1,132 Miles

Porsche, the Road to Pikes Peak from Will Roegge on Vimeo.

Jeff Zwart drove his 911 GT2 RS 1,132 miles from his home in Santa Ana, CA to Pikes Peak, CO to defend his hill climb time attack record. Even thought his record was broken, it takes a certain kind of driver to forgo the luxury RV he could have been riding in and trek across the country himself.

B.V.I 2011

I spent last week on vacation, sailing in the British Virgin Islands. The week before I left it rained for five days straight. That same week it also rained for 5 days straight in the Islands, and the forecast for the next week called for more of the same. Luckily the rain cleared up, leaving beautiful sunny skies and warm weather. There was an unusual lack of wind which is rare as the island are so well known for their strong trade winds.

The island in the photo is Saba Rock, which sits in North Sound on the island of Virgin Gorda. When I first started visiting the BVI, Saba Rock was only had a tiny family owned restaurant on it. It served up great Caribbean food and was populated by a few nasty mouthed parrots. On Thanksgiving theywould have a huge feast and their dock would be so crowded that the chain of dinghy's would almost reach the shore I took the photo from. The family sold the island to developers a few years back, and although its unfortunate the old restaurant is gone, the developers kept the island hotel they build relatively tasteful.

View from Saba Rock looking east out to the Atlantic and
towards the east shore of Virgin Gorda.

Sunset from Biras Creek looking north towards the Sir Francis Drake Channel

We visited an artist community in Trellis Bay, Beef Island.
They had lots of friendly dogs and cats. This guy was especially friendly.

Even when sailing, I am still car spotting.

This is the house of an old blind man named Conrad who lives in Great Harbor on Peter island. He hangs out the beach welcoming sailors who use his beach to get access the the nicer resorts which don't exactly cater to sailing types. His house seems to be the only private residence on the island. The rest of the island is owned by a a few large resorts. I assume he was the only person to not sell their land and move when they started building.

Deadmans Bay on Peter Island, home to one of the best beaches in the world.

Topo Designs

Topo Designs is a bag manufacturer based in Colorado who have recently released a set of classic 60's and 70's inspired gear. The bags are made in a LEED certified facility right here in the good old US of A. They are also priced at what seem more than reasonable for what you get, something that cant be said about a lot of the throwback bags coming out lately.

Roadside Vernacular

A hot dog stand that's inside a giant hot dog, a hat store inside a giant hat, a tamale stand inside a gaint pug. Ok, so not all of these buildings are in the image of what they sell, but they all capture the uniqueness of mid century California all the same. While New England has its old world colonial charm, it lacks the Americana of the the west and midwest. About has kitschy as it seems to get around here is along Route 1. For a short time out west kitschy reigned supreme and some of the most unique and American store fronts were created. Although most are long gone and very unlikely to return, I'll take a building in the shape of a pig over a concrete cube strip mall any day.

Images from here