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More than 1,000 mayors, managers, community planners, locally elected officials and guests from throughout Michigan will descend on Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sept. 20-22 for the joint 2018 Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) convention. This is the first time ever the League and MAP have joined forces to combine their two annual fall conferences (the League’s Convention and MAP’s Planning Michigan Conference) into a single massive gathering. And it’s all happening during the 2018 ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. Most convention education sessions and trainings will take place in Amway Grand Hotel and DeVos Place, but there also is an extensive series of mobile workshops throughout the area that will put a spotlight on the positive things happening in the community.
The Convention is the League's premiere annual event and a chance to inform and highlight community accomplishments. The League is especially excited to be in Grand Rapids this year with MAP because the west-Michigan community has a lot of the placemaking assets the League has identified as making up vibrant communities, including walkability and physical design, arts and culture, economic development, entrepreneurship, strong education base and much more.
Both the League and MAP serve the education and advocacy needs of elected and appointed leaders and the staff that support them: managers and administrators, professional planners, and other city, village and township leaders that make up the teams that work in tandem to create vibrant, successful, and healthy communities. Because the League and MAP are collaborating on this event, we’ll have double the power to bring more of what our members want. Attendees have more breakout sessions, more topics, and more mobile tours to choose from than ever before.
The event View the Convention program here: blogs.mml.org/wp/events/files/2014/06/2018-Convention-Pro....
Other Convention highlights include:
- The official launch of the next phase of the SaveMICity municipal finance reform effort.
- The selection of the 2018 Community Excellence Award (CEA) winner. The CEA is the League’s most prestigious community award. The 12th annual CEA competition started earlier this year and is down to four final projects. The finalists will give presentations Thursday and Convention attendees will vote, with the winner announced Saturday (Sept. 22) morning. Go here to read a press release about the four finalists: www.mml.org/newsroom/press_releases/2018-8-6-Community-Ex... and checkout the CEA website here: cea.mml.org/.
- Michigan Municipal Executive (MME) Colloquium: Empowering Communities to Set Their Own Destinies with keynote general session speaker Patrice Frey, President and CEO of the National Main Street Center – 9-10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20.
- Great Place to Live Townhall general session featuring Phil Power and the Center for Michigan’s Truth Tour – 11 am -12:15 p.m. Thursday.
- The New Localism: Utilizing Public, Private, and Civic Partnerships to Become a Change Engine general session featuring Bruce.Katz,.Co-Author, The New Localism, noon-1:45 Friday, Sept. 21
- Closing General Session about Civic Engagement Strategy: Inclusivity for the Win moderated by Carla Gribbs, Regional Manager, DTE Energy; and featuring Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor, Gary, Indiana; 1st Vice President, National League of Cities, 10:30-noon Saturday, Sept. 22
- Michigan Green Communities (MGC) Awards Lunch and Workshop, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday
- Selection of the 2018-19 new League board members and board president and vice president, Friday, Sept. 21.
- Michigan Municipal League Foundation fund-raising event, Friday evening
- Michigan Association of Mayors breakfast and annual meeting, Friday morning.
- Michigan Women in Municipal Government meeting and breakfast, Friday morning.
- Michigan Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials meeting and breakfast, Friday morning.
- Amazon: Michigan’s Wake Up Call or the Beginning of the End featuring the League’s Anthony Minghine and Khalil Rahal, assistant county executive, Wayne County, 2-3:15 p.m.Thursday.
- HR Up in Smoke: The Intersection between Marihuana legislation and empowerment law featuring Charles Mitchell, Senior Assistant City Attorney, City Attorney’s Office, Denver CO; Jennifer Rigterink, Legislative Associate, State and Federal Affairs, Michigan Municipal League, 1:45-3:15 Thursday.
- Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act: Back to the Basics featuring Anne Seurynck, Attorney, Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC, 2-3:15 p.m. Thursday
- Hit Them with Your Best Shot: Attracting Businesses and Developers featuring Katharine Czarnecki, Senior Vice President, Community Development, MEDC; Nicole Whitehead, Director, Sales & Service Operations, MEDC, 2-3:15 p.m. Thursday
- Mobile workshops: Envision Ada: Transforming a Suburban Strip Commercial Center into an Integral Part of an Historic Village; All Around Downtown, Uptown, Eastown; New Urbanism in Practice; Viva la Avenida: Planning for a Cultural Corridor, all 2-5 p.m. Thursday
- Unleash the Power of Small-Scale Manufacturing with Ilana Preuss, Recast City LLC, 2-5 p.m. Thursday
- Creating Sustainable Retail Districts featuring Bobby Boone, AICP, LEED AP, Small Business Retail Manager, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation; Martha Potere, AICP, Strategy and Special Projects Manager, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, 3:30-4:45 p.m. Thursday
- Host City reception by Urban Metro Mayors and Managers at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, Thursday
- Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and the Blue Economy with speakers Tyler Kilfman, Planner, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG); Kevin Vettraino, AICP, Plan Implementation Manager, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), 9-10:15 a.m. Friday
- Fostering an Inclusive Community Environment Hosted by the Michigan Black Caucus with speakers : Lois Allen-Richardson, Councilmember, Ypsilanti; President, MBC-LEO; Oronde Miller, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Stacy Stout, Assistant to the City Manager, Grand Rapids; Howard Walters, Program and Evaluation Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 9-noon Friday
- Mobility: The Community Conversation with speakers Sarah Latta Rainero, Regional Director, Community Assistance Team, Community Development, Michigan Economic Development Corporation; Tyler Bevier, Transportation Planner, Bay Area Transportation Authority; Adela Spulber, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research, 9-10:30 am Friday
- CNU Rules for Great Places: The Project for Code Reform featuring Mary Madden, AICP, Principal, Ferrell Madden; Richard Murphy, Program Coordinator, Civic Innovations, Michigan Municipal League; Heather Seyfarth, AICP, Community Engagement Specialist, Ann Arbor; Vice President, Michigan Association of Planning, 9-10:30 am Friday
- More mobile workshops: Explore: ArtPrize10; From Grand Rapids’ Downtown to Your Town: Idea Tour for Building Reuse; Vital Streets in Action Bike Tour; The Modern Orchard at Robinette’s Apple Haus and Winery, all are 9-noon Friday
- Master Planning: The Critical Role of Elected Leaders and the Planning Commission with speakers Adam Young, AICP, Senior Project Manager, Wade Trim; Chris McLeod, AICP, City Planner, Sterling Heights; Mark Vanderpool, City Manager, Sterling Heights, 10:45-noon Friday
- Social Media Pitfalls and Upsides for Communities with speakers Amy Snow-Buckner, Acting Managing Director of Communications, Grand Rapids; Matt Bach, Director, Communications, Michigan Municipal League; Jim Thorburn, Detective/Social Media Director, Allen Park Police Department, 10:45-noon Friday
- We Need More Parking! (But Do We Really?) with Tom Brown, Principle, Nelson\Nygaard; Bradley Strader, AICP, PTP, Transportation Planner, MKSK; Nicole VanNess, Manager, Traverse City DDA, 10:45-noon Friday
- Even more mobile workshops: Frederik Meijer Gardens; Terra Square and the Seeds of a New Downtown in Hudsonville; Under, Over, and All Around, all are 2-5 p.m. Friday
- Improving the Tone and Quality of our Civic Discourse with speakers John Bebow, President & CEO, The Center for Michigan/Bridge Magazine; Melanie Piana, Councilmember, Ferndale, Vice President, Michigan Municipal League Board, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
- The Keys to Putting Ethics into Action with Christopher Johnson, General Counsel, Michigan Municipal League; Marlon Brown, Mayor Pro Tem, Mason; Michael McGee, Chief Executive Officer, Miller Canfield; Eleanor Siewert, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, Assignment: Effective Procedures, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
- Smart, Accessible, Connected - this high-level panel discussion covers the future of cities in the context of advanced mobility technologies, including connected and automated vehicles, ridesharing, carsharing, ridehailing, mobility-as-a-service, and microtransit with speakers Adela Spulber, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Speakers: Kelly Bartlett, Senior Policy & Legislative Advisor, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT); Zahra Bahrani Fard, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research; Dr. Jonathan Levine, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
The Power of the Wind: A Michigan Story with a focus on renewable energy featuring speakers Sarah Mills, Senior Project Manager, University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy; Emily Palacios, Principal, Miller Canfield, 2:15-3:45 p.m. Friday
- The Sky’s the Limit: Big Data, Drones, and the Internet of Things with Daniel Brooks, Co-Founder, Quantifly; Adrianna Jordan, AICP, Co-Founder, Quantifly; Zachary Halberd, Co-Founder, Quantifly, 3:45-5 p.m. Friday
It’s Budget Time. Do you Know Where Your Revenue Is? With John Hoppough, Mayor, Greenville; Jacob Kain, City Planner, Mount Pleasant; Richard Murphy, Program Coordinator, Civic Innovations, Michigan Municipal League, Eilis Seide, Assistant to the City Manager, East Lansing, 9-10:15 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22
Short Term Rentals: Trends, Impacts & Options with speakers Robert Monetza, Councilmember, Grand Haven; Ulrik Binzer, CEO, Host Compliance; Jennifer Rigterink, Legislative Associate, 9-10:15 a.m. Saturday
And yes even more mobile tours: Farmers Markets and Food Halls as Catalysts for Business and Real Estate Development; Restoring the Rapids: A Tour of Grand River Restoration Efforts, both 9-noon Friday
Photos of the 2018 Convention will be uploaded to flickr throughout the Convention can be downloaded from the League’s flickr page: flickr.com/photos/michigancommunities for free. We just ask that the following photo credit be given like this: Michigan Municipal League/mml.org. Thanks!
Michigan Municipal League advocates on behalf of its member communities in Lansing, Washington, D.C., and the courts; provides educational opportunities for elected and appointed municipal officials; and assists municipal leaders in administering services to their communities through League programs and services.
www.cadillacforums.com/threads/puttin-on-the-ritz-1984-el...
This installment begins back, way way back,back into time. In the days we could have large gatherings, touch our faces, eat inside restaurants, and lived perilously close to the edge of running out of toilet paper. Picture it, Thanksgiving weekend, 2019…Oh wait, back a bit further…August, 1983.
Some dunderhead salesman in southern California takes an order from a buyer with great taste, a beautifully optioned 1984 Eldorado Biarritz in the ultimate color combination of Black/Black/Red. Said dunderhead gets everything right on the order-except for one tiny detail. The desire for a CF5 Astroroof is lost in translation from the prospective buyer and never makes it into the POS.
Car arrives in September. No sunroof. What gives? Our apologies sir, we’ll get that taken care of right away. Car is driven to an ASC installer. Another dunderhead gets out a jigsaw and cuts a hole thru the roof. A 38” (the biggest you can fit in an Eldorado with roof-mounted seatbelts) ASC sunroof is installed. Car is returned to dealership, buyer eagerly accepts delivery, none the wiser about factory vs aftermarket sunroofs.
For those who don’t know, when you order a car with a sunroof, the car is born with a hole in the roof. Mounts are cast into the roof panel, and the sunroof assembly seats in them and the glass panel has a channel for a nice rubber gasket that seals everything up nice. Then a vacuum formed headliner backing board is cast to perfectly hide everything. When you get an aftermarket sunroof, someone gets a stencil and a jigsaw, and cuts your roof panel and headliner open, pops a trim ring in the hole, and hangs a sunroof pan on the trim ring. If you’re lucky they will drill additional reinforcements to marry the pan to the roof structure. Then they get a bunch of headliner material, pull it taught from the corners of the car to the opening in the roof, and send you on down the road.
Anyway, back to Thanksgiving 2019, and the jigsaw dunderhead’s work starts to come undone.
When I had purchased this car, it needed headliner help. The material was loose, but not sagging appreciably. Additionally, someone had tried to superglue the material all around the perimeter. The material was kind of floating in place, which I thought was weird. I ended up getting some super strong neodymium magnets to hold it taught-which worked ok until it was humid out, or driving on the highway with the windows down as the liner would look something like a sailboat in the wind.
My fix was simple-find a factory sunroof equipped car and get the headliner board out of it and pop it into my car. Found out that that was easier said than done, and after a lot of junkyard expedition, kept coming up empty handed. Finally after years, I came into someone parting a factory sunroof Eldo on ebay and after a lot of trouble was able to get it shipped to me
The board needed some help, and after getting all the old foam off of it and some repairs made to restore the structure (the sunroof headliner board is really thin and flimsy, even compared to the stock non-sunroof board) I tore the interior apart to facilitate getting it in and out as I knew I would have to make “some” tweaks to reconcile the aftermarket hole location to the factory one. The sunroof assembly would also need to come out to recover the sunshade; as well as reseal the panel.
We can see here how the trim ring supports the pan assembly from the center. I have to say though, this was about as clean an install as an aftermarket sunroof can come with lots of extra bracing and no factory roof reinforcements cut. We can also see a very chintzy felt seal stuck to the trim ring
Got the sunshade recovered quickly. I later removed the black plastic covered jute that was glued to the pan-factory did not have this and it would have made the board sit too low when installed in the car. The gray rubbery stuff at the front of the pan was also stripped off for the same reason. I also swapped to the factory grab handle that was included with the board.
Also recovered the sail panels. I chose to leave the foam backing on these as it is not the usual headliner stuff that turns to jelly, its more like a sponge material and seemed to be holding up just fine.
I also added PED connectors to the sail panel interior lights that the factory curiously left out. Not sure how they installed these as the harness is one giant piece, but it means that you can’t take the sail panels out without having the lights dangling in the back. This will become important later.
I then devised a new seal. I threw away all the felt and used some 3M Adhesive remover to get rid of the stuff they had glued it with. Nasty stuff but did a good job. The new seal was the first part of this that took a LONG time. Aftermarket roofs from this time use some kind of felt tape to cut down on wind noise and slow water ingress into the pan, and while still available, there is way better out there today. (In spite of how it looked on my car though, it never leaked?!?! Wind noise was an issue with the shade open though) I decided on a rubber seal, and after getting a whole bunch of samples, the stuff I had initially ended up trying was pretty thin, but rigid strip of rubber. After gluing it on with 3M yellow weatherstrip adhesive (which does NOT work as good as the adhesive remover), I put the pan back in the car to see how it would work.
No photos of the failure here, but no good. The material was too rigid and too grippy, and would cause the roof to bind midway thru its travel. Then it tore off in the corners. Ugh! Pan back out, strip off the remaining seal and glue and go back to the drawing board. I ended up buying this
www.austinhardware.com/rubber-seal-single-500-rolls.htm
Which is a hollow piece of rubber that lets the panel travel without binding, and still squishes into a really tight seal. Looks like its out of stock now, but something with close to those measurements in a D-shape is a possibility for someone looking to reseal their ASC aftermarket sunroof. It was another 3M product, that was just a peel and stick affair-way easier than the yellow goopy adhesive route. Seems like a really strong bond, and seals fantastically against wind and water. 0 wind noise now, and no leaks in a downpour when parked, or cruising at highway speeds. Roof moves without binding now
I also decided to put the new seal onto the glass panel itself as it seems like that’s the easier life for it-if I put it around the opening, the pop rivets from the panel would abrade it. Super happy with this.
Next task was of course the headliner. With the pan now back in the car, I could take measurements and properly scribe/cut/fill the board as needed. Again, easier said than done. This was a weeks long ordeal between cutting the board, fiberglassing new material in, more cutting, more filling, coronavirus insanity, etc. Long story short, my roof was installed a few inches more aft than a factory roof would have been, which meant a lot of tweaking to get the kick-up over the rear passengers head in the right spot. Additionally, I needed to build out the map light drop down to accommodate the motor.
Here is the mess I ended up with
I also affixed strips of 3M dual-lock (it is like a heavy duty version of the stuff that holds in an Ezpass) to the back of the board and the pan to hold it tightly-the factory had attempted this with a similar product in the non-sunroof car headliner board. I was super skeptical that my fudgery would cover well at all, but I have to say that foam backed headliner material must be some of the most forgiving stuff around. This took me months to complete, working off and on from November thru April. Ultimately though, I’m happy with it.
While the interior was out, there was another thing I wanted to do. About a year ago, I was following a buddy as he took his Eldorado to drop off at a shop-couldn’t help but notice how small the brake lights (and the rest of the car) seemed compared to all the bulbous modern cars surrounding it. Then I had a couple of SUV’s roll up way too close for comfort on the back of the car-one was close enough that I launched the Eldorado up and to the side to avoid getting hit. Knowing that getting rear ended by a careless driver would probably result in my untimely incarceration, I set out to do something about rear visibility.
The federal government mandated 3rd brake lights for passenger cars for model year 1986. Cadillac was slightly ahead of the curve with this with the 1985 Deville/Fleetwoods which got these in the fall of ’84. Apparently the science is behind them and they do result in fewer rear end collisions. So I decided to add one of them to the Eldo.
There were a few different versions of these things made, with short, medium and long necks to mate with the rear window-one for a Fleetwood Brougham has the tall one, and one for an 80s Buick Riviera like the one seen above is short. The short one is the best size for the Eldo, any taller and it would look pretty bad. Then the gasket that seals it to the window is different for each different model. Fortunately a potato peeler does a great job of cutting things down to size to match the Eldos vertical rear window, and the material can be easily sanded to get out any little imperfections to make it seal nicely and not leak light. An ideal donor for one would be one an 86-91 Eldo or Seville without a factory vinyl or carriage roof.
A quick mockup
All of these lights mount the same way, with this little bracket cutting into the package shelf and screwing in to the metal underneath. This is not possible on the Eldo as the package shelf reinforcement under the center won’t let this happen. So I had to modify the bracket to sit flush on the package shelf, and add two holes to the shelf to get the screws through. They screw right into the package shelf reinforcement.
The next step was wiring. It is not as simple as tapping a brake light wire and running across the package shelf to the light. Since the Eldos tail lights do everything- brake, signal and hazard, just tapping a wire would cause the center light to flash with the signals or hazard. GM rectified this by using a different brake switch to prevent backfeeding. See the original gray switch, with an in and out, and the new beige one, with a supply, and two isolated outputs. This puts the 3rd brake light (acronym: CHMSL “Center High Mount Stoplight) on its own branch-but also means that you have to home run a wire all the way to it. The wire chase made quick work of this however. I had a pretty long link of 3rd brake light harness, but not quite enough to make it to the front of the car. I put another PED connector of the same kind that I used on the sail panels to join this blue wire I ran from the switch underneath the drivers side rear seat arm rest, which is accessible by removing the ash tray if need be. The stock package shelf reinforcement actually ended up being drilled for the wiring, so I’m not sure if this was something that was in the works for the Eldo.
The version of the brake switch I used allowed me to keep the cruise control connector, and only change the brake light connector itself (part 12117354). I wanted to keep this as non-invasive as possible as I hate being upside down under the dash (though I see to find myself in that position a lot…) I will search around for the part number for the brake light switch itself.
The last trick I wanted to pull before I put the interior back together was to replace the horrible rearview mirror. I forgot how bad these things were (or more like, no one ever noticed before there were LED headlights on other people’s cars that are tall enough to be flush with your back window) but it seems like the mirror was good for one thing; blindness. They have two settings-blindingly bright where others headlights fry your retinas at night, or completely blind, where you can’t see a thing behind you.
My daily driver has a great auto dimming mirror that still lets you see everything without blinding you, made by Gentex. About the same size as the Eldo rearview. I was casually browsing their offerings to see what kind of money we were talking, when I noticed they offered an upgraded unit as compared to the one installed on my car-one with an LED compass feature that was *drumroll* amber colored! Just like the center stack on the Eldorado! So needless to say, the project was underway quickly.
Wired it in cleanly to an existing ignition power on the fuse box
I had to buy a new button to mount it, stock Eldo one was too small to hold it. Check out the dashboard illustration on the glue I bought to stick it on with!
And here it is mounted up!
I am super happy with the mirror. It works great and is a really close match to the amber on the center stack. They even have the same segment check timing when you turn the ignition on Unfortunately it does not dim with the rest of the dash panel, so that’s a letdown, but if desired you can turn the compass off if you wanted to dim everything all the way as I like to do when I’m out of the city on a dark road.
Now, you may notice that the visors are all kinds of messed up. Progress has a price I guess. My long-fought for 1988 Deville visors are NG with the new headliner board-they’re just too big and interfere with the bump out for the map light. I wish I would have known as I could have easily shrunk this bump out when I was doing surgery on the board but its too late now. I’m at a crossroads of reinstalling my old red Eldo visors with known good arms swapped into them (which are probably super faded next to the new material but are impossible to reupholster right) or finding another late 80s more robust GM visor and reupholstering/swapping them in.
I still have more stuff to add to this which may come tomorrow as my fingers are about to fall off!
Options Shown: paint, window, metal roof, gable vent, increased roof pitch, moisture barrier on walls, overhang upgrades, concrete foundation
These are my crocheted "Options Slippers". This pattern gives you options as to how you want to make your slipper. You can either crochet the whole slipper, or crochet the top then use a sole that you cut from a felted sweater and sew tog. This is a super easy, super fast pattern. Pattern can be found on Ravelry or on my website: www.kriskrafter.com.
Pattern is called Options Slippers CROCHET for Wm.
This pattern is also avail. in a knit version.
Totally different option to the frilly romantic look sleeve colours will be added to the flower area eventually
possible shooting options east of meetup area - flickr meetup 02/18/07 (11:00am) BYOL in front of zoo
queen's beach - waikiki
taken: lunch 01/12/2007
When Guardians of The Galaxy is covered with construction walls, Pixar Pier has too many people kicking my tripod, and the BVS Christmas tree is a sea of cell phone flashes, this is all that's left to shoot.
step 24: make closures for the wrist
i sewed a pair of buttons on my claws, with short elastic loops on the other side (this makes them adjustable if i have no shirt underneath, or a bulky sweatshirt to button them over). for my boyfriend's claws, he wanted velcro instead - your choice - and his hand loop is made out of red fleece instead of elastic.
either way, using a loop over the palm of your hand instead of wearing claw mittens means you can pick up food or drinks with your hand instead of a clumsy glove. and also either way, you'll need a button or hook to attach the length of yarn from the attached legs to your claws.
www.cadillacforums.com/threads/puttin-on-the-ritz-1984-el...
This installment begins back, way way back,back into time. In the days we could have large gatherings, touch our faces, eat inside restaurants, and lived perilously close to the edge of running out of toilet paper. Picture it, Thanksgiving weekend, 2019…Oh wait, back a bit further…August, 1983.
Some dunderhead salesman in southern California takes an order from a buyer with great taste, a beautifully optioned 1984 Eldorado Biarritz in the ultimate color combination of Black/Black/Red. Said dunderhead gets everything right on the order-except for one tiny detail. The desire for a CF5 Astroroof is lost in translation from the prospective buyer and never makes it into the POS.
Car arrives in September. No sunroof. What gives? Our apologies sir, we’ll get that taken care of right away. Car is driven to an ASC installer. Another dunderhead gets out a jigsaw and cuts a hole thru the roof. A 38” (the biggest you can fit in an Eldorado with roof-mounted seatbelts) ASC sunroof is installed. Car is returned to dealership, buyer eagerly accepts delivery, none the wiser about factory vs aftermarket sunroofs.
For those who don’t know, when you order a car with a sunroof, the car is born with a hole in the roof. Mounts are cast into the roof panel, and the sunroof assembly seats in them and the glass panel has a channel for a nice rubber gasket that seals everything up nice. Then a vacuum formed headliner backing board is cast to perfectly hide everything. When you get an aftermarket sunroof, someone gets a stencil and a jigsaw, and cuts your roof panel and headliner open, pops a trim ring in the hole, and hangs a sunroof pan on the trim ring. If you’re lucky they will drill additional reinforcements to marry the pan to the roof structure. Then they get a bunch of headliner material, pull it taught from the corners of the car to the opening in the roof, and send you on down the road.
Anyway, back to Thanksgiving 2019, and the jigsaw dunderhead’s work starts to come undone.
When I had purchased this car, it needed headliner help. The material was loose, but not sagging appreciably. Additionally, someone had tried to superglue the material all around the perimeter. The material was kind of floating in place, which I thought was weird. I ended up getting some super strong neodymium magnets to hold it taught-which worked ok until it was humid out, or driving on the highway with the windows down as the liner would look something like a sailboat in the wind.
My fix was simple-find a factory sunroof equipped car and get the headliner board out of it and pop it into my car. Found out that that was easier said than done, and after a lot of junkyard expedition, kept coming up empty handed. Finally after years, I came into someone parting a factory sunroof Eldo on ebay and after a lot of trouble was able to get it shipped to me
The board needed some help, and after getting all the old foam off of it and some repairs made to restore the structure (the sunroof headliner board is really thin and flimsy, even compared to the stock non-sunroof board) I tore the interior apart to facilitate getting it in and out as I knew I would have to make “some” tweaks to reconcile the aftermarket hole location to the factory one. The sunroof assembly would also need to come out to recover the sunshade; as well as reseal the panel.
We can see here how the trim ring supports the pan assembly from the center. I have to say though, this was about as clean an install as an aftermarket sunroof can come with lots of extra bracing and no factory roof reinforcements cut. We can also see a very chintzy felt seal stuck to the trim ring
Got the sunshade recovered quickly. I later removed the black plastic covered jute that was glued to the pan-factory did not have this and it would have made the board sit too low when installed in the car. The gray rubbery stuff at the front of the pan was also stripped off for the same reason. I also swapped to the factory grab handle that was included with the board.
Also recovered the sail panels. I chose to leave the foam backing on these as it is not the usual headliner stuff that turns to jelly, its more like a sponge material and seemed to be holding up just fine.
I also added PED connectors to the sail panel interior lights that the factory curiously left out. Not sure how they installed these as the harness is one giant piece, but it means that you can’t take the sail panels out without having the lights dangling in the back. This will become important later.
I then devised a new seal. I threw away all the felt and used some 3M Adhesive remover to get rid of the stuff they had glued it with. Nasty stuff but did a good job. The new seal was the first part of this that took a LONG time. Aftermarket roofs from this time use some kind of felt tape to cut down on wind noise and slow water ingress into the pan, and while still available, there is way better out there today. (In spite of how it looked on my car though, it never leaked?!?! Wind noise was an issue with the shade open though) I decided on a rubber seal, and after getting a whole bunch of samples, the stuff I had initially ended up trying was pretty thin, but rigid strip of rubber. After gluing it on with 3M yellow weatherstrip adhesive (which does NOT work as good as the adhesive remover), I put the pan back in the car to see how it would work.
No photos of the failure here, but no good. The material was too rigid and too grippy, and would cause the roof to bind midway thru its travel. Then it tore off in the corners. Ugh! Pan back out, strip off the remaining seal and glue and go back to the drawing board. I ended up buying this
www.austinhardware.com/rubber-seal-single-500-rolls.htm
Which is a hollow piece of rubber that lets the panel travel without binding, and still squishes into a really tight seal. Looks like its out of stock now, but something with close to those measurements in a D-shape is a possibility for someone looking to reseal their ASC aftermarket sunroof. It was another 3M product, that was just a peel and stick affair-way easier than the yellow goopy adhesive route. Seems like a really strong bond, and seals fantastically against wind and water. 0 wind noise now, and no leaks in a downpour when parked, or cruising at highway speeds. Roof moves without binding now
I also decided to put the new seal onto the glass panel itself as it seems like that’s the easier life for it-if I put it around the opening, the pop rivets from the panel would abrade it. Super happy with this.
Next task was of course the headliner. With the pan now back in the car, I could take measurements and properly scribe/cut/fill the board as needed. Again, easier said than done. This was a weeks long ordeal between cutting the board, fiberglassing new material in, more cutting, more filling, coronavirus insanity, etc. Long story short, my roof was installed a few inches more aft than a factory roof would have been, which meant a lot of tweaking to get the kick-up over the rear passengers head in the right spot. Additionally, I needed to build out the map light drop down to accommodate the motor.
Here is the mess I ended up with
I also affixed strips of 3M dual-lock (it is like a heavy duty version of the stuff that holds in an Ezpass) to the back of the board and the pan to hold it tightly-the factory had attempted this with a similar product in the non-sunroof car headliner board. I was super skeptical that my fudgery would cover well at all, but I have to say that foam backed headliner material must be some of the most forgiving stuff around. This took me months to complete, working off and on from November thru April. Ultimately though, I’m happy with it.
While the interior was out, there was another thing I wanted to do. About a year ago, I was following a buddy as he took his Eldorado to drop off at a shop-couldn’t help but notice how small the brake lights (and the rest of the car) seemed compared to all the bulbous modern cars surrounding it. Then I had a couple of SUV’s roll up way too close for comfort on the back of the car-one was close enough that I launched the Eldorado up and to the side to avoid getting hit. Knowing that getting rear ended by a careless driver would probably result in my untimely incarceration, I set out to do something about rear visibility.
The federal government mandated 3rd brake lights for passenger cars for model year 1986. Cadillac was slightly ahead of the curve with this with the 1985 Deville/Fleetwoods which got these in the fall of ’84. Apparently the science is behind them and they do result in fewer rear end collisions. So I decided to add one of them to the Eldo.
There were a few different versions of these things made, with short, medium and long necks to mate with the rear window-one for a Fleetwood Brougham has the tall one, and one for an 80s Buick Riviera like the one seen above is short. The short one is the best size for the Eldo, any taller and it would look pretty bad. Then the gasket that seals it to the window is different for each different model. Fortunately a potato peeler does a great job of cutting things down to size to match the Eldos vertical rear window, and the material can be easily sanded to get out any little imperfections to make it seal nicely and not leak light. An ideal donor for one would be one an 86-91 Eldo or Seville without a factory vinyl or carriage roof.
A quick mockup
All of these lights mount the same way, with this little bracket cutting into the package shelf and screwing in to the metal underneath. This is not possible on the Eldo as the package shelf reinforcement under the center won’t let this happen. So I had to modify the bracket to sit flush on the package shelf, and add two holes to the shelf to get the screws through. They screw right into the package shelf reinforcement.
The next step was wiring. It is not as simple as tapping a brake light wire and running across the package shelf to the light. Since the Eldos tail lights do everything- brake, signal and hazard, just tapping a wire would cause the center light to flash with the signals or hazard. GM rectified this by using a different brake switch to prevent backfeeding. See the original gray switch, with an in and out, and the new beige one, with a supply, and two isolated outputs. This puts the 3rd brake light (acronym: CHMSL “Center High Mount Stoplight) on its own branch-but also means that you have to home run a wire all the way to it. The wire chase made quick work of this however. I had a pretty long link of 3rd brake light harness, but not quite enough to make it to the front of the car. I put another PED connector of the same kind that I used on the sail panels to join this blue wire I ran from the switch underneath the drivers side rear seat arm rest, which is accessible by removing the ash tray if need be. The stock package shelf reinforcement actually ended up being drilled for the wiring, so I’m not sure if this was something that was in the works for the Eldo.
The version of the brake switch I used allowed me to keep the cruise control connector, and only change the brake light connector itself (part 12117354). I wanted to keep this as non-invasive as possible as I hate being upside down under the dash (though I see to find myself in that position a lot…) I will search around for the part number for the brake light switch itself.
The last trick I wanted to pull before I put the interior back together was to replace the horrible rearview mirror. I forgot how bad these things were (or more like, no one ever noticed before there were LED headlights on other people’s cars that are tall enough to be flush with your back window) but it seems like the mirror was good for one thing; blindness. They have two settings-blindingly bright where others headlights fry your retinas at night, or completely blind, where you can’t see a thing behind you.
My daily driver has a great auto dimming mirror that still lets you see everything without blinding you, made by Gentex. About the same size as the Eldo rearview. I was casually browsing their offerings to see what kind of money we were talking, when I noticed they offered an upgraded unit as compared to the one installed on my car-one with an LED compass feature that was *drumroll* amber colored! Just like the center stack on the Eldorado! So needless to say, the project was underway quickly.
Wired it in cleanly to an existing ignition power on the fuse box
I had to buy a new button to mount it, stock Eldo one was too small to hold it. Check out the dashboard illustration on the glue I bought to stick it on with!
And here it is mounted up!
I am super happy with the mirror. It works great and is a really close match to the amber on the center stack. They even have the same segment check timing when you turn the ignition on Unfortunately it does not dim with the rest of the dash panel, so that’s a letdown, but if desired you can turn the compass off if you wanted to dim everything all the way as I like to do when I’m out of the city on a dark road.
Now, you may notice that the visors are all kinds of messed up. Progress has a price I guess. My long-fought for 1988 Deville visors are NG with the new headliner board-they’re just too big and interfere with the bump out for the map light. I wish I would have known as I could have easily shrunk this bump out when I was doing surgery on the board but its too late now. I’m at a crossroads of reinstalling my old red Eldo visors with known good arms swapped into them (which are probably super faded next to the new material but are impossible to reupholster right) or finding another late 80s more robust GM visor and reupholstering/swapping them in.
I still have more stuff to add to this which may come tomorrow as my fingers are about to fall off!
two options and the picture "before" photoshop... I couldn't find a good background photo so I made this one from 3 different photo's - sky, grass, sand/water..
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©2011 Leah Virsik, Options, collage, acrylic, found papers (Mohawk Paper catalog: Barbara Barry on Options), accordion storage binding, sanded, glued, cut 5 x 3 x 1/4 inches
I folded the spine of this book without scoring it and the printing came off giving it a distressed look. It bothered me but I realized I had "Options" and took sand paper to the entire book and distressed the entire thing giving it a more cohesive look.
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But the Pentagon and the Potala weren't built with a ridiculous amount of marble. This bldg. also contains one of the world's largest chandeliers, large enough to contain a platform for maintenance workers to walk around on inside it.
- I arrived here in Bucharest late the night before my last full day in Romania. I stayed at a hostel I think or the cheapest digs I could find. The options were relatively expensive and I did much walking that night in search of something affordable. The next morning I hiked over to and up and along the wide Bulevardul Unirii, lined by huge, concrete constructions and divided by a long string of art nouveau fountains down the centre (the last of which you see here in the foreground) to 'the People's Palace' in the Centru Civic. (The stretch reminded me of the approach up University ave. to Queen's Park in Toronto, but on a lengthier, more massive scale and with greater uniformity.) This fountain was dry, but other identical ones further east were filled with water and were active. I recall seeing a surprising number of stray dogs roaming @ in packs along the Bulevardul.
- I bought a ticket to join an organized tour of this massive pile.
- "In 1971, Ceauşescu visited North Korea and returned full of admiration for the grandiose avenues of Kim II Sung’s Pyongyang. In 1977 a massive earthquake reduced large parts of Bucharest to rubble and left over 1,500 dead. While this prompted the construction of several major city projects, incl. a new metro system and an airport, it also provided Ceauşescu with the perfect excuse to implement his megalomaniac vision for the city. In 1984, he set out to remodel Bucharest as “the first socialist capital for the new socialist man”, and to create a new administrative centre which was to be “a symbolic representation of the 2 decades of enlightenment we have just lived through”. In truth, this Centru Civic was intended to embody the state’s authority and that of Ceauşescu himself, and implementation entailed the demolition of 1/4 of Bucharest’s historic centre (@ 5 square km.s), said to be slums damaged earlier by the earth-quake, but in fact containing 9,000 largely undamaged 19th cent. houses, whose 40,000 inhabitants were relocated in new developments on the outskirts of the city. There was worldwide condemnation of this vandalism, particularly since many old churches, a hospital and a monastery were to be swept away. Though some of the churches were reprieved, they're now surrounded by huge, modern apt. blocks. The core of the complex was largely completed by 1989, just in time for the dictator’s overthrow." (RG)
- "Uniting the two halves of the Centru Civic is Bulevardul Unirii, at 4 km.s long and 120 m.s wide, slightly larger (intentionally so) than the Champs-Élysées after which it was modelled. Midway along is Piaţa Unirii (“Square of the Union”) [where I'm standing as I take this shot, or closeby], an oversized expanse of concrete dominated by traffic, and ... the best place from which to view [this]."
- "Dominating the entire project from the western end of B-dul Unirii is the colossal Palace of Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului), claimed to be the 2nd-largest administrative building in the world - after the Pentagon - measuring 270 by 240 m.s, and 86 m.s high. It epitomizes the megalomania that overtook Ceauşescu in the 1980s; here he intended to house ministries, Communist Party offices and the apartments of high functionaries. Built on the site of the former Spirei Hill, which was razed for this project, the sheer size of it can only be grasped by comparison with the toy-like cars scuttling past below. It has 12 storeys, 4 underground levels (including a nuclear bunker), a 100 m.-long lobby and 1100 rooms, around 1/2 of which are used as offices while the remainder are redundant. The interiors are lavishly decorated with marble and gold leaf, and there are 4,500 chandeliers (11,000 were planned), the largest of which weighs 1.5 tonnes, but the decoration was never complete due to the Ceauşescus’ ever-changing whims. They were demanding patrons, allowing little more than a technical role to the architects, of which there were @ 700 – one staircase was rebuilt 3 x before they were satisfied. The floor pattern – which mirrors the layout of the bldg. itself – was apparently designed that way so Ceauşescu wouldn’t get lost."
- "This ultimate white elephant was officially known as the Casa Republicii, then as the Casa Poporului, but more popularly as the Casa Nebunului (“Madman’s House”), before taking on its present name. The new government spent a long time agonizing about an acceptable use for it, and in 1994 it was finally decided to house the Senate and Parliament here; it is now also used for international conferences. The standard tour is a 45-min. trek through 10 of the most dazzling, most representative or simply the largest of the halls, such as the extraordinary, glass-ceilinged Sala Unirii ('Unification Hall'), where legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was married in 1996. One of the last rooms you’re led to is the Alexandru Ioan Cuza room, whose balcony offers defining views of the city." (RG)
- youtu.be/Uln3oINe6Kc?si=0EbX3si7NBXbTNKw
- I had only the one day in this city and did much walking, but the only other site or sight I devoted time to (at least a full afternoon) was the National museum of History in the former 'Postal Services Palace' (1892), with 8000 square m.s of floor space and @ 60 rooms of exhibits. The LP writes that it's "strong on Romania's ties to ancient Rome" and I recall an impressive plaster cast of Trajan's column. I bought a few postcards of exhibits that impressed me (as one does), including one of an octagonal, golden 'vase', with leopards for handles, 1 of 12 solid gold items from the 'Pietroasele treasure' (of the original 22), late 4th cent., Goth, and discovered in 1837 in Pietroasele, Buzău. "The multiple styles of the items, in which Han Chinese styles have been noted in the belt buckles, Hellenistic in the golden bowls, Sasanian motifs in the baskets, and Germanic fashions in the fibulae, are characteristic of the cosmopolitan outlook of the Cernjachov culture in a region without defined topographic confines." (Wikipedia) www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Qe9r12eZE
- I bought another of a large, abstract idol (800 grams of pure gold, thought to represent a fertility or mother goddess but resembling a breast-plate, 31 cm.s in length), 1 of 4 items from the neolithic, 4th mill. BC, Moigrad treasure, associated with the Bodrogkeresztúr culture of Chalcolithic Hungary, and one of the oldest treasures found anywhere. There's no shortage of invaluable, beautiful and detailed Dacian hoards and treasures of pure gold on show in the 'Treasury room', incl. the famous, elaborate Coţofeneşti helmet. The Thracians and the Dacians were marvelous goldsmiths.
- In the vast displays re more recent Romanian history, I saw Grigorescu's 'The Attack in Smârdan' (a scene from the War of Independence [1877-78]). www.wikiart.org/en/nicolae-grigorescu/sm-rdan-attack-1878
- "According to legend, Bucharest was founded by a shepherd named Bucur who built a settlement in the Vlăsia forest, later recorded as a 'citadel on the Dâmboviţa' in 1368, and named Bucharest in an edict from the time of Vlad III Dracula (r 1456-76). Over the centuries, both Târgovişte and Bucharest have served as the Wallachian capital, but the latter finally secured its claim in 1659, its position at the convergence of trade routes to Istanbul outweighing Târgovişte’s defensive advantages in the Carpathian foothills. As the boyars moved into the city they built palaces and churches on the main streets radiating from the centre; these streets were surfaced with timber baulks and were known as 'bridges' (poduri). Despite earthquakes and periodic attacks by Turks, Tatars, Austrians and Russians over the course of its history, the city continued to grow and to modernize. New boulevards were driven through the existing street pattern in the 1890s, after the style of Haussmann’s Paris, and still form a ring road and the main north–south and east–west axes of the city today. Most of the major bldg.s, such as the Romanian Atheneum and the Cercul Militar, were designed by French or French-trained architects and were built in the years immediately preceding WWI. It was @ this time that the city was dubbed the “Paris of the East”, as much for its hectic and cosmopolitan social scene [but only for the well-to-do] as for its architecture. ... " (RG)
- I saw some of the romantic and eclectic contributions to the city from those French architects imported by King Carol I in 'la belle epoque', incl. the impressive entrance to the Beaux Arts 'Cantacuzino palace' (1901-02) with its clamshell-shaped porte-cochere. On Aug. 10, 1913, the Treaty of Bucharest was signed there at the end of the 2nd Balkan War.
- I happened upon the Athenaeum (1888, architect Albert Galleron [French]), a round, domed, neoclassical concert hall and the loveliest bldg. in Bucharest. Its exterior is beautiful, but the interior is more impressive from what I've seen online. "A 75-by-3-m. fresco by Costin Petrescu on the inside of the circular wall of the hall depicts the most important moments of Romanian history, from the Roman conquest of Dacia to the realization of Greater Romania in 1918." www.jacksonfineart.com/artists/david-leventi/romanian-ath... "On Dec. 29, 1919, the Athenaeum was the site of the conference of leading Romanians who voted to ratify the unification of Bessarabia, Transylvania, and Bukovina with the Romanian Old Kingdom to constitute Greater Romania." (Wikipedia)
- I'll only mention a few misses in Bucharest (incl. a concert in the Athenaeum).: The small but lovely Storck museum foto.agerpres.ro/foto/detaliu/13028645 ; certain 16th to 19th cent. Orthodox churches, incl. the Patriarchal Cathedral (1665-'68), seat of the Romanian Orthodox Church; and the National Art museum in the former Royal Palace with its fine gallery of Romanian Medieval Art, and some Brâncuşi in its gallery of local Modern Art.
- From Bucharest, late in the afternoon or in the evening of May 12, with my visa set to expire, I took a train south the 64 clicks (1 hr. and 45 min.s according to the RG) to the border-town of Giurgiu (Jee-er-jeeoo). I didn't know it then, but I was travelling on the first and oldest rail-line in Romania, built in 1869.
- "As a fortified city, Giurgiu featured often in the wars for the conquest of the lower Danube. It was the site of the October 1595 'Battle of Giurgiu' [/b/ the Austrians and the Ottomans] and was a theatre of war in the struggle of Michael the Brave (1593–1601) against the Turks and in the later Russo-Turkish War (1787-1792). It was burned in 1659." (Wikipedia) I just passed through.
- I crossed the border and the Danube via the 'Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge' into Bulgaria (currently the only Bulgarian bridge across the Danube), said a sad goodbye to Romania, and arrived in the city of Ruse (Roo-see, I think).
So, Bulgaria! I had crossed again from one country into a very different neighboring country. It seemed to be more modern, with far fewer 'time capsules' (which I love, as you know), but then with some much older churches and sites and sights to be toured. It's less Western European, without Transylvania's gothic features and Romania's ties to Italy, Germany, Hungary and France. It's very Balkan (of course) with a Byzantine flavour, a resident in a very different neighborhood (notwithstanding that the Dacians were a subgroup of the Thracians, who according to Herodotus were the most populous race known to the ancient Greeks, after the Indians). The historical spotlight in popular culture or imagination (in the west at least) would seem to shift back and forth /b/ the countries, from glorious, accomplished Thrace in the 1st mill. BC, land of Orpheus, Dionysus and of gold, neighboring ancient Greece; to Dacia north of the border in the times of its struggles with Rome, Decebalus v. Trajan, the Iron Gates, etc.; then back south to the medieval Byzantine period and the Bulgarian kingdoms of the late 1st and early 2nd mill.s; and back again to Romania with its colonization by the Magyars and then by the 'Saxons', and its conflicts with the Turks.
- I found Bulgarians to be generally more shy and quieter than Romanians (the hitch-hiking was poor there, which is consistent with shyness. I took the train most often). But once they'd made your acquaintance, Bulgarians would make a point to be generous I found, often exceptionally so.
- I found a real appreciation for the relatively abundant, modern abstract art in Bulgaria, including wonderful socialist-realist art unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Much of it was very creative. And the food there was very different as well. I'd say it was much closer to Greek cuisine. Shopska salad with feta cheese and olives was had everywhere. (I've never eaten so much salad anywhere else, apart from in the FYR of Macedonia.)
- The Bulgarian authors of the guide-book I’d made copies from, and of a book or booklet re Bulgarian history that I bought and which was on sale everywhere, were a bit prone to an excessive pride in Bulgaria I found, which is the way of things in the Balkans generally. The booklet made such claims as, for example, that Bulgarians had invented brain surgery as ancient trepanning tools had been discovered. The frescoes in the Boyana church in Sofia are held out as anticipating Giotto and as evidence that "but for the Turkish yoke, Bulgaria would have ushered in the Renaissance" (to paraphrase). But the Italian Renaissance was about much more than achievements in art. The fact is that Bulgarians chafed under 'the Turkish yoke' for 5 long centuries, as any occupied people would, and so naturally they look to the west and ask what their society might have become and might have achieved if not for their subjugation.
- I spent @ a month and a 1/2 in Bulgaria, and saw a fair bit in the northern 2/3rds of the country. I followed a guidebook (I forget which, I'd made photocopies) which I later learned left much to be desired. Almost nothing was written up in that guide re the southern 4th or 5th of the country, which has several sites I would've loved to have seen, incl. the cave of 'the Devil's throat', down into which Orpheus is said to have descended to Hades to retrieve Eurydice. (But the now-famous shrine to Dionysus [who was Thracian!] and site of an oracle consulted by Alexander the Great, and the tomb which is a candidate for that of Orpheus at Tatul, hadn't been excavated and were unknown to tourism in 2000.) The biggest miss was what could be the trippiest, most off-the-hook Soviet or Communist-era ruin anywhere (which is saying something), which was within walking distance of Shipka, a place I visited. (I'll write about it in the description to my photo taken at Shipka.)
- I forget how and where I met him upon my arrival, but I was invited to stay at the home of a kind, local man I met in Ruse. The hospitality was just as wonderful in Bulgaria as it was in Romania or moreso. I didn't spend a cent on accommodation for at least my first 7 nights in the country.
- My host took me on a small walking tour of Ruse the next morning, or at least to the central 'Freedom square' where I took a photo of the 'Monument of Liberty' (@ 1907-09, sculptor Arnoldo Zocchi), a statue of a woman in a toga standing on a square column above a plinth, holding a sword in one hand and pointing with the other, with 2 lions at the base. It commemorates the liberation of Bulgaria by the Russians from the Turks in the 1870s. One of the lions tears the chains of a yoke with its teeth. It was inaugurated on Aug. 11, the anniversary of the most decisive date of the 'Battle of Shipka'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_of_Liberty,_Ruse#/media/Fi...
- I think I recall, but took no photos (?) of, the modernist 'Pantheon of National Heros' under a gold dome with the remains of 453 activists from the time of 'the Bulgarian National Revival' within. (Or maybe I saw a photo of it later? It's a miss if so, a very interesting piece of modern architecture.)
- Ruse is the most significant Bulgarian port on the Danube and is the 5th largest city in Bulgaria. In the late 19th cent. and until WWI it was the 2nd largest (after Plovdiv). It's "known for its 19th and 20th cent. neo-baroque and neo-rococo architecture". The city's a bigger deal than I realized when I was there. "A Thracian settlement developed into a Roman military and naval centre in the reign of Vespasian (69–70 CE), as part of the fortification system along the northern boundary of Moesia. It was named Sexaginta Prista, 'City of 60 Ships' (Greek: Pristis - a special type of defensive ship. It's presumed that the port had 60 berths.) The fortress was on the main route between Singidunum (Belgrade) and the Danube Delta. It was rebuilt as a praesidium following its destruction by Goths in 250 CE, but was destroyed again in the 6th cent. by Avar and Slavic raiders. The Ottomans revitalized the town which became a large fortress and administrative centre of Tuna Vilayet, extending from Varna and Tulcea to Sofia and Niš, by the 18th cent. And Ruse developed into a centre of the Bulgarian National Revival, hosting the headquarters of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee. (all Wikipedia) The city's greatest transformation came with an international agreement concerning free merchant shipping on the Danube, which led to its emergence as an important economic force, and as a trading centre for the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and British empires. Ruse was the scene of many firsts for Bulgaria, such as the first newspaper printed in Bulgaria and in Bulgarian, the first printing office, railway line (Ruse to Varna), weather station, film projection, etc. It's fair to say it's an important city to the modern history of Bulgaria.
- I missed a history museum, the low-lying ruins (the foundations of walls) of an historic Roman fortress, and the 'Transport museum' in the original British-built railway station (1866), with late 19th cent. carriages and locomotives from the days when Ruse was a stop on the Orient Express which then ran from Budapest to Bucharest to Giurgiu, passengers would cross the river, and then from Ruse to Varna, and by boat to Stamboul. One item is "the sumptuous Sultaniye carriage, used by Empress Eugenie of France in 1869 en route to open the Suez canal." (RG)
- From Ruse I hitched south @ 25 km.s down the 501 and walked to the 'rock-hewn churches of Ivanovo'. (See the description for the next photo, taken at Madara).
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Mike Cohen
Dear Partner,
I have paper pieced the first of four blocks for your mini quilt. This picture is a horrible representation of what the colors actually look like. In person, these are deep, rich colors. :) Sorry I finished this block at 10 o'clock tonight, so good lighting wasn't really an option.
Is this something that you would like? Speak now or forever hold your peace! :)