Spent day at one of MSA's factories looking at their plant and some of the products. Had lunch on Washington hill overlooking downtown Pittsburgh then went to the MSA head office for a couple of presentations. Going out for dinner tonight and more presentations tomorrow and then baseball game tomorrow night which will be fun. The staduim with the yellow seats is the home ground for the Pittsburgh Steelers the NFL team and the other one is the Pirates home staduim (baseball)

Made it to my last destination before coming home only just mind you. Spent the morning in Long Island just out of NY with a department that has just picked up new equipment then off to airport. Got to La Gaudia airport in NY at about 13:30 for a 15:30 flight as you have to go through lots of security checks as you can imagine. The plane initially got delayed because of weather in land until 16:30 then the flight was cancelled. We got on standby for the 18:30 and that got delayed to 20:00 then we boarded and sat on the runway for 2 hours got low on fuel so went back to gate and got off. waited another 2 hours and boarded again then back on runway for and hour and a half luckily flight was only 1 hour. Got into Pittsburgh at 03:15 so long day.

Spent today at Drager USA headquarters and then to shopping mall to look around, in the morning I move to another hotel near MSA headquarters so relaxing day maybe catch up on sleep and report. Not many interesting photos the last few days a few of NY check out the car parks.

NY what a place!

Another busy day with lots of walking around this amazing city. Hailed my first cab this morning back down to ground zero to visit the tribute museum which was very sad some amazing story's and photos don't think there was a dry eye in the building hard to describe. On a more cheerful note I then jumped on the bus and went to the water front and hopped on the ferry that went to Liberty island and Ellis island which was cool. Then back to Wall st and on bus again to 78th street and wandered around central park.

After that I decided to walk all the way back to my hotel which is on 27th so went past Radio City and Madison Square Garden long way and lots of people.

I met up with Paul House tonight for dinner which was nice, Paul is the international sales manager for Draeger I am spending the day with him here in NY tomorrow then we fly to Pittsburgh tomorrow night. Home in a weeks time, will be nice.

Where do I start with New York!! What an amazing place the density of people and buildings and cultures etc. I am staying in Manhattan 3 blocks from the empire state building, I went up there and took a million photos as you do, amazing to thing that it only took 14 months to build that it would take 4 years today. I also went to ground zero and had a look at all the construction and tribute to 9/11 there is a very somber feeling in this place hard to describe but everyone is quiet unlike the rest of NY, then I walked down Wall st there is such a cool blend of old and new unlike other cities.

Charlotte Fire

Spent day with a Chief from Charlotte Fire Department today, he gave me a tour of the city and a look around their training college and some of their stations. I then had dinner at station 10 we went to a small house fire which was interesting there were 7 engines and 4 battalion captains on scene they could have trampled the fire out. I then had dinner at station 10 which was fun they have a dive squad that specialises in technical diving and swift water rescue.

Off to Monroe tomorrow to visit the Scott factory which is about 45mins from here so that will be interesting.

In Charlotte at the moment a different city again lots of high risers and modern buildings. I am spending the day with the fire department so should be a good day. Had lots of fun at the conference and made lots of new friends so was a good time. Tomorrow I spent the day at the Scott factory then New York on Wednesday.

The skinny building is my hotel and the stadium is where the Charlotte bobcats play.

Well packing bags time again. My bags are getting fuller and fuller with each stop. We went out last night to this little bbq place not far from here and we had traditional southern bbq. 2 of the guys are from North Carolina and they said it was the best bbq they had tasted so that was a huge compliment. We ate ribs, chicken, brisket and shredded pork and beans great dinner!! Then we went to a local Irish pub for a couple as you do. The big red thing on tracks is a fan used to clear smoke out of a large building and you can also get it to spray water i tell you everything is big over here. The guy standing in front of the command is a Aussie fron the western Australia police dept I met.

I fly out at 3 so better start seriously packing will do another post in Charlotte.

Well another full day of lectures some interesting and some not. One on the bird flu pandemic was really interesting but scary. Went into town last night with a group of guys from all over America lots of fun. We went to a crab restaurant as blue paddle crabs are a local speciality I had scallops as not sure if I am allergic to them as well. Closing ceremony in the morning then I fly to Charlotte at 3 not a long trip only about 1.5 hours. Getting pretty tired of eating out by now but still a great experience.

Haz Mat Conference

2nd day of the Haz Mat conference here in Baltimore. Been to 3 classes and the exhibition hall lots of really cool stuff worth lots of money that the federal government here gives the fire departments to spend on equipment.

One of the demonstrations was of a fire resistant chemical suit, they had a dummy with sensors on and simulated a 3 second flash fire with just normal clothes on and with other types of clothing I mention this for you Jordan I have lots of photos that might be good for your science project.

Also saw some of the equipment that the different agencies here have, the black truck and trailer is a FBI command unit with cameras robots etc. They have lots of decon tents etc all this equipment is new because of post 9/11 requirements.

Went to a local pub last night for dinner and a group of us might go into town tonight for a look around which will be nice to get out of the hotel for a change.

One more day of presentations the off to Charlotte North Carolina next.

Haz Mat conference

First day so lots of new faces and people to meet from all over the US. We went to the GoreTex factory and saw how that was made and some of their development products. They ran scenarios wearing their new chemical suits so we could see what they were like and they did measurements of body temperature etc. A fun day and I made it to another state as the factory is in Deleware so one more to the list. Tomorrow more of the lecture type lessons so n0t so much fun but should be interesting. Some of these photos are of the exercise we did in the new gas suits.

Downtown Baltimore

Took the MRT into downtown today only cost $1.60 each way so cheap but took about 40 mins with all the stops. Downtown Baltimore is similar to Auckland with a harbour front and lots of commerce. There are a few museum ships to visit one is the US Constellation which is the only navy ship left from the civil war. There is also the only coast guard ship that survived Pearl Harbour and a old Navy sub. I visited the national aquarium which was really good they had a really cool frog exhibit which I have included a few photos. I then walked uptown following the rail track and came to the famous Lexington food market (apparently). This market had every type of food you imagined for sale some weird stuff too. Baltimore is famous for its crab so everywhere you go crab cakes are for sale they all go on how you need to try their crab, they also breed special crabs to eat and the cook them just as they have shed their shell so you don't need to peel the shell off you eat all of it! One of the main differences to the west coast it instead of lots of Hispanics there lots of African Americans every where the women are so funny they sing all the time to pass the day by while they work they sing while they serve you. Anyway conference starts tomorrow so will let you know what that's like tomorrow.

East coast

Well I made it to the east coast a 4.5 hour flight to Baltimore and another 40 min taxi to the Hunt Valley where the conference is. Everything here is totally different very green & lots of trees unlike California and Arizona brown and cactus, also lots of very old buildings as this is one of the original cities of the United States. The hotel is huge with a massive conference centre attached when I arrived yesterday a high school prom was starting so about 20 limos lined up dropping off the students. Today I am going to catch the train back into the city to have a look around my part of the conference starts tomorrow today is the department of defence day which you have to be a US citizen, pity would be interesting the main focus is WMD(weapons of mass destruction!). Thanks for the comments it's nice to see that people are reading this and to have some communication with the other side of the globe hopefully will post some photos tomorrow. Scott

Spent the day with Richard a guy from station 4 and went out for breakfast then went to his house in Scottsdale which is a city next to Phoenix. We had a look around and went to a local brewery for a couple of beers, and then back to the house to flip some burgers. In the afternoon we went to his neighbours for a pool party and cooked bhores (saussages) on the bbq and swam played cards etc so was nice to spent some time relaxing with normal people.


So a great day thanks to the great hospitality of my American friends.


Another hot day and blue sky I can see the attraction of living in a place like this they get about 5 inches of rain a year and have the highest boat ownership per capita of all the states!! In the middle of the desert! There are some big lakes near by though.

Had a exciting day today again I got picked up in the ladder truck as you see in the photo and joined in some high rise training the went back to station 4 for chow (lunch).

After that I went to deer valley airport and went up in the helicopter for about 3 hours. While we were up we pursued a stolen car then we went to a shooting!! we arrived about 30 seconds after the report and flew over head and directed the squad car and kept an eye out for runners. The cops dragged one guy who was shot 3 times from the front lawn to a safe place then stood back until the SWAT team arrive and smash the door down and make entry with ballistic shields!! They had 2 cops on the neighbours roof with rifles and about15 squad cars, 3 fire engines and 4 ambulances honestly it was just like watching cops on TV. So the whole time we hovered above and kept an eye on things. This doesn't happen every day so my timing was good.

Had dinner with the guys at station 4 and then back to hotel. The guys here have been so friendly and have looked after me very well.

In the photos you can see the ladder truck I was riding with a tiller wheel at the back.

The helicopter and pilot I flew with and a photo of the scene that we hovered over. And a shot of my hotel from the air.

I guess it sounds like things are pretty violent over here but remember that greater Phoenix and surrounding cities has over 4 million people and they love guns!! But the normal people are just like us as a whole and they have been very hospitable.