summerfest, seaplanes, and nuclear missiles

i happened by this info today by accident, and thought it neat enough to share:

there was once a small airport on the summerfest grounds between downtown and the lake, by several names: Maitland Airport, milwaukee seadrome, and the Municipal Air-Marine Terminal. it had a small runway on the main summerfest grounds, and the breakwater bordering it was for seaplanes to land.



in-between the end of the airport and the beginning of the summerfest grounds, it served as army missile launch site M-20 as a part of anti-aircraft defense for the milwaukee/chicago area as a part of the Nike Hercules system and one of eight in the area, basically tasked to shoot down long range airplanes carrying nuclear bombs in the grips of cold war fears.

i'm dissappointed i wasn't able to find any pictures of missiles on the lakefront.

south chicagoland discgolf pictures, 1st place on both tours, and my 7th hole in one

i've got my south chicagoland discgolf roadrip pictures up and organized. i tripped down a couple weekends ago with the mission to hit as many of the remaining worthy 18ers in IL north of Peoria that i hadn't yet. hit 7 courses south of chicago in illinois along a stretch of I-80.

sgt means was fairly short, nothing special.

trinity was pretty good but in a sketch area; i think the place was a rehab center in a seedy neighborhood.

shorewood was a really fun short course, definetly the place to learn to love discgolf in the area.

community was nice for a flat course, a good step up from shorewood. water levels were pretty high.

the oaks was definetly the most tournament-worthy of the bunch. the oaks is huuuuge and long, and usually i don't like its' ilk, but it really kept it interesting instead of being just long hard holes. it's the best course of many similar courses i've played such as mukwonago near milwaukee.

haine's wayside has a bad rep for disrepair, and it's design is a little odd, but i liked it. small and with lots of meandering water, the holes really lack any design sometimes... or maybe new growth has closed what once were holes?

west park is the bomb. tons of fun. oldest course in IL and so far the most vicariously fun. freeport's pretty fun too though. second-most challenging after the oaks too. definetly a must-visit.

it was a while ago, so i'm not remembering anything else significant to mention.. i was disappointed to find nothing significant at the intersection of the lincoln and dixie highways, two of the first great roads in america.

next on the list are pix of the wisconsin tour finale and pin-high tour finales. i won my division, intermediate ameture, in both tours ^_^;;; (I even beat worldchamp barry schultz on the pin high tour by virtue of his only playing in 3 tourneys ^_-) I've already got video waiting in the wings from the witour finale last weekend, and pix of some courses WAY north of stevens point and green bay. in fact, i even crossed into michigan for a mile or two..

one sneek peak is video of my attempted re-creation of my seventh hole in one. recreation because my buddy screwed up the camera filming the shot that went in X_x. woulda been nice, but i'll get one on film someday... it's not like i film my every shot. this was downhill 251 feet at sugar camp hole 8 on 10/1/6. you can see a little white glimmer in the basket that's my unfilmed ace...