Another active day

Keeping with my promise to myself of more activity,  today I decided to partake in 2 separate sports.  The first one was a good 'carve boarding' session on the only hill around here.

About 10 years ago, Jan bought me a carve board for my birthday.  A carve board is sort of a cross between a skateboard and a surfboard.  It has big grippy tires and it 'carves' like a surf board.  It's a lot of fun and I used to ride it fairly often on the hills on the Outer Banks.  

Once we moved to Florida, I didn't ride it again until today!  It was a fun - thigh burning workout and I hope to make it more of a habit.

The video below is a music video of carve boarding that I made for The Pit Surfshop on the Outer Banks.  The band is Fighting Gravity and all the footage of the band was shot at The Pit.

Fighting Gravity

The Pit | Myspace Video


In the afternoon, I took the beach cruiser bike over to the beach and had a good hour long ride while listening to some good tunes.

Afterward, while sitting on the beach looking out at the waves, I was reminded of what a good life I have.  I hope I don't ever forget it.  I am a fortunate fellow.

From there, I headed up the beach and checked out the new roof top bar on the pier.  I've been having some more problems with my stomach and so I thought it was time to do a medical test to see if my stomach could handle beer.   I'm happy to report that it all seems just fine!

The view from the roof-top bar on the pier.

For anyone who's interested to know, I'm still getting plenty of 'house work' done as well.  I got some work in the yard done as well as some work in the garage.  It's not ALL fun and games!   :)

A 3 Sport Day

The 'toy box' on the beach today.

While I was in New Hampshire last week, I made a commitment to myself to get more active.   I've noticed a vicious cycle of being fatigued and not getting enough exercise.  The only way to break that cycle is by getting out there!

I got back on the bike this week and have 3 rides under my belt since tuesday and plan to get 2 more in before heading off to Indianapolis on tuesday.   Today I had a nice ride down through Ponce Inlet, around the lighthouse and back to my car up in Port Orange.   

For the first time in a long time, I also got back on the surfboard.   I let other things get in the way of that over the last year and I need to not let that happen any longer.   I'm happiest when I'm out on/in the water.    Today was no different.  The surfing was not good - little 2 foot mushy waves,  but being back out on the board was great.  It's clears your view of things.    

I had a great dolphin encounter while out there - with a pod swimming all around me chasing bait fish.  Most were adults but there was one little baby dolphin.  It almost looked like a toy.    Some teenage boys saw the dolphin swimming around me and started swimming out to where we were.  As they approached, the facial expression on one of them changed and he looked at me and said "Those ARE dolphins aren't they".    It made me laugh out loud.

Not from today - but similar (including the flat water).

I also went to the driving range to hit some golf balls, but I picked a pretty stupid time to do it - around 4:30 in the afternoon - in July - in FLORIDA.    I didn't even finish the bucket of balls because of how much I was sweating.     Still, a good trend was started today - doing fun stuff to stay active.  

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Another 'good one' gone.

From 1986 through 2005, I found myself in a position of losing more friends than any person my age should have to.  Some were really close friends.  Almost all of them died in hang gliding, paragliding or ultralight accidents.  Some, right in front of me.   It's a tough burden to bear.  Nonetheless, I would go through the pain of losing those friends many times over - just to experience the joy of knowing them.

John 'Wiley' Carlton - age 44, (who everyone knew as Wiley) was one of the planet's most talented pilots.  His 'claim' to fame in the hang gliding world was how good of a tug pilot he was.   Wiley flew 'tugs' for many of the flight parks -where you'd be pulled to altitude by an ultralight - instead of running off a mountain.  But Wiley could fly anything and fly it well!

Wiley was killed while crossing the road in Kill Devil Hills yesterday.  Hit by an ice cream truck.    It almost sounds like a joke doesn't it.  Fly every kind of aircraft that people label as crazy - then hit by the proverbial truck while crossing the road.

Wiley had a love for life and living it to the fullest.  I hadn't seen Wiley since I retired from the HG industry, but I'll never forget him.

Rest in peace Wiley.  The whole aviation community will miss you greatly.

Photo stolen from Lauren's FB post.  Thanks Lauren.

Catching up on the last few weeks

Yeah, so I said I was going to update the blog more often - that's not been going so well.  I'll try to do better.

So here's what's happened in the last few weeks - mostly explained in photos.

The middle of June had me in Michigan for a NASCAR race.  The track is located about an hour and a half from Detroit in the small town of Brooklyn, MI.  This track - like many - are in the middle of nowhere and so there are few hotels near the track.  For that reason, we stay in Ann Arbor, MI.  Ann Arbor is a nice college town with lots of good eateries.  The drawback is that it's a 45 minute drive (each way) to the track.  That really adds to your work day.  The 3 photos below are from the Michigan track.

From Michigan, I flew directly to San Francisco for the Sonoma Race.   Rather than fly all the way back to Florida on monday - just to get on a plane again early on tuesday, I spent a layover day in the Bay Area.

My long time buddy - Tim is going through a tough time in his life right now and it was important to me to spend some time with him.  Tim and I met in Los Gatos and had dinner and then walked to the park and had an excellent reminiscing session.   Tim is an inspiration to me and he'll always have a special place in my heart.

The next day found me in the crew hotel in Napa, California. for a week of NASCAR work.  The following photos are from that week.

This is the courtyard at the hotel we stay at in Napa.  I have breakfast out by this pond with the ducks swimming around.  It's peaceful.

Barry - from the TV show Storage Wars was in the TV compound in Sonoma.  I had to have a chat with him and take a photo.  He's the best character on that show!

Almost every day had us stopping at a winery on the way back to the hotel to sample the wine.  This photo is from the rack in one of the wineries.

A  year ago, I helped my niece Nicole get a job at Sportvision and so I am VERY lucky to get to work with her. She's like a daughter to me.  This is Nicole and I at Laird Winery.

This is Nicole and I at Silver Oak winery. I liked the wine so much there that I bought a $117 bottle of wine.  Sheesh!

This is the back of the main grandstand at the Sonoma track.  Notice the jets putting on an airshow.

After Sonoma, I headed home for a week off.   Starting on July 3rd, I began a week of work at the Daytona Track.  This race is especially good for me because I can work it from home.

After our first 'set' day, 2 of the crew (Jack and Drew) and myself took my sailboat SERENITY for a trip down the river to have dinner at a local restaurant.  It was good to get her out of the slip again.

Jack is good photographer and took this photo of me while we were underway.

While I was working the Americas Cup last year, I met an awesome Scottish lad whom I worked closely with.  He's a big fan of the movie Talladega Nights and so I convinced him to come down to Daytona and experience the race with me after the Rhode Island Americas Cup series the week prior.

Al and I on the roof at the Daytona Speedway

Sunset at the Speedway

One of my favorite bands - Train - played a concert before the race.  Of course my favorite song of their (Drops of Jupiter) was very last.

So after the Daytona Race, I got on a plane and headed to New Hampshire.  The race there is in Loudon - about 35 minutes north of Manchester where we stayed.

The day before I left to go to NH there was a big thunderstorm and it started a fire near our neighborhood.  This photo is taken from the street in front of our house.

This is the view out my hotel window in NH.  The hotel is planted right in centerfield of the local minor league baseball team.

Manchester NH is just 1 hour north of Boston and so Sam Adams is big in the area.  The local distributor had a 'tasting' night while we were there.

Taken from the airplane leaving Daytona.  This is the marina where my boat is.

The view of Daytona beach from the plane.

And that catches us.  

Bonus Pic:

Jan sent me this picture of my boy while I was in NH.