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Steve Fowler’s 1963 America Jeep Trip

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This August 5th, 1963, article from the St. Petersburg Times describes how Dunedin, Florida, resident Steve Fowler drove from Florida to Los Angeles, north to Idaho, then cross the northern part of the US, before heading back to Florida. The article claims he drove about 10,000 miles. His most worrisome event was a close call at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. He was camping near it when a large bear chased him away from his jeep. Sounds like quite an adventure!

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1942 Photo of Santa & Jeeps Pulling Tanks on ebay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A similar version of the photo was sold on eBay in May of 2015.

“1942- Pulled by a quintette of jeeps instead of reindeer, Santa Claus rides a tank at Fort Knox. This was the Christmas greeting from the men of the armored force. Name “Yardbird” is painted on lead jeep. The others look to have names as well but I can’t make them out.”

View all the information on eBay

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2016 Willys Am Tergensee Head to Italy

• CATEGORIES: Event, Features, International This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Christian shared the news that the jeep-group he started is heading to Italy this year. He wrote, Right now we’re about to prepare for a trip down to Italy, where they celebrate the Liberation (Liberatione) on April 25th and a group of Jeep-enthusiasts started una colonna della liberta in 2006. Every year it takes place in a different region of Italy. This time it’ll be in the Padova area. We’ll roll down to there with a group of 11 Jeeps to join the Colonna with its about 150 WW2-US-military-vehicles.”

You can learn more here (in German) http://www.willys-am-tegernsee.de

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Tulips Mayhem

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Start with the peak of tulip season, add 75 degree, blue-sky weather, and throw in a dash of spring break. What do you get? A train wreck of a visit to Mt. Vernon, Washington, to visit their tulip festival.

It started out fine. We spent the night in Mt. Vernon so we could get to the tulips early. The first farm we visited wasn’t crowded at all. That’s where I took these photos:

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Happy wife … 🙂

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Rows of different colored tulips. I don’t have Ann or Daniel’s photos downloaded just yet, but I’ll post them Saturday morning.

Despite their beauty, I asked myself multiple times, What was I doing here??? Because, as soon as I saw a single tulip, I was done. Okay, been there, done that, pretty flower and all …. now let’s move on. But, I knew my darling and patient wife wanted to see the tulips, so I bravely marched along with her, showing off my sherpa skills as I carried two of three cameras she had with her. When we finished with the field, we left for a second destination.

By then it was 11:00 am and half of Seattle had descended into the Mt. Vernon valley. Parents were letting their kids run into the tulip rows (a no-no posted all over). Adults also wandered into the fields and, after someone told them to get out, they’d go back into them! At one point we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to “Tulip Town“, only to learn that it was closed (full up). These people really were maniacs, suggesting little has changed since the tulip economic bubble of the 1630s.

After the hordes descended, Ann, Daniel and I were all done with tulips and we left in a rush.

We drop to Anacortes, then booked it for home, with a stop in Leavenworth where I had some pork and spaeztles.

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PROST!

We didn’t arrive until late tonight, so no updates until Saturday morning.

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Celebrating the 2016 Moisture Festival

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Guy found a Youtube of Stevie Coyle’s Stairway to Gilligan:

Original post: Ann and I and her son Daniel joined my aunt and her beau for the 2016 Moisture Festival in Ballard (northern Seattle). The vaudeville celebration is always fun. Among the magic, juggling, comedy, and acrobatic acts my favorite was Stevie Coyle, a guy from San Francisco who played Stairway to Heaven on an acoustic guitar, but managed to sing the lyrics to Gilligan’s Island at the same time (A little research on Google showed this combination was first done by Little Roger & the Goosebumps in the 70s, but Coyle’s is far better). It was an unforgettable comic blend that worked surprisingly well!

So, no updates Today. Meanwhile, today we will be tiptoeing through Mt. Vernon’s tulip festival. This will make my wife very happy 🙂

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In line at the Moisture Festival next to Hale’s Brewery in Ballard.

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After the Festival and on our way out of Seattle we spotted this mural near Dick’s Drive-in on 45th in Seattle. Of course, I had to join them. My wife got creative with the extra images.

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