Category Archives: USA 2017

FDIC, Firefighting, USA 2017

It’s an Aussie Reunion …

April 27, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

It is now Day 4 of FDIC and again the day started with a couple of keynote speakers, both of which had a medical focus but were still interesting. The first was Dr Denise Smith, a cardiac researcher who has been looking at the effects of firefighting on the heart for 25 years. This definitely was close to home. I will need to chase up some of her work. The second was Mike McEvoy, a paramedic director, and his topic was “Making a Difference” and while related to the EMS field, could be used in the fire side as well. It was all about making the client experience the est you can do. A good take home was “It is not about ME, it is about WE and WE are here for THEM”.

Today was the first day for the trade display to open up so the mid morning session guy was always looking at his watch to make sure he didn’t go the full time allocated for his session as most would walk out anyway to get into the trade hall at midday. The session was “The First Five Minutes: Size-up, Decision Making and Fireground Communications” by Assistant Chief Charles Ryan from Fairfax County Fire & Rescue in Virginia. He did well and finished 20 minutes early at 1155, allowing everyone to make the 12 noon door opening on the trade display.

And the trade display is huge covering 3 halls in the main Convention Centre and then the Lucas Oil Stadium which is an indoor football stadium and then the outside real estate between the two.

Jenny had already caught up with Jason and Belinda from back home. Steve and Rebecca were soon here as well. The four of them had flown in at 3 am from New York City and were a little weary. Another Aussie working here on the Darley stand was Damien and then there was Geoff our fleet manager and his wife. Quite an Aussie contingent and that was just from South Australia.

After wandering around the trade area for a couple of hours, I had an afternoon session to attend, “First Due Battalion Chief” by Battalion Chief Daniel Sheridan from New York City FD. From his presentation, you certainly respect the experience that those FDNY firefighters have with the large amount of working jobs they attend each day.

Jenny and Rebecca went to the movies (I think they are over the FDIC experience), while Jason and Steve kept checking out the trade area.

At the end of the day, we all attended the International reception and managed to catch up with Senior Station Officer Ian from NZFS as well as the Bronto crew from Finland. They drunk us well but didn’t feed us too well so it was time to head off and find some tucker for tonight.

After looking at a few of the restaurants, we decided on St Elmos Steakhouse which had been recommended to us for their shrimp cocktails with a special horseradish sauce. We had also been told chances of getting in were pretty slim. I guess they like Aussies as we were seated within 15 minutes.

We all started with the shrimp cocktail. If you had blocked sinuses, this was the dish for you. It had plenty of kick but mellowed out after the initial shock of each bite. The meals were very nice, the waiter really made the night and the check gave as much shock as the shrimp sauce. It was a good night out, being a sort of 50th celebration for Jason’s birthday in a couple of weeks.

We only had 5 seats in our car but with 6 people it wasn’t going to work without a couple of trips. It was decided we would take the Kiwi to his hotel and the Aussies would Uber.

FDIC, Firefighting, Geocaching, USA 2017

Another Big Day at FDIC …

April 26, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

It is Day 3 for me at FDIC and we are finally getting to the Opening Ceremony. After 2 days of workshops, it is almost an anticlimax to have the Ceremony now. There is plenty of pomp and ceremony with a huge Pipe and Drum band, National Anthems (but only the US and Canadian – what about the other 50 countries) and some words (sometimes strained) from Bobby Halton followed by the keynote for this year, Angela Hughes.

After the morning pep up, it is back into classes for the rest of the day. Each is a couple of hours and the three I attended today were “Managing Crew Safety in the Dangerous WUI Environment” by Chief Todd McNeal from Twain Harte FD in California, “Special Operations in Small Departments” by Captain Art Bloomer from Kearny FD in New Jersey and “Thermal Imaging in 2017” by Division Chief Mike Richardson from St Matthews FD in Kentucky.

Jenny made here way in at lunchtime and we tried another of the eateries for the Indiana Foodfest. Today’s delicacy was Philly Cheesesteak and it wasn’t too bad but you could feel the arteries clogging up as we were eating it. Lucky we don’t live on this stuff.

As we headed back to the apartment, the skies were getting blacker as there were storms predicted. I decided to go for a walk through Garfield Park to work off some carbs but the temperature was still around 28C and the humidity up around 90% so I certainly worked up a sweat. Didn’t get to find too many geocaches but I did find a lot of critters with squirrels and opossums.

At one spot where there was a geocache, there was a mother opossum with about 4 young ones in the hollow where the cache was supposed to be located. She wasn’t happy with being there so no way was I going to stick my hand in to see if the cache was there.

It did eventually rain during the night but certainly not storms as predicted.

FDIC, Firefighting, USA 2017

Not much ANZAC over here …

April 25, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

With our Facebook feeds having gone berserk with all the Anzac Day references yesterday, you would be excused in the knowledge that there is any other countries in the world. Certainly there was no mention of Anzac in the US, so we had to make do with the various online references to Dawn Services back home.

Today for me was another day of FDIC workshops, no public holiday for me.

This mornings workshop was “Training with Incident Simulations“, presented by Deputy Chief Ted Nee from Albuquerque Fire Department in New Mexico. It was an interesting presentation covering Fire Studio and SimsUShare and the process of putting together the simulations for training of crews. We use both of these programs back home.

This afternoons workshop was “Fireground Strategies: Command, Control and Accountability“, presented by Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo from North Hudson Fire Department in New Jersey. He reminded me of George from Seinfeld with his accent and mannerisms, however he also had a lot of knowledge on Command and Control as well as some experiences from the Hudson River Aircraft Incident.

Tuesday night at FDIC is Comedy Night. The Firefighters Cancer Support Network has been putting on a fundraiser comedy night for a number of years now and it has been getting bigger each year. We attended with Billy and Teri tonight and it was a great night out, even if we ended up at the wrong Marriott Hotel initially. Who would think there would be two Marriott’s a block apart.

One of the fundraising raffle items was a leather helmet signed by the cast of Chicago Fire. I bought a few tickets and we will see if I am taking it home at the end of the week. The other prize is a trip to the set of Chicago Fire.

FDIC, USA 2017

It’s FDIC Time …

April 24, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

No problems this morning with that jet lag just working so well and waking well before the alarm. I wonder if I will need an alarm at all this week.

Today is the first day for the pre-conference classes for 2017 FDIC or Fire Department Instructors Conference. This is my third conference having attended previously in 2014 and 2015. I believe it is one of the largest if not the largest firefighting conferences in the world with 30000 attendees each year from over 50 countries.

It provides a large number of practical and theoretical pre-conference workshops for the Monday and Tuesday prior to the conference start on Wednesday. I have always taken advantage of these workshops.

Today my workshop is in the morning and is called “Think like an Incident Commander” presented by Deputy Chief Thomas Dunne from the FDNY.
It was a good workshop providing some insight into the psyche of and Incident Commander as well as practical examples of IC Operations from FDNY.

Jenny stayed back at the apartment and had some excitement of her own with some sort of incident out front with 7 police cars and 3 ambulances. Not sure what it was but someone got carted off on a stretcher.

The afternoon was perfect for exploring with sunshine and around 27C. We checked out the Garfield Park across the road. Looks like it will need a further visit on foot to grab all the geocaches if I have some time.

After some more wildlife spotting at the local Walmart we headed into the CBD of Indy to have a decent look around at the various landmarks and buildings.

Family Life, FDIC, Holidays, USA 2017

We farewell the Ohio Foodfest …

April 23, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

We all knew it would end but it seemed that it had only begun and it was over. The 2017 Ohio Foodfest has ended and we must farewell our friends Billy and Teri but not forgetting the latest addiction to the family, Cali.

It is time to move onto another State and some new adventures. Our next stop on this whistle stop tour is Indianapolis, Indiana which is only a couple of hours away but fuel is a lot cheaper.

It was a pleasant drive on a couple of Interstates with Jenny able to have a chat with another of our US friends, Joanna, and soon we were at our apartment in Garfield Park. We found this one through AirBnB and even though the building is old (built in the 1920’s), the internals have gone through a massive refurb. Also the outlook over the actual Garfield Park is great. And only 4 kilometres from the Conference Centre.

There were still hours of daylight left, so we went for a quick drive through Indianapolis to get our bearings. Indianapolis is a nice city and is built on the same grid pattern as Adelaide with the square mile CBD. Tomorrow we will get a better chance to look around.

In order to begin our Indiana Foodfest, we needed food so off to the nearest Walmart to stock up. I even got to get some new Hawaiian shirts for the collection.

Tonight was an early night as there was an early start for me at least in the morning for Day 1 of the FDIC Conference.

Family Life, Firefighting, Holidays, USA 2017

The Ohio Foodfest continues …

April 22, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

An easy day today compared to yesterday but the foodfest was still in full swing.

This morning started with brunch at Sleepy Bee Cafe which proved to be very popular with a 45 minute wait to get in. It was worth it as I have now found a new favourite pancake with bacon mixed in the batter. Needless to say, I failed to get through the stack of 3 large pancakes. The game needs a lift.

On the way back to the house, a visit to Billy’s mum at the 5 star nursing home and we think she may have remembered me from yesterday but at least she got to chat with Jenny this time.

There were a couple of hours before our next meal, so Jenny want to check out the local Walmart. It was pretty disappointing as far as Walmarts go as the customers were almost normal and the range was light on to what we normally see. Even though, Jenny still managed 45 minutes wandering around and only coming out with a half a dozen items.

I needed to get a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad and with Walmart having nothing suitable, there was a Best Buy down the road. They also had the Samsung S8 in stock, but unfortunately the unlocked versions are not available for another month. It looked alright with a bit more screen real estate than the Samsung S7 and no physical home button for around the same size.

After arriving back at the house a bit later than we had planned it was time to leave for the next feast at the best Pizza place in the Greater Cincinnati area – Two Cities Pizza Co. They specialise in New York and Chicago style pizza and the place was packed with people queued up. Luckily we had pre-booked and having Billy and Teri’s kids and grand kids meant we got the board room almost to ourselves. The restaurant is located in the old Mason Town Hall. Another great meal and again I failed to get through it. I guess that is lunch for tomorrow.

Billy’s daughter Amy had just completed their McMansion not far from the pizza joint, so we headed over to be impressed and impressed we were. Thomas and Amy had done an amazing job building their dream home. You probably could fit at least 3 of our homes in theirs.

It was bed time for the grand kids, so time to hit another fire station. This time it was one of Billy’s stations – Loveland Symmes Station 61. I think we may have surprised the guys. They weren’t expecting their Chief to turn up on a Saturday night but they were very accommodating. As well as getting photos of the trucks, they managed a call so we chased them to the call which ended up being a false alarm.

Back home everyone was getting a little sleepy so an early night to bed was in order.

Family Life, Holidays, USA 2017

It’s Ohio Foodfest time …

April 21, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

Well we survived the night without the need to head to the basement because of tornadoes. Lucky as today was a busy day with a lot of visiting and a lot of eating.

Jenny and Teri headed off early for a pamper and pedicure (this was a first for Jenny) so Billy and I had a chance to head off and check out some of his local fire stations. Well we only had time for one in the end.

We stopped off at Mason Fire Department Station 51 which is one of the 2 stations serving the City of Mason. Billy was Chief of this department before it was split into two departments with Billy going to the Loveland Symmes Fire Department. Billy was instrumental in getting this station named Station 51 (fans of Emergency would understand the significance).

When we arrived, there seemed to be some confusion as every cop car from the Mason Police Department was at the Station. Figured that Billy had either come to the wrong spot or someone had brought a heap of donuts. It appeared it was the latter. Actually there was a desktop exercise that involved both fire and police but there were boxes of donuts too.

We caught up with Fire Chief John Moore who showed us around and even found an Assistant Fire Chief with a mop and bucket. That would never happen at home. It was interesting that they are having trouble filling vacancies for firefighters which is apparently a common thing at the moment.

After leaving the crew at Station 51, we went for a visit to Billy’s mum who is living in a nursing home nearby that is akin to a 5 star resort rather than a nursing home.

It was now time to catch up with the girls and start the foodfest. Our lunchspot for today was the Cheesecake Factory. We looked for Penny but apparently she wasn’t working today. I think the staff get that alot. The meals were good and large as expected and we finished off with a piece of cheesecake to share.

And just in case we haven’t had enough sweet stuff, we drove up the road to meet Danni and her kids for icecream at a local landmark icecream maker, Graeter’s. It was nice icecream but it was a struggle to fit it in.

After farewelling the grandkids, it was time to see Billy’s latest project for the basement. He is getting a bar made in the shape of an American LaFrance pumper front. Instead of being made in metal and checker plate, it is being constructed completely of wood and is looking great even though it is only half completed. We now have an excuse to get back here to check out the finished product.

We had just enough time to settle out lunch meal before heading our for dinner with some friends of Billy and Teri at Cooper’s Hawk, a wine bar and restaurant. It must have been the busiest spot in the local area as it was packed. Unfortunately I have picked up some sort of stomach bug and couldn’t really enjoy tonight’s meal so had a light salad. Hopefully it clears up before tomorrows food fest.

Back to the house to finish the day and try and digest all the food from today.

Family Life, Holidays, USA 2017

Where’s the bloody road …

April 20, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

After 10 hours of sleep, we were ready to tackle the 450 km journey from Tinley Park Illinois (just out of Chicago) to Mason Ohio (just out of Cincinnati). We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Sleep Inn before hitting the road around 10:30 am.

The first thing that hits you is the amount of traffic particularly big rigs on the freeways. Luckily they are only single trailers and not road trains like back in Australia.

Apart from roadworks which seemed to be all the time, we were making good pace looking to be in Mason around 4:30 pm. The first mistake was not allowing for the time zone change as we crossed into Indiana. There goes an hour.

The weather was overcast and warm with temperatures around 27C but the further we travelled south, the darker the clouds got and the more thunderheads were appearing.

At one point we were travelling along with the large amount of other traffic at 70 mph and could see some rain up ahead but no-one was prepared for the shear volume of rain.

As soon as the rain hit, visibility went to around 50 metres with the windscreen wipers making no headway on clearing the water. Brakes and hazard lights were coming on all around and it was a matter of waiting for a hit to the front or rear and was a tense few minutes. Luckily all around us didn’t make contact and a couple of kilometres down the road it was clear again and back up to 70 mph we continued.

One stop we made intentionally along the way was to the Albanese Confectionery Factory in Merrillville Indiana. This is where the Gummi Bears are made. There was opportunity to sample the different flavours as well as purchase them for home. Comparing this factory with the Jelly Belly tour we did last year, the Jelly Belly is the better option to see how lollies are made as you get a chance to go out in the factory whereas today you look through a few windows at the store into the factory.

We arrived a little later than expected in Mason but were welcomed by Billy and Teri as well as the new addition to the family, Cali. You could see a lot of the same puppy traits in Cali that we have with Charley back home. After a great BBQ rib meal, time for some chatting and off to bed.

As a side note, it could be an interesting night with thunderstorms, severe weather and possibly tornadoes expected so it may be a night in the basement.

Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, USA 2017

We’ve got a full tank of gas, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses …

April 19, 2017 Scott Leave a comment

The morning started out relaxing having woken up earlier than I needed so there was time to have a relaxing coffee while waiting for Jenny to get ready as all the bags were packed last night.

It didn’t stay relaxing for long. Rachael had headed out to work and didn’t get that far with a phone call letting me know that her car had stopped again and wouldn’t start. Luckily she wasn’t that far away. A quick drive to jump start her car and that extra time we thought we had had evaporated. Maybe I will get that relaxing coffee at the airport.

Ian and Anne dropped us off at the airport with plenty of time but with a couple of sporting teams (I loosely call them sporting teams as they were headed to the Masters Games in Auckland) ahead of us in the International connections line, that extra time again just evaporated.

We failed to get the upgrade to Business on the Sydney leg so the Qantas Club was out of the picture this trip. Maybe the American Express Lounge in Sydney will be more rewarding.

The plane was loaded well ahead of time and we started to be pushed off then an announcement came over the PA of holdups for the gates in Sydney so they would rather wait on the ground in Adelaide than circle Sydney in the sky. I could see our window of opportunity evaporating once again for the lounge.

Sure enough we arrived late into Sydney and even though our bags were checked through to Chicago, we only had enough time to get the shuttle from the domestic terminal to the International terminal for the gate opening for boarding. There were delays again so we probably could have snuck in 30 minutes in the Amex Lounge.

The flight across the Pacific was uneventful with a few hours sleep achieved but again we landed 30 minutes late in San Francisco. Hope we have plain sailing through Customs and Immigration as we only had 1 hour before our next connecting flight.

The process this time seemed to be very seamless and efficient with the new electronic processing and we were through and dropping our bags for the next leg within 20 minutes. A quick AirTrain ride from the International terminal to Terminal 2 and we ready for our final flight. There was announcements of being a full flight so it was interesting to see if there were going to be people “dragged off” but it never happened (after all we weren’t flying United).

The aircraft was a new Airbus A321 which was nice and roomy compared to others we have flown in including the 747 we came across the Pacific in. The flight map on the TV screen was a lot better with it being an interactive map. I think Boeing and Qantas need to lift their game a bit.

For once we actually arrived ahead of schedule in Chicago with it still daylight and still some warmth in the air. After grabbing the bags, it was a bus ride to Budget Rentals to pick up the car.

I would like to say that we had hired a cop car with a cop motor, cop tires, cop suspension, and cop shocks but I had only booked a standard car. Apparently they were running out of standard cars so we got upgraded to a black SUV, so maybe we need to get black suits and sun glasses after all.

After 24 hours from the time we left home, the eye lids were starting to get a little heavy but it was still too early to hit the hay, so a stop for some food on the way to the motel at Culver’s in Bolingbrook which also happened to be a geocaching event ticked a couple of boxes. It was good to catch up with some local geocachers. I think we took the prize for the furthest travelled to the event.

Finally after 27 hours from home, we hit the sheets at the Sleep Inn at Tinley Park. Tomorrow we make the drive to Ohio.

Thompson Life & Travels – Never @ Home