Spring Break '08 - Part 1

What seemed to be a Really Loooong Post

by

Me

Good Afternoon to who ever reads this. I'm in Naples Florida sitting at a vacant covered bar type area in between two pools, a lap pool and a nice resort style lounge pool. In the adjoined screened in lapper pool is an elderly lady who I believe to be walking laps rather than swimming but whatever way you wanna do laps is cool w/ me. In the unscreened lounge pool I can over here two tan grey hair gentleman discussing something, there's some kids splashing around in the shallow section and in the far off distance is Tori laying butt up catching some rays watching her "Sex In the City" dvd's on the portable. I'm chillin in the shade enjoying the nice breeze that goes thru listening to the tunes above and the birds chipping.....it's all pretty nice right now.

I made a couple last minute choices before leaving the house on Sunday morning that I'm very pleased with. One was grabbing the laptop computer and NetGear wireless card. They have a wireless system here at the clubhouse so I'm able to do this, which made me feel pretty cool as I figured it out all by my lonesome...impressed i am. Ya see I can find my way around a computer like the ave guy but once you get past the norm you lose me. Kinda like a car. I know how to drive one and I know the main components but would I really try to flush and fill the fluids or try to bleed the brakes by myself.....I don't think so, maybe w/ someone who's done it before holding my hand for the first round but not right off the bat going blind. This is how I feel w/ my computer. I know how to "drive" it but I really don't know all the in's and out's. I didn't know if the wireless card works w/ any system or had to go thru the receiver at home. Like a garage door opener is what I thought. My garage door opener won't open your garage....well then why should my wireless card catch your signal???? Who know's? Not me. Who cares...I'm curious but hey....if it works I'm game. So I'm on the Internet. Glad I brought the computer to check email and look up local destinations and maps...which leads me to my number two last min grab....the Skateboard.

I googled Naples a couple of weeks ago and during my search I looked to see if they had any skateparks....why you ask? When we went to LV for Sema we stayed the wkend following to hook up w/ Tori's old buddy and her husband. I asked him to show me around and I noticed there were skateparks all over LV, making me wish I had mine w/ me and because I do skate the park in town from time to time and when I'm cleaning out the garage I will goof off on the board for 5 minutes or so before I put it back. It turned out they do have a couple of skateparks down here and thanks to the best thing man has created so far next to the bicycle and skateboard, the Internet, I was able to search further finding pics and vid's on the parks here. During these searches I learned that the Edge Skatepark is half concrete and half normal wood/metal ramps. I thought to myself "yessss", I finally get the chance to ride a concrete park. You see ever since I can remember I have seen pics in mags like Thrasher, Transworld, BMX Action, BMX Plus and movies such as; Rad, Curb Dogs, Cleamin the Cube, Thrashin, P&P's Search for Animal Chin and so on I've always wanted to ride/skate concrete parks! I hear stories on how we used to have a really cool concrete park behind BigWheel roller rink and so on. This is all fine and dandy but I wanted to experience it for myself. This was my chance....but then reality set in and I thought when am I going to get to go down there and spend a couple of hours, what if they have pad and helmet rules, will I need to go out and spend a chunk of change just to to this? Do I really want to carry my board on the plane, etc...you get the picture. So I said forget it and was planning on leaving it at home. I didn't pack my skateshoes or any shorts that I could trash. I was fine w/ it and just called it getting old and boring. But then it happened.


I was all packed up and ready to go....waiting for Tori (of course beauty takes time) to finish up and her Dad to pick us up to give us the ride to GMIA. I sat in my leather chair, grabbed the remote and turned the TV on to keep my occupied. The channel that I was watching Sat nite before I turned it off was FuelTV....and when I turned it on I watched about the last 20 minutes of the movie that was dedicated to Shane Cross, a skater that lived life to the fullest and passed away and the too young age of 21. This video and the end made me think...Life is way to short to do another "shoulda - woulda - coulda" moment. I HATE it when people, including myself, say "You should have....." Screw you I think. So in this moment I said that's it....I'm doing it. I ran to the garage and grabbed my board.....ran upstairs to my closet and grabbed my Vans and some of my less than perfect cargo shorts.....and am I happy I did. Shane Cross.....thank you. If you want to see a cool movie...google his name and either TiVo it on Fuel or else go out and buy the DVD.

So here's some shots of the skatpark.

Deep tight pool above and Very Fun Snake run and Bowls below

I did manage catch a fairly nasty cold right before we came and had the 2nd worse flight of my life coming down here and feel like absolute dog shit when I snapped this pic and was very irritated by the humidity and that is why I have the funky look on my face but I was way too pumped to let that stop me from my mission of fun.

Our POS Chevy "No Power anything and no f*'n Key Fob" Caveman era Caviler....but the AC is really good. I had to inflate all the tires as they were all....let me repeat myself.....ALL the tires were at 20-25 psi and were supposed to be at 44! Every corner I was making noises...this and I had to replace a 20A fuse to make the lighter outlet work for our GPS unit...this is all small potatoes in the greater scheme of things I know but when you pay someone for provide an auto for you, I would have expected all of these minor things to have been taken care of....but that's just me....and I digress. She now rolls solid and our lady friend is telling us "Left turn in 2 miles on ______ Drive"....so it's all good. You know what else is funny with the car? A new 65K dollar Corvette pulled up along side us almost the same color! I was "oh yeah" what up dude! Like we were riding the same thing and he just looked away.....Lots of cool cars down here....Lambo's, Ferrari's, Porsches's, Bentley's, Mercedes, Lexus, Vet's, Caddy's, Bimmer's, Jag's you name it.

These Lambo's were outside of the Tommy Bahama's Restaurant last night...I had the Ahi Tuna....ummmm...and the wasabi was really good. I went back to the skatepark today for an hour or so but my legs started shaking and I thought I might pass out so I "stopped while I was ahead" of a crash or bail. I still have Tri training to keep in mind and don't need any road rash or sore ankles, knees, wrists or elbows.

Ok that's enough for now....more to come.....cya