Old Stuff - Chequamegon 1993

My friend Don & I were successful in being able to register for the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival in 1993 to participate in the 40 mile race. So we loaded up my little craptacular 3 cylinder Subaru Justy and headed up to Wisconsin's North Woods.

Don rented a quaint cabin on one of the many beautiful lakes in the Cable, WI area.
Taken the morning of the race, a little brisk (probably in the 40s). Nice Lund - just like the ones my grandparents had on Green Lake. But theirs had a 20HP Johnson.Getting prepped for the race. Dig Don's Allsop Softride Stem. Not shown - purple ano hardware.
Don & friend Lisa at the start. These were the days when it was acceptable to wear cotton while cycling. Wicking schmicking.
Yours truly with a mushroom-shaped Bell Image Pro lid. My bike has Don's old Softride stem (black/silver).
I have no idea on what my results were, but I do remember bonking badly about 15 miles into the 40 mile race. Some Powerbars and Gatorade got me going again. Sadly the Chequamegon's site only has results going back to 1997.
Afterwards there was Hamm's to be had. From the Land of Sky Blue Waters (waters...).
And go-karting.
And the po-po (Washburn County Sherrif). Luckily I got off with a written warning (I still have a copy of it in my photo album).
And Pez.

Vintage Chicago Postcard

Okay, it's not all Green Lake postcards here in our den (aka the guest bedroom). Allie and I also have postcards from other places we've lived in or that mean a lot to us.

Here's Chicago's Navy Pier, long before it became a hellish tourist trap. Built in 1914 and 1.5 miles long.
My scanner keeps cutting off the cool border, aargh. Anyway, this card was never mailed, the only thing on the back is the copy:

"Devoted to the docking of lake boats. There are three deck levels for freight and passenger traffic. The outer end contains a concert and dance hall, with a capacity of 4000. Erected at a cost of nearly $4,000,000."

Weekend Wrapup

After spending a week traveling in the upper Midwest, I was happy to return to the San Diego area late on Friday night.

Saturday's highlight was running down to North Ponto beach for a little fresh air.
Celeste also took some pix herself (not shown), with her camera for her beach birthday party invites. Sadly I had the new point-and-shoot camera in crappy lo-res mode. Must remember to reset to hi-res...
Our grrrl really comes alive at the beach, she truly needs nature in her life.
Sunday involved redeeming our free LegoLand tix that we were able to score with the tix that we used back in December. The park was a ghost town - no one is visiting Carlsbad in February on overcast days during the financipocalypse. Good for us as there was virtually no waiting at any ride.

First we took a boat trip and saw some more Miniland structures:

NYC with new Freedom Tower behind Lady Liberty

We rode this spinning thing (like the classic Teacups ride) 3x without having to get out of our seat. Once we were the only ones on the entire ride.

Who knew that being pitched around by a giant robotic arm could be fun?

LegoLand received a fair amount of press last month with the Obama inaguration at their US Capitol.
They even had a model of Aretha Franklin, complete in her goofy hat. See the grey figure at the center of the pic below.
Allie out on a Sunday safari
Celeste and a sponge
Celeste learning how to drive a small, plastic Volvo-branded "car"
And a mold that pumped out 120,000,000 Lego 2x3 plates:
We spent a few bucks on some Danish plastic to bring home. Another great weekend in Southern California.

Don's Getting Into The Pix

My long-time friend Don is posting some of the pix that my other friend Joe & I have been scanning as of late. Check 'em out here.

Tweet Tweet!

Well, I'm officially lame/narcissistic enough to now be on Twitter. See the column below on the right side of the screen as I "tweet" away.

Vintage Green Lake Postcard

Another vintage Green Lake postcard from the collection, this one showing the "drive past Maplewood Hotel, Green Lake, Wis."
The Maplewood Hotel was known as one of the last of the early resorts. Situated on what is now south Lawson Drive just west of the city of Green Lake, the property encompassed what is now Hattie Sherwood Park. In operation from 1891 until falling into disrepair in the mid-1950s and eventually closing in 1958. The land was later sold for residential development.

Florence, the sender, says "Expect to be in WI after the 27th 740 Cass St. -Florence."

Nothing more than an address on the back. Postmarked June 21, 1906.

A Productive Day

Well, I woke up this morning feeling crummy again - stupid head cold. But since I'm going out of town for a week starting tomorrow (Sunday), I felt I had better make the best of it.

Started by giving the van a thorough cleaning. Since we've had a wet spell, the thing was wearing a grey coat of drabness.

Afterwards I checked out Celeste's baked log and rainwater tea.
Yum! Celeste also discovered a hummingbird nest in the ficus tree.
She's also been having fun with the Legos that Grandma and Grandpa sent her. I love the feminine touch she gave the Lego Technic dragster (Lego #8847) I had built as a kid.

a Lego croissant in one cylinder and a green apple in the other

Speaking of food, we had planned a trip out to the Ruby's Diner at the end of the Oceanside pier. After parking and walking the 1,942' length, we found a line out the door - a 45 min wait for a table. Since Allie had hiked this morning, she was starving, so we pointed the car south to another Ruby's. Oceanside Pier pix first:

looking north (hills are part of Camp Pendelton)

So O'side Pier didn't work out, and the Carlsbad Ruby's was slammed as well, so we settled for Islands (chain similar to Red Robin, but with surf decor). The view was not as nice as what we would have had on the pier. That seems like a nice carwash and Jippy Lube though (if you're in to those sorts of things).
Late this afternoon I went for a run down to the beach. Brought my iPhone, sorry about the poor quality of the pix...

And finally I packed for my trip. Here's the extent of my winter outerwear (fleece gloves, fleece jacket, thin beanie). I'm ready for old man winter to slap me in the face. Let's see how soft I've become...

Exiled At The Scanner

To go along with all of this compulsive photo scanning I've been up to this past week, I've been playing music from the era.

Cranking up the iTunes and playing early-90s albums like My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Green Mind from Dinosaur Jr along with albums I discovered during that era - The Modern Lovers' self-titled LP, etc. But the album that keeps going thru my head the most is Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville.

The album received loads of praise upon its 1993 debut. Great, often-profane lyrics, simple song structures and basic lo-fi production by Brad Wood. Eighteen tracks sprawling over an hour, this album was in constant rotation to the point of being overplayed at the record store I worked at in the early 90s. I guess that's why I pretty much stopped listening to it two years after it came out.

I'm happy to have rediscovered it within the last year. Now maybe I should go out and buy the deluxe reissue.

More Rewind

Scanner overload. Pix from the fateful night that my friend Don reintroduced me to Allie. Background - I knew Allie in college, but mainly because I had a thing for her friend Karen. Don became friends with Allie thru his cousin Carla. Carla was one of Allie's friends from high school and was also a distant cousin of Don.

Taken late Jan 1993, Second City's Rolling Meadows branch and a Baker's Square down the road. Just a bunch of suburban goofballs. Except Don, he's a true-blue Chicago kid.

Carla, Kim, Allie, me

I don't know why we were climbing the awning structure. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Kim and Allie have zombie eyes.

stickin' stuff on foreheads, fun!

cousin Carla

Don liked to eat. Still does.

Chimichanga 1992!

Okay, the scanner has been working overtime the past two nights as I digitize a large chunk of my old photos. Fun times. Got the old brain firing overtime, enough that I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Thankfully Tylenol PM knocked me out around 12:45.

Bust out your VHS tape rewinder (the one shaped vaguely like a Ferrari) and zip on back to 1992.
I, along with friends Don and Joe, have been bitten by the mountain biking bug bad. The legendary Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival is coming up, but, like most years, it's sold out.

So we make our own, the weekend before Labor Day. We had 50 t-shirts made, with one-of-a-kind tire treads on the back, thanks to some fabric ink and a front wheel in my parent's garage. "Admission" is $5 for the shirt and beer.

Don secures the key ingredients - a Cook County Forest Preserve picnic permit for the Swallow Cliff area of Palos along with a cash donation from LaGrange's The Wheel Thing bike shop - enough to cover the necessary keg o' beer.

Of course any good picnic in a Cook County Forest Preserve (where the mafia dump their victims) also needs tunes and a BBQ.

Brother Dan and his trusty and rugged Sony Outback (before Subaru utilized the term for a gussied up Legacy) boombox and a bag of Kingsford.

Don brings an ESPN banner and a fish-eye lens and I kill a roll taking goofy shots.


We had a Huffy Toss - see who can throw the junker bike the farthest, but I sadly don't have any pix of us mauling the cheap-ass bike.

Joe + fire
Joe's then girlfriend (name since forgotten by me)

Don and (likely) radioactive water. Nice Bell helmet, Don!
Roxanne
Tom
Snoopy (Celeste has this on her bike now)
yours truly
Michele
Michele's friend - Amy (?)
Karen
blurry Vic + Karen
Joe + girlfriend
Tom's lil' bro
brother Dan + chips
Jason
chips

We continued the traditon for a few years, most of the time we were able to secure the same shelter on the same weekend. Kinda like Moose Murphy.

Funny - no riding shots. Oh well, we had fun hanging out and drinking beer in the woods that day.