A recent visit with a "Creeker"

[Fred Voorhees]

Had the chance to meet up with fellow Creeker Ned Bulken at his wood shop while in the Syracuse area on vacation over the last ten or eleven days. Got the official tour of his place which is located in leased space in an industrial complex in Lakeport,NY. Ned actually shares the shop space with another woodworker, who's name I regrettably forget right now. Ned was a great host for the day and ran my interest high with his scrollsaw work. Don't have one of those yet, but I certainly got the itch after visiting Ned's "play area".

It was a great way to spend one of the "down days" before the weeks worth of racing began at the NY State Fairgrounds. Ned even let me take away a bonus from my visit. A nice chunk of Mahogany which has some history behind it. It actually came from the Stickley furniture manufacturing plant nearby. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. No matter, it will always be waiting for me in the shop to mould it into something.

Thanks for the opportunity to visit Ned!

[Jim Becker]

Fred..."hunk of mahogany" and "lathe" could be used in the same sentence, you know...:D 'Glad your trip was fun and your visit with Ned a hit!

[Ned Bulken]

Fred,
Glad you had a good trip. Thank you for visiting! Anytime you're in the area, give me a call and i'll put a fresh pot of coffee on, and I'll be sure and stock up on sugar too.

I hope you do pick up a scrollsaw, very addictive portion of our hobby, just as I figure spinny things will be for me someday. I expect to see pics of those patterns I sent home with you when you try them!

You could make a jewelry box like the one I'm holding :) you forgot to mention the quartersawn white oak on the bottom shelf there behind you Fred, along with the Mahogany. It may be short but I'll find a use for it eventually. The wood came via our local volunteer fire company's annual field days, where they use cutoffs to barbeque their chicken all weekend.

Any other creekers coming through central NY? let me know, the shop is 'always' open for visitors, John and I might even sweep up if we know you're coming LOL!!

Fred how did you fare at the races? Inquiring minds want to know!

[Fred Voorhees]

Fred how did you fare at the races? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, Ned, this trip, for the longest time used to be a sort of working vacation. That meaning that I had to do a number of exclusive race reports from the main mile track at the fairgrounds and two other tracks that hosted sattalite events during the week. It made for a busier week than I ended up wanting to endure. Besides the event reports, I also needed to compose my usual weekly racing column. It was nice that the racing paper that I wrote for was just across Onondaga Lake - meaning that I could head over there and input it directly into their computers, but after thirty years of writing, announcing, PR work, some minor publishing and even some dabbling in radio and television work, I decided to go back to simply being a racing fan and that was two or three years ago and I have been a much happier camper. This year was pretty cool. No rain to speak of (which is a cruel word in the dirt track racing world) and rather cool temps which produced some great track surfaces to race on and hence, some great racing. This year the wife and I got a treat since a young lad that used to work for her when she was running a weekly track souvenir program stand took to the mile for his first time and managed to stay out of trouble and finish his event. All in all, it was a great ten days spent in Syracuse,NY.

The pic below is a buddy of mine and myself enjoying some "beverages" while atop a couple of sections of scaffolding outside of turn three of the mile at the fairgrounds.