Drone testing and we

After a long arduous search for the perfect low cost camera platform for aerial filming, we settled on the Autel X Star premium drone. Even after just a couple of weeks with it, I am very pleased with its perfomance and mostly its camera footage. Check out a couple of short aerial tours I have filmed with it already

https://youtu.be/YYu5wKIvj3E

https://youtu.be/PzlGQeUIaos?list=PL_Vr3myPHTxmLxUSJ9adpShTyYD8YZKep

J35 Sailing videos

Check out these J35 sailing videos we made from this summer!

https://youtu.be/WAcuoSXiRZk

https://youtu.be/SpY46BfVNIM

Firefly videos in 4K!!

Our J35 is one amazing sailboat!! Check out the video links below to see our last two days of fun!

https://youtu.be/SZQ5BMPppuI

https://youtu.be/WAcuoSXiRZk

Firefly and lady bugs

J35 Firefly in Racine WI

Our delivery of firefly from Waukegan IL to Racine WI went flawlessly and as an added bonus, about halfway through the trip, a whole bunch of ladybugs landed on firefly and enjoyed the ride with us. Lady bugs are said to bring luck and prosperity in many cultures and the lady bug is a central image used in feng shui. Thanks to Brendon and RP for going along. It took a full day to organize and unload Fireflys' inventory after our arrival but Darla and I had an amazingly beautiful day in which to accomplish it. We look forward to making some great memories with Firefly! Check out the delivery video below shot in 4K

https://youtu.be/cw-nVzczCrg

Here we go again!

1986 J Boats J35

    Here we go again!
 I guess the winter was a little long this year--just long enough for the sailboat bug to bite us again! We've owned a number of sailboats in the past, but the last two years we've been boat-less and missing the sailing on Lake Michigan. Not in 2016! We knew that we wanted a 35 foot boat, so I spent all winter checking out everything from 32-38 footers within a reasonable distance from Milwaukee. I found a 33 foot Endeavor at Larsen Marine that looked promising, and after wife approval, made an offer that was accepted. The survey revealed a few items I was simply not in the mood to deal with, so we ended up walking on that one. Which brings us to FireFly, a 1986 J Boat J35 that I'd fallen in love with (and tried to buy) a few years ago. The owner and I just couldn't agree on a price at the time.She remained unsold for the last three years.  Fast forward to last week, and guess what? While not a perfect family boat (tiller, running back stays), I felt she was worth one more try on the price. I submitted an offer and held my breath...wait for it.... It was countered quite a bit above my offer. After some thought, I felt I needed to stick to my guns, and I did. The seller almost immediately reversed and took my first offer--whew!! The boat itself is in amazing shape. We're waiting for it to be put in the water for a sea trial, and hopefully close by late next week. I will post updates, but in the meantime, check out some of the video and photos I took...

https://youtu.be/BNrRQ8powrk Exterior

https://youtu.be/xULCmfaBVYY  Interior and deck

Folding prop and faired bottom

Fin Keel 6'10 draft

Gorgeous Dark Blue Imron paint

Port Bow

Starboard

Starboard Rudder

aft starboard quarter/transom

under cover for three years!

port cockpit

aft port/transom

port side rudder

. 

Snowboarding Mount Bohemia!

Lac Labelle (frozen) and Lake Superior in the background

Well 2016 has started out the right way! A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine told me about his dream to snowboard Mount Bohemia in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--what?-- where??? Of course I had been to the UP but I had never heard of Mount Bohemia. The lack of snow had kept Bohemia closed until January 16, but last week they had been getting hammered with snow so we decided to hit it-- and it was worth the nearly 7 hour drive from Milwaukee each way.

Driving in from Bohemia to Copper Harbor

We left Milwaukee late afternoon and as we got closer to the Pine Lodge resort in Copper Harbor, this is what the roads looked like!

greeted with warmth!

Pine lodge resort is a little dated but had reasonable rates and was a decent place to stay-- also they served a good breakfast!

           The next morning we were greeted with 5 inches of fresh snow and a perfect sunny day! Give        yourself about 30 minutes to drive from Copper Harbor to Bohemia.

Beautiful winter landscapes

The photos are great but please check out my you tube video at the link below to really do the resort some justice. This is an expert only resort--no groomed runs, but well worth the trip!!!       https://youtu.be/nU2JswfhHkY

The Jimmy Buffett so long to summer tradition continues in 2015

Dana, Andy, John, Lance, Amy JB2012

Becca and Darla JB2013

Since we moved to Wisconsin, we have made a tradition of going to the Jimmy Buffett concert at Alpine Valley every August with a growing number of friends and family (mostly pilot friends). As painful as it is to think about, it is indeed a "so long to summer" for those of us living this far north. Darla and I went in 2012 and were blown away by the circus atmosphere that follows Jimmy Buffett around on his summer tours. In 2013, we invited her sister to come and she loved it too. In 2014, we barely made the show as family commitments had us tied up until the last minute. This year, I was determined to "go a little bigger" than ever before. I thought it would be fun to skydive then head to the Buffett festivities early. I didn't have many takers on that action but I planned it anyways. When Friday afternoon at the DZ came, I was surprised to find out the plane was going to 18000 feet, with me in it!! Of course I had to film the whole event with my go pro and it was absolutely amazing. Here is the link to the skydive video.. Skydive Milwaukee from 18000 feet

If you have never seen a JB show, drop what you are doing, find a show near you and get there! It's really more about the tailgating party that happens beforehand, at least in Wisconsin. It's a lot of fun to people watch and in general just a great time. It does make for a long day so bring food, water, games and whatever else you think may be fun for you and your fellow tailgaters to do!!! I had the go pro on hand so this is what the pre concert festivities look like..   Jimmy Buffett Alpine Valley 2015

Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!

Skydiving and we!!

 

Just about 25 years ago, I decided I wanted to Skydive. I called my younger brother Clint and he was up for it so out we went to Skydive Arizona in the town of Eloy. We took the initial course and we were hooked!! We jumped together the whole summer until Clint went to Japan to serve a mission for two years. I continued jumping for awhile after that but eventually, too many other (more important) things took over and skydiving got shelved. Fast forward to a few months ago, I am reintroduced to the sport by Mike Lalley, a local AFF instructor and all around good guy here in Wisconsin. I went through a complete AFF ground school and then did a few AFF jumps before they signed me off to jump again. I forgot how much fun it is to freefall and canopy fly!! The more amazing thing is this time I got my wife Darla to do it too!! Although I am fairly certain it was the very good looking Australian instructor Jarad who actually convinced her to do it. Check out the photos and video... 

This photo is of me jumping with roller blades on  in the early 1990's

Darla with her Jump instructor--woohoo!!

Skydive Milwaukee!!

Moorings BVI report

At anchor Jost Van Dyke BVI

In short, our Moorings vacation to the BVI was amazing. This post will only have a sampling of the many awesome anchorages we spent time at and I doubt the photos will do them much justice. Suffice it to say that all of them were amazing. Overall, Moorings did a great job. If I had to complain it would be that the check in/out procedure is a little slow. Waimea, the Beneteau 42.3 we were on was a great boat and we experienced no failures of any sort all week. We condensed a 10 day itinerary into 7 days, so we kept up a good pace sailing around but every place we went was worth it. Cooper island, the baths, bitter end, Eustatia island, Anegada island (the best), Cane Garden bay, Sandy Key, Jost Van Dyke, Sopers Hole and Norman island were all amazing! I created 3 videos that do a much better job of describing our trip than my writing ever could, the links to them are at the bottom of the post. I highly recommend using moorings for any of you thinking about a sailing vacation. Enjoy!!

Me after arriving at Anegada!

Beautiful rainbow at Bitter End Virgin Gorda BVI

Eustatia Island looking out to sea

The first Video adventure in the BVI is 1 minute long and was done with an ipad and imovie
Adventure in the BVI

The next video is 2 minutes long and was done with my go pro 4 and the go pro software using one of go pros pre-formatted templates.
Go Pro BVI short

The last video is done documentary style and is 30 minutes long. Go pro software with me doing the narrating and video editing and music manually
Go Pro BVI long

Game on!

 After a year of planning, preparing, spending money and the like, it's go time! The Moorings experience has been great so far and we are expecting a smooth transition onto the boat just as advertised. Our flight Monday starts in Milwaukee and goes through Charlotte on our way to Charlotte Amalie St Thomas. We are staying the first night in St Thomas and taking a high speed ferry over to Tortola to get on the boat first thing Tuesday.
 Our Arizona counterparts are doing Miami St Thomas from Phoenix, so they have a little longer journey than we do. Since the Moorings boats come with everything, there have been a number of conversations about what to bring. I travel a lot and I have learned over the years how to pack really lightly and still not appear as I have just rolled out from under a VW bus after a week at Woodstock. Believe it or not, I can live quite comfortably out of my backpack for 10 days or so. The real trick is how do I get my wife to consolidate? Oddly enough, after a try or two, we have got her down to a backpack as well--lets see if that holds up until travel day.
 I added a photo of my 10 day travel kit which includes toiletries, clothes, camera gear and an ipad along with everything else you would expect to carry on a long trip like this one. Bon Voyage!

The Plan is...There is no Plan

 With all great adventures there must be spontaneity. Being tightly scheduled may work at work but this is play we are talking about. As much as I would like to create an itinerary and follow it to a T (it's my job you know) being planned forces you into tunnel vision and you will likely miss some amazing things that are right in front of you. At the behest of my wife and sister in law, I have limited our trip planning to studying POSSIBLE stops and anchorages. Heck, we may end up sailing to an anchorage and just hanging out a few days--it's our vacation, we will just do whatever we feel like. If Salty Kisses is still in the area, maybe we will meet up with them too. It's been quite fun to follow their voyage and life journey. Kudos to all those who go out and chase their dreams.

 Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee, we have rededicated ourselves to our Yoga program and man, what a difference! We are both feeling amazing and looking better too. I feel Yoga really should be part of everyone's daily routine as there is just no beating the calmness that comes from yoga practice. If you are in the Milwaukee area give Hot Yoga MKE a try. Great folks!

 We are packing for the Christmas Holiday in Arizona as we speak and boy is it going to be a whirlwind down there. I am returning just after Christmas day to get back to work and just a few weeks later, Voila! off we go. I decided to add in this photo (taken from google earth) that shows some initial planning I did for the trip. Unlikely we follow it but hey, who knows?

Moorings Trip update

 The airline flights are booked, vacation time has been granted by our employer and the final payment for the trip has been made! Needless to say we are very excited about our week in January in the BVI. We are now pondering and planning various itineraries, deciding where we want to overnight and what sight seeing spots we simply can't miss. Winter in Wisconsin appears to be starting even earlier than usual and I believe we will be more than ready for a break by mid January. The booking process with moorings has been very easy and smooth. The website is informative and fairly simple to use, my biggest complaint being the fact you need a separate sign in for the food and drink ordering for your trip. I am not sure why this just isn't another tab on the "my moorings" webpage.
 The above photo is the Moorings 42 by Beneteau, the SV we will be using for our trip. Below is the cabin layout and it should do quite nicely for the week. We are a small group of four but the two head setup seemed a no-brainer for us as our wives are pretty spoiled. ;)

  So far so good. Although not exactly a cheap vacation, the Moorings experience has been great to this point and we fully expect that to be the case throughout the actual vacation. As we get closer to finalizing itineraries and plans, the blog will be updated. Have an amazing week!! 

Summertime in Northern Michigan!

 A few weeks back, we decided our 30th wedding anniversary should be celebrated on our 2014 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Limited. We were blessed with absolutely perfect riding weather and what an amazing ride it was. I used the HD ride planner and it really is a great tool, check out this link http://bit.ly/1urN4nd to see what the ride plan looked like.
 We left Pewaukee August 14 and rode to Hartford where we ate breakfast at the Mineshaft restaurant (excellent!) and then headed for Marinette WI near the UP. Green Bay freeways were under construction and rough but we survived them. After Marinette, we headed for the Mackinaw bridge (a four hour ride), keeping a good pace so we could make Petoskey MI before 4 PM. After cleaning up, we jumped on the back and rode an hour north to the famous legs inn, just outside of Harbor Springs MI. Legs is a gorgeous incredible place with amazing Polska food. After dinner, we were back on the bike and through the tunnel of trees to Petoskey before the sun set. We spent 10 hours on the bike that day and both of us were ready for more. HD really builds a comfortable cruiser!

Hartford WI Mineshaft restaurant

Legs Inn Harbor Springs MI

Gorgeous views at Legs

  August 15 found us riding to sleeping bear dunes state park near Empire MI to hit the beach, check out the photos below...

Keep your suits on? Didn't see any problems

Super soft sand

Gorgeous beach views

 After some beach time, we had planned to head to Luddington MI but saw a small leak from our lower left rear shock and decided to head for Muskegon, MI to the closest HD dealer.
 We dialed Hotrod HD into the boom box and away we went-- Michigan roads are simply amazing and we were there in no time. I had it in my mind we would just have them verify it wasn't something more than a shock and take it to my dealer in Oconomowoc WI when I got home. I walked up to the service counter, they came and looked at the bike and said they would replace the shock (under warranty) right then! Not only did they have it fixed in 30 minutes, but they gave it a good wash job to boot. Needless to say, I am a big fan of HD on the road support program-- it cannot be beat. Kudos to all the guys at HotrodHD in Muskegon for the great efffort-- THANK YOU!!

 That completed, we grabbed an early dinner at Boatyard BBQ and then rode a short distance to the beach, taking a nice long walk out to the Muskegon light house for some photos, see below

 As the sun set on a perfect day, we headed over to the high speed car ferry to carry us across lake Michigan and back home to Milwaukee!! I would highly recommend this ride to anyone. Enjoy!

car ferry from Muskegon

Home!

Two of us strapped down