The week in Key Largo/Homestead

The view from my room

I'm at the final race of the season. It's a wonderful thing to be at the end of a season and have that "last day of school" feeling. We're staying at the Hilton Resort in Key Largo and since we're all Hilton Honors Gold VIP members, we've all been upgraded to nice waterfront rooms. I'm really enjoying getting up before sunrise and watching the sky light up the and water go from black, to steely grey to blue.

The crew has such a fun time here and I'm very happy I work with such a fun group of people.

Our Crew here in Homestead.

After Sunday's race, we'll break down the equipment for the last time - until Daytona in February. I'll be heading off to the Bahamas for the winter in my boat. My buddy Rick Jacob will spend December with me - helping me take the boat over. We'll then fly back, I'll spend Christmas at home and then Jan and I will fly back to the boat for the month of January.

I plan to keep the blog updated during the winter.

Bike Time

Approximately a year ago, I bought Jan and myself some Trek hybrid bicycles. The hybrid bike has the frame of a mountain bike with suspension, but the tires and components of a road bike. The seating is 'upright' much like a mountain bike. Mom bought me some Aero Bars for Christmas and they allow for a more aerodynamic posture when riding into the wind.

I've really enjoyed riding over the last year and today I checked my odometer to see that I've put 644 miles on it in one year. So, I got to thinking that I was disappointed in the miles - I'd hoped for much more. Then I got to thinking about how much I haven't been home in the last year. I pulled out my travel calendar and realized that when you add together the Nascar and Football work weeks, the sailing trips, a vacation out west, 2 trips back to the Outer Banks and more, I've only been home for 20 weeks out of the last year. Wow!

So, that's much better - 32 miles a week - still not anything to brag about, but something to expand on. My longest ride has been a little less than 60 miles. I've done a few 30 milers and quite a few 20-25 milers. Lately, I've been riding some 15-20 milers.

I'd wanted, by now, to have ridden the bike the entire length of Florida (from N - S along the east coast) from Fernandina Beach to Key West -which is about 600 miles on surface streets.. I need to get started on that. Even if I just ride a 50 mile length at time, it gives me a goal. I'm big on goals.

Last full day of the Vacation

We left Santa Cruz around 8:30 and headed north on highway 1 along the coastline. There was off and on fog along the way - making the drive even more scenic. We stopped at several places - a lighthouse and a very small town/village that was just off the main road. This is one of my favorite parts of California. It's amazing that it can be so close to San Francisco and yet so different.

When we got into the San Francisco area, we stopped at Fort Funston which is a park where I've flown hang gliders in the past. It was a little foggy and there were not pilots there until we were leaving. We didn't stay to watch them fly (been there - done that).

Since the fog was still kinda low, we decided to go into San Francisco and then check out the Golden Gate Bridge in the afternoon. We went down to Fisherman's Wharf area and hung out there for a while - having some lunch and doing tourist things. We drove on some of the super steep streets and went to the top of Lombard street (the really crooked one that you see on TV).

Later, we drove across the Golden Gate bridge and up to a good area to view it from on the north side.

In late afternoon, we drove back down to Half Moon Bay and checked into our hotel. This is a super cool town with a really good vibe. There's not a lot of places I would want to live in California (been there - done that too), but this is one of the exceptions. We had dinner outside on the patio at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company which is located out at the harbour and just south of the airstrip.

We'll be flying out of San Francisco today. Mom and Dad have a direct flight to Charlotte. Jan and I will be connecting in Atlanta, then to Daytona. Tomorrow - there will be humidity!

Looking out over parts of San Francisco

Mom and Dad at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

The Ft. Funston hang gliding launch is just behind mom and dad.

Alcatraz!

To the Coast

Mom & Dad at the Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

We got up in Oakhurst, CA, had some breakfast and then got on the road. Our path took us through the Central Valley and then over the mountains, and to the sea.

We passed through Gilroy -the garlic capital of the world - a place Jan has always loved to visit. They have everything 'garlic' here including garlic ice cream.

We then headed over to the beach at Marina. Marina, California is my favorite hang gliding site in the world. If I could only pick one place to fly - this would be it. You can fly miles to the south of launch and pilots have gotten thousands of feet high here - just getting up from the dunes and into the convergence of the sea breeze and the land air mass. It's a wonderful playground that the average hang glider pilot makes the mistake of not appreciating enough.

We then headed over to Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey and had some lunch and did a little shopping. Driving down to Carmel-by-the-Sea, we walked around the town, looking in the local shops and such.

In the mid afternoon, we headed over to my buddy Jim John's boat in Monterey, where he currently has it 'hauled out' on land and is doing a little painting on it. (For some stupid reason, I didn't take a photo of Jim)

From there, we drove up to Santa Cruz, checked into our hotel and then went over to my buddy Rusty's house where he and his gal Angela have really done a great job of remodeling their first house. We then all went over to the Wharf in Santa Cruz, met up with an old hang gliding buddy - Tim Shea (and his gal Mary) and had dinner at a great Mexican place. I met Tim about 15 years ago when I came out to this area and did a series of hang gliding clinics. Tim turned "professional" as a hang glider pilot for a number of years, but now works as a building inspector for the city of Santa Cruz.

After dinner we spent some time on the Santa Cruz boardwalk - which is like a permanent county fair. Dad had a deep fried twinkie and played a carnival game. Both he and mom really seemed to enjoy the day.

Today is the last full day of the trip. We're off to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge as well as other stuff.
Mom on Jim's Boat

The hang gliding site at Marina

Me and Rusty at his house

Flowers in Gilroy

Tim, Me and Rusty on the Wharf in Santa Cruz