Tag Archives: Cars

More Cars, More Coffee

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There’s a bit of a chain reaction going on here. Last week’s visit to the museum at 4 Speed on 50 was the result of the previous week’s stop for a hamburger at the diner there, and this week’s visit to Horsepower Farm is the direct result of that museum visit. As Steve Ashcraft and I were saying goodbye at the end of my museum tour, we did some name checks on other car collections in the area. As if to demonstrate just how oblivious people can be to attractions in their own neighborhood, Steve mentioned Horsepower Farm, which is less than fifteen miles from my home and which I had never heard of. A check of the Farm’s website revealed that their monthly Cars & Coffee would be taking place on the very next Saturday, so that’s where I headed yesterday morning.

Horsepower Farm came into being as a place for Opie Willis to store his growing car collection. It has become a scenic event center where numerous public events are held, and which can be rented for private events such as weddings and meetings. I believe the first Saturday of every month Cars & Coffee is the only regularly scheduled event open to the public. It is adjacent to a residential area that has lots of these “PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY AND QUIETLY” signs displayed, and I have no doubt that anyone ignoring the signs would not find a very friendly welcome at the farm.

There were signs pointing in both directions for parking, and I didn’t realize that a more proper area for mundane cars like Subaru Foresters was to the left until after I drove past the garages and the main area for cool cars. It’s a very non-judgmental crowd, and no one complained or even looked at me funny. Even so, rather than immediately driving back through the area, I parked at the far end of a large open space and walked back.

I naturally looked over some of the cars parked outside, but cut my walk short to step inside the main building. These are, I assume, some of the cars in Willis’ personal collection.

There are several objets d’art mixed in with the cars. Although it’s out of sequence, this seems like a good place to include a full-length shot of that beautiful stainless steel “Horseplay” in the opening photo.

I did not get a car count, but it was way beyond respectable, and the variety was pretty incredible.

Here are a few of my favorites. I think I did mention variety.

When I walked back to my car, I paused to look a little closer at the Hudson “tribute car” parked near the main building. I found the interior, some of which is explained here, especially interesting. I don’t recall ever hearing of holes for on-the-go tire wear checks, but I did some searching online and learned that it was truly a thing in the early days of NASCAR.

So, even though I had to go to Indiana to learn about it, I now know that one of the best Cars & Coffee gatherings in the area is only about half an hour from my home. You can bet your bippy and your VW roof rack that I’ll be back.

An Auto Park Turns Two

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I’ve not been overly secretive about the fact that I’m generally not crazy about bright and shiny brand-new diners or diners of any vintage with a hard-core Marilyn & Elvis vibe. Just the “bright & shiny” thing is probably enough to explain why I’ve passed the 4 Speed on 50 Diner multiple times without stopping. Two Fridays ago, I was headed home from a spot a bit deeper into Indiana than Lawrenceburg with a stomach empty enough and a bladder full enough to pull me in. Inside was a staff so friendly and food so good that I was very glad I stopped. I sat at the counter and watched this burger prepared on the grill in front of me, then ate it. I swear it didn’t look that big on the menu. At some point, I asked the cook about the museum I’d seen signs for, and he pointed to a fellow he called one of the owners at the end of the counter. He explained that the museum contained some very interesting cars but had just closed for the day. Then he went on to tell me the diner’s second anniversary was being celebrated in just over a week with some special entertainment and the weekly Cars & Coffee.

I decided that was a good activity for an absolutely beautiful Saturday, and headed over in time to catch a decent chunk of Cars & Coffee. The day’s entertainment highlight would be a renowned Elvis impersonator, but that was scheduled for the evening when I intended to be sitting quietly at home. I did get to see one of the event’s guest celebrities, however. This Ford appeared in the Movie Hoosiers. I confess to being one of the few people in the world and possibly the only male over 16 living within 60 miles of Milan, IN, carrying that shame. Yeah, I know. I will fix that someday. I promise.

The setup here is sort of a car culture campus. A separate website, 4 Speed on 50 Auto Park, covers the non-diner part of the operation. The Hoosier car is displayed in front of the diner. Cars & Coffee makes use of a parking area between the diner and an associated gas station so that diner access is not affected. I’m guessing that might not remain the case once the Elvis crowd starts rolling in. There appeared to be a pretty decent turnout, and it certainly included some real classics.

Once I had checked out all the cars, I went inside and don’t even pretend you’re surprised. There’s a real greeter with a real smile just out of frame to the left. I once again sat at the counter and watched as my meal was cooked. It was then delivered with a smile. This time it was a Local Omelet (goetta, onion, peppers, mushrooms, cheddar jack cheese). After eating, I carefully selected and then made use of one of the restrooms.

Now I was ready to visit that museum. When I purchased my ticket, the fellow I had spoken with the previous week was sitting nearby, and I made a comment about him being the owner. His dad was the actual owner, he now explained as he walked with me to the museum entrance. Both he and his dad were named Steve, and there was a third Steve who helped run the place I would probably encounter while I was there. Not long after he left, I was looking over a 1969 427 Corvette when three men entered, and I made some joke about one or two of them being Steve. I was off by one. One was the owner and creator of the complex, and one was the other Steve I’d just been told about. The third was a visiting friend who was also named Steve. So, minutes after learning the name of Steve the Younger, I met Steve the Elder, Steve the Other, and Steve the Visitor.

Steve TE has brought together a rather impressive collection of cars spanning a wide range of years and styles. Some are extremely rare, and many have remarkably low mileage. I believe the oldest car in the museum is the 1911 Brass Era Model T Ford. The 2010 Hit King Edition Camaro is one of just 27 made. Pete Rose signed the engine covers, and each car came with a spare, unsigned cover, in case the owner wanted to save the signature and actually use the car. The 1948 Buick parade car once belonged to the family that owned the land where the museum now stands. It had been sold before Steve TE bought the land, but he managed to track it down and have it restored.

There’s really a lot more than cars here. Guys who put together car collections like this seem to naturally pick up lots of other things car-related, as well as some stuff that’s not really car-related at all. The cigarette vending machine served up a pack of smokes when a dime and a nickel were inserted simultaneously. Out of view are climate-controlled spaces similar to those seen here that are rented by individuals for car storage. And even the public space isn’t exactly all museum. A large section called The Hub can be rented for private events and has been the site of birthday and graduation parties, club meetings, and at least one wedding. Of course, parts of it do look pretty much like a museum.

For a different view of some of the cars and maybe some fun and games, climb the stairs to the mezzanine. I did and snapped pictures that include the Hit King Camaro, the Brass Era T, and Steve TO waiting for me to come back down. He basically gave me a fully guided tour and answered every question I had, including some called down from the mezzanine.

The mezzanine also provides a nice overlook of the diner and US-50 passing by. I’ve not suddenly become a fan of brand-new chrome-plated diners, and I’ll probably still cringe a little when I next find myself knee deep in Elvis & Marilyn paraphernalia, but Steve Caudill… I mean, Steve TE and his wife, Barbara, have created something pretty cool in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The diner isn’t trying to pretend it’s something it’s not, and the museum’s impressive collection is very nicely presented. A miniature golf course is to be added to the complex in the near future. If the folks running that are as cheerful and competent as everyone I’ve met on my two visits, I might be tempted to pick up a putter for the first time in a few decades. Maybe not, though. I’m more likely to sip a milkshake while looking at cool cars and watching someone else count strokes.

My Wheels — Chapter 42
2025 Subaru Forester

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I’m thinking that we might all know people who buy a new car of the same make every few years. Maybe it’s a string of Cadillacs, or Fords, or Chevys, or something else. How boring that must be, I once thought. Then I bought two Corvettes back to back, then two Foresters. And I have now bought my third. It may look kind of boring, but seven years of advances keep it from being overly so. Even when the new features are in a familiar-looking package, learning the new tricks is not exactly boring to an old dog.

On the plus side of the changes between Foresters two and three is the addition of Android Auto. This supports connecting my phone to the car’s infotainment system. Although I still rely on a Garmin for trip routing and playback, it is really convenient to ask — by voice — for directions to a restaurant and have the route displayed on the built-in screen. That screen is nearly a foot tall and flush mounted in the dash, which I appreciate every time I’m stopped at a light next to someone in a car with what looks like a detached laptop screen stuck to their dashboard. Android Auto also provides easy access to the podcasts I follow and some other goodies, too. What the infotainment system does not provide is a CD player, and I miss that. I’ve substituted a couple of USB thumb drives filled with the content of several CDs, but I’m still thinking of buying a portable CD player.

On the negative side is the continued growth of the Forester from what I thought was its near-perfect size at its 1998 beginning, and the automatic start-stop system. Regarding size, the car is not uncomfortably huge, but it is possible that I would have been more comfortable in a Crosstrek, and that’s probably where I’ll go if and when there is another Subaru purchase for me. My previous Forester missed the addition of auto start-stop by one year. It is a feature around which I have heard the word “hate” used at least as much as with any other. I don’t hate it, but I do find it annoying, and “tolerates” probably best describes my attitude towards it.

Unlike the 2011 to 2018 trade, this move was not triggered by a collision or any other major event. There was nothing wrong with the 2018 car, but it was nearing 150,000 miles, and oil consumption was creeping higher. I knew the time was coming when I would be spending money on something. I decided it would be spent on a new car and went for the first year of a new generation of Forester rather than the middle (as with the 2011) or end (as with the 2018). I bought the car without ever having seen a 2025 model. No exciting colors are available for my desired trim level (Premium), so I went for the red to avoid the blue. They tell me that the Crimson Red Pearl on the 2025 is different from the Camellia Red Pearl on the 2011, but they sure look alike to me. It was the first 2025 delivered by my salesman and the first or second delivered by the dealership.

That was just over a year ago. The car embarked on its first road trip the next month. The opening photo was taken quite recently to mimic similar photos used in the My Wheels posts for my first two Foresters. The photos at left are from that first road trip. The first is a spontaneous snapshot taken as I walked back to the car after taking a picture of something else on the National Old Trails Road near the beginning of the trip. The second was taken near the end of the trip after a blowout ended it just a little early.

On the car’s third road trip, it was “mooed” while parked in front of the Midland Railroad Hotel in Wilson, KS. While I think the Moo Moo Subaru movement is a fun one, I have no plans to become a mooer. As this is the only time this has happened, I have donated the tiny bovine to the menagerie of similarly sized critters at my nearby Le Peep restaurant.

By the end of 2024, the new Subie had been involved in a total of five documented trips, but not a single one since then. That’s certainly not the Forester’s fault. It’s mine, and it is about to be remedied. It and I are off on our first road trip of 2025 in less than a week.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 40 — 1997 Schwinn
My Wheels Checkpoint: Chapter 41 — The Wheels So Far

Herding the Wheel Horses West

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Near the end of last summer, my friend Terry, the Wheel Horse collector, sold a tractor to Bill Throckmorten of Grant King Race Shops, and I rode along to deliver it. Bill is Grant King’s nephew. He and his wife Stephanie currently own the shop. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Wheel Horses were used at the Indianapolis 500 to move race cars in the pits and other areas. There was also a race week event featuring celebrities piloting 33 of the red tractors in a one-lap race known as the Indy 2 1/2. Because of that connection, Bill wanted a Wheel Horse for the museum at what he calls “A Working Race Shop Museum”, and to maybe move a few cars around. There is a pretty good video overview of the shop/museum and the accomplishments of Grant and Bill here.

One of Bill’s accomplishments is the cofounding of Indy Legends. After giving us a tour of that really cool museum, he invited Terry to display some of his Wheel Horses at their next event at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That event was last weekend, June 28-29, and I again got to tag along. I snapped the opening photo from where the Wheel Horses were displayed.

Friday was setup day, followed by an evening reception at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Stephanie Throckmorten made sure we had wristbands for both the reception and access to IRP. Setting up in ninety degrees was pretty exhausting for old guys like us, although Terry dealt with it better than I did. We both took advantage of the showers at Lion’s Club Park, where we were staying, before heading to the reception.

The museum reopened less than three months ago following a year-and-a-half-long closure and $60 million renovation. One of the first areas inside the entrance is a series of simulated garages holding some very significant cars from the speedway’s history. Eddie Rickenbacker drove this 1914 Duesenberg to a tenth-place finish in 1914. Rickenbacker served as IMS President from 1927 to 1945. Jim Clark put this green Lotus on the pole in 1964, but broken suspension meant a 24th-place finish. Parnelli Jones drove the car to 2nd place in 1965. In 1977, Janet Guthrie broke the Indy 500 gender barrier, then drove this Offenhauser-powered Wildcat to a 9th-place finish in 1978.

An attendant at the entrance to the next section assures entry between presentations of a video shown on a wrap-around vertical screen. Scenes from parades, pit activity, flyovers, and race starts are combined with exhaust sounds from real cars in the area to generate a semblance of race day anticipation.

There is a mind-boggling number of cars and artifacts on display in the museum. Of course, I took a ton of pictures, but there is a lot more going on this weekend, so I am really limiting what I’m posting. Here’s a picture of the Marmon Wasp that Ray Harroun drove to victory in that first Indy 500 in 1911, and one of the Borg-Warner Trophy. Although the trophy was first presented in 1936, the winners of every 500 are represented on it. The Marmon and the Borg-Warner appear together in the photo taken from the new mezzanine.

The reception was a first-class affair with hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and opportunities to chat with museum officials and employees. Terry and I missed the first performance by the Indianapolis 500 Gordon Pipers but were there for their second outing as the reception began to slow down. They would also appear at the race track near the end of the day’s activities on Saturday.

This was the beginning of activities on Saturday. Overnight rain had sounded a lot heavier than it actually was, but some drying out was in order nonetheless. We cleared some water from our canopy, then did a little cruising and car spotting while the track was being dried. Terry posed for a picture with a Mac Tools-sponsored racer and his own “Runt Rod” racer. I believe it is the only non-stock Wheel Horse in his fleet.

All of the cars had informative placards beside them when parked, and I learned a lot by reading many of them. Only when I started writing this post did I realize how little I remembered and what a poor job of recording I did. I can tell you absolutely nothing about the gray #9 in the first picture. #20 is a 1911 National as described here. I also have a shot of #7’s descriptive information. That is almost certainly because my interest was piqued by this on its rear end. Its owners have driven most of the Lincoln Highway, and the Model T racer has been on a short stretch of the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania.

The model years I noted ranged from 1911 to 2000. Although I do not know the actual dividing lines, the on-track groups were separated by age, which also meant they were separated by speed. I have even less information to share about these middle-aged race cars than for the older cars in the previous paragraph.

There was ample time to walk around and photograph the many fabulous race cars while they were parked, and if the temperature, the humidity, or my age had been lower, I would certainly have done more of it. Many of the cars were the exact same vehicles that once ran at IMS and other tracks, while some were impressive replicas of famous cars that are probably on display in museums.

Here are a couple of pictures from the campground just before we pulled out Sunday morning. Showers and restrooms are just beyond the picnic shelter. The trailer, which serves as our bedroom, will be filled with Wheel Horses when the day ends.

There was a somewhat surprising amount of interest in the tractors. Some came from people who remembered the days when Wheel Horses roamed the pits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and some from folks who had heard or read about it. Of course, some came from kids (and adults) who just like little tractors. The tractors were the “half-time show” for both days of the event. At Bill’s request, Terry and I drove them two-by-two through the infield during the lunch break when the track was empty.

That’s Bill Throckmorten chatting with Terry. Bill was incredibly busy throughout the weekend coordinating action on and off the track, but still managed to stop by several times to say hi and see that all was well. On more than one of those stops, he let Terry know he had an invitation to return next year. Whether that happens is very much a maybe. As we pulled out, I commented that this was one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had, but it was also one that I was very happy to see end. Terry agreed. Age and temperature are factors, and only time, which doesn’t help with the age thing, will tell.

I have previously been involved in herding the Wheel Horses south and east.

America’s Packard Museum Revisited

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On Friday, my friend Terry and I visited America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio. This seems to be a once-a-decade thing for me, with my first visit coming in September 2000 and the second in March 2011. Even though this was my third visit and Terry’s first, we both saw — or at least noticed — some new things. For me, those things embarrassingly included this Adonis, a.k.a, Sliding Boy, hood ornament.

I was familiar with the Goddes of Speed and Cormorant ornaments described here. But, despite having seen plenty of Packards, both in and out of museums, the existence of the Adonis ornament had never registered with me. The ornament in the opening photo is on a 1930 Boat-Tail Speedster and is the one that finally caught my attention. Any thoughts that this was my first time being exposed to an Adonis ornament are completely done in by this detail from a photo of that same car taken in 2011.

By coincidence, we were there on a day when Lola Signom, widow of museum founder and namesake Robert Signom, was volunteering. It was Lola who explained to me that a choice of three different hood ornaments was once available to Packard buyers. The Sliding Boy seems to have been the least popular of the three. Another friendly museum staff member also answered multiple questions and supplied lots of information. Although I read his name tag with the best of intentions, my memory has again failed me, so I have to thank him namelessly.

And now for some cars. Straight ahead of the entrance is a 1902 Model F, which I believe is the oldest car in the museum. Just to the right of the entrance is the museum’s newest car, a 1958 Packard Hawk. Packard merged with Studebaker in 1954, and the products essentially became Packards in name only. The prominent front corner spot is occupied by a 1934 Super 8 7-passenger Touring car that has carried General Eisenhower, Admiral Nimitz, and other big names.

Many things about this 1934 Super Eight Sport Phaeton impressed me, but I think the two biggest are that it has not been restored and that it was purchased new for a 16-year-old girl who might have been a little bit spoiled. Read its placard here.

Although this 1941 One Twenty convertible is only seven years newer than the convertible in the last paragraph, it has a column shift which our poor little rich girl may have found easier to drive. Of course, she still might have disliked the color.

Here is that Boat-Tail Speedster whose hood ornament appears in the opening photo. Packard built trucks between 1908 and 1923 and they were used quite a bit by the Army in WW I. The top speed of this 1919 Model E Five Ton Truck is 11 MPH which is no doubt more than enough for a driver depending on those solid rubber tires for cushioning. The 1918 Twin Six Runabout competed in the 2002 Great Race and is now available as a photo prop at the museum.

There is now an enclosed walkway to the museum’s annex. Signs say that post-war cars are featured there, though some might see a problem with the first car pictured. It sure looks like the “Dutch” Darrin-designed cars that people like Clark Gable and Errol Flynn liked to be seen driving in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It is exactly like those because it was built by “Dutch” Darrin using existing castings and molds in 1971. There is no question about the other two pictured cars being post-war. The 1951 200 Club Sedan placed fifth overall in the 1951 Carrera Panamericana with the help of a young mechanic named Pablo Merrigan. In 1995, Merrigan completely restored the car and began racing it himself. The last car pictured is the one that took Don Corleone to the cemetery in The Godfather. It’s a 1948 Henney Landau 3-Way Hearse. The 3-way designation comes from the rear-hinged side doors allowing coffins to be loaded from either side or the rear.

Packard began building cars in Warren, Ohio, in 1899 but moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1902, where it remained until the merger with Studebaker in 1954. Plans to restore various parts of the immense complex never came to fruition. According to Wikipedia, “By late December 2024, all structural components of the plant had been razed, except for two adjacent sections along E. Grand Boulevard which are slated for preservation.” This is the lintel from the west entrance to the Packard office building on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit.

There is a Packard museum in Warren, and I’ve visited it three times (2011, 2012, 2023) between Friday and my most recent previous visit to the Dayton museum. The National Packard Museum in Warren and America’s Packard Museum in Dayton are both great museums, and both are worth visiting. I do naturally feel some regional pride in the Dayton museum, and I like that it is housed in a building constructed as a Packard distributorship, which served that purpose for many years and now has its original neon sign hanging outside. Visiting either is good. Both is better.

British Transportation Museum

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I am about to start a string of canned posts during some travel and wanted to put that off a little by making one more “current” post. Remnants of Hurricane Helene have caused many outdoor activities to be canceled or at least made them uninviting. Visiting a new-to-me museum in Dayton was just the sort of indoor activity I was looking for. The British Transportation Museum was founded in 1998 but I first learned of it less than a year ago. Apparently, it was an “appointment only” operation until fairly recently when regular hours, 10:00 to 4:00, were established for Saturdays and Mondays.

The museum is home to sixty-some British cars, a number of bicycles, and a couple of motorcycles and boats. It is an all-volunteer operation, and a round-table discussion was in progress among several of those volunteers when I entered. A fellow named Dave broke away from the group, gave me a brief overview of the museum, then provided a personal guided tour of the whole place.

We started with some small “family” cars that were the heart of the British car industry for many years. The yellow car is a 1961 Morris Minor Sedan. The red one is a 1964 Mini Cooper. About 1.6 million Minors were built between 1948 and 1970. Nearly 5.5 million Minis were built between 1959 and 2000.

I have included the red 1951 MG-TD out of sequence relative to the tour. It and its MG-TC predecessor introduced the sports car concept to the United States. The Lotus Elan was a major influence on the design of the Mazda Miata. A 1972 model is shown here. The Sunbeam Alpine has been repainted to match the one James Bond drove in Doctor No.

This 1979 Triumph Spitfire has just a few thousand miles on the odometer. It was won as a prize in Las Vegas and spent most of its life in a garage.

Following a visit to the museum, members of the British Embassy enquired about supplying cars for an event in Washington, DC. The museum was unable to meet the request but this beautiful 1959 MG-A did make an appearance. The photo propped against the windshield shows dignitaries admiring the car at the ambassador’s home.

Of course, not all British autos were two-seat sports cars or tiny sedans. Several Rolls Royce limousines and big Jaguar saloons are on display and not even all MGs were as small as we Americans tend to think. I believe Dave said the light-colored 1939 MG WA was the largest MG ever built. The darker-colored 1950 MG YA isn’t much smaller.

As mentioned, the museum’s collection includes bicycles, motorcycles, and boats. At present, there are no experts on any of these vehicles involved so no organized displays exist excepting this boat. Donald Healey was quite the collaborator in building cars. Think Austin-Healey, Nash-Healey, and Jensen-Healey. At one point he made boats and collaborated there as well. This time it was with Stirling Moss. That sign is readable here.

There are many more cars on display than I’ve shown here and Dave supplied much more information than I’ve relayed (or remembered). This place is definitely worth a visit.

Cars Galore

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I attended the Pap’s Rod Shop Labor Day Bash on Monday but I still don’t know much about it. At least not much about its organizers or venue although both are obviously quite interesting. The venue was the Evans Family Ranch which appears to be a thriving operation offering a variety of products and services. The results of a search for Paps Rod Shop are not so clear cut. Most hits point to a Facebook group or to announcements of or reports on the bash. One of the administrators of the 6K+ member Paps Rods n Kustoms Facebook group claims Pap’s Rod Shop as a workplace. Following that clue led to this video report about that administrator and a not quite public shop near Springfield, Ohio. Good stuff, for sure.

The word “rod” in the title, made me think of cars like these, and pre-1940s coupes and roadsters stuffed with modern V8s were certainly well-represented at the bash.

Of course, there are also some later-model vehicles with upgraded (to say the least) power plants on display. 

There was a time when engine upgrades were not required to make a car a hotrod. In those days, Mopars with toilet-bowl-sized carburetors and supercharged Studebakers came straight from the factory.

Posters for the bash spoke of more than 600 cars on display and I’m guessing that could be right. Among them were some decidedly non-rod and non-hot vehicles. That group is represented here by this personal memory jogger. My very first car was a 4-door 2-tone 1953 Chevy. Mine was a top-of-the-line Bel Air and green instead of blue and it had a 3-speed stick rather than a 2-speed Powerglide. I also believe mine had more rust but other aspects of this example, such as the engine compartment you could pretty much climb into, look very familiar.

Trip Peek #126
Trip #163
PA Cars

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This picture is from my 2021 PA Cars trip. PA, or Pennsylvania, is where I went and cars is what I went for. The first big car exposure was in Allentown, PA, where my friend Dave Reese gave me another personal tour of the America on Wheels museum. From Allentown, my farthest point east, I headed west to Hershey and the AACA Museum. The trip was more or less organized around the museum’s Model T Driving Experience and that’s what the photo is from. Of course, I worked in a stroll through all of the AACA exhibits and a stop at The Hershey Story Museum too. I got in some miles on both the Lincoln Highway and the National Road and enjoyed a night of historic lodging on each. The National Road miles were eastbound and I spent the first night of the trip at the Headley Inn near Zanesville, OH. The last night of the trip was spent at the Lincoln Motor Court beside the Lincoln Highway near Bedford, PA.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Lunken Airport Days 2023

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As I imagine the case is everywhere, Labor Day weekend is pretty crowded with activities around here. I picked Lunken Airport Days to fill my Saturday primarily because I had never attended before. It was also the closest of the events I considered and was the only one that was free. Lunken (LUK) opened in the 1920s and was Cincinnati’s principal airport until Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) opened in 1947.

Airport Days is hosted by Cincinnati War Birds so basically features military aircraft. Several classic cars are on display and there are even a few civilian airplanes such as this 1940 WACO. The 100th anniversary of WACO Aircraft Company will be celebrated leter this month at the museum and field in Troy, Ohio.

Military planes included a 1942 BT-13A VULTEE, the next to last B-25 ever built, and a 1944 P-51D Mustang. Seated in the foreground of the Mustang phot is one of the local artists participating in an informal “Lunken Days Sketch Outing”.

But the biggest plane on campus — actually one of the biggest planes ever built — was the B-29 Superfortress named Doc. 1644 Superfortresses were built during World War II. Only two are flying today. This remarkable airplane has its own website here.

My attention focused entirely on Doc when I heard that first engine begin to turn. That initial bit of smoke was soon gone and soon all four engines were running smoothly. Doc earns his keep by taking paying passengers aloft Some of this flight’s passengers can be seen here and here as the plane taxies.

After taxieing to the far end of the field, Doc rumbles down the runway, lifts off, and disappears behind one of the airport buildings. Because of the surrounding trees and the plane’s low flight path, I don’t get a shot of the plane in flight until it returns and circles the field.

It is headed south, just as it was on takeoff, when it returns to the runway.

There was just enough time after the flight landed to prepare for the presentation of the flag and singing of the national anthem at noon. I was not able to photograph the color guard as they marched toward the plane but I caught them on the way back.

Although we could see everything the guide pointed out, there wasn’t much room in the cockpit for taking pictures. The tunnel to the rear of the airplane went unused as entry and exit were via vertical ladders.

I could now get closeups of the nose art and bombardier’s position. With plexiglass domes in place of gun ports, I could look right through the plane to the historic terminal.

Airport Days is a two day affair so, if you are seeing this shortly after publication, you can easily catch the second half. The weather looks to be just as delightful today as it was yesterday.

At Speed in Cincy

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History does repeat itself. In the early 1970s, I lived with my wife and two sons in a house with a driveway that sloped to a paved area in the back. That driveway was an ideal spot for the four-year-old to give his Big Wheel a workout. While I worked on something on a car behind the house, he repeatedly pushed the three-wheeler to the top of the hill so he could come rocketing down the hill, brace his feet on the pedals to stop the big front wheel, and throw the rear wheels into a perfect 180-degree slide. This was exactly what Big Wheels were designed for. After one of his countless slides, he looked up at me and made an incredibly insightful observation. “Dad”, he said, “I bet you wish you could do this.”

He was absolutely right. What he was doing looked like a fabulous amount of fun but I was too old. What I saw Saturday also looked like a fabulous amount of fun but I was once again too old. Fifty years ago, being too old meant being too big to fit into the seat. Yesterday it meant being too wheezy and too brittle.

This is Danger Wheel‘s eighth year but it was somehow kept a secret from me until I saw Citybeat’s 7 Things To Do in Cincinnati This Weekend article last Thursday. Realizing almost instantly that this was something special, I made plans to attend and found myself near the midpoint of the course about two hours before race time. There is a starting line at the top of the hill and a finish line at the bottom just like the Soapbox Derby I attended last week (At Speed in Akron). More history repeating itself I suppose.

The race takes place in the Pendleton neighborhood of Cincinnati which has two breweries and several really good restaurants. Food trucks are brought in for the event along with tents from breweries outside the neighborhood. I had no trouble filling the time until the competition started. I even had time to check out some of the racing teams and vehicles.

Of course, the two hours between my arrival and the first race also gave other spectators time to arrive and completely line the course. I did somehow manage to get close enough to the starting line to snap a picture of the launch of the first heat. When the starting horn sounds, two team members have ten feet to power the third member off the line.

These special built Huffy Green Machines have no onboard means of propulsion so you might think that once the starting line pushing ends, the race is exactly like a Soapbox Derby heat with drivers dealing with nothing but steering until gravity takes them over the finish line. You might think that but you would be really really wrong.

While spectators were packing in trackside, race organizers had placed ramps and speed bumps along the clear street I’d seen when I arrived. In addition, pelting racers with water balloons was a legitimate and quite popular means of fan participation. I overheard the starter suggest to a rookie that he close his face shield all the way because “those water balloons hurt like hell”.

I didn’t feel like forcing my way to the front or staying in one place long enough to move up through attrition assuming that was even possible. I could see some of the action fairly well but had no clear shot for photos. The closest I came to capturing any of the mayhem was this fuzzy shot. The picture at right shows a large video screen in the parking lot where most of the food trucks were. Live racing was shown on this screen and on screens inside most of the businesses in the area. The longest stretch of racing that I actually watched was inside one of the breweries while also enjoying some cool air and cold liquid.

I did not stay until the champion was crowned. Just like last week at the Soapbox Derby, I had no one to root for. The winner of each heat was announced but the names were meaningless to me and I did not pursue standings.

But I still consider it one of the coolest events I have ever attended in Cincinnati. It was absolutely great fun to watch but, once I understood that the helmets and padding were not just for show, I lost any desire to participate. I do still wish I could have spun that low-slung speedster around in the driveway fifty years ago, however.