• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Soozy's 50 First Dates Tour:The Ride Report

I will stick a link up on BUSA (Burgman USA) today, Chuck. Thanks for reminding me.

Pacman, we didn't go in, but it looked like a riot in there. I have been trying to understand Beer for awhile. Questions like flavors, for instance. I recently learned what 'hoppy' taste is...and yuk, I might add. So I know now I like beer cold, full of bubbles, and as close to water as it can be. And then bottle shapes are important. It has to be a long neck. Phallick symbol?!! Oh good grief. Corona with a lot of lime, please. Wimp? Oh definitely.

Lano, you are a boat guy? This forum of folks may not know that sailing is as big a passion for me as scootering. Yawl...a homonym for my frog companion. It just keeps getting better. There is a gathering of wooden boats in the area right now, and I will be making it there. I have 3 and a half goals right now. The world's largest butterfly museum...live ones! Riding up Ranier. Seeing the wooden boats. (Starship song just came to mind! "Wooden ships on the water...very free and easy. Easy the way you know it's supposed to be...") Finding the troll under the bridge. OH! and seeing the Pike's Market and Phil the Pasta guy. OH! And having coffee at the original Starbucks. And the possibility of going out on a 42 footer a friend of John is picking up in Portland as I type. That is more than 3 and a half goals. At what point does keeping up with these goals become just work?? Blink blink.

Sometimes the universe just opens up for you. I understand it is not because you have been good, or because you have paid it forward, or because you deserve it. It just happens.

Here is a little piece of history. Seattle is my father's birth place. He was one of those man's man guys. Mountain climber, snow skier when one had to walk up before they could slide down, sailor, Air Force Lt. Colonel. He was the youngest man at 17 to earn 'Ship's Captain' rating in Seattle area when he was made Captain of the Sea Scout's 60 foot sailing vessel in the 30's. He joined the Air Force when it was the Army Air Corps and flew bombers. He was assigned to an ice hut inside the Arctic Circle for 8 weeks to study weather patterns. His uniform and sleeping bag and weather gear were all the same thing, a penguin bag! He was on the Manhattan Project from the start, and present at the failed New Mexico test of the bomb and the successful one, flew through the blast clouds at the Nevada and Marshall Island tests to collect air samples, and was on duty at Tinian when the Enola Gay was dispatched.

For some reason I started thinking about him as I passed through New Mexico and through Nevada. I was close to both blast sites, which I just now realized.

Here is an interesting link I found:

http://www.enolagay509th.com/manhat.htm

There was a book written and long ago out of print called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Pssssst, about the New Mexico tests.
 
... Look at the sloop...or whatever it is. I wished for a zoom lens.

IMG_3201.jpg
...

It is impossible to tell for sure. She could be a yawl, but probably a ketch.

Her profile proportions are very similar to Caroline's. Caroline is a Bermuda ketch cutter, and I think your green boat is probably the same.

A yawl carries it's mizzen mast behind the rudder post. A ketch carries it's mizzen mast ahead of the rudder post. Judging by the distance the mizzen is from the transom I'd guess she is a ketch unless she has an unusually deep fin or bulb keel, which is not uncommon in that area because the rivers (other than the sandbars at the mouths of some rivers) and bays tend to be deep, almost like fiords in some places. On the other hand, if her bottom is shoal-draft, she would definately be a ketch with that mast placement. Her sailplan is short relative to her length, which would indicate she does not have a super deep keel, but the short sail plan could be intended to reduce working loads on the lines making sail handling easier for the crew. She could carry a good sail area, too, especially if she can rig a staysail above the main.

I do not see any evidence of a gaff, so I'd expect she has Bermuda main and mizzen sails, which makes her a Bermuda ketch.

I see a mainmast set well aft and two forestays, one to the sprit, one to the prow, so I'd guess she is capable of carrying a suite of fore-and-aft foresails on a reach, which would make her a Bermuda ketch cutter.

Due to the climate and prevailing sea conditions in the Pacific Northwest a midship pilothouse is common on large sailboats for safety and comfort reasons, no matter the sail plan. In other areas, yawls that size are almost always built with a centrally-located cockpit or pilot house and ketches are almost always built with aft-located cockpit or pilot house. Hence, people elsewhere than the Pacific Northwest tend to name boats by their cockpit location, not by the relative location of the rudder post and mizzen mast, though such a convention, though common, is technically incorrect.
 
Soozy, Make the Phil the Pasta Guy take you sailing on his 32 foot sail boat.
 
Last edited:
Hi Soozy:

I don't know what your schedule is, but I'll be in Seattle on Wednesday and Thursday night this week.
 
We should drop in on Phil the pasta guy on Wednesday. I called him and he works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

If you need a bike while you are here, I do have the geekiest girl on the campus.....
 
Ken, good to see you! Thanks for all that. I saw that ship and thought it was almost a dead ringer for the Caroline.

So Phil is a sailor??? I wonder if I can talk him into taking me out on his boat?

We have been having a patriotic time today and will be going to fireworks on Commencement Bay in Tacoma tonight.

Pictures later.
 
Ketch would be accurate. I spoke too soon. Yes, I have been around a lot of boats. Spent my youth (nine years) in the Navy. I love sailboats and the ocean. Yeah I know, not much of either in the Texas Panhandle.
 
Ken, good to see you! Thanks for all that. I saw that ship and thought it was almost a dead ringer for the Caroline.

So Phil is a sailor??? I wonder if I can talk him into taking me out on his boat?

We have been having a patriotic time today and will be going to fireworks on Commencement Bay in Tacoma tonight.

Pictures later.

Go sailing if you get a chance. Be sure to take some Dramamin before boarding, and keep up with it while aboard.

Only the sail plans are similar. Topsides and layout are very different. Hull shape is also very different. Caroline had a cockpit behind the mizzen, and 12 feet of her canoe stern removed before I bought her. Her current owner, a girl's boarding prep school in Maine, has restored her original lines. She is 60 feet with a canoe hull with a deep bulb keel and a counter-balanced rudder. I have sailed her once since she was restored and she is much more kindly in a following sea.

I'll go back to lurking now. Peace be with you.
 
Late to the thread, but this...

The sound they make...how can I describe it? Let's see. I laid in the tub and the small of my back created suction which stuck it to the tub. When I yanked it loose, that sound resembled the voice of one of these uttering one syllable.

has got to be one of the funniest things I have read in a LONG time!! :rofl:

Sometimes the universe just opens up for you. I understand it is not because you have been good, or because you have paid it forward, or because you deserve it. It just happens.

True, just as sometimes it can close down on you for no particular reason. Nothing to do but keep on keeping on...

Great report! I look forward to more :thumb:
 
Thanks, Scott!

July 4, 2009

Carla does web pages, graphics design work, and animation for people. She is working on a page for the Retirement village called Patriot's Landing and she needed pictures of a big event they held today, so we joined them. This facility is primarily for military retirees.

IMG_3281.jpg


IMG_3354.jpg


First event, there was a halo jump (jump high, pull chute low). Three military men jumped in and carried a flag.

IMG_3299.jpg


IMG_3308.jpg


IMG_3316.jpg


The entire Declaration of Independence was read. I don't know that I had ever actually read or heard the whole thing. Here is a link if you haven't read it:

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

Following the reading, men from each branch of the military raised their flag, then the US flag was raised.

IMG_3337.jpg


IMG_3336.jpg


IMG_3350.jpg


IMG_3342.jpg


IMG_3355.jpg


Uncle Napolean Sam

IMG_3356.jpg


Following the ceremony, the community shared a massive meal and had quite a picnic party with carriage rides, artists, dunking booth, and a dog show.

IMG_3376.jpg


IMG_3383.jpg


IMG_3380.jpg


I love this one.

IMG_3388.jpg


If I smelled as good as these burgers, I would have a boyfriend.

IMG_3365.jpg


As I watched the fish, lovely folks stopped to talk and tell stories.

IMG_3370.jpg


As the evening approached , we headed to Commencement Bay to watch the fireworks. It was a cool beautiful night.

IMG_3397.jpg


IMG_3398.jpg


IMG_3425.jpg


IMG_3411.jpg


IMG_3427.jpg


IMG_3428.jpg


CJ finally made an appearance. He and Elliot are twins.

IMG_3396.jpg


Finally...Galluping Gertie on her opening day

IMG_3374.jpg
 
harmonics--not a good thing for bridge design

 
Heya, Sooz, speaking of bridges...

I hope you get a chance to head over to Tacoma and see THIS:
http://www.chihuly.com/bridgeofglass/

(I spent several days in the Seattle area a couple years ago, getting the grand tour from an old friend; the Venetian Wall & the Seaform Pavilion nearly knocked me outta my socks. Just -- wow!)
 
Soozy:RE: no boyfriend--------You are mistaken. You have MANY boyfriends on TWT,maybe just not "THE" boyfriend
place happy-face here
 
Last edited:
Had a really quiet and relaxing day. Started with church and naps and reading and ended with sunset over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.

Got Johnny to ride the scooter!

IMG_3434.jpg


IMG_3435.jpg


IMG_3440.jpg


IMG_3443.jpg
 
It was a gorgeous day to go to Pike's Market, so we did!

IMG_3493.jpg


IMG_3491.jpg


The very first StarBucks

IMG_3454.jpg


It is a VERY busy place.

IMG_3485.jpg


IMG_3486.jpg


IMG_3487.jpg


IMG_3488.jpg


And of course the fish were flying! It was so hard to catch one with this camera.

IMG_3458.jpg


IMG_3463.jpg


IMG_3465.jpg


IMG_3472.jpg


IMG_3473.jpg


There were flower shops all over the place, but this one dyes roses purple and blue.

IMG_3483.jpg


IMG_3481.jpg


IMG_3482.jpg


Eclectic artists...

IMG_3502.jpg


And lots of bikes and scooters.

IMG_3499.jpg


Elliot has the pose perfected.

IMG_3503.jpg


The Wall of Gum, folks. Yes I said The Wall of Gum.

IMG_3506.jpg


IMG_3507.jpg


The ceiling of the elevator.

IMG_3509.jpg


We took a stroll through the Seattle Aquarium and saw creatures we could touch.

IMG_3518.jpg


IMG_3517.jpg


IMG_3519.jpg


IMG_3526.jpg


This is a picture of some of the things a whale eats. What amazed me was the organization of this piece of life.

IMG_3514.jpg


Jellyfish with fun backlighting.

IMG_3529.jpg


IMG_3532.jpg


And so many more.

IMG_3548.jpg


IMG_3550.jpg


IMG_3540.jpg


IMG_3544.jpg


IMG_3551.jpg


IMG_3558.jpg


IMG_3565.jpg
 
I hit the button too soon...here are more pictures.

IMG_3572.jpg


IMG_3575.jpg


IMG_3579.jpg


IMG_3581.jpg


IMG_3583.jpg


IMG_3584.jpg


On our way out we found Phil the Pasta Guy!

IMG_3587.jpg


IMG_3588.jpg


IMG_3589.jpg


Phil wants to go to Olympia Friday and drive some little boats...so there you have him folks...Date number 17!

Phil helped us choose pastas and we are now preparing a dinner consisting of grilled salmon, brussels sprouts, lemon basil fettucine pasta, lovely bread, and cobbler with fresh peaches.

IMG_3592.jpg


yum!
 
Sooz, it looks as if you are having a great time. I wish I was there and wish you were here. Maybe we can ride again together someday
 
Took a little tour of my brother's work place today. It is a little place I amsure you have never heard of. Microsoft. It is huge and these are just shots near where I stood.

IMG_3644.jpg


IMG_3593.jpg


IMG_3595.jpg


Here are the great minds which founded it.

IMG_3623.jpg


I could smell GEEK in the air and I don't mind saying I was just a little bit excited by the IQ vibes floating all about.

IMG_3620.jpg


Here is one of the cafeterias.

IMG_3596.jpg


IMG_3597.jpg


IMG_3599.jpg


We met Dimitri who has a GYPSY dancer wife! For some of you who are aware of my secret pursuit of gypsies...YES they do exist!

IMG_3598.jpg


John works mostly with the VidLab, so here is his daytime home.

IMG_3615.jpg


IMG_3601.jpg


IMG_3604.jpg


IMG_3603.jpg


IMG_3606.jpg


IMG_3607.jpg


IMG_3611.jpg


IMG_3614.jpg


And the museum...

IMG_3621.jpg


IMG_3627.jpg


IMG_3629.jpg


IMG_3634.jpg


IMG_3635.jpg


IMG_3638.jpg


IMG_3640.jpg


IMG_3641.jpg


IMG_3642.jpg
 
Back
Top