South Dakota and Wyoming

As we got closer to home, weather was very much on my mind. I had taken a calculated risk and left Calgary without first putting on snow tires – given the bulk of our driving was going to be in the sun belt, it seemed like a reasonable chance to take. While we had done some slipping and sliding in the snow in Yellowstone, for the most part we’d been lucky and managed to miss the early winter dumps of snow. Now though it was early November, and as we climbed higher in elevation into the mid-west, snow was starting to be a concern.  Last week a large storm system had dumped quite a bit of snow in Colorado and Wyoming, and one of the locations we wanted to stop at – Mount Rushmore – was actually closed on October 29th due to snow and ice packed roads. I kept my fingers crossed.

South Dakota is – pretty flat and the drive takes you for hours across open plains, and for the most part tree-less prairie. Highway 90 cuts an almost straight line east to west between Sioux Falls and Rapid City where the plains transition to foothills as you approach the Rocky Mountain range. As a result, it was nice to see the occasional bit of art work  – the one to the right of someone out walking their dinosaur put a smile on my face. The connection of course is The Badlands to the south as you near Rapid City where many significant fossil finds have been made since about 1846, with probably the most recent ‘big’ one being ‘Sue’ – an almost complete Tyrannosaurus Rex found in 1990.

Happily the snow had pretty much gone by the time we arrived in Rapid City so the short drive south into the Black Hills area to see Mount Rushmore close the resort town of Keystone was not a problem.  Good thing we hadn’t planned to stay in Keystone, as the town was pretty much shut down for the winter – it was little better than a ghost town with only a very places open for business. Mount Rushmore itself was interesting – as I looked at it, all I could think of was how the heck you’d ever get environmental approval to do anything like that today. The faces themselves are easily visible, although I should have realized that any photo you normally see of them is taken with a long lens – from the highway and visitor centre they do not look very big at all, but it is still quite impressive.

We didn’t stay long – the visit was more of a ‘bucket-list’ item than anything else and after a few minutes and a few photos we were on our way again, back into Rapid City for the night.

Next on the list was Devils Tower just across the border in Wyoming, and which was featured in the 1977 movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. Why was it on my list of  things to see ? All I can say was that I strangely drawn to it !

Seriously – it is arrestingly beautiful and you do not need a sign to know that you are looking at something really different. The surrounding area is mainly sedimentary rock (hence all the fossils), whereas Devils Tower is igneous rock. Based on anything I’ve read, it is supposedly not a volcanic plug left standing after the cone has eroded away such as we saw in the Glasshouse Mountains north of Brisbane in Australia, although it certainly has the same appearance.

At any rate, it was worth the drive – recommended.

Next stop – Little Big Horn !

Kentucky’s National Quilt (Museum !) plus Dillon’s

Leaving Rotary Recycle, we continued north through Tennessee’s rolling hills and cotton fields, through Nashville and into Kentucky. We had debated (very briefly) stopping in Nashville to see a few of the sights, but neither of us is even slightly interested in country music or country singers, so the level of enthusiasm for stopping was rather less than it would have been for hitting one’s thumb with a hammer – in others words, not very high at all !  Our Kentucky target was the town of Paducah located at the juncture of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, and it is as close to being the quilting capital of the USA as one is likely to get as it is the home of the National Quilt Museum ! A friend of mine in Toronto has expressed surprise that such a place actually exists, or that anyone (me for example) would actually want to go to such a place – he probably won’t eat Quiche either ! Putting aside the fact that I generally go where ever SWMBO’d tells me, the fact is modern-day quilting at the higher levels is an art form, rather than being a means to make something to keep you warm at night, and some of the examples produced within the past 20 years or so are really quite amazing to look at, and in many cases may have taken years to complete. The museum has about 200 quilts on display, made by women – and a few men – from around the world,  and they have been indexed in an on-line format here.

At the moment, the museum is featuring an exhibit of WWII quilts, and these include many that were made to be auctioned off as a part of fund-raising efforts in communities during the war, as well as quilts made to be distributed by agencies such as the Red Cross either to civilians or to service people overseas. There was actually a Canadian made Red Cross quilt, suitable for a child, which had been originally distributed in England and was now a part of the collection  which has been pulled together by Sue Reich who researches and gives lectures about quilt making history. It is quite a moving, as well as interesting display. If you like art – and especially if you like quilts – recommended !

Continuing north through Illinois, Missouri and Iowa the ground levels out, the cotton fields give way to fields of corn, and grain, and the trees start to disappear as you enter the central plains and prairies. Along the way, we made a small detour into Nebraska and the city of Omaha to drop in and see the folks at Dillon Brothers Motorsports which is whom I normally order my Suzuki parts from. As I’ve commented previously a few times here, the prices for parts from Suzuki Canada are often (not always – you do have to check) double what the exact same parts are sold for by Suzuki in America. I think Suzuki Canada’s behaviour is borderline criminal, but that’s life – I just don’t feel obliged to support them and so have purchased several thousand dollars worth of parts, mainly from Dillon Brothers, in the US over the past couple of years. Even after adding in the costs of shipping and brokerage fees I have saved a bundle over what it would have cost me to deal with Suzuki Canada resellers.

Of course, when buying items over the internet, you always have a nagging thought at the back of your mind, as to whether the outfit is just a couple of unshaven guys sitting there in their underwear amid piles of empty beer cans and operating out of their basement, or whether it is actually a ‘reputable’ company, hence the slight detour to just take a quick look ! I’m pleased to say, Dillon Brothers has quite a nice facility so hopefully they will whether the current economic squeeze and continue in business for as long as I need parts !

We are starting to get close to home – just a few more stops !

Barber Museum and Rotary Recycle

Leaving New Orleans,we headed north out of Louisiana, through Mississippi and then into Alabama to the site of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum which is located about halfway between the city of Birmingham and the Talladega racetrack. As we drove north, the vegetation changed from tropical trees, live oaks, the occasional banana and palm tree, to being more of a mixed, almost temperate forest and the sugar cane gave way to cotton fields.  The swamps gave way to rolling hills and obviously we were no longer at sea level.

The Barber collection of vintage motorcycles is counted as being the largest in the world, and one of its several claims to fame is that 99% of the bikes can be made to run within an hour. That would likely not be true of the single example of the Suzuki GT750 they had as it was incomplete, and not really ‘correct’ which was a bit disappointing.  By way of compensation, the other bikes that were on display were beautiful and there were many I’d only ever read about: Munch Mammoth, Kawasaki 1300 6 cylinder, Benelli 750 Sei, Allen Millyard’s V8, 1300 cc Kawasaki etc. It’s almost too much to grasp as there is something like 1200 machines in the collection ! I could probably have stayed there for days, but we did have a firm appointment for dinner that evening with some friends so eventually, and regretfully we had to leave. There is an annual swap meet and auction held at the facility in October and I had hoped to attend this year, but that just didn’t work out from a scheduling perspective, however I am seriously thinking of going next year.  And you can be assured if I do, that I will be spending much more time in the museum – highly recommended.

The next day, we went to meet Jess Stockwell the new owner of a company called Rotary Recycle in  a little town called Tullahoma in Tennessee.  On the way there we drove by the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, but we didn’t stop – if you can believe it,  it is located in a ‘dry’ county (has been so since prohibition) – so there are no sales of alcoholic beverages, and no tasting on the tour ! You have to drive to the next county to buy a bottle of JD – weird. 

Rotary Recycle was started by Sam Costanzo who bought the remaining RE5 stock and spares from Suzuki when Suzuki decided to give up on the rotary (Wankel) engined RE5 motorcycle that they produced in 1975 and 1976. He also bought up whatever parts and pieces he could track down for the Hercules W-2000 rotary engined bike, built by Sachs/DKW in 1974/1975. With Sam’s retirement, the business was sold to Jess who has relocated the stock and parts to the new warehouse location he has put together in Tullahoma. The business has been open at the new location for about 6 weeks and the web site is still a it rough, but hopefully things will come together in the next short while.

Walking through the warehouse (visits are by appointment only), I was amazed at the amount of material on hand as well as the number of certified, used engines and parts bikes on hand for both the Suzuki RE5 and Hercules W-2000. It is an immense collection – most probably the largest gathering of rotary engined motorcycles on the globe, and I really hope Jess can make a go of it as it would be a huge loss to the RE5/W2000 owner community if he doesn’t. If you own one of these rotary engined motorcycles, give him a call.

Next stop – the National Quilt Museum !

New Orleans and Oak Alley Plantation

I’ve been to New Orleans many times on business, but this was the first time visiting as a tourist. We stayed at a very nice old hotel/condo complex in the French Quarter called – appropriately – The Quarter House. Much of the building is about 175 years old and the rooms manage to preserve much of the original brick work and horse hair plastered walls (if you looked closely at the exposed edges, you could actually see the embedded hairs in the plaster !). The area called the French Quarter is actually the oldest area of New Orleans, and was founded very nearly 300 years ago. It also is ‘high ground’ which I suppose is a relative term given it is only about a metre or so above sea level, but it is worth noting that it is one of the few areas in New Orleans that didn’t flood during the Katrina hurricane in 2005.

When I compare how I remember it prior to Katrina, to how it is today, New Orleans is obviously still recovering and has a long way to go – even during rush hour, the traffic really wasn’t bad at all, and where I recall having to push my way through dense crowds of people partying the night away on places like Bourbon Street, I found that it just didn’t seem busy at all.  Having said that, the food is still first rate, the music is still great, the bars are open 24 hours a day – and New Orleans is I think the one city where you can legally take your beer with you as you go for a walk on the street.  The beignets (a type of deep fried pastry topped with icing sugar) are still being bought by the dozen by lines of tourists at Cafe du Monde, although I personally think a Tim Horton’s would put them out of business in a week as the ones we had were heavy and greasy rather than light and fluffy as I remember. It is still very much a party place – and as Halloween was approaching there were lots of people in costumes and fancy dress just wondering around and taking in the scene. I hope it continues to recover and get back fully on its feet as New Orleans is still one of my favourite North American cities.

We visited several places in the city, but one of note was the Old New Orleans Louisiana Rum distillery which is a boutique distillery offering tours and tastings, and which produces one of the nicest sipping rums I’ve had in some time ! Outside of the city, we took the suggestion of a friend of mine still working for Shell, and toured a few of the plantations that border the Mississippi River about 30 miles up stream from New Orleans. The main crop grown prior to the civil war and still to this day is sugar cane and there is still a lot of it to be seen under cultivation. One plantation we visited was the Oak Alley Plantation, so named because of the twin row of 28 live oak trees (a species of oak common in the southern USA, and called ‘live’ as it is an evergreen oak that stays green year round) leading from the front door to the levee bordering the Mississippi. The trees are said to be about 300 years old, although the building dates from 1836, and at that time as was the case generally in that area, the plantation included slaves who lived in housing further back from the river behind the main house.

It is worth noting that prior to the start of the civil war, many slaves at Oak Alley had been freed by the Roman family, who owned the plantation till 1848, although I personally found it quite sobering to see that at that time there were still 113 people listed in the 1848 estate “inventory”.

Next stops – Alabama and Tennessee !

Houston and Sirius

We had a great visit with friends and former colleagues in Houston and also managed a bit of shopping while SWMBO’d visited the international quilt show being held at the  George Brown Convention Centre.  This is an annual event, and reputedly the largest in the world, with participants from all over the globe.  I’d wondered whether the economic situation would put a dampener on the event, and evidently it wasn’t as busy as in previous years – but it is still quite big ! There were many quilts to be seen – to the left is one example.

While SWMBO’d was checking out fabric, I managed to stop into a couple of Harbour Freight stores – my American friends on the various motorcycle bulletin boards swear by them, so I had to take a look, and it turned out to be time well spent. Harbour Freight is a chain of stores much like Princess Auto or Manitoba Tools in Canada (and it would not surprise me at all if there was some sort of connection between them all). They stock automotive tools and specialty items – often low-end stuff, but also some very good quality items – and often the prices are amazing. As an example. I picked up a battery tender (designed to maintain a wet battery’s charge over a long period of time) for $6 and the going price for a very similar item in Calgary is about $40. Another store in Houston is Northern Tool which is similar to Harbour Freight but perhaps a bit better quality. At any rate I ended up buying a load of useful stuff for much less than I’d pay for the same quality of item in Canada.

The other item I picked up was an XM satellite radio receiver. When SWMBO’d and I travel, we generally pack along a load of CD’s but then don’t listen to them – our tastes in music are quite different and I’d rather endure ants eating my eyeballs than have to listen to Celine Dion mooning about something or other for hours on end, and likewise SWMBO’d doesn’t really care for anything I like. As a result we generally travel in musical silence, broken with the occasional bit of small talk. I’d been thinking about picking up a satellite radio system for some time and so wasted no time in heading out to Fry’s Electronics in Houston as soon as I had the chance !  Fry’s is a dream come true if you are any sort of propeller head sort of person and frankly it is a must see every time I’m in the area !   They had an XM/Sirius radio for a reasonable price, and I had it up and running in the car within about and hour start to finish. Frankly we love it – there is no way we could possibly buy enough CD’s and then find the time to put together our own compilations  which would match what is offered on the satellite radio. As a result, we have been able to listen to hours of commercial free music and so far at least are still talking to each other – its great, and recommended. The other things I’d offer is that being able to listen to a music station for hundreds of kilometres without losing the signal still seems a bit incredible to me – yes I realise it’s a satellite transmission, but that in no way takes away any of the sense of wonder, for me at least, at how well it works.

We spent some time at Livingstone Lake where some friends of ours have a cottage (or as they call them here – a lake house). A neighbour happens to have a fairly decent collection of vintage motorcycles, and we were fortunate enough to have a private tour of his collection of about 50 bikes – mainly British but there are few  American and European ones also.

To the right is a 16H Norton which is what my Dad owned in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s in the UK, although his had a sidecar fitted. This one is a very nice example.

We had a good visit and hope to be back soon, but the next stop is New Orleans !

The Alamo

We arrived in San Antonio in the pouring rain for one reason only – to see The Alamo.  I can still remember watching the Walt Disney mini-series called “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” which aired in the late 1950’s – amongst boys my age it was hugely popular and at one time, I even owned a ‘genuine’ coon skin cap ! Back then, television watching was an event, with the whole family set in front of our black and white Hallicrafters TV each Sunday, watching good old Walt introduce whatever was going to be featured that week.  In the Walt Disney series, the scene that still sticks in my mind after all these years is the closing where the stockade is being over run and the sound track with that idiot, but cheerful song comes on, and Davy Crockett battles away as the scene fades and the credits start to roll. At the time of course, I was too young to appreciate that very nearly everyone including Davy Crockett died, or even why they were there in the first place, but it made a big impression on me. As we were in the area I wanted to see the actual location where the event had taken place.

Native Texans (referred to as Texians) , and many Americans hold The Alamo in a very special place – the phrase “Remember The Alamo” still is used to rally Americans – but I have to admit that for me it was actually a bit of a disappointment. What I had understood since childhood to be “The Alamo” building actually is just the small chapel, which admittedly was the location of the final moments of the battle, but which once occupied only one corner of the complex. Most of the fort isn’t there any more having been paved and built over during the past 170 odd years.

History is generally written by the victors, and for this area of the USA this is most certainly true. If you take a squinty-eyed look at the history of that period in time, one could argue that essentially it was a case of American settlers ultimately being successful in doing an illegal land grab from what was a legitimate government.  In some respects I suppose it wasn’t too much different from American attempts to invade/annex parts of Canada (war of 1812, 1837 raids along the St. Lawrence, etc.). The main difference was that in the north, the Americans lost, but in the south they won – at least they did back then. Now as you travel in the southern parts of the USA it is interesting to see that Spanish speaking folks seem to predominate in many areas, to the point that English is almost a second language. Many hotel, industry and agricultural support staff do not even speak understandable English, leading me to wonder if what was lost by force of arms may ultimately be won via the cradle, but I digress.

The Alamo site is maintained by a group called ‘The Daughters of The Republic” and it is now regarded as an official state shrine. As such, when you enter the chapel  you are directed to remove your hat and not take any photos – inside the chapel people tend to talk in whispers amid an attitude of reverence and (almost) awe as you walk the “hallowed” ground. Naturally as many of the locals still carry firearms just in case the government gets out of hand, one complies with this behaviour !

Roswell and Carlsbad

We continued our journey onwards from Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, through Teton National Forest and then the high plains desert areas in the south of Wyoming. While the area through to the Colorado border has a stark beauty, it is difficult to see how what few people there are manage to support themselves. Of course in the past, the area around Rawlins and then north and east of Lander was where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, operated so I suppose earning a living in the area has always been a challenge !

After passing through the fabled old west towns of Laramie and Cheyenne, we left Wyoming and entered Colorado, specifically the town of Colorado Springs where the intent had been to go up to the top of Pike’s Peak.  There are not a lot of place where you can drive to the top of a 4,301 M (14,110 feet) mountain peak, and once up there, the view is spectacular – I drove it previously many years ago and had been looking forward to a second visit, but it was not to be. When we arrived, the area, at ground level at least, was shrouded in freezing rain and sleet, so prudence overcame enthusiasm and we decided to save that experience for another time.

Continuing south from Colorado, we passed into New Mexico and made our way down to Roswell, the object of much X-Files style speculation by conspiracy theorists and part time crazies, around a supposed UFO crash site and subsequent US Army cover-up which is alleged to have happened in 1947.  I found it interesting that the welcome marker for the town of Roswell doesn’t even mention the supposed UFO incident, which is largely the only reason most folks have ever heard of the place, so perhaps there is a conspiracy after all ! The local residents at least do seem to have a sense of humour, or at least a keen willingness to take advantage of the notoriety, and there are many shops offering “genuine” alien and UFO paraphernalia as well as a UFO museum !

From Roswell, we continued south to Carlsbad which is the site of a truly amazing set of natural caverns. We have visited many tourist accessible caverns over the years but this one is special. The main cave, called the Big Room, is located about 230 M (750 feet) underground has a walkway around the perimeter of just over 1.6 km (1 mile) long, and the cavern itself has a total area of just over 6 football fields ! While this sort of tour is really tame (I admit we took the elevator down, rather than do the 2 hour walk), it is a very nice way of making something as special as this readily available to the public. Worth a visit if you are in the area.

We crossed over into Texas, and headed for Austin through west Texas desert and scrub lands – I’ve been told this is the location of one of the worlds largest oak forests, which may or may not be true although there isn’t much to see over a meter tall ! We did see one roadrunner (but no coyote !) and a few ghost towns – its a fairly bleak area.

The one really nice thing was the speed limit, in typical Texan style, was higher than anywhere else in the USA we’d driven so far – 80 MPH ! As well, I noticed that the fuel sold was 2 numbers higher in octane (93 rather than 91) than in the previous three states – not sure why that would be the case, but I’m sure there must be a reason.

Next stop – the Alamo !

Yellowstone

We recently had an opportunity to do a driving trip into the central/midwest area of the USA to attend the International Quilt Show, held each year in Houston. This show is probably the largest quilt show in the world, and it is genuinely ‘international’ in its scope with attendees and displays from all around the globe. As we had the time available to drive,  we made a list of central/midwest places we’d like to see along the way – and on that list the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming was a ‘must do’ !

I have no idea what other tourists think about when they drag their kids and significant others through the park, but National Geographic magazine recently featured Yellowstone  in its August issue, and in some ways I wish I hadn’t read it ! While that part of the USA is absolutely beautiful – forests, lakes, mountains, foothills and red rock hills and canyons, Yellowstone Park and its geysers,boiling mud pits and fumaroles are actually located in the caldera of an absolutely massive volcano measuring about 73 km (45 miles) across ! As per NG, half of all the geysers on the planet are actually in Yellowstone Park, so while it may seem silly, all I could think about as I photographed SWMBO’d as she watched ‘Old Faithful” , was about what was happening under my feet. There is obviously an enormous amount of pent-up energy  in the depths below you and areas of the park recently have risen several feet in recent years, sufficient to actually ’tilt’ Yellowstone Lake and drown trees on the shoreline on low side. For me, it was nice to see Old Faithful do its thing, but I sure do not want to be there if that volcano ever does decide to wake  up !

The Lancaster In Nanton

I just spent the morning in Nanton which is about a 45 minute drive  south of Calgary, at the not so small Nanton Lancaster Society museum which features one of the few remaining Lancaster bombers from the Second World War.  This plane (FM159) was in service with the Canadian Air Force till 1958, and after being decommissioned was purchased in 1960 for $513 to be used as a Nanton war memorial/tourist attraction and it then sat outside for the next 31 years ! Since 1991 it has been undergoing restoration and this has been very much a community led project – currently the engines are progressively being restored with two in service now, and a third under repair.

When my Dad was here for a short visit a few weeks ago, I took him down for a look, and we were slightly disappointed to discover that the Merlin engine run-up would be happening just after he flew home !  Luckily, another engine run-up was scheduled for today, so I made certain I made it there in time to take it in. I’m not sure where else in the world you can stand within 40 feet of a real WWII Lancaster bomber, parked on the side of a major highway, with its engines running – but you can do that here, and its great ! I shot a short video which can be seen below - the strobe effect you see with the propellers is due to the slow sample rate of the camera and not because they are made out of rubber ! Enjoy !

Powder Prep

I’ve been spending a few days preparing several items for the Calgary CVMG club ‘powder coating day’ this coming Saturday.  Should be interesting as I haven’t actually seen this done before – other than on television of course ! I hope to have two motorcycle frames ready to go – both are Suzuki’s, one being a 1973 GT750 and the other being a 1977 GT500. I’ve spent the past few days disassembling and getting them stripped down, taken lots of photos and bagged and tagged many of the smaller bits and pieces, nuts and bolts.

Today I spent some time washing off the accumulated dirt and  oil from 30+ years of use.  I had briefly thought of  doing this in my driveway using my pressure washer, but very quickly rejected the idea as it would flush small amounts of oil and grease down the storm drain. Instead, I took everything over to a local Shell car wash as they (supposedly) are set up to keep this sort of debris out of the storm water system.

I’ve touched on Shell’s marketing folks and what an odd lot they are previously. Some time ago (before I retired !) I had suggested to the same brilliant marketing folks at Shell that keep closing filling stations so you can’t find one when you need one, that they start to consider the value of putting Shell’s name on the roofs of our buildings. When you consider the number of people using the various free mapping services offering satellite photos that show tons of detail, you would think it would be a no-brainer. A few companies have actually done this in the USA, and Microsoft offers this capability in a virtual fashion with Tim  Horton’s coffee shops and Petro-Canada filling stations in some parts of Canada using their Bing mapping service. In the photo to the right, you can see the Shell station and car wash I used – or at least you can now that I’ve pinned a label on it with an arrow !  Imagine how it would look with a big Shell pecten on the roof – this of course hasn’t happened. As I may have mentioned previously, our marketing folks border on genius in much the same way that hammers do – not very much at all actually, but I digress ……

The parts are now all freshly washed, and tomorrow I go over to the good folks at Consolidated Compressor here in Calgary to sand blast all the bits and pieces. I wrote about them previously here , and this time I will be using their indoor glass bead blasting cabinet for the smaller items and the outside sand blasting stations for the two frames. I have to admit, for someone like myself who doesn’t have to do this sort of thing for a living, there is a certain fascination about watching the old paint, rust and anything else that happens to get in the way and isn’t firmly attached get blasted into oblivion – it promises to be fun ! If all goes well, I’ll have Friday to blow out any bits of grit and make sure everything is ready to go for the main powder coating event Saturday morning.

I’ll let you know how it goes !