A little nostalgia for Todd T–Famous New York Pizza

Another Quick Take.  I know…the joke is a little inside, but I will point out that TT and I did it originally before Michael Scott did.  Now, if I could just find that old video.

In the meantime, here’s the homage from TC.  Notice the cat calls for the Manhattan hotties against the wall in the background.

Sloshkosh Start

Some of my friends and I arrived in Oshkosh last night…unfortunately the grounds at the airport are soggy from 10 inches of rain last week, so we’ve been relegated to a hard parking lot a few miles north of the airfield…along with a bunch of other people.  I’m being told there are about 5 more of these lots that EAA is setting up until the grounds dry out…along with a couple hundred parked on the road near the entrance to the camping area at the airport.  Good times.

Here are a couple of pictures…the last one is our rig for the week, along with a map of where we’re at (hopefully temporarily).

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Map picture

RVs Up the Coast of California

Okay…there should be a lot more coming on this, but I wanted to at least post a few of the pictures.  In late June an early July of this year the Cederstroms and the Williams families headed out to California, rented a couple of RVs, and headed up the central coast and back.  It was a blast!

We did get one dive in at Monterey…but it was nothing to write home about.  I got to use my drysuit in the ocean for the first time, but that was the highlight of the dive…and no video or photos from that one.  More on that later.

Like I said, I’ll get some more details here at some point when things get a little less crazy and travelling has slowed down, but here are some of the pictures from the trip.  I have more, of course, and Rachel took tons as well, so at some point maybe we have to do some pic swapping.  Enjoy.

Headed to Oshkosh!

Many of you know that I am an aviator, a pilot…and I take having fun flying very seriously. Smile  I am also a podcaster and have a couple of shows about aviation that I host and produce.  Part of what I do as both an aviator and podcaster is make an annual pilgrimage to the Mecca of general aviation, EAA’s Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  This show is indescribable, so I won’t really try.  I will, however, say that it’s amazing!  The best part, of course, is meeting all of my old friends and making new ones every year.  Well, that time has come again…and in about a day and a half I’ll be heading up to Osh for a week of airplanes, airshows, interviews, fun, hanging out, rain, heat, humidity, camping…and an all around good time.

I do official coverage of some of the show on my two aviation websites, StudentPilotCast.com and pilotcast.com, but I may chronicle some of the adventures here through pictures, video, and writing…but it all depends on how much time I have (which is usually not very much).  I may at least do some cross posting and get some of it here even if I post it on one of my show sites as well.

For some of the information and coverage that I’ve done at past Airventure, you can see some of it here.  I’m getting excited…as usual, it’s gonna be great!

Some Grand Cayman Diving

Last month my wife, Crystal, and I took a whirlwind vacation with some of our extended family to several great diving destinations including Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Ft. Lauderdale.  I’ve got a lot of video footage and some still photos from the trip, so I put together a little sample from Grand Cayman.  More to follow.

We dove with Casey from Neptune Divers and it was fabulous.  No big animals on our two dives this time, but the terrain on the wall was amazing, and the life around the wreck and reef we did on the second dive was fantastic.  My sister, Brenda, shown here in this video a few times, was on her first dive as a certified scuba diver (see her using her arms? :)). Her husband, David, is featured here too, along with Crystal and I.

I’ll also have a review/recap of our trip shortly.  For now, here is a quick view into the underwater world of Grand Cayman, featuring their world class wall that dives into the abyss just off shore.  Enjoy.

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Quick Flip 6 – California Trip #1

Today’s daily flip is some clips from our first day in California this summer.  We started by renting a quaint little house in Hollywood and spending our days at Universal Studios.  This is our first afternoon there after travelling.  The intro, done by my kids, was in our rented house.  After a couple of days here, we’re off to La Jolla to our favorite family vacation spot.

Flying Over Hana

For today’s video, I’m just referencing an episode that I released yesterday for my podcast, The Student Pilot Cast.  This is a flight that Crystal and I took (separately, since it only has two seats) in Hana, Hawaii on Maui back in the summer of 2007.  It was one of the best vacations that we have ever taken, and this, at least for me, was one of the highlights of that trip.

I hope you enjoy SPC Video #4, Flying Over Hana.  Let me know what you think.

I’m including the video here, but for the original post on the podcast site, you can go here.

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Daily Flip 5 – SGTRI

Well, I did another triathlon last weekend, the SGTRI.  Actually, while a different race, it was the same venue from my first full tri which got cancelled due to weather after the swim.  This time wind and waves got the swim start delayed, and then cancelled as well.  I’m not having good luck at this venue.  So, the race organizers turned it into a run-bike-run event.  It turns out this was a really hard course, both the bike an the run.  They were much harder than I had expected.  I bombed on the last run, but finished, so I guess that’s something.

I did the tri with my friend, Matt, and my brother, Cory.  Matt lives here in Mesa and Cory lives in Park City, UT.  Matt and I had planned on having me fly us up to St. George, UT, where the event was.  That would turn an 8 or so hour drive into a 2 hour flight.  Then my brother asked if I could come pick him up near Park City…so of course, I agreed.  After dropping Matt and our gear off at St. George Airport (KSGU), I got back in the plane and flew up to Provo, UT (KPVU) and picked up my brother.  Then we both flew back to Hurricane, UT (1L8) where our rental home was as well as the actual triathlon (Hurricane is about a 20 minute drive from St. George).  Matt and I got to fly over the western edge of the Grand Canyon both ways.  Here are a couple of pics from that.

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We stayed in a great house that was only a couple of miles from the start of the race, so we were able to ride our bikes in on the morning of the tri…no parking or waiting in long car lines necessary.  It was great!  My friend, Jen, from high school and her husband, Marcello, drove up from their home in Las Vegas to cheer us on and take some great photos.

We had a great time.  I wasn’t happy with my performance, but that just gives me some additional motivations in my training…I’ll improve for next time.  Even so, I got to hang out with a lot of great people, got to race in a triathlon, and got to do a lot of flying!  A great weekend, indeed, despite Sandy Hill.

I dedicated a daily flip video to the experience.  It’s a little long for a daily flip, but I hope you enjoy it.