rDay Five-Hundred-Forty

Today, a trip out of the valley, up the mountain pass and on into Baker City, cowboy country.  Visited the St. Al’s (HQ’d in Boise) satellite at the Baker City Hospital complex, involving the usual wait, along with bad and strange art on the walls and cell phone conversations by others.  But the staff was cheerful and efficient, as we have come to expect from St. Al’s.  They did take our money.  

Returned by way of Haines (pop. 416) and Hwy 30, affording an opportunity, if you can call it that, for Windshield Photography.  

Later on, walked The Charles downtown while some shopping was addressed.  Spotted a variety of getaway vehicles, ranging from a 1985 Chevy Dolphin motor home to a T@B teardrop trailer towed by a newish Range Rover Evoque.  Kim and Charlie surveyed the grounds of a downtown church.  And back home again.

And, I converted some snaps to B&W for consideration on my photo blog’s windshield photography collection …

rDay Five-Hundred-Thirty-Eight: A Hoyt Update

Today Dennis Hoyt sent me a link to his latest promotional piece, this in support of an upcoming auction sale to benefit the La Grande Symphony. As you may recall, or if you follow my Porsche blog you would know that Dennis is an internationally-acclaimed local sculptor who specializes in auto racing subject matter. We have collaborated in the past on a website and his charitable projects, and talk Porsches and Formula One racing when we get together. This piece is about his tribute sculpture to legendary Stirling Moss and his winning Mercedes 300 SLR. And, incredibly, this video was put together using iPhone and iMovie technology as a first time effort by his neighbor, April Simpson. I was only going to post this on my car blog, but it is too good; it deserves a wider audience, IMHO.

rDay Five-Hundred-Thirty-Seven: Ken and His Tonka

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Walking the Deplorable Devil Dawg this afternoon, stumbled upon Ken (neighbor three blocks away) and his Tonka Toy.   (Too bad little Lisle didn’t see this.)  It’s a 50s Jeep pickup, radically modified with a 600hp Chevy 454ci engine and other Chevy and GM running gear, 44-inch tires and custom bodywork that includes a unitized hood and wider-by-six-inches fenders that tip forward to expose the engine and front suspension. Stands roughly eight feet tall.  Originally painted in yellow and green as a University of Oregon Ducks tribute, Ken is redoing it to make it less … political. The thing was supposedly once on the cover of a custom trucks magazine after a small fortune was spent on it; Ken is going to rework it a bit now and powder coat a lot of stuff,  fabricate and install a custom electronic dropdown step assist for age-appropriate ingress and egress, drive it about twenty miles a month, and mostly put it in car shows. I was going to publish the pics below on my Porsche and sports car blog, but they don’t fit there, either.  

For comparison, here’s a stock version from 1950:
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rDay Five-Hundred-Thirty Six: The Guys

The Guys is a play by Anne Nelson about the aftermath of 9/11. We saw a local production at the Liberty Theatre (in its alley-accessible Back Door Stage; see some streetside signage here) today, directed and produced in part by Jeanie Nickel, a friend and high school classmate of Ivi.   A moving work, with an especially wonderful performance by Bryn McLaughlin , whose previous roles in Shakespeare and other local productions have made our day at other times.

rDay Five-Hundred-Thirty-Six: Critter

This morning as we walked through the dense brush on the bank between the Rinehart Canyon cliffs and the Grande Ronde River, I heard a yelp up ahead, not sure whether it came from Kim or Charlie, who were perhaps 30 yards in front of me, invisible. I could only see a few feet ahead as the foliage was about head-high and the path was tightening, so I saw nothing out of the ordinary. But in a couple of seconds my phone rang and Kim was reporting that Charlie, walking ahead of her, stepped right over what she presumed to be a dead rattlesnake, but as she got near, it suddenly coiled and emitted an audible warning. She said that she dove through the brush at the side of the path to get past, and advised me to do the same. Some visuals:

More photo doc from Rinehart Canyon to follow.