1958 F.W.D.

UPDATE: Final everything is in the end stages. Our crew flies down Tuesday to do the final acceptance inspection on Weds. Due to work and family obligations I will not be able to go- this is the first new truck I have been involved with in a long time that I have not been one of the final inspectors of. Note the Cow Piss tank. Even though emergency vehicles received an exemption from pollution laws, the engine builders all refuse to accommodate- costs them more money to re-tool the production line for a fraction of the industry so unfortunately- we're stuck with cow piss. All photos courtesy of Ferrara Fire Apparatus.

My heartfelt condolences to you and the families. Sucks to have survived Vietnam, live a good life only to die in a fire. Makes me want to scream,

http://dailydispatch.com/StateNews/OR/2015/July/10/Coos.County.Norway.mobile.home.fire.claims.two.aspx

Paul I'll put the word out on my FB, have a lot of firefighting friends all over the place.

I have never found pictures of pedestrians more titilating. ( see what I did there??? LMAO!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gciFoEbOA8

$5000 for no title and in the condition it's in???? Someone needs to put down the bottle and step away

I did not receive an invite, but I did take Vlad there when he was here 2 years ago, right after Macungie.....(at the invitation of their Chief Mechanic/Caretaker who happens to be a member on here, forgive me I cannot remember your screen name or real name....???) and if you have the opportunity you MUST see the Mahan Collection!!!

UPDATE 7/15/2015: Out of the paint shop!!!! Striping and decals being applied (gold leaf applied after delivery.) Interior fit-out of compartment shelves and brackets in progress. Final inspection tentatively scheduled for 7/22. Note the rhino-liner'd front bumper. HatCity note your chevrons on the rear.

Excellent trip report!

Aluminum frame

Huh? Because one flammable liquid or gas is less flammable than the other? I'd love to talk to the liberal hippy dumbass college prick who thought that one up and find out what his reasoning was.....And then have a discussion about chemistry and flammable liquids/gases and combustibles..............

Looks like Sal's Gal has been ridden hard and put away wet.

This is why NHRA Drag Racing will be a sport long before NASCRAP could ever be. Stole this and put it on my fazebook.

Yeah. Speaking of the EPA, I just got back from the local mower shop, I hadda buy a new fuel line for my Homelite trimmer because the fucking ethanol ate the old line. Same thing that happened to the diaphragm in the fuel pump of the Waukesha.

And our last stop was McPherson's Ridge and the area surrounding the Lutheran Seminary. There were many many people out since it was a gorgeous Sunday morning, with a lot of traffic, plus we were yammering to get home. As many of you know, this is the area where the Rebs came into town via the Chambersburg Pike (modern day US 30) on the morning of July 1 and ran into what they assumed were local Militiamen, instead they wound up tangling with elements of Buford's Cavalry and later in the day Reynold's 1st and 11th Corps. It should be noted that dumbass me forgot to pack the camera- so each and every one of these were taken with my cell phone, hence one of the other reasons I didn't take very many pictures. For you out-of-towners, the battle at Gettysburg on July 1-2-3 of 1863 was the boodiest battle ever fought on North American soil. There were over 50,000 casualties between fatally woundeds, mortally woundeds, woundeds, or MIA's. It was a humbling experience to visit these hallowed grounds. If anyone ever wishes to visit Gettysburg, I cannot recommend the book "The Maps of Gettysburg" (by Gilbert Gottfried) enough. Buy it, read it and then carry it with you on the battlefield as you do the NPS's self-guided driving tour- here's a link http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/upload/GETT%20brochure.pdf I would allow at least three full days to do Gettysburg, between the driving tour of the battlefields and the various museums in town. That's all I got. Thank's for playing along, and have a pleasant day!

Final trip report: When last we parted ways on this thread I was speaking of our adventures on a moist Saturday. By 2 or 3pm the rain had subsided, however it was still quite overcast and just "ugly." The humidity was quite high but it wasn't very hot out so it wasn't all that bad. We ended the Ranger Battlefield Hike around 6pm, and headed back to camp. We jumped in the pool to cool down, and then went back to our site and made dinner- bacon cheese burgers and corn roasted over the camp fire. I wrapped the corn (husks and all) with tinfoil 3 or 4 wraps (yes Hatcity, enough for a new hat for you) and placed them on a fine seasoned pine plank old skids that I got from buddy and cut up for firewood because I'm too cheap to go buy sawn firewood I built up other fine pine planks around the wrapped husks of corn and rotated them every few minutes. It worked beautifully- the finished product only required a slight dusting of salt and pepper. No butter required!! I got a couple of fresh 80/20 ground beef burgers from the Giant (no frozen patties for us...) and we had some bacon leftover from breakfast, and fresh kaiser rolls. MMMMM good eatin! Sunday Morning the weather was quite lovely. We woke up early, struck camp, packed up and jumped in the shower. We checked out of the campground and headed back over to the battlefield to finish up our driving tour. We visited the three other important locations (The Peach Orchard, The "Angle" and The Lutheran Seminary) we wanted to check out, plus smaller "not as important" places. We drove around and visited these locations until about 1:00pm and then hammered down for Home. The "Copse of Trees" as seen from behind the Union Line. When Pickett's Divisions received their orders to advance on the Union center, they were told to head for this thicket of trees which could be seen from the Confederate Lines on Seminary Ridge. The fields/location generally known as "The Angle." These are the fields and location across which Pickett's Divisions advanced to their destiny- which we all know became the bloodiest skirmish of the bloodiest battle on North American Soil. This photo taken from the area that later became known as "The High Water Mark" as Pickett's Charge was thought to be the beginning of the end of the Confederacy. This monument for the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry is located just to the right of the Copse of Trees. The Philadelphia Fire Zouaves (members of the Philadelphia Fire Department) were part of the 72nd Pa. Infantry. At first I had thought "wow the Philly Guys had a good piece of Pickett's boys....... But was later corrected in that the 72nd Pa. was behind the lines in reserve. This monument was supposed to be placed at their reserve location, but groups of 72nd Veterans sued for some reason and it was placed on the lines. Nevertheless, several groups of Pa. Infantry Regiments were indeed involved in the repel of Pickett's Charge. This is the Pennsylvania Monument. It's huge. There is a set of spiral stairs inside so that you can climb up to the observation deck. The bronze panels around the base have the names of each and every member of every Pa. Unit (infantry/Artillery/Cavalry....Etc...) The view from the observation deck looking south down the Union Line towards the Round Tops. Important landmarks Union re-enactors performing some demonstrations Our next stop was the Peach Orchard. Didn't take many pictures. In the area however, we did find the monument of the Second Fire Zoauves of the VFDNY (Volunteer Fire Dept of the City of New York.) They were part of the 4th Regiment of Dan Sickle's Excelsior Brigade (2nd Division/3rd Corps.) For those of you unfamiliar with Dan Sickles, he was a politician with family wealth, that bought his way up the ranks into his position with his wealth and political influence. He never had any formal military training nor ever attended any military schools. His original position was towards the southern end of the union lines in the area of the Round Tops, but he decided he didn't like it. So without permission and without advance notice, and certainly against orders, he advanced his brigade 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile forward to the area of the Peach Orchard- not only leaving a huge gap in the Union line which Longstreet tried to exploit, but they were also handed their asses at the Peach Orchard. Sickles was an arrogant bastard- he was the first person known to have used the Insanity Defense when he murdered the lover of his wife (the son of Francis Scott Key.) He lost his leg at Gettysburg, which ended his Military career (many union officers were thankful for this) but he managed to smoke screen everyone and somehow got a Medal of Honor for his actions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sickles Anyways, enough about Sickles. Here are some pics of the Second Fire Zoauves monument. And here's a pic of a hydrant at the Sherfy House, the Fire Zoauves are in the background.

She and I have an agreement- I don't make her go to truck shows, firetruck shows, etc.....and she doesn't make me go shopping or other girly shit with her......It's an agreement that works out quite well. I would prefer not to test it's success thus far or else I might find myself in a mall a week later losing 6 hours of my life as she looks at clothing. **EDIT: She does like to go to the Family Picnic at Macungie for the music and family atmosphere, and will make an *occasional* appearance at the show itself if her work schedule allows and she is in the area (she's a visiting nurse and does do visits out that way) but thats usually just to stop by and say Hi and have lunch. She does not walk around the show...

I proposed the idea of the Keystone Tractor Museum to SWMBO and she laughed hysterically. I don't know if that's good or bad?

I offered to "Large" to come along but when he found out that there may or may not be Wi-Fi at the campground, he politely turned it down. He and I will do something together, I always try to make time for each kid (even if it's something as simple for just going out for pizza) as well as them all as a group.

Yeah. Ok. I'll continue to grill on my deck whenever the f*ck I want to.

Throughout the summer, the NPS sponsors various "Battle Walks." These are hiking tours of the Battlefields where you hike with a Park Ranger who is very versed on the history and happenings of the particular battle that he/she is guiding you on. We did not do this one, but here is an example on youtube: The one that we did on Saturday afternoon was titled "July 4th and thereafter: The Recovery." This was a 3-mile hike/guided tour of several family homes that were smack in the middle of the Battlefield. Here are some pictures, and if I was able to find referenced online, some stories of the family homes we visited. The group all met at the Mississippi Memorial on S Confederate Avenue, along Seminary Ridge which was the Confederate Line. It was an example of one of the most dramatic monuments at Gettysburg. Violent but beautiful at the same time. Here's what you wear when your old man forgets to pack a poncho..... The first stop was the home of James Warfield, a prominent African-American Blacksmith. He had quite a business as he was one of only two Blacksmiths in the area and was known for the quality of his work and reasonable prices. His home later became Longstreet's Headquarters. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures. The next stop was the farm and home of Henry Wentz, which is now just a foundation. The story is fascinating, read it here: http://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battlefield-farms/wentz-farm/ The group sitting on what is left of the foundation of the Wentz Home. Third stop, and again I didn't take pictures was the Klingel Farm. Another fascinating, but very sad story: http://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battlefield-farms/klingle-farm/ Next stop was the site of the Rogers Home. No pictures again for some reason. I think I must have forgotten was fascinated with the stories. Read the story of Josephine Miller, the Rogers's Granddaughter and see a picture here. http://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battlefield-farms/rogers-house/ Here's another article on Josephine Miller: http://civilwarwomenblog.com/josephine-miller-slyder/ And lastly we stopped at the farmhome of Reverend Sherfy and his family. Not only was he a prominent Preacher, he was also a successful farmer. He owned the infamous "Peach Orchard." Here are some pictures I did remember to take and the story of the Sherfy Family. Folklore has it that the Yanks had a sniper in this window. Must have been true. http://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battlefield-farms/sherfy-farm/

The rest of Friday we visited other areas of the park where various skirmishes occurred, such as Culp's Hill, Cemetery Hill and Spangler's Spring. Many photos were taken, too numerous to post here. Friday night we drove down to Frederick, Maryland where we had dinner at the home of my first Captain when I was hired at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Fire Department and assigned to Ladder Co. 1. We got back to the campground around 8 or 9pm, and lit up another campfire and played some more rounds of Go Fish and Blackjack on top of a trash can turned upside down. Saturday morning around 1 or 2 am it started raining it's ass off. Earlier I had mentioned that this was the first time in 15-20 years that my camping gear had seen the light of day. It's a good thing that I got the tent out a few weeks ago to air it out. While I had it out I also sprayed it down liberally with tent rain repellent. We stayed high and dry with the exception of some water that came up through the floor- probably because dumbass me forgot to fold in the flaps of the ground tarp that were sticking out and puddling rainwater flowed under the tent. Other then that we were good to go. But it rained it's ass off throughout most of the morning. I'm glad I invested in a 10x10 screened tent for our field kitchen- we had the picnic table and my 4x2 table as the cooking counter inside the 10x10. We made breakfast and then hid out inside the tent for another coupl'a hours until the rain finally stopped around 10 or 11am Saturday morning. Here's what Medium did most of the morning. I was reading. So finally we emerged from the tent and got showers (I could smell his armpits from 6 feet away....) and we headed over to the Visitors Center and Museum. It cost 20.00 for both of us to get in which included a 1/2 hour movie done by The History Channel (which was excellent.) It also included admission to the museum, and admission to the Diorama, which if you are unfamiliar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Cyclorama Here are some pictures of the Cyclorama and the Museum:

I asked Harvey Eckert this time-honored question. It's not a simple answer. It is, however a myth that gold dogs symbolize a 100% purebred driveline. I do remember something about Maxidyne versus Thermodyne versus another MFR's engine, as well as Maxitorque versus other transmissions. I will see if I can find the email with the answer.

Will post more pictures and descriptions throughout the week.