Adventure Day 45 & 46: A House For Cats & Onward to Illinois

So these past two days have been rolling on and allot of good things with good cats.

Yesterday  we continued our trip into Minnesota this time we were in St James for the day. Our segment was based in this small little town but our subject was anything but little. We met up with a person who is so devoted to his cats that he completely transformed the inside of his house for his cats to get around with ease and also just made it extremely cool. Bridges, Stairs, Platforms, Holes all different amazing ways for his cats to get around. I guess the best way I could explain this to anyone my age is. Rememeber when we were kids and we used to go to DZ The Discovery Zone. And it was full of tubes and hidey holes and bridges, it was sort of like that…except for cats. What is really cool is that even though it is transformed for the cats it is done in a great tasteful way so everything blends into the house quite naturally. Its almost as if the pieces for the cats was always there his transformation was so good. Whats also increidble is that this guy did it all by himself. He crafted it all and made the changes. I am honestly not doing the description any justice when our show airs yow will just have to check it out for yourself on how awesome it really is.

With our segment all done we said goodbye and started to make our way from St James to Rochester. However as we had been shooting the sky’s were growing dark and storms were rolling in.

While we had been shooting the last bit of our segment two seperate small thunder, lighting and hail storms rolled in. They would appear last for ten minutes then leave, the sky blue and the sun out like nothing had happened at all. However as we made our towards Rochester the storms crept after us and stayed. For an hour we drove through torrental rain, hail and thunder. Also apparently (of course we did not find this out till the next day) but we were only just a few miles away from a pretty sizable tornado that was in the area. We could have turned into a storm chaster cat show and never would have noticed. As the storms passed we finally made our way into Rochester which is where the MAYO clinic is located, never knew that bit myself.  I walked around the small city got some food and made my way back to my hotel for the night.

As soon as I stepped back inside to the hotel the storms kicked back up again and I spent the rest of my night listening to rain and the sound of thunder.

Today was a little lighter. We said goodbye to Minnesota and just made our way to our next state Illinois. The majority of the day was just spent driving, listening to Podcasts, and my Lord John Book. What I found really funny/cool though was how before we entered Wisconsin we made our way back to Route 90 the route I took to get to Washington. The real cool part was how we drove on the same route I did just in the opposite direction talk about full circle huh? We made our way into Illinois with no issue and found our way into Woodstock. We had two segments to shoot however they were both quick interviews. These interviews are actually the tail end piece to a story segment we did way back in Episode Three while we were in Dallas. Yes even Dallas Texas feels like such a long time ago now. As we were doing our interviews those same storms must have followed us from Minnesota because no more then five minutes into our interview it looked like this out side.

However once again the storms quited down and we were able to finish our interviews with no issues. What was nice is our Hotel was literally down the street from both Interviews so we were able to stroll in and now here I am. Tomorrow we leave Woodstock and make our way to Chicago itself. I’m excited to go back to Chicago personally I have only been there once but I loved every second of it and hopefully I will get to see a little before leaving the state.

So lastly those storms I have kept mentioning through out this post are at it again and this time with gusto. Our TV’s our not working the lights are flikering and every 5 seconds the sky lights up and there are giant crashes of thunder. Its really good I love storms and love watching them or this might be a real problem.

Until tomorrow!

Adventure Day 44: Everything You Wanted to Know About Kitty Litter.

That’s right adventurers that’s what our entire segment was about. Woke up checked out and made our way to our location. Our entire  focus was on all things cat litter, how it is made, and the differences between the different types. We started off with how it was made.

Ok first off I didn’t even know cat litter was that complex of a process but who boy is it ever. I also learned that there are in fact a few different types of cat litter. Most of the time there made of clay, but there is also cat litter made of corn, and wheat. So I learned how litter is created by a very complex process of grinding and and seperaiting by very complex machinese, with very serious signs like this.

I know its very important to have these signs around but honestly I find it funny how the guy on the image looks more confused then upset that somehow his hand is now up there. After learning more of how cat litter is made we then started doing some tests.

We conducted a few different tests on the different types of cat litter for its strength and absorption. I also learned why cat urine is so pungent because there is ammonia in it! After our different tests we figured out the different strengths and weaknesses of each type of cat litter. I could go more and more into detail but you should really check out the episode, as odd as it sounds its a really interesting topic.

So that was today’s segment very nice and science oriented. Also while loading up equipment I got this photo of the country side.

Say what you will but man maybe Garrison Keillor is on to something.

Adventure Day 43: Making it to Minnesota

So today was another travel day to get to our next Segment in Minnesota. I woke up and said goodbye to Lincoln Nebraska, a nice quiet looking state. I don’t know if that’s really true but that was the sense I got from my one night stay. Today was another seven hour travel day but luckily there was no time jump so I did not have to worry about getting in too late. Once again travel was for the most of it uneventful, only had three podcasts to listen too which did not last that long. I am now almost half way through the third Lord John book, its nice to know how on this trip I have listened to almost seven books already.

I crossed into Iowa for the second half of the travel, and that made me realize something interesting. Excluding when I backtracked into Arkansas this is sort of like the complete circle of my route. Iowa was one of the states I originally drove through on my way out to Seattle. Its sort of crazy to think that in this time I have driven through that state twice to get to my first destination and will be a part of my final destination back in New England.  Also another thing I noticed while driving through Iowa

More windmills! Yes I realize that Windmills have become sort of a theme on this blog through my travels. But what can I say? I think there awesome and honestly I am surprised by just how many states have them into practice for wind energy its really cool. I guess its also just back home people have been fighting for years over some small off shore windmills and I have been passing by these giant ones for over a month now. I’m pretty sure I have seen Windmills in over six states already and there huge and no one seems to notice.

So I have now arrived in Owatonna Minnesota, and I am just waiting for the rest of my crews arrival and to get ready for shooting tomorrow. I am in Minnesota till Friday, sadly I don’t think I will be able to make it to Lake Wobegon shame I heard there women are strong.