Click on a thumbnail sketch to see the full size picture.
This year I decided to not race in Arcata. Instead a few of went as spectators. It made for a much more relaxing trip.
We got to the Kinetic Labs in Arcata just before 7:00PM. This is a place of wonder with the bodies of previous years vehicles hanging from the ceiling. Members of the teams are busy finishing up their vehicles. That activity proceeds into the morning hours.
|
|
Here you can feel the chaos of the Kinetic Labs |
|
|
Ken Beidleman's Boar |
|
|
Some last minute painting. That's Ken in the background. |
|
|
Kinetic Labs |
|
|
June Moxon brazing on the Pink Elephant |
|
|
Rick rides a spinner |
|
|
Allen rides a spinner |
|
|
Ellen and Alegra attach rain to La Nina Weather Stripper |
|
Calistoga Elementary School entered Grapes. There were about 30 kids accompanying their vehicle. The kids were clearly motivated and into this. Calistaga has a two year curriculum for the Kinetic Sculpture. They race every other year. |
|
Rocket Boy in the Plaza |
|
Caltrans |
|
La Nina Weather Stripper. Bruce, Alegra, Ellen, Lauren. |
|
Ken Beidleman's Boar. Plus a couple of Boar-lets Photo courtesy of Setterlund. |
|
Kinetic Camero |
|
Sunny Brae Middle School |
|
Auto Caddy |
|
Flying Pink Elephant |
|
Ruby's Menace This team drove all the way from Baltimore, Maryland with Ruby in a pickup truck. |
|
Gold Diggers passing Hum Dingers |
|
Two Cans |
|
La Nina Weather Stripper. That's Bruce and Alegra. |
|
Kinetic Camero |
|
Sunny Brae Middle School |
|
Smoke Detectors. These guys work for a fire department. I didn't catch which one. |
|
Melvin wrapped a chain around a rear sprocket. In a few minutes one of the Amateur Radio operators drove up. We borrowed a screw driver and got Melvin on its way again. |
|
La Nina on the sand. She drove her front wheel on plastic track to keep from sinking into the sand. Alegra's dad Bruce is carrying a section of track around to the front because she is about to roll off the end of the last section. They called the track their 'road'. |
|
The drop to the beach was very abrupt this year. Steeper than Dead Man's Drop. Fortunately it wasn't as far a drop. La Nina descended it without trouble. |
|
La Nina on the beach. |
|
Ruby's Menace was the team from Baltimore Maryland. They don't have sand in that race and the team didn't really know what it takes to tackle sand. Bicycle wheels just sink in. It was a long slow drag. I helped them for part of the distance along the beach here. |
|
Ruby wasn't the only team using rope on the beach. Here's Sunny Brae. |
|
La Nina passing Ruby on the beach. Here the sand is harder, so she doesn't need to use a track. |
|
La Nina on Dead Man's Drop. |
|
Ruby on Dead Man's Drop. |
|
This is Ellen, leading her daughter Alegra in La Nina. Without knowing it I shot this picture of Ellen with her office building in the background. |
|
La Nina at the finish line for the first day. |
|
Its a race tradition to retire to the Lost Coast Brewery after the first day's race. |
|
In fact racers took over the entire upper floor of the Lost Coast. This is June's entourage. That's Tina on the right. |
|
Slug Nuts |
|
The La Nina team fills the Pontoons. Bruce is adjusting the pontoon support. Alegra the pilot is holding the tube. Lauren, her sister, is pumping. Rick is in the background taking a video. Notice the Platypus Rex helmet he is holding. |
|
Fifi the Kinetic Chia Pet at Fields Landing. |
|
La Nina Weather Stripper, Alegra, talks with Lauren and Erica at Fields Landing. |
|
Grandpa on the left. Hum Dinger on the right. |
|
There were a lot of poeple. |
|
Lauren and Alegra do the La Nina strip dance before Alegra enters the water. |
|
Ken's new water drive in the Boar failed, making it impossible for him to cross the bay. |
|
La Nina doing a little grandstanding. |
|
Two Cans. |
|
King and Eye. |
|
The King and Eye Photo courtesy of Setterlund. |
|
The King and Eye Photo courtesy of Setterlund. |
For logistical reasons I was unable to meet them at the other end of the bay.
|
In years past, right after the bay crossing was the camp site. This was followed by a long section of soft sand. This picture is the end of the old camp and the start of the sand. |
And then there is another water crossing before coming to the new camp.
|
Monkey rescued my tent from ravenous cattle. Sadly there are no pictures of the dramatic event. Nor was I there to witness the near disaster. Here is the story I was told by eye witnesses. Cattle had milled over to where I had foolishly erected my tent. With the vast intelligence of cows they surmised that anything in their field must be good to eat. They had just begun this when Monkey sprang to the rescue. He jumped gallantly over the electric fence and confronted the cattle. Bear in mind that every one of these cattle outweighed Monkey by a whole lot. The cattle turned their attention to this new arrival and approached him. As luck would have it, Monkey was wearing red overalls. That is, of course, the color that according to legend bulls get angry over. Monkey was very nervous. But his sense of duty prevailed. He picked up a couple of sticks and held them to his head like the horns on a bull. He feigned a couple of charges until the cattle opened a corridor to the tent. Monkey seized the opportunity and proceeded to disassemble the tent. Meanwhile the cattle didn't just stand there. Rather they began to mill around again, closing the corridor. Monkey's only escape route! The eye witnesses shouted to Monkey. He quickly pulled up the tent as best he could and fled out the remaining corridor, vaulting the fence. Not long after this Rick and I came upon the scene, wondering why the tent was not in the field. In my own defense I should point out that the field didn't look recently grazed. And the electric fence was inactive and appeared to have been so for some time. Both Rick and I figured the cattle didn't have access to that field. Boy were we wrong! Luckily Rick was able to find the stakes that Monkey left behind in his haste. I truly appreciate what Monkey did to rescue my tent. It would have been an uncomfortable and wet night without it. I don't think it actually rained, but the dew was pretty strong. The tent shows no signs of damage and will continue to give me years of fine service. |
|
Titanic Photo courtesy of Setterlund. |
|
Ruby's Menace. Photo courtesy of Setterlund. |
|
Ruby's Menace. |
|
La Nina Weather Stripper. Laura, Alegra, Monkey, Allen, Bruce, Ellen. |
|
Ken's Boar was unable to do the water crossings. He had a new water coupling that was untested. When they hit the water it just slipped. They were forced to truck the boar around the Bay. |
|
Some dignitaries at the camp. That's Hobart Brown in the back. |
|
As the sun was about to set we got word that Caltrans and Yellow Submarine were in trouble in the Eel river. We rushed over. Caltrans was still on the other side and there was clearly nothing I could do for them. Someone was in a canoo helping them. Yellow submarine was on our side of the river but was seriously disabled with a broken axle We had about 20 people and formed a line to pull Yellow Submarine along the shore. |
|
Once we got Yellow Submarine out of the water we were able to use a Jeep to help tow it. |
|
Followed by an obligatory speech and congradulations to those who survived. |
|
Gold Diggers |
|
Bone-A-Part |
|
Ruby |
|
The water drive on the Boar was fixed in time for the third water crossing. |
|
Grandpa. I heard the woman pulling him is his daughter. |
|
A bunch of Grapes. |
|
The King and Eye needed to push. |
|
Here's La Nina again. Bruce acually rode his bike in that water as he accompanied his daughter across. |
|
La Nina and the Rose. |
|
Two Cans, Insecticide, and Melvin. |
|
La Nina struggles up the hill. |
|
Here you can see the broken sprocket on La Nina |
|
La Nina passes King and Eye on the way into Ferndale |
|
La Nina grandstanding in front of the Finish Line in Ferndale |
|
Bearly Mobile |
|
Rosie and Alegra clown around |
|
La Nina is on the air at the Finish Line |
|
June Moxon and Tina in the Flying Pink Elephant cross the Finish Line with their entourage. |
|
June's entourage |
|
Melvin at the Finish Line |
|
Rocket Boy at the Finish Line |
|
Dave Pruitt |
|
Gold Diggers |
Unless otherwise noted, all pictures were taken by Rick Keller or Allen Brown.
| This site: http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown/rex/RexFiles/Arcata1999/index.html |
My home site:
http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown |
|||
|
Last modified 11 Dec 2006 |
Copyright 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 |