"Aligators and snakes"? a bit dodgy for sailing model boats!

Very nice launch cradle. If its still sitting there in the morning i might put it in my car before i search for the owner.🤔

Where did Joe go? He was here a moment ago.

(Photo taken 21 Dec 2025 at the SSMBC meet.)

A few canal boat photographs.

Chris

Someone having a good feed on the bird food this morning. Was there for a good 20 minutes!

Wolfe, isn’t Google Earth amazing!

May this Third Advent be special for you too. PEACE. God offers us peace with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. He did the work - and invites us to follow Him in being peacemakers too.

Hello everyone, happy 3rd Advent
Here are a few contemplative pictures from our last short trip to the Baltic Sea in Sassnitz.

Lew,
Yes, we were at the Albuquerque Balloon Fest last year (2024).
It's an amazing event, one that everyone should try to experience at least once.
A high school classmate of mine flies the POW-MIA balloon. When he heard we were going to be in the area for the Balloon Fest, he signed me up as a crew member for his balloon. As such, we got to partake in more activities than we otherwise could have.
It was a magical experience!
Dave
PS, The last picture, with my wife and daughter on the mountain trail was taken at the top of Sandia Peak.

Dave, were the balloon fest photos taken in Aberqueue? Used to take business trips out there and one year they had that festival. Pretty neat, especially watching them climb Sandia peak.
Lew

Thanks Alessandro. No, I don't unfortunately, though I have Googled some of them in the past. Last time we stayed there was just before Covid, so some years ago and I was a bit disappointed as none of the tall and other interesting ships were there. I seem to remember that at least one of them featured in the Onedin Line TV series.

We have been back to Cornwall since, we go most years, but have stayed elsewhere, partly due to the Pier House Hotel being refurbished on one occasion following a change of ownership.

Wow, Chris, those are beautiful ships, thanks for sharing these magnificent images.
These deserve to be archived.
Do you remember anything about them?

Chris, a few years back we rented a house on the cliff in Duporth. It was a short walk to the closest pub in Charlestown, great atmosphere.

I'm in the process of updating my computer and whilst looking through my photos saw these which may be of interest. Some will recognise the location as Charlestown in Cornwall. We stopped at the hotel for many years but haven't been back recently but hope to sometime.

The port is used on and off for some interesting craft, including tall ships which have been used in film and TV series and training vessels.

Incredible, what a spectacle! Thanks for sharing.

Spectacular Dave, simply spectacular!

Great shots DW!!!! My nephew saw them all the way down in North Carolina! It was a major solar flare.
👍

I'm not sure how widespread the viewing area was. BUT, last night the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) were spectacular where we live. These pictures were taken literally out our back door. In the past, there were occasions where one could capture them using a camera, but last night they were vivid to the naked eye, and filled the entire night sky.
Dave B

Spectacular images, what wonderful places, the canyon is spectacular, unique. I would love to visit them in person.
Thanks for sharing, Dave.

Mary wants a Class B now!!! That’s a beauty!
And yes I will keep you looped in on our travels as we are both road warriors. Advice always gladly accepted.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😁

Thank You, Jump ...
We have a Roadtrek 210 Popular Class B. We've had a Class A and a couple different Class C's over the years. My wife worked for an RV dealership, so we got to try out a lot of different rigs in the 10 years she worked there. We tried everything from 35' Class A's, and various configurations of Class C's. Now that we are retired, we chose to downsize to the Class B. It has everything the bigger ones have, just built more compact! It's easier to drive, gets 20mpg on the highway, and we never run into size restrictions in State or National Parks.
Northern Cali and Utah are definately on our "Bucket List".
When you are coming to Minnesota, let me know! It'd be great to get together while you are here. We can point you to some "must see" spots in MN.
Dave B

Dave! These are awesome pix! God’s country out there. Next time hit northern Cali and Utah. Which camper van are you running? Just had to ask.
Next year we are going to rent a Class C to head way up into Minnesota etc. Done towing so want to go up in class. Used to drive a 24’ booze truck from Syracuse to Utica with the labor pool with convicts on work release, so can handle something bigger. 😂😂😂

A year ago this week, we took our camper to New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.
Some pictures came up in one of my "A Year Ago" feeds.
It got me thinking they are appropriate for this thread ....
Dave B
PS The last picture is my wife and daughter, hiking a mountain trail. My daughter gave birth to our granddaughter the next day ....

Hi Chris, your photos are truly splendid too.
Norway must be truly fantastic. Meanwhile, we Italians are also experiencing the current strength of their national football team.

Beautiful photos and beautiful places Dave, you are a great traveler and you do well.

Looks like you had some nice weather as well. The scenery is certainly beautiful. We did the train journey at Flam. The waterfall maybe doesn't look that big until you look for the small red object about half up, which becomes clear in the next photo!

Wolle - it was the Spirit of Adventure.

We had the opportunity to tour Norway in 2018. Beautiful country. We took the Fjord tour out of Flam.

Great pictures
Which ship did you travel on ?

Thanks Will. It was our first cruise as well to celebrate my wife's big birthday. We were really lucky and it only rained on the last day when we were in Bergan.

May well do another in a couple of year's time around the Med.

Chris

Great pictures Chris(and everyone else too). My wife an I are going to the Norwegian fjords in December. It was our present to each other to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and will be our 1st cruise.

Will

Few from our recent trip to the Norwegian fiords, including a few water craft!

Good morning, fellow hobbyists,
My shipyard is still in holiday mode, but that will all change soon!
See you soon on the airwaves.
A bientôt, your
Michel-C

This morning in Stade over the Elbe.

Greetings to all ship modelers.

Yesterday I tested the model under construction on the lake (This is the second operational test).
The schooner-armed steam gunboat model sailed with cannons and central lifeboats (unlike last time, when they weren't present), but it's not yet complete; the side lifeboats and other small details are missing.

I'm editing the videos to show and share them with you.

Meanwhile, in this topic, I'm posting some photos of a recess in Lake Turano (about an hour's drive from Rome), which is 8 km long, 3 km wide, and 68 meters deep at its deepest point.
I'm happy to have found some native crayfish. That means the lake is in good health.
There were also cormorants.

P.S. I also brought the other ship as an aid and for close-up shots but it wasn't very useful due to camera issues.

Yay DW!!!

I remember when Steven Spielberg gave a bunch of Miatas as gifts to the cast and select crew members of the film "Always."
😉

No more guesses which car is mine, so I guess I'll tell.
In the picture, mine is the 3rd car from the right in the 2nd row from the top.
Dave B

Chris,
Thank you for the kind words. Your TT is a sharp car as well.
I think I only spotted one Fiat in the group. But ... there were SO many cars one couldn't see them all. I heard there were a total of 6 25th Anniversary Edition cars like mine registered, but only saw two others.
There were 14-19 different group drives on Friday and Saturday of the event, so we were scattered all throughout the countryside surrounding Ottawa.
My wife and I were on the road a total of 18 days (4025.4 miles or 6478.25Km), as we drove down to West Virginia to visit our daughter and family after the Canada event. I averaged 33.64 MPG (14.30Km/L) for the trip, which I was quite pleased with.
And, you are spot on with the luggage space. Miatas have dismally small trunks. We had stuff behind the seats, down by my wife's legs, etc. We actually UPS'd a box of dirty clothes home from WV, to make the luggage situation more tolerable on the drive home.
I bet the 2 week tour of Scotland was a great experience! We were there for 10 days last year, but on an escorted bus tour.
Dave

What a fantastic trip Dave and a great car to do it in. Did I spot a few Fiat versions in the photos?

I've got an Audi TT roadster which is a year older than your Mazda. First year we had it we did a 2 week tour of Scotland in September and had the roof down every day. Sometimes later in the morning if there had been some early rain/drizzle and the temperature was a bit low. Thought about doing it again but we were so lucky with the weather. Fortunately the TT has a pretty good sized boot so no real problem there unlike on our motorcycle trips! Owned it from new as a keeper and it's still great to drive. Will sell it when I can no longer get in or out of it - unfortunately that day seems to be getting closer! 😮

The 25th Anniversary was 2015.
1100 cars sold worldwide. 115 in the US (for some reason, the UK got a disproportionate 750!).
Soul Red with Black power retractable hardtop, and "special color" charcoal wheels.
The picture on the car ferry is taken from the drivers seat of mine.

Aw shucks☹️
I was working on the conjecture that the close up photo was of your wheels.
Trouble is, I don't know what was different/special about the "25th Anniversary Edition"🤔. Maybe it was unique to the US market?
Must have been in 2014?
Cheers, Doug😎

Doug ...
WAY off base on the car. LOL
I gave a hint with the reference to "25th Anniversary Edition" car
Dave B

Dave,
Re; PS Bonus points go to anybody who can guess which Miata is mine in the group picture below ... 😂

It's the silver hard top, bottom row 6th from the right.
Next to the yellow one with the black soft top.😉
Cheers, Doug😎
BTW The name Miata is said to derive from Old High German for "reward"!😉
Changed a bit over the centuries, modern German for reward is Belohnung.
More likely is the contention that it mutated into modern German Miete, which means rent as in monthly rent for a house, or rental car - Mietwagen in German.

A few more pictures .....
At one lunch stop, our "server" was Bella, a robot.
There are a couple of pictures of the car ferry we took from Ontario to Quebec.
Some pictures from the registration for the Canada's Capital Miata Meet.
A picture from our hike in the Mason-Dixon State Park. At one point, I am holding hands with my wife, who was in Pennsylvania while I was in West Virginia ...

DW, nice photos. I had an album years ago, Watkins Glen Summer Jam if I recall featuring The Allman Bros, The Band, The Greatful Dead et al. Lovely part of the world you are in...

Doug, I've had 3 MX-5 Miatas. A1990, 2008, and now this 2015 25th Anniversary Edition. To me, they will always be called Miata. Great little cars, as long as you remember to pack like you are on a motorcycle (we have previous experience).

Jump, yes, we have been blessed with excellent weather most days of the trip. AND, yes, we did enjoy some wine tasting (a couple of the pictures I posted were from wine tasting).

Ron, try as we did, the meetup couldn't be fit in. We were travelling with a group, and you had "Grandpa Duty". Hopefully some day we can make it happen.

Dave B

DwBrinkman and Ron Bauer had planned to meet up but some times life throws up a curve that hinders those ideas. Thus, we didn’t get to meet up, but maybe another day.

Looks like a BLAST DW!!! And the weather’s been mostly agreeable in these parts. Hope you got in the “wine trails” while you were in the Finger Lakes. Continued enjoyment on the road!!!
Keep the pix coming!
👍😀

Miata? Potata😁
Ah😮💡 You mean the Mazda MX-5😋
Yep, they go some don't they. Colleague of mine had one a while back.
Great trip👍Only place I've been to on your route is Rochester.
November 1986: start Garden City Long Island, first leg to Buffalo.
Then to Rochester, then down to Philly and back up to Long Island.
Amazing sunny weather UNTIL ... Buffalo.
Arrived in sunshine, dry roads.
Checked into the hotel, went for a steak (an a beer or two ... I wasn't the driver😁).
Came out to be confronted with 6" of snow and practically zero visibility😮
(Had a similar experience in St Johns Newfoundland several years later.)
From Rochester down to Philly, then back up to Long Island via The Big Apple.
A very interesting trip, which showed me why Cruise Control was invented😀
Cheers, Doug😎

We have been on a road trip for the last couple of weeks.
We left our home, traveled north to Duluth, and then followed the north shore of Lakes Superior and Huron on to Ottawa, where we met up with 160+ other Miatas for a 4-day event where we explored some of the many roads and sights around Ottawa. After that, we ventured south to the Finger Lakes/Watkins Glen area for a couple of days. We then headed south to West Virginia to visit our daughter and her family for a few days. We will be leaving here on Tuesday 8/26, to start winding our way home. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip ....
PS Bonus points go to anybody who can guess which Miata is mine in the group picture below ... 😂
Dave B

My idea of a really great day out, and a nice bit of photography.

Wonderful stuff Wolle!!!
I want to go!!!