Iron Modeler

"The hobby is dead, Long Live the hobby!"

I finally was able (once again) to get a weekend off, so the wife and I took a ride to Aiken, SC and Augusta, GA (part of the reason for the ride was to reconnoiter a possible driving route for an upcoming event).  While in town, we stopped in at the HobbyTown USA in Augusta.  Dave has a large selection of kits, the largest selection I've seen since I left South Florida.  So, I wasn't really surprised to see that he had several new kits as well a a whole mess of reissues in stock.  Some random thoughts follow...

I like what Round Two Models is doing.  In case you haven't noticed, they acquired the rights to several manufacturers' catalogs from years gone by, including AMT, MPC, and Polar Lights.  Dave had the reissue of AMT's 1/25 scale 1976 AMC Gremlin X in their "Original Art Series".  You get the same AMT plastic from years gone by, and they also include an 11" X 14" print of the artwork less any other copy--no logo, no other text, just the artwork.  I just had to pick the kit up, since this is just the type of kit I grew up building.  The plastic parts are quite nice--no flash, very nice, very clean.  It looks like it will be a fun build, too.  The other things about this kit that caught my eye was that Round Two encloses a small fold-out catalog of their products as well as a postcard that asks the buyer "What do you want to see from Round Two Models?"  It warms my heart to see a company is once again willing to listen to their customer base.  The other Round Two products that caught my eye were a Limited Edition of the 1/16 scale Dodge Charger in the guise of a "Street Charger"--rumor has it that the NASCAR version (the Petty Charger) will be released shortly.  Also, their 1/25 scale Big Rig collection has been joined by the reissue of the Diamond Reo.  Very nice...

The other kit that caught my eye at HobbyTown USA was the new Revell 1/48 scale PV-1 Ventura.  Twenty years ago, I would have been all over this kit like a fat kid on a box of Krispy Kremes--I lived for 1/48 scale WWII aircraft, and the Ventura was one I would have loved to build back in the day.  Since then, I have switched scales to 1/72 for multi-engined subjects, but the Revell kit still interests me by the fact that is is a new release from the re-re-reborn Revell.  By all accounts, it is quite the kit.  I'm happy to see Revell back in the game.  I'm also happy to see Revell reissuing recent kits (if you call 10 year old kits "recent") like the 1/48 SB2C, P-47N, and the Prowler/Intruder series.  If that doesn't wake you up, have you seen some of the Renwal kits that Revell has been reissuing?  Sweet...

Then there's Moebius Models.  If you haven't seen them in stores yet, their 1/25 scale kits of the 1952/1953 Husdon Hornet are out, and they are very nice, indeed.  My wife preordered the Tim Flock 1952 NASCAR version of the kit, and I am impressed.  Build reports from the Internet are saying wonderful things about this kit and its 1953 street version brother.  Next up from Moebius is a 1955 Chrysler 300, and I can't wait to see it.

Even better?  All of them are offering some sort of newsletter or modeler's club.  Nice, right?

I think what we're seeing here is a return of hobbyists having a say in how model companies are run.  Back in the days of Lew and Royle Glaser (Revell), Jack Besser and Bob Reder (Monogram), Joe Giammarino and Abe Shikes (Aurora), to name but a few, the model companies were run by modelers and hobbyists.  There was a sense of business behind them--after all, if the company made no money, they were out of business--but the driving force was the hobby.  These folks were hobbyists themselves, and they knew what they wanted to see.  They'd research a subject, and if they thought it would sell, they'd design, tool, and produce the product. 

A lot changed, and not for the good, when Nabisco bought Aurora and Mattell acquired Monogram.  The hobby people were either out for good or shunted to the side while the businessmen made the product decisions.  Now, granted, not every hobbyist running a company had the Golden Touch--when Royle Glaser began running her late husband's company, she did some trimming, since Revell had a huge catalog, but was never very stable financially.  But in the end, Revell, too, was sold to a business group.  With the departure of the hobbyists, these companies did continue to thrive for a while.  But things weren't as rosy, I guess, as they appeared.  Monogram merged with Revell.  They were bought and sold several times.  The Monogram name has all but gone away for new kits.  The last new aircraft kit from Revell (not Revell-Germany!) that comes to mind was the 1/48 scale F/A-18E and F kits from around 2005.  The names MPC and AMT all but disappeared when Racing Champions acquired the company in the late 1990's.  Nabisco liquidated Aurora in 1977.  Hawk Models went away, many of their kits reappeared in Testor's boxes. 

Recently, though, things have been looking up.  J.Lloyd International has the Lindberg, Hawk, Weird-Ohs, Frantics, and Silly Surfers lines in their catalog.  Round Two, as we've discussed, has AMT, MPC, and Polar Lights under thier banner, and they have been busy reissuing kits from years past.  Moebius is going quite well with their Sci-Fi, vehicle, and various comic book and movie character kits.  With the Revell release of the Ventura, one can only hope they are on the road to many more new releases and reissues of their kits from back in the day.

Add to all this the recent releases and reissues from Dragon/DML/Cyber-Hobby, Hasegawa, Trumpeter/HobbyBoss, and Tamiya, several new issues from Italeri along with their extensive back catalog, the availability of Fujimi kits once again in the United States, Academy's releases and reissues, Roden's ever-expanding line of kits from WWI crates to airliners to, well, whatever strikes their fancy...and that's just airplanes, folks.  We haven't begun to discuss autos in depth, let alone armor and ships.

If there is any modeler out there who can't see that we are living in another Golden Age of modeling, they haven't been looking very hard.  I, for one, am being reenergized...

On another note, I'll be once again heading out to our comany's Dallas facility for a week.  I hope to have more time to see the area than I did last November.  No rest for the weary...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

The Holidays are over...

I don't even know where to begin...

Since our last visit together, I've been busy--big surprise, huh?  Well, it was a good busy, for the most part.  We took a trip and visited my mother in Ft. Lauderdale.  While we were there, we got some pictures.  The houses are all in the neighborhood where I grew up--it isn't as nice as it once was, and I had traffic behind me, so the photos are the best I could do given the circumstances.  I simply started popping away with the camera while I drove--much like an RF-4C over Route Pac 6, I didn't dare stop:

_{The lot where 5446 NW 18 Street used to stand, the duplex we lived in when we first moved to Florida in August 1971.  It looks like the city is doing some cleaning, and the two duplexes at the end of the block were demolished.}

 

^{1631 NW 55th Avenue.  We lived in this house from February 1973 until November 1989.  Other than the new roof, reconfigured driveway, and the coconut palm in the yard, it looks much the same as it did when we lived there.  The circular part of the driveway was just that, semi-circular, when we lived there, it looks like the owners extended it a bit near the house.}

 

_{1641 NW 55 Avenue, our neighbor's house to the North.  It is looking pretty sharp here--which wasn't always the case.  A few years ago, it had bright purple trim.  There used to be a huge black olive tree in the front yard, right about where the fountain is now...}

 

_{1611 NW 55 Avenue, two doors down to the south.  I remember when that siding went on the house in the early 1980's.  I believe the same man still lives there...}

 

_{1741 NW 55th Avenue, the last house to the north before you got to the duplexes, triplexes, and quads that still apparently are the center of some not-so-nice activities.}

We also did some running around town on one of the days we were there.  Lunch at Char-Hut is always required, and we always try to stop in at the hobby shops in the area.  Here's Warrick's Hobby Superstore, on University Drive south of Peters Road:

_{There used to be a Sound Advice store to the left in this picture, but since their demise, the hobby shop has expanded all the way to the end of the building, taking over the vacant space.  They actually had more esoteric stuff that I figured they would, but largely the selection is Revell, Trumpeter, Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Airfix.  Still, not bad considering what it looked like four years ago when there wasn't a geed selection on the shelves...}

We had to visit Chuck at RC Hobbies in Tamarac, too:

_{Same store, and Chuck usually has a pretty good kit selection.  He's rearranged the inside of the store since our last visit in 2007, but he still tries to have some of the less-popular stuff in stock.}

We spent about a week with my mother, then made the trek home.  We stopped in Daytona Beach both on the trip down and the trip home, and on the way home we had a few hours to check the place out.  No pics, sorry, but I can tell you this--Daytona changes from year to year, it seems.  We were there last for the 2008 Rolex 24, and at the time, the new ISC HQ building was under construction.  It is complete now, a monument to themselves.  The area around the Speedway is much the same, though, and ARCA testing was going on when we stopped on the way down.  Soon, the area will be abuzz with Sports Cars and the Rolex 24.  We're not going, again this year--a 3:30 PM start on Saturday pretty much kills the deal for us.  Grand Am, are you listening?  What happened to the 12 Noon start, so everyone could get a stint in the car when it was light outside? 

Once we arrived home, I had no time to rest.  I do a lot of baking for the holidays, most of which goes to the in-laws when we visit.  With no time to spare, I was able to get it all done:

_{The first of two cheesecakes.  I'd be disowned if I didn't bring them with me.  I use Alton Brown's recipe, for those who are interested...}

_{Good, old fashioned, Nestle Toll House cookies.  Why mess with a good thing?  I don't deviate from the recipe on the bag of semi-sweet chips...}

 

_{A batch of Quaker Oats' Disappearing Oatmeal Cookies waiting to go in the oven.  The recipe is on every tub of Quaker's Old Fashioned Rolled Oats...}

 

_{Spritz, ready for the oven.} 

 

_{Pizzelle batter and pizzelle iron on deck.  I didn't get any pictures of the finished product.  Rats!}

 

_{Something new for me this year, I made Italian Bowknot Cookies.  I tried these last year, and they didn't work too well.  I think I'm getting the hang of these now...}

 

_{Another new item, Nutella Ravioli--a Giada DiLaurentiis recipe.  They were good, but next year I may reduce the size of them--they're awfully good, but they're awfully rich, too.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, so that's part of the issue.  I'll do it proper-like next year and see...}

 

_{The only holiday baked good that I don't make (nor do most Italians)--Panettone.  It is a sweet bread, full of candied fruit and raisins.  We made French Toast from ours this year, and all I can say is that you need to try it.  Very good, indeed!}

As for Christmas, we had an enjoyable time.  We spent most of the day at the in-laws, where we were treated to good food and good company.  What more can one ask for?  I did manage to get a few kits--Anigrand's 1/72 scale XF-103 and XF-108 kits.  I guess I can stop scouring the Internet for the Ken Rymal vacuum-formed versions...

We spent New Year's Eve watching the "Big Bang Theory" marathon on TBS.  Why I hadn't discovered this show earlier is beyond me--I started watching it when I was in Dallas, and it is a hoot.  We switched over to ABC so we could be welcomed into the New Year by Dick Clark and see the ball drop...

As we usher in 2012, I would like to wish all of you Health, Joy, and Prosperity for the New Year.

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

I got that travelin' jones once again...

As soon as I thought I could relax, another wave hit us at work.  I was getting used to having weekends off again, and *wham!*, another airplane comes in with a long work scope and short turn around time.  That explains why I've not had time to update this blog--we've worked straight through since 4 December, and I'm talking 12-15 hour days.  We slowed down this week, and again, there appears--as if my magic--yet another airplane in need of attention, specialized attention that only I am qualified to render, in this case.  Good thing, then, that I was able to get it done as quickly as possible, since I have a long-awaited vacation coming up...

By the time you read this, we'll be on our way to visit the old stomping grounds.  We'll be back before Christmas, when I hope to have plenty to share--and the time in which I might just do so.  Until then, thanks for reading.  As always, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

Black Friday

Greetings, all.  I hope you have survived Thanksgiving (if you celebrate the holiday at this time of year), and I hope any of you brave (foolish?  insane?) enough to venture out to the Holiday Shopping Bacchanalia made it home intact.

I have never understood the whole Black Friday thing.  I guess it is just how I operate.  I go Christmas buying--I know what I want, I go, I buy it--and have little need to share the shopping experience at 4AM with 50,000 of my closest neighbors.  And lately, with the rise in idiocy (the deaths due to trampling last year, the pepper-spray incident this year), I'm less inclined to go out and shop at all, let alone on Midnight on the morning after Thanksgiving.

Having worked retail either full- or part-time for more years than I care to count, I can tell you that about this point in time (mid-afternoon Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend as I type this), my patience would wear thin.  Why?  Because I had about enough people shouting at me, being generally rude to me, or asking advice and then ignoring it.  There's only so much one can take, and coupled with the fact that working this weekend means that we had to give up family time to go to work made it rather a chore.  

So, as you venture out to "push and shove" as my mother and Grandmother used to say, remember that while you are tired and worn out, so are the people trying to assist you--they've been up longer than you, as most of them had to show up at work an hour before the store opened--or will be there for an hour after it closes.

I'll do my shopping--er, buying--later, and much of it online...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always (and especially now), I bid you Peace. 

Apologies, as I've been away...

Just when I thought the schedule at the job was getting back to some semblance of normal, we got called out of town last week.  Yep, I spent the better part of the past 10 days in Dallas.  I'd share photos and the like with you, but frankly, we didn't roam very far from our facility at Love Field.  I got home a few nights ago, so things should get back on a regular schedule once again--I promise.

I do have the photos from the Fayetteville show, all I need to do is prepare them for the interwebs and I'll post them for your enjoyment.  The show was fun, small but fun.  As usual, there was quite a bit of nice work on the tables for all to see and appreciate.  The vendor tables were interesting, too--I managed to acquire an Anigrand Craftswork 1/72 scale kit of a Douglas XB-42.  My only other aquisitions came from our side trip to Hayes Hobby House.  I finally got the Zvesda 1/144 scale Tupolev Tu-154M airliner kit and got the brand new Dragon/Cyber Hobby 1/72 deHavilland Sea Vixen FAW.1.  All three are very nice kits indeed, and I *may* break my pledge to finish one of the backlog projects and build the XB-42...

I'll also have a piece on Hayes Hobby House.  As a teaser, all I can say is if you live near Fayetteville, NC, you need to go.  They are also on the Interwebs here...

Thanks for reading, and I bid you Peace.

Ooohh, that smell...

Autumn has descended upon the Southern reaches of the Atlantic Seaboard, and with the lower temperatures comes a smell like no other--it is a crispness that I can't describe.  Also, with the holidays approaching fast, it is hard not to remember back to when I was a kid by the way things smelled.  There was something about this time of year...

We didn't use any frou-frou spritzers, the house just smelled like, well, the holidays.  Mom would bake, and one thing she does to this day is doctor recipes.  She'll add ginger or cloves to the standard Toll House or Quaker Oatmeal cookie recipes (along with nuts and raisins--she puts nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips in most of her holiday cookies), which creates this awesome aroma throughout the house.  Whenever I think of Christmas as a kid, I remember the way the house smelled... 

And that thought, of course, led me to other smells that remind me of places.  For instance, back before the chain auto parts stores, you used to go to the dingy little place that just happened to have what you wanted--and it had a smell all it's own.  Similar to the chains, the smell was a mix of rubber, petro-chemicals, new carpet, and a potpourri of the various air fresheners.  Sporting goods stores back in the day used to smell of canvas, black powder, crickets, and rubber worms (and, if you are lucky enough to have a Sportsman's Warehouse, Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shops, or Cabella's nearby, they smell the same way)...

Hobby shops--the original, tiny Mom-and-Pop places, had a smell all their own, too.  Back in the day, the shops carried model airplane dope, and when you mix that aroma in with that of glow fuel, Testor's paint, musty boxes, and real model airplane glue (the stuff with Toluene and mustard oil), you get an odor that will never escape you.  I didn't really notice it when I was a kid, but as I got older, I would catch a whiff every time I was in the local emporium.  And, at the time, Warrick Custom Hobbies would also sell fireworks at various times of the year, so you would get that "hobby shop smell" mixed in with that of black powder.  It made for a memorable smell, one that I miss.

The modern hobby shop, whether it be a chain store or one of the ever-dwindling Mom-and-Pop shops, doesn't have that smell, particularly if that store hasn't been in business that long.  There is one shop here in Columbia, though, that has a bit of that smell to it--he specializes in model railroading, so you replace the smell of glow fuel with that of the various light oils used to lubricate the locomotives, and maybe add the lacquer smell of Scalecoat and Floquil paints, and you get a variation of the hobby shop aroma.  It doesn't hurt that this place is basically located in an old house--it is rather cramped--and he's been there for years.  There are no aisles, there are small areas where you can sort of shuffle along and see what's on the shelves.  There is stuff piled everywhere, so it makes finding things a bit of a treasure hunt--but nobody complains.  It is reminiscent of the cabinets behind the counter at Orange Blossom Hobbies--I'm not sure if even Joe, the owner, knows what's in a given location.  But whenever I feel nostalgic for the good old days, I'll stop in at Joe's and see what's new--and take in that hobby shop smell. 

It is certainly a shame that time and progress march ever onward.  "New and Improved" isn't necessarily so...

We're winding down on the current project at work--with that, I have every intention of visiting the Lafayette Scale Modelers this weekend for their model show in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  I'll do my best to take some pictures and share them with you.

Be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

Not much to say, and not a lot of free time in which to say it...

We're starting another one of those we have three weeks of work to do and need to get it done in two weeks" periods at the job, so I've been a bit on the busy side of late...

I'll ramble tonight...

We're planning a visit to South Florida soon, and when we go, there are places we always stop at. 

The first is the old hobby shop.  Sure, they really downsized the plastics department, but we still go.  Last time we were in town, we visited more for the railroad stuff than anything--I'm a sucker for anything from the early days of Florida East Coast, and both of us have a soft spot for the Atlantic Coast Line.  We'll also visit RC Hobbies, simply to see what he's been up to.

Then there are the restaurants.  There are a few that are must-dos, starting with Char-Hut.  Nobody does a grilled chicken sandwich better.  Char-chicken with cheese, onions, and hot sauce, side of onion rings, large drink.  I'm set...

Flanigan's also has some good food--their burgers are pretty good, but their seafood is even better.  And their ribs?  Need you ask?

Of course, we always drive past the late, lamented 3 Guys Pizza.  Last time through, it was "Mondo Azteca", a taco bar--and pizzeria.  Sorry, it ain't 3 Guys...

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention mom's.  If you can't get a good meal from mom, where can you go?  And seeing as we'll be there around the holidays, I imagine I might be doing some baking.  And I know I'll have a little baking to do when I get home, too--I think my in-laws would disown me if I didn't bring cheesecake with me when we go visit on Christmas...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace...

Another racer heads West...

The racing world lost another great champion today.  Dan Wheldon, 2005 IRL Champion and two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, died today due to injuries sustained in a horrible 15-car crash 12 laps into the final race of the season.

The race was supposed to be a celebration in many respects.  The season-long battle for the championship was still being hotly contested.  Danica Patrick was making her last full-time start in the series, as she'll be moving over to NASCAR's Nationwide Series next year (and, if the stories were to be believed, Dan was in line to replace her at Andretti Motorsport, a team he had driven for previously).  The Rookie of the Year was still being contested.  In addition, IndyCar had offered a large reward to any non-series drivers who could come to Las Vegas and win.  And, if that weren't enough, they also offered $5 million dollars to Dan--he would start the race from the back, and if he won, he'd share the money with "one lucky fan"--all a result of his shocking win at Indy last May.  He'd made it up to 24th in the race.  Then...

It was to be anything but a celebration.  10 laps in, the racing was getting a bit too racy for some.  Ryan Briscoe and Alex Tagliani touched wheels, sending Tags swerving into Ryan Hunter-Reay.  But the worst was yet to come--Rookie Wade Cunningham touched wheels with James Hinchcilffe.  Cunningham then spun into Charlie Kimball's car.  Havoc ensued.  At one point during the wreck, three cars, including Wheldon's, went airborne.  When the smoke had cleared, the wreck had taken ames Jakes, Vitor Meira, Wade Cunningham, JR Hildebrand, Townsend Bell, Jay Howard, Tomas Scheckter, Charlie Kimball, Paul Tracy, EJ Viso, Alex Lloyd, Pippa Mann, and Buddy Rice out of the race.  It also took Will Power out of the race, ending his bid for the series Championship.  And, Dan's car was among the wrecks...

Now, I don't like it when race cars get covered with tarps after major wrecks.  I had a bad feeling when Wheldon's car was draped with a yellow tarp.  The few races I've seen where cars were draped with tarps did not end well--one of those times was after the wreck that killed Dale Earnhardt, the other was the wreck that effectively ended Steve Park's racing career.  A bad feeling gnawed at me all afternoon.  The race was red-flagged in order to clean up the debris from 15 race cars as well as to effect repairs to the track--the catch fence had been damaged, the SAFER barriers needed attention, and the racing surface itself was in need of several patches.

The shot of the Medivac helicopter leaving tightened the knot in my gut.  This could not end well.  A shot of Danica being consoled by her husband jerked that knot even tighter.  Then, several drivers were summoned to the IndyCar trailer.  A drivers meeting was convened.  By that point, I knew.  It was driven home to me when Tony Kannan exited the drivers meeting and broke down on the pit wall.  I knew.  Bad news.

Randy Bernard simply confirmed what we all knew.  He said that Dan had died due to "unsurvivable injuries".  The drivers were polled as to whether to continue the race.  They were divided on the issue until Bernard and Brian Barnhardt entered.  The decision was made for the remaining cars to run a five-lap salute to their fallen comrade.

Goodbye, Dan.  Thanks for the hours of entertainment you provided, both on the track and behind the microphone as a color commentator.  The racing world has lost a great man.

Be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

Where were you in October, 1962?

Seeing as that was two years before I came to be, needless to say, I wasn't around to witness the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Most of you know the story--Fidel Castro was the Western Hemisphere's leading Communist dictator, tensions were high between the US and USSR, and the minds in charge in the Politburo decided to send ballistic missiles to Cuba.  By the middle of October of 1962, President Kennedy was notified that several launch sites were under construction--photographs courtesy of the U. S. Air Force's U-2's and the U. S. Navy's RF-8 Crusaders.  Some tense moments, indeed, as the world was ratcheted that much closer to all out nuclear confrontation...

I'm told by friends who were around at the time in Florida that it got, well, interesting for a while.  McCoy Air Force Base (now Orlando International Airport) hosted various units--U-2's, fighter interceptors, and bombers.  Homestead Air Force base was said to have been loaded with various fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons.  They also were putting up more than a few U. S. Army units and their equipment--just in case we had to invade, the Department of Defense sent them to South Florida.

One of the more interesting facets of the whole event--to me, at least--were the various missile units that were established at various points of the South Florida map.  These missiles were a mix, usually Hawk Surface-to-Air and various members of the Nike family (usually Nike-Hercules) Surface-to-air missiles.  These missiles were placed to shoot down aerial invaders from the South--and at the time, the hopes were high that the systems actually worked!  There were at least nine Nike bases and at least that many Hawk batteries.  Even after the Crisis had passed, these missile sites were improved and consolidated. 

So, what has become of the old sites?  Well, most of them stayed manned until the late 1970's, the last of them closing in 1979.  The Hawk batteries in the Florida Keys were mostly left ot be reclaimed by the wilderness, such as it is.  Here's one example from Key Largo--the Nike missile site there was closed and the equipment removed, and now has been largely eaten by the native flora.  A better known example would be the site known as HM-69--it is located in an area in the Everglades known as "The Hole in the Doughnut", and was recently opened to tours.  And yet another location (HM-95) was deactivated as a missile site and the launch facility was adapted to be an Immigrations detention center--South Floridians know it well as the Krome Avenue Detention Center.

As for the numerous Hawk batteries, they, too, were shut down in the late 1970's, and those sites were also left to blend back into the scenery.  There was one in Key West that is documented, and then there is this one, just East of the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway.  It is currently--apparently--being used as a daycare center for the nearby Turkey Point Nuclear Power plant.  Now, I don't know if that truly qualifies as irony, but it must come damn close to it.

So, being the history nerd, model builder guy, and South Floridian at heart that I am, I was geeked when Revell reissued their Nike-Hercules and Hawk Missile kits that date back to the Stone Age of styrene.  Of course, I just *had* to have them--and I'll tell you what, I might buy more as I see them.  While I might not build a 1/40th-ish diorama of HM-69, the possibility *is* there...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.  

God's Country

By way of a minor miracle, my wife managed to save the "lost" photos from the rogue SD card.  So, on to the photos--these were taken in the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, Colorado, and I highly recommend a visit there.  You won't be sorry...

_{This is Mount Garfield (Elevation 6,600 feet ASL) from the hotel window--I understand that a hike up there is quite the workout...at that altitude, your body absorbs roughly 14-17% of the oxygen in the atmosphere.  At sea level, the rate is around 22%...}

 

_{Again from the hotel room, this is a not-great shot of the Grand Mesa.  Elevation on top is 10,500 feet Above Sea Level.  It is an extinct volcano, and there are numerous lakes on top full of trout, waiting for the fly--or so I was told.}

 

_{The Grand Mesa at sunset.}

_{We saw quite a few houses tucked into the side of the cliffs, this being one example.}

 

_{From the road that winds through the Monument park looking across to Mount Garfield and the Grand Mesa.  It was a wee bit hazy that day, as you can see...earlier, though, it was crystal clear--something to remember for next time.}

 

_{Alkali salts are constantly squeezed out of the ground--that's the white powder on the side of the cliff.}

 

_{This is called Balanced Rock.  There are so many different rock formations and obelisks that you get a sore neck trying to see all of them.}

 

_{Grand Junction is high desert, and you are reminded of that--look at this gnarly, weathered tree.  Right next to it, though, was a patch of cacti...}

 

_{Looking across to the Book Cliffs.}

 

_{Independence Monument.  There were climbers on the Monument the day we saw it.}

 

_{A little bit of the Colorado River.  Grand Junction gets its name because the Colorado River and Gunnison River join nearby--so why "Grand" Junction?  Well, before 1921, the upper reaches of the Colorado River were known as the Grand River.  So now you know--go use that tidbit to amaze all your friends!}

_{Just for fun--One of our Bombardier Challenger technicians has this eye-burning tool box.  Can you guess the gender of the owner?  She might be in the minority, but she's a hell of a technician, I'm told.  See, ladies?  You too can work in the fun and exciting world of Corporate Aviation Maintenance...}

So there you are.  As I said, if you've never been, you must make it a point to do so. 

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.