I used to work at ShotSpotter, a gunshot location company. To test the system, sometimes it is necessary to shoot stuff. And as we tried to teach the computer the difference between these guns, those guns, echoes, fireworks, and explosions, sometimes we had to just had to blow things up.
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
One particularly weapon-ful business trip was held at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in the center of the Mohave Desert. In August. It is a great training base because it is a lot like the Iraqi desert: full of the sandy, silty soil that gets everywhere. And because it is very, very hot.
It was so hot that my hiking boots melted.
I used duct tape to hold them together for the rest of the trip. It worked very well though I had to cut them off at night.
The tests were conducted at Limaville, a fake city in the far reaches of Fort Irwin. It was a ninety minute drive from the bare bones hotel at the base, across the bomb ranges. Let me say that again: across the bomb ranges. As in boom and as in multiple ranges.
Why, yes, we did get lost on the dirt roads and stuck in the sand. Several times. On multiple bomb ranges.
On the last day of testing, we ran late, leaving the site just before sunset. That was dangerous, not only because of the bomb ranges with unexploded munitions but also because we couldn’t find our way during the day, what would it be like at night?
Eventually, thanks to everyone but the map reader, we got back to base. I remember feeling filthy with silt and gunpowder, caked by dried sweat. We packed the vehicles and started on the road out of there. It was dark and late. But not stormy, so I suppose that is a win.
My hardware engineer called over the radio to our convoy. He could see the lights of Barstow, “the crappy, shining beacon of civilization.” There were cheers, we were happy to see it. Showers, beers, beds, they would all be ours soon.
Yesterday, from a different angle, for a different reason, in a different season, we went to Barstow again. We needed to stretch our legs during the long drive from San Jose to Flagstaff.
We stopped at the Tangers Outlet Mall. It was 100+ degrees in the shade and really crowded with busloads of people elbowing to get the best deals.
Shining, crappy beacon of civilization indeed.
