Day 680: Visiting Uncle Lyle’s Farm

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Ben

Today we drove out to visit Uncle Lyle’s Farm, which has been in Tricia’s family for over 100 years. Uncle Lyle loaded up B and Trish and her sister in the back of the utility vehicle, and M and I rode with Grandpa Glenn on the ATV:

While the adults chatted, M and B took turns driving the ATV around the farm:

B and Wren:

It was a beautiful day to be on the farm:

In the evening, I drove out to an ultralight field near Wausau. Between family members and the owners of the field, we had a bit of a crowd:

The wind was strong and changing directions, so the first two launches didn’t work out, but the third one was good:

Launch of flight #51:

There were nice sunset views to be had once airborne:

The ride was not at all smooth, so I came down pretty quick. The landing was just fine:

Click the Vel and Alt buttons below to display the flight graph. Click the grey bar on the right edge of the map to display the stat bar:

I’m hoping to come back for another flight tomorrow morning.

Day 679: Exploring Wausau

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Ben

This morning the kids played the strategy game M received from our friend David in Minneapolis:

Trish made more jewelry for her online jewelry store:

We went to visit Tricia’s cousin at their house in Merrill, built on land formerly owned by Tricia’s father. Their home is beautiful, and on the way back we had to pass this tractor:

Trish drove by her childhood farm:

Endomondo Embeds Still Broken, Switching to SportyPal

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Ben

As I mentioned three weeks ago, Endomondo broke their embedded URLs, so all the workout maps that are in my daily posts now just show a large white space (see here for an example). I submitted a support request, but received no answer, so I’m switching to SportyPal, where embeds actually work:

I sent another support e-mail in to Endomondo, we’ll see if they answer:

Hello,

Endomondo recently stopped allowing HTTP requests for URLs, routing them instead to HTTPS. As a result, the embed URL given by Endomondo no longer works. This is because web browsers don’t allow HTTPS in an iframe, so this HTTPS URL from endomondo:

<iframe src=”https://www.endomondo.com/embed/workouts?w=rZemiRzMhgw&width=580&height=600&width=950&height=600″ width=”950″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

gets converted into the HTTP equivalent by the browser, like this:

<iframe src=”http://www.endomondo.com/embed/workouts?w=rZemiRzMhgw&width=580&height=600&width=950&height=600″ width=”950″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

This wasn’t a problem until a few weeks ago, when apparently Endomondo switched to no longer allowing HTTP requests. As a result, embeds no longer work, since the browser turns the HTTPS within the iframe into an HTTP request, and endomondo then reroutes the request to HTTPS, which the browser doesn’t allow to load in an iframe.

To see this, paste this URL into a browser address field:

http://www.endomondo.com/embed/workouts?w=rZemiRzMhgw

Note that when it loads, the URL gets changed to an HTTPS URL.

To see what it looks like when embedded in a webpage, try this URL and note the large white area where the embedded workout is supposed to be:

http://lookbeforeyoulive.com/?p=16258

Again, this worked until a few weeks ago.

I’m now migrating from Endomondo to SportyPal, as SportyPal doesn’t have this problem. Is there any way HTTP requests can be turned back on in Endomondo so that embeds once again function correctly?

I do prefer Endomondo’s presentation, so I’m hoping this will get fixed someday.

Day 678: Exploring Wausau, Wisconsin and Flying a Spacecraft

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Ben

Today we drove into town with Tricia’s sister to explore Wausau. Our first stop was Marathon Park, where we took a look at the concession building grandpa Glenn built back in the day:

The ice rink building where Trish and her sister skated was open, so we looked around inside. The ice is gone for the season:

Next we walked through Isle of Ferns park near downtown:

We visited the downtown plaza:

After we got back to the RV, Trish made a bracelet for her online jewelry store:

While in downtown, I picked up tourist information in the local visitor information center, and we found out that Tuesday nights the local high school planetarium hosts Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator games. In this game, five players each control an aspect of the ship: Helm, Weapons, Engineering, Communications, and Science, while the captain gives orders. The main screen was projected onto the planetarium wall:

The kids and I watched the first game as we had never seen it before. In the second game of the night, M was at Weapons and I was at Engineering. It was great fun! B opted not to play, and she put on her best bored face.

Meanwhile, back at the RV, Trish spent the night visiting with relatives that came over to Aunt Diane’s house where we’re parked.

Day 677: Roll Out the Barrel

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Ben

Today we visited with grandpa Glenn and Edna, where I nervously cranked up the old Silvertone phonograph to play “Beer Barrel Polka”:

We returned to the RV in the early evening, where the restaurant next door was hosting a group of classic cars:

I rode from the RV to the summit of Rib Mountain, Wisconsin’s tallest mountain relative to its local terrain:

On the way back I had to summit “Crazy Steepy”, which maxed out at 24% grade. Click the Vel and Alt buttons on the upper edge of the map to display the ride graph:

Crossing the Big Rib River: