HG's thread of miscelaneous stuff

[fun in dirt]

Interesting! There is an old ammunitions site not far from here too in Prairie, MS. http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.c...nce-plant.html It has some weird, ery old places around there too. It's now part of MS State University (who I work for). So first time I went there I got real curious. There were several of these massive concrete walls still standing (different rooms for assembly of weapons)....anyway when I saw your pics it's reminded me a lot of this place. It's pretty fun to find out what all went on at old abandoned places like that!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

That looks like the parking garage in the Steve McQueen move 'The Hunter' that the bad guy drove off of near the end. Internet said it was Marina Towers parking garage?

That's the place. I haven't seen that one. Thanks for sharing.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ma...88ed99!6m1!1e1

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by fun in dirt

Interesting! There is an old ammunitions site not far from here too in Prairie, MS. http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.c...nce-plant.html It has some weird, ery old places around there too. It's now part of MS State University (who I work for). So first time I went there I got real curious. There were several of these massive concrete walls still standing (different rooms for assembly of weapons)....anyway when I saw your pics it's reminded me a lot of this place. It's pretty fun to find out what all went on at old abandoned places like that!

It is fun. Thing is, I hated history in school. Was so boring. I later figured out it was just my teachers. One of them was a complete waste of oxygen and should have retired long before he turned me off to history. My dad had him also and said he was pretty boring then too. He graduated 21 years before me.

I imagine there are places like this all over the country. Its up to us to find them.

This link should take you to more images of the area. Several are better than what I got with my blackberry.

https://www.google.com/search?q=umor...ed=0CAgQ_AUoAw

[flashed]

Great pics as always ,your pics are inspiring ,thanks for taking us along .

[hgs_notes]

Stuff from last week. Just some odds and ends vehicles. Nothing real great, but that's how it goes sometimes.

First I want to start off with a short quiz. There are no "right or wrong" answers. After the pic I will share my observations.

Whats wrong with this picture?


You may think everything is as it should be. But a keen eye and years of experience observing such things allow me to find the obvious missing component of this pic.

I'll start with what is right though, in order to remove the things that may mask the indications of whats wrong.

First, the car is a camaro. That should be the #1 choice of a derelect car when parked in the yard. Second, its red, this needs no explanation. Third, it is in the front yard, as it should be. Who really gives a bleep about cars parked out back? Fourth, missing body parts. It needs to be obvious so removing the grill/bumper/facia is a good choice. There are more, but thats the low hanging fruit, as it were.

Now for the "negative". The most glaring omission has to be the lack of concrete blocks. This vehicle had all 4 tires and they had matching wheels. It's true, most were flat, but I can't accept that as a fair substitute. I think the yard was too neat, not enough toddler toys or trash scattered around. No household appliances, no couches or other furniture.

My gal speculated that possibly it was the mayors house so appearances needed to be made. More upscale I think. There was no for sale sign in it either. If there was that kinda negates the whole deal.

Moving on, I was down in Sac City, IA and there were a couple cars for sale across from the subway. They were both pretty rusty, especially the mustang. But they each had something going for them. The square body is a shortbed, fairly rare in these parts. The mustang was mostly straight and unmolested. The interior was mostly stripped, I think mainly to see how far it was rotted out (very). Had the original 289. I don't ever want to deal with that much rust again in my life. Even if it was free I wouldn't consider it as a project, but others may jump into that hornets nest and swat away until they realize it's beyond their abilities and motivation and junk it.










This classic SUV was my favorite of the trip. It was actually across the road from the last 2 but I don't think it was for sale. It was pretty rusty also, but more unique.






Comes with plastic totes to hold the parts that fall off.




Just a few more random yard ornaments...

[hgs_notes]

Time to upload more miscellaneous &^%$

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again...


Yes there is a truck ahead of me...


Believe it or not I could see ahead better through the phone. It was totally invisible to me by sight. A mile or so later, I thought I had backed off enough to prevent running into his rear end (white truck, no lights on) when I came to an intersection. He was turning right, but very slowly (it was slippery) and there was a semi truck in the oncoming lane waiting to turn left. There was also a truck on the cross road, right side. I wasn't slowing fast enough and was trying to decide if I should go around the right side and risk hitting the truck on the right or the guy in front of me turning into me, or go to the left side and risk a head on with the truck waiting to turn.

I squeezed through on the left as the guy in front of me finally got through his turn enough to give me just enough space. I wasn't really speeding here. Probably half the posted limit. Just couldn't see anything because the truck in front of me was making a huge cloud of loose snow. And with it coming down hard I couldn't even tell I was close even when I thought I was backing way off, trying to keep the cloud of snow from him well in front of me. Had no idea he would stop in his own cloud.

Once he wasn't in front of me the drive was no problem.

Had a blizzard tuesday. I elected to stay home.

Packing leak...


It had been leaking quite awhile I think. I saw a pair of boilers once that had packing leakage on the main stop valves so bad the entire packing glad had rusted away. The studs and nuts holding it in place, all of it. I started brushing away the pile of rust and only found little pieces of the missing parts.

Steam leak.


Same plant. This one pissed me off. It had been going a while, high pressure steam right in a threaded section of pipe where it is thinnest. Could have blown off at any time. I spent an extra hour or so here teaching these guys how NOT to operate and going over the many things they need to do better.

Tombstone hauler...


Heres a bunch more from that VW place I occasionally stop at...




Any guesses what this is?




Something we rarely come across in this neck of the woods...






Dualliburb...








Olds...


Its kinda rough even from this distance. Its a parts truck at best the closer you get...






This one wasn't too bad...


69 fast backs are my fav. I spotted this through some trees and went back for a closer look. Parts car I think. It was pretty rough. Maybe the owner has better stuff in the garage, but weren't around to ask. Maybe next time. If its warmer.

[hgs_notes]

Yep, theres more. I took the girlfriend to the motorcycle show in Minneapolis. We had fun and saw some nice bikes. I think I have pics from last years show in here too. If I didn't mention it before I really like the looks/style of the suzuki bolts. I won't get one though cuz my knee hits that intake cover on the right side. Change that and I'd give it a shot.


A new yamaha adventure bike.




It has a winch. On the back end. I don't know why.


I think this is the first year of the KZ, which is my current ride...


And a definite classic here. An H1...




Gotta love this...


Cool paint...


Balding and braids?


Looks cool. I'd ride it...


I really love the new scramblers too...


These new honda GROMS look like a hell of a lotta fun. There are youtube videos showing them off.


Check out the customized Grom Wing...


Slight change of direction, old bike in the snow.




Anyone need a winch bumper from a 5 ton military truck?


A somewhat rare K-10 shortbed.


It's been there a long time and the weather has not been kind to it. Not that there wasn't serious problems with it before it was parked in the brush.




The frame was rusted by the rear axle and was cracked length-wise...


Yes, this is a place...


And just a few miles away was this gem...




Now this guy knows how to properly park a car in the yard. Camaro, check. Red, check. On blocks, check.

[flashed]

I was wondering when we would take our next journey ,was worth the wait as always .Thanks for taking us along.

[hgs_notes]

A few more to catch things up.

Heres a nice GMC longhorn. A 69 in turquoise, same as my truck but faded just a bit.


Very nice solid C-20. Wasn't for sale.




A couple weeks ago I had inspections to do at a beef/chicken plant. They do both there, never seen that before. This was a kosher plant. I've been to 1 other plant that did kosher, but it was just a portion of their products. I mainly go to pork plants and turkey in my territory. I learned that they must use rabbis to cut the throats for all of the kills. I wonder how many new young rabbis are completely shocked that they were assigned to work in a slaughterhouse as part of their duties? They do get some preferential treatment, like parking up front...


This one is just from my warped sense of humor. Bathroom at a store has a seat mounted on the wall so you can strap your kid in while you take care of business and don't have to worry about your toddler playing in the funny sinks and chewing the white hockey pucks in them. Apparently a child had been left too long and had to chew his way out of the seat...


Minnesota requires boiler operators to have a license. It's been the law for a loooong time. This is one of the oldest ones I've ever seen still posted in a blrm. He was not the current operator. I think they just leave it there cuz it's cool.


Last week I was rolling through town to go to the store and saw this beast. It's freaking HUGE! Sorry the pics aren't better, it was a sunny day and it was in the shade.




Baby on board...


A couple BMW race cars at one of the shops I visited. You can see the Isetta from a couple years ago. It's still here but has been put back into running condition. Everything was rebuilt and restored but they kept the body as found.




Last one. I was doing a risk assessment at a local glass plant. They make jars and bottles. Something new for me. I learned a lot. This is the top of a furnace with molten glass in it. There are 6 of these and each one feeds glass to a machine that cuts a small chunk (called a slug I think) that drops down into a machine with about 10 molds in it. The slug is red hot and gets air blown into it and it balloons out to the shape of the mold. The mold opens and the bottle goes down a conveyor to an annealing oven that controls the cooldown rate. The glass furnaces basically run non-stop until they are shutdown after about 8 years to get the refractory rebuilt. The tank, which is a large block tank about the size of a 2 car garage is fed sand into a furnace which melts it to glass and it holds about 360 tons of molten glass. You can imagine the disaster they have to deal with if the furnace shuts down unexpectedly or if the tank wall or floor is breached and dumps molten glass out of it. I wish I could have taken more pics of this process and equipment, but my hands were full enough doing work.

[TennesseeZ]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

[/URL]

The original Crew Cab?

[flashed]

That military truck is too cool ,I saw a single cab version of it in North Carolina last summer and thought it was huge but not compared to that one .
The BMW' race cars and the Isetta are cool too. I love our road trips you take us on ,keep it up .

[Ol Blue K20]

Very cool ride.....thanks and keep em coming

[nuke1]

where are the updates?? it has been a month

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by nuke1

where are the updates?? it has been a month

I've been busy dammit!

I know, I know. Excuses excuses.

This is my new truck. A craigslist find. I have been looking for a regular truck to take some of the hauling load off my C-10. And something that I can tow with. And I wanted a crewcab or extended cab. Nothing fancy, but a runner that will be reliable. And cheap, had to be cheap. I thought $1950 was a pretty good deal for this.






















Its a C-30, 454 auto, AC, PS, PB runs decent but has some issues and the expected rust. Its fairly solid though. Floor is good, bed is good. Needs rockers, 1 cab support, fenders and hood. No big plans for it at this time. I need to clean the gas tanks and get the dual tank system back to operational. Fix a few other things.

Here's some pics of other peoples stuff...




































Sorry, no time for story telling today. I've gotta hit the road again. I'll post more up soon.

[Indian113]

I would never get anything done with all of those vehicles to STOP and look at! Thanks for the Pics

[hgs_notes]

Cars and such...














This is the parking lot of a hotel in Rochester I stayed at. Carved out of the hill.




Saw a little bike shop with some cool stuff in the windows in Winona.
















Found this at a thrift store for $20. I don't smoke, but its pretty good garage wall art.


I loved the paint on this old barn. Different shape than is typical around here too.


Last 2 pics are from a repair shop I visited. There is a story in how I ended up there that I will try to post soon.

[motornut]

Hi the new project looks solid,wouldn't find it up here

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by motornut

Hi the new project looks solid,wouldn't find it up here

Actually it was found not far from The great white north. It was in International Falls a year ago. But it's not a project, it's a driver. I have enough projects right now.

[Low Elco]

Cool Stuff, I dig the pulling tractor!

[toolboxchev]

Wow that is an awesome thread! Thanks for all the stories and pics, I jumped to the end after taking time to get through to page three.

Nice of you to take your own personal time and give the rest of the world a view into yours.

[Ta2Don]

Awesome as always...

I too dig the new Crewcab...

Hope the move to the Country goes well...

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Wow that is an awesome thread! Thanks for all the stories and pics, I jumped to the end after taking time to get through to page three.

Nice of you to take your own personal time and give the rest of the world a view into yours.

Thanks, but as you may have noticed, time has been in short supply lately. I have accumulated more pics the past few months that were not part of my C-10 thread and at some point I'll get back to posting.

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Awesome as always...

I too dig the new Crewcab...

Hope the move to the Country goes well...

Closed on the new place last friday. Should start moving things into the house this week after I get a few more things done there so it's ready for habitation. The seller is still getting things out of garages, and sheds.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Closed on the new place last friday. Should start moving things into the house this week after I get a few more things done there so it's ready for habitation. The seller is still getting things out of garages, and sheds.

Congrats on the new place. Good luck with the move/settling in.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Congrats on the new place. Good luck with the move/settling in.

X2, I hope it goes smoothly

[Minnz]

Man, I just got done reading through this thread! Great stuff, I'll bet we've crossed paths on the Minnesota highways a few times over the past 30 years. I work as a surveyor and have travelled many of the same roads and stopping at the same quirky sites for a quick look. I've always regretted not taking many photos on those journeys....can I use yours? (LOL). FYI, I do have a red Camaro!

Two quick things:
1) The large prairie chicken in post 48 is located in Rothsay, MN and;

2) One photo I did take located in DeSmet, SD (its pretty high up there):