The Better Half snapped this as we passed the classic Packard. It’s not as pristine as some of the old classics we see around town and could use a little TLC. It’s in good enough condition that it would clean up really nice.
This car reminds me of the 1937 Packard I remember my folks driving when I was a small child. Theirs was an old car by the time I was riding in it. Clickable image.
A restaurant in the downtown area of our city procured a vintage Chevrolet fire truck and fixed it up. The better half took this picture last year before the decals and detailing were done at a local restoration shop. The name of the restaurant is Buffalo Fire Department.
Clickable image: BFD Fire Truck
I couldn’t find a good shot of the post-restoration truck in the archives, but the inset should give you an idea of how the decals look. The restaurant is behind the red façade across the street.
I recently came into possession of this nice leather jacket courtesy of a deal from the National Rifle Association. This was one of the premiums they offered with an upgrade to life membership. I got it in a size large enough to be able to conceal Fat Man or Little Boy.
Seen at the supermarket today. A 1959 Edsel Ranger, four door, powder blue with white trim. For a fifty year old car, it looked like new to me.
I remember when the Edsel first came out. I was visiting with my uncle in Colorado and he took me and my cousins to a tented showroom grand unveiling - or something like that. I remember that they were giving stuff away to us kids and little else except for the funny toilet seat-looking grill.
Clickable image credit - the Better Half.
From what I can tell, this is a Russian-built Ural. I was walking the dog this morning when the ‘cycle passed on the way into the gate of the RV park where we’re camped. I would rather post a front-side shot, but the riders didn’t pause long enough at the gate.
I looked up Ural on Wikipedia, and, judging from the condition of this rig and it’s olive drab paint job, this may be a World War Two relic. These have been in production since 1941 and still in production today.
Clickable image.
Located along the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, between Florence, AZ, and Tucson, AZ, we found a roadside marker erected in memory of the famous silent film cowboy star, Tom Mix. It turns out that this is the spot where the actor was killed in 1940. I barely remember the Tom Mix reruns on TV in 1950’s.
From WikiPedia:
On the afternoon of October 12, 1940 Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton near Florence, Arizona (between Tucson and Phoenix) on Arizona State Route 79 when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A work crew watched as he was unable to brake in time and his car slid into a gully. A large polished aluminium suitcase he had put on the seat behind him flew forward and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattering his skull and breaking his neck. The 60-year-old actor was killed almost instantly. Accounts vary as to whether Mix was speeding before the accident, along with the role alcohol consumption may have played.
The site of his death is located on what is now State Route 79. There is an historical marker and the gully is named Tom Mix Wash. Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Alcohol MAY have been involved? Heh.
After our weekly visit with Mom, the Better Half and I were driving home when we saw this beauty in a parking lot. Not having ample time to get a photo, we circled the block and she took several shots of this classic beauty. Click to see the large size in the image viewer - you just might see your reflection in this shiny old Chevy . . .
The Better half and I took a ride down to Point Vicente today. It was a nice clear and warm Thanksgiving Day and a lot of other people had the same idea. The air was clear, the ocean was calm and you could easily see Catalina Island across the channel to the south. To the west south west, if you really tried, you could make out Santa Barbara Island, about 45 miles offshore.
It was also a nice day to jump in your Boeing Stearman open cockpit biplane and take a flight along the shoreline. I took this photo of the plane as it rounded the point near the Lighthouse. It’s painted in the original pre-WW2 Army Air Corps primary trainer color and markings.
This is Wikipedia’s summary of the Boeing Stearman Model 75:
The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane, of which at least 9,783 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s as a military trainer aircraft. Stearman became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely known as the Stearman, Boeing Stearman or Kaydet, it served as a Primary trainer for the USAAF, as a basic trainer for the USN (as the NS & N2S), and with the RCAF as the Kaydet throughout World War II. After the conflict was over, thousands of surplus aircraft were sold on the civil market. In the immediate post-war years they became popular as crop dusters and as sports planes.
If you have a pair of red-blue or red-cyan 3D glasses, you might be interested in a 3D picture of this very same airplane that I posted last month on the family blog. It’s a beauty. If you don’t have the glasses, the 2D version is here.
