Archive for the ‘hiking’ Category
By Trail or Paddle
Which one would you choose? Since arriving in this awesome state I’ve been on a witch hunt for a good rack system and kayak to be able to explore areas as far away as possible from the ship. Thanks to a bit of Yahoo’s local search feature I was able to find a really nice outdoor store – Black Creek Outfitters – which not only sold everything you could possibly want for the camping/hiking/kayaking enthusiasts (even close-toed keens…didn’t know those even existed) but also provided American Canoe Association (ACA) to get anyone comfortable with kayaking and to help understand what size/type of kayak would be the best choice. I had an issue regarding Thule and Yakima not carrying anything that would fit atop my little rice-burner, but I did manage to (hopefully) situate myself with a fix from ORS Racks Direct.
I discovered a neat little bookstore in the historic area of St. Augustine that had quite a selection on Florida’s ins and outs. I found a book that had quite a detailed list and map of numerous areas to hike/kayak all along the Florida coast/inland areas, which I’ll hopefully be able to actually use after we get back from deployment. I’m looking into hiking/kayaking dork-type groups to try and hook up with in the mean time.
Always remember, go everywhere, see everything, leave nothing but footprints.
Florida or Bust
After the awesome concert last friday night, I had a quick rest and did the whole 10 1/2 hour drive down here to Mayport. I managed to evade whatever storms were supposed to come in my path and even with a handful of stops still made the trip under what Google said it would take. The ship isn’t too bad, our space has crystal-clear tv and air conditioning as well as semi-comfortable chairs. The people are pretty close-knit and welcoming, everyone knows everyone. We are still scheduled for a deployment the first week of April and we’re still headed to the South America region, we’re expecting a ton of port visits and days in port. Its taken me a little while to get used to things, but I’m happy to say that my rack is quite cozy (when it does finally get quiet and I’m inside my sleeping bag) and since its a clean berthing it doesn’t have a horrid stench to it. If you try and get a hold of me, most likely I wont get your call (your messages and texts possibly) due to the lack of service inside the ship, but I am able to check my facebook regularly via my phone.
Anacostia Islands and Karmic Koala
Being on I-264 by 1000, I could tell the weekend was gonna be quite chill. I made awesome time into D.C. and of course ran into a bit of traffic getting into Capitol Hill, but I did manage to land a pretty nice parking spot right in front of Matt’s apartment (which is apparently unheard). We had a bit of kluski and headed on foot towards the Anacostia Islands for a bit of a hike before the park closed. Apparently we ran past the closing-time for the park (what the hell is the meaning of a 1730 closing time?) and ended up having to break out of the park, imagine that! Other than the horrible rain D.C. managed Saturday, the rest of the weekend went swell, including all the yuppies at Jimmy T’s and their incessant yapping,
From word of a friend I learned about Ubuntu’s newest release, Karmic Koala (9.10). Spent all last night downloading packages and running the upgrade, look here if you really aren’t linux-friendly, and playing around with the installation. I can honestly say its even more so aesthetically pleasing than Jaunty is, and there are little things here and there that just pin-point the detail the developers at Ubuntu really pay attention to. The boot and splash screens are really neat, but unfortunately the system boots up too quick now and you hardly get to see them 