Riding and Research

I managed to combine both my passion this weekend
Friday , I did a brief ride before heading out to Bentup to pick up my bike:


Since Bentup is in North Hollywood. I seized the day and did some "location scouting" and drove into LA to the Site of the Old Ambassador Hotel , and 1818 Venice Boulevard. why there? Read on.
Saturday, I rode by the Filippi Winery



afterward, I rode out to a subdivision in Fontana:




This was once the site of Gifillan airport. My plot pulls the development of GCA Radara few years, adds some Nazis and a 360 year old protagnoist in the mixing , and hopes that page turning (or clicking the button on a ereader) ensues. In case you're Wondering , 1818 Venice was where Gilfillan was located in the 1940's. I my have to change the company name, but i've got more writing to do.
What's GCA?

Love Chuck and his pipe. I also found another novel on GCA development. And yes, my British engineer is now name Arthur.
Until next week, keep the rubber side down

remebering

I didn't get much riding in
I had a flat on the front tire of my giro 20, but didn't have a spare tube, I went ahead and made the memorial ride anyway:

From 1-23-2011

I had planned on using "time to say goodbye" but ran into copyright problems. "how to save a life" was used during the memoial service at Pomona College, and it fit in more ways than one.
I did make another video of my ride to the Grind:

Today I did a 25 miles ride in honor of Nancy Fish, aka Pansy Palmetto, I made to 24.75 and had a flat. I walked the rest.
On the aviation front, I added to my fleet:
TOL to ORD via SBN:(BAE 146)

The largest plane I have been on Boeing 757-200:

Special livery

I also started work on another book, primarily because I thought it would be more marketable ("Richard Sharpe meets Duncan McLeod at Blackadder's Castle and moves to America"). Plus it's set in LA in the 1940's, which makes research cheaper. Now to do some more research on GCA radar
Until next week, don't lose your head

Transistions

I had two cycling friends make transitions this week
First off Kevin Unck passed way on Sunday in a accident on Glendora Mountain road.
Here a photo from the memorial service at the Start of the Grape fun ride

From 1-15-2011

and second, Nancy Fish, aka Pansy Palmetto on bikejournal.com has treminal cancer.
Not a fun week.
Also, I wound up dropping my Strada off for an overhaul at Bent up on friday. I forgot how much harder my Giro 20 is to ride! Plus , it developed a flat on the front and I only had one spare tube. I had to meant to walk today, but I wound up cranking out some chapter for my books. You see, I have been praying for directions, and I keep on getting back "write, write, write" (followed by the Human "edit, edit, edit"). I'm not sure where this is taking me with the Brave new world of publishing, but all I can do is trust and obey

So I'll leave with a good pic of Mt baldy, and see you all next week

Just like the real thing, only smaller

I order an Ozark Coffee Mug for my Brother and threw in this:

so , I decided to a model plane for each airliner type/livery I have flown in (No, I never made it on TW's 717s. Let's pretend it's DC-9 or MD80)
My usual way out of MDT:

My First Flight out of ONT:

a CRJ:

another way to get to MDT:

From 11-14-2010

a real "Mad Dog"

From 12-3-2010

and a "Jungle Jet"

From 12-24-2010

more mad dogs:

From 12-24-2010

and a flying cigar

Yes, I did, but the weather was not picture friendly:

and yes, let's have a You tube:

Kicking the can forward

Not really inspired to write much, Probably because I started another fiction project and have been working some crazy o/t.
Any way I did make it to the Rose Parade:

and from the still:

One thing I notice was that some of the floats were really optimized for viewing from above rather than street level, you can watch it http://www.ktla.com/entertainment/roseparade/
Hopefully, a better post next week