The Nacho House in Bountiful, UT

Another one of my favorite local eateries is the wonderful Nacho House in Bountiful. To be honest, good Mexican places are a dime a dozen here in Utah, but this place is certainly a step above the rest, especially after the the closure of so many after the Cantonese cough and sneeze. 

The place has great service and plenty of room to accommodate a sizable crowd, and they have recently remodeled, and I haven't been able to go there since they've done so. 

However, the thing that makes them really stand out is the fact that they have one of the greatest dishes I have ever heard of: bacon-wrapped chimichangas smothered in white cheese sauce. I mentioned it on here years ago, but I figure I needed to give a proper shout out to the restaurant overall. IN any case the chimichangas are to die for, and it's not the only good thing there, as everything on the menu is good, so go check them out. 

They used to have their own website, but it seems they have scaled back to just a facebook page you can visit here:

https://www.facebook.com/NachoHouseSLC/

The shipwreck graveyard at Land's End, CA

Taken from the NPS site page.

One thing I never fully realized as a kid while playing on the beaches of San Francisco's western shore is just how many shipwreck debris I was playing in on a regular basis. 

For hundreds of years, San Francisco has been quite possibly the largest port on the western coast and with good reason. However, the frequent heavy fog, massive tidal forces, combined with large swaths of jagged rock just under the waterline outside of the bay, has made the land between Land’s End and the Marin Headlands a hot spot for shipwrecks and has claimed over 300 ships.

The sheer number of wreck is difficult to document here, so instead I'll link to the National Parks Service site that has a page with a short listing of about eight of the most notable ones that you can read about and is well worth the visit: https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/vestiges-shipwrecks.htm

Utah is the nerdiest state

Valley View Memorial Park in West Valley City, Utah has something pretty unique as far as gravestones go that caused a bit of a trend among the nerdy peoples of the world who pass on to the next. In the Southwest corner of the cemetery there lies a Steven Allan Ford who passed away on September 7, 2010. But what is unique about his grave is that it reads under his name and dates ”MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALWAYS.”

Pic taken from the Atlas Obscura article. 

What is really odd about it is that it's not just a Star Wars superfan's last statement, but he was listed as the first officially licensed minister of the Temple of the Jedi Order and ordained Jedi Priest after it being declared an official religion in the US. He was even the officiator of his own brother's wedding as such. Unfortunately for Steven and the rest of us, he was (as is obvious) a bit mentally damaged as his cause of death was that he took his own life. Still, his legacy goes on as his gravestone will always be an oddity that is world renowned in nerd circles. 

Source:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-of-utahs-first-jedi-priest

Sunday strain

Christian values being espoused in hip-hop songs is just as rare today as it was in the 90s. So I do have to give special mention to Lauren Hill for not just doing so, but actually being successful at it with this hit. Unfortunately, it seems she had something of a mental breakdown not long after her hit, and she really just kind of disappeared from the music scene afterwards, as she really couldn't make the magic happen again after that.

Lauryn Hill - Doo-Wop (That Thing) (Official Video)

A-12 crash site in Utah

A small pic of the exact aircraft involved. Taken from the Habu.org site.

On May 24, 1963, Ken Collins was the pilot performing a test flight of the CIA A-12 known as Article 123 after taking off from Area 51 that day. Ken stated the flight was pretty uneventful until making a turn to head back when he said that the plane suddenly "didn't feel right". It was an ominous observation as after he had dipped into the clouds and he lost sight of his chase plane, the A-12 would pitch nose up and flip over and then start tumbling to the ground in an unrecoverable flat spin. Thankfully, Ken ejected before the plane hit the ground, but the plane was a total loss, and cost at the time, 35 million dollars (equaling nearly 339 million in today's money).  

The same exact aircraft under construction at the famous skunk works. Pic also taken form Habu.org.

The plane would crash within the western part of Utah, just south of Wendover, west of US Highway ALT 93 and east of the the Nevada-Utah state line border. Being 1963, this was a massive potential security breach for the CIA's new super-secret squirrel aircraft of the time, and was heavily spun in newspapers of the time. Even as recently as 2003, the CIA maintained the crash was an F-105 out of Hill AFB that was carrying a nuclear weapon in order to deter people from visiting the wreck, though even that was covered up by the CIA, as they stated there was no remaining wreckage at the site. Being that it's the CIA, that was all a lie, and there is still plenty of wreckage still at the site today. 

One of the many pictures of wreckage you can find at the Dreamland Resort site's documentation on finding the site and it's modern state. 

I can't really provide all the juicy details of all the excitement of both the crash and the re-discovery of the site more than 15 years ago, but you can read all about them both at the following links. If you want to check out the Salt Lake Tribune for a more detailed story of Ken's ejection from the final flight of Article 123 that is very well written, you can see it here:

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=51976355&itype=CMSID

For an even more interesting story be sure to read the story by Peter W. Merlin on the Dreamland Resort site about how he tracked down the lost crash site with the help of workers who responded to the wreck as well as working with Ken himself to find it, then check it out here:

https://www.dreamlandresort.com/pete/oxcart_down_6.html

Makes for some very good reading and another interesting addition to Utah trivia/history! Also, for the ultimate in blackbird history and info, head over to habu.org.

Khan we have some good news?

So, big thanks to Peter over at Bayou Renaissance Man, as he shared it first on his blog, but because of him I heard the news that one of the oldest Unsolved Mysteries has finally been solved! Behold:

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH TOMB OF GENGHIS KHAN

A pic taken form the Archaeology World article

No, it's no late April Fool's joke and no, they aren't undecided on it, it's pretty dang well confirmed. Makes for some pretty exciting and informative reading. Speaking of which, Archaeology World sounds like it would be a pretty entertaining site to haunt regularly. 

Smokin Bones BBQ

For those who don't know, my wife doesn't really profess to be a snob about many things at all, but she is very much one who discriminates BBQ places intently because she spent her mission in San Antonio, Texas. So, if you go to a BBQ place that doesn't live up to true Texas BBQ quality, well, ya done goofed!

So, it's really worth it and we are willing to really go out of our way to find a place that does live up to the hype. Even more impressive is when I get to introduce her to the place in question. One of those that fits the bill is the Smoke and Bones BBQ in Bountiful UT. 

Check out their site for more info: http://www.smokinbonesbbqut.com/

The place is in a small little blink and you miss it spot and it's not too roomy on the inside either, but this was a regular haunt for me and many of my friends, as it was not far from where I used to live and work, so my waistband hates them. But if you really want some dang good BBQ, there's not more than two or three other places I can think of in the entire state that even compare. 

Forgotten Films: Cronos 1993

Cronos is a very interesting movie to me as it's something that is quite tonally different from other films about the same topic. To boil it down basically, it's a vampire movie. However, unlike a lot of other vampire movies out there, it doesn't glorify any aspect of vampirism, nor does it try to state there is any kind of sensuality to it. In fact, I'd say it presents it more like a kind of (almost) family friendly fairy tale with just some very dark elements to it. 

In essence, when I watch this film I get a more Twilight zone-ish vibe from it in that the impetus for the condition isn't biological, but is actually technological (which is pretty unique) as well as the fact that it really could have been used for good or evil depending on the constitution of the person who used it. 

From what I see, the movie is really well appreciated, but not overly well known, and I think the real reason there is that it is blatantly an actual foreign film, and despite certain characters speaking English, others do not and are subtitled, which give the movie a very different tone than most. Also, it was never really given a wide theatrical release in the US, but has gained a very supportive following afterwards. In any case, it's an excellent movie and is worth watching if you have the chance.

the Paramount Mountain logo

Pic sourced from the wiki page.

A interesting little bit of Utah trivia that I'm surprised I haven't mentioned here before is the origin of the Paramount Pictures logo. Apparently, William W. Hodkinson, one of the co-founders of Paramount, is a native of the Ogden Utah area and drew the initial logo on a napkin in 1914. It's said that he used the Ben Lomond mountain to the north of Ogden as the inspiration for the original logo. However, this is just rumored and has no official documentation as such.

Also, if the Ben Lomond name sounds familiar, it is because it is named after another mountain range in Scotland that is said to be visually very similar. Anyways just a quick random thought for you.

Generation Zero

The concept art comes really close to what the game is like.

Generation Zero is a game developed in Sweden and takes place in the same country during the 80s. The premise being that you are among a group of teenagers coming back from a trip to an outer island only to discover that the local population is gone due to extermination by rouge military robots. The game has a unique setting that allows for a little more fun when exploring, and it has a fun premise that provides for some interesting combat. 

The game is not without it's faults, though. The game feels far too empty, with the looting being pretty bland for the most part, there's also not enough survivors to interact with, nor enough remnants of people to explore.  It makes for a very uneven feeling while exploring the world, with there being all sorts of interesting places and architecture to see from afar, but then it feels like a bit of a let down once you get there to find it's mostly generic when you are actually exploring inside it. 

See? The screenshot is pretty close.

This isn't the only issue, as the landmass you inhabit is massive, but can be a bit frustrating as there are no powered vehicles to use, and the game kind of devolves into a walking simulator at times. There are bicycles you can use, but they feel pretty unpolished and buggy, and seem like more trouble than they are worth. There is an in-game explanation for this, but still it feels flimsy. Some of the player gear seems to be pretty unbalanced and a bit underwhelming, such as the gas mask not actually giving you full protection from gas at all. 

To be frank, it seems the game may have either been rushed so that it doesn't include features initially planned, or that there were technical hurdles in which they couldn't implement more into the game. To me, it would have been good to have the world be populated with more human NPCs both friendly and enemies to interact with as well as the numerous death robots.

Despite this though, there are some great aspect to the gameplay. It's meant to be a drop-in cooperative PvE experience more than anything. As I mentioned before, the combat and guns are enjoyable, with a good customization and quality system, all sorts of player customization and armor, a decent story, and I do find the setting and scenery to be utterly enjoyable. Since launch, they have also added a good number of DLCs, that add a larger variety of weapons as well as expanding the crafting system, as well as the feature of base-building. So far, I say it's certainly far from being a perfect game, but that's also what gives it some of it's charm. Overall, it if you can get all the DLC with the game while it's on sale, it might be worth it to you, as you can certainly do worse. 

Youtubers worth watching: Wendigoon

Big thanks to my brother for tipping me off to this guy. he does a great series of videos on mysteries, cover-ups and conspiracies that are pretty darn in depth but still very entertaining. He's got over a million and a half subscribers, so it's not like he's an unknown or anything, but I figure I'll give a shout out to him here anyways. Here's video he did on a case that was actually featured on the show Unsolved Mysteries that got a hell of a lot more crazy and complicated after it aired on that show:

It's worth checking out all his other videos as he does a really good job on a lot of other topics some of which are a bit shorter. For example, he did an awesome video on the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park that I thought was absolutely great, so check it out, too. He also does some shorter videos that are very interesting, like this one about a bizarre series of hiker deaths in Siberia around 1993:

Daft Punk - Derezzed

TRON: Legacy never grabbed my attention like the original movie did, but you certainly can't fault it on it's utterly amazing soundtrack. 

Daft Punk - Derezzed

The Boeing Condor

In flight pic from theadvancingblade site.

I mentioned the Boeing Condor in my article about Hiller Aviation Museum where one of the prototypes currently resides, but I figured a more in-depth write up on it was required, as it is a very unique aircraft. 

Created in the late 1980s as an unmanned, remote controlled reconnaissance test bed, it has a wing span of over 200 feet, which is longer than the first flight of the Wright brothers. Overall, the Condor's wingspan is even larger than both the Boeing 747 or the Boeing B-52 bomber as well as having an unprecedented level of flight duration of nearly 80 hours without being refueled. Constructed out of all-bonded carbon fiber composite materials, this gave the Condor a very light weight as well as a fairly low radar cross section despite it's immense size, it's propulsion method of piston prop engines also helped give it a very low heat signature as well.

A nice size comparison from theadvancingblade site.

The ground control stations and crews who operated it were able to pre-program the flight pattern of the aircraft on the ground, or remote control it via a system of satellite communications suites in the aircraft spine much like other UAVs today. Alternatively, they could launch the Condor with a pre-programmed flight, and cancel the programming mid-flight for it to be remote controlled on the ground at any time. 

With two examples built by Boeing for testing, the Condor flew out of a facility at Moses Lake, Washington, and in that testing, it immediately began breaking aviation records of the time. It set an altitude record for a piston powered aircraft of 67,000 feet (compare that to the jet record of 123,523 feet) as well as setting another record in that it was the first to fly a fully automated flight from takeoff to landing, another record it set unofficially was an endurance record in 1988 by flying continuously for more than 50 hours. The test program flew 188 hours of test missions overall between the two airframes before it's end.

A closeup of the fuselage and antennae from Wikipedia. 

According to the Boeing engineers, the program never was able to mature or achieve its full potential during the testing. They claimed either of the demonstrators could have flown more than 23,000 miles in a single mission, or remained airborne for longer than a week at a time, as well as potentially reach an altitude of 73,000 feet, if needed.

Ultimately, the project was cancelled in 1989, as there were no military customers, as they claimed it would be far too vulnerable to modern Anti-Aircraft weapons and detection systems, since it was not a fully stealth platform, and so cut the funding. The Boeing website for it maintains the Condor would have also had tremendous potential in the civilian market for weather monitoring and atmospheric research, but it did have an expensive and complicated system of logistics as well as launch and recovery compared to other aircraft. They still maintain that it was essential in laying the ground work for more advanced UAV designs that came later on. 

Pics and sources from:
https://www.boeing.com/history/products/condor-unmanned-aerial-vehicle.page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Condor
https://www.hiller.org/event/boeing-condor/
https://theadvancingblade.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/high-ambitions-the-boeing-condor-uav/

Thief Simulator

I don't think I mentioned it here before, but I was big fan of Thief Simulator. It was a very low budget game, with some technical glitches, but was a great amount of fun. Frankly, whenever I'm playing any kind of open world RPG, I always start off by playing a sneak-thief of some kind and am not satisfied enough to try any other kind of build until I've literally stolen everything in the world. So it's nice to see a game just straight up cater to that and have everything built around it. 

I would certainly highly recommend the game despite any flaws as it was great amounts of fun, but I had no idea that the creators had also come up with a prequel of sorts, called American Theft 80s. The premise is pretty self explanatory, with it being set in the USA during the 80s, and has all the retro aesthetics and sounds, but otherwise plays very similarly to the original game, but with a few more RPG elements, which is a welcome addition. So, I'm planning on snagging that one up and trying it out as soon as possible. 

Thomas Judd's Store

One of the oldest operating businesses in St. George, UT

Another one of the fun little places that's out of the way that you can check out in St. George is the Thomas Judd store. The place is a nice little cafe that serves soups, sandwiches, and other snacks, but is primarily known for their selection of specialty sodas, candy (some of which they make themselves) and their own brand of Ice Cream they make locally.  A little, but refreshing location with a bit of history you can read about on their site here:  https://juddsgeneralstore.co/

Strangely neat

Pic from the original posts linked below

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a really cool couple of posts in the r/abandoned subreddit of someone who came across the filming location for the Hawkins Lab in Stranger Things that actually is an abandoned mental asylum. There's not too much info on the facility itself, but they did put up an excellent array of very cool pictures of the place that I thought was fascinating. Feel free to check it out at the source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/abandoned/comments/w3eiuy/abandoned_insaine_asylum_where_stranger_things/

https://www.reddit.com/r/abandoned/comments/w3spba/more_pics_from_the_georgia_mental_health/

Cult Films: Drop Dead Gorgeous

I remember ages ago, as a teenager I partially saw this one on late night TV and thought it was hilarious then, but didn't remember the title of it for the life of me. I had to search for it for a few years until I was finally able to find it and nab a copy for myself. You'd think that a movie about a beauty pageant in a small Minnesota town would be relegated to chick-flick territory, but this is just a movie that I can't help but love and I heartily recommend this one to just about everyone I know.

Back in the day, this movie was universally panned by just about everyone and completely flopped at the box office. However, compared to other teen comedies of the time, I say this one has aged far better than nearly all of them and has a much more enjoyable tone than just about all the rest. 

I think my opinion has been proven correct as it has undeniably gained a massive cult status in the years after it's release. Even Allison Janney (the actress who plays Loretta, and later went on to star in The West Wing and I, Tonya) says she is recognized and asked about this film more than any other of her roles she has done. The cast is also pretty star studded and includes not only Kirstie Alley, Kirsten Dunst, and Denise Richards (of course a 29 year old would be playing a teen) but it was the film debut of Amy Adams, has a small but effective role for Will Sasso, and has a cameo by Adam West. 

Lona Williams is the writer of the film and is most known for having written for the early seasons of The Simpsons (you know, back when it was funny and relevant), and she even has a gag-role playing one of the judges for the pageant who has absolutely no lines in the entire movie.  She was inspired to write the film as she actually was a beauty pageant contestant when growing up in a small town in Minnesota.  

The premise here is pretty simple, yet effective, so I'll just put the trailer here for you to decide, but I still just say to go and watch it, as it still deserves far more appreciation than it gets.

Surplus in CA

There are some memories I have of CA that are hazy on the details, but are still very strong in their impression on my mind. One in particular was visiting a huge military surplus store located between Santa Cruz and Monterrey, and I was reminded of it recently, so I had to see if I can look it up. 

Now, I honestly can't remember the name of the place, but I'm pretty sure I found it using some simple google-fu. So take it with a grain of salt, but I'm pretty sure the place is J&S Surplus. Thankfully, it seems they are still going strong and they supposedly have a website, but I wasn't able to get to it so your best bet is to go to their facebook page.

Lofi meditations

Relaxing 

90sFlav - Call me

B-58 Hustler Crash in the Great Salt Lake

The original B-58 bomber

A fascinating story came out on The War Zone a few days back about how the Navy assisted with finding an US Air Force RB-58 Hustler that had crashed in the Great Salt Lake back in 1960. To be honest, I think the article on The Drive is pretty poorly written and doesn't have much info as to the how and why of the incident at all, and really just focuses on the aircraft and equipment used, but they did have a scan of an original article written about at the time from the New York Times, which has some good detail, which I will put here for your education on it:

Pretty neat little bit of local history, as I don't think I've read too much about it before. 

Forgotten Films: Dark of the Sun (1968)

The original title of the movie in Britain was just The Mercenaries. 

There's a real shortage of good mercenary movies out there, but among the few that are good, is Dark of the Sun. Released in 1968, it tells a common tale of the time, being set in the Congo, and involves mercenaries being hired to rescue European civilians in a remote mining town, but this is only a cover for the real mission on retrieving 50 million in diamonds in the company safe. There's tension with not only the enemy rebels, but also a potential the enemy within, namely a former nazi being one of the mercenaries on the team, which is of dubious trust. It's a pretty simple premise, but with excellent action and a soundtrack so good, it was reused by Quentin Tarantino in inglorious Basterds. It's also got some big name stars in it for the time, as well as being super controversial for the extreme action in the day. It still holds up and I would highly recommend it. Here's an HD remastered trailer for the movie:

Farr's Ice Cream

One of the greatest unofficial traditions I know of among everyone I know who are Mormons is to go get ice cream after going to the temple. In the city of Ogden, UT, the famous and long lasting Farr's Ice Cream shop is the go to for those in the area, as it's just opposite of the northwestern corner of the temple there. They are certainly a step up from a lot of ice cream places, not just because they are local, but because they have some excellent flavors I have never seen before, my favorite being the lime ricky sherbet. 

Pics taken form the Farr company site.

The company recently celebrated their 100 year anniversary back in 2020, and they have a far more well documented and detailed history than most companies, but it's so extensive, I don't think I'll even try so summarize it here, but rather refer you to the detailed write up they have on their own site about it.

Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

Go to the official site for all sort of cool stuff and killer merch (pun intended).

I LOVE me some good eldritch/Lovcraftian/cosmic horror, and was very pleased when the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park stuff became an internet sensation a little while back. Unfortunately, I never really posted that stuff here for some reason, and I figure it's about time I do so. 

If you aren't familiar with it, a writer posted to reddit and tumbler a bunch of adverts, and brochures he made to look like official National Park Service and corporate promo material delving into a fictional and now-defunct National Park that allowed visitors to explore the inside of a subterranean unidentified super-organism that was inducted into the national park system in the 70s under Jimmy Carter (history's greatest monster) and is located in rural west Texas.

It has it's own website that you can peruse that has all sorts of snippets, articles, and illustrations about the origin, notable people, organizations, technology, biology, safety measures for exploring the park, and the story of it's ultimate demise. https://www.mysteryfleshpitnationalpark.com/

The sights of Elberta, UT

Elberta was a mining town that was formed for those working in the multiple old mines that are located between it and the town of Eureka. After most of the mines closed in 1949, the town almost turned into a ghost town overnight. The only things that really remain in the town are a couple of large farms, a natural gas facility, a Catholic mission, a few remaining houses, and a couple of noteworthy pieces of history. 

Of those pieces of history, the first is the old Sinclair gas station located right of the town's only intersection. Constructed in 1917, it was family own for the duration of it's operation and was open to the public until 1982. It's no longer open, but is still owned by the same family, and is easily seen from the road, and provides some excellent Americana in it's appearance. 

Photo from Atlas Obscura

The other thing it's notable for is the fact that there is a movie set for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that is nestled between Elberta and Goshen. From what I recall the set is unique in that it's meant to be a semi permanent set to save money over time instead of constantly building and tearing down sets. The set itself is supposed to represent the Jerusalem area, specifically the Sanhedrin but has expanded over time to include other areas like Golgotha and Gethsemane. I've meant to go out there for some time now, as I have passed close by a number of times while on the way to other places, but haven't been able to stop there yet. 

Crappy, low-rez pic from the church news site.

Though don't get too excited about going there if you are wanting to explore, as there really isn't anything else out there.

Sources and pics from:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/old-sinclair-gas-station-elberta-utah
https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2011-08-03/utahs-movie-set-where-scripture-comes-to-life-56561

Old school....literally

What the place looks like today

I'll admit that this post really falls under obscure unhelpful trivia, but it's something that was a part of my childhood, as I grew up not too far from there. 257 Longford Drive in South San Francisco used to be the Serra Vista Elementary School which closed in June of 1992. The place had been operating as a school for decades, most recently as an elementary school before it's closure, which was a fairly large facility. What was particularly memorable to me as kid is that I was around when it was closed and I remember the dumpsters being full of interesting and cool stuff like encyclopedias, musical instruments, and all sorts of other goodies, that we all had to liberate from their otherwise discarded fate.

Nowadays the place is known as Unitek College's South San Francisco Campus, and they provide courses for Nursing, Medical Assistant, and Dental Assisting Training. Their site states that the facility takes up more than 7,000 square feet and is comprised of 5 classrooms (two also serve as skills labs and computer centers), a small medical library, student lounge, administrative offices, faculty offices, and an admissions/financial aid office.

Not so guilty

Was riding in the car with the other half, and she put on a playlist on Spotify called "guilty pleasure songs" I dunno who was making that list, but it was pretty evenly split between songs that were pure awesome that no one should feel guilty and ones that are pure garbage that I have never heard before. In any case, I think they work on the title of that one. On the other had, my love affair with the new wave of new wave goes on as I never get tired of that sound.

All the Damn Vampires - I Can't Go (feat. Mint Simon & Sunglasses Kid)

The Bastard

The SR-71 Blackbird is nothing short of a legendary aircraft that is even recognizable to those who are not aviation enthusiasts, as it is a record breaker with a very famous pedigree and service history (some of which is still highly classified).  Many pilots gave them the nickname “Habu”, after a venomous pit viper indigenous to the island of Okinawa in Japan where many of them were based during and after the Vietnam War.

What some may not know, is that there are a number of different variants of the aircraft out there that are not well known, in particular the one we have on display at Hill AFB museum.  

The CIA's A-12 Oxcart came first in the family tree.

In reality, the first variant of the Blackbird was the A-12, also known as the Oxcart, which was the even faster, but slightly smaller, shorter ranged version for the CIA that predated the SR-71 that was based in the famous Groom Lake (Area 51). Then there is the SR-71A, which was of course the main production variant for the USAF. The SR-71B is a rare, stepped cockpit, two seat trainer variant, of which only two were built. Then there was the YF-12, another rare version that was meant to be an interceptor armed with an early variant of what would later evolve to become the AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix missile system used by the F-14 Tomcat. 

YF-12, the A-12's pissed off younger brother with a really long range punch.

However, even among all these variants, there is only one that bears the designation of SR-71C, and only one was ever built. It's story technically starts with the catastrophic crash of one of the two SR-71B trainers, and the Air Force desperately needed a replacement. With the limited production of aircraft already over, and there being no backup aircraft built, the Lockheed Skunk works had to think outside the box, which is something they excelled at. 

What they came up with was some pretty novel engineering. The company had built a forward fuselage to an SR-71B that was meant strictly for ground testing, but was technically flight worthy. Then, they still had an intact rear section to the YF-12 fighter prototype that had suffered a landing accident earlier. So, the engineers said, "okay let's just Frankenstein this thing and mate the two sections together and see if it works!" so they did. 

YF-12 on the left, SR-71 on the right, note the differences. 

Not being a production aircraft, it got it's unique SR-71C designation for the one-off build, and it quickly took to the skies. Because of the somewhat slapdash nature of the plane's engineering and construction, pilots immediately reported it was more difficult to fly than any other SR-71, with it suffering from very abnormal trim and control issues, and even had different internal fuel tanks, which resulted in different refueling procedures for pilots. 

Because of these difficulties, before it could be accepted by the USAF, there was a sixteen flight test program at Edwards AFB to figure out the issues. The engineers and pilots found that the variable inlet cones and ducts for the engines were not properly in sync, as well as the rudders were not correctly configured, which caused the poor handling characteristics, as well as an incorrectly configured pitot tube. So, measures were taken to provide workarounds for the pilots, as well as mechanical fixes so her flight characteristics would match the other SR-71B exactly.  Despite this, it was still given it's unofficial name by the pilots during the tests as, "the bastard" for it's unique difficulties in getting her to fly correctly. 

Note the stepped dual cockpit setup on the plane and engine display in the foreground. 

With the issues fixed, she went to Beale AFB in California for operational use in 1970. The life of the SR-71C was extremely short with it only achieving 737.3 flight hours, with over 180 of those having been done when it was a YF-12, and it was quickly retired from flight status in 1976, but was still kept as a reserve backup for the sole remaining SR-71B for several years. 

Thankfully, Hill AFB museum was granted custody of her in 1990, and she was transported in pieces to Hill in a C-5 Galaxy to be restored later. After two months of work she was restored and was able to be displayed in the museum in 1991 where she remains as one of the most popular displays in Hill AFB museum today, as she is one of a kind.

At her final resting place in Hill AFB. 

Sources and pics from:

https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/yf-12-the-sr-71s-missile-packing-sibling/

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/half-yf-12-and-half-sr-71-the-story-of-the-bastard-the-only-sr-71c-ever-built/

https://www.aerospaceutah.org/museum/our-collections/aircraft-collection/lockheed-sr-71c-blackbird/

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/bastard-sr-71c-was-frankenstein-spy-plane-180217

https://avgeekery.com/there-can-be-only-one-the-saga-of-the-only-sr-71c-ever-built/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

The End of Grand Theft Auto

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages (and if you go by some other pronoun, I don't really give a crap), we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of the GTA games into irrelevancy and worthlessness.  

In case you aren't into gaming, or live under a rock, the entire GTA franchise is meant to be a hugely over the top parody of American culture, people, and locations that is supposed to be hugely sarcastic, nihilistic, and insulting to just about everyone. So when I see shit like this:

Rockstar Games Cleaned Up Its Frat-Boy Culture — and Grand Theft Auto, Too

and this:

WOKE" GTA 6 IS THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO THE FRANCHISE

Where the makers of the game go out of their way to say that the new GTA entry is going to be far more "culturally sensitive", all I can think of is this: 

And this:

So, Rockstar Games, you've already really tried hard at killing the culture and game with GTA V, the only crappy one in the series so far, with wallet raping micro-transactions and the most limited gameplay and features, all while insulting the fanbase. 

Now you have sealed the deal with making your new game suck even more while giving the middle finger to not only the fans, but to the very point of the game, making it the complete opposite of what it's supposed to be, so I won't be buying it at all and go screw yourselves. 

Now, the game isn't out yet, so I could be completely wrong, but with the trend set by GTA V, and the wokeness of other industries lately, I hold no hope for it at all.

Howie's Root Beer

Another cool local brand that is making some waves out there is Howie's Root Beer. Made in Layton, UT and started by the Tanner family members Howard and David. Born out of a family recipe from all the way back in 1969, the first official commercial batch was made in 1989. They are often found in more local associated food stores in the area, but are slowly expanding. 

Being the total root beer snob that I am, I have to say it's among my favorites. It's got that distinctly home made flavor, but without the issue of being too sweet or overly carbonated like a lot of other "homebrew" recipes I've come across. With a hint of vanilla, it's reminds me a lot of A&W but still less sweet than that, which is a plus in my book. 

Love, Death and Robots

Finally got around to watching the Netflix series Love, Death and Robots, which was meant from the get go to be a spiritual successor to the film Heavy Metal (that I have talked about before). Other than a reliance on computer animation, which I don't entirely blame them for, it's certainly a worthy successor. 

The stories are all shot in various animation styles, and are anywhere from 7 to 17 minutes, and unlike the Heavy Metal movie, they don't have any story themes connected between them. It has a lot of dark humor, excellent horror with some great lovcraftian influences, a whole host of good sci-fi, and some even have a good moral story to them. 

If you have a chance, go check it out, but if you can't or even if aren't interested in the series as a whole, I would still highly recommend the following episodes: "Pop Squad" is heavily inspired by blade runner and equilibrium, "All Through the House" is a standard Santa story, but a little more demented, "Night of the Mini Dead" is just one of the funnies things I have ever seen, "Kill Team Kill" is about spec ops soldiers confronted with an augmented grizzly bear made by the CIA gone wrong and is just as funny, and "In Vaulted Halls Entombed" is an excellent eldritch tale in the modern world, and "Lucky 13" is about a nugget pilot being given a cursed dropship. There are others that are great as well, but those are by far my favorite. In fact here's a low-res clip of the night of the Mini Dead:

A little update

So what's new in my world lately, eh? Well not too much excitement. I'm working the night shift this week to cover for another person on my team who usually does so who is out of the office. That works out fairly well for me as the better half is taking a trip out of state for most of the week anyways. In the meantime though, I found myself bored to tears without the wife being around to talk to, so I've had to find ways to keep myself occupied. 

I finally got to the point of building three more new AR15 lower receivers. I've still got two more to do, but I'll need additional parts to complete them. One I want to be an M16A1 style and will need parts for that, and the other I'll need to get another actual stripped lower to complete. So those will need to wait until the next paycheck to get started on. 

Just for kicks and giggles I went on a little mini road trip to the Brigham City airport the other day just to see what I could see and was pretty surprised to see some really cool military aircraft trainers that were there at the ramp.

Looks to me like a BAC Jet Provost

Another de Havilland Vampire. Coincidentally, the one I wrote about earlier was sitting on the ramp right behind it, but you can't really see it in the picture.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks to me like a Soko G-2 Galeb

In addition to what you see there, I couldn't help but notice a HUGE stockpile of MiG-15 parts of the two seat trainer variety as well as a Fouga CM.170 Magister that was sitting on the ramp that appeared flight worthy. What also surprised me was there was a variant of the SH-3 Sea King sitting out there, too. All in all a very surprising find for a seat of the pants trip to a random small town airport. 

And just for fun, something hilarious I saw on Reddit to make you laugh:

Midway crater and the Ice castles

Midway, Utah is a pretty well off community west of Heber, Utah with a resort called Homestead that is on the upper end of 3 star accommodations (to the point of being overpriced IMHO). However, it's also home to a couple of very unique attractions: The Ice Castles and the Midway Crater.

If you aren't familiar, the Midway crater is really a hot spring with a very unique formation. Basically there is a large open topped dome of natural rock that encases the primary portion of the spring and the entrance is through a tunnel burrowed into the rock, and the interior is full of fascinating rock and crystal formations that are naturally illuminated by sunlight. I have been to the location a couple of times, but have never actually gone into the spring itself, but it's said to be very popular with scuba divers and is also continually researched by archaeologists.  It's only open seasonally, but can be accessed by reserving a paying for at time with the resort. 

The aforementioned cool illuminated rock formations. 

For the winter season in which the spring is closed, at the same location is also the Ice Castles, which started here in this state by a relative of my wife, so going there is pretty much an annual occurrence for us, and is certainly like something straight out of a fairy tale or the Disney movie Frozen. It's pretty much just a neat thing to gawk at once you are there, but still fun. Feel free to check out thier site to take a look at what it's actually like: https://icecastles.com/.

Great place to take someone special to you.

In any case, there's plenty of good reason to visit the area in general, but I'd say there a a couple of the most interesting.