Ed's Travelogue: George AFB Base Chapel Move July 1979

Next in my "Ed's Travelogue" series is this innerestin' little tidbit. The old chapel on George AFB was a short distance away from our dorms - right across the street from our parking lot to be exact. While I didn't sit and watch the movers as they wrestled with this thing and didn't take any photos, I do remember seeing the structure sitting on top of its trailer. Kind of fascinating to be sure. It was the second time I had seen a building move of this sort. The first time was a big old mansion that had to be moved off the grounds of the University Of Wisconsin - Milwaukee grounds. I would pass it every day on the way to school and thought it was cool. Anywho, I wonder if this chapel is still in existence in hesperia?? Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Moschops

Well finally we've reached the end of the line for Marx dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. We're not done with Marx, just the critters. I still have to cover their cavemen and perhaps tie-up a loose end or two. 

The last creature from Mold Group PL-1083, the Second Series Mold Group, is the Moschops (MOS-cops, meaning: calf face) is not a dinosaur but rather a synapsid herbivore living during the Middle Permian (Guadalupian) epoch of the Paleozoic era, ca265-260mil years ago and roamed around what is now South Africa. In our series of Marx dinosaurs we have already covered one other synapsid: the Dimetrodon. Synapsids apparently were the most prolific land animals of their time. Theory suggests that because of their size and bulk - 8.9'L (2.7m) - they may have lived partially in water the way that Hippopotamuses do.

The Marx Moschops comes in at far less substatntial 2 7/8" (7.30cm) L x 1 5/8" (4.12cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Brrrr - Snow in Las Vegas!

It's been a windy, cold, rainy couple of days here in Vegas with more to come. Some areas got snow on the Valley floor but in our neck of the cactus, though Bettina thinks we may have had some graupel. Bettina captured these pics of the Sheep Mountain Range just to the north of us. Brrrr, I get cold just looking at these LOL Enjoy! Opa Fritz

'Take-off' - An Attempt at Some Old School Space Imagery

Been swamped here of late, but did get around to putting together this picture of a MPC astronaut filming the take-off of a fleet of Restoration Hardware Spacemaster X-7 starships. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Ed's Travelogue Today: Lake Mead, Boulder City, Nevada, Hemenway Park and Bighorn Sheep - Again

One of our favorite get-the-heck-out-of-town getaways is Boulder City, approximately 30 miles from Vegas. There are several routes we can take to get there but one of our favorites is the road leading from North Las Vegas, into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (which by the way was America's first National Recreation Area as designated by Congress in 1964) entrance and then the scenice drive into Boulder City. Bettina always brings the camera and she gets a ton of photos along the way and while the drive is rugged and beautiful, and seemingly remote, in reality there's quite a lot of vehicular traffic. We often like to stop at Hemenway Park where Big Horn Sheep like to hang out so Bettina ends up with a lot of good shots from them. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's Lake Las Vegas from the back side

The light colored bands you may see in the distant hills are the former water levels in Lake Mead. The drought which has hit the West during the past years has taken a toll of the water levels and some of the businesses that used to thrive along the lake front.

Hemenway Park, Boulder City flora and fauna

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Styracosaurus

Well, I've said it before - I get easily distracted. I put off doing the blog so I can start in again trying to sell stuff on fleaBay and the fb groups. I haven'd done any selling since the COVID lockdowns started back in March of last year. A lot of my tattered/torn/broken pieces of trains are actually being given away to the train guys who just have to pay postage. Those scratch-&-dent specials are good for repainting, modifying, parts donors etc. However, I personally don't mess with engines or rolling stock preferring to work instead with structures, as you've seen with my Plasticville mods for the Edge of Town micro-layout.

The Styracosaurus (spiked lizard) was a herbivorous ceratopsian (plant eating beaked dino) living during the Cretaceous period about 75.5-75mil years ago. It was a fairly large dino coming in at 18' (5.5m) and was found in a vast plain in Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA. It was a contemporary of the predator Albertosaurus but because of its size and fierce spikes a full grown Styracosaurus wouldn't have been in as much danger as the juveniles.

The Marx version measures 3 1/4" (8.25cm) L x 1 3/8" (3.49cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz