Planning, a New Bike Rack and Model Airplanes

This was taken this past Sunday, back when it was chilly.  We spent a day in the RV doing travel planning for May, June and early July.  It was a long day.  Some of the places we want to go are still closed for the winter, so getting someone on the phone is difficult.  We had planned to spend two weeks in Bishop, CA, but noooo, we can not.  They are booked for Mule Days.  50,000 people will descend upon the area for mule stuff.  Since we're generally on our way to Coburg, OR, we had to find somewhere else to be for 5 days, therefore we are going to Mt. Lassen.  We've never been there, know nothing about it, but there we are going.  This is how the "planning" process works.

 

Now we advance to Tuesday, when we skipped over spring and went directly to really really hot.  Our mountain bike travel solution has been suboptimal.  When they are on the back of the truck and it rains, the chains rust, which is bad.  Here I am in the bed of the truck mocking up placement for four bikes.

 

After a couple of hours, Jim's ears were burning.  We put a wet cloth under his hat to keep him cool and shaded.

 

This is the final placement of the bikes.  The mountain bikes have to go forward, which is a bummer for getting the road bikes in and out, but at least they're all under cover when we're traveling.

 

Here is Jim drilling holes through the plywood so he knows where to put the screws for the wood blocks that position the rear wheels of the bikes.

 

Here I am with the hot glue positioning those wood blocks.  We learned from watching The New Yankee Workshop that hot glue is excellent for tacking items before turning them upside down.  All of the screws have to come up from the bottom of the rack.  Notice my excessive use of sunscreen and my wet scarf tied around my neck.  Yowzer it was hot.

 

Now the road bikes are back in their house.  There are handles on the edge of the plywood so we can pull it forward to get the bikes closer to us for removal and installation.  This is the 3rd version of this rack we've built, we are way down the curve.

 

Yesterday we rode.  We were heading out Camino del Oeste when I looked up and saw this.  It's a crested Saguaro.  It looks like it may be putting arms out of the crest.

 

We returned via the trail, stopping at Christopher Columbus park.  There were a bunch of older men flying model planes.

 

The man who made this B-26 is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel fighter pilot.  He built this from scratch.  Look at the little black dot behind the propeller closest to me.  One puts a glow plug igniter in there, and it heats the glow plug filament which ignites the fuel air mixture.  They burn a mixture of methanol and castor oil.

 

It takes two people to launch a plane.  Both engines finally started, and the pilot had to run to the center to pick up the controller.  They're not radio controlled, they're tethered.  The other guy is restraining the plane.  For some reason the video I shot of this showed only my feet, which was unfortunate.

 

There it goes, heading into the sky.

 

Next week there will be a national fly off at the park.  It might be worth watching.

Other than this, I have zippity doo-dah all to report.