A Day At The Races

So about two weeks ago I took a little road trip down to St. Petersburg, (that's Florida, not Russia). There I spent the day watching cars go round and round the streets of the city. They went very fast too. I was there for the Honda Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg, the season opener for the Indy Car series.




One of the first people I saw after I got in the gates was one of my favorite drivers Danica Patrick. So of course I quickly took a picture then asked her if i could get a picture with her . . . She was in a hurry to get to the morning warm up and so denied my request. Oh well!! I was able to acquire a souvenir hat . . .



Right after I got a photo of Danica I turned a corner and ran into her boss . . .




My Favorite retired driver, Michael Andretti. I actually got this picture later in the day, when I saw him in the morning there were very few people around so I said have a good season and he said thanks. When I got the above shot he was scurrying off to some meeting or something, he took time to sign a couple autographs and talked to the fan in the wheel chair for a bit, but then had to hurry on.



This bit of video really does not show you how fast these cars were moving when they went by on this section of the track, they were doing around 150 - 160 MPH here.



For the sake of comparison here they are going by under yellow flag conditions.

A holiday bike ride

So, it's Christmas, and I do wish one and all a very wonderful holiday season and hope that each of you has the best of everything in the year to come.

Today I got out of bed had breakfast and by 8:00am was on my bike doing a trail ride on the Marjorie Harris Carr cross Florida green way. I had as my objective, a trip to the man made land bridge over I-75 with a starting point of the 49th street trail head. That would be a ride of a few miles, I gave myself lots of time so that I wouldn't be pushing too hard, being out of shape like I am.
So the ride started out okay, got into a little sand right off that was a little tough going but once I was through that it looked like smooth sailing. I of course did note the signs that indicated this was a "more difficult" trail. Considering the fact that Florida is pretty flat I didn't figure that things would get too tough, of course right after I decided I had been right about that . . . there was a steep climb, not a big climb just steep. right after the climb I started riding over roots that crossed the trail, not little roots, these are like 6" - 8" in diameter. Rough ride, but I soldiered on. Now the trail started to twist and wind through the forest, one second traveling South the next West, then east, no North, um We, er South. I'm getting a little turned around here, sure glad the sun is out so I know which direction I am traveling. Hey where did all this overcast come from!? Well at least the trail is smooth, level and . . . whoa where did that dip come from? granted these weren't really deep dips, 3' - 4' maybe as much as 5' the real issue with these is the fact that they drop in steep, and climb back out almost vertically. Did I mention that I am not in the best physical condition!? Anyway, it was a fun ride, The forest is a cool place to go, quiet, green, (I think it was about 75 degrees while i was out there riding my bike, very pleasant.)

Check out the pics from the ride . . .

This low bridge could really cause issues if you aren't

watching where you are going!

Here's my bike waiting on me.

This is the forest I was riding through.

I came across a lot of these narrow places!

and then there's this little obstacle.

So, this past weekend I went on a Boy Scout camp out with Cameron, and then Saturday night Breckin and Cameron joined me for dinner at the church and spent the night.

(Check out Breckin's Iron Man P.J.s)

The camping/ swimming pictures were taken at the Juniper Springs camp ground in the Ocala National Forest