you go to Chapter W on the 14th of September.   Also don't forget to contact LB about the Renaissance Festival ride on the 21st of September.  He has some good
$$ saving tips on that event.  The DIRT J Free Fun Run is coming up in October too.  The Christmas Party is coming in December so be sure to keep looking in your Newsletter for the details on this fun event.
Don't forget the "Check My Calendar" page for Dinner Rides, Ice Cream Rides, and special events going on.  There won't be an "Events Page" this month as there is not enough activity to fill the page.  I did put a small column on page 13 called " Upcoming  2008 Events". 
You may see some changes being made to your Newsletter in the upcoming months which I have been working on to try and reduce the cost.  I will never reduce the space for your articles, so don't think you're getting off that easy.  There will always be room for your articles no matter what the cost.
Well, I hear thunder, no not you know who, although he is taking his 2 hour power nap right now so am closing down for now.
                          Ride Safe and have a great month.

isolate one room from another. The many artistic angles of the walls and ceilings would get me thinking,
"How did he do that?"
One of the strong features that amazed me was the top of the house. He designed a beautiful multi level copper roof with several access points. He built a puzzle like, stair step chimney that was made out of his custom made concrete uniblocks for his children to climb on and through to gain access to play spaces on the roof. Alden was a child at heart and loved creating spaces for his children to have fun.
Imagine running around your roof and climbing in and out and through your chimney, what great fun! I would have loved to have done that. He also very artistically and playfully arranged his structured blocks as a patio and stepping blocks in the water outside a door. There were many close to the house and then they became further and further apart, but you could still step from one to another. Yes, you guessed it they became even farther apart so you had to jump from one block to another. No visitor had ever gotten to the last block without getting quite wet. It was such a wonderful example of how he incorporated the home with nature. I wonder how many of the wonderfully fun things he designed into his home for his children and guests would be illegal with today's building codes.
Alden started building his amazing home in 1934 and it took ten years to complete. He built it in sections.  It wasn't square or round but a series of different straight angles with a beautiful relaxing courtyard in the center that was accessed by all the bedrooms and the main living area. Bright colors, shapes, different materials, games, mechanical toys and puzzles were in total balance in Dow's home. It amazed me how he continually worked with shapes and colors and artistically incorporated them into the design of his rooms, windows and built in furniture.
Doors were six feet wide and three inches thick and carpets were designed with many bright colors and different geometrical shapes. This building was a mass of art, creativity and magic.  It put you in a space of happiness and feeling carefree and childlike. One of the first rooms upon entering was at the same level as the water so you could sit and look out the uniquely shaped windows and reach out and touch the water lilies. One of the bathrooms had thirteen different angles in the ceiling and walls, and I found myself having to count them all.
In the basement was a home theatre, complete with stage and theatre lighting (remember this was before TV.). He also was a train lover and he had trains running on tracks among the many angled ceilings in two different parts of the house. The kitchen was in the basement very much separated from the rest of the house. That is the biggest difference from the houses of today where the kitchen is quite often the main at

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I have been to several District Rallies in Midland, MI, but I have never seen much of the city. I rode the light parade behind Louie a few years ago, but it was dark and I didn't see much.  This summer Kim, Charlie, LB and I visited the Alden B. Dow house, a few blocks west of downtown Midland. I got to experience Midland for the first time and found it to be a very beautiful, artistically creative, and fun place.
Alden B. Dow was the son of Herbert H. Dow who was the founder of Dow Chemical Company. He was born in Midland and returned there after his education, where because of his love of organic architecture he studied under Frank Lloyd Wright. He was married and had three children and built this gorgeous, unique, and playful home for his family along with two studios for his growing architectural design practice. 
Organic architecture is the blending of a building with nature. He began by designing a group of several concrete uniblocks, which were sort of parallelogram shapes. Using these completely custom designed building blocks he build his and several other homes in Midland. He built a dam on the river that flowed by his house and flooded the land around about half of his home. The feeling of spaciousness within is overwhelming with his flowing of different spaces, without doors or partitions to