Spotter Midway

Bugatti Veyron vs Eurofighter Typhoon

2008-02-22T19:06:00.001-08:00

Chicago Auto Show 2008

2008-02-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

A little break in the dreary Chicago winter is the auto show held at Mc Cormick Place in February.

The cars were nice but, I came away not wanting to buy anything new, nothing competes with my 10 year old Mercedes and 18 year old Volvo.

Big auto can't make any money off of me, we even had free tickets for the show.

A-7 at Round Lake Legion Post

2006-04-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

I was out in Lake County on Friday to appraise a townhouse in the village of Round Lake. On my way down Main Street I had a nice find, an A-7 sitting outside the Legion Post. These things do get around. According to TAHS A-7 153220 was last at Great Lakes Naval Station.

How many Brit's will need to make the trip to Round Lake?

2006-04-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

A-7 in Round Lake, Illinois

2006-03-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

Airbus A-380

How to build an Airbus A-380

2006-03-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

Check out this high speed video on how they build the A-380 at Google. I cant wait to see one fly!

Trains - Planes - Automobiles and a Tuck Tuck

2006-01-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Now that its over I have time to count all our aircraft. We left Midway on a Southwest 737 N495WN, LAX-HKG was on Cathay Pacific 747 B-HOW, HKG-AKL on Cathay A-340 B-HXD, AKL-SYD on Air New Zealand 767 ZK-NCF, SYD-MEL-BKK on Thai 747 HS-TGY, BKK-HKG on Cathay 777 B-HKN, HKG-LAX on Cathay 747 B-HUG, and home to Midway on Southwest 737 N712SW.

In Hong Kong we had the pleasure of riding the Star Ferry, taxi's, the city bus, subway and the Peak Railway. We traveled to and from Maccau in Boeing Jet Foil's. In Auckland we took some cheep taxi's and an expensive rental car. We traveled Sydney in an open topped London Bus, taxi's, ferry boats and monorail. A train took us to and from the Blue Mountain town of Katoomba. In Bangkok we took taxi's, used the subway, toured in a longboat, and road in our famous Tuck Tuck's.

The next time I go to Bangkok I want to travel bar to bar on an Elephant. And as we know now, all things are possible in Bangkok.

2006-01-22T11:27:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles to Midway 01/15/2006

2006-01-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hongkong to Los Angles 01/14/2006

2006-01-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

Sydney-Melborne-Bangkok 01/10/2006

2006-01-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

Bangkok to Hongkong 01/14/2006

2006-01-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

Auckland to Sydney on 01/06/2006

2006-01-22T11:22:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles to Hong Kong 12/28/2005

2006-01-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong to Auckland on 01/02/2006

2006-01-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Midway to Los Angeles on Christmas Day

2006-01-21T06:17:00.000-08:00

Walk of Fame Star

2006-01-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Musso & Frank Hollywood's oldest

More on Hollywood

2006-01-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

While in Hollywood we tried to find a "Walk of Fame" Star for The Three Stooges . We had no luck and had to wonder if they ever gave the boys a star.

The Stooges were given a Star at Hollywood & Vine in 1983. Only Curly Joe was alive at that time. The Star presentation was attended by the largest group of fans in the Walk of Fame history.

Check out this Stooges Bio online as well as My Pal Moe. This is a story of how a 12 year old boy started writing Moe Howard. Became pen pals and eventually visited Moe in his home many years later.

I found a site about Musso & Frank. It seems that this was also the favorite drinking establishment of Ernest Hemingway when he was working in Hollywood. How many of Ernie's favorite bars have we visited. There was the Ritz and Harry's Bar in Paris, Sloppy Joe's in Key West and a little joint in Rhonda, Spain that I cant remember the name.

2006-01-21T05:48:00.000-08:00

The Three Stooges

2006-01-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

Al Capone by Leroy Neiman

Big Al shows up

2006-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

On every trip I take Big Al shows up.

Chicago has been the home of some very famous people. In the eyes of the world our most famous person is still Al Capone. Ahh... you come from Chicago...Bang Bang is usually heard some time on the trip. Sometimes Big Al shows up at the begining, some times at the end, but Big Al always shows up.

This time it was on our last day in Bangkok at a little British Pub in Patpong. Where you guys from? Chicago...Chicago..Bang..Bang..Al Capone. There it was my opportunity to revel the afternoon bar patrons with tales of the Green Mill and rhapsody in blue.

With Big Al we found some common ground and the conversation opened up to other things. The guys at this bar were the ones that told us we had to go to the King's Palace. We jumped a cab and went there directly. Thanks guys!

To give him his due our Tuck Tuck man did know about Michael Jordan.

2006-01-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

A nice welcome home

Take Me Home

2006-01-14T03:07:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a very long day. We left Bangkok on a Cathay Pacific 777 for Hong Kong at 4pm. We had a 3 hour layover at HKG before boarding a Cathay 747 bound for LAX. Its a very long flight. In Los Angles it was nice to have representatives of the US government to welcome us home.

2006-01-14T02:51:00.000-08:00

Running into an elephant on Soi Cowboy

The King and I

2006-01-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

Friday we zipped around Bangkok via Taxi and Tuck Tuck. We visited the King's Palace and its adjacent temple's. Words cannot describe this place, the treasures of the King of Siam are fantastic.

As this was our last full day in Bangkok we had more suit fittings to make and other bar areas to check out. At about midnight we left a bar on Soi Cowboy to find a young elephant walking down the street. The picture proves that it was not pink.

2006-01-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

Drinking at a sidewalk cafe

2006-01-13T02:49:00.000-08:00

Entrance to the King's Palace

2006-01-13T02:48:00.001-08:00

Temple Tower

2006-01-13T02:48:00.000-08:00

Temple Devil

2006-01-13T02:47:00.001-08:00

Warrior

2006-01-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

At the temple

2006-01-12T02:51:00.000-08:00

Fitting my new suit

2006-01-12T02:39:00.000-08:00

The Golden Mountain

2006-01-12T02:36:00.000-08:00

Our Tuck Tuck

2006-01-12T02:35:00.001-08:00

Canal Boat Trip

2006-01-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

The Golden Buda

On to Thailand

2006-01-12T02:20:00.000-08:00

We left on Thai Airlines for a journey that took us to Melbourne, Australia and then on to Bangkok, we arrived at 6am in the morning. Bangkok is a whole different culture to anything we had seen before. We stayed at the Swisshotel for around $100 bucks a night. Cabs are real cheep, the beer and the food, just as cheep.

Our first night out we were sitting in a little sidewalk bar and we met some Brits working for Rolls Royce who were on assignment at Thai Airlines. These guys were our guides for the night and took us to Soi Cowboy which they described as the most famous street in Asia. Lets say the Thai's have their own special forms of entertainment.

The next day we ran into a great Tuck Tuck driver. The Tuck Tuck is a little three wheel truck that are used as taxi's. This guy was great and became our driver for the entire day. We went to temples, had a canal boat trip and had some more custom suits made. The Tuck Tuck man was waiting for as our private chauffeur. He cost us less than $20 bucks for the day.

2006-01-11T02:12:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Relaxing

Who Will Come Waltzing Matilda With Me

2006-01-11T01:55:00.000-08:00

We landed in Sydney Friday evening and checked into the Crown Plaza at Darling harbor. Sydney is everything Auckland is not. This place is a jumping and busy town.

We played the tourists and tried to do everything. City tours, harbor tours, went to a beach resort and took a train trip into the Blue Mountains. Beer is expensive, but who cares.

The only kangaroos we saw were at the zoo, and the only time I heard Waltzing Matilda, it was being played on steel drums by a East Indian next to a cruise ship. No Crocodile Dundee around here.

2006-01-10T02:13:00.000-08:00

Sydney Harbor Bridge

2006-01-10T02:12:00.001-08:00

Carrington Hotel in Katoomba

2006-01-10T02:12:00.000-08:00

Tourists

2006-01-10T02:10:00.001-08:00

Sydney Opera House

2006-01-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

AON Building

2006-01-10T02:09:00.000-08:00

Playing the Diggerie Do at the Harbor

New Zealand

2006-01-05T02:10:00.000-08:00

On the 2nd we took the Jetfoil from Maccau direct to the Hong Kong airport for our Cathay Pacific flight to New Zealand. We arrived in Auckland at 8am on the third without a hotel reservation. The local tourist service booked us into a suite at the Hyatt Recency with a discount rate, Nice.

Right away you get the point about this place. The people here are very nice, New Zealand is very quiet. No traffic, no problems, its easy to see why they are so nice.

Auckland calls itself the "City of Sails" and its big claim to fame is the America's Cup. At the Maritime Museum a huge America's Cup boat was on display at the entrance. We did the tour and when we got to the back of the museum we saw this huge yacht docked across the harbor.
Le Grand Blue is a 370 foot yacht owned by a 36 year old Russian oil billionaire.

The next day DC & George went to an island for a winery tour, I went to the airport and came back with a car. The next day we did a little exploring, no planned route, just driving the coast with hopes of stopping in a few local establishments. This place is beautiful and peaceful, when you get 45 minutes outside of the city there is nothing. We stopped in some small villages on the coast with nothing but a small collection of modest homes.

2006-01-05T01:48:00.000-08:00

On the New Zealand Coast

2006-01-05T01:46:00.000-08:00

Le Grand Blue

2006-01-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

George at the ruins of St. Pauls

2006-01-01T02:06:00.000-08:00

At the old fort

New Years Day in Maccau

2006-01-01T01:51:00.000-08:00

New Years morning we caught a Boeing Jetfoil to the old Portuguese city of Maccau. This place is really changing. They always had gambling and now they are getting it Las Vegas style.

The new Sands Casino greets you at the ferry terminal. The Winn and the Venetian are under construction. If the $0.99 breakfast and the $1.00 beer can ever change a city then Maccau is the place.

After a taxi tour of the town stopping at the old fort and the ruins of St. Pauls cathederal we hit the casino's and finished up the evening drinking cheep beer at a local's sidewalk cafe.

2005-12-31T01:36:00.000-08:00

Over China at The Peak

2005-12-31T01:35:00.000-08:00

Kowloon New Years Eve

2005-12-31T01:30:00.000-08:00

Danny wanted George to pull

Somewhere Over China

2005-12-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

After a long Pacific flight we arrived in Hong Kong late on December 29th. After the train ride into the city we checked in to the Prudential Hotel on Nathan Road. We jumped into a taxi and with my limited mandarian "Buck King Do" and the next thing we were having a beer in Murphy's Bar in Kowloon.

Up bright and early the next morning we were off to Bobby's Custom Tailor's to get measured up for a few suits. They would be ready the next day but we needed to come back for a fitting that night.

We did the tourist things, riding the Star Ferry and taking a trip to The Peak. We stopped buy to see Mr. Bill's buddy and priced out a few Dunhill Lighters. But we were cheep verry cheep.

We found a bar on the waterfront called Dan Ryan's Chicago Bar & Grill. There were pictures of all of our recent mayor's as well as a Michael Jordan, but they did not have an Al Capone. George just had to try the Chicago Style Hotdog. I dont even want to know what they put in a hotdog in China.

Now you would think that the fireworks display on New Years in Hong Kong would be great. After all they invented fireworks. Well they did have a fireworks and light show. There were about 2 million people on the waterfront at 8pm, and the fireworks lasted about 15 minuites. Oh So Sorry.

2005-12-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

Junk

2005-12-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

"You Cheep Verry Cheep"

2005-12-30T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong Harbor

2005-12-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Professor Fate's car from the Great Race

2005-12-27T23:06:00.000-08:00

Steve Mc Queen's 1947 Indian

And all the Stars that Never Were are Parking Cars and Pumping Gas

2005-12-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

Tuesday morning we had breakfast in El Segundo at a little joint Danny knew when he worked here in the past. Then on to our hilltop lookout to spot LAX for an hour. we were then off to Hollywood and the Peterson Automobile Museum.

This museum is owned by the publishers of Road & Track and contains a great collection of everything from presidential limo's to the Pope Mobile. There were movie cars and the entire collection of Steve Mc Queen's cars. This place was great.

We had lunch at Musso's & Frank's on Hollywood Boulevard. This place has been there since 1919, and the waiters have been there nearly as long. We had a great time with Manny the bartender as he told us about all the famous patrons who visited his bar. Many has been a bartender for 49 years and has known them all. His favorites are Harrison Ford, Drew Barrymore and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

We came across this Irish bar called Tom Birgin's. The bartender was from Chicago and had come out to LA working on the 1978 movie "The Fury". He played a Chicago cop with Dennis Franz. Now he pour's beer for the locals. Only in LA

If We Can Just Get Off Of This LA Freeway

2005-12-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

Well we arrived Christmas nite. Things were quiet at the LAX Hilton and we had a few beers at the bar. There were some ATA people there drinking Dom Perigion. I dont know what they were celebrating but more power to them.

On Monday I had a surprise for the Boy's. Curley from the Three Stooges is one of our hero's. I had found the location of his gave on the internet along with the GPS coordinates.

So we set out trying to find Curley in East LA. My GPS was not much help as I must have put the coordinates in wrong, but Google Earth found it and so did we. The boy's were suprised and then we set off to Hollywood to find the Stooges star on the Walk of Fame. No luck there. We did get back to one of our old haunts, "the Frolic Room" and a few other places as well.

747 Home in the Santa Monica Mountains

2005-12-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

There are always a few uses for an old aircraft!

Francine Rehwald is buying an old 747 from Mojove, chopping it up and hauling it to a building site in the mountains. The house will resemble a aircraft crash site. Plans call for six buildings including a "Meditation Temple" constructed out of the nose.

According to Francine "Its 100% post-consumer waste" " Isnt it the Coolest"

Reade the article in the Wall Street Journal

2005-10-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

A sure sign of problems

The TSA will now be watching the parking lots

2005-10-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

The TSA will be watching all airport parking lots for signs of a terrorist at the airport. The director of the TSA in Washingnton DC said in an interview on Meet the Press that "Our agents have been trained to detect suspicious modes of transport that may be used by a terrorist"

I feel better knowing that professionals are on the job.

The Purple Gang Rides Again

2005-10-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Surfing on line I found this photo of the Purple Gang. While in Detroit for Dream Cruise we met the owners of this Chevy in the bar at the Fox and Hounds. After a few drinks George and I were taken outside to see this Nomad panel truck. The car was restored in hot-rod style and has a 454 engine. According to the owner the work was done in California and they bought the car on E-Bay.

2005-10-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Purple Gang

2005-10-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Owl

2005-10-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

Chucks

Fat Tire Tour

2005-10-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Once again we made it to the Fat Tire Tour of Lake Geneva, the weather was great, the beer was cold and all out friends were there. What more can you ask?

I am sorry to say that this was my longest bike ride of the year. Its only 22-26 miles depending on the route you take and 9 bars if you make all the stops. For the second year in a row one of our group won the raffel and got the bike.

I am ready to do it again next year!

2005-10-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

The first beer at 10am

2005-10-20T12:35:00.001-07:00

Having Too Much Fun

2005-10-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Iowa girls ride again

2005-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

George & Andy with the Bouncer from Champs

2005-09-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

Frank at Rao's

Rao's Restaurant New York City

2005-09-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today my thought's go to New York City and I am ready for another trip. Once again my favorite artist points me to a new place to check out.

I came across this painting by Leroy Neiman of Frank Sinatra at the bar at Rao's. It seems that this place is almost impossible to get into. Rao's only has about eight tables, and you can't get a seat at one of them unless you are "invited" by one of the table's "owners." According to an insider, "You got a better chance of getting hit in the ass by lightning" than ever getting a seat.

Rao’s Restaurant opened in 1896 and has been owned and managed by several generations of the Rao family for over 100 years. LeRoy Neiman was taken for his first late hour visit to Rao’s by his pal Rocky Graziano in the late 1960’s. For over thirty years a Neiman, on-the-spot sketch of Vincent Rao hung next to the bar.

According to Neiman's web site every night, power brokers, politicians, Broadway and film stars as well as famous sports figures dine at the restaurant. Woody Allen, Billy Crystal, Andre Agassi, Martin Scorcese, Tony Bennett to name a few are some of the regulars that frequent what has become more of a private club than a public eatery. Recently, LeRoy Neiman and Tony Bennett were seen sketching each other at the table.

I checked out Rao's Website and it says "If you do not have a reservation, you can always have a drink at the bar". An we thought the 21 Club was exclusive. I wonder if Dan the bar man has made it there yet?

2005-09-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Myself at Dream Cruise

2005-09-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Dan & George with the Pink Car

Dream Cruise 2005

2005-09-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Once again we did Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit. With 40,000 special interest and classic cars its that city's best celebration of summer.

We had a two car caravan this year, Billy drove the Caddy and I had my old TC convertible. After a little breakdown in rural Michigan we made it to the Raddison Hotel on Woodward Avenue about 6pm Thursday. Things were in full swing. Dream Cruise officially is only one day, Saturday, however; it has morphed itself into an entire week.

After a visit to our old haunt Just Duckey's Bar we hit the bar at the Fox and hounds and found that even the hoi poli get into Dream Cruise.

The big day was a mixture of rain and sunshine. We survived with our new tent to keep us dry. Everyone says we will do it again next year. Oh and we will be staying at the Raddison.

2005-09-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Billy, Jeff & Dan under the new tent

2005-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Now that's a Caddy

2005-09-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few Mustangs

2005-09-10T13:41:00.001-07:00

Nice Engine

2005-09-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Chrysler TC by Maserati

2005-09-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Boeing 777 Mini-Bar

You will not see this on Southwest

2005-09-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Check out the new First Class seat's on Emirates Airlines 777's. Yea thats the new personal Mini-Bar. Well we can dream that its all filled up with Miller Lite!. I wonder how many times they would need to refill it per flight?

The Bar Man finds an aircraft hulk

2005-08-10T03:10:00.000-07:00

At Bull Mc Cabes, Dan the Bar Man finds an aircraft hulk on the patio. What looks like a Australian Cessna is at 29 St. Marks Place, NY, NY.

For Dan this is bar #721 on his 1,000 bar quest. Check out his webpage at One Thousand Bars

2005-08-10T03:09:00.000-07:00

Bull McCabe's bar #721

2005-08-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

Australian Spam on the patio

2005-07-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Bill, Myself & Bob'O at the Mississippi

RAGBRAI 2005

2005-07-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

It was the last full week in July and you know what that means. 10,000+ crazies show up on the banks of the Missouri River and go for the seven day trek across Iowa to the Mississippi River.

Why do they do it? Some will tell you its for the biking, some will tell you its for the drinking, but everyone will say it was for the fun. Just how much fun can you have? Try RAGBRAI sometime!

The Half Fast Biking Club aka Team Half Fast made a noble effort with only 3 of the founding fathers making the whole trip. Bob'O, Don and Bill once again survived Sun, Storm and Headwinds and made it to West Union all by themselves. I met them there on Friday at about 5:30 PM and now that we had a quorum, club business could be discussed. The first order of business was to drink all the Miller Lite at the campsite and then head into town for more.

Saturday at 6am the boys were on the road. I joined in the endless line of support vehicles and drove to Garnavillo. I had not been on my road bike since my accident in June 2004, so the tires were flat and the bike needed some adjustment. I went over to a mobile shop and could not find the mechanics. It ended up that they were in their camper getting stoned. Hey it was 9am and this was RAGBRAI. One of the guys also had a Cinelli and he had bought from the same shop that built mine. They were nice guys and adjusted the bike for free, however they did not offer to share any of their dope.

It was about 9:30am and I rode over to the park where Bill was eating breakfast, Bob'O was not far behind. Bob was interested in the breakfast of champions so we went to Vaughans Pub for the first of the day. After that it was onward to Guttenberg some 15 miles. It was slow moving for me, but the boys stayed with me all the way to the river. After the tire dip we were off to Moxie's Bar where we had relaxed after RAGBRAI XXIIII in 1996.

Did anyone notice? It was called RAGBRAI 2005 this year and not RAGBRAI XXXIII. John Karas said it would always be RAGBRAI in capital letters and the number in roman numerals. I'll bet there are a lot of changes John Karas would not like but RAGBRAI keeps rolling on.

Want more info on RAGBRAI and to see a photo of Don Latus and myself on RAGBRAI XXXII check out this link to Wikipedia

2005-07-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our first beer at 9:30 AM

2005-07-31T11:48:00.001-07:00

Moxie's Bar in Guttenberg

2005-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Guttenberg's Polka Band

2005-07-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

Team Draught heading home

New York City - June 10-13, 2005

2005-07-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

2005-07-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

Our De-Lux accomodations in Midtown

2005-07-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

"Everything you wanted in a Times Square hotel and less"

2005-07-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

In the theatre district, we had a good time talking with actors and stagehands

2005-07-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Puck Fair