September 29th, 2007
On Saturday we headed out to Fremont to catch the Redbull soapbox races.
When we found a spot at the 100 meter spot across from a pile of hay
stacks.
They prepped the "track" with a leaf blower. The horsechesnuts proved
to be an obstacle.
If we'd known they weren't going to kick people off of the hay bales
we would have found our way to that side of the track. A better view
was had by those people -- and the trees managed to block the rain.
We had a buddy on this side, though.
The first car was a salmon. According to the rules, the cars can be a
maximum of fifteen feet long and seven feet high.
A gorilla in a banana came next.
This was the "Sushi Bowl". The orange balloons represent salmon eggs.
I'm not sure what this guy was. A bit faster than the other ones.
This guy was a personal trainer representing a health club. His car
lost an axle at the first turn so he got out and ran the rest of the
way down the course.
The baby carriage had some problems. Its woobly wheels were a hinderance
as it crashed into the hay bales three times and required help to get
going again. Curiously the judges ranked it higher than some of the
others because they liked the wipeouts.
The Alaska Airlines car was one of the slowest. Putt, putt, putt.
Not a particularly good picture but this was supposed to be the troll
from under the Aurora bridge there in Fremont. It was one of the longest
and the fastest.
A pickle.
A rhino. The driver volunteers in a zoo someplace in the south and was
always disappointed because they wouldn't let him ride the rhino there.
A Seattle team built a car that was...
... a ferry in the front...
... and the Spaceneedle in the back.
A ski company did a skiboot on a ski.
This was a blue meany in a yellow tub (don't ask me).
At that stage the rain was getting out of hand and the drunken crowd
was getting a little roudy...
So we headed to the zoo for the reminder of the day.
There were some wild animals in the savana exhibit. Here were a couple
of the boys.
There were gorillas, too.
Several of them.
I spotted a leopard.
And a couple little orange birds.
I think this is Toucan Sam looking for the oops-fray oops-lay.
There were a pair of these guys just sitting on the rail.
Some of those lemur things with the big fluffy tails.
Some pretty algae.
I think this was a colombus Monkey or some such.
We wandered back past the gorillas who were sitting up on this pass.
A lone penguin swam in the penguin pool. The rest must have flown
south for the winter.
There were lots of these guys out and about, though.
Some sort of gizard with some gila monsters in the background.
A bearded dragon.
A golden what-not.
We're glad the glass is between us and the rattlesnake.
Turtles.
A tiger.
The Kimodo Dragon seemed a bit lathargic.
I'm glad I wasn't in the cage with him, though.
This guy looked proud. We could hear him roaring when we were on
the other side of his enclosure, but he was quiet while we were
on this side.
Another bird the flew in from Austria, I think.
Some really big ducks. Or gooses or something.
A big fat hippo.
Another one of those rats with the fuzzy tail.
Some goats.