Orienteering Reedy Creek Park 4-Feb-2012

What a dreary day for orienteering.  We arrived to a large crowd.  I gave a quick class to about 20 people while Joey got off to a quick start. 

Then I ran Green.  I had some difficulty on one point and had to back track, the crowning achievement was smacking my head on a branch!

Results are here:

http://www.carolina-ok.org/results/season_2011-2012/2012-02-04/index.php

Joey, 1st out of 50 (great job) competitors and me 12 out of 20.

Orienteering McDowell Nature Preserve 3-Dec-2011

Well, this month was very interesting indeed!  Joey ran Yellow and came in first of course.  I decided to "coach" my princess and stay with her.  We did the White course and she did a great job.  It was pretty long for a white course and fun to walk through the woods with Jennifer and Darwin.  Alas, not enough time to run a course of my own, but I did get a workout doing control pickup!

Results are here: http://www.carolina-ok.org/results/season_2011-2012/2011-12-03/index.php

We finished the day off with lunch at T-Bones a very interesting place on the waterfront at Lake Wylie.

Zino Platinum Crown Series Chubby

You gotta love the name.

Cigar type-Perfecto

Ring Gauge-61, in the middle.

Length-150mm

Price-they go for $30, but I had this one in my humidor forever and don't imagine myself paying $30 per stick.

Rating-90/100

Look-it was a little aged for the wear, but it still looked pretty good.

One match light and even burn, excellent draw and a smooth smoke. The flavor was a little nutty and somewhat bitter, but at a 90, a testament to the quality of the cigar that it lasted so long.

Kings Mountain State Park, 11/5/2011

Well I had to make up for my worst meet ever last month. Jennifer and Darwin came in 2nd out of 4. Joey again came in first out of eight.

Where did I come in? Drum roll please... 1st! I smoked it today, beating the competition by 43 minutes.

http://www.carolina-ok.org/results/season_2011-2012/2011-11-05/index.php

This was as a great course (of course it was ). Strong right out of the gate to point 1. Got behind a crowd going to 2 and then 3 was a bit of a challenge. 4 and 5 were straightforward and could have done better on 6. I blew right past 7 on the road and then had to make up for it at 8. 9 was a little hard to find and then it was the mad dash from 10 to the finish where everyone was surprised to see me so soon!

To top it off, we were locked in to the venue! We were however able to call and get the combination to the lock and free ourselves from a night in the woods with a pack of gummy bears and Gatorade!

Crowders Mountain 10/1/2011

Well Joey came in 1st out of 36 teams, Jennifer and Darwin came out 9th out of 15. And me, I got a wonderful DNF! Not to make excuses, but, coming off the half marathon personal best and seeing that there were 14 DNFs on Green that day...

http://www.carolina-ok.org/results/season_2011-2012/2011-10-01/index.php

Anyway, enough whining.

I started off easy enough. One and two were right on. Then it was a climb up the ridge for point 3. I was off to the right, but regained and was fine. I love coming up over the ridge and all the hikers looking at you like you are crazy.

Four was simple to find and then the fun began. I could not find 5. I combed the area for 30 min and ran into other parties searching as well. I decided to bag it and plead my case at the finish.

7 was super easy, but once again I could not find 8. I decided at this point to bag it and try again another day. I will just have to make up for it next month.

You know what they say, a bad day at orienteering is better than a good day at work!

Lake York, 10/31/2010

OK,

I am going to try this one last time, that is, keep up with my blogging.

This one goes way back to the yearly trip to Kings Mountain, Lake York in 2010. It was an Orange course that I took 1st place out of 19 runners:

http://www.carolina-ok.org/results/season_2009-2010/2009-10-31/index.php









On this one, I was way off to the right on point 1 and had to work my way back west to get the point. 2, 3 and 4 were really easy. I don't remember 5-8. I remember when I got to 9, how close I was to the finish, but still had to get the points to the south. 10 was also easy, right down the valley. I took the easy way around on the trail to 11 and on to the finish!

Vacation to Riviera Maya 10/13-16

Well this year, Jennifer and I got to escape to Hacienda Tres Rios. It is a really cool green resort South of Cancun.

On our first day, we checked into our hotel and just explored the resort and hung out at the pool.

Our room was wonderful, here is the view:

Of course a visit to the Caribbean would not be complete without pool critters:

These guys are called Coatis and of course some redneck was feeding them!

We dined in the Asian restaurant and Jenny even ate sushi. They had some wonderful Mayan/Japanese fusion sushi that was amazing.

On day 2, we headed to Playa del Carmen for the requisite shopping trip.

Jennifer bought some cool jewlery and of course I bought cigars.

Here is what was left of the world's largest cigar:

After heading back to the resort, we had a very interesting and fun dinner. We ate at the "chef's table". Chef Oscar and the wait staff presented 7 courses. We dined in the kitchen and of course every course came with it's own libation. Lots of tequila was flowing!

The next day, we headed to Xcaret. The only way to describe this is a combination of water park and zoo. It was raining, like typhoon raining and was pretty miserable. We had a great session swimming with the dolphins, swam in some caves, saw some interesting animals and after a mexican lunch, high tailed it back to the resort.

Since the weather was still not cooperating, we headed back to Playa on Sunday to a sports bar!

We watched the Eagles (and drank Margharitas!) and then walked (splashed) around and had a great dinner in one of the many excellent establishments in town.

I almost had Jennifer scuba diving, but the weather did not permit it.

Lesson learned for next year, really check the weather forecast!

Getting away alone with Jennifer is awesome, regardless of the weather!

See the rest of the pictures here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116220729005084753753/RivieraMayaOctober2011#