And Now for Something Completely Different

So Mr. Mahomes and Mr. Brady are all set to face each other come February 7 down in sunny Tampa, Florida in Super Bowl LV. Most of America, if past years are any indicator, will tune in for at least some of the game if for no other reason than to check out the commercials. This year though, some top advertisers are opting out feeling that a football game is perhaps not the right note in a country plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, social and political unrest and record unemployment. Budweiser, along with other Super Bowl commercial giants such as Coke, Pepsi,  Ford and Hyundai will take a hiatus from advertising during this year’s game. Pepsi will however be the flagship sponsor for the Halftime Show. No worries though - you'll still see ads from Doritos, Cheetos, Chipotle and online used car retailer Vroom. Cost for a 30 second spot: $5.5 million, about what it cost last year.

My hometown Denver Broncos didn't even come close to the playoffs this year finishing with a 5 and 11 season which I think qualifies as dismal. I'll probably still tune into the big game to watch what should be a pretty good matchup between Patrick and Tom under the Florida sun. Game time temps expected to be around 75 degrees with a chance of rain. Given that as I write this its 30 degrees and cloudy in Denver 75 and showers (rain, not snow) sounds pretty good to me. 

Candidly, I haven't paid that much attention to this year's NFL season. Instead my attention has wandered about 7,300 miles to the southwest across that immense puddle called the South Pacific. To Aotearoa - the Land of the Long White Cloud - otherwise known as New Zealand. This being summer down under the weather in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city (population of about 1.5 million), isn't much different from Tampa with highs in the 70's and winds in the range of 13-19 mph. Hmmm, sounds like good weather to go sailing and that's just what's going on there right now. Auckland is hosting the America's Cup Yacht Race which starts in March. Right now several countries, England, Italy, and the U.S. are competing on the waters of the Hauraki Gulf to see who will have the pleasure of taking on the Kiwis who are the defenders of the Cup having defeated Team USA back in 2017 in the warm waters of Bermuda.

While the Vince Lombardi Trophy has been awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl for more than 50 years, the America's Cup has been awarded since 1851. And while the race is named after the winner of that first race - the schooner America - the race is of British origin and started as the Royal Yacht Squadron 100 Pound Cup ( 'R.Y.S. £100 Cup'). Today, the America's Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy.

https://www.americascup.com/en/home

Your eyes may be glazing over at the mention of Yacht Racing but make no mistake, this year's event is not your father's sailboat race. The 2021 edition of this storied event features what are called AC75 boats, 75 feet long boats that don't sedately sail through the water but fly above it on hydrofoils at highway speeds. These boats are so efficient that they can triple or quadruple the wind speed so even in 15 mph winds these boats can easily reach 40 plus mph. If you've never seen one sail, you won't believe your eyes (which is why I have a video featuring one of the recent races below). Manned by a crew of eleven, these boats are 16 feet wide and weigh 16,800 lbs. and feature two movable hydrofoils (one on each side) that can be raised and lowered to keep the boat 'foiling' above the waves.

Sponsored by Prada, the Italian luxury brand that specializes in women's and men's fashion, every Match and race of the 36th America’s Cup is being streamed live on Youtube, Facebook and americascup.com and features some of the best sports videography I've ever seen allowing viewers to literally race on board these amazing boats. I sometimes find myself ducking when the spray hits the camera the action feels so live. 

https://www.americascup.com/en/home

As I mentioned above, New Zealand (or more accurately the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron), having won the Cup four years ago is the defender and host of this year's race. The challengers include teams from Italy (LUNA ROSSA PRADA PIRELLI TEAM), the U.S. (NEW YORK YACHT CLUB AMERICAN MAGIC), and the United Kingdom (INEOS TEAM UK). Come March, it will be one challenger facing New Zealand in a 13-race Match. The first team to score seven points will become the Defender of the 37th America’s Cup. 

https://www.americascup.com/en/home

Team USA has had a rough go of it so far in the qualifying Prada Cup series of races but still has a chance to reclaim the trophy. After a horrendous capsize a week ago they have their work cut out for them to get their boat AMERICAN MAGIC back on the water. The UK team and their boat BRITANNIA have been dominant thus far in their races but the Italians have been staying in the hunt and anything could happen. So while I'll be tuning in on February 7th to watch some pigskin my heart and my mind will be far south of the equator thrilling to the sight of these magical craft flying over the windswept waters of the Hauraki Gulf.

Stuck in the middle with you...

"Clowns to the left of me, 

Jokers to the right, here I am, 

Stuck in the middle with you"

With apologies to the Stealers Wheel hit of the 70's, that's the way I'm feeling. We have a President that's gone, another that's just arrived, and a Youth Poet Laureate (didn't know there was such a thing, shame on me) who managed to steal (there's that word again) the show. 

One of our friends, according to my better half, put on her Facebook, upon seeing Marine One whisking Mr. Trump out of Washington, something to the effect "That #@&*ers GONE!". Another, on the opposite end of the spectrum shared that he wanted nothing to do with 'creepy Joe'. Therein lies the reason I'm not on Facebook but that's another story.

Amanda Gorman

I'm probably a fool (some would say there's no uncertainty about it), but I still believe words matter. If you were moved at all by young Miss Gorman reciting her poem at Mr. Biden's Inauguration then perhaps you too believe that words have meaning. And power.

Unfortunately, if the last four years have taught us anything its that words have power for good and for bad. Words can speak truth but can also spread lies. As Human Beings with supposedly rational brains it is up to us to decipher the difference.

While Miss Gorman will go down in prosperity as being the highlight of the Inauguration, in fact she was not the substance, the reason why we were paying any attention (if in fact you were) to what was happening on a partly cloudy/partly sunny (glass empty/half full?) day in our nation's capitol.  No, as mesmerizing as her 'Hill We Climb' poem was, we were actually gathered together as a country, Americans all though not united, to witness an event that just a week or so before was uncertain to occur. 

And yet, it had to occur. Without it this country would have ceased to exist as we know it, as we believe in it. 

Mr. Biden would probably be the first to acknowledge that his oratory skills pale in comparison to his young guest who spoke of being able to aspire to becoming President but on this January morning found herself reciting poetry for one. While Miss Gorman's eloquent soliloquy rang out for some five and a half minutes, Mr. Biden's Inaugural Speech went on nearly four times as long. Perhaps that is appropriate, as HIS words were ultimately the more important. While Miss Gorman aspires to be President, Joseph Robinette Biden IS President. Four years ago, when Mr. Trump stood in the same spot to deliver his Inaugural Speech I acknowledged that while I wasn't necessarily thrilled by the fact, he was OUR President for the next four years. 

Inaugural Speeches happen every four years and then seem to be relegated to the vaults of history (Since 1789 there have been 58 inaugural ceremonies to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of a president of the United States, and an additional nine marking the start of a partial presidential term following the death or resignation of an incumbent president). No one, other than perhaps historians, pay them much heed. Still, as I mentioned above. words matter. 

I remember four years ago paying particular attention to Mr. Trump's words on his Inauguration. I was curious as to what he would have to say as he clearly was something completely different (for good or bad) than his predecessors. His 16 minute speech was one of the shortest. What has been the longest you ask? In 1841 William Henry Harrison decided to brave the elements and deliver the longest inauguration speech ever, an oration lasting an hour, 40 minutes. On a cloudy, cold and blustery day Harrison who wore neither hat nor overcoat, rode a horse to and from the Capitol ceremony, subsequently caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. A month later, Harrison died. Words don't matter?

Stuck. In the middle. I voted for Mr. Biden but I am not a Democrat. Nor am I a Republican. And yes, through the years I have cast my ballot for candidates from both parties. Unlike for many of my Democrat friends it is not enough simply that Trump is out and Biden is in. Nor, like my friends in Red do I believe that Joe is the worst thing to ever happen to America. So I listened to his speech to HEAR what the man had to say. With all respect to my Blue friends, for me, he doesn't get a pass simply because he's 'not Trump'. 

I'm not going to bore you (if you're even still with me at this point) with summarizing what #46 said. You can read/listen to it online and in the video below. What I will say is that we as Americans should hold Mr. Biden to his words. Four years from now (if I'm still here, god willing) I'll read his words again and decide for myself if his Presidency hit the mark that he set on January 20, 2021. And yes, in fairness to Mr. Trump I did go back and reread his speech after Mr. Biden gave his. 

Suffice it to say that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. set some pretty lofty goals for his Administration and for our country. While I am sure we have not heard the last of a young poet descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, it is far more important that his words, rather than hers, come to fruition over the next one thousand four hundred and sixty days.

Here and There...

I received an email a week or so ago asking if I was planning on returning to work Spring Training at Surprise Stadium. The bats start swinging February 27th in the Cactus League and I had already made my annual reservations to stay at White Tank Park for the six weeks of Spring baseball. This would have been my fourth Spring Training to work at Surprise Stadium but it seems that dreaded five-letter word just continues to get in the way. It seems COVID is completely out of control in Arizona and the Governor has abdicated any meaningful attempts to control the virus. Since the start of 2021 the Grand Canyon State has seen as many as 17,000 new cases per day. Yesterday saw more than 9,800 cases and the day before had nearly 11,000 sun lovers testing positive. Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for Banner Health, said this week that “One in four Arizonans who are tested for the virus are confirmed positive for COVID-19”. Hmmm, doesn't seem like the greatest of ideas to go stand in a tent and expose myself to thousands of fans. So I won't be going south this Spring and I'm going to miss it. I really enjoy the sunshine and warmth as well as the fun vibe that surrounds Spring b-ball in the Arizona desert.

No mention at all of COVID
on the Surprise Stadium site...

Given the conditions, why Major League Baseball is continuing with Spring Training as usual is beyond me (and way, way beyond my pay grade!). I guess if fans want to flock to crowded stadiums with the odds of being exposed at 25% that's their choice. The Sundancers, those wonderful volunteers who are the ubiquitous hosts at Surprise Stadium are a little more circumspect on their website and at least acknowledge, albeit without directly mentioning the C-word, that there is something to consider: "The health and safety of our fans and residents are the top priority for Surprise Stadium. We are currently working with our MLB partners, as well as local and state officials, to coordinate the safest fan experience for the 2021 season." I wish them only the best.

On a happier note I did get a chance last week to head down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park nestled against the Sangre de Cristo mountains just north of Alamosa. The early January day we went saw the brilliant blue skies Colorado is famous for and temps in the mid to high 30's. Fortunately there was little if any wind so conditions were picture perfect for a hike in the sand. 

Trudging up the dunes is an exercise in infinite patience. For every two steps forward you tend to backslide a step (kind of like 2020...) so slow and steady is the order of the day if you want to reach the higher dunes. I was surprised how many out of state vehicles were in the Medano Creek parking lot. Ours was about the only car sporting the green and white Colorado plates and there were folks who had come from Illinois, Texas, Virginia and Florida - quite a ways to travel to see these famous dunes. 

Once you start climbing the dunes you still get a sense of solitude and the views as you get higher and higher (some of the highest dunes are up to 750 feet tall) are the reward for all your hard work. I've camped at the Park in years past (the campgrounds are closed in Winter and reopen in April) and especially at night the stargazing  is absolutely amazing so this truly is a special place. Apart from hiking the dunes a fair number of folks were sledding the steeper slopes. Not quite snow sledding but it still looked like fun!

Here's a brief video of our visit. We're already planning a return trip once the weather gets nicer. It won't be quite the same as the sun and fun of March in AZ, but given what we're all dealing with its not half bad...

What a journey...

"This blog will chronicle that journey as it unfolds. Where precisely I'll end up I 'm not quite sure; how long it will take to get 'there', wherever 'there' is, I don't know. For me it doesn't really matter. I learned long ago that life is a journey, not a destination. From past travels I know that I'm happiest when I'm out on that road to wherever, the road that beckons." 

 I wrote those words on a wintry day back on May 19, 2016 gazing out the window of a small cabin up in the Colorado high country. And yes, May in the Colorado high country can sometimes be warm and sunny and at other times you'd think it was the middle of Winter. I had just retired a month earlier from Pinnacol Assurance, a Colorado-based workers' compensation insurer where I had spent the bulk of my career working in Human Resources. 

Back then my wife and I were planning on setting out for a trip to Alaska because, quite frankly, the wilds of Colorado were just not quite wild enough. Of course, 2016 was also an election year but in May we gave the November Presidential election nary a thought. Even if we had given it much thought we would have guessed that whoever took office after Mr. Obama's eight years would just be more or less more of the same. Little did we know. Little did any of us know. 

I started this blog to chronicle my physical travels in retirement. I've always loved the inherent uncertainty that comes with travel. Even the most pre-planned trip can hit road bumps and I had always found that some of those bumps in the road led us down some of the most interesting paths. Of course the paths that we all travel are not only physical. They can be emotional, cultural, historical, metaphysical - pick your adjective and it most likely will apply to this journey we are all on called Life. We can never be certain when we set off where exactly we will end up. Four years ago I never would have imagined we would arrive at the place we all find ourselves now. 

By late June we had arrived in Fairbanks which is a lovely town on the Tenana river. We weren't done heading North yet, as we had aspirations to get above the Artic Circle on what they euphemistically refer to as the Dalton HIGHWAY. Its also referred to as the 'Haul Road' as it was built to get supplies from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay as they were building the Alaska Pipeline in the mid-1970's. Whatever you call it, the 'Highway' is a two-lane (sometimes) dirt road that is more frequented by Caribou and Artic Fox than by truckers and foolish tourists like me. Despite its fearsome reputation for eating tires and demolishing vehicles we made it above the Artic Circle. Just to be clear, there is no 'circle', no physical line marked out encircling the globe at 66 degrees North Latitude (the position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed and currently runs 66°33′48.4″ north of the Equator. Its latitude depends on the Earth's axial tilt, which fluctuates within a margin of more than 2° over a 41,000-year period, due to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon. Consequently, the Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about 15 meters (49 ft) per year.) What there is, at least on the Dalton Highway, is a forlorn sign by which everyone has their picture taken as proof that they were HERE. 

We were not the only folks brave (or stupid) enough to have ventured North that day to stand on the windswept tundra in front of an admittedly very impressive sign. The only other people there with us were a couple who lived in Fairbanks and had driven up to have their picture taken in front of the Artic Circle monument while holding a sign supporting Mr. Donald Trump. These nice folks (and yes, this is back when we were all just Americans and they were indeed very nice) were intent on being recognized as the Farthest North Trump Supporters. They told us they were going to dutifully send their picture into Trump headquarters. Back then I wasn't quite sure the Trump staff would quite know what to do with their picture as I wasn't quite certain the Trump campaign quite realized Alaska is part of the U.S. (in fact, most Alaskans candidly believe, perhaps correctly, that anyone from the lower 48 states really has no comprehension of where Alaska is or what its like to live at the top of the world). 

We took their picture...

At first this couple was somewhat reluctant to talk to us or ask us to take their picture. They had noticed our Colorado license plates poking out of the Dalton Highway mud and assumed that we must be vehement anti-Trumpers. We weren't, at least not yet, and we naively thought they were cute to be making the effort to do what they were doing. It is after all a 400 mile round trip from Fairbanks to the Artic Circle and back which is a pretty impressive jaunt for a photo opportunity.

As I write this blog today I wonder what this couple is thinking after the events in Washington this week. Fairbanks is 4,225 miles from our Nation's Capitol and I don't think I saw either of them in the footage of our fellow Americans storming and rampaging through the hallowed halls of Congress. Granted we're all four years older, our hair slightly more gray, but I'd be surprised if they had day-tripped from Alaska for the privilege of being first to bully their way into the "People's House". Part of me thinks if we could sit down over coffee we might find common ground as fellow Americans, perhaps chuckle as we reminisce over a cold day in June as we took each other's picture. Most of me doesn't believe that is still possible, our separate paths leading to today having diverged too greatly in just four short years. 

and they took ours

None of us in 2016, myself included, had any real clue what we would be seeing in just the first two weeks of 2021, just a couple of days before a new, duly elected President will take office. Nor would we have been able to comprehend that 350,000 of us would be dead due to a new virus. Or that five Americans would have lost their lives this week in an unbelievable clash on the steps and in the chambers of our Nation's Capitol in an unprecedented attack on our democracy spurred on by the Chief Executive sworn to defend it. 

We've seen a lot of things, you and I, in our journey over the last 1,460 days and quite candidly The Road That Beckons has lost some of its luster as of late. And it seems that We the People have lost more than we have gained as the last 48 months have flown by. Whether we can ever recoup what we have lost - our trust in our leaders, our trust in each other, our shared belief in what it means to be American - remains to be seen. 

I'm not a gambler but I do believe in the notion of playing the hand that you're dealt. Right now we've been dealt a pretty miserable hand but its what we have to work with. So far 2021 seems intent on being as brutal as 2020. The primatologist Jane Goodall once said: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” The couple of thousand who ransacked the Capitol this week have demonstrated the difference they would make, given the chance. Perhaps the rest of us looking down the road ahead can make our voices heard and make it clear we choose a different path. 

Safe travels.

Periheliowhat?

 Ah, New Years. That man-made construct when we get to reset everything that needs resetting. This year (2021) we need a lot of resetting in the wake of 2020's mayhem and misery.

Resolutions are a form of resetting I guess. My only resolution is to not have any. Kudos to those who have them and actually keep them but that's not me. 

I wondered briefly as the midnight hour came and went what any of this resetting really means for us. Do we reset the count of Covid deaths back to zero now that its January 1st, 2021 or do we just keep adding to the 346,000 Americans who died  from the virus in 2020? Now that we've passed a third of a million deaths does the counting even matter? 

Astronomically, New Year's roughly corresponds to when our home planet is closest in its orbit to the Sun, something they call Perihelion. The exact time and date through 2025 will vary from January 2nd this year to January 4th in 2023 and 2025. Tomorrow, if you're up and at 'em at 6:50 a.m. Denver time you can stop for a moment and think "Hmmm, I'm only 91,399,454 miles from the Sun!" You'll have to wait until July 25th at 4:27 p.m. (what is referred to as Aphelion) for the opposite to occur when we are at our furthest from old Sol at 94,510,886 miles. 

Times Square January 2020

I suppose we don't need all that astronomical mumbo jumbo to remind us that time keeps moving on. We've got a giant ball in Times Square in New York to tell us that. There's no clock I'm aware of ticking off the time and miles between Perihelion and Aphelion but we could all count down from 10 as the ball dropped last night over an eerily quiet Times Square. 

Last year at this time my wife and I were setting out on a bucket list trip from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. A month later upon arriving in San Francisco we were one of the last cruise ships to dock before they started quarantining passengers and crew on vessels with outbreaks of the then-new virus. As we walked through the San Francisco airport to catch our flight home we were oblivious as to why people in the terminal were already starting to wear face masks. 

Dawn arrival in San Francisco

Lots of folks in our neighborhood were up with us last night to catch the passing of the years. There were a lot of fireworks too, partly I'm guessing, to make up for the cancellation of downtown Denver's New Years Eve celebration. We had ordered takeout from the Cheesecake Factory, invited my mother-in-law over to join us, and watched competing T.V. channels try to outdo one another in year-end merriment. This year the Planet Fitness hats (borrowed from Dr. Seuss?) on the heads of the small crowd of people in Times Square seemed more bizarre than festive given that many, if not most, gyms are still unable to open. But kudos for trying. Ditto for the entertainers who gave it their all. You're efforts were appreciated. Maybe this time NEXT year we'll all be more in the mood for a celebration. One announcer proclaimed that we should work on turning twenty-twenty-one into twenty-twenty-Fun! Good luck with that; me, I'm just looking to make it to Aphelion...