In the end, things went all right. By the afternoon of the second day, they got the power on the server working, so it was ready for me to install. I finished with the installs by the evening, and started with setting up clients. I got one in, and then we called it a day.

The third day, was the best day. We installed on actual production client machines, and were able to successfully make a connection to the application server. The application server seemed to be running fine, so Dan decided to take us to get crabcakes. It was Maryland, so I suppose I had to have one before I left if possible! He took us to a place called Riverside Pizzeria for crab cakes and they were pretty good!

Dan also gave us a mini-tour, which I really appreciated since my coworker had the rental signed out in his name, and didn’t like exploring. Every day we’d get out, and it was dark, and we’d eat and then go back to the rooms. I saw no taxis or busses, so I felt a little trapped and bummed about it. Not many pictures were taken either due to the darkness and lack of transportation on my part. So Dan’s mini-tour was the most fun I had on the trip, I think!

Dan also gave me a diagram of the overall GIS system there, and showed where the piece I installed fit in. That was one of the nicest things anyone’s ever given me in all my time working in IT. It was framed in this little clock/dry-erase board thingy you can keep on your desk. It was awesome.

The trip itself was interesting at the very end. The taxi driver was named Butch, and told me stories about his wife being gone, and him and his dog being together.. and how his dog saved him from killing himself… and he also told me a story about how he saw a woman killed up in New York by a bunch of teens walking by who happened to shove her off the platform, onto the tracks… weird and morbid stuff. But I appreciated him talking to me. Nice guy.

In the end it was a good experience. Messed up my marathon a bit, I’m sure… but that’s another post.