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.

hazards of peninsula life

after returning from the store this evening, as i drove through the country club gate, one of 5 gates allowing me access onto the area of the peninsula on which i live, i saw what appeared to be a pack of marauding dogs coming out of the fog. it was a scene from a bad horror movie come true.

it wasn’t until i got closer that i realized what i was looking at was a heard of black tail deer with several little fawns making their way through the del monte forest; probably to go graze on the grasses of one of the golf courses.

these deer are so cute! they’re much smaller than mule deer or white tail deer. the little fawns weren’t much bigger than medium sized dogs.

there are so many of them out here, and they have become so docile being around all of the homes, golfers and tourists that they are always getting hit my drivers. very sad!

all of the roads out here are narrow and circuitous. that coupled with the fog and you’ve really got to keep your eyes on the road or you’ll collect one in the grill. and that’s nothing like a quail.

just trying to drive these roads without getting lost is a challenge in itself.

when i first got here i was getting everywhere by using my gps map and following the breadcrumbs i’d left when i was running around in ron’s car. however, i’ve been leaving it at home so as not to get to reliant upon it.

3 or 4 nights ago ron and i were at the dollhouse getting susie’s computer dialed-in. since we came in separate cars, i left as soon as the ‘puter was up and running. even up on top of huckleberry hill, where the dollhouse is, the fog was incredibly thick. so, by the time i got off of the hill, it was like the proverbial pea soup.

“should i have turned right there?”

“ah. no big deal. i’ll find my way back to the beach eventually.”

“hmmm? i should have reached the beach by now?”

“ah. here’s the 17-mile drive. i’ll just take it around cypress point and home from there.”

i ended up at the complete opposite end of pebble at the carmel gate.

i gave up and followed the 17-mile drive back to the route 1 gate, which is about ¼ mile from the dollhouse and took hwy. 68 back to the country club gate and took the easy way, albeit much longer, way back.