On June 21, 1955 Sam Gray, David Rutford and Fred Hallberg begin their cruise down the Mississippi river from St Paul Minnesota on a homemade raft.
The raft was built of barrels and planks and they drove the propeller with a 1939 Chevy with 172,000 miles, they bought for $15.
The rear wheels were fixed exactly over a junkyard rear end, with a prop mounted to it's drive shaft.
The car’s steering wheel turned the raft’s rudder.
In St Louis Missouri the engine needed a valve job, and outside of Memphis a bearing on the driveshaft under the raft spinning the propeller, burned out.
The men ran low on food as they discovered a stowaway was eating their food. The stowaway was a rat. The men tried fishing for food but caught nothing the entire trip.
Other problems encountered included mosquitoes, driftwood in the river and backwash from passing barges.
On July 25 1955 the trio reached New Orleans, then drove the Chevy back to Minnesota, making it back to St Paul in 49 hours. The car used five gallons of oil for the return drive
Found on the blog with a new daily dose of interesting things, the Daily Timewaster Blog.
Peterbilt Canada… like actual head office level Peterbilt Canada… reached out to the head of the company Bam Bam works for. Not to complain. Not to ask questions. But to tell Reg, the president of Qline, that he needed to call Bam Bam and thank him. Thank him… for his facebook page.
For the stories. For the chaos. For the humor. For somehow being a bright light in an industry that can chew people up and spit them out on a bad day.
Kenny Jary, who lives near St. Paul Minnesota is coping with terminal lung cancer and donors have once again flocked to a GoFundMe page intended to help him with medical, hospice and funeral expenses.
As of a week ago, donors had contributed more to the fund called Help Patriotic Kenny Receive the Care He Deserves.
Any funds not used for his care will be transferred to the Patriotic Kenny Foundation to purchase mobility scooters, according to an online post by Amanda Kline, Jary’s friend and neighbor who launched both donation drives.
Kline, who is vice president and executive director of the foundation, declined to be interviewed for this article, referring Stars and Stripes to information posted on Jary’s social media accounts. The foundation’s most recent federal income tax return indicates it spent $73,926 to provide 49 free scooters to veterans in 2024
Jary, who served aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa as a helicopter refueler in the early 1960s, has about 3 million followers on TikTok and almost a million on Instagram.
According to his website, he and his folding bicycle, with its plastic shopping basket attached to the rear, have already entered Nepal. His latest update reports that he was heading for Salleri, and then Lukla and the Khumbu Valley.
This will be a very modest expedition, probably the cheapest Everest expedition ever.
As with his previous expeditions, he won't even have a base camp pack for the mountain.
He will summit from the village of Gorak Shep, an hour away from base camp, and plans to finance his return ticket by selling his equipment in Nepal after the expedition
It opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Royal, Glendale, Monica, and Town Center theaters, and director Ben Wolf will be there for post-screening Q&As on April 16, April 18, and April 20.
after a beloved teacher is killed in a hit-and-run, neighbors organized to remake a four-lane boulevard into a two-lane street with protected bike lanes
the film connects a single street fight to bigger questions about who gets to decide on what streets are used for, and how activists can influence change and make commutes worse for the vast majority of the street users who drive, to benefit the tiny minority who bike.
Because, democracy? Is a society being run by the choices of the majority.
However, facts and rational explanations about how inherent dangers, and acceptable risks, intrinsically state that there WILL be a mortality rate for those who aren't following the herd. There's a reason herds, flocks, and schools of prey travel in groups.... death is the frequent ankle biter of the ones that can't keep up. If you get in the way of the running bulls, or vehicles, you will be trampled, and run over. Because that's how that works. If you stay away from roads and vehicles, your chances are far better that you'll see old age. Just like sharks, just stay out of the water, and you won't get bit. Simple.
The 2021 hit-and-run death of a Brooklyn schoolteacher on McGuinness Boulevard sparked a grassroots movement for safer streets. (Streets are incredibly safe if pedestrians stay off them, of course)
Local activists launched Make McGuinness Safe, pushing the city of New York to redesign the street with protected bike lanes, wider medians, and fewer car lanes.
The effort to screw up the decades old traffic pattern has opposition from businesses that have always relied on water to be wet, the sun to shine, and the streets to have parking for customers, deliveries, and pickups.
Featuring former NYC Transportation Commissioner, the film shows the efforts of grassroots activism, and the uphill battle to get streets rezoned for pedestrians, made into sidewalks, and generally taking them away from vehicular traffic
Upcoming Screenings:
April 16-20 — Laemmle theaters at 3 Los Angeles area locations April 23 -- Brooklyn Manhattan Community College in NYC May 21 - Cleveland Cinematheque May 30 — Wisconsin Bike Federation in Milwaukee June 4 -- Greenpoint Public Library, Brooklyn June 11 -- Van Alen Institute & the AIA, in Gowanus, Brooklyn
a one-off steel-bodied exterior that was finished in 21 coats of blue PPG paint with white and orange accents.
Following its duties as an Indy pace car, the Dodge was then modified for use in land-speed-record attempts and set an average lap speed of 173.222 mph over two 15-mile runs at Goodyear’s test track in Texas in 1984 and also achieved trap speeds in excess of 178 mph.
