A pleasant discovery...

A portly bruin taking a mid-day snooze

I happened upon a great little park with an amazing assortment of animals, scenery and quiet spaces to enjoy a lunch and a little walk too.

A pair of tigers...

This is an amazing animal!

Sleeping hyena's

a little grooming

Here's a rare pic.  One of these cranes was sleeping, head tucked into the other...

The awake crane scanned the horizon for threats

Some bison were grazing

This little calf was busy having lunch too

A quiet spot to reflect on a busy day

The story of Old Abe...

I found this great little park in Chippewa Falls.  What a nice town!


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Tomahawk thunder...

Once again it is time for the great fall ride.  Every September thousands of Harley Davidson owners and their non-H-D friends descend upon a little town in Northern Wisconsin known as Tomahawk.  I've never seen such a crowd on motorcycles before, so we set out to see the epicenter and find out what this was all about!

Tomahawk is no stranger to fiberglass magic... this is a Frank Winter masterpiece built by the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company. From this little company would spring Harley Davidson Saddle bags, golf carts and created a community in the North Woods of Wisconsin with experience in molding and creating fiberglass components.

This display is of the craft "On Target" built in 1961 as a futuristic racing boat... the design made Newsweek and even traveled to NY City to be displayed on the Today show.

This old Baldwin Loco is on static display.  She's "Old No. 19" a 2-6-0 built in 1923 and used to pull iron ore from the mines in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to the ore docks on Lake Superior. She worked until 1957 when she was replaced by diesel electric EMD's. During her day, she ran the M.T.&W line and the Charcoal Iron Company of America line.

Lots of thumpety thumpety motorcycles

The center of town was reserved for motorcycles only traffic

After a while the syncoptic beat of the big V bikes was all you could hear...

Lined with bikes down the main street and all of the adjacent side streets.  1000's of owners were enjoying the pleasant weather and making a day of it.

You could buy one of these along with many more examples of "statement attire"

Must have been break time...

Another beautiful fall weekend!

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B-17 take off roll out of Bristol (Tennessee that is) this afternoon

One of the coolest things about traveling is that every now and then you get to see some really interesting things!  This afternoon was one of those chance happenings...

The start of another journey...

This was the first really cool thing to share...

Not just a NASCAR car..

This is THEE car... Sterling Marlin's 1994 Daytona 500 winner!

 

Even the front tire extension beyond the fender has a purpose... just this much exposure cleaned the air on the back spoiler...  I had the good fortune to meet Larry McClure too!

Wow, what's this?  We stumbled upon Sentimental Journey - a WW-II B-17 on the tarmac at Bristol

Meticulously restored, you can fly in this B-17 as a tourist

Uh-oh what's this?  A Bell 406... had to snap this pic.  I started my engineering career at Bell and worked on the now ancient 206... Pretty fancy surf board (only a few rotary wing folks know about that)

We were on the flight line and the atmospheric aberration was getting in the way.. but here's the 17 rolling in.

Taxiing off... super cool to hear  those big radials!

It's been awhile since I posted a roadside oddity...   I saw this mannequin the other day. So I give you September's roadside oddity...

Party at Butch's...

There you go!

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A wonderful evening on the dock at the close of summer

My favorite time of the day... when the setting sun bathes the horizon with gold tones...

Symmetry on a still lake.

As fall comes upon us... that's spring in Australia!  The leaves will turn from green to a pallet of colors.  Stay tuned...

I used a faster lens because I didn't have my tripod...

Soon the boats and piers will come ashore...

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Tilty planet rotation is at it again...

Drat!  It looks like the darned planet has rotated around the good old sun again with that pesky tilty thing going on...  I was trying to ignore the hours of daylight shrinking.  - Did the best I could to ignore the maple trees changing color... But then today I gave in and flipped on the seat heaters on the way to work.

Fall is in the air, along with a dip in temperature and the inevitable slide towards WINTER.


22 to 24.5 degrees every 41,000 years - like clockwork (tilt does indeed change slightly).  Assuming things go from max to min bounded by the winter and summer solstices - which this year  are 21 December and was 21 June, we're half way 'round again, and better bust out the sweaters and long sleeve shirts.

From: Wiki

I am amazed at the visitors from all over the world who wander by and I promise to post the changing of the season with all of its colorful glory.

There has been no other time in my life when I have so busy.  Life is good, and having a chance to effect meaningful opportunities for many is quite a blessing.

Poor Hazel is even growing impatient...

Nope, not going to get the ball, let's do something different!

Another night falls.  I took a break from the ppts and working on the projects to sit on the dock for a while. 

Soon the Northern wilderness will be popping with the most beautiful colors - I promise to keep you posted!

So I finally got linux to see and then shake hands with my 955Q.  I've never built and patched a kernel before! YAY digital TV in North America - and with linux! 

OK, not really a roadside oddity but kind of a step side oddity... I woke up and let Hazel out this morning to find this flipper.  Hazel loves to play catch, I suspect she found this in the forest and brought it home - at least that's my theory!

Hazel's friends are always in the driveway!

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