Tuesday, July 31, 2012
California Video update
You tube is literally brimming with new videos from the Summer of DeFeo.
Below are the links...
Driving on the beach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbTi8cZ93Y
Driving the PCH - Hall and Oats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZkwdIBtxNM
Driving the PCH - Weezer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46sR0O19Pg
Driving the PCH - California v1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFm7qbZ4YLs
Driving the PCH - California v2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdC2LaPhY4s
Driving the PCH - Here comes the Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKjEyxpTDVc
Bird Rock @ Pebble Beach
(You can hear the Seals!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpJdaYfRpCE
California Dreaming
Good bye California. You will be missed. I've spent more time in your sweet embrace than almost the every other state combined, but I must leave you now and officially begin my trip home...even though it is going to take a month to get there.
A few milestones today.
1) We broke the 7,000 mile mark for miles driven.
2) We broke the 22,000 mile mark for distance traveled.
3) We drove on yet another type of surface...sand! So far, we've driven on dirt, asphalt, rock, corn, mud, manure, grass, salt and now beach sand!!!
I will upload the video of the beach driving as part of a complete California video compilation post that I am putting together. But I basically popped the car up onto Pismo beach this morning for a little drive.
So I've now driven the entire pacific coast highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles...sort of.
The reason for the "sort of" is two fold.
1) I stopped short of LA and made a beeline for Route 15 to Vegas. I have absolutely no desire to see anything in LA and my two Friends that live there aren't even in town this summer so I crossed the city off my list entirely. I still got sucked into LA traffic for 2 hours though...ugh!
And
2) I ventured off of Highway 1 for a bit after I left Pismo Beach. The highway started cutting inland and I was like "hey, What happened to driving the coast. This is bullshit." So I pointed my car west and just started driving till I hit water...yeah...bad idea. Apparently, Highway 1 cuts inland to go around Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is where NASA cooks up all their cool stuff and is very much hidden away from the rest of civilization. Note: They don't like people driving around the air force base. Within 5 minutes I got pulled over by military police. They asked what I was doing and where I was going...to which I responded, "Yeah, I'm looking for the gift shop...you guys have a gift shop?" I expect the encounter to be front page news on Obama's military briefing tomorrow. "Sir, we don't know who this guy is, but we have intelligence placing him in Zurich and Frankfurt days before our officers picked him up outside Vandenberg."
Along the way getting back to Highway 1 I drove through "flower country" where they grow a bunch of flowers for sale all over the country. The photos don't do it justice at ALL. It was amazing to just see fields an fields of color as far as the eye could see...It also smelled like a Parisian Brothel.
Afterwords, I passed through a few cool little towns that are pretty much inhabited only by the workers of the fields (See Guadalupe).
I made it to Santa Barbara by around 1pm. I walked around the city a bit...it's absolutely lovely. I also hit another Diner's Drive-ins and Dives location, "Mac's Fish and Chips." It was excellent and I'm not even that big of a fan of fish and chips!
I really took my time driving around and making my way down this last leg of the California Coast.
I arrived in Vegas late last night and now I'm just relaxing a bit before I start my next string of mountain climbs. I'll post another update sometime tonight or tomorrow to get some more photos and video out there.
Stay thirsty my friends.
A few milestones today.
1) We broke the 7,000 mile mark for miles driven.
2) We broke the 22,000 mile mark for distance traveled.
3) We drove on yet another type of surface...sand! So far, we've driven on dirt, asphalt, rock, corn, mud, manure, grass, salt and now beach sand!!!
I will upload the video of the beach driving as part of a complete California video compilation post that I am putting together. But I basically popped the car up onto Pismo beach this morning for a little drive.
So I've now driven the entire pacific coast highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles...sort of.
The reason for the "sort of" is two fold.
1) I stopped short of LA and made a beeline for Route 15 to Vegas. I have absolutely no desire to see anything in LA and my two Friends that live there aren't even in town this summer so I crossed the city off my list entirely. I still got sucked into LA traffic for 2 hours though...ugh!
And
2) I ventured off of Highway 1 for a bit after I left Pismo Beach. The highway started cutting inland and I was like "hey, What happened to driving the coast. This is bullshit." So I pointed my car west and just started driving till I hit water...yeah...bad idea. Apparently, Highway 1 cuts inland to go around Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is where NASA cooks up all their cool stuff and is very much hidden away from the rest of civilization. Note: They don't like people driving around the air force base. Within 5 minutes I got pulled over by military police. They asked what I was doing and where I was going...to which I responded, "Yeah, I'm looking for the gift shop...you guys have a gift shop?" I expect the encounter to be front page news on Obama's military briefing tomorrow. "Sir, we don't know who this guy is, but we have intelligence placing him in Zurich and Frankfurt days before our officers picked him up outside Vandenberg."
Along the way getting back to Highway 1 I drove through "flower country" where they grow a bunch of flowers for sale all over the country. The photos don't do it justice at ALL. It was amazing to just see fields an fields of color as far as the eye could see...It also smelled like a Parisian Brothel.
Afterwords, I passed through a few cool little towns that are pretty much inhabited only by the workers of the fields (See Guadalupe).
I made it to Santa Barbara by around 1pm. I walked around the city a bit...it's absolutely lovely. I also hit another Diner's Drive-ins and Dives location, "Mac's Fish and Chips." It was excellent and I'm not even that big of a fan of fish and chips!
I really took my time driving around and making my way down this last leg of the California Coast.
I arrived in Vegas late last night and now I'm just relaxing a bit before I start my next string of mountain climbs. I'll post another update sometime tonight or tomorrow to get some more photos and video out there.
Stay thirsty my friends.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
PCH
So I landed in San Fran Saturday night and just started driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway. First stop was the Pacific Ocean. I basically just pointed my car west from the airport and just started driving until I hit an entrance ramp for Highway 1. Once I made it onto the Pacific Coast Highway, I drove until about 10pm and then decided to call it a night and find a place to stay. Unfortunately, the Laguna Moto Cross race was in town along with the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I swear every hotel along the coast between San Francisco and LA was booked. I ended up getting slammed for $259 at this crappy Best Western in Salinas. So far this trip, I've stayed in the Four Seasons in Chicago, the Four Seasons in San Francisco, mansions, cabins, motels, hotels, and holiday Inns from sea to shining sea and the most I've ever paid was $200 a night. Even the campgrounds were filled and the state parks had signs posted that they would fine you for sleeping in your car. If it wasn't for the fact that I had just walked off a 12 hour flight from Frankfurt I would have just pulled over somewhere and taken my chances with the fine. Nevertheless, I paid it. It was better than the alternatives. I swear there was a Comfort Inn charging $700 a night and some Rancho motel was charging $1,000 in Monterey.
Let's move on though.
The PCH...
The Pacific Coast Highway is probably one of the greatest driving experiences of my life. It is turn after turn of beautiful vistas and cliffs. I've never seen anything like it...this coming from the guy who just got back from driving along the Costa Del Sol! I must have spent 10 hours driving yesterday and I covered maybe 200 miles. Every 2 miles I'd stop to get out, take pictures and marvel at what was in front of me. I also stopped for like 3 hours in Pebble Beach.
The driving experience was so unique, that it made it onto my "Tankard List" of things to do before I die.
Item # 1 Drive the PCH in a Ferrari after playing a round of golf at Pebble Beach. (Rented Ferrari obviously. I have told all of my friends to shoot me if I ever try to buy one).
I cannot express how amazing this drive was. I kept trying to capture the moments with my camera and they really couldn't do it justice at all. Every turnoff there were people with $5,000 cameras and tripods and then there was me with a dinky iPhone camera. It was actually really frustrating because none of the pictures come even close to what I saw yesterday.
So far I've traveled 22,500 miles in the last 29 days--almost the entire distance around the world--and if there is anything you guys take away from my blog...go drive the PCH. You have to experience it first hand. These pictures below can't possibly do it justice.
A few other highlights....
I befriended a squirrel that I named "Bixby". He wanted to come home with me, but I was afraid he'd chew through the floorboards of my car. This little guy would eat anything and everything (See photo of him practically sitting on my foot).
I stopped a few times in and around Big Sur and got some trinkets.
I stayed at a pretty cool little Inn near Pismo beach last night in a room overlooking the ocean. It was much easier finding a room last night than on Saturday.
I shot some pretty amazing video. Once I get to Vegas and have some hi-speed WiFi I'll upload them to YouTube and post the links.
Stay thirsty my friends!
***Note the Blogger App is having some technical difficulties posting all the photos right now.*** I will check back in this afternoon and see if it posted everything correctly.
Let's move on though.
The PCH...
The Pacific Coast Highway is probably one of the greatest driving experiences of my life. It is turn after turn of beautiful vistas and cliffs. I've never seen anything like it...this coming from the guy who just got back from driving along the Costa Del Sol! I must have spent 10 hours driving yesterday and I covered maybe 200 miles. Every 2 miles I'd stop to get out, take pictures and marvel at what was in front of me. I also stopped for like 3 hours in Pebble Beach.
The driving experience was so unique, that it made it onto my "Tankard List" of things to do before I die.
Item # 1 Drive the PCH in a Ferrari after playing a round of golf at Pebble Beach. (Rented Ferrari obviously. I have told all of my friends to shoot me if I ever try to buy one).
I cannot express how amazing this drive was. I kept trying to capture the moments with my camera and they really couldn't do it justice at all. Every turnoff there were people with $5,000 cameras and tripods and then there was me with a dinky iPhone camera. It was actually really frustrating because none of the pictures come even close to what I saw yesterday.
So far I've traveled 22,500 miles in the last 29 days--almost the entire distance around the world--and if there is anything you guys take away from my blog...go drive the PCH. You have to experience it first hand. These pictures below can't possibly do it justice.
A few other highlights....
I befriended a squirrel that I named "Bixby". He wanted to come home with me, but I was afraid he'd chew through the floorboards of my car. This little guy would eat anything and everything (See photo of him practically sitting on my foot).
I stopped a few times in and around Big Sur and got some trinkets.
I stayed at a pretty cool little Inn near Pismo beach last night in a room overlooking the ocean. It was much easier finding a room last night than on Saturday.
I shot some pretty amazing video. Once I get to Vegas and have some hi-speed WiFi I'll upload them to YouTube and post the links.
Stay thirsty my friends!
***Note the Blogger App is having some technical difficulties posting all the photos right now.*** I will check back in this afternoon and see if it posted everything correctly.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
The "Tankard List"
Folks, the Bucket List is done! I'm going to have to write a new one.
Clearly I wasn't creative enough the first go around. This time...we're going to have to think BIGGER.
No more of this simple stuff like partying on a yacht off the coast of Spain.
Of course I could just be lazy and amend it to be partying on a bigger yacht...or maybe even "a private plane over the coast of spain." Hmmm...that rhymes. Maybe the new list should be written in iambic pentameter or a series of haikus?
Either way...the bucket list is done...we are naming the new list "the tankard list"...because a bucket is just not big enough anymore.
The last week was one of the most surreal experiences I've had. I spent practically the entire week walking around with a grin from ear to ear.
Before I go into detail about Spain, let's just recap the trip getting to/from.
Sunday 11:00am PST -
I get a call from my friends demanding that I get my ass to Spain "Right now" because "you cannot miss this". With a tremendous amount of help from their frequent flyer miles and Hilton Rewards points, I'm booked on a flight for that evening.
Sunday 7:00pm PST -
I board my flight from San Francisco to Zurich
Monday 3:00pm CET - land in Zurich
Tuesday 10:00am CET - flight from Zurich To Malaga
Tuesday 1:00pm CET - Rich picks me up in the airport in Malaga
Friday 5:00pm CET - Flight from Malaga to Mallorca.
Friday 8:30pm CET - Flight from Mallorca to Frankfurt
Friday 10:45pm CET - Land in Frankfurt
Saturday 10:00am CET - Flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles
Saturday 1:00pm PST - Land in LA
Saturday 5:00pm PST - Flight from LA to San Fran
Saturday 6:15pm PST - Land in San Fran and start driving the pacific coast highway south to Monterey.
The traveling was actually kind of fun. It sounds like it was crazy, but it was an adventure...business class also helped a lot (After traveling 22,000 miles in the last 28 days there was nothing quite like the taste of a glass of Artemis in the First Class lounge at LAX). Take a look at the Sprocket Chair in my hotel room in Frankfurt. "This is the time on Sprocket when we dance!"
Ok...ok...so on to the actual trip!
The "castle" in the sky...
Where shall I begin? I'm not going to go too crazy to describe the house. The pictures really show you what we were dealing with. The views never got old. We had a pool, more bedrooms than I could count, armed guards, a ferris wheel, an underground cave system, a personal elevator, two acres of putting greens, a wine cellar the size of an airplane hanger, live moonlight violin serenades, a pit of wild boar in case anyone got a little "cheeky" and a young boy to fetch our tennis balls in case they fell off the cliffs (...funny thing is, I only had to make up 2 of those).
Marbella and Puerto Banus...
The Costa del Sol is a very popular European vacation spot. Marbella and Puerto Banus are very popular vacation spots if you own a Ferrari. The best way to describe the dynamic is if you took East Hampton, NY and merged it with Seaside Heights, NJ. You basically have tremendous wealth surrounded by working class Brits and Germans getting drunk all night.
The Cars...
I've never seen such a concentration of luxury and sports cars in my life. It seemed like every car that passed by was worth over $200k. If you drove a BMW, you were probably the "help". The cops patrolled the streets in yellow Lamborghinis (sorry...inside joke). I would have taken more pictures of them, but I didn't want to appear to be one of the "huns".
Day 1 - Tu vuo fa l'americano...
The "days" in Spain are mostly spent relaxing and waiting for your economy to collapse because nobody works past 1pm. The nights don't really start until 11. There wasn't a single night where I went to bed before 7am. I won't bore you with stories of clubs and partying. It was fun and it went late. Enough said. (To my future children...daddy did nothing but read poetry and sip apple juice all night).
Day 2 - "I'm on a boat like Leo if you on the shore then you sure not me'o"...
We rented a 35 foot yacht with a full cabin and skipper to pilot it for us (See kids, we were responsible and didn't want to drink and drive...it may have also been the one Spanish law that anyone cares about). The boat was pretty spectacular. What wasn't spectacular was the projectile vommiting that ensued because I only got an hour of sleep and still had a stomach filled with Vodka-Red Bulls when we set sail. In my defense, I initially started getting sick shortly after the drive down the cliffs in the Mini Cooper Rich and Dutch rented. I didn't know I was going to be sick for 6 of the 8 hours we were out in the boat. Those last 2 hours were pure paradise though. Rich kept calling our skipper Fabio even though his name was Donato and the 3 of us rode the bow into port like rock stars (See photo).
Day 3 - A little time for recovery.
We decided to give our bodies a little reprieve and take it easy a day. I spent 70% of the day in the pool and burning away my farmers tan. So now my arms are a golden brown and my back is lobster red. The pool had this giant articulating umbrella so I didn't burn as bad as I could have. It could have been much much worse. We hit the town around 9 and had another 7am night...just in time for us to clean the house and head to the airport around noon.
P.S. Please excuse the lack and/or poor quality of pictures. I'm not naturally in "take picture mode" when I'm moving around. Also, my iPhone was inaccessible during much of the trip because the battery was dead or nearly dead.
My next update will be on my drive down the Pacific Coast Highway so keep checking out the site. I will be updating the blog daily again now that I am back in the states and have data...that doesn't cost $20 per m/b
Clearly I wasn't creative enough the first go around. This time...we're going to have to think BIGGER.
No more of this simple stuff like partying on a yacht off the coast of Spain.
Of course I could just be lazy and amend it to be partying on a bigger yacht...or maybe even "a private plane over the coast of spain." Hmmm...that rhymes. Maybe the new list should be written in iambic pentameter or a series of haikus?
Either way...the bucket list is done...we are naming the new list "the tankard list"...because a bucket is just not big enough anymore.
The last week was one of the most surreal experiences I've had. I spent practically the entire week walking around with a grin from ear to ear.
Before I go into detail about Spain, let's just recap the trip getting to/from.
Sunday 11:00am PST -
I get a call from my friends demanding that I get my ass to Spain "Right now" because "you cannot miss this". With a tremendous amount of help from their frequent flyer miles and Hilton Rewards points, I'm booked on a flight for that evening.
Sunday 7:00pm PST -
I board my flight from San Francisco to Zurich
Monday 3:00pm CET - land in Zurich
Tuesday 10:00am CET - flight from Zurich To Malaga
Tuesday 1:00pm CET - Rich picks me up in the airport in Malaga
Friday 5:00pm CET - Flight from Malaga to Mallorca.
Friday 8:30pm CET - Flight from Mallorca to Frankfurt
Friday 10:45pm CET - Land in Frankfurt
Saturday 10:00am CET - Flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles
Saturday 1:00pm PST - Land in LA
Saturday 5:00pm PST - Flight from LA to San Fran
Saturday 6:15pm PST - Land in San Fran and start driving the pacific coast highway south to Monterey.
The traveling was actually kind of fun. It sounds like it was crazy, but it was an adventure...business class also helped a lot (After traveling 22,000 miles in the last 28 days there was nothing quite like the taste of a glass of Artemis in the First Class lounge at LAX). Take a look at the Sprocket Chair in my hotel room in Frankfurt. "This is the time on Sprocket when we dance!"
Ok...ok...so on to the actual trip!
The "castle" in the sky...
Where shall I begin? I'm not going to go too crazy to describe the house. The pictures really show you what we were dealing with. The views never got old. We had a pool, more bedrooms than I could count, armed guards, a ferris wheel, an underground cave system, a personal elevator, two acres of putting greens, a wine cellar the size of an airplane hanger, live moonlight violin serenades, a pit of wild boar in case anyone got a little "cheeky" and a young boy to fetch our tennis balls in case they fell off the cliffs (...funny thing is, I only had to make up 2 of those).
Marbella and Puerto Banus...
The Costa del Sol is a very popular European vacation spot. Marbella and Puerto Banus are very popular vacation spots if you own a Ferrari. The best way to describe the dynamic is if you took East Hampton, NY and merged it with Seaside Heights, NJ. You basically have tremendous wealth surrounded by working class Brits and Germans getting drunk all night.
The Cars...
I've never seen such a concentration of luxury and sports cars in my life. It seemed like every car that passed by was worth over $200k. If you drove a BMW, you were probably the "help". The cops patrolled the streets in yellow Lamborghinis (sorry...inside joke). I would have taken more pictures of them, but I didn't want to appear to be one of the "huns".
Day 1 - Tu vuo fa l'americano...
The "days" in Spain are mostly spent relaxing and waiting for your economy to collapse because nobody works past 1pm. The nights don't really start until 11. There wasn't a single night where I went to bed before 7am. I won't bore you with stories of clubs and partying. It was fun and it went late. Enough said. (To my future children...daddy did nothing but read poetry and sip apple juice all night).
Day 2 - "I'm on a boat like Leo if you on the shore then you sure not me'o"...
We rented a 35 foot yacht with a full cabin and skipper to pilot it for us (See kids, we were responsible and didn't want to drink and drive...it may have also been the one Spanish law that anyone cares about). The boat was pretty spectacular. What wasn't spectacular was the projectile vommiting that ensued because I only got an hour of sleep and still had a stomach filled with Vodka-Red Bulls when we set sail. In my defense, I initially started getting sick shortly after the drive down the cliffs in the Mini Cooper Rich and Dutch rented. I didn't know I was going to be sick for 6 of the 8 hours we were out in the boat. Those last 2 hours were pure paradise though. Rich kept calling our skipper Fabio even though his name was Donato and the 3 of us rode the bow into port like rock stars (See photo).
Day 3 - A little time for recovery.
We decided to give our bodies a little reprieve and take it easy a day. I spent 70% of the day in the pool and burning away my farmers tan. So now my arms are a golden brown and my back is lobster red. The pool had this giant articulating umbrella so I didn't burn as bad as I could have. It could have been much much worse. We hit the town around 9 and had another 7am night...just in time for us to clean the house and head to the airport around noon.
P.S. Please excuse the lack and/or poor quality of pictures. I'm not naturally in "take picture mode" when I'm moving around. Also, my iPhone was inaccessible during much of the trip because the battery was dead or nearly dead.
My next update will be on my drive down the Pacific Coast Highway so keep checking out the site. I will be updating the blog daily again now that I am back in the states and have data...that doesn't cost $20 per m/b
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