the City.
More about that on the Peter Koonce Blog.


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The fun we had was that we came across a zip line and they got me to take a ride. I could have been going a little faster, but here's what it looked like.

2010 Civil War

Football in December had to mean Civil War! The 2010 edition featured the Beavers fighting to get to .500 on the year and the U of 0 trying to punch their ticket to the National Championship game. We were happy to have kept our tickets although I would be lying if I hadn't thought about selling out to a friendly Duck Fan or two. If the shoes were on the other feet, I would want to be in Eugene to see the Beavs extend their record to 12-0.
The start of our trip to Reser was to hit the Crowbar downtown and eat our pregame salad.
We paused to take photos outside Reser. The scene on the street was great, there were a ton of tailgaters and many that came fror the party without tickets.
Kurt and Monica were excited about the game and ready. Susan and I had to scramble a bit for help with the kids, so we were relieved to be there.
The pregame had started a long time before we got there as the Ducks record attracted the ESPN GameDay crew with Lee Corso, Desmond Howard, and Kirk Herbstreit. The pregame started at 6 AM, so there was a lot of fun to be had early on in Corvallis. Seeing the action from home, the Memorial Union Quad was packed and they had separated Duck fans from Beavers, which was probably a pretty good idea.

This was Susan's second game this year with the first being against the Washington State Cougars, where the Beavs mailed in a pretty bad performance. We were hoping for the best, but expecting the worst given that the Ducks were the #1 team in the nation. Yet, as true Beaver Believers you have to be happy that we do as well as we do and that we are competitive and have hope for the future.
So, into the stadium we go with just a bit of business to finish before we jump in to the vat of Potato Salad.

Tour de France, Delft Sunset, World Cup... is this in the Top 10 days of all time?

 
On the ride back to the hotel (from Rotterdam) after the prologue, we had a nice ride back with the sunset greeting us as we entered the city. It was a lovely end to a great day. Finished off by watching the World Cup and seeing a great goal by David Villa of Spain to advance. This day might have cracked the top 10 days of all time, which got me thinking. So you have to have the wedding day, the birth of your kids, graduation from college (especially for Dad), probably an OSU Civil War victory in there (when we beat Joey Harrington at home), visit to South Africa has to be in there, and then there's this (what a great day). It would have been better with the kids and more friends & family to enjoy it with, no doubt.

De Ronde Van Oeste

The website is http://www.rondepdx.com/ and apparently the ride isn't going to happen this year. With 8,000 feet of climbing in 48 miles it sounds like a grueling ride that would be a lot of fun.

Bridge Pedal - I'm Famous

I saw Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org taking pictures as we were cruising up the approach to the Broadway Bridge and nine hours later it is posted to the web. I am glad he didn't catch me on the way home, because I was sucking wind!
Amelia was watching Susan who was on the right side of the yellow line!

Summer Saturday in Estacada

 We took a trip out to Estacada to meet up with the Kishpaugh folks at Ken & Doreen's house. They have horses, so the kids were very excited about the chance to ride. They also just had puppies, so it was a double attraction. I didn't feel the need to partake in multiple hours in puppy and horse love, so I was off on my aluminum steed and biked from their house to Dan & Sheila's, which was a good 20-mile with a pretty good climb. I didn't take my GPS unit, so I don't have details from the ride.
 It was only fair that I rode, Susan got her solo ride in on Friday while Marcy watched the girls.
 

Hoorah For $20 Gas!

From NPR (my thoughts in quotes):
For many, there is a brace yourself moment of fear that the price of gas will mirror the four dollars a gallon horror we had to live through last summer "ha". But according to author Chris Steiner, our lives would be a lot happier if gas rose to even the double digits. The title of his book: "$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better".

Peter's Birthday Eve

7 AM - Woke up late, and went out into the yard to work on weeding and planting strawberries that Grandpa gave us awhile back. I finally got around to filling up the planter I made, so hopefully those strawberries will flourish next year. Started laundry.

8 AM - Had breakfast of waffles and apples with the kids. Susan made coffee. It was a birthday request. Hung laundry on the clothes line, one of my favorite simple earth saving techniques.

9 AM - started listening to OPB's Weekend Edition Saturday and cleaning up a little. Began to pack for the trip to Raleigh, NC for the TRB Signal Systems Meeting.

10 AM - walked to the park with Abby and Wally. We're dog sitting. Planning to head to Kurt's to borrow his truck to pick up patio furniture at Paul's house.

11 AM - Had a snack and started blogging a bit to recall when I am 90 what I did as a younger man.

12 PM - Started getting the kids ready to head over to the Kruegers. It is amazing to consider how long it takes to get them ready sometimes. Kurt is going to help us pick up some patio furniture.

2 PM - Had a scary moment on the Sellwood Bridge, we were on it at the same time as a fire truck. The weight limit for the bridge is 10 Tons and it is rated with a structural integrity of 2 out of 100. The bridge shook as the fire truck moved across it. Yikes!

3 PM - enjoyed some time with the Kruegers and reflected that we need more time with friends.

4 PM - Went to New Seasons Market to prepare for dinner in the bakfiets. Had to take the bakfiets to haul the bottle return in.

5 PM - Dinner Prep. Always a chore to get the kids to help set the table, but at least we're not breaking things as much as we used to.

6 PM - What was your favorite part of the day? Kurt and Monicas! is what the kids say.

7 PM - Watch Stage 15 of the Tour de France. Hincapie almost gets the yellow jersey, it was a good stage. Grading midterms from the PSU class.

8 PM - Bed time and snuggles with the girls.

9 PM - Folding laundry and packing. Getting ready for my birthday flight.

11 PM - Leave for PDX

12:25 AM - Fly to Houston and then onto Raleigh, NC for the TRB meeting.

Peter honored with an Oregon Stater Award

In an exciting personal achievement, I was awarded an Oregon Stater Award for Early Career Excellence. The Oregon Stater Awards have been around since 1998 and there have been about 400 awarded. This includes Civil, Constructuion, Environmental, Mechanical, Nuclear, and Industrial Engineering. Approximately a third of those are in the category of "Early Career", which is loosely defined as someone with less than 20 years. The other categories are more than 20 years, and Hall of Famer. Basically, there's one Civil in each category, so the University is selecting from about 1,400 engineers that could be awarded every year. So, it is quite an honor for me.
The visit to OSU included a tour of the new Kearney Hall, which was beautifully remodeled with donations from alumni like me.
It was a great dinner and the family joined me for a wonderful celebration at the Alumni Center. The kids needed a little time at Avery Park after I toured the "new" building, so we met downtown and then headed back to the Alumni Center for the dinner that night.

Here's what mom wrote to the family, excerpted from the program:

The Oregon State University College of Engineering introduced the Oregon Stater Awards in 1998 to honor outstanding Oregon Staters for their contributions to the engineering profession and OSU. Each year, on the Friday of National Engineers Week, the College inducts new Oregon Stater Awardees. Peter was inducted on February 20th, 2009 to the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers for Civil and Construction Engineering. Peter's citation read:

"After receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at OSU, Peter Koonce attended graduate school at Texas A&M.
He has worked with the Texas Transportation Institute and is currently an associate engineer at Kittelson and Associates. Considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on bus and light rail transit signal priority, he has worked on transportation projects in areas such as Denver, South Florida, Baltimore, Portland, and Eugene. He has national visibility and credentials as a leader in transportation engineering and continues to develop the profession by providing training materials for various educational programs. Peter works with the OSU CE transportation faculty assisting in student field trips to Portland and continuing education programs offered on campus."