Merritt Island and Canaveral National Seashore

Today I took a trip to the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve and the Canaveral National Seashore near Cape Canaveral. This is within about 45 minutes or so of where I live in Deland. Here are some pictures from my outing. I found a big stretch of beach which was all my own.....nearly nobody in sight. Very nice! You can see what I think is the Space Shuttle launch tower in the background of one of the pics.

I walked as far as I could on the beach until NASA put the kibosh on my progress :=( I did not have enough time to check out much of the Wildlife Reserve but I did see some large turtles and a variety of birds. There are also manatees and other creatures at the preserve.

All in all a fun day!

Finally Saturday!

It was a long work week. Thank sweet Christ it is Saturday. I started the day at about 4:45 this a.m. with a couple cups of joe and listened to some blues by Dion and surfed the web a bit. A little after 6:30 I headed out for a walk for an hour and a half (see pics)

My friends Andrew and Carl from work are heading here soon and we are gonna go look at an old British classic (see pic)

I need to mow later today then I am gonna go see this new Bourne Ultimatum movie....it looks action packed and good!

*****UPDATE*****
We stopped by to look at the old Triumph and wandered into a treasure trove old British(and other) iron! Awesome bikes left and right!! Here are a few pics(click them to make them a little larger).......

Andrew has some better pics of the bikes and a video of the Norton 850 Commando running on his site

The Bourne Ultimatum was an EXCELLENT movie! I think maybe I missed some things though having not seen the first two of this series so I need to rent those and watch them.

It's finally over

The Fiserv Pedometer Challenge came to a close at 12:00 noon ET today. 8 weeks of major hoofin'...DONE!! :=0

Here are Hoofin' 4 Loot team photos. Even a photo of our 1st place prize...the iPod Nano!!

Everyone have a fun weekend and please be safe in whatever you do!

Winding down.....

The Fiserv sponsored "Pedometer Challenge" comes to a close this Friday. It's been overall a fun time, showing that a little teamwork can go a long way. When our 5 man team (my co-workers Scott Campbell, Chris Megginson, Craig Noss, Carl Young and myself) started this contest, we had pretty poor Week 1 results, with ~223,000 total steps recorded for the 5 of us. After seeing that we lagged behind a lot of other teams, we decided we needed to start stepping it up and the game was on :-) We increased our step count every week, finally surpassing the 1,000,000 step mark in conjunction with our team Walkathon. Shown are a couple pics from the Walkathon. Now we have victory within our reach!

Some might say all this walking is kind of crazy for what amounts to very little reward (an iPod and some gift certificates). I prefer to think of all the other benefits this has provided. I think this little exercise has brought us closer together as a team at Fiserv. We know each other a little better, spent a little more time together, etc. Some of the team members have also reported health benefits from all the walking, e.g. losing some weight, feeling better, more energy, etc. For me this has all been great for my health overall. To this point I have lost 24 lbs since this contest started, back down to my lowest weight since I have been here in the Sunshine state. Aside from an occasional blister and maybe a bit of stiffness or soreness on occasion, I have suffered no negative health effects.

In addition, having been out and about walking more often after work and on weekends, I have met more of my neighbors, some of whom I have found to be very nice and friendly folks.

To people who might tell you walking is not a worthwhile activity for your health...well, they are full of bunk. So get out there and walk, meet your neighbors, breathe the fresh air and smell the aromas of summer in this great country we are all privileged to inhabit....and God Bless America my friends.

Pedometer team update.....

The team pedometer totals for last week were released today. Last week were were ahead of our nearest opponent by ~73,000 steps. So we decided we needed to "step it up" and try to put some distance between us and second place. So, as previously reported on this very blog, we walked over 1,074,000 steps last week as a team! As a result, we now lead our nearest competition by ~650,000 steps!! Yet we shall not relent and this week we will further solidify our lead in hopes of winning the 1st place iPod Nanos!! Hip hip Hooray!! Go Team!! yeah, all that kinda stuff :=)

A gaggle of Geese!

Tonight I rode with a group of 10 motorcycles up to Ormond Beach where the huge Harley dealership is located. The 1st Saturday of every month there is a live band there and other fun stuff. We hung around there for a while listening to the band. Whilst there I spotted 4 other Moto Guzzis!! This is nearly unheard of except at Guzzi rallies.

So due to a groundswell of support, initiated by "enraged motorist" in the Comments section, I have posted some Guzzi pics!! There was 1 Jackal, 1 Stone, 1 EV and 1 75th Anniversary edition California 1100i. Very KEEN!

Afterwards we stopped at a seafood place in Daytona Beach near the intercoastal waterway for dinner. Good food and a nice ride with some nice folks :=)

This morning I found at that taking a hydrocodone(pain pill) and a doxycycline(antibiotic) on an empty stomach is a really bad idea.....you can just call me Ralph.....

Slice, dice and stepping it up!

Today I had a bit of minor surgery to remove a lump from my back. A couple months ago it was a small bump....then it grew to be about the size of half a golf ball recently. The procedure went well I guess. I could not feel much of anything during the slicing of my back(about a 2" incision). Thanks sweet Christ for the local anesthetic. Now, many hours later, I am feeling a bit of pain/discomfort, but not bad. Nothing to be concerned about...I am glad it is gone.

Time for a pain pill ...or maybe a cold ale. Seems to work just as well.

Tomorrow I plan to ride up to Bruce Rossmeyers Destination Daytona....a massive Harley Davidson dealership in Ormond Beach. There's supposed to be a live band and lots of fun stuff happening. One Goose amongst all those Hogs. Keep an eye on her for me Carlo(Guzzi).

My walking team at work reached our goal....1,074,000 steps this week for the 5 of us! Awesome! I think the iPod Nano's(first prize) are gonna be ours soon. I got up this morning at 5:30 to get a few last minute steps. Here's a pic of my house as the sun rises on Florida.

Miss a lot of you folks back in the midwest....I have friends here, but my friends and memories there can't be replaced. I hope to come back home soon for a visit.