Pedantic Prattles: September 2008

Cooking Dinner

Using Vicki's new iPhone.

Sunset in the Desert

Sunset at The Four Seasons in Scottsdale.

Bad Kharma in Boston?

View from room at the Westin of Copley Square in Boston. I am here with Mat Long. Mat and I were here on 9-11 along with some of the terrorist pilots. Hope this trip is less eventful.

TLC from Gunny in Virginia Beach

Gunny made us fried baloney sandwiches at our halfway stop in Va Bch.

Hazzard BBQ

We parked right next to the General Lee, but we didn't see Daisy Duke or either of the Duke boys.

Return Home Road Trip

We have been on the road for about 90 min. Only 574 miles to go.

Catching Air

Here is an example of what I was talking about in the prior post. I
also checked Google Maps and the we actually went 18 miles in the ocean
with this kind of chop on the water. From the inlet at the SC/NC border
to Sheep Island, NC near Sunset Harbor, NC.

Jetski Dolphin Tour

TJ and I went on a Jetski Dolphin Tour this morning. We each were on
our own jetskis. There were two other people on the tour and one guide.
We had to ride through the intercoastal out the inlet and then out the
ocean and cruise behind a commercial shrimp boat. Sounds good so far.
The intercoastal was relatively smooth. The jetskis go about 45 mph and
are lots of fun when the water is calm. When we hit the ocean, the chop
was 4-6 feet. Even at 20 mph the pounding was brutal. I went airborne
about 300 times. Each landing would stress your back, knees, or nail
you in the balls. Compounding that, the surf would plow over the front
of the jetski and give you a face full of water so that it was very hard
to see.

Normally, the guide said that they only go out when seas are 1-2 ft and
usually the shrimp boats are within 1 mile of the inlet. Not today.
The seas were 4-6 ft. and the closest shrimp boat was over four miles
north from the inlet so it took about 45 minutes to get out to the
dolphins. Of the 4 people in the tour I had the hardest time with the
surf and fell about a mile behind - I kept think "Who the hell are
these people?". I thought my problem was that I was carrying an extra
100 lbs., but that proved to be an illusion when a fat old lady and her
daughter (riding double) from another tour zoomed past me.

Anyway, when we got up to the shrimp boat there were lots of dolphins
swimming around us, but no Sea World tricks. We hung with the shrimp
boats for a half hour and then started to head back. To my horror,
rather than go back and essentially downwind, we kept going north for
another 2 miles. I fell so far behind that I could not see anyone. I
finally got up the next inlet and assumed that everyone went into the
intercoastal. Here the waves got larger and would break as the ocean
and inlet currents met. It was a lot of fun to ride with the waves
here. As I approached a small island, our tour merged with another tour
and were getting off the jetskis and hanging on the beach resting the
legs. Your legs get very tired riding rough chop as most people stand
on the jetski and use their legs to absorb the shock.

After a 10 minute break we now headed south on the intercoastal.
Compared to the ocean, it was like riding on glass. I was able to max
out the throttle at sped at 45 mph and was at the head of the pack vs.
in the back. It was a lot of fun riding the intercoastal, not so much
in the ocean.

Overall, the trip far exceeded my expectations (and TJ's) and was much
more of a physical challenge than you might imagine.