Now boarding Concord and Tupolev Tu-144

Back in the early 1990's I missed the opportunity to ride on a Concord.  A trans-Atlantic trip was always out of my price range, but BA was running short one-hour trips out of Heathrow for like $200. They went out south over the Atlantic, broke the sound barrier, served you a glass of champagne, and landed back in London. I looked at it when I was in Paris in January of 1991, and said next year when I am in London. Then my midlife crisis intervened and by the time I was traveling again in 2000, the Concord was on it's last flights and the super deals to go faster than sound were a memory and history.  

I have seen the Concord on the wing, two of them landed in Orlando for the opening of EPCOT.  I have seen one close up in the Smithsonian collection at Dulles.  But I had never been in one until recently.  There is a Technology museum at Sinsheim Germany that has one on the roof, right behind a Tupolev Tu-144.  And they are open for boarding if you are up to the climb.  

Here they are on the roof of the Museum, see the spiral stairs near the tail? That is how you get in and out.

The museum removed about half of the seats, boxed the ones that remain in plastic cases and installed some grab rails to haul yourself up the isle and try to keep from tumbling down. This is the interior of the Concord as Air France flew it.  Not big, 2 and 2 seating, but 2-hours from New York to London.  From London to New York you arrived three hours before you left.  

This is the interior of the Tu-144.  Not as plush, about the same dimensions.  

You really don't get a sense of how steeply the planes are mounted.  It is a major climb up the stairs and then up the isle.  I made all the way to the front of the Concord, only about half way up the Tu-144.  But, hey, I can say I have boarded two of the rarest and most exotic passenger aircraft ever built.

Portland Oregon

I was recently in Portland for three nights for a board meeting.  Recreational marijuana does not become legal in Oregon until October 1st.  A friend of mine, who claims to have never smelled the stuff, was disappointed by this. Being "good" citizens,  we refrain from breaking the law.  Not that the good people of Portland appeared to be least bit concerned about this.  I had a couple of free hours and took a long walk down along the river front.  The first thing that made my head spin around was the guy standing there on the sidewalk with a mason jar filled with buds.  I am naive enough to not know what to do with them, but I do know what they look like. There are a lot of street people, homeless living and sleeping on the sidewalks of Portland.  As I continued my walk along the river front, I passed what looked like half an acre of sleeping bags on the sidewalk.  At the far end were half a dozen people counting out hypodermic needles.  Not good, not healthy, I am pretty sure they were not planning their insulin use for the week.

Portland is an interesting city.  It is wild west meets hipsters, meets high end shopping.  It has a nice airport connected to the city by light rail.  This was the second time I have been there.  I would go back.

On a plane

On my most recent flight, the middle seat was occupied by a youngish man, about 5'6" and about 140 pounds.  The perfect middle seat passenger, small enough to fit.  Shortly after he was seated, he swallowed two pills, texted his girlfriend that the Xanax were kicking in and he would meet her at the airport in 5 hours.  He slept most of the way across country.  Needless to say - not a lot of conversation with him.

On the way out to Portland a young engineer from India via New York was in the middle seat.  He was headed to Portland on a moments notice to do a presentation - try to close the sale on a multi-million dollar job.  His field was electronic document management.  Interesting conversation, his company labels electronic files with an expiration or deletion date.  When the date is approaching, the staff receives a message asking if they need to keep the file, if not it disappears on the end date.  We are reaching a point with electronic documents where we need this. The last time I looked, I had created over 25,000 electronic documents in the past 7 years.  Do I really need all of the documents?  Time to clean out the electronic file cabinets.

Let me think, I sat next to a US Senator one morning, I talked with him for about half an hour before it dawned on me who he was (I lived in the state he represented.)  He was not nearly as daft in person, as he was in the media.  I sat next to a guy one time who specialized in firing executives.  He seemed to really like his work.  He said, I am doing the employee and the company a favor by helping them end a relationship that is not working for either of them - he did say, "you never want to see me waiting in your office when you arrive in the morning." I was sitting next to a car flipper when the plane backed into another airplane, and pulled forward and backed into it again.  He was headed to Ohio to buy a 65 Mustang.  I spent one flight talking about on-demand book printing, the technology exists - adaptation is slow. I spent an hour talking with the head of children's programing for PBS one afternoon.

Over the years I have set next to a lot of interesting people on airline flights.  I can think of more interesting one's than I can one's I couldn't wait to get away from.  Then there are the small, quiet ones, I can sleep next to them.

1,000th Post

1,000 postings, I had no idea when I started doing this that we would make it this far, nor did I in my wildest dreams imagine all of the places we have been and exciting adventures we have been on.  I made a major push this year to blog at least once a day.  I have shifted to creating posts in batches and scheduling them for posting - to get away from the day-today pressure to come up with something and finding time.  I have also shifted from the adventures in the voice of Travel to the adventures in my voice, with Travel as my companion.  I never leave home without him.

I have now been to 48 states and 15 countries.  I will work over the next couple of years to finish the list of states, and there are a few more countries I want to add to the list before my adventure days close. There are also a ton of fill in adventures to go back and do, and a decade of past adventures that have not been talked about.  Life is a great adventure - I do enjoy talking about it.

BMW Road Testing

Three times on this trip, we encountered new car designs being road tested.  The first time was on the Mercedes factory tour - no cameras or cell phone usage is allowed on the tour.  The car was dazzle painted and being driven on the immense grounds of the Mercedes factory just outside of Stuttgart.

The other two were BMWs, one passed us on the Autobahn, I was driving and Jay snapped a picture, and the second one was on a back road near the Deutsches Museum Aircraft museum near Munich.  This one was labeled as a test for a hybrid drive system, but also dazzle painted.  On closer look, the body shape seems larger then most of what is sold in North America (though BMW sells larger cars in other markets.) The wheel centers are removed, but from the front the grill is distinctively BMW. I was driving when we encountered this one.  I passed it, it pulled in behind me.  I was able to pull off the road so it would pass me, allowing a couple of quick pictures.

Just Me

The Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, the "pod" in the background is one of the elevators

I lit my first candle in a Catholic Church in Paris in January 1991

Robert Schuman House Hotel in Trier Germany - subject of a blog post to come

In the panoramic window in the back of the Zeppelin 

Front of the passenger cabin on the Zeppelin 

Bombs Away! 

Well! in Switzerland 

The Munich Airport

Me, taking a picture of Jay taking a picture, on the way to the airport in Iceland

Yes, sometimes I use the stick, if I am walking a lot, or walking on uneven or sloped surfaces it helps.  The physical therapy is working, I noticed on my recent trip to Portland (that I have not talked about on here yet) that going up and down stairs is much easier. 

Health Update

Humming Bird, near the restaurant I had lunch at on Monday

Monday morning, bright and early I had my head examined.  I was headed to a new MRI provider, a standard question is if you have ever had an eye injury.  I have, about 25 years ago, back in my gym bunny days I woke up one morning with an eye itching like crazy.  I scratched at it for a while, then looked in the mirror and saw the rust ring around the sliver of bar-bell weight in the white of my eye.  I went to my HMO doctor, who poked around at it for what felt like 2 or 3 hours and then sent me to a specialist.  I will never forget the eye surgeon who removed it, his name was Dr Al Jolson. His parents told him with that name no one would ever forget him.  It worked for me.  So any way, I started out with having my head X-rayed from about five different directions to assure that the metal was all gone.  Like those stray body piercings, you don't want anything being pulled around by the MRI machine.

The last time I had X-rays done, it took 90 minutes - they were having computer trouble.  Monday it took 15 minutes.  As a result I was over an hour early for the MRI.  They had me scheduled for the "large aperture machine" but a standard machine was free with no waiting, slip off your pants and we are ready to go.  They wedged me into the drain pipe and beat on it for about 40 minutes. (If you have ever had an MRI you know what I am talking about.) I thought they were going to have to grease me up, to get me out, I unfolded like an artificial christmas tree coming out of the box when she slid me out of the tube (the operator said, ask for Mag-1 the next time, you will be more comfortable.)

Then I had a couple of hour break before seeing the neuro-oncologist.  I went shopping and went to lunch.  I needed a new pair of fat man jeans, my appetite came back faster then my ability to exercise, I may have reached a new high.  Across from me at lunch was a teenage SOD, son of a doctor.  Easy to spot, looking disinterested in the world, sitting there wearing $1,000 in clothes.

So the update part of this. My spine is were it should be and the alignment remains good.  The tumor is not growing, but will still needs to be watched.  I am making progress on rebuilding strength and control, there continues to be improvement in the sensation in my legs and feet. The odd bulging at the bottom of the ribs on my right side, is normal. The "intercostal muscles"  (I actually knew what they were back in my gym bunny days) no longer have nerves going to them, and the ribs will move and things will bulge that didn't bulge before.  Nothing wrong, the new normal. I need to lose weight, the Doctor is more concerned about rebuilding cardiovascular strength and endurance then he is about a number.  I was off my game for a couple of years, I need to work on that.  For the first time in over year year, when I walk down stairs it does not feel like my right knee is going to buckle out from under me. The fact that I continue to make progress, is a good sign. Someday I will plateau - the Doctor reminded me that there will be some permanent nerve damage.

Where from here, back in the drain pipe in 90 days, X-rays of my spine in 90 days, and another follow up visit.  If that goes well maybe six-month intervals after that.

108 miles per hour

The German's claim to build the best cars in the world.  The cars are masterworks of engineering, design, quality and construction.  Now know why they feel compelled to build the finest cars in the world, they have the finest expressways in the world, the Autobahn system.  Oh My!

For a start, the Autobahn is not one road, it is an extensive network of expressways. I didn't know that.

There are several factors that make the Autobahn experience amazing.  The roads are very well engineered, meticulously maintained, and the drivers are well trained and disciplined.  The result is a system that is safe, fast and fun to drive.  The right lane is the slow lane and the left lane is for passing.  There is stiff fine for driving in the left lane when you are not passing.  There is a stiff fine for passing on the right.  On sections with two lanes (like the one above) there are speed limits.  Some vehicles, such as travel trailers and trucks carrying dangerous cargo have a special speed limit of 100-kps (about 62-mph.) These vehicles always travel in the right lane.  The speed limit will drop in areas with heavy traffic, unusual road conditions, or merging traffic. If there is a speed limit in the left lane, it will be higher, usually 20-kph higher than the slow lane.  The speed limits are posted electronically, and adjusted for road, weather and traffic conditions and drivers seem to obey them.

In sections with three lanes, the right lane is the slow lane, the next lane is fast and the left lane is the passing lane.  In some areas there is no posted speed limit, the speed limit is as reasonably safe.  I don't recall any unlimited sections with just two lanes, but there might me. If traffic is light, you can really open it up on the sections without a speed limit. The first time I nudged just over 100-mph, I had only once in my life driven over 100-mph before - if I had been caught way back in 1990 - I'd still be paying that fine.  The second time, I was able to play with the Audies and registered 108 mph before I ran out of road and pulled over into the middle.

You pull into the passing lane and pass. I was warned that when I pulled into fast lane the little gray dot on the horizon in the rearview mirror would be the Audi, Mercedes or Porsche 20 feet off my trunk in about 20 seconds unless I was the fastest thing on the road.  You pull out, floor it, pass and pull back over.  If faster traffic comes up behind you, you pull over.  The drivers are immensely disciplined.  In two weeks of driving we only once got stuck behind a truck trying and failing to pass another truck going up hill (he must have been trained to drive by Walmart.)  We saw a lot of RVs on the road, and never once got trapped behind one trying to pass in the fast lane.  The discipline of the drivers is a big part of what makes this system safe.

So is it perfect, no. Many of the entrance and exits ramps are very tight turns requiring you to slow to 25 mph.  The construction or work zones have impossibly narrow lanes.  There is the occasional driver in an underpowered car who tries unsuccessfully to play in the fast lane, and there are drivers who are "not from around here."  The Autobahn system is many-many roads.  They don't always connect well to one another, it was not uncommon to have to get off of the Autobahn and drive for 2-5 miles on back roads, to get onto the next Autobahn.  Why? I don't know.

I can attest to two things, the Mercedes CLA-250 will go over 100 miles-per-hour, and it has very-very good brakes - thankfully - but that is another story!

There are no Kangaroos Austria

Another country to check off the list, we went to Austria, not Australia, Austria.  When I was planning the trip, I would tell people we were making a side trip to Austria and the reaction was "that is a long way - but there are Kangaroos and boomerangs."  Austria is a 90 minute drive from Munich. The first gift shop I went in to in Salzburg had T-Shirts that says "No Kangaroos in Austria" - I bought one.

The old quarter is a wondrous maze of narrow streets filled with shops, bars, restaurants, Mozart and churches. Lots and lots of churches.  Directly behind the old quarter is a tall hill, 2-300 feet up a cliff with a fortress and more churches on top.  Admission was about 11-euros and included a ride up and back down on a funicular.  I wouldn't have made it to the top and back without it.

The fortress is fun to explore and the cliff top offers amazing views of the landscape.  I liked Salzburg.  We stayed at the Crown Plaza - The Pitter on frequent traveler points.  It is an old hotel - nicely updated.  As an IHG frequent traveler they upgraded us to a small suite, about twice the size of a typical hotel room. The room was over the top in style and very comfortable.  The parking for the hotel is a block away, you have to pull into the hotel waiting (drop off) zone, go inside and ask for directions on how to find it.  The hotel was about a mile from the old quarter.  We took a city bus going to the quarter and walked back.  The following morning we checked out of the hotel and found a parking lot in the edge of the old quarter (follow the blue "P" signs.)

Home

I wonder if:
Those living above, know that someone is living below?
Do they care?
Did the guy living below pick that spot for the neighborhood?
Does SUV "limo" drive know that he is 25 feet above a homeless person?
Who is more miserable with where and how they live?

I took this from my hotel room window at a very nice hotel in Chicago. The apartment building above is expensive and nice. Car services were there several times an hour picking people up and dropping them off. This is in the downtown area where the "street level" is elevated above ground level and streets and service structures are below at ground level. The last I knew there were still some railroad freight lines below the city. I was quite struck by the contrast of $2,000 a month rentals being directly above people sleeping on the sidewalk below street level.

Check another one off the list.

I love flying!  I grew up around little airplanes and little airports and I have long enjoyed flying.  I have flown on about everything imaginable, a Piper J-3 Cub, modern single engine fixed wing, about every airliner in the air, a helicopter, and a couple of float planes.  I am missing a hot air balloon, and I missed the opportunity to go faster then the speed of sound.  The other missing check on the aircraft list, was an airship.  It is nearly impossible to get a ride on a Goodyear Blimp, rides are limited to major customers, dealers, suppliers, people with political or business connections.  I have tried, and never been able to snag that ride.  Zeppelin is now building new airships for Goodyear, the first one is already in service in North America and the second one is being shipped - the passenger cabin was sitting in a huge crate at the airport in Friedrichshafen.

When we started planing the trip to Germany, Jay sent me a link for exotic aircraft rides, he thought I would be enthralled with a ride in a Junkers Tri-Motor, but I was instantly smitten with the idea of a Zeppelin Ride. This is one of only a handful of places in the world (it may be the only one currently in operation) where you can make a reservation, pay the fare and away you go.  I made reservations as soon as I had the schedule to the point that I knew I could work around the ride.

You arrive an hour before flight time and check in.  About 30 minutes before flight time you go to a safety briefing, they did a special briefing for we English speakers.  Then board a van for a short ride out to the landing/loading zone.  The airship blows in the wind, you are warned to stay alert and asked to not take any pictures while boarding to avoid being bumped over by a blimp.

Inside there are 12 comfortable seats, six on each side with a comfortable aisle up the middle, every seat is a window seat.  When they release the craft from it's mooring it starts to float up, the engines and propellers start to control the direction of flight and you are off.  It is kind of magic. Once you are 500 feet in the air, they encourage you to take off your seatbelt and walk around the cabin.  It is a very gentle ride.  Two windows open to make taking pictures easier, you are cautioned to please not drop you camera out the window.

Leaning out the window

Our Shaddow 

 What an adventure! 

Looking Up

The cathedral in Salzburg, Austria. Wow, it is kind of busy.  A nice blend of light and shadow, not dark and broody, the older church across from it is dark , not overly bright, like the third in line that is blindingly white inside.  There is lots of detail in this one, easy to see, easy to spend time in.

I am not a practitioner of any organized religion.  I struggle with the logical leaps of faith that most religions have and don't understand the desire or concern for eternal life.  I was born, I will die, I will cease to exist, why should I expect or desire more?  I try to make the most of what I can while I can, to be good to others, and to enjoy life.  Many suffer hell on earth, in an effort to be worthy of avoiding hell after death.  If I treat others well, don't allow others to mistreat me, and have a little fun along the way, I have found heaven on earth. Who knows what lies beyond, if I am good and do good I will enjoy here and be okay with there.

I do enjoy visiting churches, especially when I travel.  Churches are frequently the most elaborate works of art and architecture in town.  They are public places, built to send a message, and some really do.  They are quiet and contemplative places.

Another Country

We went to Switzerland for lunch one day.  We were in Friedricksaven Germany for the Zeppelin Ride, I have told you about that haven't I?  We took a ferry across Lake Konstance to Romanshorn Switzerland.  It is a pleasant 40 minute ride each way, it was $17.10 per person round trip.  We left the car in Germany, the registration staff at Mercedes really discouraged driving in Switzerland.  We had a nice wander around, it was a Sunday, so most of the shops were closed.  We went into a couple of nice churches and had lunch at this wonderful place with this spectacular view. 

It was fun, add another country to the list of places visited.  A couple more to add on this trip, Austria and Iceland. 

DTW to FRA

An 8 hour overnight flight, actually not bad.  I think I may have figured out this overnight flight thing, don't plan on sleeping.  I slept late the day of departure, checked into the airline club and took an hours nap and planned to check into a hotel and sleep when I arrived. On the plane, I watched two movies, napped for a couple of hours, but not really worrying about trying to sleep.  It was not bad, the night went by quickly.  I was in the hotel within a couple of hours and took a two hour nap.  Went out to dinner, came back and fell asleep at 8:30 and slept until 6:30.  I felt human the next day.

Nice Holiday Inn Express in Frankfurt, Germany.  Nice firm bed, big room (wasted space) and a shower - a shower that I want to take home with me and introduce to my mother.  Lots of water flow and water pressure - a rarity in hotels this year.  I hate hotel showers that barely spit out a sprinkle of water. You could pressure wash a 747 with this one. Oh, and air conditioning that really works, it was 93 and humid when I arrived.

The Frankfurt airport apparently hired the designer who did Gatewick, it is a rats maze of long barely ventilated corridors. Hot - humid with dysfunctional signage.  I took the tram from terminal one to terminal two, succeeded at buying a ticket from the vending machine (a first) and took the light rail line into the city - I even got on the right train. I know about 5 words of German - I did surprisingly well.

Jack for Lunch on a Friday Afternoon

When I was in Chicago recently there was a nice apartment building across the street from my hotel room.  It had this really nice terrace on the a roof area on about the 3rd floor.  I was in my room about 1:00 PM waiting for my next calendar item and these four hunky guys went out on the terrace and settled in for lunch at a table on the terrace.  I tried the incredible zoom on my newest little camera to see if those back muscles were really that great. Oh Yes - he spends some time in the gym.  When I downloaded to the pictures to my computer and looked at them on the big monitor I noticed the mid-day drink on a Friday afternoon, yes that is a bottle of Jack Daniels and  bottle of Coke on the table.

I never did that for lunch- I have led a sheltered life.

Waiting for the baby

Only a few of you knew, that J and I have been expecting a new arrival.  We have been working on this for over a year. The doctors assured me that if I worked hard I would be ready for the delivery, we have known the delivery date since February.  Well the big day arrived on August 17th.  We took a taxi out to the delivery room from the center of Stuttgart that morning and checked in with reception.  We were scheduled for an orientation tour at 10:30, followed by lunch and an introduction to little Sigfried at 1:15.  We will know when he is ready, he will stand out in the mass of black, white and brown.  Sigfried, like his distant uncle Ben is red.

A red 4-door CLA - Oh there he is, how exciting!

I really was an amazing experience.  Mercedes provided the taxi, an E-Class Mercedes of course. The driver knew exactly where to take us, he has done this before.  Mercedes also provided the hotel for the night before, the Graf Zeppelin in Stuttgart - nice - very nice.  We were moving on to Ludwigsberg, so we had all of our luggage with us.  I was not sure how that would work.  No need to worry, by the time I got out of the Taxi at the factory delivery center there was a man with a cart ready to check the bags.  We were ushered into check in.  The final paperwork for temporary registration and insurance were signed and we were confirmed for a guided tour of the factory, lunch and a delivery time.  The tour and lunch were wonderful and precisely on time, what else can you expect from the people who build the finest cars in the world.  We went to the delivery desk after lunch and I looked over the rail, and there was one red car on the floor in a sea of black, grey, white, and brown.  The delivery specialist spent 20 minutes showing us around the car. While we were doing that a guy arrived with our luggage and loaded it into the trunk. The delivery guy synced J's phone to the car and we were on our way.

We had the car for up to two weeks, with a drop it off at the airport in Munich.  It will be shipped home and we will take delivery a second time in 10-12 weeks. To head off the comments about money, it is a really good deal.  For US customers, there is a 7% discount on the car and they waive the trans-Atlantic shipping charge. And Mercedes provides two weeks of insurance and registration.  J had a conference at Oxford, so we were planning a vacation in Europe anyway.  The experience of taking factory delivery of your new baby, priceless.

I now know why German's build the finest cars in the world, drive the Autobahn, the finest roads in the world and you know why.  That story will come soon.  Hint, fast, very-very fast.

102 Days

I rode a Zeppelin 102 days after surgery for spinal cord compression caused by a spinal tumor.

During the dark days of May, a common question was "what is your long term goal after surgery?" My answer was I am flying to Frankfort on August 13th, 90 days after surgery and I need to be ready to ride a Zeppelin on August 22nd.  That usually sent them looking at how much pain medication I had taken and what the reports from my psych exam were.  I really got the feeling that most of them thought I was talking crazy when I talked about riding a Zeppelin.  I wasn't, the flight was already booked, pre-paid non-refundable of course.  I went and looked up how fit I needed to be to fly, I needed to be able to walk to and from the craft without help and climb and descend 6 or 7 steps.

When I first started walking after surgery, I was concerned about making it.  Walking was a challenge, and stairs were (and to some extent still are) my biggest challenge. In inpatient physical therapy I told them what I wanted to do, and they said, "work hard and you can do what you want."  In some ways I have worked hard, in others I have not been as faithful to my therapy as I should have been, and I have gained 10 pounds.  But, I am able to walk, quite well on regular surfaces.  Stairs are doable, good handrails really help.

On the morning of August 22nd, I went out of the hotel without the cane, I drove to the airport, the walk out to the craft was easy, the stairs were not an issue and I was able to get up and walk about in the cabin.  The Zeppelin ride was magic.  It just sort of floats up, it moves gently, once we were 500 feet in the air, we were allowed to take off seat-belts and move about the cabin.  It was fantastic.  When I booked the ride I was not sure I would be able to move  around in the cabin (I booked this like two months before surgery) I was having so much trouble walking I figured I would do well to make in into the seat on the craft.  I am so much better - I am near normal.

When we landed there was one email I had to send, a picture and thank you email to the lead surgeon.  It was a very personal moment for me, I couldn't talk about it for 30 minutes.  Even now it brings a tear to my eye.

Did we fail you?

If you followed JP Murphy's blog closely over the past couple of years (http://jgmurphy.org/wp/) you knew he was troubled.  Troubled by issues he hinted about, occasionally posted parts of, but couldn't or didn't want to talk about. Those troubles came to a head over the past week and this week he took his life, and posting what is in effect a suicide note on his blog.

There were hints along the way, that something was not right, and a couple of blog posts that were cries for help.  We urged him to get help, help that is difficult or impossible to give long distance.  He did talk to his doctor, I am not sure he told his doctor enough of the story, let alone all of the story. My fear is that we didn't push him hard enough to get more help, that we failed him.

I am a strong believer in options and in the ability to heal or change. Jay needed help, help he didn't get, and in the end felt boxed in with the options of a life he didn't think he could live with, or death. Why didn't we convince him to seek help and explore other options?  Did we fail him?

Ten Years of Blogging

Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the Adventures of Travel Penguin. 

Blogging and traveling has been and continues to be an interesting adventure.  I have met some wonderful people, been lots of interesting and not so interesting places, and learned a lot about myself and the world through blogging.  I do this because I enjoy it.

I mentioned this s few days ago, my first blogging experience was as a fill in while "Uncle Bert" was on vacation 10 year's ago.  The first few postings I did were on his blog, and while I was at it, I started creating and posting Travel Penguin.  I didn't tell anyone about Travel for a couple of weeks.  I wanted to be sure I could do this.

One of the first postings I did on Bert's blog was about a beauty show that I attended.  I was privileged to be allowed back stage as the contestants were primped and prepared to face the judges. tension ran high as hair was perfected and every speck of dust brushed away.  In the end they were all ready for their moment in the spotlight.

The announcers comments started with,  Nice udders on number one,  great configuration on number three, and number five looks especially dairy.  The picture above is from backstage, it was a beauty show at the Kentucky state fair ten years ago last week.  At heart I am an old farm boy, who does enjoy a good beauty contest.

Half Way Around the World

In February I was in Hawaii for a week of work in paradise, on August 14th, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany.  The two locations are 12 time zones, or half way around the world from one another.  This is the farthest I have ever traveled in relationship to rounding the world in one year.

Form over Function

The classic 1950's gull-wing design of this early SL has a timeless appeal.  It is the wet dream of many motorheads, the poster art hanging on the walls of teenagers for nearly 50 years.  It is a sharp looking car.  It also has a functional issue.  Look how high the door sill is in relationship to the seat back.  It was described as an athletic event to climb in and out, many older owners had to stop driving the car because they couldn't get out of it. The door sills are that high to accomodate the frame needed to give the car stiffness so it will corner like a sports car instead a cabin cruiser.

This one is in the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, across the street from Daimler's world headquarters and across the street from Mercedes Stadium. The collection is stunning and arranged to tell a history of the motor car, the building is a master piece of modern design with fantastic function, some of the cars, not so well balanced.