GSMTR 2013 Windrock Park in Tennessee

Chance and I spent the weekend at Windrock park near Olive Springs, TN.  Great Smokey Trail Ride is one of the largest gatherings of Toyota 4x4 vehicles in the East Coast.  We spent a few days and nights wheeling but we also got in one of the best bike rides I have ever done.  

The ride below was "Epic" for flatlanders. 

More info about the ride can be found here.

5 Boro Bike Tour

A second cousin told Sally and I about a bike ride in NY city.  The ride goes through the five boroughs of NY City.  It is the largest bike event in the US.  Over 33,000 people participated in the one day event.  To get that many people to travel 40 miles within the city is quite a feat.  First the city agreed to shut down all vehicular traffic along the route.  That means no vehicles on Church st, 6th Ave, Long Island Expressway, QueensBoro expressway and five major bridges including the Verrazano.  Next the 5 Boro Tour secures security from NYPD, emergency services from NYFD and reserves five city parks for rest areas.  Amazing logistics, but after 36 years they have it down to a science. 

Getting ready to board the Staten Island Ferry

After floating the idea with our group, seven riders emerged with a total of 10 people from Orlando.  Sally's oldest sister and husband rode with their grown kids that live in NY. Our logistics pailed in comparison to what the tour had to do.  We took a 13 year old mini van and built an internal bike rack to secure 4 bikes.  We moved Chance's Yakima roof rack to the van getting all seven bikes on a single vehicle, leaving only the two front seats free.  Brandon, Chance and Stephanie became the drivers with only Brandon making a round trip.  With a stop at a friends house in DC the total drive time into NY with Friday traffic and rain In the south was 19+ hours.

Norman's mini van loaded up with just space for the driver and navigator. 

We made reservations at the Harbor House Bed and Breakfasts on Staten Island.  The location of this place was ideal, spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline from the front porch, the ride proceeds on the road in front of the house and there is a bike store within walking distance.  The best thing is the end of ride event which is a big party is 2 miles away from the BB. Mo is the manager and is very accommodating.  

   

Most of the Florida crew flew in on Friday and out on Monday.  Some saw Broadway shows, museums and Times Square but we all went to the 9-11 memorial.  The spire was hoisted to the top of the Freedom Tower on Friday giving us a perspective of its height.  The memorial plaza grounds were open but the museum was not.  It was quite emotional to relive that event and re-read about that eventful day.   

The ride for us started on Staten Island so we had a 3 mile ride to the ferry at 5:30 am which was quite cold. The 20 minute ride to Manhattan went by fast.

 The temperature was in the high forties with a stiff wind.  I was excited to be in the first pack thinking we would not be going too slow but with only three groups spread out in lower Manhattan math told me we would be riding with eleven thousand other cycling enthusiasts.  We stopped at a Duncan Donut for a biscuit and coffee along with everyone else.

 The ride started with patriotic music and the Star Spangled Banner and off we went.

 Map of ride is posted below. 

Detail Map can be found here

Event organizers had Cheerleaders, local bands/singers playing along the route.  One biker had two boom boxes strapped to his bike playing cycling themed music.  We all cracked-up off rolling off the ferry to "Back in the saddle again".    We cycled the length of Manhattan, into Harlem, Bronx, Queens and down through Brooklyn and ending on Staten Island.  5 Boros and Five bridges.

It was quite challenging to keep track of each other while riding even with custom designed shirts that Sally sourced for us.   I highly recommend customink.com.  Custom Ink offer many options, are very friendly and prefer customers to call in with questions.  We even received a hand written note thanking us for our business.  Next big ride we will be gluing mickey ears to our helmets.  Sally's family wore foam Statue of Liberty crowns.

More to come ....

2013 MS Bike ride "Citrus Tour"

Another great ride through the orange fields of Polk County. This year Kevin, Mathew, Sally and I did the 100 mile route on Saturday. Eddie, Chance, Debra, Jeremy and Jana did 50 miles. Sally suffered the most with a new seat that was not right for her. With the van at Bok tower Chance, Mathew and I headed back doing another 50 miles on Sunday. Amazing how this year the hills people have complained about really stood out.




 
 
 

   
 
 
 
 
 

The medical center loop morphed

On April 7th Kevin and Mathew did what I am referring to as the Mega Medical Center loop.  This 80+ mile ride is perfect primer for a flat florida century.  With St. Cloud at the mid-point and the shopping center at Narcoosee and LeeVista at the 3/4 mark; this is a great ride.  We also pass many other cyclists, usually going the other way.  Bike lanes for 90% of ride makes it a safer ride than being in the road.  On April 11th Sally, Mathew and myself did the ride and the details are below.  Realize we did have a moderate N-NW wind which slowed are progress coming up Narcoosee.

Travel home

I traveled with a medium large wheeled suitcase, a square duffel and my backpack.  Luggage does get misplaced on these international flights and if I found clothing that would fit in China it would be at the Gap or H&M! So I put two days of clothes in the duffle and carry that onboard as a back-up plan.  Weather this trip was typical Spring weather like Washington DC where nights were real cold and the days were in the 50's.  This required jackets and sweaters.  

Coming home I started the stopwatch on my antique smartphone once I left the hotel.  I walked to the line seven station and transferred to line two where the mag lift station was adjacent to.   I did not see an elevator so I had to drag my luggage up one flight of stairs and navigate multiple doors.  If you are a Shanghai team member and thinking about the Maglev only do it if you can manage your luggage on stairs.  From Airport to Hotel everything is downhill and easy.  Once at the Maglev station I paid my 50 RMB ticket ($8.10 as of May 2013).  Seems there is a 10RMB discount coming from the airport if you show your boarding pass. The train arrived as I was going up the escalator.  The train ride is maybe 20 minutes so the whole trip from hotel to airport is close to 45 minutes; about equal to a taxi ride which costs 100RMB.  Even though the taxi ride never goes above 100KMH and the train sometimes exceeds 300 KMH the taxi is more like an amusement ride.

Shanghai PVG airport is a dud with a poor United lounge and over prices shops.  The time went by fast and before long I was settling into my seat on yet another 777. After dinner was served my plan was to sleep just 4-6 hours and then stay up until my arrival in Orlando to start the process of resetting my internal clock.  When I awoke in the dark cabin and turned on the TV and saw 2.5 hrs left on the flight I realized I slept for more than 8 hours on a 13.5 hour flight.  DANG-IT!  The end of flight snack was served and I watched the Hobbitt instead of getting my work computer out.  Procrastination...

Have I mentioned before my disdain of the US Customs and Border Patrol organization.  Our plane filled their queue line and with only a hand full of agents I moved through the line in 40 minutes for a quick glance and stamp of my passport.  Ridiculous! Next was a customs stop to declare my "flea" market goods then re-united with luggage, rechecked, rescanned and off to Terminal one.   Total time maneuvering through the CBP mumbo-jumbo was over an hour.   

Sally had an emergency visit with a friend so I caught a cab home for $35 USD (9 miles) and stopped my watch on what my China colleagues would say was a good omen.  Lucky double 8 at the end of a 23 hour 11 minute and 11 seconds trip home.  This was 3 hours faster than going over because I had such a long layover in SF.  

The end of our Volvo Oversea Delivery (OSD) experience

 You can go back in the archives and find trip posts about our Oversea Delivery of our 2013 XC60 in December 2012.  The end note to this incredible experience was the long wait for the delivery.  I belive dropping the car off in between Christmas and New Year added to our delay.  Leaving the car in Copenhagen instead of the factory in Gotenburg added delivery time. A very large snow storm moving off the east coast delayed the Sapphire Queen Roll-On-Roll-Off cargo ship from making scheduled stops along the east coast.  Once the car was offloaded in Brunswick it would seem that the US office of E. H. Harms the importer used by Volvo went out of business.  Volvo worked out the issue by resupplying paperwork to US Customs but the delay was close to 3 weeks.   

• Ordered car 1st week of September 2012
• Financed the car in October 2012
• OSD trip December 2012
• Dropped car off in Copenhagen Denmark December 29th 2012
• January 16th 2013 car arrives at factory. Dealer in Copenhagen said it would ship from Denmark??
• January 25th car was loaded on ship
• February 8th a massive USA northeast snow storm delays RORO ship from making scheduled stops along east coast
• February 17th car was dropped off in Brunswick, GA
• March 6th after an inquiry regarding status the Volvo OSD team was working an issue
• March 8th Volvo USA claims US Customs is holding car waiting on paperwork
• March 21st picked up car from Central Florida Volvo dealer

Sally picked up the car and took it for an unexpected trip to Miami the next day with no issues.  While our XC60 was in the hands of Volvo for 60+ days it only had 11 miles added to its odometer. Within 24 hours of taking delivery Sally added 500. 

Even after the long delay I think all of the Wagner's would agree to do another OSD.  My hope is our kids will be buying their own car though....

Our snow covered XC60 in Salzburg, Austria.  It could be a long time before this Florida car sees snow again

South Bund fabric market

I have visited multiple electronic malls in Asia where hawkers try to lure you in their tiny stores.   On Sunday I accompanied some colleagues to a similar mall hawking fabric creations instead of electronic gadgets.   On the recommendation of others we made our way to booth 226 where my waist,  hip,  thigh,  calf,  leg length and crotch were carefully measured.   The material chosen is from swatch books, the lighting makes it a little hard to discern color and patterns but I chose the basics grays and blues.  There were many details to decide on pocket size and angle, shirt collars and cuffs. The measurements in simplified Chinese along with the drawings and fabric will be sent off to a seamstresses who will fashion worsted wool dress pants that are 3/4 lined with a single pleat and coin pocket.  Two female colleagues pulled pictures up on their Iphones of dress suits they wanted.  Soon their wishes started to take form into a creation as it went from phone to paper with additional personal touches and measurements.   My cost per pant is 210RMB or $34US; 110RMB for a shirt.  I have read the quality will not be like Hong Kong or Taiwan but with little to lose I bought three pairs along with cotton dress shirts. Someone from the office will pick them up and they will be sent home with our procurement team who leaves on the 29th. 

Funny how I associate these kind of places with Flea Markets in the USA.   It has been more than 20years since going to such a place in America but I feel drawn to them in Asia.  In China the malls and stores sell either very expensive Western products or very cheap clothing. There are hundreds maybe thousands of western malls in Shanghai.   The electronics and fabric markets offer personal touches along with people who really want your business.   Time will only tell if my creations look good and withstand the test of time.  

Comic con Asian style

At the Science and Technology Museum subway stop many people were dressed up as their favorite cartoon characters.   I got this girl to take a picture with me. I am sure she was thinking.... What is this crazy westerner going to do with this picture?

Soon to be highest tower in shanghai

Right downtown with fireworks warning

Thursday night dinner

Ate all sorts of dumplings at Din Tai Fung, which is a Taiwanese  chain with a few outlets in the US.  Restaurant is in the Super Brands Mall, we were in a private room over looking the bund.  Good night with senior management and the food was great.

The tables were turned

The local managers took me to a Germany restaurant on the Bund in Shanghai based on Susan telling them my favorite beer was Paulaner.  I had walked by this place on my first visit wondering why there is a Paulaner Biergarten in Shanghai.  After going insode I would say the majority of the patrons were Asian.  Little did the team know I bought a bottle of Paulaner in the Western grocery store on last Sunday to have one in my room, what a coincidence   

Once we arrived by Susan's Peugeot; I ordered pretzels, a sausage plate and an order of meatloaf.   I soon found myself explaining what made up the Germans food.   I watched their faces as I explained the liver mousse and liver oil paste spreads that came with the pretzel tree.   When queried why the sausages come in different colors again they look at me quizzically at the answer.   The meatloaf came out made of pork  which surprised even me and the Saurekraught was left untouched. So where I turn my nose up to fried tofu, beaks and claws my colleagues were not fans of Germany food except the Pig knuckle which was picked clean.   Wheat beer was had but the jaegermeister was not liked. Yes that is a Chinese shooter girl in the picture below.  I was given a gift of Chinese white wine,  if it makes the trip home it should be an interesting because it is shot like Jaeger and not sipped in a stemmed glass.  

Pudong side of the Bund at Paulaner's Biergarten

Once again Curry Laska

This is an amazing dish called Curry Laska.  I get this at least once sometimes twice each trip.   I think this is a Malaysian dish but I am not quite sure.  

Monday morning coffee after a train ride

This morning I am off for one of eight separate meetings with the main software vendor that we have chosen to work with.  Today the meeting is in their office in Raffles City which turns out to be the name of an office building. I arrived about 45 min early and right by the office main door was a 

Starbucks so here I am burning a few minutes. 

To arrive here I took the subway line to Peoples Square station.  Peoples Square is one area I have yet to visit.  Once in the station I  read my notes which indicated I needed to find exit 15.  Seems there are 20 exits in this one subway station.  The walk from train to exit seemed like 10-15 min.  Amazing how big this underground labyrinth of tunnels and stations must be. 

There is free Wi-Fi to be found but you must have a cell phone to get an account activated.  Seems they tie your surfing habits to your government registered cell phone.  Seems like a smart way to keep track of users.  Bad for those of us without a working cell phone.

Sunday was uneventful, breakfast, monkeyed with go pro editing software then a 90 minute stationary bike spin followed by a HBO movie, dinner and some paperwork.

Only in a chines mall

No caption needed

This ABC Cooking Studio is a Japanese run store that teaches cooking.  There is a membership fee then they teach all sorts of different style of baking.

My 4th trip back to Shanghai

After 15 months I am back in Shanghai.  This trip seems routine but things have changed.  Like the last  times I flew through San Francisco but this time I took a 777 over to China.  I prefer the 30  43 year old 747 over the 777.  My travel time was over 26 hours which may be a new record but on the bad side. Instead of the cab from the airport I took the Maglev train which gets up to 186MPH, it ends one metro stop from the D1sney bubble.   I am back in the Kerry hotel but the last time I was here the Hotel and Mall had only been open for a couple of months.  Now both are really full and the mall is finished.  It was amazing to see all the locals walking around.  On my other trips it seemed the mall was built for the Westerns staying in the hotel.  

This week I did some new things: 

• Maglev train was non-eventful, I took video out of the window but ended up deleting it.  The footage did not seem that fast from inside because it was so smooth. There were just a few bumps here and there.  On the display between cars was a speedometer display that showed the train getting right up to 300Kmh
• Had my haircut by a non-English speaking stylist
• Went to the local Hardware store, like a US Home Depot to get a small screw for a camera mount. Played a nice game of charades  with one of the thousand floor salesmen
• Took the number 7 subway to Xujiahui where there is an electronic mall.  Like Hong Kong it was overwhelming and it is not a browsing type of place so I did not stay long
• From the Electronics mall I thought I could walk up to the French Concession area, but the 15 minute walk took 90 minutes as I got lost in one of the many neighborhoods
• Had a St Patrick ’s Day eve dinner of Bangers & Mash
• Ate a Chinese currywurst for lunch
• Ate something black in my noodles and did not like it, when I asked what it was I was told it was fungi
• I found a new Singapore/Malaysian noodle dish that might be my new favorite Asian dish
• I ordered two types of curry, yellow and red, the waitress put a dish of cut watermelon on my table just out of reach.  When I finished she clapped and indicated the watermelon was in case I found it too spicy.  Seems I impressed her.

Sunday will find me resting, doing work and hopefully an hour or two on a spin trainer

Shanghai traffic near the electronic mall; this GoPro picture was from an overhead pedestrian way

My bosses window desk that I am borrowing this week

FW: Old Soviet military hangar now a tropical resort

Old Soviet military hangar now a tropical resort[Wagner, Gregg A.] how cool is this or should I say Hawt!!

http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/destinations/2013/02/18/old-military-hangar-houses-a-tropical-resort/1927543/

Sent from Alfonsos's

Password pet peeve

There is so much concern over identity theft and hacking but many large institutions have very poor login procedures for getting into their systems.  The standard the mouse uses is listed below.  This is bare minimum requirement.  As more deviants cause issues there will be more companies going to 2-factor logins which will be a pain but a necessary evil.  My advice to any web development team is to beef up your login requirements now to avoid immediate problems.  Two major financial intuitions, not going to name any names, that manages my retirement monies have the weakest login credentials.  One site actually limits the username to six characters and password to 8 characters. This site also disallows Non-alphanumeric symbols.   Really gets my goat, since my employer chooses the firm I can only complain and not move to another company!     

 

 

Tips for Creating a New Password

·         Username must be at least six (8) characters long

·         Passwords must be at least eight (8) characters long.

·         Passwords must contain characters from at least three (3) of the following four (4) classes:

    Description Examples:

o    English Upper Case Letters A, B, C, ... Z

o    English Lower Case Letters a, b, c, ... z

o    Westernized Arabic Numerals 0, 1, 2, ... 9

o    Non-alphanumeric ("Special characters") e.g., punctuation symbols.

Passwords should not contain your user name or any part of your full name.

Brighthouse is not really your friend

 I had a terrible experience with BrightHouse networks in Orlando.  Our cable box was flaking out and was getting worse each day.  It took BrightHouse thirteen days, countless phone calls and at least five visits before a rookie technician solved our issue.  I would not wish this problem on my worst nemesis. 

On the BrighHouse website is a form page that is for the office of the president.  I copied and pasted my history of the issue into the online form and pressed enter.  I sent a direct Tweet to their social team with the letter attached. 

This was one reply:

Greetings from Bright House Networks!

We have received your message to the Office of the President of Bright House Networks. A member of the Customer Care team will contact you within two business days to help resolve your issue. The reference number for your message is MB2013N9LAA10. Please reference this ID if you need to contact our office.

Thank you for choosing Bright House Networks

Social team wanting to see letter:

 

Here is the link to the letter that finally got attention of the Social Media team and the presidents office.  Letter to Brighthouse regarding DVR box not functioning.

In the end the Presidents office called, a SVP from social media called.  The technician that walked into the house had no information other than it was a repeat visit and after me reciting my letter he replaced our DVR with a different brand DVR and the issue went away.  He left after 15 minutes but three other trucks full of supervisors soon setup camp in front of my house.  It was comical as they were doing an internal audit to uncover the issue. With no more issue they moved on; as for us we are working on a plan to get off cable before the end of 2013.  A prediction I made a long time ago in another post. 

My Review of Roku 2 XS HD Player

Originally submitted at Roku

The new HD, with built-in wireless, delivers top value in high-definition streaming when and if it works.

Roku HD Player

Returned your product and you want a review?

By Gwagg from Central Florida on 1/11/2013

1out of 5

Pros: None
Cons: No You-Tube Channel, No Refresh Channels, Not Intuitive, Factory Reset Daily, Unit locks up, Remote Fails To Respond, 3-5 Min Boot Time, No Power Switch
Best Uses: Leave In Store
Describe Yourself: Technophile, Home entertainment enthusiast, Power User, Early adopter, I Am I.T.

Product did not work and Roku support recommended returning unit to store. 

I love it when social media backfires!  Roku's automated systems wants a review on their support staff, their product and it automatically posts my review to my blog???  Marketing geniuses at roku!

(Roku legalese)

Google search for my issue here