Kurt Leucht’s Blog

10) Do not start a new diet before your vacation
This one is actually pretty obvious.  I don’t know what I was even thinking.  It’s pretty much impossible to eat healthy while on vacation.

(http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200812/r320235_1425804.jpg)

9) It’s possible to discharge an iPhone 3GS faster than it can charge if you play podcasts while also using the GPS receiver
This actually surprised me.  I specifically bought a car charger for my iPhone so I could try out some GPS navigation software on our trip.  I figured as long as I had the iPhone plugged into the power cord, I wouldn’t have to worry about draining it on the long trip.  I was wrong.  With the GPS program running and the iPod app playing podcasts that I had downloaded earlier from my PC, the iPhone drained faster than it charged.  I did not appreciate this situation.

(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/08/tomtom_83913_tt-for-iphone-incar-landscape-uk.jpg)

8 ) A pop-up summertime thunderstorm can ruin a nice sunny beach day
We had only been on the beach for a total of about 15 minutes.  Just enough time to get sunblock on all the kids and let them go out and play in the surf for a few minutes.  Then we heard the thunder.  There was a pretty bad storm that suddenly had formed and was heading right for us.  It was a beautiful sunny day one minute and we were running from a lightning storm the next.  We tried to find other things to do.  We hung out in a souvenir shop for a while.  Then we sat in our cars at a park for a while and ate our picnic lunch.  The storms kept building right over the beach.  We eventually gave up and went home.

(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radardata.html)

7) It’s completely possible, although possibly quite expensive, to wash a pickup by driving it completely into a lake
If you back your pickup truck down the boat ramp just to wash out the bed … then you might be a redneck! I just hope this poor guy is able to laugh at this later!  (This is no joke.  We witnessed this with our own eyes, by the way.)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h3eSm8qSU)

6) Always check the trail online from town before driving up into the mountains where there is no chance of any cell phone signals (or grab a trail map from the welcome center)
We drove to a small waterfall in the Smokey Mountains of southwest North Carolina first thing one morning and were planning on visiting larger waterfalls later in the day.  This first small waterfall was only maybe 50 yards from the road pull off.  But while walking to the waterfall, we went past a forest service sign that had details about climbing and rappelling.  The trail split and one trail went directly to the waterfall and the other went on up the mountainside.  After experiencing the waterfall, I thought it would be fun for me to check out the other trail and see if I could get to the climbing and rappelling rock and take some photos while the rest of the family had a snack back at the car.  After walking uphill for about 2/3rds of a mile, I finally gave up with no climbing wall in sight.  Had to turn around and go back.  My little hike up the mountain was recorded on my GPS, but there was no cell connectivity so I had no Google map overlay to look at.  After we got back into town, I brought up the Google map overlay onto my GPS hike.  See the screen shot below.  It turns out I was only about half way to the climbing face when I gave up and turned around.

(http://mobile.accuterra.com/)

5) North Carolina experiences the same temperatures as Florida, only with slightly less humidity
It was pretty hot and pretty humid in central North Carolina while we were there.  We’re talking the middle of July.  But every time I brought up the current conditions for North Carolina and compared them to the current conditions in Central Florida, the temperature was always the same within a couple of degrees and the humidity was always worse in Florida.  I probably checked about 4 times during the week that we were there and the results were always the same.  So I guess it actually did feel just a little bit nicer up in North Carolina compared to back home.  After all, it’s a slightly drier heat up there! 

(http://media.trb.com/media/alternatethumbnails/story/2010-08/55334161-03051444.jpg)

4) It is utterly impossible to lock your keys in the ignition of a Nissan Xterra SUV
We bought a 2004 Nissan Xterra recently and drove it on our vacation.  One time at a gas station I was trying to write down the mileage and the car was turned off and the keys were in my pocket, which is where they belong when they are not in the ignition.  Well, the odometer doesn’t work unless the key is on, so I had to turn the key on to write down the odometer reading.  When I was done I needed to go in to use the restroom, so without thinking I locked the door with the power lock button and shut the door.  Just as I was shutting the door, I realized the key was in the ignition still.  Turns out that the car doesn’t let you lock the doors when the key is in the ignition, or maybe when the key is turned on.  So even though I tried, I was not able to lock my keys in the car.  Now, if it wasn’t in the ignition that would have been a different story, but my keys are usually in my pocket or in the ignition.  I tend not to leave them laying anywhere else, knock on wood.

(http://saloncars.com/catalog/images/08NissanXterra.jpg)

3) After a long hike through a narrow trail in the woods, if you stare at a large flat sign you will experience this really freaky peripheral vision motion after effect illusion of the sign melting away from you
After walking back down the mountain trail about 2/3rds of a mile from looking for the climbing and rappelling wall, I stopped at the bottom to read the forest service signs again, because there were details about the climbing wall there.  According to my GPS records, I had walked downhill on this woodsy trail at about 2.5 miles per hour for approximately 14 minutes without stopping.  Well, when I stopped and looked at this big billboard of a sign, I experienced something very weird and interesting.  My eyes and brain were totally still in “moving through the woodsy trail” mode and so when I stopped to look at this big stationary wall of a sign, it looked like the sign was melting away from me.  At least in my peripheral vision, the sign seemed to be moving away from me.  It was pretty freaky and it took about a minute before I could see normally without getting a bit dizzy.  Scientists call this illusion the motion after effect or waterfall illusion.

Here is a nice example:  http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_adapt/index.html

2) Waterfalls are really cool … but not real fun if you forget your water shoes
We saw some pretty cool waterfalls on our vacation.  One of them, Looking Glass Falls, is 60 feet tall and at the bottom there was a big pool where tourists can swim and play.  It’s common sense that you would bring water shoes or at least flip flops or sandals if you’re gonna visit a place like this.  After all, everyone knows that the floor of these creeks and waterfalls is covered with sharp jagged rocks, right?  Well, this Florida boy found out the hard way.  I was wearing my good tennis shoes and did not have anything else in the car to wear.  I wasn’t gonna ruin my good tennis shoes, so I chose to walk around barefoot in the water.  Not a great idea.  The rocks are slippery in addition to being sharp.  Pretty uncomfortable to walk on.  I actually slipped once and messed up my big toe, but I won’t go into the details.  A week later my big toe is still recovering from my poor planning, though.  And the bottoms of my feet are probably all cut up too.

1) Dry cereal is completely okay with everyone in the family for dinner after arriving home after a long drive
After a very long drive home and returning to a house that is pretty much devoid of real food.  The boys were perfectly content and happy to sit and eat dry cereal for their dinner.  They were just happy to be home again. 

(http://www.comesatradehub.com/images/products/8912164569.jpg)

We witnessed this while at a public park in North Carolina today.  There was a boat ramp nearby and I saw this man drive right up and back his pickup truck right down the ramp and into the water with no boat trailer.  The rear wheels were totally submerged and the front wheels were probably just a little bit in the water.  We found out later that the guy was trying to rinse out the bed of his truck.  Well, needless to say, he got stuck there.  After maybe 10 minutes, someone drove up and backed their SUV up to his truck in an apparent attempt to help him get his truck out.  I got distracted for a minute and when I looked back, the man’s half submerged truck was completely gone.  Yes, it was no longer there.  It had somehow rolled completely into the lake and was totally submerged.  A couple of hours, two fire trucks, four police cars, two tow trucks, and one fire rescue unit later, I was able to record the following video of the rescue crew pulling the submerged truck out of the lake.  Enjoy.  I just hope the guy who owns the pickup will be able to laugh about this experience later. 

If you’re like me, you love demonstrations of speed and power.  It’s a thrill to see a monster pumpkin catapult machine hurl a pumpkin two thousand feet downrange.  Or better still, to toss a 200 pound refrigerator over 200 feet in the air. Now that’s entertainment!

The World Famous Acme Catapult team has been invited to be the first American competitor at the European Championship Punkin Chuckin contest in Belgium for next year, 2010. This is an exciting opportunity to take the American brand of punkin chuckin global! But they can only do this with lots and lots of help from people like me and you.

Full Disclosure:  The Acme Catapult team is comprised of Bob Kruse who is my stepdad, and a few of his closest friends and coworkers.

This is a huge undertaking and the round trip overseas shipping costs, airfare, lodging, and food expenses will add up very quickly.  They are in need of monetary donations and they’ve made it very simple to donate online via PayPal.  Just go to the Acme Catapult website (http://www.acmecatapult.com/) and click on the PayPal Donate button!

I was playing around with Google Maps today and realized that the Google Street View folks have driven through my tiny little home town of Mackinaw, IL.  They didn’t drive all over the place … they just made a beeline down the main drag.  But still, very cool.  So enjoy your online tour of Mackinaw, Illinois!

Click on any image below to view and interact with it.  Click and drag to “look around”.  Click on the street arrows to drive up and down the street.

[All street view images are copyright and owned by Google.]

Welcome to Mackinaw, Illinois where the population is around 1,500 very nice folks.  It’s only 30 minutes from Peoria to the West and 50 minutes from Bloomington to the East.

This is the old historic Mackinaw Train Depot.  It sat empty and in near ruins for many many years when I was growing up.  When I was in high school, the historical society paid me to mow it.  They also paid me to paint the historical sign that was displayed out front for many years.  Some very smart entrepreneurs came up with the idea to make a tea room and a gift shop out of it and it’s been thriving now for many years.

Here is Mackinaw’s downtown park.  It’s also very historic.  I have some photos from the Mackinaw Sesquicentennial in 1976 of my family dressed up in Sesquicentennial garb and watching the time capsule burial ceremony here.  That should be fun to open up someday.  There is an historic naval ship gun turret displayed here in this park.  You can see it on the left in the photo.  It’s pretty cool and fun for kids to play on.  Last summer I got photos of my boys climbing and playing on it, just like I did when I was their age!

Here is the only grocery store in the area … the Mackinaw IGA.  I worked here during high school and Junior College along with many of my classmates.  Sadly this store burned down last year.  The owner says they’re gonna rebuild, though.

Here is a view looking downtown.  It’s a very small and friendly little town.

Mmmmmm.  Ice cream.  This ice cream stand wasn’t quite this big when I was growing up.  It’s good to see that business is good and they have added on to the original little shed building.

The Christian Church in Mackinaw.  It’s a beautiful building inside and out.  This isn’t the church my family attended, but some of my friends attended here and I visited occasionally and have good memories from it.  My United Methodist church didn’t get photographed by the Google Street View cameras or I’d include it here too.

Mackinaw Grade School.  It looks quite a bit different than when I was attending.  I attended here from Kindergarten all the way through 8th grade.  The Junior high was in a different area of the building than the lower grades.  I don’t think any of the original building remains anymore.

The Mackinaw Grain Elevator.  When you live in the middle of corn country, you can’t hardly throw a rock without hitting a grain elevator.

Well, that’s about all the Google Street View folks were able to capture by driving down the main drag.  There’s way more to Mackinaw than what you can see from these few photos, though.  If you’re ever in the area, drive on through and stop by one of the nice little restaurants or stores.  You’ll be glad you did.

Kurt

Well, it was a long and hard day, but it was totally worth it!  What a great experience it was to attend the Daytona 500 race in person and to be able to see and hear and smell and experience it firsthand.  Below is a short 3 minute video on YouTube that I created from short video clips on my digital camera.

Being in the pre-race show (http://www.leucht.com/blog/2009/02/daytona-500-pre-race-show-practice-day/), I had to arrive in the parking lot at 7:30am and check in at the infield pre-race compound at 8am.  They fed us some pre-packaged muffins for breakfast and set us loose in the infield and told us to come back at noon.  So we basically had almost 4 hours to walk around and be tourists.  I checked out the Fan Zone and the pit area and then I suddenly found myself on Fox & Friends After the Show Show (http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3606113).  There were lots of reporters running around interviewing people before the race.

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I was able to look into some of the garages while the crews were preparing their cars for the race.  [Click on any of the photos for higher resolution versions.]

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The fans could also view the inspection area where cars were getting weighed and measured and inspected thoroughly to make sure they were following the NASCAR rules.

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While I was milling around, they let the Fan Zone crowd out onto the track and onto the grass between the pits and the grandstands.  That was really cool.  The track is banked at 31 degrees there at the finish line, which is pretty impressive when you’re right there trying to walk up and down it.

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Also, fans were allowed to sign the Start/Finish line.

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I didn’t do a great job signing my name.  The bumpy asphalt was pretty hard to write on.

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One stretch of pit road was open for fans to walk around and look at the pit boxes and equipment.  Here is a photo of Jimmie Johnson’s (Team Lowe’s Racing) pit area.

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Here is a photo of some of the Team Lowe’s pit tools.  These were on the side facing the car … there were more tools on the opposite side too.

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Here is a photo of the back side of the pit box of Dale Earnhardt Jr.  You can see they’ve got all the tires laid out and marked as to where they go on the car.

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Back in the Fan Zone, fans got to ask Elliott Sadler questions before the race.

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Time went pretty fast with all the activities and such. Then it was time to line up and get ready for the pre-race show at 2:30pm.  There were about 1500 volunteer “performers” in this show.  Most of the choreography involved simply walking from spot to spot and unfurling a banner.  Pretty simple stuff.  Here’s a photo of me waiting for the word to walk out onto the field.

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I took this photo during the finale of the show.

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I snapped this photo of Keith Urban during the pre-race show.  He’s in a yellow t-shirt standing on a little mini-stage in the middle of the crowd.

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About an hour after the pre-race show, the race actually started.  Took a while to remove the stage and clean up everything.  Here’s a photo of the leaderboard and jumbotron as the race was starting.

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I watched most of the race from the pit area.  It was pretty exciting and full of activity.

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At one point in the race, Jeff Gordon was having some sort of trouble and people started passing him.  He came in for a pit stop…

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… and his tires were in pretty bad shape.  You could see bubbling and the tread was starting to come off.

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Another shot of the old tires.

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Tom Cruise attended the race and watched it from Jeff Gordon’s pit box.

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The Cheerios team getting ready for the next pit stop.

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This picture shows a pit crew member measuring and recording the tread thickness across the face of a used tire.

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I went up and down the pits all evening, but decided that this was the view of the race that I liked the best.

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Soon after I snapped the above photo, it started sprinkling. Soon after that, the race was stopped and then eventually the race was called due to the rain. After the race was over and everyone was packing up, I caught Tony Stewart in his pit.

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An emotional Matt Kenseth won the race by being in first place when the race was red flagged and then called due to rain.

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After the winners circle ceremony I snapped this photo of the winner, Matt Kenseth, getting interviewed by the Speed Network.

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My last photo of the night.  Here were the final standings at the end of the 51st Daytona 500.

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My long day finally ended and then I had to wait in line for an hour and a half for a bus ride to the parking lot, then I had to drive all the way home. I drove all the way to Titusville on US1 because I-95 was pretty packed and not moving at full speed as far as I could tell.

It was a long hard day, but it was very interesting and pretty fun, so I think I may do it again next year.

Thanks for reading,

Kurt