What Was New: July 29, 2000Washington, Mary Hill, Oregon, Fremont(Gregory Melle's Web Diary / Blog)
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After five months of my previous version it was time to start a new Whats-new page! Of course the last one was a bit short, since I spent so much effort on my Year 2000 Trip pages.
I have started another new chapter in my work life. In mid July I drove to Fremont, California for another software contract. I made a detour via Highway 97 to see the inland route on the east side of the Cascade mountains. I was especially impressed with the scenery on both sides of the Columbia River Gorge.
I stopped in Mary Hill, Washington to see the dramatic scenery and the fine eclectic museum.
The Mary Hill Museum is famous for its Rodin collection but I found that to be rather small. Instead it has a fine diverse collection. There is a big collection of American Indian crafts, some fine European art and even a large collection of 1/3 scale French fashion from the 1940's!
The centre of this rather personal museum is a number of pieces donated by Mrs. Spreckels, the dancer Loie Fuller and Queen Marie of Romania. They were all friends of Samuel Hill who built the building and promoted local roads and farms. Queen Marie was a Romanoff and left many fine pieces of furniture and art when she visited the museum.
This view shows Mount Shasta from the north.
I made it to Fremont, California and started work at the NUMMI car plant. The work is quite interesting but available accommodation is even rarer and more expensive than I expected. I am in what passes for a cheap motel here. The accommodations are less than wonderful and the cost is shocking; but there is some fine scenery a very short walk away.
At the New United Motors Manufacturing Plant --
"NUMMI" -- they had Family Day tours last week. It was
a good chance to make some tour photos.
This plant is vast. They stamp out parts for doors, cabs and bodies. They
add wheels, chassis and many smaller parts. There are 4700 employees in a
120 acre facility.
The "Team Members" are California casual in appearance but Toyota strict about quality. There were many volunteers to keep us safe from the many golf carts, bicycles and fork-lifts.
The output from this process is thousands of Toyota Corollas, GEO
Prizms and Toyota Tacoma trucks. The newest truck model has four-doors.
The software that I am developing controls the manipulation of the truck
bodies seen in the third photo.
| Earlier Page - March to June 2000 | Later Page - August 2000 |
