Road Trip : Dinosaur World

There isn’t much surviving in Cave City, Kentucky that is worth seeing anymore. Dinosaur World is one exception. With over 150 life size dinosaurs, the park is a great detour for the young and the young at heart.

Dinosaur World, Kentucky is located on Interstate 65, Exit 53 in Cave City. It’s kind of hard to miss the “Photosaurus” that stares at you from the side of the highway. Dinosaur World Kentucky is the second of three parks built by the Svensson family. From their website:

“The dinosaur models, up to eighty feet in length and based on the latest scientific discoveries, are made of fiberglass, steel, and concrete. The dinosaurs are arranged in groups of as many as eleven of a single species, in a variety of settings.

Nestled among a lush assortment of native vegetation, the dinosaurs are so believable that some visitors claim to see them moving through the shadows cast by the many native trees.”

We had a great time being silly and posing with all the critters. The stroll around the park is a great way to stretch your legs after being on the highway for any length of time.

Dinosaur World contains a small museum of fossils and the children in your group can also participate in a “seeded” fossil dig where they might find shark’s teeth, ammonites, gastropods, and other treasures. You can duck into one of the “caves” to view a short video about dinosaurs. Of course you enter and exit through their gift shop which has a decent selection of souvenirs and dinosaur related gifts. Bring a picnic lunch (no food services available) and take your time to enjoy your stay.

Video from WWII Weekend

We put together a few clips from the WWII Weekend for your viewing enjoyment.

WWII Weekend 2012

The Vintage Aircraft of WWII Weekend

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA draws many vintage warbirds during its WWII Weekend 3-day event.

The fighters put on the best show. There were a handful of North American P-51 Mustangs flying in formation and making demonstration runs on all three days. A Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk joined in for the Pacific Battle.

Some of the most colorful aircraft are the trainers. These brightly hued flyers were a delight to photograph. It’s essential that you learn how to pan when taking photographs of propeller aircraft. Most of the flying shots you see here were taken at a shutter speed of 1/200 or less in order to blur the propellers and give a sense of motion.

A few transport aircraft made passes including “Tinker Belle” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”

Still not impressed? How about vintage WWII bombers?! There were B-25 Mitchells, a B-17G Flying Fortress, and the only remaining flying B-29 Superfortress “Fifi” flying around the field. There is nothing like standing in the prop wash of one of these beasts when it fires up. And yes, you could have flown on them as well.

Smaller bombers were also circling the airfield. There was a Dauntless, Avenger, Helldiver, and even a replica Japanese Aichi Val.

It is amazing that these warbirds still fly. Being able to get close to these aircraft and watch (and hear) them in action is definitely worth the price of admission.

Many more photos from the WWII Weekend can be found on our photo site – photos.bgcustoms.biz

Vehicles and Machine Guns at the WWII Weekend

It was an invasion of sorts at the WWII Weekend in Reading, PA. There were more machine guns mounted on vehicles than I have ever seen in one civilian gathering. All the support vehicles were equally as impressive but the dream of riding in a half-track during northern VA traffic and opening up with one of those guns makes me chuckle. Most of the guns (all?) were non-functioning or propane powered prop guns so if you actually did decide to use one of these it would just be the scare factor. The sound of guns blazing could be heard all weekend and the best part was no one had to die.

If military Jeeps are your thing you could have found well over a dozen different ones throughout the airfield. Most branches of the military were represented.

How about some military motorcycles? There was a very impressive collection of these. The German division even had several BMWs with sidecars and machine gun mounts!

You can’t have a war without trucks. At WWII Weekend you could have found ambulances, supply trucks, and personnel carriers everywhere.

And last but not least, how about a few vintage staff cars to round out the collection?

We at Bubba’s Garage like anything vintage with wheels so this made for am enjoyable weekend. Check out more photos of the WWII Weekend over in the Events area of our photography site. http://photos.bgcutoms.biz