Adkins Family Blog » geography http://adkinsgroup.org/blog Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:00:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Nomading in downtown Raleigh http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/08/26/nomading-in-downtown-raleigh/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/08/26/nomading-in-downtown-raleigh/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:30:34 +0000 Brian http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/?p=426 There are some nice places to nomad (work off site) in downtown Raleigh, NC, but it can be tricky finding parking and getting around, so I thought I’d record some tips in a blog post to help folks avoid some trial and error.

For any of the coordinates listed below, just copy and paste them into Google Maps to see the exact location. Thanks to Justis Peters for referring me to a lot of these places :)

R Line

The R Line is a hybrid electric bus line that loops around downtown hitting bus stops every 10 or 15 minutes.

The R Line allows you to find a free parking spot near the line, and then just hop on the bus to get to another part of downtown without having to deal with parking garages, parking meters or limited time parking spots. The page linked to above has a nice map of the bus route.

I haven’t tried taking the R Line yet, but I’m planning on giving it a shot tomorrow, so I’ll see what’s like waiting for it to arrive at a stop and how long it takes to get to the other side of downtown. I expect to be able to find parking near Cafe Helios / Armadillo Grill.

Update 8/28/09: I tried the R-Line this morning, and it worked great. I parked on North street for free very close to Glenwood about a 20 second walk to the R6 stop. I waited about 4 minutes for the bus, and it took about 13 minutes to get to R16 near The Morning Times.

Cafe Helios: 35.785576,-78.647639

Cafe Helios is at 413 Glenwood Ave. They have great coffee and a variety of food. The tables are a little high to be comfortable with laptop. It’s a quick walk to the Armadillo Grill which is nice. Free on street parking after 9 am. Update: 6/11/2010 when I arrived this morning, I noticed that the parking spots on Glenwood in front of Cafe Helios and Armadillo Grill now are metered :(

Armadillo Grill: 35.786116,-78.647436

The Armadillo Grill is at 439 Glenwood Ave. They have great chicken burritos for about $6. Free on street parking after 9 am. (see above)

The Morning Times: 35.778130,-78.638761

The Morning Times is located at 10 E. Hargett St. They have a very nice upstairs with a lot of seating, tables and comfy chairs/sofas. It’s an old building with an antiquey feel. For good coffee and getting work done, I think The Morning Times is my favorite nomading location.

The Busy Bee

I haven’t spent any time at the Busy Bee Cafe yet, but it comes highly recommended. I popped my head in to check it out on a recent nomading trip and it looks nice.

Manhattan Cafe: 35.776162,-78.638435

The Manhattan Cafe is at 320 S. Wilmington St. I’ve only been there once and didn’t eat anything, but a friend seemed to enjoy his meal :)

Sosta Cafe: 35.775484,-78.637766

Sosta Cafe is at 130 E. Davie St. Small, quaint coffee shop.

Getting There From Cary / Apex

I’ve found taking US 64 to US 1 to Wade Ave. to St. Mary’s St. is a good way to get to the Glenwood area.

Other Spots

There are quite a few places to eat, ice cream shops, coffee shops, etc., so if you like variety, the downtown area has a lot to offer. I’ll update this post as I visit other places in the downtown area.

]]> http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/08/26/nomading-in-downtown-raleigh/feed/ 0 Toncontin Airport http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:52:02 +0000 Brian http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/?p=395 “Toncontin International Airport serves as the major airport in and out of Tegucigalpa. The origin of this name is unknown. This airport is frequently criticized for being one of the most dangerous in the world (due to its location next to a sierra, its short runway, and difficult approach, which requires large commercial jets to execute a tight hairpin leftward u-turn turn at very low altititude to land on a very short runway–American Airlines pilots, for example, receive additional, specific training for the Toncontin approach).”

Pilot’s view of approach and landing. Starts slow, you can see the airport at about 2:35.

]]> http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2009/04/18/toncontin-airport/feed/ 0 Kwajalein Atoll http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/30/kwajalein-atoll/ http://adkinsgroup.org/blog/2007/05/30/kwajalein-atoll/#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 12:36:09 +0000 Brian http://lojic.com/blog/?p=81 When I worked at CompuServe around 1993, I saw a picture of Kwajalein Island on Alisa DeSisto’s cubicle wall. As it turns out, she was stationed there for a year or two. I was fascinated by the concept of people actually living on such a tiny island (about twice as long as the airport runway!) in the Pacific Ocean many hundreds of miles from any decent size chunk of land. Is this place cool, or what? :) Click on the link or picture to view Kwajalein on Google Maps so you can explore virtually. Google allows zooming in to the 200 ft. resolution level.

Kwajalein on Google Maps

kwajalein.png

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