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Friday, April 29, 2016

The Fire Burnout Picture


In the early 70’s, a group of friends and I would go to the drag races at Twin City Drag
Strip in Oldsmar FL. We’d run our cars in the bracket races they held every Friday night.  If I remember correctly, it was $5 to get in and $10 to race.  Joan and I had seen each other on those Fridays nights but we hadn’t been introduced. Our first date was in October 1972 and we were dating pretty regular by the spring of 73.

On one of these Friday nights in 1973 Don “Big Daddy” Garlits would be making some exhibition runs including his signature Fire Burnout.  I borrowed my fathers 35mm SLR camera with a 50mm lens and planned to get a picture of that fire burnout.  Because the lens was so short I had to get very close to the track or the picture would just be a bright spot in a field of black.  In the past I saw photographers get next to the track so I crawled down the embankment near the track but well back.  I didn't want to be in the “line of fire”, so to speak.

At this point reality started to set in and I began thinking this maaaaay not be such a good idea.  Well, I was sort of committed and I wasn’t going to back out now, especially in front of my new girlfriend. So, there I was, waiting for the big show.  I knew I’d only have one chance to get the shot. 

VARRRUM  KATAT-KATAT-KATAT the galloping sound of the dragster echoed through  the surrounding forest.  The air was electrified with energy and anticipation.  Don gives it a little throttle and the machine leaps like a pouncing cat. T.C. Lemmon was standing by with his customary jug of RFI traction compound and methanol. He spreads the mixture on the track in front of the slicks.

Don punches the throttle, the rear tires stand tall and the night becomes day.  I panned to lead the dragster just a bit and click; I got the shot, for better or worse.  The spectacle is over as fast as it began.. My ears are ringing; my heart is pounding as hard and as fast as the KATAT-KATAT-KATAT of the motor as I scramble up the embankment and back to the safety of the regular spectator area. 

Obviously these were the days before the instant gratification of digital photography so I had to wait almost a week to get the film back from the lab.  It wasn’t the best of the hundreds or maybe thousands of pictures of the famous Don Garlits burnouts, but it was good enough, and it was mine!  I had 3-5x7’s printed and kept them in a folder in one of our “picture boxes” where all the photos of various outings, events, birthdays and Christmases got tossed.  Over the years I’d run across those 5x7’s while looking for something else and do a little reminiscing.  We’ve traveled up and down I-75 hundreds of times and ever since it opened in 1984, I’d see the signs for the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing and think of that night so many years ago.

Nov 2015. 

We spent the summer traveling and have returned to our former home of Salt Springs, FL to take care of some business, catch up on doctor appointments and re-fit our camper for the next leg of the adventure, heading west to California. 

We’re staying with friends (Shell and Claire) who are members of the Marion County Corvette Club.  The club is having a car show on the grounds of the Garlits museum.  Joan and I decide to go see some of the cool Corvettes, meet some new people and go to the Museum.  The Corvette club has had other shows on the museum grounds and Shell and Claire described some of the “behind the scenes” tours Don lead for the club.  He shares some great anecdotes and stories about his more than 60 year in the sport. I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if we could tag along on one of those behind the scenes tours?

In the days leading up to the event, I’m thinking about the picture of the fire burnout and wonder if I still had it.  We sold our house in April, deciding to travel the US in an RV.  The liquidation of over 40 years of  “stuff” was fairly traumatic and toward the end it got pretty brutal trying to decide what was really important and what wasn’t.  I remembered throwing away a lot of old pictures of scenery and events that  really had no emotional value.  But did I get rid of those 5x7’s, I wasn’t sure!

All our possessions that weren’t essential for our travels are stored in a 10x10 storage unit.  It’s Friday morning, the day of the Corvette Club welcome dinner at the museum.  I'd drive the two miles to the storage unit to try and find those photos.  I had an idea where they might be but after going through that box, I didn’t find them.  Oh well, I’d do some re-arranging and see if there were any other candidates.  As soon as I saw the "picture box" I knew this might be it.  I opened it up and there they were, right on top, yellowed a bit with age but in the same folder they came in from the photo lab 43 year before.  The yellowing just enhances the color of the flames.

Pictures in hand and a black medium point magic marker clipped to my shirt, we were off to the dinner not knowing if Don would be there or if we’d get a chance to talk to him.… and maybe get his autograph on the pictures.        

We got there a few hours early so we could go through the museum.  As we were buying our tickets we showed the picture to the girl behind the counter, she said “I’ve seen that picture before.”  That stopped me dead in my tracks.  I knew that picture has been in a box in our house and had rarely seen the light of day.  I assumed she was referring to the many pictures in the museum, much better than mine, showing similar fire burnouts.  The other girl says “There’s TC”, his ghostly form back-lit by flames.  You can even see a little white smug that’s his ever present gallon jug of magic elixir that causes the flames.  She then takes us to the memorial dedicated to TC Lemons, Don’s good friend and crew chief.

On the website, they say it takes 2-3 hours to see the over 300 cars Don has collected over the years.  That’s probably not enough time.  I’d recommend spending a few hours in the morning in either the drag racing building or the antique car building , have some lunch, and then spend a few hours in the afternoon in the other building.  We didn't allow near enough time.

The dinner was progressing as we listen to the various speakers including a GM rep who’s telling us about all the technology in the new Corvettes.  At the end of the presentation, the club president announces that Don is going to open “his garage” and give a demonstration.  HOT DOG, here’s our chance!  We filed out of the tent toward one of the other building that’s not part of the public museum.  “Don’s Garage” is a museum unto itself, housing some of his current projects. Tonight though, he was going to tell us about the evolution of the HIMI engine from a Ford flat head through the ARDUN to the HIMI that made him famous.

Don “Big Daddy” Garlits
After the presentation, he’s talking to various people and I’m waiting around for my opportunity.  It’s getting late and I’ve just about decided I’d try to talk to him tomorrow, the day of the show.

As it turns out we were the last ones in the line walking past him on our way out the door.  I hold up the picture for him to see.  He takes the picture and looks at it as I tell him I took that picture of him over 40 years ago. He says that was at ??? drag strip (can’t remember the name he said).  I said no, it’s Twin City Drag Strip.  He looks at it again and says yeah, they both had the same kind of tower.  He said would you like me to sign these?  I said yes please!  I pulled out my magic marker and he signs all 3 copies.  I thanked him and we walk out the door.

Rick and Don














That evening, Joan and I put a time line together to try and determine what year the picture was taken. Our consciences was it had to be sometime in 1973, probably spring.  We decided to try to find the dragster in the museum when we went to the Corvette show the next day.  We were hoping Don would be around so we could ask him.

When we pulled into the parking lot on Saturday morning, we saw the large door at the end of the garage was open and a banner proclaimed “Don’s Garage Sale”. 











Swamp Rat 37
There were a few of the cars, not currently in the museum, out front including his current project, the electric dragster, Swamp Rat 37.











World record, 185.60 MPH, 7.05 E.T.


 







Don’s Garage Sale

We walked in the vast space and there he was sitting behind a table covered with books and posters for sale.  On the other side of the “garage” were rows of shelves stacked high with various car parts and household items.  This really was a garage sale!


We got Don’s attention and showed him the picture once again and asked if he remembered which car he was driving.  He looked at the picture and paused for the briefest of moments and said… Do you see that roll bar; it has red primer on it.  We only did that on one car, that’s Swamp Rat 19.  It’s in the museum; get the girls to show you where it is.  I had to look reeeeally hard at that old yellow photo the see the slightest hint of red on that roll cage, but after he called attention to it, I could see it.   We later found out he only ran that car for a year, selling it to Graham Withers of Australia in 1974.

Swamp Rat 19

Click to enlarge













Joan & Rick & Swamp Rat 19
What an eventful couple of days.  We got to meet a legend and re-live some memories from the beginning of our lives together over 43 years ago.  A few days later, we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Columbus GA

Nov 2-3 2015

Columbus? Yes, Columbus, a surprisingly interesting destination.
More to come...

Missouri

Sep 27-30 2015

More to come...

Ontonagon and the Porcupine Mountains

 Sep 9-12 2015

More to come...
Camp on Lake Superior, Ontonagon MI
Lake in the Clouds, Porcupine Mountains

Marquette and Gwinn MI

Aug. 25 - Sept.9 2015

After the decision was made to save Munising and The Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore for another time, we had to determine where we'd go next.  There are very few Pass Port America campground in the U.P. but one that intrigued me was the Farquar-Metsa Tourist Park in Gwinn MI. The name alone was interesting.  Who or what was Farquar and Metsa. Shrek and Lord Farquaad comes to mind.  The web site  on the PPA site wasn't much help, referencing the Forsyth Township in Gwinn MI.  I did my usual "fly over" on Google earth with inconclusive results.  Oh well, life's an adventure, we'd give it a try! Besides, it had to be better than our current situation.  After calling to make sure there was a site for us, we headed for the little community of Gwinn MI and the Farquar-Metsa Tourist Park.


We left the Munising area in much the same weather as we arrived, cold drizzly rain. The rout was similar in time and distance to our previous moves, about 48 mi. and 55 minutes. The possibility of making a day trip back to Munising came to mind.  We passed through a number of small... well, I would call them community's, just intersections with a few buildings on the corners.

K I Sawyer Flight line form a bygone era.


 As we got closer to Gwinn, we passed through the community of Sawyer, another former Air Force base similar to Kinross MI.
Open air museum of aircraft that survived at Sawyer
The K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base was closed in November 1994, another victim of the ending of the Cold War. Along with the base closure, 4,600 military and civilian jobs vanished.   Today the Sawyer International Airport is the main air transportation facility for Marquette and the surrounding area.  Sawyer's economic base includes 68 businesses and over 1200 employees. The K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum chronicles the bases history.  Here's a link to a brief history and time line.



The terrain in this part of the U.P. is flat with a spattering of marshes and forest.  We left the rain some ware back toward Munising but it was still cool and overcast.  The entrance to the campground was up a slight incline and at the end of a right hand curve, we almost missed it.  The park has 20 full hookup RV sites.  All sites have gravel pads surrounded by lush grass.  Yes grass, I was never so happy to see grass!  We signed up for our usual 2 nights but right away a longer stay looked promising.

It was still early so we set out on a driving tour of Gwinn MI.  Gwinn is an unincorporated community in Forsyth Township, Marquette County.  It encompass 5.1 sq. miles and has a population of around 2000.  While the rain had stopped, it was still a cold blustery day and there weren't many people about.  It looked almost distorted for a Tuesday afternoon.  Almost all these little communities we've visited have a town museum and we try to visit them to learn some of the local history.  We were in luck, the museum was open from noon to 4:00 Tuesday and Thursdays.

The volunteer on duty was a long time Gwinn resident, transplanted  from New Jersey.  We asked about the history of the area and she told us all about her early years in New Jersey!  She was very helpful, even calling a local mom and pop restaurant to confirm the special of the day.  If interested, here's a brief history of Gwinn and Forsyth Township.

Aug 26

Marquette Michigan welcome center
Today we drove into Marquette, heading up M-553 from Gwinn.  The weather was still a little cool and breezy but no rain.  There's another Michigan welcome center just east of town on US 41.  As usual we came away with lots of information about the area including the local brew pubs.  There's a scenic drive (Lake Shore Blvd., what else) along the shore line through down town past the lower harbor Oar Docks, Elwood A Matson Lower Harbor Park, Light House Point, across Dead River, ending at the Presque Isle Park.


Peter White Dr.
Presque Isle Park (known as Marquette's crown jewel) is a 323 acre forested oval shaped peninsula that juts into Lake Superior at the north tip of the city.  The park has several hiking trails and there's a narrow one lane outer perimeter road (Peter White Dr.) which winds it way around the island. Another attraction is the free-roaming band of white-tailed deer.  At times the band contain albino deer whose snowy white coat dramatically contrasts with the typical brown coloring.

Marquette also has a Tourist Park Campground.  There's a disk golf course across the street and a bike trail runs right through it.  We drive through to checked it out. While it would be much closer to all the amenities the city offers, we decided we liked the Gwinn campground much better. At the end of the day we were excited by all there was to do in Marquette and Gwinn.   We returned to Gwinn and signed up for a week.

The Farquar-Metsa Tourist Park is owned by the city of Gwinn and all the maintenance is handled by city workers.  It sits on the Escanaba river with a swimming beach, Pavilion, canoe launch and hiking trail.  The trail makes a loop along the river north of the park then heads south (still along the river) ending at Peter Nordeen Park, a distance of about 2 miles.  For more walking opportunities, there's plenty of residential area with charming little houses and almost no traffic.Gwinn has everything you need, a grocery store, 2 laundromats, a hardware store and various other stores and businesses.

Steve and Sandy are the campground host. They've lived in Guinn all their lives.  Steve is a retired city worker so he knows who to call to get things done.  We struck up a friendship with Steve and Sandy and they helped us find some of the lesser known amenities of the area.  Right away I asked Steve about the possibility of a shuttle to paddle the Escanaba river in the coming days.  He knew exactly where to take us.  We were looking forward to spending some time here and just goofing off.

Aug 27

We spent part of today touring around Gwinn and looking for the river take out Steve told us about. Along the way we noticed these rustic "city gates" seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  These sighs marked the ATV/Snowmobile trails as they passed through the town.  This just emphasizes the importance of the extensive off road trail system in the U.P.  Steve and Sandy told us of trips they would take in the backwoods covering 100 miles with out seeing another soul.  The only limitation was how much gas they could carry.

After we returned to the campground, Steve and Sandy invited us to go out for Pasties.  Now, you might remember we tried or first Pasty back at St. Ignace, just after we crossed into the UP with under whelming results.  This was a chance to try another with some native Michigander who knew where to get good ones.
Our destination was the Crossroads Restaurant and Lounge at the corner of M-553 and Co Rd 480 just south of Marquette.  Not much to look at from the outside, but a pleasant enough on the inside.



A little review, A Pasty is a baked pastry filed with beef, sliced or diced potatoes, rutabaga or turnip,onion, carrots and seasoned with salt and pepper.  The are eaten plan or with ketchup or gravy.

The one we had in St. Ignace was take-out. These were big enough to be a complete meal this and hot out of the oven.  I ordered a side of gravy so I could try all the variations.












They have a Pasty tracker map to track where people come from to try a Pasty at the Crossroads.  Believe it or not, there was no pin in Salt Springs, so we were the first, WHOOPEE!

After dinner Steve and Sandy drove us to the take our we'd be paddling to on the Escambia river.They were eager to show off the natural assets of their little town.

It was still early when we returned to the campground so we took a walk on the trail leading north along the Escampia river. Not far down the trail we came across a wonderful little picnic area over looking a couple of rapids with a pool in the middle.  The sun was going down fast and all the colors were starting to washed out but it was still a beautiful place.  We resolved to come back some afternoon for a picnic lunch.































Aug 27

Steve and Sandy told us about a fun little attraction in a nearby town of Ishpeming MI"Da Yooper Tourist Trap".  Now, living in Florida all our lives, we know something about Tourist Traps!  So, we had to check it out.

More to come on Da Yooper Tourist Trap...

On the way we passed through the little town of Jasper Ridge where we found the Jasper Ridge Brewery.





Sep 4

We drove into Marquette early on a Friday afternoon to find something to do.  There's a restaurant just off the Matson Lower Harbor park we'd been wanting to try.  The weekend Blues festival started this evening with a free concert to kick things off.  We figured we'd park in the festival parking lot, walk to the restaurant then come back to check out the music later.  As we were  walking by the festival area we heard the announcer mention there was food available.  Hum, restaurant food or festival food?  The energy of the festival was already starting to draw us in.  I suggested we see what food was available.  Joan spied a sign that said "Gumbo"  I had my eye on a pulled port sandwich with some catchy name like "Big Jake" or "Pork Shabang" or something like that.  And, there was a beer tent!  And, they had my new favorite beer, Widow-maker Dark Ale.  Okay, festival food won out... and I'm sure it was all low cal and healthy, RIGHT!  We walked back to the truck and got our chairs.

More to come about the Blues festival...

After the Blues festival I snuck out of the camper to try on Joan's cool new sunglasses.  Wa-da-ya think?

Yah, you're right, they look much better on her!







More to come ...