(headline Vacaville Reporter, July 19, 1998)

UPDATE: Ned Roscoe moved the dinosaur from Benicia to his private home in the Napa area, and it's no longer viewable to the public as of mid-2005. Sniff!

Dixie was a life-size brachiosaur who "lived" in Dixon. Initially, when the dinosaur was brought in to the gas station, other business owners complained about sign ordinances. Finally the dinosaur was allowed to stay, and every time we drove past, everyone made sure I waved at the dinosaur. I stopped there 4 years ago, right after it first went in, and gazed at the flying-in pictures. I was saddened that I hadn't seen it when it came.

Then the gas station sold out, and the people at the corporate headquarters, in Benicia, wanted their dinosaur. They would fly it over on July 18, 1998, at 0630. I was determined to see this!

The night before, I got to bed at midnight. When the clock rang at 5, my reaction was "Whose stupid idea was this, anyway?" Well, that would be me. Dixie, was going to be flown out at 6:30 and I wanted to see it. We muttered to our feet and stumbled around, and got to the car at 5:30 for the 40-minute drive.

It was fortunate that the traffic was so light, and we made better time than that, because the time was changed to 6. We got to the intersection about then, and saw the crowd, and Rich finally got parked, and out we went, cameras in hand. Dixie was down, and we had the foot view, with the sun rising behind it, so we walked to the south side.

I'd hoped to get to the highway side, but the helicopter was there, so I got a good vantage point and started clicking away.



Hooking it on
It Gets Up...

It flies!

Going...
Going...

Gone!!

This is Rich in the foreground!		Rich and Bernadette were closer to the center of the crowd. At one point I realized I wasn't actually seeing the real thing, just the view through my viewfinder, and put the camera down and watched. Neat. (Though I must admit a bit of a tear came to my eye!)

The helicopter and dinosaur went up, and over the highway. I didn't see any accidents. Most of the people on the road had already stopped. It was all over in 10 minutes, the dinosaur disappearing to the south.
Rich and Bernadette were interviewed by theVacaville Reporter, ("are you commuters or did you come for this?") so I called them and got a couple of issues.


Where Dixie Landed

DINO, TAKE ME HOME! 1