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Vehicle Incarnations

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Anemone of the State Ten-year anniversary of this vehicle!
2005
The Pacific Giant Green Sea Anemone is big, but this one is 14-fold any you'll find along Oregon's shoreline. Like its coelenterate cousins, this anemone is far from stationary.

Fortunately, the 20-inch tentacles on this land version lacks nematocysts. A fact that comes in handy when you need to repair inner workings or if your children happen to follow to close in the road race.

A great community service was done this year: teaching throngs of spectators how to pronounce ANEMONE!

Don't let the lawyers catch you!
Of course, anemones prefer to be under water. So, this land version had to carry its sea and sea-life along for the ride.

Plastic fish were enlarged with an overhead projector and traced to make a pattern.

The result, was an assortment of anemone fish. Think Nemo, but we couldn't. We've already received a Cease-and-Desist order from a lawyer representing the copyright owners of our first vehicle's name.

So, lest we cause more "economic" harm we just made an odd assortment of shiny fish from foo-foo fabric and stuffing.
Crowd pleaser
Andi, the little girl who chased Monafly for two years was a real crowd pleaser. So, we resurrected the concept and traced a neighbor's grandson, Niklas, to be our snorkler. Lesson learned: crowds can "see" vertical people but the concept is mostly lost when the "dummy" is horizontal. Also, despite the snorkel, mask, fins and NO TANKS, the few who took notice of our PVC/foam Niklas, called him a SCUBA diver.
Eat your heart out chariot racers! <Return to Top>
Take a bunch of swimming pool "noodles," cut them with hot-wire, hot-glue them to hoops made of "noodles," paint them to match body and you have a menacing-looking vehicle aiming right for spectators.
It's not salt water but at least it's wet.
The Willamette provided a brief respite from the 95+ temperatures. The lack of salt was more than replenished with the feeding of fish-shaped crackers to judges, pit-crew, and pilot. Above photo courtesy of Julie Arrington. All others S. Clark.
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With ocean of blue, wide-mesh fabric, non-copyrighted anemone fish and seaweed dangling from its surface, Anemone of the State poses for the crowd atop the sand dune.

Real shells were hot-gluded to the surface of the all-styrofoam wheels. Green, wide-mesh disks covered the spokes and gave a more anemone-like appearance.

Thanks to friend, Ronda, the marvels of the store where each item costs only 4 quarters (in Japan it would be called the 100 Yen store!) dozens of swimming pool "noodles" could be purchased without resorting to emptying a 401(k) account.

The same 4-quarter store was a source of the shells glued on the wheels. Bribe-making materials were also acquired at the same location.

The mesh fabric was not available for cheap, however. Nore was the paint used to color the tentacles and wheel covers.

Megan and her mom painted the wheels of foam with an undercoat of cheap interior paint and a mixture of leftover house/project paints to try to match the surface of real Giant Green sea anemones.

T-shirts were given an iron-on image and vehicle name using iron-on transfer sheets that fit a color laser printer.

Helmet covers were adorned with yarns, fish and sea creatures found at the 4-quarter store using hot glue. Many fingers were blistered in the making of this year's vehicle.

Anemone of the State was painted in big, black letters on the inside wheel faces. However, that did not stop a number of spectators from calling all this attention to detail, a sea urchin.
Proof that boys NEVER grow up! <Return to Top>
Bob and pit-crew member, Kerry, can't resist a new bike to ride. This one has no pedals and no motor. How does it work, you ask?
Anemone of the State vs Bob the Pilot.
After ten years of racing this vehicle, the inventor and pilot is starting to show some wear. Too bad, there are several more events before 2005 draws to a close.
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Updated: 11/6/06

© 2001 by S. Clark