Monthly Archives: July 2015

A visit to my favorite local 2,063 footer

Posted on by
Reply

kvly_tower_35148On the way home from Fargo last weekend I decided to show my boys the fourth tallest man-made object in the world: KVLY’s tower near Blanchard.  It was weird stopping by there as a former employee of NBC in North Dakota, but I still take pride in this structure.  It’s a biggun, as they say.  The massive structure above is just one set of guy wires and anchor holding it in place.

 

kvly_tower_35119This tower is enormous, and for quite some time was the tallest man-made object in the world.  It has since been dethroned, but aside from the Burj Khalifa its competition edges it out by fewer than ten feet.  There’s phone booth sized elevator that goes up the center of this tower…scary.  Rumor has it that the former chief engineer would ride up on top of the elevator so that  second person could ride inside to go up the tower.  I never asked him.

 

kvly_tower_35126I haven’t been inside this building for a while.  Structures near towers like this have heavily reinforced roofs, as enormous chunks of ice come crashing down over the winter and spring months.  In fact, I’m pretty sure one has to make a mad dash for the building if going out there in the winter!  Facilities built early enough, like this one, have living quarters inside…a throwback to the days when an engineer actually remained on site during all hours of transmitter operation.

 

kvly_tower_35135Silhouette.  Can you imagine how long a shadow this tower casts on a winter day?  Its counterpart, by the way, is nearby… a short little 2,060 footer.  That tower, belonging to fellow Valley News Live station KXJB, fell twice: once after being struck by a helicopter, and a second time during the storms of 1997.

I’m so accustomed to dropping by this tower when in the neighborhood, hoping the engineers might be there servicing the transmitter, that I didn’t even stop to check if they’ve posted the access road.  If you go out this way, check that out.  I’m just used to the old days of being able to approach, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been “in the neighborhood”.  But something this big has to be seen.  If you want more information, Wikipedia is probably your best bet.  I don’t think the Valley News Live page has the same tower information page that the old KVLY site did.

Why these Fargo Airsho tickets never got used

Posted on by
Reply

airsho_ticketsI was so enthusiastic about the Fargo Airsho that I bought tickets for both Saturday’s and Sunday’s shows.  After all, the Airsho was cancelled in 2013 because of the Blue Angels’ cancellation due to politically motivated budget cuts.  This time I was all set to have a blast with my best friend and my two little boys.

The Blue Angels were AWESOME.  The fact that we entered through the Fargo Air Museum and were able to browse around there was an added bonus.  The F-M Ambulance gang had brought a neat contraption: an EZ-Up canopy rigged with PVC pipe that misted people if they walked underneath, a sure necessity in the scorching heat of the weekend.  The static displays and exhibits were really cool.  I saw the largest UAV I’d ever seen, my boys got to peek into a Harrier cockpit, and my youngest even caught a frog (He does that everywhere.  Seriously.).

So why didn’t we go back Sunday?  Frankly, because of the view.  Or shall I say, the lack thereof.

  • Nearly the entire show line was lined with VIP canopy tents.  There were two little corners where the little people could try to angle for a little bit of space with a view of the runway.  Of course, most of the action on or just above the runway took place in a spot that we couldn’t even see.  To make matters worse, my little kids could see even less due to their height.
  • They were excited when they saw bouncy houses, and thought they could at least do that…but that was actually part of another HUGE corporate area that took up an enormous slot of space near the south end of the runway.  What’s sad is that the inflatables appeared to go mostly unused throughout the day, although we saw other kids walking around the orange fence trying to find a way in.
  • Apparently there was a rocket-powered bus and stuff.  I heard it.  For a second I actually caught a brief glimpse of it between two VIP canopies.  My kids were out of luck.
  • The aerobatics were really neat, and I guess they did some nice low passes along the runway.  Never saw them.
  • One of the pilots landed his airplane on a moving truck as it sped down the runway.  Didn’t catch that either.  I heard it on the PA system.

We braved the heat and had a good time, fortunately being at the south end of the runway when the Blue Angels started.  Thankfully they did most of their maneuvers down on our end, so our day actually culminated in being able to actually see what was going on in the show.

When we woke up in the hotel room Sunday morning and began to review our plans for the day, the heat was a factor.  I was ready to brave the heat and try to get their even earlier than before, to stake out the best spot I could manage despite all the Reserved areas.  I left my camera behind on Saturday to scope things out for Sunday and enjoy the show with my children.  But when we considered the fact that we couldn’t see much of the show anyway, we decided to just bag the entire thing out of frustration.

I was going to drive up to the airport and give my tickets to someone waiting in line, but we’d had such a poor experience with the lack of traffic management the morning before (shutting the road on us within sight of the FargoDome, even though we were there 45 minutes before show time) that we decided to just write it off and find something else to do.

So, if you’re considering going to the Fargo Airsho again in two years, you might want to do one of two things: make connections to get a corporate tent to sit under so you can actually see, or hold off on buying tickets until the Saturday show has commenced, so you can get a report on whether or not all the good viewing is out of your reach.  If so, you can either stay home or park along a side street and get the same view for free and save $25 per ticket.

Sunset from the driving range

Posted on by
Reply

sunset_ip_6546Click the image for a full size version.  I was giving my little boy a motorcycle ride when we saw this sunset developing.  We pulled over in the parking lot by the golf dome and grabbed a quick pano.  Then it was more Daddy-son time on two wheels!

The reason I got rained on

Posted on by
Reply

I’m sad to say I haven’t been doing much with my cameras lately.  I’m happy to say it’s no longer because of medical issues, surgeries, travel, or recovery, but because we’ve moved into a brand new house and I have plenty to do. I am, however, starting to get out on my motorcycles more, and tonight I took one to church..

After church I grabbed an ice cold Dewski from B&J along with a bag of BBQ chips, then sat on the steps of the Capitol to ponder Psalm 51 with the Bible I keep on board my Kawasaki.  As I was wrapping up, I saw lightning to the west and some ominous looking clouds.  Then the wind came up, and I figured it might be high time to skedaddle before I got drenched.  But on my way home I saw some amazing clouds, and had to stop along the way to take a couple of shots:

stormy_skies_ip_6525This one’s pretty wild…the photo just doesn’t do it justice.  The rays streaking out from that window in the clouds were bold and strong.  It didn’t take long for that window to close, either…so I’m glad I was able to get the shot by pulling over to the side of the road and scrambling for a camera.  This was facing west.  To the east of me was an equally impressive show.

 

stormy_skies_ip_6507This one’s my favorite of the two.  The combination of the sweeping lines leading to the towering head of the cloud, the ceiling of dark clouds advancing overhead, and the column of heavy rain spewing out the bottom of the cloud in the center of the photo made for a great roadside capture.

At this point I was getting a little nervous, as I’d felt a few sprinkles here and there.  I bolted home in hopes of beating the rain.  I could tell that precipitation was spotty, as I drove across sections of road that had obviously seen rain…but was myself dry right up until I turned on my street.  That’s when the skies opened as I bolted the last block to my garage.  I didn’t get soaked to the bone, but I did feel some pretty heavy drops smack my helmet as I scrambled down the home stretch, feeling the sting through the lightweight Nike shirt I’d worn due to the oppressive afternoon heat.

Let’s see…a good church service, a snack and some Bible meditation, a little bit of motorcycle riding, and two cool photos?  I’d call that a Sunday Evening Success.