Well, I was at “The Remedy” enjoying schnitzels and beer
When I was fairly little,
(pre-teen at least)
my Dad gave me a book
on German WWII U-boats.
It’s amazing how dramatically our lives are affected by books we encounter as kids.
A whole lot of life stories seem to start out that way
(See the movie Das Boot
(German, with English sub-titles)
for a taste of what it was like.)
Might be the single best Sub film made.
My favorite to watch though is “The Enemy Below” (among others)
A great chess battle between skippers.
Or… you could substitute the old Star Trek episode: “Balance of Terror”, which was basically the same story, just transferred to a different type of ocean (and is probably about the best original Trek episode made).
When I found out that there was
an actual WWII German U-boat
parked in a museum in Chicago, well...
Ahhh… the dangers of reading Mark’s TRs.
I neglected to pack my sonar
along with my GPS.
Silly me.
And just how did you figure you were going to judge depth without that?
Nevertheless, using
fine detective reasoning
and logic, I was able
to track down the location
of the mysterious submersible.
I read the signs that said
"This way to the submarine".
Well…
You are at least capable of reading, so there is an actual accomplishment, of sorts, involved here.
Rounding a corner, U-505 came into view.
Right away I was taken by surprise.
It was much bigger than I expected.
U-505 is a Type IX-C…
Those are a longer and nearly twice the displacement of the most common U-Boats (Type VII-C)
But compared to the other major subs from the time period, even this one was about a third smaller than its contemporaries.
(FYI, submarines are boats, not ships.)
Correct, but it’s a distinction of tradition and is left over from their earliest development.
Other periscopes...
or illudium q-36 explosive space modulator
sighting scopes.
The Kriegsmarine may have believed in Spartan accommodations, but always made room for effective armament.
I rounded the corner at the stern
of the boat and saw a kiosk
for purchasing tickets
to tour the interior.
Heck, yes!
Another $12 flew out of my wallet.
Pricy, but I’ll likely pay that out when I finally get up to Chicago.
Of course, you could have boarded a US sub from the same time period for only $15 total.
And that one is even near 150 miles closer to your house.
By now I assumed that I had paid
for the boat, but I couldn't figure
out a way to get it out of the building.
Strategic application of an illudium q-36 would have created the opening required for egress
The lack of water was also problematic.
Ehhh, Lake Michigan was just across the way…
How hard could it have been?
Shots from the interior:
I found it amazing that men would live
for months in these claustrophobic conditions.
That’s actually spacious compared to the Type-VIIs
Can you imagine sleeping with
a flippin' bomb by your head??
There are three & four high bunks stowed in between and amongst the missile launch tubes aboard the Boomers currently in service.
Sweet dreams…
I wanted to take some photos,
but he kept telling me to hurry up.
I’d be rather ticked.
You paid plenty to explore the boat; they shouldn’t be rushing folks through merely to justify selling more admissions. I hate when any historic site does that nonsense.
U-505 has several distinctions
associated with it.
And thanks for noting them.
it wasn't completely necessary
as the German code had already
been broken.
(See the movie The Imitation Game
available on Netflix.)
Excellent look at Alan Turing
Both inspiring and unforgivably tragic.
The captain of the attack group
that captured the sub was considered
for court-martial for not simply
recovering the machine
Standing Directives are often at odds with the immediate situation in the field.
(especially when combined with ridged interpretations)
As a result, the Germans
were kept in a POW camp
and the Red Cross were not
allowed to see them.
Much as we’d like not to think it so, no one’s records are spotless…
The first thing I saw was a mission-flown
Mercury space capsule.
Sooooo cool.
(And if you don't think so...
well... You're jaded! So there!
Well, actually I am very jaded, but not when it comes to space artifacts.
Aurora-7 is most definitely on my Get-Your-Sorry-A**-There list.
Even better on the cool-o-meter,
(in my humble opinion)
is this Apollo capsule.
Agreed…
On the list as well.
I’ve seen the mock-up aboard the Yorktown, but not the real article.
Looks a little the worse for wear.
I kinda love that about it.
Reentry is a bi!ch…
One of the most iconic photos ever
was shot by an Apollo 8 astronaut.
Perhaps you recognize Earthrise?
Iconic…
and right sobering.
(I didn't take this photo.)
But don’t you wish you could?
Can anyone tell me why this display
couldn't possibly be a mission flown vehicle?
Well, none of the craft were designed for the trip back and would never have survived reentry.
All the surviving decent stages are still on the moon and most of the ascent stages that left Earth were allowed to impact back on the moon’s surface with three exceptions:
Spider and Aquarius were jettisoned and allowed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere
Snoopy is currently in orbit around the sun.
Too much information?
One last thing that I got a kick out of.
This little piece of rock, sitting all by itself.
It's a moon rock.
A little chunk of another celestial body.
Boggles the mind.
Good size chunk of it as well.
Now added to the GYSAT list.
Guys and models...
am I right?
Guilty as charged… Irresistible things…
I spent vast amounts of hard gained childhood bucks and time acquiring and building such contrivances. Still have a few on hand and a small collection of kits that I haven’t made time to build yet. I can’t just walk by a well done model.
And.... like many,
was enchanted by the
model railway. 
It’s like a drug…
You just have to stop and watch…
but I remember being told about this
when I was in the ninth grade.
It's a Foucault Pendulum.
You can see the (motion blurred)
pendulum in the center of the photo.
This device is a way of showing
that the Earth rotates.
I was 12 or 13 when I first saw one of those (long time… a long time). It was in the grand lobby of one of the Smithsonian museums in DC. They can suck you in just waiting to see it actually knock down the next pin in line.
(Near as bad as watching model trains.)
It would work anywhere on Earth
except at the equator.
And that the length of time it takes to make a complete rotation is longer depending on how far it is from one of the poles.
There’s some wild and counterintuitive math involved in figuring that…
Makes the work done by astrophysicists and NASAs orbital mechanics folks all the more impressive.
I told Betty where I wanted
to go next and set out.
I had only driven a few minutes
when I glanced at the display.
Instead of telling me I would arrive
in about four hours...
Betty was telling me I had 12 hours to go!
Sure you didn’t mistakenly tell Betty where you wanted her to go?
Somehow I had selected
"Avoid highways".
Also be sure to check on the Albuquerque settings…
Having that one flipped on can result in a lot of wrong turns.
display promptly changed
to about four hours...
with a suggestion to maybe
get on the highway.
Suggestion?
Not something a mite more emphatic?
The other thing that caught my eye
was that you can order from your car
and have it brought out to you
on a tray they hang on your window.
Just like the drive-ins of old.
“Sonic” does that, but finding an original car-hop dive is way more fun and usually better food.
We have a spot in Charlotte that still does it that way as well (been on DD&D too).
Good food and nostalgic.
The tenderloin was simply served,
but had the advantage of being
about as big as my head.
Always a plus…
Quick warning,
the next update's gonna be short
and dull.
Well.... duller.
All relative measurements, I’m sure.
Did you see it in this chapter?
Certainly the easy one…
If you hid your moniker this round, I missed that.