willy comes to town

i had another visitor over the weekend.

willy (that would be willy of “the adventures of monty and willy”) drove over last thursday from the gardnerville ranchos.

it had been almost 3-years since our last adventure but that didn’t stop us from having a few of them while he was here.

now, i don’t want to give too much away as i believe that we may have stumbled upon a possible rally course and i sure don’t want to give anything away. more on this later.

we did, however, spend several hours exploring point lobos.

i look at point lobos every morning during my meeting with ron at our new beach in carmel, but this is the first time that i have actually been on that peninsula on the southern end of the monterey peninsula.

wow! what an amazing place: cypress trees; rocky cliffs; blue water; black tail deer; pelicans; moss; lichens and miles of trails on which to hike.

black tail doe and buck on point lobos

quite spectacular!

speaking of pelicans: willy had one swoop down right next to him while we were out on old fisherman’s wharf. we both dig pelicans (the white variety that frequents nevada the best), so it was a groovy encounter.

l-r willy and brown pelican at monterey's old fisherman's wharf

we also took a jaunt down to big sur for general sightseeing and waterfall viewing.

with a little more time to spare than kathryn and i had two weeks previous, we drove farther south to check out the waterfall at limekiln state park.

that is the waterfall to see if you are on the central california coast. it’s a short hike but it does require rock-hopping across a couple of streams to see the fall. but, if waterfalls are you thing, this is the one to visit if you’re coming to or from big sur!

limekiln waterfall

we even risked getting shot by gang members in salinas for a great mexican dinner before willy left early the next day to head back home to the silver state.

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yes, you heard right: i’m thinking about a rally here on the central coast!

since i have a regular following of geocachers who follow my every word in this blog to see what i have to say about gbes, i’m not going to write too much about it at this time.

i have actually been discussing conducting a rally in the area with betsy, of the buggy bunch (my newly crowned assistant rally director) for the past couple of months. but, it wasn’t until willy and i reached around the mid-point of the (possible) rally course that i decided i have to come up with a format for this series of roads.

the primary difference between this rally and the old gbes rally that i founded and developed is: there will be fewer than 20 off-road miles. that means that almost any vehicle can participate. i say almost because the one dirt road that i have in mind is a little more than i would be comfortable on which to take my taurus. but, it would be easy to setup an alternate route for those who don’t want to go the rugged-route.

i expect the views, scenery and wildflowers to be no less staggering than the rallies i produced in nevada. it will be a much different rally than the nevada rallies, but i think it’s going to be just as much, if not more, fun!

my next visitor, rick (rrinnv), who is coming next month for the american le mans series finale at laguna seca, has already said he wants to pass on a day of racing to take a circuit around the track. rick, of course, helped me design the 2006 and 2007 rally courses, the two most spectacular rally courses the state of nevada has ever hosted! and kathryn (the mad katter) says she wants to come and work the rally as a volunteer. she might even bring our friend, helen, with her.

now i just need to come up with a fun and competitive format.

road trip: b&n modified roadster --- part 3

there is no coffee suitable for drinking in mojave!

so, we (mostly myself) bit the big one and headed west to the “mountain spirit” korean buddhist temple, which is in a lone canyon outside of tehachapi.

mee sook had been talking about this temple for about two weeks as we began planning our trip. it was built by an american who is a korean buddhist monk.

and what a job he did in creating the wonderful site.

unlike the other buddhist temples i had visited with mee sook, this one looked like what i would expect!

unfortunately for mee sook, the monk she was hoping to meet was not there. we did, however, meet a very charismatic monk who, despite not speaking much english, could have convinced me to do just about anything!

he did teach me some very basic techniques for meditating and totally entranced mee sook. he was all she talked about for the next several hours after leaving.

before we did leave, however, we were invited to join him for lunch. since we did not have breakfast, it was quite welcome and very tasty.

but, i could not wait to get down to rosamond to find a place where i could buy a cup of coffee. i attempted to find the starbucks, which i was told by david heavener, who has a home and movie studio in tehachapi, does exist in tehachapi. but, i was not successful in finding its locat.

by the time we got coffee (even mee sook was ready for a cup at this point) and was back in mojave, heading north on 395, it was after 1300 hours.

it was still another 6-hours to fallon, nevada and my father, brother and best friend willy, where we would spend that night.

it was about mid-trip that mee sook pulled the rug from under me: she told me that she had decided to ask the monk that we met to be her “master.” this meant that there was no room for me in her life!

what?????????

not an hour earlier, she was telling me how she wanted to live with me and build a life that would, eventually, take us to moab, utah.

now, she’s telling me that it’s been great but it’s all over!

all very clinical!

all very oriental!

great! not only do i have to deal with the feelings of a broken heart, i’ve got to do it while trying to see my brother, father (whom i have not seen since i left nevada last july) and best friend (whom i have not seen since he made his ill-fated move to colorado in 2006) willy of “the adventures of monty and willy”!

maybe i can just drive off of one of the cliffs along walker lake!

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so, i didn’t drive off of the cliff.

it was about 2030 by the time we pulled into fallon for a quick stop to see my dad and brother before heading over to willy’s to spend the night in his spare bedroom.

we hung out for an hour or so before we all hit the sack.

i was up early the next morning so i could spend some more time with willy before he had to go to work then it was back to my dad’s to visit with him before he went to the doctor for a checkup, which gave me a little time to hang with mark before loading a few boxes of cd’s in the back of the taurus and heading back to california.

after a brief stop at mustang (home of the infamous “mustang ranch” brothel) to visit with my friends jim and gerri for a few minutes we were back on the road and heading to the monterey peninsula.

appropriately enough, i suppose, i loaded mee sook’s luggage into her car as the sun was setting; the end of a weekend that took my emotions from one extreme to another.

clearing up and catching up

my posts regarding certain members of the board of directors of gbes caused quite a stir!

as a result, it also drew out the comments of biggeekjimbeau and his girlfriend, blocko1000, in the guise of other “real” geocachers. i have, therefore, deleted their erroneous comments and my original posts from this blog. i have made my point with those i intended the point be made, so there is no reason to drag it on any further. as far as bgj and b1k: i guess stealing my fst caches wasn’t enough for them! they are children in overgrown bodies and will always be children! so, i’m sorry to say, the reno caching community can expect childish games from them from time to time.

it’s been a busy week around the melrose media center! it’s car week on the monterey peninsula, with the focal point being concours d’elegance here in pebble beach.

my old friend gary peterson is in town for the festivities. i spoke to him yesterday. i hope i get to hook up with him before the weekend ends’ it’s been over 30 years since i last saw gary.

we ran into jay leno yesterday in carmel for the end of the concours tour. not sure what he was driving as we were in a hurry to get to il fornaio for lunch and a meeting with the special events director. we’re staging an event there tomorrow evening.

sometime during the craziness of yesterday, i lost my glasses. i had to use my sunglass through the night, which are quite dark.

fortunately, i was able to get a new pair today. i’ve been intending on buying new glasses anyway as my prescription was a couple of years out-dated. but, i really didn’t want to get them in a panic. but, i love it that i can see things up close again. the correction brings me back to 20/15 vision. not the 20/10 i used to have back in the 1970s and ‘80s. but, it’ll do. i have no idea what the style is called. ron calls them buddy holly glasses. the frames are not that broad, but i can see a resemblance. my new wayfarer sunglasses won’t be ready for another week or so. they’re the first the lenscrafter in monterey has sold; they just came in this morning and they don’t have all lenses in stock yet. looks like i’m gonna be the first on the block for this new style. like it really matters to me.

before visiting the optician, ron and i ran down to the lodge at pebble beach to get our media passes for concours d’elegance. but, i had no chance to use mine today between getting new glasses and errands.

today, alone, i did see while running around the peninsula, no exaggeration: at least 40 lamborghinis; 80 ferraris of various models; 200 porsches (yawn) and two of the 1.3 million dollar bugatti veyrons. what a beauty that thing is. well, for $1,300,000, plus tax, license and dealer preparation charges it should be. the bugatti veyron 16.4 is the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive street-legal full production car in the world. the w-16 engine is a sixteen cylinder piston engine in a w configuration with four banks of four cylinders (two juxtaposed v8 engine blocks), coupled to a single crankshaft displacing 8 liters (480 cubic inches, for those who still think in cid – like me), sporting 4 turbochargers and 9 radiators driving a 7-speed transmission putting out 1001 horsepower and an actual top speed of 252 mph. it’s built by volkswagen ag subsidiary bugatti automobiles in france and is sold under the italian/french bugatti marque. it’s named after french racing driver pierre veyron, who won the 24 hours of le mans in 1939 while racing for the original bugatti firm.

the car we are evaluating this week is a 2008 acura mdx turbocharged suv. compared to the veyron, it only puts out a paltry 300 horsepower. but, when that boost kicks in you’d better be hanging on.

took a short drive down to the ocean early this evening. the waves were the highest i have yet to see. i really can’t wait for the winter storms.

wait! what the hell am i saying? it’s not yet summer here.

well, maybe.

today could have been the first day of summer. don’t know what the high was here in pebble beach. but, it was the first day that i actually ran the a/c while out here. i’ve had to use it in seaside and marina and our trip to sfo last weekend. but, pebble is like a rainforest that doesn’t seem to heat-up, according to the locals, until september and october.

i got an email from my friend willy (of the infamous “adventures of monty & willy). glad to see that he’s back in action! he’s living back in prescott, az with his daughter dawn. i guess shelly, perhaps the worst person in the world, besides other things, bagged his computer, digi cam and leather furniture.

hey shelly: “can you say karma? there’s not enough medication in the world to keep you safe from karma because of what you have done! i suggest overdosing now to get it over with!”

and bea thought i could only be vicious about her.

i put up some new pics on my picasa page. i hope to have the chance to get some more car shots tomorrow.

np: the california guitar trio/an internet broadcast of their performance at nearfest back in (2003?) featuring tony levin (of king crimson) on chapman stick and basses. willy and i got to see them, sans tony, in may 2006 in carson city.

that’s me in the 4^th row on the right leaning around the guy in the black t-shirt and willy behind the woman with her hands in the air (from hideyo’s roadcam). what a treat that was to see these fine musicians in cartoon city. if you hear of them coming to a city near, or far from you go, at all costs. there are few musicians who play on this level and in intimate settings such as comma coffee, which is located across the street from the nevada state assembly building and my “fighting clowns” cache. learn more about burt, paul and hideyo at http://www.cgtrio.com

turst me on this!

they are on tour now. actually, i think they are always on tour!