Road Trip

Well, my latest hair-brained scheme was to think that I could drive 800 miles straight through in one day. From Dallas to Denver. 12 hours of mostly nothingness. Not a trip for the faint of heart!

Here is New Mexico. I went from mid-70's when I left Dallas at midnight to mid-20's in the wee hours of the morning (!) when I got into New Mexico. As you can tell, there was snow on the ground but the roads were all dry with no problems.



This is southern Colorado as I crossed from New Mexico into Colorado.



And this is approaching Colorado Springs headed towards Denver.



Here are a couple pictures of Dave with his sons. This is Seth, who is a college junior at School of Mines in Denver. School of Mines is similar to MIT. Seth is majoring in Mechanical & Electrical Engineering.



And this is Sam who is 23. He works in construction and is a fellow Starbucks afficionado.

Yes, We Really Do Work...

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there are dark thick sideburns attached to the Elvis glasses! This is my boss from the police department...

One Really Cool Car

Did you know there are "kit" cars? Similar to airplanes, cars can be built by the average person. This is a Ford Cobra.

The interior is so small, the "average" person is cramped. For my short self at 5'1", this would be a perfect fit car :=)



The exhaust is on the side, not in the rear. You can smell some serious carbon monoxide when the car is running.



And one immaculate engine. It was an absolute beaut!

A Fall Air Race

I spent a really beautiful day outdoors today - sunny and mid-80's - watching airplanes and catching up with the pilots I normally see at these things.

Entering the airport property - the airport is located about an hour north of Dallas and is just a few minutes from the Oklahoma border. Back in World War II, it was an Army Air Corps base.



Here is a "homebuilt" (versus being made in a factory) plane. Notice that the propeller in the REAR of the plane (not the front) - the plane is taxiing away from me. It's called a Velocity XL.



"Hand-propping" the plane so it will start! There is no electrical ignition as there is on many airplanes. This was the slowest plane in the race at approximately 75 m.ph.



This "co-pilot" is the son of the pilot hand-propping his plane.



Here is an RV4 - also a "homebuilt". This pilot flew in from Colorado for the race.



This little beauty has a turbine engine.



And another RV. These planes are built with either a small wheel at the rear (a "taildragger") or with one wheel just under the nose of the plane (a "tricycle" gear) - depending on the mood of the pilot :=)



This is a Swearingen and can fly at close to 300 m.p.h. at full speed. This pilot was also from out of state; he came in from New Mexico and flew home when the festivities were over.



These aircraft weren't in the race, but I thought they were interesting to see. An ultralight...



...and a gyrocopter.

Sightseeing in Austin

While I was down in Austin, I had the chance to do some sightseeing. Last Saturday I poked around downtown Austin and saw some "touristy" things. Austin is the state capitol so I couldn't resist snapping some pictures...











And, some urban art...







Sunday I drove about 30 miles south of Austin to a local airport to see if anything was going on there (it was pretty quiet!)



Isn't this a cute looking restaurant???

A Dog's Life

Last week while I was down in Austin, I was sitting at a Starbuck's and this guy had his dog and his bike with him. When he got ready to leave, the dog jumped right into his "seat" and waited (pretty patiently) for his owner to start pedaling. Off they went down the street...