One of the great things about cruising is all the great food and entertainment.  We spent most of the days at sea relaxing by the pool and planning our next meal.  The food was great and we ate entirely too much but it was only for few days.  When we weren’t relaxing by the pool, we were exploring our ship.  We found a miniature golf course and a rock wall.  Lindsay beat me by one stroke in miniature golf but I beat her up the rock wall.

While visiting the island of Cozumel, I went on my first snorkeling adventure.  We met our group a few hundred feet from our ship and walked to a beach to do our snorkeling. I put my flippers, mask and snorkel on and waded into the water.  Next I was floating along with fish and seeing many beautiful things along a coral reef.  It was a very fun experience and I plan on doing it again someday.  The next stop was Playa del Carmen.  At this port we went on a glass bottom boat to see the coral reef.  We saw a lot and it was fun but the snorkeling was much more fun.

On our day at sea headed home we relaxed next to the pool again and tried not to think about coming home because we were having so much fun.  I had planned on getting up early, 4:30am to watch us travel under bridge going into Tampa Bay.  Our ship came within 6 feet of touching the bridge.  When I got up I could tell our ship was sitting still in the ocean and I couldn’t see anything because the fog was so thick.  In the distance I could here other ships blowing their signal horns.  There were several more ships anchored outside the bay because the fog had closed Tampa Bay.

We were supposed to be docked and off the ship by 8:30am on Saturday but the fog delayed the ship getting into port and we didn’t get off the ship until 3:30pm.  The extra time on the ship was nice.  We ate some more and sat and read our books.  I was reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  I still have a few pages left so I can’t wait to see how it ends.

The cruise was a great trip.  I had a chance to experience how some of the Mexican people live and also have fun experiencing new things.

In a couple of days I will post more pictures of my trip.  I still need to get them off of our camera and put them in an online album so you can see them.

The above link will take you to a video of the person I battled against for 5th place.  He ended up beating me to the finish line by .004 seconds.  I almost got him and it was a fun race.  We both had a spin early in the race.  If we hadn’t spun we may have been able to battle for the win but in racing as with all things mistakes happen.  The important thing is that we both didn’t give up and gave it our best for 45 minutes to finish 5th and 6th out of almost 30 other karts.  Maybe next year we will be battling for the Daytona World Championship.  Never give up and do your best.

If you watch the entire video, I am the kart, number 67, that he passes at 12:45 in the video.  The video is edited so you don’t see the back and forth battle we had and the close finish at the checkered flag. It is hard to express the fun and the excitement of laying on your back in one of these karts traveling at 110 miles per hour.  I will post more video from the event later.

The start of my first race was great.  I zoomed into the lead pack and was having fun but as we made it to the end of the long back straight at Daytona I knew I was in trouble.  I had chosen the wrong gear.  The other karts had much more top speed.  I was only getting a little over 100 miles per hour.  As we approached the first turn into the road course portion of the track I could catch back up in the tight turns but they would leave me again on the straight and each lap they got farther away.  I ended up racing with four other karts for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th place.  It was a fun race but I knew I should have done better.  In the end I finished 5th out of 20 karts.

I had a terrible start in my second race.  26 karts started the race and they all passed me on the start.  I don’t know why my kart didn’t get rolling good.  I passed a few in the road course and made my way up the banking in NASCAR turn 2.  As I entered the back straight, I realized I may have made a good decision on my gear.  I was drafting by several karts at a time.  I was approaching 110 miles per hour by the end of the first lap.  My gear choice for the second race was a good one.  If I had gotten a good start I could have raced with the lead karts but they had put a pretty big gap on me.  I was excited about my progress and had just passed another kart when I entered turn 1 at about 108 miles per hour and didn’t make the turn.  I drove through the grass and almost hit some barriers but I was able to get control of the kart and get back on the track but several karts that I had passed went by me and now my goal was to just calm down and make each lap as perfect as possible.  I knew my top speed on the back straight would help me catch some of the karts. I caught a pack of karts and raced back and forth for the last half of the race.  On the next to the last lap of the race a kart spun out just in front of me and almost took me out of the race.  I missed him by inches.  On the last lap I battled with the 5th place kart and only lost to him by .004 seconds at the finish line.  I felt that 6th place was good out of 26 of the best kart racers in the country.

I can’t wait to go back to Daytona.

Lindsay has been trying a new setup and had some issues with the new motor. Nothing too major but small things that practice allowed her to fix. I think she will have a good race tomorrow.

I will report on the races tomorrow.

Setup day consists of getting parked and looking over the Karts. We found some mechanical issues and fixed them. We are ready for practice day!

My next adventure will be December 28-30 at Daytona International Speedway.  We will be racing our karts in the Daytona World Championships with the World Karting Association.  I have won and finished 2nd a few times in the past but this year my goal is to just have some fun.  I will be racing against 20 to 30 karts.  When we get back I will report on how I did and also post pictures.

Have a Happy New Year!

Pictures – http://www.rcfox.com/mrfox_travels/Thanksgiving_2011/

Appalachian Trail - Learn about the trail

Getting started took a little bit of work.  We pulled a second vehicle so we could have a way to get home when we came off the trail.  Woody Gap is a little over 20 miles along the trail from the summit of Springer Mountain and we were starting about three miles on the other side of the Springer at Nimblewill Gap, for a total of 23 miles hiking.  After dropping off one vehicle at Woody Gap, we headed to Nimblewill Gap.  It took an hour and a half to get there.  The 7 miles up Nimblewill Gap Road took forever.  It was very bumpy and a road that isn’t made for regular cars.  The Jeep did fine and we parked it at the gap, which was only a wide spot in the road and a trail intersection.

Day 1 – 11:30 AM The hike begins.

From Nimblewill Gap, the trail led straight up and was a hard way to start the hike but it wasn’t long before it leveled out for a while.  It was up and down but mainly up to the summit of Springer Mountain.  Along the way we met a few people on the trail and also had to cover our packs because of rain.  It rained off and on the rest of the day.  At the summit of Springer we met a Mother and Father waiting on their daughter and several others.  The group had started at Mt. Katadin in Maine 100 days earlier.  We waited for a few minutes and the group arrived.  They made their almost 2200 mile hiking trip in 100 days.  They were very excited and were celebrating when we headed down the mountain.  We continued our hike and went through some very pretty scenery.  We arrived at Stover Creek shelter in mid-afternoon and took a few minutes to rest.  We completed about 5 miles on the trail in about three hours.  It was an easy and enjoyable day.

While gathering fire wood another hiker, Corey, showed up and said he wasn’t sure if he was going to stay at the shelter with us or keep hiking.  He was waiting on a friend that was supposed to catch up with him around 4:00 that day at the shelter.  Corey left to find his friend, Darien, and I didn’t expect him back, but in about an hour they both showed up and unloaded their gear in the shelter.  It started raining while we were trying to cook chicken for supper.  The fire was hot enough and we had some warm food for supper before climbing into our sleeping bags.  To my surprise I didn’t get woken up by mice during the night.  The shelters along the trail have tons of mice.  In past hikes I have woken up when a mouse crawled across my sleeping bag.

Day 2

We woke up the next morning and were on the trail around 9:30.  We had about 5 miles to hike again, this time to Hawk Mountain shelter.  Hawk Mountain is used by the Army for training Rangers and I was hoping we may see them but they were not training in our area of the trail.  We again shared the shelter with other hikers.  This time we met two thru hikers.  One was almost done and the other was just getting started and heading north.  The hiker almost finished was from Scotland and had some interesting stories to tell about his trip that had started over 5 months ago.  The hiker was headed north to Maine was ready for winter weather on his 2200 mile hike.  The third hiker was like us and just out for a fun few days.

Day 3

Day 3 was our longest hike.  It totaled 7.3 miles and had some steep uphill grinds to get to the next shelter at Gooch Mountain.  It was a hard day but we had great scenery, crossed several streams and had lunch at the top of Justice Mountain.  Horse Gap to Cooper Gap was the hardest section.  It was a mile up the mountain and a mile down the mountain.  My legs were burning when I got to Cooper Gap.  We arrived at the Gooch Mountain shelter in the afternoon and there were three hikers already unpacked. This would end up being a crowded shelter.  Six more hikers showed up and 4 of them were thru hikers with only a couple more days before being finished.  They had been on the trail for 5 months and 4 days.  We stayed up and sat around the fire while they told some great stories about their adventures.  Three of the thru hikers slept outside in their sleeping bags.  They called this “Cowboy Camping.”  That was very nice of them since the shelter was crowded.  We learned a lot from then about hiking long distances.

Day 4

We had 5 miles to finish our hike.  It wasn’t a hard 5 miles.  We took our time and stopped a couple of time to rest and look at all the mountains.  The sky was clear and we could see Stone Mountain and also could actually see the tiny silhouette of the buildings in Atlanta.  We made it to Woody Gap and my truck was still there.  We loaded up and headed for some big juicy cheeseburgers.  3 ½ of days of eating crackers, tuna and beef jerky makes you crave things like cheeseburgers and big cokes.  After eating we made the drive up Nimblewill Gap again.  Again it took forever but we made it and the Jeep was still there.  It was good hike and I can’t wait to do it again.

http://www.rcfox.com/mrfox_travels/silver_river/

State Park link

http://www.floridastateparks.org/silverriver/

Fort Mountain has many trails for hiking, horseback riding, and biking.  The weather was cool.  The temperature was in the low 40′s and the wind was blowing so it felt colder than that.  We hiked for about 30 minutes to an overlook.  When you click on the picture link below you will see just how spectacular it was.  After leaving the overlook we stopped by to read about some unexplained wall formations that were built on the mountain hundreds of years ago.

We sat in the sun and ate lunch and then headed for the lake trail.  It was a very nice easy hike.  We even saw a cotton mouth moccasin sitting in the sun to stay warm.  He wasn’t bothering us so we left him alone and walked by.  We finished our hike and went to rest a while.

We bought a pumpkin at the grocery store and carved it for Halloween.  You can see it when you click on the picture link below.

Picture link

http://www.rcfox.com/mrfox_travels/fort_mountain/index.html

http://www.jia.aero/

http://www.goldengatebridge.org/

http://www.goldengatebridge75.org/

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/index.htm

http://www.fishermanswharf.org/

http://www.calacademy.org/

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=sf

http://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm

http://www.mazdaraceway.com/

http://www.montereywharf.com/