St. Augustine Memorial Day Outing

Today I took my family for a Memorial Day outing in St. Augustine, which is about 75 miles east of Gainesville. We split the time up between the beach and the old city (St. Augustine, founded by Spain in the late 16th century, is the oldest city in the U.S. in continuous existence). For the beach part, we went to Anastasia State Park, one of the nicer parks I've been to. While in the pretty turbulent ocean, I practiced swimming, concentrating mainly on trying to improve my breaststroke form. This was interesting as the waves were pretty strong around me, quite a different experience from my local YMCA pool. It was a pretty good workout, though. But I think I prefer swimming pools to the ocean, at least when they are actually open and have available lanes.

The old city was the same as I have come to know it from several previous visits spanning the last 25 years. We browsed through different stores and had dinner at Meehan's Irish Pub and Restaurant, not to mention some coffee and chocolate from other stores. We didn't buy much merchandise, preferring instead to simply enjoy each other's company as we leisurely browsed around and took in the surroundings.

Our day together was full of laughs and good feelings, elevating my spirits and making me look forward to the busy week ahead of me.

Curious About Kakuro

Kakuro has been my favorite puzzle for more than three years. Also known as "cross sums", it resembles more a crossword puzzle than its more popular cousin sudoku, only of course with numerals (a 1-9 range like sudoku) instead of letters filling in the boxes. But I find that kakuro exercises my logical faculties more than sudoku, and I have gotten quite good at it with my focus on the more difficult puzzles found in books like Mensa Kakuro, Black Belt Kakuro, and Kakuro Challenge.

Just three books with tough kakuro games. When I am in a large bookstore like Barnes and Nobles or the soon-to-be-defunct Borders, I see shelf after shelf of sudoku puzzles but only a handful of kakuro books. Why? Is there something wrong with kakuro that makes people want to avoid it? Or maybe there is only a relatively small, finite number of puzzles that can be constructed...

Ha, that last notion is ridiculous, so it must be that people either find kakuro to be too easy, too difficult, or just plain boring. Or maybe it's similar to indie/alternative music not being played on broadcast radio: the corporate-powers-that-be just don't see its potential popularity and simply won't promote it.

All I really know is that now I have exhausted all of the available books providing more advanced-level kakuro puzzles. Now I have to wait for each Thursday when my newspaper Gainesville Sun publishes their excellent, albeit small, kakuro puzzle. Not enough!

By the way, my blog spell-check recognizes "sudoku" as a word but not "kakuro". Corporate power Google. There you go.

Wild Adventures (Valdosta) Visit

Today I took my family with me on an excursion to Wild Adventures theme park on the outskirts of Valdosta, Georgia. I've been there many times (going back to 2002), but not recently. I read somewhere that Wild Adventures had fallen on lean financial times and that closing it down had been considered. But they seemed to still be hanging in there, although they had redesigned the place somewhat with several of the old rides gone and a few new replacements. I miss the now-gone Power Surge and Inverter, two of my all-time favorite theme park rides. Also missing were the Gauntlet, Sindwinder, Gold Rush, and Tiger Terror rides. The latter two I had a rather fond attachment to as they were "baby" rollercoasters that helped me to gradually overcome my fears until I was ready for the "big guys". Also, Double Shot was shut down but not removed (yet). Hopefully, they'll keep this fun ride for the future. Wild Adventures did add some new rides, although the only one I really cared for was the thoroughly awesome Rattler.

We bought season passes for Wild Adventures that will last through the year 2011. This park, which is a manageable 90 minute drive north from Gainesville on I-75, also contains a nice water park within its borders that runs from mid-spring to early fall. And they have concerts as well (the Doobie Brothers are one of the featured coming attractions). All of this is covered by the discounted passes we bought. Hopefully, the company will stay in business long enough to cover their duration!

Weekend Beach Trip

If the above pix look a little familiar to my loyal readers, it's because we stayed at the same hotel in Daytona Beach Shores that we did last year! It was a brief but enjoyable stay, highlighted by my three-mile beach run earlier today in the middle of a torrential lightning storm!

Swim or Bowl, I Need Better Technique

Today I had planned to go swimming in the early evening hours at my nearby YMCA, but threatening thunderclouds caused me to change my plans. Instead, I went bowling with my family. Not as much of a workout, but it was a good family event and very enjoyable.

I am neither a good bowler nor a good swimmer, lacking crucial elements in my technique for each. But help is on the way! While I still thought I was going swimming, I went on the Internet and got some good pointers (and some video) on how to properly swim. Similarly, I'm looking for some good bowling tips, particularly in the area of my release of the ball to put a good rotation and "hook" into it.

Before the seventh grade, I neither swam nor bowled. But in one of the rare times of actual nurturing that I experienced at school, I had the opportunity to learn both. My swimming was deplorable and slow for many years afterward, however, with no one (including within my family) bothering to help me with my technique. Over the years, though, I did get to where I could "get around" in a reasonable span of time with my swimming. But I know I could do much better if only I improved my form. The same goes with bowling.

I'm more motivated with improving my swimming than improving my bowling. What I really want is to be able to swim distances on a comparable level with my running, without worrying too much about my times. But I do need to get my form down first.

Enjoying Riding the Hurricane

My recent trip to Hollywood in south Florida gave me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with a pleasurable experience I have been lacking of late: the theme park thrill ride. In this case, the park was Boomer's in Dania and the ride was the Dania Beach Hurricane wooden roller coaster.

Boomer's, strictly speaking, isn't really a theme park; at least it isn't in the class of a Busch Gardens, Sea World, or Universal. As a matter of fact, the Hurricane is the only thrill ride they have. But to me it is enough, comparing favorably with Dollywood's Thunderhead coaster as my favorite wooden roller coaster so far. What I like the most about the Hurricane, besides its length, are the numerous times of "lift" caused by going over hills in the course.

I am still confounded by the fact that the Dania Beach Hurricane is the only roller coaster in the entire south Florida area, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. For an area that touts itself as a vacationland and depends heavily on tourism, why hasn't a Six Flags been built there? Go figure. But even that is not as confounding as the fact that not many people down there seem interested in riding the one coaster there. I invite Boomer's to relocate here in Gainesville, with the outstanding Dania Beach Hurricane of course. But they'd have to rename it to something appropriate to my home town. How about the "Gainesville Road Work Adventure"?

Skateboard Shop to Offer Skate-Through Drinks

In a short article appearing in Thursday's Independent Florida Alligator, writer Tara Wind reports that a skate shop has opened next to the new skateboarding facility at Possum Creek Park. This store is located at the site of a former drive-through coffee shop in the back of a convenience store/gas station.

The owners obviously want to capitalize on the new skateboarding park and are, in my opinion, pretty savvy entrepreneurs. They reportedly plan to convert the original drive-through section into a "skate-through" area where skaters will be given free drinks. Hmmm...

Not being a skateboarder myself, my daughter still has a skateboard in the garage. Maybe, from time to time, I could "borrow" it and stash it in my car trunk. Then I'd drive up to the skate shop, park just around the corner from it (out of sight), take out the skateboard, limp along on it through the "free drinks" window, then disappear around the corner. Where I'd stash the skateboard back into the trunk and drive off, thinking all the time how clever I was.

With my free drink sitting on top of the car.

World Golf Village and Golfing

A couple of weekends ago, I spent some time with Melissa at the World Golf Village on the outskirts of St. Augustine, Florida. It was as part of a marriage retreat, and we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel there. It was also as if I had entered a foreign country with a fanatical following of the great sport of golf.

Oh, by the way, I have never golfed before. Unless you count my experience playing miniature golf (and I’m pretty damned good at it, thank you) or my childhood adventures with croquet, swinging a stick at a ball lying on the ground to make it go to a specific place has never taken off in my imagination. But I think I might get good at it were I to practice; I just don’t know. Anyway, I felt completely out of place at the World Golf Village, which naturally has a humongous course, practice holes, a golf hall of fame, and a couple of golf-themed restaurants. The stones comprising the floor of the nearly half-mile circle around which our hotel, the hall of fame, two restaurants (one of which has all of their many TVs tuned exclusively to a golfing channel), other golf-related businesses, and an IMAX theater were situated feature the names and signatures of famous golfing hall-of-famers from around the world. It made me wonder what I have been missing out on all these years, having basically ignored what appears to be such a significant and magnificent sport with all of its important heroes (most of whom I had never heard of).

I do know that golfing has quite its share of fanatics. Golfers I know tend to get pretty worked up talking about their recent outings, although they tend to only discuss their golfing with other golfers. Meanwhile, I can only eavesdrop and naturally have nothing substantial on my own to contribute to their weighty conversations other than something like, “Hey, I’ve beaten my family at miniature golf three straight times”. And I’m not dumb enough to do that, so I usually just keep my mouth shut.

So I don’t know about golf. I would like to engage in it with Melissa as a fun outdoors activity that the two of us could share into our retirement, but I don’t see myself spending an exorbitant amount of money on it or becoming a raving fanatical lunatic about it. And that World Golf Village was nothing if not fanatical.

Right now, my #1 golf experience was the vicarious pleasure I derived at watching James Bond have a “little fun” with Mr. Goldfinger by switching golf balls on him during a match. It would probably behoove me to delve a little deeper into the sport than that! But when?

Gainesville's Cofrin Nature Park

In the midst of an area of heavy traffic congestion on the way to the overcrowded Oaks Mall area lies an unassuming little park, Cofrin Nature Park. Named after recently deceased area philanthropist David Cofrin, this pleasant getaway is a fresh respite from the stress of urban living. At the entrance are a tennis court, a children's playground area, and a picnic area. A few steps past this is the start of a looping nature trail, complete with a view of a tiny creek that runs through the park.

I found walking the Cofrin Nature Park's trail to be refreshing, shorter then either Loblolly Woods or Ring Park and much less confusing than the latter. Again, no admission is charged there, although parking spots may be hard to come by if the park is crowded (when I went, I was the only one there). I recommend this park to anyone who wants to briefly escape their urban existence and experience a little nature for a while before returning. For those who like to walk or jog for exercise, the trail is very suitable.

Cofrin Nature Park is located at 4810 NW 8 Avenue. Here are some photos I took of the place.

A Walk Through Ring Park

Yesterday, as part of my series of excursions into Gainesville's interesting network of nature parks, I visited Alfred A. Ring Park off NW 23 Boulevard. Called simply Ring Park for short, it is located within a mile of bustling US 441 and Gainesville High School in the heart of Gainesville, but you wouldn't know it by stepping into it. Having first heard of this park, (almost hidden behind an Elks lodge) on an Internet running site (someone recommended it as a training course), I had thought it was a playground-type park with a little hiking/jogging trail encircling it (according to its map on the Net). Was I surprised!

Ring Park revealed its advantage over my Loblolly Woods experience when I found easy parking at its entrance. Upon entering it, I found it to be unexpectedly very primitive, even more so than was Loblolly Woods. The usually dirt path on the trail was often very rocky, full of jutting tree roots, and hilly at times. There were parts of it that contained puddles, not very conducive to a light jog. Fortunately, on my premiere trek I had decided to hike the park, not run it.

A little ways into Ring Park, I discovered a place where there were sheltered picnic tables and a small plastic kiddies' slide setup. That was the first and last vestige of anything resembling my preconceived image of this park! After passing this place, the trail become more and more primitive. I finally reached a beautiful golden creek and a fork in the trail nearby. I unwisely went to the right when I should have gone to the left. For by doing this I had inadvertently left the loop and gone deeper into the wilderness. But I kept walking, thinking the whole time that I was returning to the park's entrance (and my car). Finally, I did hear some traffic up ahead and I knew that I was almost back. But then I stepped out of the woods and found myself at NW 16 Avenue! Ooops! I had to go back into the park and retrace my route back to the other end. In short, a planned twelve to fifteen minute hike ballooned into more than thirty minutes. The park does have a detailed map at its entrance, and it looked much more complicated than the simple "loop" I saw on the Internet.

Ring Park is much more interesting to me than Loblolly Woods. There is parking and a place for picnicking with restrooms. And the trails do have benches periodically spaced for tired travelers (Loblolly Woods also provides this). The scenery is much more interesting as well. And, as also is the case with Loblolly Woods, there are no admission fees.

Here are some pictures I took of my experience at Ring Park.

Beach Trip to Daytona

This past weekend, I spent some time with my family in Daytona Beach (technically Daytona Beach Shores). We all had a good time, but toward the end of the stay the temperatures skyrocketed to nearly 100 degrees (Fahrenheit), with the heat index reaching 110. And about 200 rescues of swimmers caught in strong rip currents were made on Friday and Saturday. So what did I do in the midst of this extreme heat and oceanic peril? Run on the beach and go out into the waves, of course!

Here are some photos of the beach:

Wooden Roller Coaster Chatter

While looking at YouTube to see if I could find that long wooden roller coaster I had described before on this blog as being “legendary” (it is Shivering Timbers at Michigan’s Adventure park in Muskegon County, Michigan), I discovered a few others worth that high billing. The most interesting of the bunch is much closer than Muskegon, Michigan: it is The Voyage at Holiday World in Santa Claus, (southern) Indiana (on Christmas Boulevard). Here is the link to a video of that ride. The above picture of The Voyage is from Wikipedia.

I have an annual-pass to Busch Gardens in Tampa, which is much, much closer than is Holiday World. And still it seems like a major ordeal to drive down there (about 130 miles distance from Gainesville). But that’s not all.

I have yet to visit a theme park where the simple act of walking through it isn’t thoroughly exhausting in itself. And in the hot summertime? Forget it! It makes me appreciate even more the single big coaster that Boomer’s of Dania, Florida had (well, I guess Boomer's is kind of like a theme park). If I lived down there I probably would have ridden it more than 100 times by now!

Leisure is Important

In my hectic life, I live (and die) by the clock. At least, I think my life is hectic (sometimes). And I (sometimes) live by the clock. Truth be told, I abhor being held to tight schedules and deadlines. Having free, open time lying ahead of me is something I cherish. Not that I always take advantage of that time to do something self-fulfilling. Sometimes doing nothing can be rewarding!

I look at other people and their lifestyles and I wonder why they choose to allow themselves to be so boxed in with their time. Some appear to have the notion that always being busy, busy, busy is a virtue. I've even known a couple of colleagues who have regularly, voluntary forgone work breaks, and not because there was crucial work to do either. They either don't know how to chill out for even just a few minutes or they equate rest and/or leisure with laziness.

One of my new all-time favorite songs is a sad, introspective song by Sufjan Stevens that he put on his The Avalanche album. Titled Pittsfield (after an Illinois town), the lyrics reveal an individual whose childhood was less than idyllic; apparently, a parent or guardian would put in long working hours away from home and then guilt-ride him (while he was still a child) about his perceived laziness:

You can remind me of it that I was lazy and tired
You can work all your life as I'm not afraid of you anymore

As adults of course, we need to be responsible regarding our obligations to ourselves, our dependents, and the society at large. But this doesn't imply that we should beat ourselves down with work, as if we are paying penance for simply being alive! And worse, using our perception of our own "virtue" to put down others.

Once, I was having (I thought) a light conversation with one of my co-workers. I mentioned that I liked to go the theme parks with my family and ride roller coasters. To which he replied that, yes, he used to like those sorts of things, but he's grown up now and has gone on to more important things. He didn't say this in meanness toward me; he really believed that, at his age (he was about 10-15 years younger than me) that engaging in fun, leisure activities was immature and irresponsible. I hope that this individual, who since left to work elsewhere, will "grow up" out of this potentially self-destructive delusion (well, I think it's a delusion). For occasionally breaking away from tight schedules and enjoying some leisure activity (or inactivity) is important for our health, both mental or physical. And I don't have to be a physician to know that: I have lived it, and have seen this in others as well!

Dania Beach Hurricane Coaster

In spite of South Florida's determination to promote itself as a vacationland for tourists, it has done precious little in the area of theme parks and thrill rides. Tampa has Busch Gardens with its great rides (especially the roller coasters). Orlando is loaded with parks, chief among them Disney World, Universal, and Sea World. Winter Haven has Cypress Gardens and Valdosta, Georgia has Wild Adventures. All of which have good thrill rides. But South Florida? Just one place exists, and that place, Boomer's of Dania, has just one ride: the Dania Beach Hurricane wooden roller coaster. And I rode on it this past Monday (after doing the run I wrote about yesterday, as a matter of fact).

It is very easy to miss Boomer's, especially if you don't know it's there. Even when I knew its location, which is just on the east side of I-95 a few blocks north of Stirling Road, I kept turning at the wrong streets and having to backtrack. Finally, I reached this little amusement park, which is at the back of an undeveloped industrial park area.

The parking lot was small, almost empty, and (best of all) free. Compare this with the seven bucks I have to shell out to park at Busch Gardens (even with my annual pass). As I walked toward the main building (actually, I think there was only one building), I looked to the left and saw a miniature golf course. Once inside, I saw many arcade games on the right and a restaurant/diner on the left. I got in line at the ticket desk and bought my ticket for the roller coaster ride ($6.75 for one ride and $12 for unlimited rides in a day). I just bought one ride and walked out the back of the building down the walkway to the roller coaster.

The Dania Beach Hurricane, although the only coaster in this part of Florida, is now overall my favorite wooden roller coaster that I have ridden, surpassing even Dollywood's exciting-but-comparatively-small Thunderhead and Busch Gardens' twin coaster Gwazi. What I liked the most about the Hurricane were its exciting drops, leaving me floating in my seat on several occasions. And it was quite a long ride as well.

I picked a good day to try out Boomer's. School was in session and the place was almost deserted, except for employees. When I did my one ride on the Hurricane, I was the only one on it and sat a couple of seats from the front.

The next time I visit Hollywood, I will definitely ride the Dania Beach Hurricane again. My son and daughter both like riding roller coasters, and should they go with me the next time they'll enjoy the experience as well.

I was thinking how sad it was that South Florida had only one coaster. And then I realized that not only doesn't a big city like Jacksonville have any, but neither does my home town of Gainesville. I have to drive about a hundred miles (or more) from home if I want to ride one (although I have some great choices of places to go should I do this).

There's one other wooden roller coaster that I'd like to ride at some future date. I don't know the name of the park that it's in, but I do know that it's in Muskegon, Michigan and is legendary among thrill ride enthusiasts.

Bulls and Cleods

Here's an idea for a fun, little no-expense, no-tech game that you can play with another, needing only paper and pen. It's a good game to play while stuck waiting in lines or in waiting rooms. When I learned it as a kid, it was called "bulls and cleods". [I'm not sure how to spell "cleods", having looked up the word in the dictionary and the Internet with no success.]

Each side in bulls and cleods imagines a four-digit string of non-repeating numbers (e.g. 2345, 6452). They then take turns submitting "guesses" to each other in order to finally determine the other's number. The first to do this wins the game.

The terms "bulls" and "cleods" come into play regarding the hints the "holder" of the number gives the "guesser" each time around. For example, suppose I have imagined the number "1234" and my worthy opponent guesses "2614". I see that "2614" contains three digits in my number of "1234". "4" is present in the exact correct position (a "bull") while "1" and "2" are also present, but in the wrong places ("cleods"). So my response to my opponent's guess of "2614" would be "one bull and two cleods". Using logical reasoning, eventually someone hits upon the exact number and wins.

This game can be played among most age groups. Naturally, little children may find it too challenging, but here it can be used as a teaching tool for logical reasoning.

Mental Perpetual Calendar

I wish, as do many people, that our calendar system were more regular. It is ridiculous how complicated it is to reconcile dates with the days of the week that they fall on. So I devised my own system of being able to determine dates, with their days of the week, from memory using numbers assigned to each year and each month of the year.

Note in the table below that there is a cycle of 28 years between years of the same assigned “number”. So even if I wanted a date within a more distant year, say--1945 or 2058, I could extrapolate by adding or subtracting multiples of 28 until the number coincided with a featured year (e.g. 1945 + 28 = 1973, so 1945 is a “3”). So all that’s necessary is to memorize a sequence of 28 years with their assigned numbers (I suggest 2001-2028) and the months with their assigned numbers.

Also, days of the weeks have their own assigned numbers as well:
Sunday: 0
Monday: 1
Tuesday: 2
Wednesday: 3
Thursday: 4
Friday: 5
Saturday: 6

And here are the tables of assigned numbers by year and month:

****BY YEAR****
1956,1984,2012...3
1957,1985,2013...4
1958,1986,2014...5
1959,1987,2015...6
1960,1988,2016...1
1961,1989,2017...2
1962,1990,2018...3
1963,1991,2019...4
1964,1992,2020...6
1965,1993,2021...0
1966,1994,2022...1
1967,1995,2023...2
1968,1996,2024...4
1969,1997,2025...5
1970,1998,2026...6
1971,1999,2027...0
1972,2000,2028...2
1973,2001,2029...3
1974,2002,2030...4
1975,2003,2031...5
1976,2004,2032...0
1977,2005,2033...1
1978,2006,2034...2
1979,2007,2035...3
1980,2008,2036...5
1981,2009,2037...6
1982,2010,2038...0
1983,2011,2039...1

***BY MONTH***
Jan (leap year):3
Jan (non-leap):4
Feb (leap year):6
Feb (non-leap):0
March: 0
April: 3
May: 5
June: 1
July: 3
August: 6
September: 2
October: 4
November: 0
December : 2

Now how does this all work? First, let’s take a date in the past we all know about: September 11, 2001. 2001 is a “3” year. September is a “2” month. The date is “11”. Now 3+2+11=16. Divide by multiples of seven and get the eventual remainder of 2, denoting Tuesday.

Now another example: I know it’s Wednesday near the end of February, 2009. But I don’t know the exact date. 2009 is “6”, February (non-leap year) is “0”. Since Wednesday is “3” and I know I'm sometime near the end of the month, then the starting number is “31” (since 28, a multiple of 7 used for the end of the month,+3=31). Subtract the year-month sum of “6” and I get “25”, the actual date I’m looking for.

Sound too intricate? Once you memorize the necessary numbers and do some practice runs, you may find it to be pretty simple. I’m sure that there are plenty of other ways to determined dates and days in this ridiculous calendar system of ours. I had a lot of fun figuring out my system. Why don’t you try your own hand at it, or perhaps share an alternative (and hopefully simpler) method if you already know one?

Epcot Visit

My wife, daughter, and I recently took a day-trip down to Disney’s Epcot Center near Orlando. We had all been there before and enjoyed this park. One of the big attractions there is the new ride Soarin’, which mimics the effect that one gets while hang-gliding. Although the three-to-four minute ride was fun, I didn’t think it was worth the nearly two-hour wait in line for it. We did experience something interesting while waiting in that line, though. All along the walls facing us in line were large screens on which interactive games with the waiting audience would be played. The audience would attempt to manipulate the action on the screen (depending on which game it was) by waving arms, clapping, or leaning to one side or another. So that part of the wait was pretty fun. But I don’t think I’d want to repeat the experience, just the same.

The Energy (with Ellen Degeneres) ride was shut down and Mission: Space and Test Track also had prohibitively long lines (we arrived too late in the day to make Fast Pass appointments to avoid the long waits). We did ride on Spaceship Earth (under Ray Bradbury’s famous “golf ball”), Nemo (a new ride) in the Sea building, Land, and Imagination (with Figment). I found it amusing, while walking by the large fish tank in the Sea, to notice visitors taking pictures and videos, not of the exotic aquatic life swimming around, but rather of scuba divers waving at them in the tank!

Later, we wandered over to the “nations” section of the park. We bought our dinner at a bakery in the French section and ate it outside on a bench (the weather was pleasant). Then we strolled around the nations. An extremely talented musical band from Morocco was giving an electrifying performance. It made me wonder whether or not there are some Internet radio channels that I could pick up this type of music on. I loved it!

We ended our visit to Epcot spending a little time shopping around the China zone. I noticed that there were plenty of eastern religious and traditional items for sale, including books on Buddhism and goods displaying Chinese astrological symbols. I saw nothing in any store that even remotely hinted of Mao Zedong or the Communist system that the People’s Republic of China is still nominally governed under.

We left the park before the nightly fireworks in order to avoid the heavy exiting traffic. All in all, we enjoyed our visit. It was a pleasant departure from the stresses and routine of our usual daily lives, and gave me a more positive outlook about the world and life in general. And, looking back on it, I was impressed at how friendly, helpful, and professional ALL of the employees there were to us. Here are a few photos we captured on the trip:

New Year's Day at Busch Gardens Tampa

Yesterday for New Year's Day, I took my family to Busch Gardens, where we enjoyed the park, along withs its rides, animals, and generally pleasant ambiance. Here are some photos of our experience there.