Some busy times

So things have been a little crazy as of late. I wanted to make a post before I get too many events to try to include. I don't really remember where I last left off (I'm always to lazy to actually check my blog before I start posting), so I will just start with this past Friday.

On Thursday I got a call from Dustin saying he was having a kinda crappy week and wanted to do something to distract himself, namely hit up the Orlando Watersports Complex (a.k.a. OWC, a.k.a. ODub). So Dustin, Tim and I decided to have a day trip over to Orlando on friday and pack in a few hours at the cable park. Tim had never been to a cable park so it was pretty cool that he was able to go. We all packed in his Mazda 3 and hit the road bright and early.

We got there around noon-ish and got 4 hour passes so we'd be able to hit the road and be back at a decent time. I got some decent pics while I was there and definitely exhausted myself. Since it was pretty much my second time out on the water this season, my muscles are not quite in riding shape. And even when I AM in shape, the cable park works things a little differently as well. I figured I would give a representative sample of the crew so I'll just throw in a few pics here. I love the pic of me because the ODub sign is in it too (top left). Then I have a picture of Dustin poking it out trying to ride out Nessie (top right), Joey throwing a shuv-it up onto Nessie's box (bottom left) and my first attempt at putting together a sequence shot using Tim throwing a tantrum off the kicker (bottom right).

Also, while this was going on, MC was busy contracting some yucky bug that combined with allergies (there is pollen EVERYWHERE) to rough her up a bit. She was feeling really crappy so I resumed my nurse duties when I got home in the evening.

Saturday morning was the practice run of the actual course for the 10k that we are running this weekend. MC was still feeling pretty crappy and Matt had an MRI so I ended up meeting Lynn and some of her work buddies out there. It was mostly the route we had been practice running before, just this time we ran the full 6.2 miles. Needless to say, combining that with the wakeboarding from the previous day pretty much knocked me on my ass. I was still able to play nurse, but I was definitely hobbling around the apartment all day and enjoyed just taking it easy with MC. She was pretty much bedridden for the entire weekend. She started to get a little better on monday, which is when I left in the afternoon to head up to Birmingham. I met up with my parents there so dad and I could go to the Barber Porsche Driving School for a day course on tuesday. His sister got him that as a christmas present and what good son wouldn't keep his dad company? ;-)

So we got up bright and early on tuesday morning and headed over to the track. Got signed in and enjoyed some breakfast while we waited for the rest of the day's class to show up. We started out in the classroom where we met a few of the instructors and they gave us a basic lesson on driving dynamics. A lot of it was similar to what we talked about when I went with Lauren to the BMW driving school, but they were a little more in depth on a couple of points so it was still interesting.

After the classroom session, we grabbed helmets, took a group photo, then split up into groups and hopped in the fans to take us over to the actual track (we were in the welcome center before). There were 6 groups in total and 1, 2, and 3 were grouped and 4, 5, and 6 were grouped. We were with another father/son pairing, of which the dad bore striking resemblance to the grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. So we got to see some of the track on the way over, but groups 4, 5, and 6 (our group) started out doing smaller exercises in the parking lot of the track. We started out in a little autocross course driving a Cayman. The instructor took us each for a couple laps telling us about the course then we got to take a few laps with him as a passenger. I think it was some combination of the drugs I took (I had apparently picked up the same thing MC had) and the adrenaline that started pumping because when I got in the car my head got extremely fuzzy. I felt like my head was in a complete haze and I had to have complete putzed around the course when I drove. It was a very odd experience.

Luckily they had water and such on hand so I hydrated and was feeling a lot better by the time we got to the second exercise. The second was sort of like a simplified autocross course meant to really instill the importance of smoothness in controlling the car. I loved this instructor because of his accent and the fact that his cadence didn't seem to change regardless of what he was talking about. He was very interesting to listen to.

From there we went to the skidpad. Instead of one large circle like the BMW school, this had a large flat wet area and two circles of cones so we could do figure 8s. This was an exercise in finesse and feeling and compensating for both under-and oversteer. After this we piled back into the vans and went down to the actual track.

It is an awesome track. I think they said it was about 2.3 miles and had 100 feet of elevation change in it so we got all sorts of different turns and hills and straightaways and everything. It was a ton of fun to drive! To begin with they assigned each of us a Carrera and, since we were going to be driving that whenever we were on the track, they took our picture!

We did a few laps following the instructor and each time we got to the main straightaway, the car directly following the instructor pulled out and let everyone pass and joined in the back. So at some point each person got to directly follow the instructor (who was in radio contact with us). Then we did a few laps where one person would park their car and ride with the instructor, then we'd do two laps, then they would get back in their car and the next person would get to ride. So, again, each person got a chance to ride with the instructor and he could give some personal feedback about what you were doing and talk through what he was doing as he drove around the track. After this they shuttled us over to lunch (which was scrumptious!) under the museum.

After lunch we went back up to the small exercises, except this time we had a competition going! With the autocross, the competition was between teams and it was a relay. Each driver did 3 laps, then had to get out and walk (not run) over to the waiting area, tag the next person, and they walked to the car and did 3 laps and so on. Our group ended up not posting that great of a time, but the "pit stop" from me to the other dad was the fastest of the day so I took home a snazzy little tire pressure gauge! :-) The second exercise was switched into a lane change maneuver, which was probably dad's favorite exercise of the day. Basically accelerate hard, brake as you go through a set of cones, then swerve left to go through another set, then back to the right to enter a long curve. Continue turning as you leave the curve and let off the gas as you go through a set of cones. Don't brake and swerve over to another set of cones then there's a stop-and-go (come to a complete stop then continue) and that's a lap. It was a really fun exercise.

So fun in fact (for dad) that he just didn't want to let go of it when we went to the skidpad. The skidpad was now an individual competition where we did 4 laps around the figure 8 then proceeded over into a stop area where the time stopped when we stopped. We did it each twice, once without the stability control and once with. I did pretty well with this one and the instructors said it was a pretty good time. As I mentioned before, dad wanted to still be doing the lane change. He started out totally flooring it (which of course led to him spinning out). He restarted, then got a little excited again and spun a second time. The second time through I think he finally succumbed to the idea that he wasn't doing the lane change and did a lot better. ;-)

So then it was back to the track! We did more laps in our carreras, though this time we were being recorded (camera on us, camera out the front of the car, and some basic performance info). They will apparently put it on DVD and send it to us in a month or so. Should be interesting! I tried to be a bit more vocal, but it probably wasn't that entertaining because I was just starting to get annoyed with the two guys dad and I were paired with because they were kinda holding us back. I could definitely have been going noticeably faster, but the instructor had to keep us together. Either way, I can't wait to see what was actually recorded. Then we also got to do a few laps in the carrera Ss, but that was even MORE annoying because we are in faster cars, but I felt like the other two guys were even MORE conservative so we didn't really get to exercise them like I would have liked to. Not like I can really complain :-) Then came the hot laps! The instructors took us for a ride in the Cayenne Turbo (the SUV), which they said easily keeps pace with the carreras we had been driving. It was nuts to tear up a track like that in an SUV! Then we had a lap in the Carrera Turbos. Talk about hauling ass!! It was crazy to see (and FEEL) what those cars are capable of. SO much fun! We all piled back into the vans and went back to the classroom. They went through the competitions and gave our prizes to the winners. And in addition to having the fastest "pit stop," my time through the skipad was the fastest of the group! So I also won a snazzy silver Mobil 1 pen. We also got certificates of completion, the pics of us with our cars from the beginning of the day, and little model GT3s. It was one helluva day!!! We only had a few minutes, but we poked our head in the museum that was there as well. You can hardly see in the picture, but it is the largest collection of motorcycles in the world, and there were plenty of other cool things as well! We will definitely have to come back when we have a few hours to burn. We met up with mom and had a nice mexican dinner then I hit the road back to tally! A long day for sure.

This morning MC was feeling a lot better, but now I think I'm at the peak (or trough I guess) of the illness. I took it easy and rested today and luckily I just have one class tomorrow. I'll probably be taking it easy as much as I can the next few days since that 10k is looming on saturday! Lots of juice and such! And speaking of rest, I think after that massive post, I am going to crash hard. :-)