Awesome pics you didn't take

This morning I saw an unusually tall washing machine strapped to the top of an old Suzuki Swift. It was definitely taller than the car. Couldn't get my phone out fast enough, it didn't help that I was awestruck for almost a second and did nothing

I still remember the time I missed a large flatbed tow truck carrying a smaller flatbed tow truck carrying a car.

Couldn't get my phone out fast enough when the local Ford dealership's minty Model T passed me as I was driving to lunch from my office.

What awesome pics did you miss taking?

I saw an old Bugatti on the Garden State Parkway on Saturday.

Last night I stopped over my folks house to pick up my son and arrived to see a 500lb black bear walking across the yard 30' from the house and my whole family in the screened in porch with their faces up against the glass watching him. I had a perfect shot of the porch and bear from the side with the light just behind me.

I ruined a great photo because apparently... bears are frightened by diesel trucks so by the time I got the phone out of pocket he was gone.

that would qualify as one of the larger(set) black bears around …. good thing you didn't try to get close

quick google search:

Weight: Males weigh an average of 150-300 lbs (68-158 kg), females are smaller. Exceptionally large males have been known to weigh 500-600 lbs (227-272 kg). Lifespan: Average lifespan is around ten years, though black bears can live upward of 30 years in the wild.

wbjones wrote: that would qualify as one of the larger(set) black bears around …. good thing you didn't try to get close quick google search: Weight: Males weigh an average of 150-300 lbs (68-158 kg), females are smaller. Exceptionally large males have been known to weigh 500-600 lbs (227-272 kg). Lifespan: Average lifespan is around ten years, though black bears can live upward of 30 years in the wild.

Well, he was very large but I made no attempt to weigh him. I said to myself, self... "that looks like about 4 good size deer right there" and so an estimate was born. I'd say he was the largest male bear I've seen this side of a hunting show. A berkeleyload bigger than the one that smashed my grill last year.

I rounded a corner in the national forest last weekend to find a family of wild hogs in the middle of the road. Who knew a fat animal could move that fast. I also missed pictures of two deer and a hawk.

Back in the mid-80s, I often flew a Beech Baron into Dulles for a charter company. I always carried a camera, in case I saw something interesting. One cloudy day, we were taxiing out to the runway, and the tower told us to hold short of the runway because he needed to get the Condorde out ahead of us, and sure enough, here he came, up the taxiway behind us. Cool! Usually, Condorde used one of the runways on the opposite side of the airport, and I never did learn why they put him over on this side that day. So, he pulled onto the runway, less than 50 yards from us, and since we always had the door cracked open during taxiing to keep the cockpit cool, we were excited that we were going to get the full effect of the engine noise. So, he lit the burners, and because of the cloudy weather, you could see the blue flame and shock diamonds. It was louder than any airplane I’ve ever heard, except for a B-1, to the point where the noise and vibration blurred your vision. So, off he went, and after all of the “Wow, that was awesome!” inside our plane, I remembered my berkeleying camera, sitting behind my seat, with a brand new roll of film in it.

Here's a crappy pic from another time we crossed paths at Dulles:

Someone in my town has turned a square body caravan into a truck. I can't ever seem to get my phone out fast enough to catch it.

Me and my old man were outside our old house. I'm a wing nut, so I tend to look up. What we saw was amazing. A contrail at very, very high altitude. We noticed it at about 30 deg. above the horizon. About 3-4 seconds later it was at 90. This thing was hauling ass. We were about 100 ft from the house. I ran to get a camera, and by the time I got there, it had dipped below the horizon. This was after the Sr-71 was retired, even after NASA stopped using there's. I have no idea what it was.

The US military has some kind of classified suborbital plane that's much faster than an SR-71 for sure. They probably use it for "surprise" spying since you can schedule around being spied on by satellites.

My trusty tan '96 Corolla "Rusty The Silver Bullet" was rear-ended by a '52 Bentley being used as a wedding car for a policeman and his new bride. Not seriously, I might add, so I never bothered to claim, but it made a comical sight.

I saw a 2CV Truckette this morning, and a perfect 1976 Ford Club Wagon with mags and the back window covered with race decals.