Clever Clue of the Month

Vote now for July's Clever Clue of the Month.

Trip 1 2 3

1. Sheep Mountain summit

2. Denali at about 11pm

3. Mark & Lois & their cozy log home

Sheep

Here are some sheep. . .or should this one be "blue sky"? The upper pictures are Dahl Sheep the lower ones are Stone Sheep. By the way the mountain-top experience here is from Sheep Mountain. Paul has experience there.

Kudos to Dean

Number two: Skunk

Scavanger Hunt

For the first time, in about three months, I feel like I have a little breathing room. I'm going to use that space to begin the attempt to respond to Paul's challenge. I'm referring to his challenge, before we went to Alaska, to come home with eight photos: 1.a moose 2.Deer 3.Sheep 4.Goat 5.Bear 6.Skunk 7.Fish 8.Blue Sky.

Here's the moose.

1966 revisited

I had to look a while, but I found my old Soap Box Derby photos...





Here I am after winning the Duluth championship.

(This is an early picture of our newly blended family.)












Award winning smile.












The photographers wanted a picture of mom kissing son. This was one of the first times I had kissed step-mom and it felt a little funny!













This is a picture from my old scrapbook. Here I am getting ready to go to Akron, OH for the nationals. I remember getting a free haircut at a barbershop! I asked for a flat top cut. I got a free "blazer" and slacks too.

Robert Woldmoe from the Duluth News Tribune was my escort on the free plane ride to Akron. We ate out at a restaurant late that night and I got to order whatever I wanted. I ordered jumbo deep fried shrimp (still one of my favorites) and it was great!






We got to stay at a camp (Derby Town) for a few days before the big race in Akron. One day a photographer pulled me away for photos. He carted me around to the different venues: the horse stables, petting zoo, archery, etc. Coincidently, out of 250 contestants, I wound up racing against this guy and I beat him!










This racoon kept biting my fingers.















I'm including this picture because Dad told me the photographer liked this shot the best because it showed my "anxiety". The whole thing was a little intimidating! You can see how they took off my beanie and propped my helmet up on my head for the photo...

This is me winning my first race (heat). I won my second heat and lost my third.








Here's the big picture view. 60,000 spectators.

I'm not sure, but this might be me losing my third heat.










Here's the creep that won the whole thing.

Actually, I'm kinda glad I didn't win. I don't know how I would have handled the media crush.

Rose Oh!

With the curve in our driveway we kept missing the driveway and running onto the grass. Instead of trying to improve our driving habits I decided to do some land-scaping this spring. We threw some rocks alongside the driveway and no longer worry about driving off the edge.



We also added a few rose bushes.

strange photos

Here are some photos that jumped out at me, of the crew that came to Alaska. Over the next few days i will put some more on the blog, and change the date so they coincide with day that they were taken.



Dan, Dean, Stephen, and Kurt. I guess this photo is self-explanatory.





I guess Steve was trying to block Kurt out of this photo also.








Same pose by Steve with Dean and Peter at the glacier. It does not look like global warming on this particular day.







This is a hip-hop couple we saw on the mountain trail.

Killdeer

Are you all familiar with the Killdeer? A pair of them decided to nest in a small playground area adjacent to the football field behind our house.
The Killdeer are interesting in that they do not nest in a tree. Rather, they nest on the ground. And not in a well sheltered location on the ground but right in the open. In the case of the pair above they at least chose a location where their eggs would be well camouflaged.
How can they get away with this? The pair takes turns sitting on the eggs. Anytime someone approaches, one of the pair will try to distract you by running away from the nest - hoping you will follow him/her.
If you get too close, the sly bird will feign a broken wing. Amazing!
After traumatizing these birds for a little longer than I should have, one of the pair agreed to a portrait with the eggs.

Soap Box Derby

Dean, your name is in the news once again - this time the 'Days Gone By' section of the News Tribune. Here's the text:

Dean Stynsberg, a 12-year-old entrant in yesterday's Duluth Soap Box Derby,
piloted his car down the Hartley Field slope to defeat Tom Morrison and win the
20th annual race. The weather was hot and humid for the 3-hour event.

Dawson City

Breakfast beside the Yukon River.










This is a very big gold dredge.


















Looking at some more of the gears etc. inside the dredge.


















Holly is sitting in one of the buckets that scooped up the gold laced earth.







This is a miners cabin reconstructed in the museum. I bet it was never this clean.









This is the inside comissioners home.
















Looking north and downstream the Yukon River from the hill above Dawson City.

Still driving to Dawson

Here is a group photo at Matanuska glacier.











Here is a smaller group at the Chicken sign.













The Klondike River from the center of the photo is flowing into the mighty Yukon river on the bottom of the picture.











This is Dawson. It should be merged with the above picture to see it in panoramic reality.












Camping out one more night before crossing on the ferry into Dawson.