New DROID phone

I had been struggling with the idea of getting an Android phone for a while, after seeing how fast it was compared to my Blackberry Tour. So the other day I made the switch, and I am pleasantly surprised. After being on a Blackberry for a while, I became spoiled with the email and facebook "push" methods of delivery, and I was wary that the Droid would be a problem.
First off, GMail on the Droid is PUSH. All other mail clients are PULL...meaning you have to log onto your account to retrieve them. Now, I only have two email accounts, one is Hotmail and the other is Gmail. The Gmail works like the BB did...I get a notification almost instantly after I get an email. I set up my Hotmail to send me a text alert when I receive a new email, and this is working out perfect so far.
Big plus with the Droid? NAVIGATION. Turn by turn, FOR FREE. No $10 charge for VZ Navigator (lousy program, by the way). Google Maps navigation is as good if not better than a Garmin standalone unit. This is a major selling point. I was sold on this alone.
Internet browsing? Just like broadband in your house. FAST. Kicks BB's butt...the BB internet is pathetic compared to this. And, I have Wifi also...something the Tour did not have!
The Droid screen ROCKS. Destroys the tiny BB screen....movies look amazing, and the resolution is amazing.
GPS acquisition on the Droid also gets major thumbs up over BB's...I can get a GPS fix indoors without any problem.
Reception on the Droid? Awesome. I dropped calls with the BB in my house- I have 3-4 bars with no dropped calls on the Droid so far.
The Tour did have the following advantages over the Droid: better keyboard- the Droid's is flat and the push-up screen of the Droid gets in the way of the top row of keys...makes your fingers feel mashed and makes button pressing difficult. Ability to screen capture-unless you hack the Droid, there are no apps available for you to capture the screen...except the home screen, which you can see on the picture I posted.  The Tour was also smaller and more compact- the Droid is bulky, but it still is pretty small considering all the cool stuff you can do with it.Speaker quality and call sound-the voices on the BB sounded much more like a landline phone. The Droid sounds a bit hollow.
If you plug the Droid in to charge, the phone turns on! WTF??? I read every manual on this phone and every forum post, and this is the way it was designed. Very irritating. If you charge the phone up overnight, you have to silence it, otherwise you will be woken up with email and text alerts...wow. Why don't they fix this?
So overall, the Droid trumps the BB Tour in pretty much every category. I am heading out to Tallahassee, and will be using it to post to the blog and share info, so we shall see how it does in the field!

TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA ROAD TRIP

Well, I am gonna head up to Tallahassee next weekend for a couple days, and plan on riding a couple trails up in the area.

The two trails up there are Cadillac/ Tom Brown, and Redbug. Reviews say that out of the few trails in that area, these three are the most highly rated. I plan on taking the helmet cam and capturing some trails on video. My standard def wide camera WAS gonna go with me too, for multiple angles, but it crapped out on me. GoPro had a firmware update for it, and I downloaded the update as directed from their website. When I tried to start the camera up, it was dead. So if you have a GoPro standard def wide camera, DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL THE FIRMWARE...IT WILL BRICK YOUR CAMERA!!! I'm waiting to hear from GoPro support, but I doubt anything will happen before I go on the trip. Bastards.
Check out the reviews of the Cadillac trail below.

Cadilac Mountain Bike Trail in Tallahassee, Florida || SINGLETRACKS.COM

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CARTER PARK VID

I was a little pissed off when I found out that 7 of the MP4 files on my new SD card were corrupted after the ride. Some of the best trails were on those files, along with my wipeout. I searched on line for this issue, and learned many people experience this problem when using those cheap, piece of shit SD cards from EBay shipped from China. I wanted to save a few bucks, so I rodered one of those abortions. That's the last time I do, let me tell ya. Back to my SanDisk 8GB- that's enough space.
Anywhere, here's what I could salvage.

CARTER RD. PARK RIDE AND REVIEW!

So the other day I finally made it to Loyce Harper Park (aka Carter Rd. MTB park) in Lakeland, Florida.  I have been wanting to check out this park for a year, and I finally managed to get in a good ride. I have to say I read many reviews of this park, and was hesitant on riding it due to some of the negative reviews. I have to say all the negative reviews are unwarranted.
The park is off Carter Rd., a short jaunt off the Polk Parkway tollway. The mountain bike trailhead is at teh end of a paved road that is actually in a full-on park: baseball, football and night lit fields. Very nice!
The trails are all very well marked, with wood signs placed on the trees. I had no issues navigating through the main area. The cool thing about this place are all the features placed along the trails. You will be riding along a relatively tame singletrack, when you will come across a wooden bridge or a wooden jump bridge. You have the option to ride the feature, or take the tamer route next to it. Very nice!
Many of the trails are quite hairy- and I mean HAIRY. There are thin singletracks along spines of this old quarry, that drop down 50 feet into the water below- in some areas, SHEER drops. You can get VERY HURT if you make a mistake along some of these trails- make no mistake!
There are some incredible climbs, and some adrenalin-pumping drops. All in all, this place has something for everyone. I was not disappointed. The trails are maintained by Ridgeriders in Lakeland, and they do a good job keeping this trail in good condition.
There is even a bike wash in the parking lot. Very sweet.
I took a little spill though on one of the features. There is a skinny along the back part of the trail that guides you over a muddy portion of the trail. Part of the plank was broken, which made for very unsure footing when you are off a few inches to the right. I endo-ed off the bike and raked my left leg along the broken part of the wood when I slipped off the side of the plank and into the mud, then stuffed my front tire onto a small wood beam.

 

Eh. Not too bad. Stings a bit though! I would have rather had it deeper than skinned the way it was! LOL

Sedona Condos

http://tourfactory.com/470668
I was just doing some real estate searching online the other day, and came across these nice condos in Sedona. I hope deals like this are available in 12 years when I retire!

MTB trip 2010

My "annual" epic MTB trip plans are once again falling into place. I am planning on taking another 2.5 weeks off from work in June this year. The destination again is the American Southwest.
After heading out there last year, I have been wanting to return and hit some of the best trails and try a few new ones in the process. I am eliminating Fruita Colorado from the itinerary this time, because it is a bit out of the way. I am doing the entire trip in reverse this time, with Moab being the last spot. Last year I missed some key points of interest, such as Monument Valley, which I am going to be taking in this year.
My itinerary takes me from Tampa to Lafayette, LA. the first day, then to Amarillo Texas the next. Third day arrival is in Sedona, where I plan on camping somewhere along Oak Creek Canyon. I am thinking of CAVE SPRINGS campground.
Sedona is a good place to start riding, since the lower elevations will help me acclimate for some of the other riding. Bell Rock Pathway is a good warmup ride, and I may try out some of the other trails out toward Flagstaff as well. I plan on being in Sedona for 3 days.
I'm then heading north on 89 toward Page, where I will be staying at Lees Ferry Campground. This is primitive camping at its best, and one of the few areas where you can actually access the Colorado River without climbing down a cliff. While in Page, I plan on hiking back out to Horseshoe Bend and taking some evening pictures, taking in another tour at Antelope Canyon, doing some kayaking on Lake Powell, and visitng "The Chains" area, which runs off 89 right before the Glen Canyon Dam. This is one of the only other places (aside from Lone Rock Beach) that you can actually access Lake Powell without a boat. It doesn't have a sandy beach, however- it's all sandstone, so I have to make sure I lug some chairs out there. Should be a good site to launch the kayaks from, too. One of the days I also plan on hitting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have usually just visited the south rim, but I have heard so many nice things about the North Rim I think I have to go see it. I plan on being in Page for 3 nights as well.
Going up into Utah, I am going to the "cannot miss" ride once again- Thunder Mountain. Camping at Red Canyon this time, which should make for a nice base camp. The tough part will be heading up to Coyote Hollow and THEN riding the whole trail. But at least I can just crash right at the campground at the base of the trail. You HAVE to ride Thunder Mountain clockwise... I only plan on being here for one night. Gonna try to squeeze in a hike on Navajo Loop to the bottom of Bryce again. I plan on leaving Page early on the first day, then doing the hike in the afternoon. The next day I plan on getting up early to ride Thunder, and then packing up and heading to Moab in the afternoon.
I've already booked the Devil's Garden Campground in Arches NP for my stay in Moab, but only for two nights. I want to spend the last night in a hotel just to enjoy the last night in comfort.

 

This campground is highly rated, and is also very picturesque. The next day I plan on exploring Canyonlands and Arches NP. 

The following day I plan on taking a kick ass MTB ride with Utah Outventures ... this is a killer ride down the Schaffer Trail in Canyonlands, along some of the canyon rims down in the National Park, and then into a jet boat for a ride along the Colorado. This night I plan on resting in a comfy hotel room with a hot shower- I am gonna need it after this ride. 

On my departure day from Moab, I plan on cruising right through Monument Valley on my way to Amarillo, TX. This will be a long day of driving, but the scenery will be incredible. I am NOT missing Monument Valley this time.

Headed out and did 17.5 miles out at Santos MTB Park. There was an event going on there, "The 12 Hours of Santos". The 12 hours runs from 10am to 10pm, and consists of various races- timed lap races in different classes, and the 12 hour ride....where racers do as many laps around the track that they can in 12 hours...insane!

 My co-worker Jeff and I ended up pulling off 17.5 miles on this trail today. We tried to keep up with some of those racers, but its hard to keep up on a sub-$1000 bike. Many of these guys were riding carbon fiber frame bikes and they were simply smoking us. By the end of the ride, we were toast. The above GPS map only shows the first 11.5 miles we did. We took a lunch break, then headed out to do 6 more miles. All in all, we hit Dr. Ruth, Sinkhole, Spedway, Marshmallow,Canopy, Bunny, Twister, Dog Bone, Cow Bone, Back Door, and Pine Tree trails. Insane!