round and round and round we go...

dateline: highway 99 north to portland


some days start with a field of pumpkins...

then you drive some more and come upon albany, oregon and a sign for the carousel museum.  when i was a kid, there was a beautifully restored italian carousel at roger williams park in providence.  i loved it, the sounds, the lights, the ornately carved animals...didn't care much for the horses that went up and down...


turns out there is a project going on in albany to build a victorian carousel.  it's an all volunteer project with carvers and painters and sanders and fundraisers all donating their time.  it's called "the albany brass ring carousel and museum"... too cool!

here's a model of the finished carousel...projected finish date around 2015...

the new carousel is being built around a mechanism from 1909 built by a famous carousel maker named william dentzel...supposedly the last one he made.  it was donated to the project by the dentzel family.

of course they will need music

some of the carvings in progress

my favorite...the more ornate carvings are on the right side of the animals, the side facing out...

you can see the laminated pieces of wood these figures start with on this soon to be 

dragon...that's the carver's hand...these folks LOVE what they're doing!

the museum part had carousel figures from the 19th century

here's a link to the museum's web site ~ www.albanybrassring.com

listening to jimmy webb ~ just across the river