Fourth of July, Atlanta, Galveston, Denver

Even the SPE President takes some personal time and around the 4th of July (the US Independence Day celebration) I get my family together and we have a great time. Then I take off to Atlanta to buy a condo...sort of as an investment but since I have a son who will be in grad school there for 4-5 years I have a more or less guaranteed renter. I take my two oldest grandsons on a grandpa-grandson day at Schlitterbahn in Galveston. Then it is back to SPE duties as I go to Denver.

In Denver I have dinner with the SPE section leaders and then speak to an enthusiastic group at the Section breakfast. I meet with some local members and then my wife and I have an afternoon and the weekend so we do a little touring. On Saturday we go to Central City for the opera (Tosca). The CC opera house was where I saw my very first opera as a teenager (Carmen) so I am looking forward to the return. I still use the CC opera house tickets in brass that I have had since 1970 for my keychain.

On Sunday after church we meet with some family members for a not quite impromptu family reunion. Monday it is off to Colorado Springs for the SPE Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing for Well, Reservoir and Facilities Management Workshop. Quite a mouthful but it is one of our most successful workshops. I was the keynote speaker last year and had the same privilege again this year. I always appreciate that vote of confidence. On the second night of the workshop I drove back into Denver and caught a Rockies baseball game. We also had time before our flight home to go to the Denver LDS temple.

Pictures

We were able to see my wife's cousin in Atlanta.

I cooked loads of food. Brisket, ribs, sausage, etc. Here is a fraction of the chicken.

The Denver Art Museum had this Alan Houser piece I really liked.

Other Blogs

You can of course read about my barbecue at This site
My Baker Hughes reservoir blog is here.
My (old) blog detailing my 18 months in Hong Kong is here,

Travel this trip (basically includes airport to airport) 4,175 miles. SPE travel to date 369,825 miles.

Countries to date (my counting rule is basically that I spent the night there with some sort of SPE content...not just went through the airport like New Zealand or Panama): 37
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Belgium
Brunei
Canada
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Germany
Kuwait
Indonesia
India
Ireland
Italy
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
Trinidad & Tobago
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (Scotland, England)
USA
Vietnam

Operas this month = 1 Operas to date = 49