The Ford Tri-Motor airliner

Sorting through my archival images this afternoon, I came across this series of photos that I shot in 1974 of a flight on a 1928 5-AT-B Ford Tri-Motor airliner.

Dubbed The City of Reno, this Ford Tri-Motor was in the livery of Transcontinental Air Transport. TAT was,the forerunner of Trans World Airlines, and the plane was turned out as it would have appeared at the inauguration of TWA's transcontinental passenger service in 1929.

This aircraft toured the U.S. for the 45th anniversary of TWA's transcontinental service in 1974. At last report, the plane was housed at the McMinnville, Ore., airport and flies at airshows. This photo was made at Weir Cook (now Indianapolis International) Airport.

You think seats are tight on today’s airliners? Check out this seating arrangement with about a 12” wide aisle.

The starboard engine in flight over Indianapolis.

Pilot and copilot, shoulder-to-shoulder in the cramped cockpit.

The flight even came with a stewardess.

Should be a huge contrast

The Republican Convention made my week.

Once again, FOX News gave me the best coverage and analysis. I checked in briefly last night with the three major networks and PBS and found the usual smug cynical snarkiness.

I jumped over to C-SPAN when FOX cut away for commentary and caught some of the stuff I would have missed otherwise.

I began the week committed to vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket mostly because I want to deny Obama a second term. By the adjournment last night, I realized that I’m now going to the polls to vote for someone I like and trust, rather than just casting a ballot against someone I can’t stand.

Besides personalizing Mitt Romney, the convention was a celebration of American exceptionalism – something Barak Obama clearly does not believe in.

The brilliant show put on by the Republicans is going to be a very hard act for the Democrats to follow next week.

It will be amusing to see how they try to polish a turd.

No big deal for us

Tropical Depression Isaac started raining on us last evening. By 7:30 a.m. today a night of light to moderate rain had left only about a half-inch of water in the rain gauge and the heaviest band of showers had tracked off to the north and Missouri.

We have a smaller band of rain rotating in our direction from the southwest but it doesn’t look like it will do much more than give the plants a much needed drink.

Taunting Pete

Jack taunts Pete with a piece of the now-shredded Friendly Fox.

Looks like rain

Tropical Storm Isaac is working its way north west from New Orleans. The Weather Channel forecasts rain will reach us tonight and be heavy tomorrow.

Fishes and loaves

We had an impromptu dinner party last night that was great, unexpected fun.

Along about dinnertime, our friend Susan (the blonde), called to say she wanted to drop off some paperwork. She brought her daughter Maggie (the blonde girl on the left) and her poodle Solomon.

Maggie went next door to hang out with her best friend Clay (looking over his shoulder at the camera). They eventually ended up in our dining room, along with Clay’s little brother Jackson (AWOL in this shot), and his parents Sophie (the brunette) and Shannon (serving himself some barbecued meatloaf on the right).

Our guests got treated to some of Maria’s great Hoosier cooking along with my mother’s fabulous pumpkin pie.

I really like this shot because it reminds me of the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving/Freedom from Want illustration with the guy at the bottom of the picture looking at the viewer.

Hilarious

Jack loves his big orange traffic cone

Thanks to BMW friend Charlie Parsons for this spectacular and durable dog toy.

Rain! At last!

According to my rain gauge, we got 1.05 inches of rain Saturday and another half-inch this afternoon.

The Pete report

I took Pete to the vet for his rabies shot and a liver enzyme test this afternoon.
The test results seem to confirm what we have observed – he’s getting better. He plays with Jack more, eats well, doesn’t seem to barf as often and seems to enjoy life more that before he had his liver crisis a month ago.
After a month on a liver cleansing diet of white potato, sweet potato and whitefish, eggs or tuna with daily doses of hemp oil – his liver test number are down from 631 to 550.
And, he’s gained two pounds.
Good news, indeed.

It’s raining, but I’m not complaining

We awoke to the sound of rain this morning and the rain has continued off and on – more on than off – all day.

It’s a welcome relief to the summer-long drought and spares me having to water the dogwood tree we planted in the spring. It’s struggled, but clings to life.

A singularly stupid idea

This is a hopelessly stupid idea for an iPhone case being sold for $20 at Fab.com.

They describe it thus:

When developing its new protective iPhone case, Loop Attachment took a page from the ancient art of mummification. The Mummy iPhone Case swaddles your sacred phone is swathes of shielding silicone, revealing just enough to preserve your hardware’s identity. This carefully crafted case also functions as a card carrier, allows for easy access to all switches and ports, provides impact resistance, and improves grip.

Apparently the twits who designed this thing don’t know that the electromagnetic field generated by a cell phone can erase or corrupt the data on credit card magnetic strips. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I put the card key to my motel room into my shirt pocket along with my cell phone.

But maybe they have figured it out, because the ad stipulates:

This item is final sale and not eligible for return.

No concussion. I think.

Yes, that’s a Band Aid on my forehead. It covers a half-inch cut.

I was opening the back door to let the dogs in for their breakfast when Jack the Aussie flung his 55-pound frame against the door, causing it to bash me in the forehead.

Stunned, I reeled backwards across the back hallway,coming to a stop to lean up against a closet door, clutching my forehead and yelling obscenities. It took me about a minute to recover my senses and suppress the urge to commit dogicide.

Maria had me sit down at the kitchen table and apply a paper towel to the cut until it quit bleeding. Fortunately, it was shallow, only bled a little and doesn’t require stitches.

Now, a couple of hours later, as I wait to hear from the cable TV guy who is supposed to solve our streaming video problems, I have a bit of a goose egg at the point of impact.

I will, of course, keep my head out of harm’s way in the future when I open a door for dogs.

Seen at MotoGP in Indianapolis last week

The Cow-Am, a custom painted Can-Am Spyder from Illinois.

Bikes for kids.

A mystery fairing on an old Honda.

An electric Norton. (It has speakers and plays motor sounds.)

A large family who bunched up despite the fact that they were the only people in their row of unreserved seats.

No experience required? Let’s hope it’s a simulator.

Cholula in a pump bottle!

A Lucal electrical system paperweight.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Jack demonstrates Aussie flexibility while napping on the back porch this morning.

Bush gas

Not so long ago, Dec. 29, 2008 – less than a month before the Obama presidency began – this was the price of regular gas at the Jonesboro, Ark. Sam’s Club.

Where have I been? Back home again in Indiana!

I got home a little after noon today after an extended weekend of motorcycle racing and hanging out with Hoosier friends at the 2012 Indianapolis MotoGP festivities.

My local BMW riding friend Charlie invited me to accompany him and only a fool would turn down such an offer, so we rolled out about 7 a.m. Thursday for Indianapolis.

The day was sunny and warm and we had an easy ride up through central Illinois, but we noticed ominous thunderheads and lightning strikes to the northwest as we approached Effingham and turned east on I-70. Concerned that I-70 would be full of trucks and construction in Indiana, I led us up to U.S. 40 at the east edge of Terre Haute and we had a pleasant ride through the Indiana farmland most of the way to Indianapolis.

But heavy rain overtook us as we rode into Plainfield and we took shelter for about a half-hour under a furniture store awning while we waited to see if the rain would stop. It didn’t.

It was still raining hard when we reached I-465 and northbound traffic was at a rush hour crawl, so I had Garmin find us an alternate route up to the Speedway Motel 6. But when we reached the place where we expected to find the motel where we had stayed before, it wasn’t there. Turns out the Crawfordsville Road-I-465 interchange has been reconfigured to the extent that the motel is now on the north side of C’ville Road instead of the south side of the road. The good news is that the creepy apartment complex and dilapidated Red Roof Inn that previously blighted the neighborhood are gone.

My Kilimanjaro jacket and Kathmandu pants and Gore-Tex BMW gloves worked nicely in the deluge, but my Gore-Tex Bates tactical boots failed the rain test miserably and my feet were soaked by the time we got to our room.

The rain blew off to the south soon after we arrived and after changing out of our riding gear, we strolled over to the Union Jack Pub for dinner.

I found I could dry my socks by slipping them over my mirrors.

We started Friday with a leisurely breakfast at Einstein Brothers Bagels, then cruised down to BMW Motorcycles of Indianapolis to ogle bikes and apparel – I bought a shop t-shirt discounted to $9 – and then rode to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to check out the vendors and the MotoGP practice sessions.

We joined several hundred other riders for a lap around the MotoGP track, then adjourned to the BMW dealership for a stunt riding show and a free barbecue dinner.

Saturday breakfast was with the Indy BMW Club folks at Shapiro’s after which Rich Nathan led us on a spirited ride up White River Parkway to the BMW shop. Rich took a Victory bike for a test ride and I finally cashed in the $25 gift certificate I’d won in absentia at the 2010 club awards banquet, buying a new pair of Firstgear Kilimanjaro summer riding gloves.

We spent the afternoon watching qualifications at the track, did a walk past the garages that required Charlie to chug his beer, since alcohol isn’t allowed there, had an early dinner at Union Jack’s and retired early.

We were up with the sun on Sunday morning. Charlie managed to persuade the gate keepers at the motorcycle parking lot across Georgetown Road from Stand J to honor our Speedway Museum parking lot credentials, making it possible for us to park so close to our seats that we could watch our bikes from there. (There they are in the red circle. Mine is under the yellow bike cover.)

We took our time leaving the track and by the time we were ready to ride, the traffic had dwindled to practically nothing. I led the way west on I-70 and all went well until about a mile past the Putnamville exit where we found ourselves in a miles-long traffic jam because of an accident. After crawling along for about a mile, we reached a crossover and doubled back to the exit, rode up to U.S. 40 and followed it to Brazil where we re-joined I-70. As we crossed the Wabash River, I was startled to see a little Saturn two-seater that had been in front of us in the traffic jam blast past us.

We caught up with him at Effingham, where we exited to spend the night at the Econo Lodge.

It was 52 degrees when we gassed and hit the road this morning, but the temperature climbed into the comfortable 60s and 70s as the morning wore on and we made quick work of Illinois, gassed at Boomland east of Sikeston and cruised on home.

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Trip Stats

• 943 miles
• 55.4 mph average
• 96.5 mph top speed
• 17 hours 1 minute moving

Aussie at work

This is what you get when you leave a cheap garden hose where a young, energetic Australian shepherd can get at it.

I had connected the hose to another more durable hose within the fenced-in part of the back yard so as to be able to water newly planted trees on either sides of the property just outside the fenced area.

Jack naturally thought this was something I did for his amusement, so he gnawed the cheap hose in two – probably because it was fun seeing the water squirt out.

Well worth the time

At the BMWMOA Rally last month in Sedalia, Mo.

Here I am (red circle) with 13 of my fellow Indianapolis BMW Club members at the 2012 BMWMOA Rally last month.

We had around 37 members present, but could only round up 14 for the group photo at the club campsite.

(Memo to self: Stand in the back row until you lose 30 pounds.)

Westward Ho cattle brands decoded

I’ve searched high and low on the Internet for a comprehensive list of the brands used on the Rodeo and Boots and Saddle Westward Ho patterns of Wallace China.
At long last, here it is for the amusement and information of dedicated Westward Ho collectors.

Sorry for the lack of sharpness in places. Most of this is at least a third-generation copy of a brochure published by the Wallace China Co. many years ago.

Cross another item off my “bucket list”

Some days, it takes very little to make me happy. Today, it was fulfilling a lifelong (well, since the early 1950s, at least) wish to have an encounter with one of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles and, dare I even dream it – actually climb aboard!
I got my wish this afternoon when, shooting as a freelancer for the Jonesboro Sun, I caught up with the Wienermobile being driven around the middle of the country by Hotdoggers Jessica Barndt, Madison, Wis., and Holly Nelson, LaCrosse, Wis.
Each of the fleet of six Wienermobiles has a clever personalized license plate. Jessica and Holly are in charge of WEENR. Jessica graduated this spring from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with BBA in International Business and Management & Human Resources. Holly majored in Spanish and Communication and minored in Journalism at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Oscar Mayer recruits at campuses nationwide for the 12-month-long hotdogger jobs and attracted more than 1,200 applicants.

Here’s Jessica, whose hotdogger name is “Jess Grillin’,” at the wheel of the 27-foot-long Wienermobile, parked in front of the Hays supermarket at 2819 E. Nettleton Ave. in Jonesboro. Jessica says it’s easy to drive and has a tighter turning radius than her SUV, even though it take about three parking spaces.
She and “Hot Diggity” Holly are perpetually on the road. Since June they’ve made appearances from the southern tip of Texas to south central Nebraska, covering seven states in two months.
The Wienermobile is their only transportation during their year-long road trip, so it goes where they go. Like to a drive-in movie recently in Fayetteville, Ark. and to restaurants and hotels.
The Wienermobile has airbags, ABS, Garmin GPS, and lots of other bells and whistles crammed into its fiberglass body atop a GMC chassis.

Since everyone who turns out for a Wienermobile appearance wants to be photographed with the iconic hot dog on wheels, Jessica and Holly wear Android-based tablets slung around their necks. They use the tablets’ cameras to shoot photos of everyone who wants one, then send them via Wifi to the subject’s email inbox on the spot.
(The bandage on Jessica’s left hand is from a fall she had when she tripped over the threshold of her hotel room recently.)
This is the 25th year for the Oscar Mayer hotdogger program and the two are looking forward to a reunion with hotdogger alumni later this year in Madison, Wis., the home base of the Wienermobile fleet.
WEENR will be at the Hilltop Bill’s Fresh Market from 1-7 p.m. Friday and the Country Mart on Southwest Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
BTW, presumed GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is among the distinguished alumni of hotdoggers.

How many have you ridden/driven?

Here is Suzuki’s list of the 10 most beautifully challenging highways in America.

I’ve ridden six of them – the Million Dollar Highway in Colordo, the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in Montana, Calif. 1 through Big Sur, the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap, Tenn., the Carmel Valley Road in California, and U.S. 50 across Nevada. Come to think of it, I’ve done each more than once and hope to ride them all before I’m done.

(Click on the graphic to see a sharper version.)

Hot dog! Three Wienermobile appearances this week!

The GT is gassed and ready

Just topped off the gas tank of my K1200GT.

I must be going somewhere…

Time well spent

We got up at 4:30 a.m. yesterday and drove 2½ hours down to Little Rock to testify at a Department of Human Services hearing concerning vindictive, trumped-up false charges against an exemplary foster mother/adoptive mother.

Turns out our testimony wasn’t needed to help knock down the childishly flimsy charges, but I’m glad we went anyway. Even if we did have to spend more than four hours waiting to be called or released.

Thank God for the Atom Bomb

At the risk of belaboring the point, I invite you to read this essay by cultural and literary historian, college professor and World War II combat veteran Paul Fussell on why the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were right and necessary.
In it, Fussell, who died last May at the age of 88, points out that those who argue the U.S. should not have nuked the Japanese never experienced combat – the kind of slaughter that would have occurred in the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland in November, 1945.
Put simply, they fail to grasp the zeitgeist – the spirit of the times.
“Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. It requires feeling its
own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination,” he wrote.
Fussell had a bellyful of combat as a lieutenant in the 103rd Infantry Division in France, was wounded and earned the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He and his unit were scheduled for deployment to the Pacific when the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.
If you have any interest in the debate, I urge you to read the whole thing.

Hoping this works…

I’m still feeling my way along as I try to learn as much as possible about how to help Pete’s ailing liver.

My search led me to Dr. Dodds’s Liver Cleansing Diet, created by Dr. W. Jean Dodds, a Santa Monica, Calif., veterinarian.

Here it is:

• White potato + sweet potato (50/50) cooked

• White Fish lightly cooked e.g.: cod, halibut, mackerel, smelt, snapper etc.

Ratio is ⅔ of potato mix with ⅓ of fish. Season with mixed Italian Herbs or fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Later chopped carrots and green beans (both cooked) can be added as can scrambled eggs. Yellow squash can also be added. Give a liquid child’s multivitamin or a supplement such as Missing Link (source of calcium)

Dr. Dodds says:

I have some patients that have been on the diet for 7 years now-- that were near death before-- and are thriving! Testimonials are numerous, without one negative comment other than some won't eat fish and so we give chicken to them.

With that thought in mind and recognizing that Pete isn’t very interested in wet dog food, I went shopping at Hollywood Feeds where I found Fromm’s Whitefish & Potato. There are no therapeutic claims on the package, but it has the right stuff – white potatoes, sweet potatoes and whitefish – in a dry kibble, so I bought a five-pound bag.

I put some into Pete’s bowl and he sniffed it and walked away.

So I picked up a few pieces and offered them to him one-by-one as a treat. He took the first one after eyeing and sniffing it suspiciously, then begged for the rest of them with increasing enthusiasm.

Then I directed him back to his bowl and he decided this was good stuff worth eating. As his interest flagged, I dropped a dollop of cottage cheese into the bowl and he wolfed it down along with whatever kibble it touched.

I also gave him a tablespoon of hemp seed oil, just for good measure.

Keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for a miracle.

It’s coming to Jonesboro!

I just learned one the Oscar Mayer fleet of Wienermobiles will be at Hay's Foods on Nettleton in Jonesboro, Ark., next Tuesday between 2-7 p.m. selling hot dogs, chips, drinks with proceeds going to the Food Bank.

(Here's a photo of one of the fabulous Wienermobiles as it cruised south on U.S. 49 past our neighborhood on Aug. 10, 2010.)
I will, of course, be there!

Wikipedia says:

There are seven Wienermobiles in existence currently, with each assigned a part of the country. The hotdogger position of driving the Wienermobile is an open position to U.S. citizens and the duration of the job lasts for one full year: from the first of June until the following first of June. Every March at Kraft and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin there are final round interviews held for the hotdogger position. Each vehicle holds two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen from a final pool of 30 candidates brought to Oscar Mayer headquarters. The 30 candidates are screened across the country from over an average of 2000 applicants. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible for applying to this hotdogger position. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni.

All are plated in Wisconsin and use the following vanity license plates:

• YUMMY
• OUR DOG
• IWSHIWR
• OH I WISH
• WEENR
• WNRMOBL
• BOLOGNA
• RELSHME
• LIL LINK
• BIG BUN
• WNR MBLE

Yeah, I know that’s 11 plates. No explanation about that from Wikipedia. The one we saw two years ago was WEENR.