Gobble Gobble 2011 and Black Friday weekend

I had to cancel my Thanksgiving plans due to a special event happening on Fort Irwin. On Thanksgiving proper I was set to work the pool but the GC cancelled it on Wednesday afternoon. I missed going to Illinois then had cancelled my plans to spend Turkey Day with Moonglow, but the 300 mile drive for a day trip wasn't worth the $150 in gas. On Black Friday, we began our Winterfest celebration at 1000 hours. Friday was a holiday market and tree sales and Saturday was the Daryl Worly (sp?) concert in the city center. Wednesday we set up the stage, Friday I helped set=up the Santa photo set and dj'ed the BOSS tree sale for a couple hours. Saturday, was breakfast with Santa which i skipped, and Santa pictures which I only stopped by to see how the pictures were coming out. They took over 300 pictures in something like 6 hours. I helped do some odds and ends until the Carolina Clemson game came on then I disappeared. I could still hear the concert from my room in the hotel but wanted to watch the first half of the game. I texted back and forth with Zac until the Gamecocks took a decent lead then he mysteriously went quiet. Hmmmmm. I wonder why?!!

The weather was amazing, the music really pretty good even though I'm not a huge country music fan and the tear down took around 2 hours total, so I was able to catch most of the 4th quarter of the game. 

Coyotes are popular around these parts.

Brown stetsons with ACUs. Toto this could be Kansas.

Garrison SGM being festive, sort of.

Tase me, tase me. 

Barry and Janet, Business Ops folks. They had a lucrative weekend for MWR.

The Black Horse Regiment. 

For some reason this hotdog statue reminds me of Foxy?! Probably the bald head.

Southern slaw dog special and "real" southern sweet tea. Diabetes anyone?!

the marketing and special events crew.

Daryl pulled the kiddies up for some Christmas tunes. Pretty damn precious.

He was cutting a rug with this kid dancing like Forest Gump.

Christmas Spirit.

Here's the stage I helped set-up. You can see the desert mountains in the background.

All in all not a bad weekend in my new hometown. While I didn't get any shopping done or get to visit anyone, I had a good time. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Ford fans. Let the drooling begin.

Monday, the DUB tour made a stop on Fort Irwin along with Ford. It was a free show including music, girls, motorcycle stunts and free music. If you love mustangs, they had a few sweet ones on hand. See below.

I kicked today's ass

This morning I woke up early with a vengeance. I wanted to finish a multitude of tasks and feel as though the day was productive. I did so and then some. I woke up. Hit Starbucks got a coffee. Hit the ATM got cash for the day's fun. Grabbed breakfast. Did all of my laundry. Read most of a new book written by Mickey Munoz about his life as a surfer and waterman. Changed the oil in my 4runner. Lifted at the gym. Swam 500m. Sat in the hottubs at the pool for about 30 minutes and let the jets work the muscles in my back. Grabbed lunch at the chinese to go place. Checked out the dfac at the hospital to see the hours and know where it is. It's supposed to have a killer breakfast. Read the manual for the GoPro cameras from outdoor recreation so that I am ready to start filming my adventures. Downloaded pictures for my blog and for work. Then took a nap. Now I am up, checking out football scores then headed out to get some grub before ironing my work shirts for the week. Pro.......duct.....ive.
Yes, sir.

Landsailing at El Mirage

Saturday, I did something I've never got to try before and had a blast. I agreed to help Ed, our ODR manager, with a trip landsailing. We drove out to El Mirage, a dry lakebed, and prepped the landsailers, Blokarts, for a group of teen kids that were to show up around 1030 or so. We got out there pretty quickly and the wind was blowing nicely. One of the carts had gotten away due to the brakes not being tuned tight enough. I went to grab it, climbed in and got it going and I was off. It is exactly like sailing or windsurfing. The sails in fact are windsurfer sails without a boom. The kids didn't show up until noon, so we had about 3 hours of fun playing in the blokarts. 

The truck and trailer loaded with half a dozen karts.

The karts are little more than a lawn chairs with gocart wheels.

The road out of Irwin. straight for 20 miles through desert towards some low mountains.

El Mirage is a dry lakebed, probably 10 miles long and a mile wide. Anyone want to drag race?!

There was a UAV clocking us.

He kept doing flying passes. They are onto our plan to smuggle drugs in blokarts up from mexico through the desert :)

Here are the karts as we set them up.

Most other karts work by steering with your feet, airplane style, these have steering wheels. 

Here the kids are getting ready for their turn.

El Mirage is full of Joshua Trees, in fact you can adopt one if you like. I might sponsor one next time I go over there. For just $1 a day, you can feed a healthy Joshua Tree, named Josh.

GoPro or go home

Outdoor Recreation has a pair of GoPro cameras and a video camera. For those not aware, a gopro is a tiny digital camera that records on little camera cards. They can do single photos, constant photos every couple seconds, and even video. We didn't have the manual. So I did the best I could. I set one up on a twisty tripod and mounted it on a cart. I hit the button I thought was video, turned out it was a shot every 2 seconds. So I ended up with about 3000 photos of different riders in this kart. The pics were pretty good, these are the best stand alone of the group in my opinion. I drug the whole camera kit home and read through the whole manual while charging the little buggers. Now I am ready to record all of my future adventures. They come with waterproof cases and helmet connectors and the whole deal. I can't wait to get one on a surfboard or on a speargun. JelliedMooseNose is going motion picture. WooooF'ingHooooo!!

Unfortunately, no one crashed this day while the camera was there.