OT Things to ponder

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Is that the '42, aka Hitlers' buzz saw? Dude, your shootin' all the fun sh... stuff. Where? I sense a road trip at some point.[:D]

Edit: What no 'ma deuce'?[:D]

Aye. MG42. Loved it.

We were also scheduled on an originally chambered (not some fake-o rechambered copy) StG44, but they've had problems with the feed on it and had to take it off line. [:(]

All these toys (and you can drive / shoot guns on real tanks) in Uvalde, TX at:

https://www.drivetanks.com/ [8D]

An M2 is available for a shoot, as is an M134. Frankly that would be a tough choice. As it stood, we elected for the M9 flamethrower, the MG42, BAR and Barrett M82. And, of course, the PaK40.

OK, thanks. Now one more question. If I do go, how much time should a 'real' geek who wants to drive and shoot as much as possible plan to spend at/around the place? Two, three days? Keep in mind that I had many business trips to OKC, and spent entire days each time at the 45th Infantry Museum. In addition to that while in the Bay Area I nearly missed the boat back from Alcatraz. Yeah, yeah, I know that's where I belong.[:'(]

Add to that I assume that you live in the neighborhood and would feel remiss if we did not take the chance to meet, if at all possible. That is also assuming you cold 'stand' meeting a smarta$$ Yankee, from its heart, NYC.[:D]

P.S. This only applies to WWII stuff. If they have any modern items I doubt I would be interested in any but the most exotic.

Rustyi,

Check out the website. If you're like me, these prices will help narrow down your field of interest. I plopped down $900 for that Pak40 shot because it's something I've always wanted to shoot and it's the last functional Pak40 that fires live rounds rather than a retrofit air compression unit firing blanks. They pride themselves on their period authenticity, so their M4A3E2 Sherman with a fully functional cannon costs a pretty penny to ride and shoot accordingly.

But if you're like me-nuts about this sort of stuff-you should budget at least a day at Drivetanks.com and another day at Fredericksburg at the Museum of the Pacific War. Minimum. Want to throw in the Alamo and the Texas? That's another two there with driving and what not.

If you want to come down for that, then I would love to meet up with you and be your driver / guide for the excursion. PM me. [8D]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

But an AT gun would work too...[8D]

"That'll teach those rabbits to eat my garden!"

Do you get a free sombrero with entrance fee or is that extra?

We intentionally bought a cheap sombrero beforehand to see if we could blow it off with the backblast from the PaK40. They were helpful in positioning my friend behind the muzzle to maximize the blast. It worked. [8D]

[rustysi]

I plopped down $900 for that Pak40 shot

Not that I'm rich, but I am retired with a rather 'flexible' budget shall we say. I could see me dropping several thou at a place like that. Hey, its a one time event.

Fredericksburg at the Museum of the Pacific War.

This was definitely in the plans.

Alamo and the Texas?

Didn't think about these, but allowances will have to be made. After all I would already be in the hood.

If you want to come down for that, then I would love to meet up with you and be your driver / guide for the excursion. PM me.

A very generous offer, and it would be my pleasure. I've been slow organizing my retirement excursions as yet. Always seems to be something else to do. How the heck I got anything done when I was working is beyond me. Anyway considering putting the house up for sale next spring, so that makes next fall the earliest. Probably a little later though. I'll definitely drop a line sometime before I'm ready.

[geofflambert]

I’m not anticipating death and don’t think it is near, I just want to share something, a memory, I don’t often think of this, and I cannot establish that this incident had a more powerful effect on my coparticipant than myself, I just imagine it is so. My mother died in 1985 in an automobile accident. That is neither here nor there, but it means that any opportunity to interrogate her about this was lost.

I was a boy scout and a good one. If I could see the stars or the sun while wearing a watch, I always knew which way was north and could never get lost. That was out in the country, nowadays in the city it is much more difficult and I can get a bit lost in this random like grid momentarily.

Let me set the scene. I don’t remember where this occurred, could be Maine, could be Minnesota, could be somewhere in Canada but it would have been near the border. Every August our family went on tour, and we visited every state in the Union (save Florida) and all the Provinces of Canada bordering the USA. We were camped near a lake and had access to an aluminum canoe and paddles. It was the dusk hour. She wanted to go out on the lake and she wanted me to take her. There was a pea soup fog and I couldn’t see even ten feet.

I’m going to bounce around a bit, that’s just how this works. Foosball. I never felt comfortable playing forward. I always had to be in goal and I wanted my partner to keep his danged men’s feet out of my way. I was much more likely to score from goal than he was, anyway, and he would have been entirely superfluous except that someone had to keep those midfielder’s feet out of my way. So it was in a canoe. I considered anyone else in the canoe in possession of a paddle to be superfluous and, more than that. Problemsome. You see so many in canoes switching from the right side to the left, either because one of their arms got tired or because the canoe is careening off course. It is so easy to propel and steer a canoe from the rear position, you just make your stroke look like the letter J, and the end of the stroke is where you use the paddle as a rudder, if only for a moment. One proficient person propelling the canoe from that position can outrace a pair of fools switching from left to right, even when they do it in opposition.

Anyhow, she didn’t want a paddle. She wanted to be chauffeured out onto the lake, and that is what I did. She put her back to the bows and sat watching me. Like I said, there was a pea soup fog and you couldn’t see ten feet even. It was a fairly remote place and there were no sounds like from a highway or any other artificial source. I paddled us out around 300 yards (roughly 300 meters for you Europeans) and we sat there and listened to the loons. If you’ve never heard a loon in person, it is quite spooky. In a pea soup fog where you can’t see them but you can hear them as clear as Big Ben bonging off your ear, it is special. We floated there for a time just listening. We didn’t talk to each other, that would have spoiled everything. Sometimes a loon would cry out and without a doubt it was just beyond our vision in the fog, ten or twelve feet away. There was no sign that they were in any way concerned with us. After say, twenty minutes, I paddled us back to the dock we left from, through the fog. I was never lost and knew which way to go.
I don’t have a memory, with her, to compare with that.

[BBfanboy]

My mother was from Ireland and did not like the outdoors of Northern Manitoba very much - all rocks and trees, bogs and lakes with few open meadows like the farmland she grew up on. The only time I recall her taking us on and outdoor excursion was when there was a forest fire on the outskirts of our town, about a mile away.

We climbed the rock ridge that was right at the edge of town and looked across to the next ridge where the forest fire was just reaching the top and burning off the trees there. It was almost dark but you could see firefighters by the light of the fire, squirting with their backpack extinguishers. The thing that saved us was the rocky slope with no trees before the valley below and a small lake between the fire and the town. My mother said little, watching intently. I was only about six so I did not fully understand the danger to the town, and our house in particular.

After about half an hour we went back home in the dark, stumbling over the rocks and roots in the trail down the side of the rocky ridge. For we three kids, it was an adventure and a spectacle but for her it must have been nearly terrifying.

[geofflambert]

Thanks, BB.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

But an AT gun would work too...[8D]

My SO is intrigued. She likes big explosive things.

Bill

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: wdolson


My SO is intrigued. She likes big explosive things.

Bill

You wouldn't be bragging now, would you Bill? [:D]

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: wdolson


My SO is intrigued. She likes big explosive things.

Bill

You wouldn't be bragging now, would you Bill? [:D]

[Lecivius]

Good day - They didn't go in

Bad day - It's a LONG walk home

[Chickenboy]

What sort of trek was that vehicle used for?






















[;)]

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

What sort of trek was that vehicle used for?

Snow Trek. To boldly go, where only penguins have gone before...

[Chickenboy]

Penguins-AND 'infinitive splitters' you mean.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

Good day - They didn't go in

Bad day - It's a LONG walk home

Don't know about the vehicle, but the photographer has to be standing on dangerous ground .... er .... snow!

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

Good day - They didn't go in

Bad day - It's a LONG walk home

Don't know about the vehicle, but the photographer has to be standing on dangerous ground .... er .... snow!

Hard to get AAA to come out. Just imagine the towing fee.

[scout1]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn


Bats are mammals...

not to lose sight of the thread ....

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: scout1

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn


Bats are mammals...

not to lose sight of the thread ....

[X(]

Never!! [8D]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: scout1

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn


Bats are mammals...

not to lose sight of the thread ....

You have indeed put the ponderous back in the thread! Now we need a thread for the svelte and athletic who can run without danger of falling over. Call it "Fleeting Thoughts"

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: scout1

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn


Bats are mammals...

not to lose sight of the thread ....

You have indeed put the ponderous back in the thread! Now we need a thread for the svelte and athletic who can run without danger of falling over. Call it "Fleeting Thoughts"

Thoughts? [&:]

Who can think at moments like this?

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: Orm
Who can think at moments like this?

Tell me about it. The girl in the cube straight across from me is VERY similar [X(][:-] Between her and my palsey, most times nothing I say come out coherent [8|]