"I got to the airport at 1:00, just when Jialin told me to get there. I was not a happy camper about missing Sunday School and Priesthood. Oh well! As expected Jialin did not show up. So I stood there in the entrance and read "A History of Iron County – Community Above Self" by Janet Burton Seegmiller. I expect most of you would not be that interested in this book. I loved it. I did not know Iron County originally stretched all the way across Brigham's proposed state of Deseret, from inside Nevada to inside Colorado. I did not know that western Iron County, near the Nevada Border, was one of the worst outlaw areas in the United States. Anyway, we have the book, and I encourage any of you who want to learn about my, and thus your, heritage, to read it. Aunt Sara is listed (as Sarah Penny), Uncle Steve is listed, Grandpa Shirts is quoted throughout the book. There is no mention of Bengt Nelson, nor any of his descendants, nor Nelson Meat Packing Plant. Oh well! Maybe someday we will reconcile this part of Iron County's history.
Jialin finally called after I'd been there about 45 minutes. He was downstairs and we had a hard time finding each other because we were on different floors and he was late. We did get our tickets, and we did make the plane. Only barely though. I had had to get cash for the plane and train tickets, and the Kunlun ATM would only let me withdraw about 1/4th of what I needed. I called Andrea and she was able to get me a pin code for the American Express card, and I was able to get cash with this. It was all a big hassle. So I was not pleased with Jialin being late, and only getting to the plane as they were closing the doors. Oh well! The plane gave me several hours to read.
We got to Urumuchi several hours before the train left for Hami City, where Tuha Oilfield is located. So we went to the train station, and I read some more. Then we got on the train. I ended up with an upper bunk, with very little head room. I spent quite a bit of the night laying there and reading. It is a long noisy night riding on a train from Urumuchi to Hami City. I was wiped out when we arrived.
Monday morning when we arrived we went to a hotel, and got a room for the morning. I went up and showered, shaved, and changed. Then came downstairs and read while Jialin went up and cleaned up. Rachel called to wish me a Happy Father's Day. Matt had called me earlier from Fort Bliss, for the same purpose. It was very nice to get these two calls. We went over to the Tuha Oilfield about 10:00 AM, and I gave a two hour presentation to 16 folks. They have just reorganized the Oilfield. The Geophysical Research Institute has been dissolved, and merged into a new organization called the Engineering Research Institute. The new manager was there. We have no written contract with these folks, and had already taken US$30,000. accrual on the project we completed for them. Because there is no budget for this in the new group, and because there is no written contract, I sent e-mails back to Houston recommending the project be written off as a complete loss. There is a chance they will purchase the synthetic seismic modeling software next year. And it is better to count that money when, and if, it comes in. After the meeting we were dismissed, and we had until 10:00 that evening when we were scheduled to catch a train back to Urumuchi City.
Jialin told me there was the equivalent to a National Park a couple of hours outside of town, and recommended we take a cab and go there. So we went to Yaerdan Gluyou Feng Jing Qu, the Yardan Land Forms and the ancient Ghost City. There are a lot of grapes grown for raisins on the way to the monument. It was interesting to look at the brick houses they built to dry the grapes in. A lot of the houses were influenced by Islam, and were very interesting. There are 98 digital photos at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070618_Tuha, mostly from this afternoon trip to the desert. When we got to the park it turned into a real desert, sort of like going over into Nevada on the way to the Great Basin National Park. Very little vegetation. There were some interesting geologic structures at the first stop that looked kind of like big dinosaurs. I walked up to them and took some samples, I think they are volcanic tuff. Then there are sandstone structures, sort of like Bryce Canyon, and not nearly as pretty, nor as big. We stopped to look at one place, and I looked over in the other direction and there was a mud fort, that looked almost European. Turns out it was 3,000 years old, and the photo below shows what I saw. I was fascinated with the building. It was built to protect folks on the ancient silk road. I found a bunch of pottery shards at the base of the structure, and brought those back for my collection. It would be fun to do carbon dating on them, if I ever come up with some money some day. We stopped at the museum on the way out, and I took digital photos of key translations and contents of the museum. It was a very interesting afternoon. I read in the car on the way out and on the way back into Urumuchi.
When we got back, we washed up, and ate outside. I made an interesting panorama of the place where we ate (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070618_Tuha/DSC09106-7.JPG). This was one of about five meals his week which were based on Urumuchi style lamb shis-ka-bobs. When you pay for a meal you get a receipt with a scratch lottery ticket on it. I won. Jialin was estatic, saying, "You are very lucky, I've been doing this for years and have never won." It was 5 yuan, or less than US$1. Lotteries are definitely a tax for the mathematically challenged. We went back to the train station. Somewhere along the line I was able to check my e-mail. There was a note from Andrea. It read:
Oh well! At least it was not as bad as the time I went from The Hague in the Netherlands to Rio de Janerio in Brazil, and Marti was home with broken pipes, water dripping down the bookcases, and having to replace pipes, ceiling, and carpet. There was also an e-mail from Albert Boulanger, which was very relevant to being in China:
Interesting. I consider this much more valid data than much of the data in Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
The train ride back to Urumuchi was longer than the train ride to Hami City. At least it sure seamed like it. I read more, in fact, somewhere before we got on the plane to return to Houston I finished the 423 page book on Iron County. Good book. What a wonderful heritage we have. Makes me want to work harder to leave a legacy partially as strong as the folks who settled and built up Iron County did. When we got back to Urumuchi, we went to the hotel I've been at several times before. As we walked in, I could see in my mind the Chinese students singing Christmas songs on the stairs in English. Again we got a room, I had a shower and shave and changed. Then Jialin did. Then Mr. Ma, Ms. Ding, and Ms. Ping came to visit us and to get an update on the things we have been doing. I showed them the new release of DTIPS. Ms. Zhong Ding told us that she has been busy evaluating AVO (Amplitude vs. Offset) packages. Her conclusion is that GDCMOD is be best. However, the user interface desperately needs to be improved. Also, since Sinopec had a major gas discovery in the basin, and since Urumuchi has grown so fast, and since they desperately need more gas, they are under tremendous pressure to find more gas. They see AVO as the key to doing this. They have a big budget, and want to work with Geokinetics. I did not have authority to tell them Geokinetics is pulling out of China. Oh well! It nice to catch up with our friends (../0518.html and ../0545.html). They were with us until we caught the cab to the airport. We made our flight without incident, and I was back at the Kunlun Hotel by about 6:00 Tuesday evening. It was an eventful and tiring two days.
Des and Justin were in the room, and were about to go out to dinner. They had found a nice restaurant, and wanted to take me there to show it to me. I suggested we go to a Urumuchi style restaurant. The one I like, up by the Olympics is closed, and the Bell Captain had given me directions to another one, which I had never been to before. It turned out to be the highlight of the trip regarding taking Des and Justin to China for me. The meal was great. However, the entertainment was superb. There were dancers, a whirling dirvish, and the most important a snake dancer. When the snake dancer first came out Justin said, "I hate snakes" (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070612-21_Des_Justin_Beijing/dsc09125.jpg and http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070612-21_Des_Justin_Beijing/dsc09126.jpg. Then she came and put the snake around Justin's neck and took him up on the stage, throwing her hair around, doing a belly dance, and thoroughly embarrassing him. I caught the entire thing, from when she came up to our table with the snake to when Justin walked off of the stage as a digital movie (see http://www.walden3d.com/photos/China/070612-21_Des_Justin_Beijing/mov09128.mpg). This is one of the finest digital movies I've taken, and probably should be uploaded to U-Tube. Another dancer came and got Justin later and got him up dancing again. He said he wa thinking about doing a back flip, and he didn't do it. It was a great evening. We caught a cab back to the hotel, and s we arrived, a girl ran up to the cab, opened the door, and threw in a couple of dozen business cards with chute Chinese girls with lats of cleavage into the cab, advertising massages. Justin collected all of them and threw them into the nearest garbage can.
Wednesday was another long day. Jialin picked me up in the morning and we drove to the Ji Dong Oilfield. It is really interesting. They made the biggest discovery made in China in the last 30 years on the block we worked for them. They will not tell us a thing about the results. We do not know if our seismic processing helped. We do not know if my interpretation helped. We do know that PetroChina's stock went up about 20% because of the discovery. And they stonewalled us. They would not tell us a thing about what was going on. We met with the new director of the Geophysical Research Institute. Everyone else we know has been promoted because of the big discovery. He was under strict orders from PetroChina not to show us anything. The whole experience was very frustrating. And I had already finished my book, so there was nothing to do but sleep over and back. I was tired from the plane and train and car rides. When we got back, Jialin had made a reservation for us at the nice ancient Chinese restaurant I took Aunt Luana and Sara Ellyn, Paul and his class, and others to. I took a nice photo inside the grounds (below). Des and Justin definitely liked the food and the evening. Our waitress was Lydia, and she did a very good job, despite my giving her a bad time. As our cab drove up to the Kunlun Hotel, a girl threw cards into the cab again. Justin cleaned them up and threw them all away.
Thursday morning, the 21st of June, was another very long day. This was the day we flew back to the states. Jialin showed up first thing in the morning with gifts for the three of us. I forget what Justin and Des got, and Andrea and I received a very nice wall hanging with an ink drawing of the misty mountains so famous in Southern China. Very nice. At the airport I purchased another book: "Lu Xun Selected Essays." Good book. The essays were written starting in 1918. The lady I sat next to on the plane said he is very famous in China, and she had to study him when she was growing up. In addition to reading, I watched five movies on the way home: "Lyrics and Music," "Catch and Release," "The Astronaut Farmer," "Breach," and "The Shootist." Andrea and I had gone to see both "Lyrics and Music" and "Breach" on the same night (0709.html. All of the movies were OK. I still don't understand why the movie industry does not release, both to the movie theaters and to rental houses, edited versions of movies like "The Shootist." I enjoyed it, and it was not an R-rated version. Although you could tell it had been edited. We got to San Fancisco a couple of hours before we left Beijing, and I said good bye to Uncle Des and Justin. I think they had a good time, particularly as shown in the thoughts they were willing to write and send me (see 0724.html). After that long on a plane it is a long flight from San Francisco to Houston. I had started sneezing when we got on the plane in Beijing. By the time I got to Houston, it was a full blown cold. I was not pleased, because Sunday was Dallin Spencer Nelson's blessing. I wanted to attend, and I did not want to get him sick. Oh well.
I did not go to work on Friday. I called the Doctor's office first thing, and made an appointment for 11:30. I made a note of the medicine Dr. Solis had me get before going to China: Oscillococcinum, Tamiflue, and Levaquin. I was taking Oscillococcinum and coldeeze. Dr. Solis was supposedly not there. However, when I was called back to see his partner he was there. He was genuinely glad to see me. He had just worked up the blood work from my test the week before, and said I need to come back in 2 months for another blood test as the test relative to my liver is not normal. His partner gave me a Z-Pac perscription, and told me I could go to Dallin Spencer Nelson's blessing. I went back to the house and went to sleep. Andrea was out running errands and shopping. She got back and woke me up. We packed up the Dutch Ovens, supplies, guitar, and other essentials and drove out past Columbus to Bill and Leslie Hagen's ranch, where I cooked a Dutch Oven Dinner for the Young Women. It was pretty rainy weather. The young woman who said the prayer asked that it not rain on the activities of the evening, and her prayer was fulfilled. It was a nice evening. The kids seemed to like the food, especially the cobbler, and also the songs. I was tired, and we left about 9:00 PM to drive back to the house. There was not problems sleeping on Friday night.
Saturday morning there was a note from my Sister:
There was also a note from John Bennett in Calgary, whom I baptized when I was in Ipswich on my mission:
I responded I like parties with friends. And looking forward from when this Thoughtlet is about, we did have a fine one (0727.html). There were a couple of other e-mail things. Quentin Reed sent something called Father's Love Letter, which is worth reading (see http://www.fatherlovesnewyork.com/index2.html). Also, there were some e-mails to send regarding Andrea's missionary reunion (0739.html), which will be held the Thursday before October General Conference in the Salt Lake area.
The flight to St. Louis was non-eventful. I was feeling better by the time we arrived. Paul and Grant were at the airport to pick us up. It was great to see everyone. Between being sick, sleeping, and jet lag, I did not sleep very well. I woke up at about 4:00 Sunday morning, and ended up writing a couple of songs about our interactions on Saturday evening. Thankfully Paul has an old guitar I was able to tune up and play. There are 33 digital photos from my portion of the visit to Dallin Spencer Nelson's blessing, which show some of the things referenced in the songs. The words below Ella's:
The words below are Grant's song:
About the time I was finishing with my writing, Paul and Kate got up. We all had our showers, ate breakfast, and played for a while, until it was time to go to church. Paul and Kate are loved at church. They have good friends and a good support system. The Bishop follows the handbook, and he checked my Temple Recommend before Sacrament Meeting, so I could participate in Dallin Spencer Nelson's blessing. First time this has happened to me, and I think it is probably a good idea. However, based on comments I heard the next week not everyone would agree with this. I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words based on one of the talks in Sacrament Meeting:
Because of teaching Primary, I think this was the first time I have been in Gospel Doctrine Class for over a year. Good lesson. Priesthood was also good. Very humble lesson, by a High Priest with some pride. After the meetings we all got together and took a digital photo (below). I felt very good about the trip and the day. We went back, ate dinner, and it was time to go to the airport too soon. Oh well. Andrea stayed in St. Louis to help Kate until Thursday. It was wonderful to be able to participate in Dallin Spencer Nelson's Blessing."