Buckethead Zombie!

And the inspiration (from Plants vs. Zombies).

Clear Skies, Dry Trails

After Saturday morning's rainstorm blew over (we're ready for our summer now, mmkay?), the skies cleared and provided some impeccable views from atop the hill at my favorite local mountain bike trail.
It's somewhat hard to see from this pic, but Santa Catalina Island, about 40 miles away as the crow flies, was visible on the horizon. Even San Clemente Island, 50 miles away, was visible to the naked eye (if not the tiny iPhone lens).
The trails themselves were absolutely perfect. Only a couple of small areas of mud and zero dust. Borderline-Velcro traction, thanks in part to the tubeless Continental tires. Beautiful Moab-like red dirt surrounded by a carpet of verdant green grass shoots. Too bad this little guy didn't have a good day.
First time I've come across a tarantula at these trails, looks like this guy might have been squished by an errant bike.

Down On The Street

Driving home from Riverside and close to home, I was able to snap a couple of pix of this fine fastback. Yep, another Volvo, this time a PV444. See, Volvos aren't all boxy and driven by Vermonters.
This one has been spotted in the wilds of Carlsbad before. Pretty nice looking, especially when you consider that it's at least 58 years old. Maybe I'll be able to find it parked sometime in the future so I can get some proper shots.
Put put put, børk børk, børk...

Field Trip - March Field Air Museum

There are a lot of perks to working in the bicycle/outdoor industry - one big one are the "industry deals" on all the cool gear that I use. My old Yakima Rocket Box, purchased over ten years ago when I worked at Schwinn in Boulder was still in decent shape, but I really liked some of Yakima's new cargo boxes. After a few days on Craigslist, the old box was gone and I had just about enough cash to purchase one of the newer and better boxes. And instead of spending the $130 or so to have the box trucked down from their warehouse, I took a half a day off and drove up to Riverside to pick it up in person.

a typical view of beautiful Riverside, CA

Driving up Interstate 215 ("the two-fifteen" in the typical California vernacular), I noticed a large collection of vintage aircraft just off the highway at March Field Air Museum. After picking up and securing the box, my next stop was to check out the old birds. Unfortunately I didn't have a real camera with me, so iPhone shots will have to suffice.

SNJ-4 Texan, marked with NAS Glenview, where my dad was once stationed

F-4C Phantom II tail and F-15

one very cool B-29A

B-17G Flying Fortress

KC-97L Stratofreighter

artsy-fartsy version via Hipstamatic

A slew of Soviet MiGs...

MiG-17

MiG-21

MiG-23

...as well as a Polish PZL Mielec An-2:
Some of my favorites tend to be the mid-century jets:

F-102A Delta Dagger

A-7D Corsair II

F-86H Super Sabre

B-52D Stratofortress

inside the B-52's bomb bay

nice computer rack

Both cool as well as sort of eerie was listening to and watching the B-52's left elevator getting pushed by the wind.

B-47E

And some more randomness:

happy bird

polished C-45J

jumble of jets

KC-135 tanker boom

H-21 "flying banana"

And, my all-time favorite:

SR-71A Blackbird

With a top speed: 2,193 MPH, an SR-71 set a world record, traveling 5,645 miles between London and Los Angeles in all of 3 hours and 47 minutes.

Oh, and the new box is pretty cool too.
Looking forward to taking it on a road trip soon.

Band I Can't Stop Listening To

Deerhunter's fantastic Halcyon Digest has been in almost constant rotation on my iPod over the past few weeks. Super-dreamy pop songs, bathed in lush atmospherics, it's easily my favorite record of 2010. So far at least. Songs like Fountain Stairs and Helicopter (below) are highlights.



They're playing in LA on Monday night, however the tickets are selling on Stubhub for around $250, a bit too much for me.

Lunch Ride

Fun times on Vista's Buena Vista trails at lunch today. Good place to ride the cyclocross bike in its element. Next time I'll hold the phone steadier so that the image doesn't come out all blurry again.

Bisbee, Arizona

I must find a reason to visit Bisbee, AZ and the Shady Dell Trailer Camp. So. Much. Coolness.

(photos via Just A Car Guy via Southsiders)

(dibs on the Chris Craft)

Read more about the place at Southsiders (where the pix came from).