A Vintage Funeral Carriage

In the age of technology where some of you are reading this on your i-phones,others on their i-pads,and who knows what else, you get what I'm saying about technology. While I do embrace technology with mostly open arms, I think that some things done with vintage equipment adds a whole different class of something having class, displaying dignity, paying honor and tribute that technology can't offer.

On the way to my doctor for an appointment, I came across this vintage funeral carriage and two beautiful black animals that would be fitted to the carriage as the time drew more near for a military funeral ride.The horses are a breed like Clydesdales but are not Clydesdales.They are French bread Percherons. Amazing animals. These have the same shag on their mane, feet and tail and come black or white in the breed. It would have been nice not to have the doctor's appointment so that I could have watched the funeral corteges on a beautiful late summer's day. By the time I returned, the funeral was over and the military men were walking back to their cars, Military funerals,while sad, are still one of the most honored tradition this country affords a family for the loss of a son or daughter,father or mother, sister or brother. Their price paid for our freedom is honor and service at the highest level. Thank you and Rest in Peace.

Vintage Carriage

Funeral Carriage awaits its Drafts

My special thanks to George at Vintage Carriage for allowing me to shoot these images. He also has carriage for hayrides and beautiful white carriages with the white horses for holiday light tours in Highland Park and Uptown.

Fair Park in Transformation

This is the second weekend that I have made the trip to Fair Park to check on the trains and to see the transformation that occurs in preparation for the State Fair. I'd like to see Big Tex in place  before the fair starts but not holding my breath.
There was some activity at the train location where the Museum was before the shift to Frisco. There was a  fair amount of people who seem to be doing the same thing. I talked with a lady that was there yesterday and was back today taking pictures. It was pointed out yesterday that the Big Boy will probably not move until after the fair is over in October.That does not surprise me one bit. The logistics of such a move was much more than anticipated. The Santa Fe Engine 48 is being used to move pieces around in the cramped yard so it's going to be at the tail end of the move as well, one would guess.

The prize of the day was finding the Chinese Lantern Festival crew taking up one full section of the parking lot at gate 5 assembling the large displays. Another photographer that I run into now and then and at locations were I shoot as well was there shooting the same lanterns.

From Fair Park it was up Exposition to Main Street and a trip through Deep Ellum before entering downtown. I love the eclectic atmosphere of Deep Ellum. There are really two Deep Ellums. One by day----the other by night. The one by day is my favorite because you  find so many interesting things. One discovery  that I made and been wanting to shoot for a while was the new Las Vegas-style neon sign.  There are several meters but only one parking meter outside  the landmark venue for rock groups to perform. It was open and  I parked, put my two dimes in for 24-minutes, walked down to Good Latimer at Main and got my shot. Then, it was a walk back toward the bar to where  you could see downtown Dallas from that part of Main Street to put it all in perspective.

Traveling down Main thru the heart of downtown to Griffin, it gave me a chance to see the new deck park that covers 5-acres of Woodall Rogers Expressway and is scheduled to open in October. It really is the much needed mental bridge between downtown and Uptown Dallas. There were a lot of people in downtown and mass had just let out at the Cathedral in the Arts District.The sidewalk vendors all had lines of hungry and thirsty church-goers. The City's new performing arts center for smaller groups had a lot of traffic going in and out of the building.  It's just amazing what that stretch of Flora Street houses today. The arts district is truely unsurpassed anywhere! New York Theater Companys are stunned by what they see in the Arts District and rave about the technology and planning.

Here are a few more shots from today.

Neon For Deep Ellum. This is at Good Latimer and Main Street.

Chinese Lantern Festival is being assenbled at Fair Park.

 

Lost Images Revealed

The Baddest of the SS. This is for real an example of "Don't Tread On Me"! 

Air Force One on Final at Love Field,Dallas
Taken moments before my prized image from that day's shoot.

Basically, I hate it when I index images and mis-direct one here and there. Such is the case with this post. These two I have searched high and low for a year. Today, it was "Bingo" because they were found and now have been re-indexed to be where they should be filed. But, since  they have been found, I think there is still some interest by my readers. Enjoy.

Looking Like The State Fair at Fair Park

State Fair Dates: September 28 -  October 21

Work is well underway at Fair Park putting up all those favorite fried food and refreshment stands. The old landmark Midway arches have been repaired from this past Springs expensive hail storm. And there is less rolling stock at the former Railroad Museum.  One of two security guards told me that the rolling stock was going out on the third shift because it wasn't happening on first or second shift, which confirms what one of the employees in Frisco has said to me more than a month ago. She had call me,infact. From that conversation it was easy to see that the exit from Fair Park was going to be a "under cover of darkness" move. It's turned out that way so far as the first cars rolled into the  Frisco's property from off-site storage with limited public information. The tweets,facebook post and website updates seem to be all "after - the- fact" which is not surprising.

This morning, one of the television stations had a sound bite about the move and the newspaper ran a story that basically said nothing. The route map published matched the hand-drawn one  that has been on top of my computer for over a month  Anyone with any train interest as an enthusiast already knows where the line junctions are located or can figure it out like doing math in you head.

 I hate to say it but I can remember when steam engines were running regular passenger service in the town were I grew up. It was second or third grade when I saw the first diesel that appeared on those tracks where the steam engines had been running regular service. Still, trains and planes hold my interest to this day. The physics of both are more interesting now than they were in my 8th grade geometry and 10th grade  physics. It was that knowledge gained, however, that cemented my interest in later life.

Colorful Tent Booths Go Up

The West Side of Admiral Nimitz Drive

Here is a little splash of color from Fair Park this afternoon. One thing for sure is that corny dogs and fried foods will be around longer  than some organizations. My dad expressed to me that everyone wants their jewel to be front and center on the crown and some just never ever will understand that it is all the jewels combined that make up the crown, not just a single jewel. Fair Park is a crown and all the little jewels make it what it is and will become. Loosing one or two here and there will be replaced with others that will shine just as bright and not worry about their placement on the crown. Next time you visit Fair Park look up at the two gate markers.The left one in engraved 1836 and the right one bears 1936. The art deco period for Fair Park blossomed in the 1930s.




 

Unidentified Texas Tarantula

It has been mentioned many times in this blog that I do not travel without my camera on the passenger seat. It has been very handy even for a trip to the grocery store. Yesterday, while looking for a pair of falcons that have for the past two years called an old water tower in a local cemetery their home, I see this object on the roadway ahead  of me moving in the center of the roadway. I stop, get out of the car with my camera in hand and walk behind this moving object until I see the largest spider that I have ever seen.

 Then, I see this big F-150 or F-250 coming down the road at me. Waving my hands, the truck stops,puts down the window and before the lady could think me crazy, I pointed to the spider in front of her  as I said that I was trying to rescue this spider to a tree before it got run over. She jumped out of the truck and with less caution than I would exercise was using her phone to take a picture at very close range. She said that she had not seen one like the one on the roadway in a while, gets in her truck and drives around the spider as I call out to her that her tires were clear.

I'm still walking behind this spider following it as long as it was on the roadway as another car approached. Doing the same hand wave as before, I got the car to stop before the tires rolled over the spider. This time, however, the spider moved under the car and was in front of the rear tire on the drivers side. I ask the guy if he could back up slowly about a foot. I used a tree branch about two feet long to get the spider to attack the stick as I moved the stick with the spider holding on away from the gentleman's car. He was surprised to see such a large spider. His passenger was trying to get him to put up the window because she didn't like spiders. I thanked the man and they drove on.  With the spider on the stick I move him to a nearby tree and he readily climbes onto the tree trunk and moves  to the fork in the main trunk where the spider stops and appeared to be well adjusted. With that rescue done, I'm on the way home. Here is a couple of images of what I discovered and  is commonly called a Texas Tarantula, though I am trying to id the species more at the Texas A&M extension service for Texas critters.

Several weeks ago I say my first armadillo in a roadway that had been run over by a car. This year alone, spotted in nature, were a coyote, a bald eagle and a water snake, on her clutch of eggs that were washed into the lake during a heavy rain event;an American Muskrat, the armadillo  and now, the tarantula. It's most likely because of the returning drought conditions that is bringing these rarely seen critters out in more populated areas.

When first seen on roadway

A Texas tarantula male. Males have two hooks on their front two legs and they are venomous.

 

Calling all Rock Climbers

The outside set-up for training

Until yesterday, I didn't know such a place existed in the Metroplex. It was a discovery that I had not expected or anticipated finding. After talking with the owner for a bit, he gave me a tour inside the facility.

In the foothills outside Denver, there is a concert venue named Red Rocks. It got its name from the two towering rock formations at the entrance of the facility. Recalling my first experience watching rock climbers enjoying their hobby/sport was a mine burn. Since then, everytime the combination of those two words appearing together or is heard together, the mental picture of that day at Red Rocks pops into view. It is  as clear today in my mind as it was those many years ago.

Looking upward inside that 110 foot silo yesterday  also reminded me of something I said in a post several months ago  that: " one thing I would not do is climb out on an I-beam several hundred feet above grade to get a image of an ironworker sitting on that beam eating his lunch sandwich" as my old AP friend,Steve Dodrill did.. Never-the-less the facility has six such "rooms" plus the outside scaling wall set-up. The owner is a wilderness adventures outrigger in Frisco,Texas and uses the training facility  to teach leadership,team building and personal adventure skills. The North Texas Outdoor Pursuit Center is the official name of the facility in the old Blanton Grain Towers in downtown Carrollton,Texas. The Green Line's Carrollton Station is a football field North of the facility. Here are a couple of shots of the facility.

Entrance on the West Side of the Blanton Towers
 

This is the West Side view of the Blanton Grain Towers. They rise 110 feet. Each silo is a training center. The microwave repeaters are just a value added service of the facility
 

 

More Trinity Development Evident

Looking East up Singleton Blvd toward downtown



The Sylvan Avenue Bridge Project Is Underway

The stainless Steel tanks would suggest a micro brewery--maybe?

Since the  opening of the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, the area West of the bridge along Singleton Boulevard has increased its development. The new Trinity Commons Project is already showing new stonework,sidewalks and even something that looks like a new micro brewery. This area is getting ready to pop economically and commands watching closely.