flying back

Still working on my trip
N961TW : My bird to STL

From Stl

You'll notice the "June Gloom" morning clouds. Here's LA

Kansas City Airport (MCI) :

Making the turn for Final approach:

Renovations inside:

From Stl

And tornado Damage outside:

My mom noticed something unusual about my rental:

From Stl

I always make a pilgrimage to old Bethel while I'm there It does serve to remind me that Cape Girardeau was different than others town, in that it was not homogeneously French. Here Shawnees, Delawares and Revolutionaries all lived together:

Bidding Old Bethel adieu for now:

and I paid my respects to Monsieur Lorimer as well

Gotta check out Le tour. brb:

Why Grumpy old men ride recumbents

This week was classic ride weekend at the bike club.
I was thinking about getting old because on of the club member That I had sold on Recumnbents dropped out because we were "too competitive" He even went to start a thread on a forum about it.
What makes it interesting is that I ran into the other side of the story. Ironically, it's the guy who I sold my Roubaix to. to add to irony, he was complaining about Steve wanting to turn everything into a race, and generally endangering everyone on the trail.
So where's the truth?
You do you have to a thick skin to walk the line between roadie land and Bentdom and get away with it. Too often, people can't and wind up in the hate, either that shown on Bent rider, or on any number of bike forums.
And yes, the Grind ride can be a bit over the top, but I think we a put it behind us once we get back.
Grumpy? I can see why if you keep on getting "where's your real bike?" or "When are your going to get as fast as you were on you old bike?" That would tend to make you stay where you can so off the "avantage" of being bent, like the rail trail, rather than Grinding it out on GMR (Pain: yes view: worth it) I have even sinned and went to Gaintbikes.com and ogled the Defy 1, and looked for another CAAD7 on ebay (Ken can keep the Rouibaix)
So, I am Roadie, Hear me roar!
More Classic stuff:



and scenery:

From 7-16-2011

still back in Time

Coming back on the 4th , I was going to stop and see the French marines in Kaskaskia,but there was just one problems:

From 7-5-2011

Old man river strikes again. I turned on the Radio, and found the Chester station. They were at Fort Kaskaskia, across the river. I did come calculations, and determined I couldn't do it in time.
So I pressed on to Ste Gen:

From 7-5-2011

I wanted to Visit the Bolduc house again, as part of my work include building a house similar to this, but conveniently moved to Cape Girardeau:

From 7-5-2011

As usual,I learned some things new to add, somethings to correct ,and somethings that I got right:

From 7-5-2011

I decided to walk on down to Gabouri Creek:

From 7-5-2011

A Train was coming back from the Lime Quarry:

From 7-5-2011

I decided to Visit Cahokia, Il.
Holy Family Catholic from 1799:

From 7-5-2011

and the First Saint Clair (Yes, named for General Arthur Saint Clair of the ignominious defat ) County Courthouse:

From 7-5-2011

It was time to go to the airport, but first trip by New busch Stadium:

From 7-5-2011

And back to Los Angeles:

From 7-5-2011

and making plans to attend the Fall Rendezvous at Fort Des Chartes. Still debating whether to stay in Saint Gen (closer, but will the Ferry be running?) or Chester(right side of river, bit further away)
until manana

Le Boom

I found my camera. after I had bought another one.
This is the french marines re-enactors firing the camera,and yes I was sick yesteerday.
I also made a new Friend at the Fort:

Lighting by glass:

From 7-6-2011

Bro exploring the Powder magazine ("that's a lot of wine")

An enjoyable place
I'm getting caught on e-mails- mainly sending out thank you notes to fort folks, plus the old Java stuff is getting back on track, so keep the rubber side down until next week

I laid the camera down right here...

I took my brother on a trip to Fort Des Chartes

Fort des Chartes is about 5 miles north of Praire Du Rocher, Il on the Mississippi river. The first fort (of wood) was built in 1720. Flooding from the Mississippi destroyed the first two wooden fort, and the French Government built a stone fort in the 1750's. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the French and Indian or seven years war, and transferred control of the east bank of the Mississippi to the British. They kept the fort active until the eve of the American Revolution in 1772, when they abandoned it and moved the troops eastward.
It set derelict until 1913, when the State of Illinois acquired the property. The Powder magazine was all that was left standing. It was restored as a "make work" project by the WPA in the Great Depression. It's used a museum:


They are some difference besides no shot, such as using aluminum foil as wadding (less fire risk), and lees powder. Still impressive.
I was going to take him back via Saint Genevieve and the Modoc ferry, but it was not running due to the flood. We went back down the East bank. I kidded him that we should stop in a redneck bar and get a frosty Bud or O'Douls, but he got mad because of his diabetes. We stopped instead at Chester, ll (home of Popeye) and had lunch at Hardee's. My Brother had a Monster thick burger(Ahem!), whereas I had the more svelte Turkey burger. Sadly to say, There was Spinach options,so we had to sulk out of town to avoid bullies
My brother feel asleep in the trip back. I went by Devils' Island ( more research) before heading home to get ready for my nephew's wedding, where I lost my camera. Oh well, I needed a new one

Rehearsal Photo

Small , but mighty

No riding this weekend, I got laid low by a Sore Throat. which I 'm just now getting over. Good, as I'm getting ready to head our of town again.
Last week, I was riding up Euclid when I had a flat, after fixing, I noticed something:

Yep, broke a spoke.
I was thinking about them, for the non-cyclists, alone they're quite wimpy (after all, originated as wire), but put together (Laced) and put under tension, they can support several hundred pound.
This led to me think about how we all want to be "Stress free". But a bicycle wheel won't work well without stress, and neither do we, Of Course, the cure for an overstressed wheel is much less expensive than de stressing a human (I was out $16).
Until next time, keep the rubber side down

Kevin pushed me!

I went for a ride this morning. It was the June Gloom again

It got worse through La Verne:

I did get to the base of GMR

Put turned before getting to "The Shed". LA county had painted the stripes on the Road with reflective, which is a slick as, well, insert your analogy here. Plus visibility was pretty nil:

Personally, I think Kevin Unck's ghost pushed me.
Either way, by the time I got to Upland, it had burned off:

But I still have the rainy day evidence on my bike

Best of both worlds

Sorry, no bike pictures today. we've been having the June Gloom.
and thinking back over my trip to Indiana, I came up with: an idea for another story. sigh.
Actually, it's good because I needed to do some plotting on the Lorimer story. I haven't abandoned it, like I have with a couple of other attempts of mine. but this is coming along too, so I guess I've found my niche.
And I've been playing around with some Computer stuff, since we may eventually be using the Spring Framework. so i've been downloaded packages here. Initial opinion: Give me Ruby on Rails or give me death.
And since I got asked for my card, today I sat down with Open Office and 2 hours later, Viola:

From Pictures

not bad, I wanted a Tricon hat with a Quill pen, but alas, none to be found.
And I know I'm showing my age with Van Halen, so :

scratching a note

You may have noticed that I mention that I brought a pen set at Vincennes.
Today, I set on my deck and decided to see what writing was like back then.
Surprisingly, it was eazy:

I was expecting to have ink all over the place, which is why I went out side. I also discovered where term "scratching out a note" came form, as it was really more of a scratching motion compared to a modern pen.
It also came with a quill pen, I could not get any of the heads to fit it. A couple of minutes with some needle nose pliers fixed it:

Not bad , and worth the price. Now to go tame my muses

The Indiana Time Machine

I was going to wake up bright and early Tuesday morning and go down to the Wabash.
I woke up at 6:48. Sleeping in for me. So I showered, got a waffle, and checked out of the Best Western – Inn at Old Vincennes.

I did take a trip down to the Clark memorial so I could ponder it mysteries. Still no answer.

I then decided to take a trip up to the Site Of Fort Knox II, just north of town. Don't ask me why, as when I was there in October, the gate was closed. One of those listening to the still,small voice moments.
A little note here, There was three Forts in Vincennes.
The first was Fort Sackville, which built by the British and captured By George Rogers Clark. It was on the same location as the memorial. When it became decrepit, It was wrecked, and replaced by Fort Knox I, the site of which is just to the north across Vigo Street, now the site of Downtown Vincennes. This is the fort that I'm attempting to depict in my work.
Fort Knox II was built in the early 1800's and was in use during the war of 1812. There was a Fort Knox III, which existed for a Brief time after the treaty, which would make the contemporary Military post Fort Knox IV(all named for Henry Knox, the First Secretary of War.)
Once I got there, the gate was open. I drove in. The outline of the fort, is, well , outlined.

The location was chosen because it sits on bluff overlooking the Wabash.

A neat place, even though it outside my time line.
When I had planed this trip, I had thought about going down to Shawneetown on the Ohio. I eventually decided it was too far.
I would up heading out to Lincoln City and the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.(“Honest Abe” lived here from when he was 8 until he was 21.) They have a nice memorial built by the State of Indiana. Another one of those still small voice decisions.
The main reason I went here was that there is a living history farm in the park. I wanted to wander around, but had to wander back to modern times to get some water first.

The actual cabin site is outlined:

8 people lived in this little cabin.
They have a replica.

The guide had an aunt who's also an aspiring historical fiction writer. We hit it off. I learned who to make yarn from both sheep hair(wool) and flax (linen) and how to generally get my little log cabin on the cover of the May 1812 edition of Good Housekeeping. Very much worth my time, even thought it was a bit off my time frame.
I decided to head back to Evansville, stopping at Steak N Shake for lunch.
I still had some time, so I headed over to Angel Mounds State Historic Site. Look who was there:

Well, Tecumseh was a Native American. 1205 is a little out of my time range, but it did give some practice of walking through a scene and winding it back.
Deer Running was escorting his new friend, Ms Lingo, through the Village. She was amazed that they kept the commons so free of grass.

“It used to be neater.” He lamented “Then the ugly ones killed the great leader, and we cannot find one to take his place.”
Just then, he noticed a man had joined them. He was pale faced, like Ms Lingo, but was tall and gangly. He was wearing a strange black hat and had hair on his face. He extend his hand to Deer Running.
“I grew up around here, and have considerable experience leading nations in time of war, which Ms Lingo can attest. Abraham Lincoln, esquire, at your service”
Back to reality. When I got to EVV, the TSA pulled me aside. I set off the Explosive Residue Dectector. Imagine that!
N605KS arrived to whisk us to DFW. Once there I decided to head to Chapel to meditate some more:

The time machine kicked in again. This is no ordinary airport chapel.
It's 1976. Instead of a bunch of red, white, and blue ERJs parked at the gate, There are 727's. Some are orange, some are blue, some are purple. All have two letters painted on the tail. BI. Braniff International Airways. And I'm going to LAX , and don't have to worry about eating an imitation barbecue sandwich in some fast food place, because we'll get fed on the plane, even if we are setting in economy.
The Chapel in Terminal “B” is a memorial to Braniff (The “Top Star”: Tom Braniff)

I moved over to Terminal “D” and back to the present day.

It seem like Flight 661 always boards here, even thought this is DFW's “International” Terminal. Maybe American is trying to send us a message that Southern California is really another Country.
Aside from a slight delay (Flight to Sao Paulo was having Boarding issues, and they were in “our” gate), the flight back went OK, and I went back to twiddling bits for food Wednesday morning