Just a couple of pics from a short ride I did.





[Posted with a Treo 600 & hblogger 2.0 by Tony]

Camping post 1

The drive down was pleasant and there wasn't any traffic until HWY 880. By Bay Area standards, what I experienced was a normal flow of traffic.

When I arrived, our site was still occupied. But we were able to get in at 12.



Wednesday afternoon was spent hanging around mostly and riding around the campground on our bikes with my nieces.

Thursday, I went for a ride south on 1 to HWY 84 into Woodside. Then I rode up HWY 35, AKA Skyline Blvd. to a road who's name I can't recall. It was a beautiful road through a redwood rain forest the dropped me back on to HWY 1.

Along the way I saw a snake, a dead bobcat as well as had two flats. The ride was about 4 hours long and covered about 50 miles and maybe 3 to 4 thousand feet elevation.

Friday started poorly because the camp stove wouldn't start. That meant making coffee in my parents motorhome. Some how along the way I became unmotivated for bike riding. Instead, we went for a walk along a beach path.



More to come later!

[Posted with a Treo 600 & hblogger 2.0 by Tony]

Going Camping...

I'm going camping at Half Moon Bay State Park until Sunday with my parents, nieces, and my brother and his wife will join us on Saturday. So, don't look for too many posts during that time period, unless of course my phone gets a good internet connection at the beach, which is totally possible. If that is the case, I'll take some pics with the phone and blog a little.

I found a document online that states Half Moon Bay State Park has Wi-Fi, but that you need to be an SBC customer to utilize it. I'm praying for the Wi-Fi, but won't be happy if it's only for SBC users.

Ok, I spent a couple of minutes reading the online document I found only to be disappointed. Not only is it not free, but it's expensive! Unless you are an SBC customer, I could never imagine paying what they want.

They have 3 plans, Subscription Service (only for SBC customers) at $1.99 if you have SBC broadband service at home or $9.99 if you have the dial-up. Memberships, primarily for non-SBC Internet access customers at $19.99 a month with a one-year term. And lastly, Prepaid Connection, which is available in 3, 8 and 20 increments at $25, $50, and $100 increments respectively.

I did find free Wi-Fi at the Half Moon Bay Library which is about 3/4 mile away from the campground, but I think I'll stick to the internet connection I get on my Treo 600 thank you very much.

Quick aside that I found humorous... Upon spell checking my post, Blogger's spell checker wanted to correct SBC to SOBS, how appropriate!

Vuelta Begins Saturday...

The 60th edition of the Vuelta a España is set to begin on Saturday and without any clear cut favorites, the race should be an exciting one. Of course the race should be dominated by the paper thin Spanish climbers such as Roberto Heras, Paco Mancebo, Manuel Beltran, Oscar Sevilla and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano. Non-Spanish riders with a chance include Floyd Landis and well, your guess other than Floyd is as good as mine.

In the sprints, look for Alessandro Petacchi, Tom Steels, Erik Zabel, and Tom Boonen.

Discovery has Max Van Heeswijk for the sprints, but look for them to contest the overall GC with Manuel Beltran or José Azevedo. Discovery has a very strong climbing lineup, and look to Discovery's super domestiques to hurt the opposition in the Asturias and the Pyreness, allowing one of the team to step up and push for overall victory.

Unfortunately there is no TV coverage in the USA that I'm aware of, so I'll be searching around for another way of catching some of the race. I'm hoping for somethinsimilarar to the Giro, where it cost $6 to watch the entire race online.

I'll let you know if I find anything.

The Frenchies Are Pissed...

The French never give up, do they? To bad the same could not be sad about their professional cyclists, who haven't had a serious result in their own national race, Le Tour de France, since 1985. So, to make themselves feel better about the situation, they pick on Lance Armstrong. Today, the French sporting daily, l'Equipe, published a 4 page article stating they have proof that Lance used EPO to win the 1999 TdF. Here is a link to a CyclingNews.com article and another from the AP via Yahoo Sports.

It's really sad how anybody in French sport has jumped on this bandwagon. It's evident from statements made by French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour. Not sure of his connections to the TdF or the drug-police governing bodies. But his comments were "It's a shock to learn this about a great champion," and "This is certainly an element that could tarnish his image."

Also, l'Equipe, is owned by Amaury Group whose subsidiary, Amaury Sport Organization, organizes the Tour de France and other sporting events. Sour Grapes!

In his defense, Lance has said again, "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs."

People, the guy's career is over, maybe you all should move on as well.

Sunday Ride Info...

Well, not just Sunday ride info really but I have a nice picture I made of my ride for Sunday. So, I had a nice 3 days of riding, which I'll top off with a ride today. I was able to squeeze in about 140 miles between Friday and Sunday. Friday's ride is only mentioned because of the number of incidents I witnessed.

You see, there was an accident on Thursday near the Costco where a mid 20's woman was riding against the light and was struck and killed. People were talking as if the influx of students may have been to blame for the madness occurring around town and I'm not against that idea. So, I wasn't more than 3 miles into my ride and sure enough, I happened upon an auto accident near downtown, involving what looked to be college aged women (gasps and tries to act surprised). Also on that ride, I witnessed two other episodes involving the police and motorists. The one that stands out involved a man and his truck wedged between a parking barrier and the river that flows through Bidwell Park. Some how this guy drove his truck around the parking barrier and got stuck. I do believe the two police and a tow truck fixed that problem, but I wonder what that guy was thinking!?

Saturday, I went to my friend Jonathan's house in Brown's Valley area to ride. We did a nice mellow 45 miles or so with a few thousand feet of climbing followed by some hanging out in his pool. I got sunburned!

Sunday, I went out alone and rode hard for a couple of hours before an easy hour ride home. The map I created showed that I covered about 50 miles. Nothing really out of the ordinary on this ride but I did make a cool image of a map I created using Google Earth. The map, as well as looking pretty, is a way for me to get a better idea as to how many miles the trip was. It's not exact as a human did the plotting (me) but it's a good ballpark figure.

Check out Google Earth if you have a computer faster than 1 GHz and a broadband connection. You'll have to download the application but it's all free. One fun thing you can do with this program is a fly by of your route. The application will run you through the course you plot like you were in an airplane, pretty neat! Of course it does way more cool stuff than that, but I haven't gotten that deep into it's features yet.

Just Cycling News....

Some interesting things have happened in the past few days in the cycling world that interest me enough to create a post about it. So here it goes...

First off, we have Santa Rosa cycling star Levi Leipheimer , leading the Tour of Germany or Deutschland Tour if you're German. He's been leading for the past few days and is looking really good for the win, come the end of the race on Tuesday.
I believe as I type this post, the race of truth, also know as the individual time trial is in full swing. This race against the clock is bound to determine the eventual winner of this race. Levi's main competition would be none other than Jan Ullrich. But with the trial only 30K and Levi's advantage at 1:26 things are looking pretty good. So look for Levi to be on the top step of the podium come Tuesday.

Also, one other story in the Deutschland Tour which caught my attention is Saul Raisin. He was recently profiled over at PEZ cycling news where they point out that at 22 he could be the next Lance or Greg. He is currently sitting in 8th place 3:47 behind Levi.

Now for a little Lance news... You may have heard, but President George W. Bush announced his intention to keep 7-time Tour de France champion and almost 9-year cancer survivor Lance Armstrong on the President's Cancer Panel. As well, Lance was out in Texas for the "Tour de Crawford" on Saturday with the Prez. The pair rode their mountain bikes for two hours over 17 miles (27 km) around the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and Armstrong paid tribute to Bush's skills as a rider. "That old boy can go," Armstrong told ABC's This Week. "I didn't think he would punish himself that much, but he did."

I don't care much for his politics, the Prez that is, but his endorsement of bicycling surely goes a long way in my book. I believe it was an all around feel good day at the ranch and at the end of the ride, Bush gave Armstrong and the rest of the riders the T-shirts, which said ``Tour de Crawford'' on the front in Western-style rope script and ``Peloton One'' -- a reference to the densely packed group of riders in a race -- on the back. Bush also gave them red, white and blue riding socks with the presidential seal on the inner ankle.

One other tidbit of Lance news before we move on... Lance has been signed for life by Trek Bicycles. John Burke, president of Trek Bicycle, announced that Armstrong would be a Trek "athlete for life." In a deal signed Thursday that gives the Tour champion 7,000 shares of Trek stock, Armstrong agrees to permanently assist the company in the design and development of world-class bikes. Way to go Lance!

Though this all might seem good, there is one little blemish in that Trek also is the parent of LeMond bikes. Greg and Lance have traded shots in the press in the past. Greg: "Lance is a doper." Lance: "Greg is fat." It can't be good having your two top guys squabbling like that. Anyway, look for the Armstrong line of bikes soon. (last paragraph attributed to Fixedgear blog)

Now for Tyler Farrar news... Who, you ask? Well, this will be a name you will hear more of in the next few years. He's been riding this year with the HealthNet team and just yesterday was crowned USPRO Criterium Champion capping off a tremendous week. Tremendous because he also finalized a ProTour contract with French team Cofidis. Although Lance isn't racing anymore, that doesn't mean less results for American cyclists!

Now, go out and ride your bike!

Update to Blogging from MS Word

I give it a 6.5 or maybe a 7 in my ultra-fast analysis. It's still half baked in my book as you can't upload images and the hyperlinking didn't work properly. Most likely I'll have to fiddle with that before it works if it does at all. The highlighting from MS Word also didn't make it into the post. That would have been really cool if it did. The indent worked miserably and didn't indent at all, useless.

So, in a matter of 5 minutes I've realized this feature will work great if you are worried about working while not connected to the internet, enjoy saving your posts to the My Documents folder (by default), enjoy the easy with which Word allow one to format documents (being sarcastic)... well I'll leave it at that.

I suppose I shouldn't complain about another tool, who knows maybe it'll grow on me.

This is a test post

This is a test post of the emergency, oh wait, I’m just testing out Blogger’s new downloadable feature.  It allows a blogger to post from Microsoft Word if you happen to be using Windows 2000 or above.  Nothing really to get too happy about although Word can be fairly powerful, but at the same time totally impossible to deal with.  I suppose as long as I stay away from crazy formatting things should be OK.  

Let’s see how enumerated or bulleted lists come out, OK?

1. one


2. two


3. three

• point one


• point two


• point three

indent 1
indent 2
indent 3

Highlight in yellow

Well, upon publishing the first time I found out that images and document tables are not allowed.  So, you won’t see those here!







Bold ital underline

Here is a link to yahoo.com

(image placeholder)

Ok, that ought to do it for now.

Crunch!

So, here are the results of the Dodge VS. Lexus test when tow package of Dodge meets front bumper of Lexus. This all occured at about 2 miles per hour, creating about $4000 of damage. On a bright note, the front of my car is going to look shiney and new.

What happened was, I was hungry on the way home from camping and pulled into the McDonald's in beautiful Willits, CA. In front of me, two other vehicles also pulled in. The one directly in front of me was a two years new Dodge 2500 extracab with a very sturdy trailer hitch. After pulling into the lot, the guy in the truck realizes he just passed the primo spot by the front door and decides to back up. I'm 15 or so feet behind him and think he sees me. I don't bother to honk or anything figuring he's going to stop before he gets to me because I'm so far from the spot he plans to pull into. So, he keeps backing up and I still think he's going to see me if he already hadn't. Then he's still going backwards but I'm holding out. Finally, I realize he doesn't see me and I lay on the horn to no avail and CRUNCH... there he was parked on my front hood.

We both parked and swapped info just as my friends, Sam and Jessica were pulling in to the parking lot.

You can see where the end of the tow hitch just sliced through the bumper and made it's way into the headlight assembly in this picture below. It's amazing to me that it could cost so much to fix something that seems so minor. The adjuster said that it could get more expensive once they popped the hood. You see, after the incident, I never dared open the hood for fear it would not shut again. Plus, with that car there really isn't a reason to ever get in there anyway.

So, the thing is going into the shop on Tuesday, the day before I go camping in Half Moon Bay and should be complete when I return the next Monday. Then it's time fore some new rubber and a detailing. Then "lil lexi" will be lookin good, shy of normal wear and tear, ha ha.

Ok, Photos Uploaded...

Alrighty folks, I've uploaded all my Reggae on the River photos to Flickr.com. You can view them at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerocha/.

You'll also notice the new Flickr link I've enabled over on the right-hand side, you can use that in the future.

Ok, Haven't Posted in a While....

Well, I had hoped to post while at the 3 day reggae festival, but lack of phone service really ruined that for me. In past years the phone had worked great in the southern Humboldt area, but I had just changed phone prior to the vacation and had switched from an analog phone to a digital phone on Cingular's new network. Well, I guess the new network isn't as robust as it's analog counterpart.

So, as well as the phone not working, all the dust at the show and the fact I was getting over a sinus infection really ruined me. My lungs seemed to be filled with mud after a week in those conditions. So, I haven't been feeling all that well and it's a little depressing.

Then, on the drive home, while stopping at the McDonald's in Willits, my car was hit by a very large Dodge truck. It occurred in the parking lot at a very low speed, so no one was hurt, except my car. It sustained damage to the bumper, the hood, front driver's side quarter panel, and the left headlight. The body shop quoted my about $4000 to fix it but said that once they opened the hood it was bound to get more expensive. But lucky for the guy who hit me, he has AAA insurance, which seems pretty good and they are covering it.

So, even thought I wasn't able to blog while at the show, I did take pictures. I thought about just uploaded them all to the blog, but then in the past when I did that, it made for really big posts and if you aren't on a broadband connection, it made for super slow page loads. To remedy this, I have gotten an account at Flickr.com and will post the photos there. I'll be providing a link to said flickr account over in the right-hand side navigation bar. So, later today, look for those photos to be up at flickr and linked over in the navbar to the right. I'll also create another post to draw attention to this new feature of my site, in case you all forget.

The day began early when I woke up at 4:20 am without the alarm. I thought about staying in bed for a bit longer but realize my excitement to leave for the camping trip was too great.

I hopped out of bed and went to feed the cats and make coffee. then I packed the rest of the equipment in the car before taking a shower.

The night before, I had packed almost all of the stuff I was taking into the car as to be as efficient as possible the next morning. And I was.

The drive is always a nice one when you leave as 5:30 am. As I headed down HWY 5, the sun was just coming up. When I hit the windy part of HWY 20, the sun was begining to shine on the eastern facing slopes of the hills.

I pulled into the campgrounds at 9:30, said my hellos, and then set up my tent. Funny how unpacking is always easier.

Wednesday was a day to settle in ans get caught up with friends. But we did make a trip into Garberville for ice and a few items.

Only one friend from Colorado made it out this year. Sylvia, who for some reason I decided to call Sheryl in previous post, had driven out a couple weeks earlier and camped along the way. She's expecting a couple of friends on Friday.

So, back to the fun.



[Posted with a Treo 600 & hblogger 2.0 by Tony]

Tonight on Letterman... Lance

Doubt I can stay up that late, but Lance Armstrong will be on Dave Letterman tonight at 11:30. Just a little post Tour bike fix.

Pre Reggae On the River Post

It's that time of year again, where I mark the almost end of summer with the yearly trip to Humboldt County to see the largest Reggae festival in the northern hemisphere. Here is the link so that you can check it out. Click the read more to read more.
To be honest, I have hardly checked out the site myself. I love reggae but enjoy going to the show mostly to see friends I've made thoughout the years of going. It's a great time to relax and catch up on what's happened over the past year.

I see that they are going to have a big announcement at this years show. I have a feeling, as I've heard from my friends that live up that way, that they plan to move the site. I'm not happy about this as the site has been the same for 20 years and is partially what makes Reggae, well, Reggae. The inside scoop is that they pay the people who own the current site about $50K a year which compared to the millions they make not real fair. The reason they are planning the move is because they don't want to give them anymore than $50K and found a different site. Understand, I'm relaying hearsay, so this may or may not be the whole truth, but it's the word on the street. If they move, it's bound the throw a wrench in our well developed Reggae plan of attack.

But anyway... The show this year is star packed even more so than last year. It seems that the show gets more and better acts each year and this year is no exception. This year, some of the top acts are as follows:

MAXI PRIEST
JUNIOR RIED
MICHAEL FRANTI
DAMIAN "JR. GONG" MARLEY
STEPHEN MARLEY
BUJU BANTON
TONY REBEL
ALPHA BLONDY
ANTHONY B
OZOMATLI

and there are 3 times that many acts, so you know it's going to be a long 3 day weekend.

I'm planning to head up on Wednesday morning so that I can unwind and get settled in at the campgrounds. It's the time where I can catch up with friends and hang out by the river before the madness begins on Friday.

I still need to go shopping for food and drinks, freeze some water bottles, and gather up my camping gear. I think I'll get the shopping done over the weekend so that I can marinate and freeze the meats. Everything else I can break out on Tuesday after work and put directly into the car so that at the crack of dawn I can be on the road. It takes anywhere from 3:30 to 4 hours to drive up there and I'm hoping to be at the campground around 10 AM to get the party started. Most of the people I'm planning to see will have already arrived. My friends from the bay area, Sam and Jess, are going up on Monday and then Cheryl, Moody, and Laura are probably going to drive or fly out from Colorado about the same time. Also, Steve and his girlfriend, who are friends of Sam and Jessica, will be coming up on Thursday after work.

I just read over my post from last years show and I sure hope this year will be as great. I wonder what little side trip we might make on Thurday like our trip to Benbow Lake last year?

Anyway, look for the post-Reggae post around August 10th or so. Oh and if my phone works up there, which my old one has in years past, I'll be attempted to take some photos and do a little mobile blogging.