World Series 2011

The circus was back in town for a few days. This is the World Series of Baseball circus, but a circus none the less. Three glorious days of post season baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers. The weather was perfect, the crowds were excited and there was even some really good baseball to boot.

Hamilton Crash

I am still amazed at the wild abandon that Josh Hamilton plays the game of baseball. In a series clinching game that the Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers 15 to 5, he still leaped up at full speed and made a great catch of a pop fly against the left field wall. After making a solid hit on the wall and falling onto the grass still clutching the ball, he ran back to the dugout laughing about the escapade with Craig Gentry.

Publish Post

Texas Rangers win the Pennant

After a long season, a hot summer and lots of home runs, the Texas Rangers win their second American League West Pennant in consecutive years. Congratulations to Ron Washington and the entire team on another great season for 2011.

Not the Big City

While driving back from California got to watch the big lights, not the big city though. A line of thunder showers rolled thru Eastern Arizona just as the sun was setting making beautiful colors in a late summer sky. Lightning stroked down all around and the scene was so beautiful that the fear that comes with most lightning storms did not exist. Just as the sun fell behind the horizon the fireworks really started giving a gorgeous scene of the prairie and clouds with the lightning.

California Dreaming

   After a long, hot Texas summer I just had to get a little time on the water with a surf board. Threw the toys and the crew in the reliable old Honda and drove west, all the way to the California coast. 

   Looking for some surf with the ulterior motive of finding some cooler weather. Boy did we luck out there. I have not seen high temperatures over 80 degrees since I have been here, traveling from Ventura and a few sessions at Ema Wood and C Street all the way up the coast to Big Sur and San Simeon.

   Spent the past few days kite surfing just below the Hearst Castle and freezing in the 58 degree water. Kind of glad that I have not been surfing since sitting in that cold water would just about kill me. 

   The locals tell me that during the winters the water is in the low 50's. Takes some hardy souls to play along the Central California Coast for sure.

Waves of Summer

It has been way too long since I have been surfing. The strain in the arms as you give that final pull. You feel a push under you that seems so primordial and suddenly you are up and racing down the line trying to get to the lip before it completely dumps and cuts you off, but not too fast. You want to get a little cover up, that view from down the rabbit hole with the whole world exposed.

Every where I look I see those waves. Bends in the concrete of a storm culvert, a roll in a piece of paper. We duplicate them everywhere. Yesterday I saw the foot high stern wake of a passing boat create these perfect rollers along the beach at Lake Grapevine. Perfect curves, long lines, and all less than a foot high but plenty big for mind surfing. If only I was the size of chihuahua I could have a blast.

A Little Baseball

The Texas Rangers made up a rained out game against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday evening. The talk turned from the game at hand to the fan that fell trying to retrieve a foul ball but I am just gonna post pictures of the reason everyone went in the first place and Derek Holland pitched a shut out. 

The Road to Shangri-la

The road has always had a calling to me, it has taken me to places that as a child I could only dream about. Those dreams would include trips into the mountains and to oceans in unexplored places far away. It gave me a chance to ski, or climb, ride a bike or surf a distant wave but for some reason I was always looking west. It may have something to do with the geographic location where I grew up in Texas. The land there is relatively flat. Endless fields of grass spread to the horizon but definitely none of those mountains I yearned to cross in those western states have. All my desires were for adventures in those distant places hidden by those mountains.
As I looked into my rear view mirror on the return from one of these Rocky mountain trips recently, I could see the pot of gold setting behind me. I pulled over on U.S. Highway 69 somewhere east of the little town of Gardner, Colorado to take a photo of that sunset. The wind was blowing across the scattered tufts of grass and sage. The fires around Los Alamos far to the south helped create the overly red scene I saw in front of me. The road stretched out to the horizon in an uninterrupted ribbon of opportunities. As I sat listening to the wild stillness, creating just another memory of a wonderful trip to go with the hundreds from years past, the solution to an un-asked question came to me.
Everyone has their own Shangri-la, but for me I will always be traveling to the west to find it.

Wrong Season Sport

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There is a reason that summers are more comfortable in Colorado than Texas, and yesterday I found out why. On Tuesday June 28th, a week after the official start of summer and I met a couple of brothers in the parking lot of Loveland Pass, Colorado on U.S. Highway 6. They were ribbing me about taking the kayak that was on the car for a slide in the snow.
Actually I had the same idea as they did, to go do some late season snowboarding. So the group of us hiked the ridge over Loveland Basin and proceeded to snowboard on a day long after most lifts in the area had closed. Someone did mention that A-Basin would be open the following weekend but we just used our own power to take a few laps.
This is definitely the latest day in the year I have ever strapped on the board, what a hoot it turned out to be and in shorts none the less. Just hoping I can store some of the chill from when the slush fell in my boots.

Cool Drink of Water

   As the Texas Summer really gets rolling and the heat hovers at the 100 degree mark, I just had to get out of the heat and find some cool water. I always forget how cool the water actually is in the creeks of Colorado. I spent a few days running some whitewater and mountain biking in the Boulder, Colorado area with my friend Marc Goulet. 

  After chilling my body to the core in spring snow melt, hopefully I can stay cool when I get home.

Western Sunrise

I spent a couple of days last week playing cowboy on a ranch west of Fort Worth. Up before the chickens and chasing cows with the help of a crew of really talented cowboys straight out of central casting. They had the walk, the talk and the tobacco spitting down. The really neat thing about being up at the crack of dawn is that you actually get to see the sun come over the horizon. In Texas, that can be even more beautiful than the sunsets. I just wanted to share for all the folks that slept in after watching the Mavericks beat the Heat in Texas.

Game Three Defeat

Ahhh, the NBA Finals return to Dallas and the American Airlines Center. Not a big name change from the venue in Miami where the Heat play, but the weather in Dallas is a little more appropriate.

Game three starts off with a bang and a really excited crowd, but in the end the Mavericks fall just short in the closing seconds to lose 88 to 86 in the onslaught of Dwayne Wade, Lebron James and the Miami Heat.