Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

Technocrat

Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

zogger

Sat Jul 05 20:17:00 -0700 2008

About+Technocrat.net

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A rather eccentric guy celebrated the 4th of July in his third and successful attempt to pilot his lawn chair from Oregon to Idaho. He didn't quite make the distance he wanted but he at least made it into the next state, using such high tech gear as a Red Ryder BB gun to control altitude and a tank of cherry kool aid for ballast. He said he liked the ride, real peaceful.

"I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," Couch said. ed.z: Lawn chair, bah, no imagination! How about a full working hot tub and the Swedish bikini team? Amirite, or what?..need a few more balloons though..

OK, what is the ..goofiest..vehicle you have ever traveled in, I mean oddball, not many people have been in one? Doesn't matter, land, sea or air or any combination thereof, and this being Technocrat, space counts as well, who knows, might have an astronaut or three here...or an Area 51 test pilot, who knows.. I'm trying to think here..not anything all that unusual.. a real wooden, hand dugout Polynesian outrigger ocean going canoe would be at or near the top of my list. For semi rare US cars both a plymouth superbird and a dodge daytona..they are rather *quick* I must say. Big dune buggies, way before we had VW bug dune buggies. They built them out of old trucks, bodies taken off, big airplane tires on them. One of the first mountain bikes, built from scratch junk, worked perfectly fine actually, albeit heavy compared to todays exotic bikes. Mel Fishers custom salvage boat, with his drogue bottom washers, what a ROI that was for him. That's all I got now that I can remember, the rest is all "normal" stuff. Next guy!

Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

Michael Smith

Sat Jul 05 23:21:10 -0700 2008
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I once travelled 20 kilometres in a propane powered Commer campervan. But that was an exchange rate driven expediency.

Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

zogger

Sun Jul 06 08:53:43 -0700 2008
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I saw a guy with a big RV dump two cases of rum into the gas tank during the OPEC embargo. He got in and drove away, no idea how far he got though, perhaps it worked well enough for him to get to someplace that actually had gas for sale. Back then during the emergency is was two gallons max and they were charging ten bucks a gallon where I was.

Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

The Baron

Mon Jul 07 07:49:07 -0700 2008
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Hmm... Polynesian outrigger...Done. Eight years in Hawaii with a Dad in the Navy gives a lot of chances for unique stuff.

Also been in the Goodyear Blimp, flown in a C-5 cargo transport...

and my ride last weekend was a 1969 Camaro COPO. Four on the floor and roared like a lion. 18k miles on her when we started and about 500 more than that by the end of the weekend.

Low Tech Atmospheric Cruising

intangible

Mon Jul 07 09:02:19 -0700 2008
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Nothing too weird... I got to spend a few years driving / riding around in M1A1 Abrahms tanks and a couple years in M551 Sheridans (an all aluminum amphibious tank). Also rode in Blackhawks a few times.

I also put quite a few miles driving through the woods in my great-grandmother's electric wheelchair when I was younger (she was none too happy with the resulting damage).