My Marty Day Weekend Trip

I don't know if anyone took the long holiday weekend to anything interesting but I took a little road trip. I left on a brisk Sunday morning headed for Daytona Beach. My first stop was not really a stop because I never got out of the car but I drove around the grounds at Daytona Speedway. It is a very impressive structure. It makes the Big House look like child's play. Next was the world famous beaches of Daytona. I walked about a mile up the beach into the freezing wind and then back down the beach with the wind at my back and sun in my face. There were even a couple jabronies (?) in nothing but swimsuits throwing the ball around in the water. The air temp was less than 50 and the water temp was only about 60. Crazy bastards. After taking a drive literally on the beach I headed for my next stop, Ocala National Forest. Well, the forest was much less popular than I had anticipated. After driving 10 miles down a dirt road and only passing one car I was officially in the boonies. There was a little parking lot off the dirt road with access to the two hiking trails that I was there for. Each trail was about 2 miles with one going to a 125 foot deep sink hole and the other led to Lake Eaton. It was kind of scary out there with no one else around. Every time I heard a squirrel moving I would get startled. But that is probably because two kids were randomly murdered camping in the park a week ago. Good thing I wasn't camping.

Sunday night ended for me in Kissimmee just outside the main entrance to Disney. Monday I headed to the Animal Kingdom and managed to get a park hopper pass for the price of a single park thanks to my Florida residency (even though I'm not officially a resident). The Animal Kingdom was just a glorified zoo with a couple rides, definitely not worth $70. I was done at that park by 2 pm so I was glad I had the park hopper. So I strolled over to Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. It was just as I remembered except they bastardized the old Mission to Mars ride by turning it into some stupid Stitch thing. I still love the Carousel of Progress. I can't wait to have some kids to take to Disney. I guess I need to find a lady that will take me first. Irregardless [;o)], it is an impressive complex. I was out of there by 5 pm for a dinner meeting with a PAM client.

Tuesday was to be the highlight of the trip with a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center at Titusville. I bought a 12 month pass there in case I wanted to come back. It was a good idea because after waiting more than two hours at the viewing area the launch was scrubbed due to high winds and a possible technical problem. I was disappointed but there was no need to force it up since it was loaded with almost 100 pounds of plutonium and if it blew up on take off they told us to go into the nearest building and not to come out until they said it was okay. Very reassuring. I mean how could the radioactive dust possibly make its was into the buildings? Impossible! I still got to see lots of cool things at the Space Center including the largest rocket ever, the Saturn V, pictured above. I will be back before the year's up. I made the 2 hour drive back up to Jacksonville and was home in time for dinner.

Overall, it was a great weekend and was an excellent reminded of one of the reasons I came down here. I hope your weekend was just as enjoyable. Take care.

The List

Okay, so last year I spent New Year's Eve/Day with my friend from DC. She suggested that instead of making a single New Year's resolution, that you know you wouldn't keep, we should make a list of ten personal goals for the year. I thought it was a really good idea and we did it. Since, I have nothing particularly exciting to write about at work (other than the fact that I put a nail 1/2 inch into my foot last week) I would summarize my results from last year's list and lay out my new one. I don't know how she did on her list but here is mine.


Volunteer once a month...................................Yes, I think I got the equivalent.
Karate class........................................................No
Scuba lessons.....................................................No
Visit old house in Texas....................................No
Go camping cross-country...............................No
Average < 90 for golf........................................Yes, 89.3
No back injuries for year..................................Yes, nothing significant.
Move back to MI for Summer of Phelan........Yes, well sort of, I took August off.
Learn to surf in San Diego................................No
Develop a business plan for PAM....................No, but I did begin building the model to be used.


Well, 4.5 out of 10 is nothing to write home about (but I guess it's worth writing on a blog). I'm going to carry over most of my failures from last year for 2006 and add a couple more. So here is the 2006 list.

1. Scuba lessons.
2. Visit old house in Texas.
3. Go on cross-country camping trip.
4. Learn to surf in San Diego.
5. Take one out of town trip per month while in Florida.
6. Visit New York City.
7. Study Spanish. (doesn't have to be too advanced, just some vocab to start)
8. Don't eat beef (except once at JWP golf outing).
9. Play golf twice per week while in Florida. (range or course)
10. Focus on legs, back, and cardio (not upper body) when working out.

I think my chances are better this year than last given my lack of work responsibilities and the fact that I'm probably not going to start looking for a job until I get back to Chicago in September. I have an additional goal for the year that I will keep private, but I'll still let you know at year-end if I met it.

I wanted to show that although he is now a paper pusher, my brother still knows how to get his hands dirty on the job. He volunteered to work on a house with me while he was here last week. Only took him 4 hours to scrap and sweep a floor. He must think he's in the volunteers' union.

Have a nice weekend.

Made it back to Florida.

I just sent my brother off on the Amtrak for DC. That'll be a long 13 hours. But we had a great trip down here. We left Lansing on Thursday (12/29) morning. Our first stop was the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. It was cool but being located about 50 yards from the expressway, it didn't have the same feeling as Cooperstown. We made sure to see what kind of bio they had on the Juice. Nothing about his last two moves (I won't say it.). We finished the first long day of driving in Charleston, WV. We stayed at a nice Holiday Inn Express in downtown that we picked up for $35 on Priceline that morning. Friday was by far the most scenic of the trip. We drove a lot of two lane roads between Charleston and Petersberg, VA. Our first stop was the New River Gorge Bridge. It was awesome. Over 800 feet high over the gorge. It was like a mini-Grand Canyon. Next was the Lost World Caverns somewhere in very rural WV. Pretty cool but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. Then off to Appomattox. Unfortunately we were a half hour too late because it had closed at 5, but we were able to see the courthouse and other buildings (as well as a few deer) before it got completely dark. That night we stayed at a ghetto Quality Inn in Petersberg, VA for $50 that we got on Hotwire. I guess you win some and lose some in the online hotel bidding game. We ate at a very nice little English Pub in what's left of the Petersberg downtown. Saturday we spent the whole morning at the Petersberg Civil War battle fields where we saw the "Crater" which remains from when the Union troops tunneled (?) under the Rebel line and blew it up with gun powder and proceded to run into the Crater and get slaughtered from above (see the first 5 minutes of Cold Mountain). Next stop was Wilmington, NC where we toured the WWII battleship USS North Carolina. It was huge. We had to run the last 15 minutes in the boat to make it out before they threw us in the brig at closing time. Unable to successfully procure a hotel room online for New Year's Eve we headed for Charleston, SC. Driving through Las Vegas of the Southeast (Myrtle Beach) we stopped for dinner at about 9 pm and decided to keep driving the remaining 80 miles through fog to Charleston. We ended up in a nice Comfort Suites. Sunday was spent in Charleston viewing various Revolutionary and Civil War forts as well as historic downtown. The city is outstanding and I would highly recommend spending a couple days there sometime. Our final stop was Brunswick, GA to have dinner with Lee and we finally arrived in Jacksonville on Sunday night at about 9 pm after more than 1500 miles on the rode. It wasn't as grand as the big baseball road trip we took a few years back but still quite the adventure. We went to the Gator Bowl yesterday and then he volunteered with me today. The whole week and a half break was a great time.

Next post will be this year's list of 10 New Year's Goals, which replaced the New Year's resolution last year thanks to my favorite friend from DC. Until then, take care.