The Mystery Spot

Saturday, the bride and I drove down to Santa Cruz and she said she wanted to bring me to the Mystery Spot. I thought she meant someplace to surprise me but instead, we went to “The Mystery Spot”, touristy place located just inland of Santa Cruz, California. According to legend, it’s a circular area of gravitational anomaly that is 150 feet in diameter. Supposedly, there are changes in gravity, perspective and the direction of magnetic north. I don’t know about the last since I didn’t bring a compass with me, I do remember seeing this place on the travel channel a few years ago. We pulled out of Santa Cruz driving inland on Market Street and there’s a little drive pull off on the left hand side of the road with this sign (the picture is of the back of it)

and a short drive down this spooky little road in the woods


Parking is 5 bucks and 5 dollars per person except if you’re military and it’s totally free (except for the parking, thanks guys)

You get your tickets and get assigned to a group with a form up time and here the guide shows how the height of people change between two places only a couple of feet apart. The tour takes 45 minutes of which the guide spends most of that time trying to confound you. It was fun but I still have trouble believing that there is a spacecraft or magma vortex buried underneath. The wife did feel like she was going to fall over the entire time she was there but in a past life, I was an avid rock climber so sharp slopes are natural. Here are some pictures but you’ll have to make your own judgments over the mystery. It’s fun and easily worth the 5 bucks that they charge and Santa Cruz of "Lost Boys" fame is a beautiful city of which I hope to spend more time of in the future.

The worst sound ever

I drove up to San Jose last Friday and one of my ways to pass time on long cross country drives is to catch up on friends on the phone. Why waste all of that time. I was on the phone with Wendy from Chromed Curses when I suddenly hear a squeal though the phone and a crash and she says, “I gotta go, someone just rear ended me!”, I said “Bye!”.

A couple of hours later, I call her to make sure she’s alright and she is, the bumper on her PT Cruiser is toast but she able to drive away. She was stopped behind two other people and a lady in a black truck plowed into her rear end but she tells it better then me over at her place.

It’s always been one of my fears talking to someone driving hearing them get into an accident and now I have. Just glad it wasn’t worse.

Road tripping San Jose and some thoughts about Veteran’s Day

I’ll be out of town hanging out with the bride this weekend but I wanted to put a post up with a few thoughts on Veteran’s Day before I left.

I served all throughout the 90’s without really thinking about what it means to be a veteran. It was peace time and being in the military was just another job with a lot of travel perks and interesting people to meet. The only weapons I saw were at the range and could identify countries by the names and flavors of the bars outside of the front gate.

We’ve been at war for 5 years and I can honestly say, I haven’t visited a single bar out side of any gate. Being a veteran during a peace time is a different experience then during war. Now, there is always someone out there who is more then willing to punch your card and people look at you differently. You can see the thought cross their eyes, “what kind of action did he see?” You tell someone that you’ve been to so and so warzone an X amount of times and get the evitable “I’m sorry”.

Don’t be sorry because there is nothing to be sorry for, as a member of an all volunteer force. It was a conscious choice on our part to sign up during a war. There is not a single person that enlisted that doesn’t know what they were getting into, in the early part of the war, that wasn’t always true but all of those enlistments have since expired. War isn’t for everyone nor should it be, in this transparent world, much of the mystery of being at war is gone. Log on to your favorite Milblog, check out some military videos on YouTube, watch the History Channel, CNN or Fox and you can get snapshots of just about every aspect of what we do. It’s not easy nor is it the fun vacation club that I remember from the 90’s.

So every Vet you shake the hand of this weekend who is currently in the military, don’t say “I’m sorry” say “thank you” for the conscious choice we made of knowing exactly what we're getting into and still be willing and able to make that sacrifice.

Remember…Remember

That the fifth of November is always my birthday.

I’m actually doing a somewhat political post, since the election is over, I'm not going to sway anyones vote. As a pretty middle of the road guy, I admit, liked both candidates and choosing between the two of them was a bit difficult but in the end (well 3 weeks ago) I mailed in my vote. I liked that they didn’t seem lean heavily one way or another and if you listen closely, a majority of their disagreements were just semantics. My takes?
Being from Arizona and being in the Military, John McCain has always got my vote for Senate and in 2000, I was excited that he was going to run and it was the only time in my life that I wished I wasn’t an Independent so I could vote during the primary. He’s a class act. This time around though, it’s a much more complex world then the one of 2000, lots of moving parts in the air and gratuation 695 out of 699 at Annapolis and his age, I wasn't sure he could handle it.

Obama, stuck a nerve with me, he’s a mixed breed American Mutt like myself, raised by his mother with his father out of the picture. Being the editor of the Harvard Law Review is a fairly big deal, with the list of problems the next President is going to receive, he's going to need to be smart and quick on his feet.

So up until maybe a month and a half ago, I was still undecided. Then the emails started coming out, claiming he was Muslim, sworn into office using the Quran, the test messages with video of him turning into a monkey, the anti-Christ, a terrorist and some just racist, talking about lynching, more lies then I could shake a stick at. Were they trying to swift boat him? Growing up, I had my share of racism around me, I was one of the few non white kids in my school, it didn’t matter that I grew up there, I looked different and it became a regular thing to trip me or try fighting me. I have friends on both sides of the isle, but didn’t receive anything as mean and viscous as these emails, well a few Palin jokes which were actually funny.

There are other reasons why I choose to vote for Senator Obama which I won’t get into, but the reason here had nothing to do with the candidates, both of whom I admire, respect and believe would do a great job. No, this part of my vote was against the bigots and narrow minded people who came up with this crap and are feeding it to the people who forward everything. Please, before you forward an email, perhaps you should fact check them at someplace like http://www.factcheck.org/ or http://www.snopes.com/ , not all of us are sheep who believe what these emails say and to us, for whom truth is important, sending us a lie is a big deal.

So sorry, Carla, Wendy, Jason, Toni, Teresa, Ronnie, Jim, Matt(s), AWTM, Kim, Dad, Amy and actually most of the who’s who of my sidebar, sorry for not hopping on your band wagon and for being a disappointment. I had to make my own path. And for the other people, congrats, let’s hope we made the right decision.

Knott's Berry Farm Veteran's Day Tribute

Don't forget, from the first of November till Thanksgiving, all Veteran's and one guest can get into Knott's Berry Farm for free, addional tickets can be purchased for 15 bucks. It's a great deal hands down, just make sure you try out the Silver Bullet, it's much more fun then the silver bullet that I give out. Ask any of my Marines. Details of the Tribute can be found here. I'm going to see if I can get a party of my guys who want to go.

Before the Sun

We rose and showed up at 5, just the 7 of us on this bonding exercise and drove down to the pier. We went on a charted trip with H&M Landing, military rate 55 bucks.

The sunrise off the ocean that morning was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in years. But I’ll let you see for yourselves.

Below is my favorite picture of the day

We pulled out past Cabrillo and went north a short ways right off the coast

and after a brief instruction on how to deep sea fish.

Ahhh, coffee...

Mike's second cup before leaving the bay

I'm still not awake

We stopped and they said to drop lines. Basically, each person has a deep sea fishing pole with a 4 ounce sinker and a minnow that you hook through the upper mouth out through the top of the skull. Drop the line till it hits the bottom and yank when you get a hit or when you think you get a hit. During the morning, I had pulled in 5 fish, 4 were keepers and they were all red rockfish (which I found out later, were very good eating).

It just looks like Bud Light

Some pictures of all of us.

for good luck

And some of the fish we caught (this one was tasty)

Mike's tasted fishy, mine was way better.

He was so happy to have finally caught something that I didn't have the heart to tell him it was too small.

I thought it was going to choke on this fish

The crew cleaned the fish for us on the way back

and the seabirds went nuts, forming a chain of flying feathers on the side of the boat.

At the end of the trip, we were bushed but I had to stay strong and awake and get pictures of everyone passed out.

It was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time, it’s been a couple of years since I went fishing. I think I’ve had a long enough break from the water, H&M Landing, thanks and great job!