The Janke Family

The Janke Family

Monthly Archive: July 2009

The Janke Family > 2009 > July

5 Mile Pass

July 23, 2009 0 Adventure, Jeep

Uncle Dan and I took the Jeep and Skulls (the Cruiser) out to the Five Mile Pass recreation area after work the other day. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The Pony Express passed through the area during 1860-1861. The area also was traveled by the stagecoach and pioneer families heading west for Nevada and California. Most of us are probably familiar with the area for either ATV/Motocross riding, and/or rabbit hunting. Dan took me to some of the old silver mines way up the canyons. All that remains are giant tailings piles, and big deep vertical mine shafts that have been closed with iron grates. When we were up on top of those mountains overlooking the desert valleys at sunset it was very breathtaking. If the view of the mountains and valleys didn’t take your breath away, a glance down the seemingly bottomless mine shafts would! The approximate gps coordinates of the area we were exploring are: 40° 16′ 40.01″ N 112° 11′ 37.45″ W. I have included some pictures of the tailings piles, and the mine shafts. Each shaft had an ID button on it, I have included a picture of that also. We had a blast!

Imperial Troop Transporter

July 9, 2009 0 Miscellaneous

While Erik and I were blousing…uh, hmm, er I mean browsing the internet last night for Star Wars toys, I came across a great article at the Geek Dad section of Wired.com. it is titled “The 5 Best Star Wars Toys Ever Made” (link is HERE). As a child I only had one on the list, but it is probably the one I enjoyed the most, and the one that now triggers the most memories. It was the Imperial Troop Transporter. Grandma Lois bought it for me. I think she probably enjoyed watching me play with it more than I was enjoying playing with it. I would try and describe it to you, but while I was reading this section of the article I felt like it was exactly what I remember, and exactly what I would say.
“This was ridiculously fun to play with despite never having appeared in the (original) movies. It was supposed to have been part of the destruction of the Sandcrawler, but I don’t remember caring about that. It had “brainwashing” hoods you could put over rebel action figure prisoners, which I used all the time—in retrospect, as a parent, I wonder if that might be a little close to torture for comfort, but I seem to have turned out reasonably OK. The best part of this toy was the sounds. There were six buttons on the top that each made a different sound when you pushed them–there were your basic engine and laser sounds, but also R2-D2 squealing, C-3PO saying “R2-D2, where are you?”, a Stormtrooper saying “There’s one, set for stun,” and a few more. I pushed those buttons so many times I can still hear the sounds in my head, and recall how funny they sounded when the battery was dying.

trooptransport

Skulls of July

July 6, 2009 0 Miscellaneous

We attended the Sandy 4th celebration again this year. The festival is held on the grassy South Towne Promenade between Sandy City Hall and the South Towne Center. They have rides, activities, vendor booths, food, a parade, and fireworks! In the parade this year they had a group of competition rock crawlers that were climbing over each others 42 inch tires, and, my favorite part, bag pipes! It was great! The boys had a great time, and got these trick 4th of July skulls painted on their faces.