Who ya gonna call?

The parking lot of Weinerschnitzel was pretty full. Guess I wasn’t the only one with a hankerin’ for a chili dog. So we parked at the car wash next door. It’s OK – the same California transplant owns both businesses.

We had to take a little detour, though, on our way to the air conditioned, corn dogged goodness. There in the parking lot was a very odd vehicle begging to be stared at.

It was a white SUV with Colorado plates. The windshield was smeared with bug remnants. So far, nothing unusual. But the luggage rack on top was toting something very un-luggagy. There were two items. In front was a glass dome about the size of one of those old-fashioned hair dryers that you can still find in salons. Inside the dome were three video cameras pointing at slightly different angles. Behind the dome was a white globe that later reminded me a little of EVE in WALL-E. It sort of looked like a small satellite. Or the plastic cover protecting a plug right next to our septic tank lids. We circled the vehicle a few times. Inside there was a full-sized computer monitor blocking access to the radio, reminding me of a cop car. The whole thing looked like a 2008 version of the Ghostbuster car. Rob suddenly said, “OH, I got it!”

Inside, Rob looked for his best guess of the car’s driver. A sweep past the fountain drinks and Tasty Freeze and he found his man: A single guy in his mid-30s who looked a bit techy in a Silicon-Valley sort of way (shorts, t-shirt, Tevas). As I acquired our ketchup, Rob confirmed his suspicions. The guy was impressed Rob had nailed his purpose; apparently most folks are just plain befuddled.

“Yep, I was right. It’s a Google-mobile!”

The guy was one of twelve people scattered around the country this summer, driving highways and major intersections to capture images for Google and other online uses. He was thrilled to get his first pick of the Pacific Northwest even though he lives in California. He was heading to Seattle to spend a week capturing their highways and byways. He said it was a great job, although he misses his wife and dad. But, the company is very accommodating – it flies his wife every weekend to wherever he happens to be. He spoke of jobs in Hawaii and Ireland with a “I-can’t-believe-they-pay-me-to-do-this” tone. We asked how he landed such a fun gig. It was one of those who-you-know stories and it seemed openings are hard to come by.

As we later watched him at the Shell station, squeegee-ing his dome and fiddling with a trunk full of electronics, I shook my head at the wonderfully high-tech world we are surrounded by, even at Woodhaven --- where we still have a septic and can’t get cable.