Its good to see you made it home safe. I wouldn't have wanted to be in your shoes driving back home and worrying about fuel and bathrooms for 16 hours. Not pleasant.
Your post made me wonder what an exodus would be like when a higher percentage of us drove electric vehicles. You can't fuel up in 5 minutes to recharge batteries and the places to get recharged would be much fewer. Makes me doubt what many talking heads are saying about electric cars being the only thing to buy in the near future.
Alex

I agree. They are remarkable! Words fail me when seeing such talent.
Thanks for sharing.

What a great article.
Anyone who has experienced ferry flying for long distances knows how trying it can be and he describes this flight so well, you can almost feel the bladder hurting!!

Good man.

The SR-71 was and always will be a totally fascinating aircraft to me.

Back in mid-1963, while going to school during the day, I worked nights at an Aerospace tooling house in Inglewood, California. We had very large, electrically heated presses, that were used to ‘hot-size’ (read temper or stress relieve ) Titanium parts. We received the parts from a ‘no-name-company’ that used a semi truck to deliver the material to us, always in the early AM.
The semi was followed everywhere by a car with two people in it that waited in the street while we loaded and unloaded the parts and tooling.
The parts, I learned later, were the internal frames for the SR-71 fuselage. Lockheed would not tell us what material they were made of, we asked because of the high temperatures we had to heat them to, and all they would say was ‘this batch is white and run it at 1500 degrees and this batch is black and run them at 1550 degrees. Really hot.

I asked about the company name because one night the semi had a tow bar on the truck and it must have been 40 feet long. I was going to school for aviation engineering so everything having to do with aircraft or space was fascinating to me. Southern California was a wonderful hot bed of aerospace companies during that time.

with monarchs the biggest issue appears to be a combination of destruction of wintering habitat AND the destruction of caterpillar food sources----- i.e. using roundup for non-specific, mass coverage on farms that also kills the single food source for monarchs......milkweed.

Over the last couple of years many communities around here have lamented the loss of Monarch butterflies and discussed a solution. That solution was to ask people to plant milkweed around their property. Fortunately, there is a lot of open land here and even my poor eyes can see milkweed plants almost everywhere I look. Many of the local communities here in So. Oregon have stepped up milkweed planting. Now you see it almost everywhere and the word is, leave milkweed alone for the Monarchs.

Mark,
Thanks for the first smile of the day. A good way to start it.
Alex

[quote=jwt]We have fondly dubbed our Hill Country Home 5Buck Ranch. I've decided to share with you my normal morning.

Jim,
Such a pleasant way to start the day.
Looking at your photos made me want to get inside of each.
Thanks for a beautiful insight into your world.

Alex

Being able to see Miles in person, especially at Birdland, which must have been 'up close and personal' makes you a lucky man.

I envy your experience.

Mark,
I love Miles Davis.

Just yesterday afternoon I had a senior moment with one of the younger generation. I went into our local general store (Provolt, Oregon) and 'Autumn' who was handling the cash register had a 'T' shirt with "Miles Ahead" on the front. I'm guessing it was signifying her age was low and she had miles to go with her life. Well, big mouth me had to say "ya know, there is a Miles Davis album titled with that same saying".....well she looked at me like who the hell is that and what are you saying?

I paid, and took my paper and cookie and left knowing I could never take enough time to explain how much Miles Davis influenced me when I was her age. I don't think she would have understood even if I took hours to explain.

Then today you write about Miles Davis. Amazing!
Alex

Thanks.
Their web site shows a very well maintained cemetery.

Brobill,
You are a lucky man by having some of the places you knew when you were younger, still being around to visit. Very nice memories.
Love your photo of your present home place.
Didn't know of DFW cemetery until your post. Hope its maintained as well as it looks from your photo. Where abouts is it located?

Alex

I have to say Lenny was a genius in tying up/wrapping the gun in two places with that string. Must have taken hours and then to have that darn DJ bend over just at the 'right' time was a precious bit of comedy.
Truly enjoyed the link. Thanks for your enlightening posts, this one was especially good.
Alex

I found a site where they are selling old classic cars (http://hymanltd.com/vehicles) that has an extensive description of the Sedanet. They have one for sale at their showroom just outside St. Louis, MO. It states it only had 144 HP which doesn't sound like it was capable driving up any big hills pulling that beautiful trailer. Sure would look good tho.

BTW, they want 79,500 for a 1946 restored Sedanet.

According to their web site they only rent to people who have an address in Germany or Austria.