October is almost over.

It has been a busy, busy month (actually 5 weeks). Two "major" conferences, two weeks of training, and a NASCAR race have made for a busy "month". First the Conferences. I attended the 51st annual International Highway Engineers Exchange Program (IHEEP) conference in San Antonio, Texas Sept 21-October 1. It was my 20th consecutive IHEEP conference and one of the most enjoyable. The Texas Department of Transportation really knows how to put on an enjoyable and professional conference.

To see what went on this years meeting check out the following links:

The PowerPoint presentations from the conference have now been posted on the TXDOT web site and can be accessed from the following link http://www.dot.state.tx.us/iheep2009/presentations/default.htm .

The pictures taken by TxDOT photographers throughout the conference have been posted on Flickr:

main page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iheep
page with pictures sorted by event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iheep/collections/72157622486951404/

Check these links out when you get a chance and don't forget next year's conference will be hosted by the Michigan DOT in Dearborn, September 26-30, 2010. It's not to soon to start making plans to attend. Check out the conference website at http://mi.gov/heep.

The other conference I attended was the Bentley Roads & Bridges conference held last week (Oct. 19-21) in Charlotte, NC. While it was a bit cooler than usual in Charlotte the conference was 'hot".
Bentley kept the delegates feed, hydrated and busy for a solid 2 1/2 days. Every session and workshop I attended not only was informative but interesting as well. This was Bentley's first conference where all the Road and Bridges products met together. InRoads, GEOPAK and MX users finally got together and see how the other "half" works. Bentley is in process of combining it's three Road Design products in one Bentley Civil Product and it seems to be going pretty well. I can't wait to get my hands on the MicroStation Civil release of V8i SS1.

As for the 2 weeks of training I attended a Roadway modeler class in Raleigh and taught a GEOPAK class to some our GEOTECH users in Harrisburg, NC.

The race in Charlotte was fun but COLD. While it did rain a bit at the race we didn't get wet, which was good because we probably would have froze to our seats if we had.