In October 2015, my friend Mark and I went to Stow Massachusetts on a sunny Saturday to watch the Collings Foundation World War 2 re-enactment and walk the grounds and hanger to view all the neat things on site. There are pictures of the WW2 re-enactment on my flickr page, I wanted to post some of the other pictures of the fantastic car collection in the hanger on this site. There is a large aircraft hanger with multiple levels that houses some airplanes, tanks, heavy vehicles, and race cars.
Collings Foundation Hanger
View into the hanger from the front.
Prime Mover
SdKfz 8 12 Ton Prime Mover, Germany
Here are some of the really neat cars that were stored on the upper levels of the hanger.
MkIII Ford
Riley & Scott Mk III / Ford, 1996. Riley & Scpott’s legacy goes back to the Ford GT MkIV Coyote, so when it came time to produce a new prototype for international sports car racing they were up to the challenge. R&S MkIII’s went on to forge a legacy of winning that is only equaled by the legendary Prosche 962. The Dyson team commissioned R&S to produce 001 in 1994 with a Ford powerplant. The chassis proceeded to win over ten races for the Dyson team including the 1997 Rolex 24 hours of Daytona and runner up in the 12 hours of Sebring and the Prototype championship. The car remained a front runner until 2001 when it retired after leading Daytona. It is believed that 001 led more laps at Daytona than any other car in history. Drivers have included: James Weaver, Andy Wallace, Elliot Forbes-Robinson, Rob Dyson, Hurley Haywood, and Derrick Bell.
Andretti Car
Lola / Ford XB Indy Car 1995. The 1995 Lola Ford was produced for the Championship winning Newman-Haas team for the 1995 season with Michael Andretti. Some of racing’s greatest names have been associated with this car, Paul Newman and Carl Haas as owners and Michael Andretti as the driver. Michael holds more Indycar wins than any other driver in history. At the Toronto Grand Prix he notched up yet another victory in this particular car. Micahel finished 3rd in the Championship in the last season that included the Indy 500 in which he was leading when he dropped out due to a mechanical failure.
Gurney Eagle
Gurney Eagle Turbo Offy 1972. One of America’s most famous drivers, Dan Gurney, winner of the 24-Hours of Le Mans and the only American to win a Grand Prix in a car of his own construction took that experience and started Eagle. The Gurney Eagle Indy Car ranks amongst the most successful in Brickyard history. This particular car was sold to the famous Leader Cards Racing Team of A.J. Watson. The car raced at Indianapolis multiple times and in 1980 became the last ever Offenhauser powerd car qualified for the 500-mile race, heralding the end of an era. Powered by a 168 cu. Inch turbocharged Offenhauser engine producing in excess of 800 horsepower.
Andretti Mears Penske
Penske PC-9 Indy Car 1980. Built by Penske in Poole, England for Mario Andretti who teamed with Rick Mears and Al Unser when his Formula 1 schedule would permit. This was the second season that Mario Andretti a F-1 world champion, Indy 500 winner, Indycar Champion, NASCAR winner, and winner in every racing category that had wheels teamed with the Penske team, which has won more Indy 500’s than any other team. Indy 500: Mario qualified 2nd fot the great race but failed to finish when his Cosworth DFX failed. Michigan 500 – Mario captured the pole and won the other 500 mile race. Copa 125 Rick Mears, a four time Indy 500 winner, captures a win at CART’s first ever international race. This chassis is the only Indycar in history to have race wins with both Mario Andretti and Rick Mears, arguably Indy’s most legendary drivers.
This year the Lilac Festival seemed to come before the lilacs peaked, and was a little rainy, but that’s good for me, as I visited the park a full week after the closing day, and the flowers and lilacs were just past peak bloom. It was pretty nice, as everything seemed to be blooming on Saturday June 24th this year. Lilacs, Azaleas, Peonies, Dogwoods, and even a few Magnolias were still blooming. About all that wasn’t blooming was the lilies, and ours bloomed a day or two later at home. I walked around the park for a few hours and spotted a few of my favorite lilacs that made it through another year, including the yellowish primrose. It was a nice day, the park is really nice and well thought out. The giant sycamore trees that surround the reservoir are really huge, and way cool. Here’s a few photos.
Spring turned out really well here in Rochester. It was a little cool, but mostly sunny. I think this was perfect lilac season, as our lilacs started blooming around the 16th of June, and they are still blooming 2 weeks later. We got a lot of really nice blooms this year, and our one lilac (the primrose) that got hit with the pesticide last year is growing bigger than ever. Looks like a full recovery. Our cherry trees and dogwood we planted last summer survived the winter and are doing great. Everything is blooming and still looks nice. Our blueberry plants made it through the winter too, and this year we planted some pepper plants and a watermelon too. Here’s a few photos.
We’ve been catching more and more creatures on our critter cam this spring. This time we think we saw a skunk, and one of the pictures may have a fox visiting our bird bath for water. One night a deer showed up and “trimmed” Tracy’s bonsai plants! Still exciting, still a lot of cats around, and some bunnies as well.
Since it is still the middle of winter in the North East, and there isn’t much to do outside, and all I’ve been up to is taking photos of hockey games, today I bring you more offerings from the critter camera. These are some of our best shots yet I’d say, as now we know for sure there are plenty of outdoor cats prowling the area.
More Deer
A Tiger Cat
Two Cats!
Bridbath deer
Fancy Cat
Bunny Rabbit
Ah the excitement, this game camera has paid for itself!
For Christmas this year I was able to pick up 2 refurbished “Game Cameras” at a very reasonable price. I gave one to my Mom and Dad and one to Tracy for Christmas. Cue the excitement as we wait and see what we can capture with the cameras. We stuck our camera outside at the beginning of February and aimed it at our bird feeders and birdbath water. We caught deer photos the second night the camera was out there. The night mode is pretty good. So far, the deer seem really interested in it, as we have captured a few pictures that appear to be the deer looking right at it or sniffing it. One photo even has one of the cat’s two eyes watching out the sliding glass door. Should provide fun for months to come. Here’s a few photos.
Last weekend we decided to go see the RIT Tigers play against Robert Morris. The Tigers hockey schedule was a little skewed this season, so a majority of the home games were in January and February. That has resulted in us going to many games so far this month. We’d never seen the Tigers play Robert Morris, so it was a chance to see a new team.
Unfortunately for the Tigers they ran into a Robert Morris squad that was 10-1-1 in their last 12 games. The Tigers outplayed Robert Morris in the Friday night game, but ended up giving up a late goal and ended up with a 2-2 tie. The Saturday game was a complete blowout, and the Tigers played one of the worst games I can remember. They were just awful, no hustle, beaten to the puck, and terrible even on their own power play.
Tracy and I were both happy to see the Tigers wearing their Frozen Frontier outdoor hockey jerseys. Here’s a few photos from the Friday game.
Mike Rotolo
RMU Goalie Terry Schafer
Talk it out
Zach Lynch
Greg Noyes
Faceoff
As is usually the case, you can see more photos of the game in my RIT Hockey flickr gallery.
This weekend Tracy and I decided to go to the RIT hockey games. There were two of them, Friday and Saturday. RIT won both of them despite having a down year so far. The first game was a 6-0 win, which really didn’t reflect how Army played. RIT got off to a 2-0 lead about minute and a half into the game and never looked back. The second game was closer, 4-3 and Army put on a lot of pressure at the end. Both games saw a penalty shot, one for each team, but nobody scored on either. It was fun, and they were good games. RIT is 12-03 against Army in it’s last 15, so it was the right weekend to go if you like winning.
Along the Boards
RIT Goalie
Playing Defense
Goalie Collision
Skating up ice
Army Goalie
As is usually the case, you can see all the photos I uploaded in my RIT Hockey flickr gallery.
Tracy and I visited Gwen and Mike and the kids in State College for new Years this year. We had a great time. The kids enjoyed playing with their presents, Mike made a great warm fire, and Gwen and Mike both made delicious food. It was nice and snowy too, I like the snow. We went for a few walks, and also went to see the ice sculptures being made downtown as part of the New Year’s celebration. Gwen snagged herself a swell sculpture of her own!
Then after that we went to the Penn State Michigan State NCAA Basketball game. Penn State played really well in the first half, and was up 47-40 at the half. But then #5 ranked Michigan State rallied going on a 10-0 run to start the second half and never looked back as they won the game. Still fun though. After we went home and played Cards Against Humanity for New Years. Then sleep.
The ice storm that hit Rochester overnight didn’t turn out all that bad, and if there had been a little more snow on the ground to make it less dreary, it could have been downright beautiful. It looks like we got between 1 to 2 inches of rain in the past few days, and with all the snow melt from last week’s storms there is quite a bit of water out there. I took a little time to walk around a bit, and here are a few photos of the ice on the trees.
