Here’s something for suburbanites to put in that empty third garage stall – a Space Shuttle.
With NASA retiring the orbiters soon, there is competition among museums to see who will receive one of the three remaining spacecraft. The good news? They’re free! The bad news? You have to pay for delivery.
This reminds me of the time when I was in fifth grade and I wrote to NASA to ask for a left over space suit. I was certain they didn’t re-use them. What adult would want to wear someone else’s yucky old astronaut costume, anyway? So why not take one out of the hamper and pop it in the mail? I could walk around inside it and impress my friends, and I figured the on-board air supply would come in handy in case Jennifer Brodie smiled at me again. The first time she did that, I found it impossible to breathe.
The Wall Street Journal article about museums vying to be the home of one of these space “thrifties” quotes an aerospace engineer and shuttle expert named Dennis Jenkins. He has written a history of the shuttle program and he explained why NASA requires candidates to have an indoor space ready for display of a vehicle. “They leak like a sieve,” he says. Apparently the icy vacuum of space and fiery re-entry are not an issue, but rain is another matter.
I guess the space shuttle is no Supercar. Dang!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXnlo8tL9qw
Watching this excerpt led to another realization about the space program. In the early days we sent monkeys and the Russians sent dogs, but did anyone ever think to launch puppets?
And speaking of public transportation, the Metropolitan council has posted a video game-like clip of the soon-to-be-built Central Corridor light rail line in action. I admit that I have a thing for trains, but I had no idea until I watched this sequence that the new line will float on a cloud of computer generated music.
What’s the coolest vehicle ever to take you from point A to point B?
Trail Baboon 
Greetings! A memorable ride for me was in high school. I went to a hippie, progressive boarding school (how’s that for an oxymoron?), located about an hour drive from Green Bay. The parents would switch off and take turns giving rides to several kids in Green Bay area. One girl’s father (divorced, I believe) picked us up in his racy convertible. I think they were Jewish, because he had bagels, cream cheese and lox for us to eat in car on way home while the wind blew through our hair.
That was a heckuva lot of fun and whole new gustatory experience for a poor, German Catholic girl. Probably the one time I rode in a convertible, too. Have a great day Babooners — off to a Dojo Karate picnic today!
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hai ya!!!
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Growing up in Iowa no where near the lake area thereof, I can only guess my love of water travel is something in my DNA. Family legend has it that one of my great-grandfathers captained a sailing ship that I believe brought immigrants from somewhere in England to the States. The story goes that he gave up in disgust when sails were replaced by filthy steam engines. Researching all of this is on my list.
I have sailed exactly once and that was on Lake Erie (after it was cleaned up, you can see all the way to the bottom even when you are quite a ways out from shore). It was amazing.
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My brother was like a lot of teenage boys and liked to tinker with old cars. He had some fabulous autos – two favorites were the 50s vintage Chevy pickup (all round and bulbous), and the 1966 Mustang. I still haven’t quite forgiven him for selling the Mustang rather than saving it for me. It was a sweet ride. (Plus, the car and I were the same model year…so now you know how old I am.)
Another fabulous ride? Tooling around the backroads of Brainerd, MN with my aunt’s business partner in the vintage fire truck they had bought. Not sure of the year on it – but of the era when they had open cabs and the siren went faster when the truck went faster (because it ran on the forced air from driving). And yes, we did run the siren when we were away from the houses…
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While I’ve been to many cool places, especially some exotic and isolated locations on Lake Superior, my mode of transportation has generally been prosaic. I briefly owned a convertible. I remember just one “wind in the hair” trip, and my date of the day was not pleased to arrive at our destination looking like the Bride of Frankenstein.
The coolest “vehicle” I’ve ridden might have been the big pinto horse that I rode up into the White Mountains of Colorado one fall. The mountain trails sometimes fell off so steeply that a single misstep by the horse could have been fatal. I asked the outfitter to assign me a horse with sure feet and no sense of imagination, and that is what I got.
Or maybe the coolest vehicle was a De Haviland Beaver float plane, which is THE iconic airplane of the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness. The Beaver went into production in 1948, so it looks like a WWII plane (which is more or less what it is). If you want to see a big smile, mention the Beaver to anyone who knows the airplanes used in the North. The Beaver has room to seat a pilot and three passengers. On my last Beaver trip, the pilot said, “Fasten seat belts, please. After we get airborne the stewardess will be around with confections!” We roared across the surface of the lake, popping free of the water at last, and cleared the pines on the far side by a few feet. The pilot tore open a bag of salty nuts and passed it around to the passengers.
Have a luverly weekend Baboons.
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The float plane sounds like fun… I like your way with words Steve– Thanks for the courtroom story yesterday. I liked it.
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Thanks Ben. You sound surprised that I’m facile with words. Remember, I’m a writer. You could out-farm me with both hands tied behind your back!
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Oh no, no… I didn’t mean to sound surprised. Just sayin’….
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Morning–
Hmmm…. I took a helicopter tour of Gettysburg when I was about 12. Small helicopter like from MASH. I remember how loud it was (couldn’t hear anything he said of what we were seeing–) and I vividly recall how it turned by sort of standing on it’s nose and us hanging off our seatbelts. Probably some ‘Hot dog’ pilot, eh?
And riding in cars with my older brother and his friends and going *really* fast– like crazy kill you fast. I’m sure none of us had seatbelts on… not sure if the car even had them… but I remember being scared silly and laughing hysterically and what a thrill that was.
Tractors…. just not the same. 19 MPH tops.
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It’s a draw between an air mattress and a paddle-boat.
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BTW – has anyone else tried to view the “video game-like clip of the soon-to-be-built Central Corridor light rail line in action”? Music’s there but no picture (for me, at least).
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I get the whole thing, Donna, and it is a way-cool cartoon of the trip. I can’t wait for this thing to be built.
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Damn …and I have a mac!
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that explains it
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A train ride in the rain through the English countryside on a nippy day-with tea and some kind of sugary animal shaped sweets and my english mum.
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3 way tie
the bulet train in germany that takes 3 hours off a 4 hr trip. thye offer it as an express only from one big city to the next with no stops at the little towns the regular train stops at. i think it goes about 200 mph
the bullet train from shanghai airport to the city. 45 minute drive, 12 minute train ride at 260 mph
first class ticket from paris to minneapolis on air france where they sit you in one of those round egg looking chairs with the recliner option that turns it into a bed. with movies you want to see, computer hook up, a flight attendant who really cared, i had a 10 hour flight that i was kind of tired on but i didn’t want to pass up ten hours of pampering with chocolates, cognacs, wine, gourmet vegetarian food,
a 1960 porche 356 convertable sportster was very cool too.
love the canadian plane!
and hey steve you do rite good
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