Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

Grainy old images taken with a cheap camera by a kid with no photography skills. ( me in those days ) I figure they are better here than stuck in the album at the bottom of my steamer trunk.. If I can find any extra info on the cars/drivers/owners...I'll add it into the mix. Don Prudhomme 's Top Fuel Funny Car   Don Prudhomme Wiki   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Prudhomme Don Prudhomme "the Snake" doing his burnout The Bubble-up team. "240 G ordie" drove the Funny Car   Gordie Bonin websi te  http://www.240gordieracing.com/ Jet Funny Car Jet Funny Car lighting up the summer evening sky Wil d Bill Shrewsberry and his wheelstander truck   Wiki page for Wild Bill   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Shrewsberry Wild Bill getting ready for his run Hemi powered Willys pick-up truck Jim Moore Funny Car   Feature on Funny Cars of the 80's...mentioning Jim Moore   http://www.80sfunnycar...

An excellent video on what I assume was one day in the life of an off-highway logging truck operation. I'll include these old posts of logging trucks that are forever parked...just so you can compare the life of a working truck with an abandoned hulk in the forest.   http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/07/lost-treasure-trove-of-abandoned.html

Robert Gilmour LeTourneau was a man with a vision. A big vision. A vision that was his and his alone. He designed and built earth-moving machines that sculpted and re-shaped vast sections of the world. Most, if not all of his designs were years or decades ahead of their time. Believing that he was doing God's work,  he didn't have many moments of doubt that he was going to be successful in whatever wild creation or huge contract he took on. The Wikipedia page for RG LeTourneau http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._LeTourneau Here's a tour of some of RG's machines and ideas. The Tournalayer...a machine that builds a house in one pass. Click on the video icon The LeTourneau house subdivision...click the link LeTourneau houses   More LeTourneau machines An early version of a dirt scraper machine, which became the basic idea for every scraper that any other company has built since. This was in the years before WWII. Here is a video of an older model LeT...

A reader of the blog wrote to me the other day with interesting news. One of the old machines in the posts about the Sterloff property had caught his attention. So, he wrote to say " hey do you know what that thing is?...well, it's very old and very rare. Other Sterloff property posts are here   http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/07/sterloff-trucksmid-1940s-peterbilt-and.html    http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/01/more-photos-from-sterloff-property.html On the subject of logging skidder oddities...the Diesel/Electric LeTourneau skidder    http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/12/letourneau-dieselelectric-log-skidder.html Lost treasure trove of abandoned logging machines   http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/07/lost-treasure-trove-of-abandoned.html Jackson Bros Logging   http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/05/jackson-brothers-logging.html And, back to old Euclid stories... The log s...

I just found this on Vimeo. There used to be one or two of these monsters on Vic Walters property in Porpoise Bay at the old mill site. Here is a photo of my dad having a close look at one, back in the 60's. Seems to me that the LeTourneau machines were used in the early 50's around the Coast. Likely one of those times when the idea was too far ahead of it's time. It used electric motors on each wheel  and the electricity came from the front mounted diesel motor Link to video is below ( no sound ) http://vimeo.com/35343215 He re is another video of the same technology being used as a log loader http://vimeo.com/18327246   Again...same idea is now a large all purpose transporter ( I have no clue as to why the editor chose that particular music ) http://vimeo.com/18605197   From the "go big or go home" files...the Tourno-train   http://vimeo.com/16138691 The huge and b izarre "Tree Crusher"...looks like something that just makes a big me...

An early hour trip to the industrial part of Oil Town, to catch these hordes of machines in the summer morning sun. Taken at several nearby equipment rental yards. The sea of silver and beige in the foreground is an army of industrial ligh ting plants. D iesel powered units for working at night . T he masts stand vertical and usually hold 4 powerful lamps. The trucks in the middle are deck trucks and tractor units for delivering the rental gear.