Arcata-Ferndale Kinetic Sculpture Race 2009

Click on a thumbnail sketch to see the full size picture.

Getting there

We had trouble getting there. The van, Big Red, ran out of gas. David had AAA, who brought us a couple of gallons. Not enough. So they brought us a couple more. That barely got us to a gas station. Part of the problem was that by the time we got that first two gallons it was already late and the stations were closing. We rolled into Arcata very late.

At least we were stranded at a good spot the first time. This place had a good dinner for us. Too bad they could sell us any gasoline.

The Morning Before: Kinetic Labs

This is one of the original spinners created by Dwayne Flatmo and Ken Beidleman. The location is just outside the Kinetic Labs in Arcata Calif. The labs are well worth a visit if you can make it to a race.

The First Day - Road and Sand

Pictures of me and Anna before the race.

	David and KangaRex. Anna looks like she's dying next to me. We just started! We still have almost 5 miles of this ahead.
	This is Dead Man's Drop. It's every bit as steap as it looks. Dave is hold on to the rear to keep us from pitching forward.

The Second Day - Road and Water

	Little girl in KangaRex. I would have given her a ride but it's a lot of work on grass and I was dead tired. [left] And the band plays on. [far right]
		This is Anna and me in KangaRex. [right]
The following two pictures are of an incredible fire sculpture and the tanks to drive it. This was at the camp site for the race.			Video of the fire sculpture [rotated 90 degrees]

The Third Day

This third day was road and water crossings. I don't have any pictures from the race part. But I have pictures of giving kids rides. This is in Ferndale California.


	The Arcata-Ferndale race tends to have a lot of eel grass. Sure enough we wrapped it around our prop shaft. Far worse we also wrapped our prop guard around the prop. The prop guard is supposed to project between the prop and the ground. [both images to the left]	The steering cable mount broke. We held the cable in place with vice grips. [right]
When we entered the water we screwed up. We forgot to secure the pontoon position. That allowed us to drop into the water. Fortunately the water was warmer than the air. We would have been in a bad way. But they gave us a Splash Trophy for our trouble. I guess we did give the audience a show!		I love these medalions. Be sure to read the description.

Driving Home

We had the luxury of stopping to take pictures during the drive back to Oregon. This is some fantasticly gorgeous coastline between Oregon and California. These are taken south of Crescent City California.