Monthly Archives: August 2018

Fireworks over Sullivan July 4th, 2018

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I decided to try and find a different location to photograph the fireworks over Sullivan this year…wanted to try and shoot from the Hwy D Overpass that crosses the BNSF tracks, however the foliage on the west side of the bridge obscured my view of the Fairgrounds, so I drove down to the former doctors office building right across from the former Betz Printing and set up in the parking lot next to a nice couple. Just as the sun was setting, a nice guy came over and chatted me up about how to take better photos of fireworks, he had a nice camera and I gave him some tips, told him how I normally shoot them, and told him it can be a matter of luck, even for those of us that have been shooting them for years…we talked about Canon and Nikon Cameras as well as good lenses and settings…as he walked back to his spot to join his wife, I wished him the best of luck in getting some good images…as we were talking, folks down by the ball fields were lighting Japanese Lanterns and launching them into the skies overhead….

…the trails of the Lanterns became easier to see once the skies darkened more…

and then others with smaller fireworks set theirs off before the big show as well, some were very pretty…these just north of the railroad tracks….

…then the Big Show started off with a VERY appropriate burst of colors….too bad there was no music with it this year….here are the best of over 200 images that I shot of the show….

…this show was nice, some vibrant blues and purples in the colors….here are a few videos of the show….

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…and the finale video as well…..

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Another great show for sure, thanks to the City of Sullivan and the co-sponsors !!

Semi Trailer Fire near Leasburg June 25th

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I heard Bourbon Fire District kicked out for a semi trailer on fire just past Brand Road on the North Service Road and headed that direction…when I arrived, it was at the old flea market building that also used to sell fireworks, an old trailer was well involved several feet from the building…I heard no sirens of approaching fire units, so called Crawford County`s CenCom Dispatch to update them on the fire…there were some workers there that were putting together some scrap iron, while attempting to remove some metal pins from the trailer with a cutting torch, they set it on fire….

…Leasburg Fire Department arrived moments after a deputy, with a tanker and brush truck….

…and extinguished the fire….

…and video….

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Job well done by the two firefighters and deputy that arrived in a timely manner.

Thunderstorms in Late June

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From Mid June to the last part of the month, there were some dramatic looking thunderstorms that rolled through our area…spotted this one rolling in from the northwest on my way out to Mom`s house around 5 pm on the 19th…..

…shortly after leaving Mom`s house an hour later, I drove up the FF Bridge over 44 and photographed it, looking north here….

…and looking back to the northwest here….

…but this cloud to the north really captured my attention and held it for the longest time as a rain squall developed within it, starting to the north of Sullivan and then sweeping through town a little later, bringing rain down in buckets….

…as you can see above, the rain was definitely moving toward Sullivan…while below you can see yet another storm to the west….

…and some video I shot up there as well….

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…luckily, all we had was some pretty good rain out of it, no wind or hail….a few days later, another one rolled through town while I was asleep and I missed out on a neat looking shelf cloud that several people were able to capture some nice images of…

…pretty neat photos for sure and nice clouds too !!

Park Hills Show Mid June with Sunrises and Rainbows

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I decided I was going to drive down to the Park Hills Show on Sunday morning…I wanted to see if I could find some of those new agates out on the market, found in the country of Madagascar and some more of the chalcopyrite-bladed barite-sphalerite ball pieces found in the Washington County Quarry. Since I knew that would be at least half a day wandering around looking at everything and visiting with my dealer friend Johnny B from Mt Ida, who is always there, I decided to drive back to the Secret Spot Quarry on Saturday June 9th and see what else I could find there. Onyx and I were up before the crack of dawn thanks to my new job, which requires me to get up at 4 am these days to get ready to go to work…and as we exited I-44 at Cuba, I looked back and saw the beautiful sunrise….

…and when I reached Steelville, the sunrise only deepened and got better…

…and then when we reached Cherryville, we saw a beautiful rainbow…I was thinking, man what are we going to see next ??!!

For the story and photos on the Park Hills Show, check out other website at this link,….

Park Hills Show 2018

 

Annual Clement Mineral Show & MVA on I-24 Western Kentucky June 2nd

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Onyx and I made a quick drive down to Marion, Kentucky early Saturday morning, June 2nd, to take in the Ben Clement Mineral Show and visit with friends at the museum as well. It was a nice drive down on a nice day, not too warm at all. We arrived about 10 am and as I walked up to the museum, I spotted Ed Clement in front and visited with him for a few minutes before he was whisked away…I then had a few minutes to talk to Tina and Sherry, then found Bill Frazer inside and sat down to visit with him a few minutes before Russ brought him a taco pizza. We visited a few minutes more while they both chowed down on the pizza. Bill brought me up to date on some issues with the mine and museum before I walked over to check out the show. One of the main reasons I wanted to drive down there was to visit with everyone, including Gary Griffith and his son Walter, who are always set up with a fluorite booth at the show…they are great people and also donate a dumptruck load of rocks full of fluorite chips for the kids to dig thru outside the museum building each year. Gary lost his Dad Guy Griffith to cancer earlier this year…I always enjoyed talking to his dad whenever I stopped by their place to purchase great Southern Illinois Fluorite from them. I found Gary and Walter just inside the door this time….

…this time they had not only a couple of tables covered in fluorite specimens and octohedrons they chipped out, but they had one end of one table covered with fluorite jewelry…made by Walter`s wife….I purchased a couple of them as well, very pretty stuff. They also had discovered some neat stuff in their calcite pile at home recently…they normally separate the calcites from the fluorite, so they have a good sized pile of it and were going thru it recently and discovered fluorite cubes on the calcites, so they cleaned it up and brought it to the show…I purchased a few of them as well…

I sat on a milk crate they had behind the table and visited with them for quite a while, found out his Dad had cancer which slowly got worse and the pain finally became too much for him to handle at home, he had to be hospitalized to bring it under control. Def gonna miss talking to him as I am sure Gary and his family are as well. Gary told me a few stories about his Dad helping him and Walter when they were mining and Sherry told me a few about Guy as well.

Eventually I drifted down into the old school gymnasium to check out the vendors there….found Phil Daly up on the stage where Alan Goldstein is usually set up…Alan didn`t make it to the show this year…so I visited with Phil a bit and purchased some of his Kentucky minerals from his collection, which he is selling off…..

The dealer on the right in the photo above, had a beautiful cluster of smokey quartz crystals on the corner of one of his tables, sitting on a paper that stated the cluster was found in the Old Leatherneck Mine of Arkansas…which was the old mine that later became the Arrowhead Mine, both of which are now closed to the public….

…estimated retail price of $ 2300 only….lol…and no, I did not purchase it, but it sure is pretty. ?

Around 1:30 pm, Onyx and I headed for home and soon after turning west on I-24, traffic began slowing down and a few miles down the road we discovered why….

…and no, it wasn`t due to road construction…take a closer look ahead on the EB side….…as we approached slowly, I thought at first it was two tractor trailer rigs involved in a serious accident, could see the medical transport helicopter in front of all traffic and then saw the firefighters scrambling around…

…and then as we finally drew alongside the scene, I could see it was a tractor trailer pulling a pup trailer, the pup trailer appeared to be rear-ended by a trash truck, and it appeared the driver of the trash truck required extrication by the Calvert City Fire Department, who has at least seven trucks on the scene and were helping with traffic control further back in the eastbound lanes that were backed up for miles…

…hopefully no one was seriously injured…thankfully we did not see anything else like that on the way home…this time I decided to drive straight in on I-64 and cross the Mississippi River by the Arch….

…always a great view….was great visiting with everyone in western Kentucky once again. Here are a few of those calcites with fluorite cubes attached, closer up….

 

City Park Restroom Fire May 21st

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During the late afternoon of May 21st, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a structure fire at the Sunny Jim Bottomley Park near the City Pool…I arrived just prior to Pumper 854 with Damon Sumpter`s crew on board…

…someone had set the restrooms on fire and smoke was coming from both restrooms at the west end of the building…Pumper 814 with a few more firefighters arrived a few min later and crews quickly knocked down the fire……the videos show more detail….

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Van Fire Westbound I-44 at Radar Flats May 13th, 2018

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On my way home from work on May 13th, I came upon a van fully involved in heavy fire, parked on the shoulder in the middle of Radar Flats…which is about 2 miles east of the Highway 50/I-44 interchange…I started seeing heavy black smoke rising high in the air after passing the Hwy 100 Overpass and then traffic started slowing down for one lane to pass by the heavy flames…I noticed the family that had occupied it, walking up to a roadcut that was below the storage sheds on the north side of the interstate…they were dragging a small boat filled with their possessions…I figured someone had already called it in but I called 911 anyway and Franklin County Sheriffs Dispatch answered. I asked if they had the call on a van fire on wb I-44 in Radar Flats…the dispatcher asked where that was located…my first thoughts were like seriously dude ??  you dispatch for Franklin County and you don`t know your county well enough to know where Radar Flats is located ????  do some ride alongs and get acquainted with the county…geez….but answered him with the mile marker and proximity to the storage sheds on the hill above the highway…he replied that they had received several calls on it…I asked him if they had dispatched Boles Fire District on the call yet, cause it was not only fully involved with heavy fire coming out of every window of the van but traffic was also backing up and down to one lane…instead of answering, he disconnected the call, most likely to answer another caller reporting the fire. I pulled over on the shoulder just west of the van and shot some photos and video while waiting for Boles to show up….

…most of the passersby had the sense to move over to the passing lane to pass by the fire…some apparently lacked the common sense to do so….

…here is the first video I shot of the van….

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I made the 911 call to Franklin County as I approached the scene, then parked on the west side of the van, got out and started shooting, it was a good ten minutes before Boles Fire approached from the east…not sure if it was a slow dispatch or heavy traffic or both that delayed their arrival….

…I have a lot of firefighter friends on Boles Fire and they have a very good department, five stations and a training center as well, they drive yellow green fire trucks and I don`t hold that against them at all. 🙂  On their arrival the Engineer/Driver positioned his truck wisely to protect his crew from traffic, hoselines pulled and a single firefighter took the nozzle and started the attack, foam appeared to be used to extinguish the fire….

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As I stated in the video, good job on the knockdown by a single firefighter on the nozzle !!

Firemen`s Picnic 2018

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I drove by the Firemen`s Picnic Carnival the evening of May 2nd, and saw that they had a Paratrooper Ride on the Fisher Avenue side of the grounds…I stopped by to video shoot it a few times, right before dark and right after dark…they don`t make them like this anymore. Brings back lots of memories when the Rose City Rides owned by Dutch, from the Potosi area, was the Carnival Rides contracted with Sullivan Volunteer Fire Department, and he always had great rides and great people working for him…he had one of these rides each year, it was as popular as the old time Ferris Wheel and Horses Carousel, Swings, Moonwalk, Scrambler, and many others…he brought so many they were stretched all the way down to Park Street….

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Alley Spring Mill and a Redheaded Woodpecker

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On our way to the quarry in Eminence in May, I decided to stop and photograph one of my favorite places in Missouri…Alley Spring Mill…they had quite a bit of rain and I made two discoveries on arrival…the first was that the water was up and really rolling out of the spring and down the creek as I was video shooting the mill…

….the second, there was a big woodpecker busy looking for worms at the edge of the mill pond with a big plume of strikingly red hair on top of his head….

…I shot him with my newer camera, a Lumix 480Z…still not happy with it….here is a video of the mill, stream, and woodpecker that I photographed next….

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…in order to view this video, click on the link above, DSC_102 and then when the next link pops up, click on the longer link in blue and the video will load and pop up on your screen to watch. The next video shows the millrace and spring waters rolling down into the stream at a much higher elevated pace…

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Log House Fire near Cuba

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Onyx and I were getting ready to head out for some supper on the 19th of April  when I heard Bourbon get kicked out for a house fire near the 219 mile marker of westbound I-44, so we headed west on 44 and spotted heavy brown and white smoke from the Leasburg Overpass, looking more like a heavy brush fire. I drove over to the South Service Road and found Cuba, Leasburg, and Bourbon units on the scene of a small log house on fire….

…and below are Cuba Fire Chief Mike Plank and Bourbon Fire Chief Daniel Whatley conferring on the damage to the outside wall on the west side…

Luckily there were no injuries and firefighters were able to put a good stop on the fire…good work by all on scene.