Whew!

That was one fun filled weekend!

The battleship USS Iowa is almost to Los Angeles now...spending the day with her on San Francisco Bay was a peak experience, and a high watermark so far this spring.

The Monaco Grand Prix was in danger of becoming a procession when Mother Nature decided to mix things up with some sprinkles and a threat of genuine rain as the laps wore down. We have a sixth winner in six race weekends, but it's a repeat victory for Red Bull Racing, so there's five teams who've climbed the podium this season. I was rooting for six and six. Team Lotus and Team Sauber could be the 6th and 7th team to win this season...and any of their four drivers could be winners. It's gonna be an amazing Formula One season!

The Indy 500 was OK...to tell the truth, I was kinda out of it after getting up in the middle of the night (4:30AM) to watch Sunday's Formula One race after a long day bouncing around San Francisco Bay. I started paying close attention with 40 laps to go. My fave, Brazilian Tony Kanaan was out front with 16 to go...but yet another yellow flag bunched up the leaders, and Tony got jumped on the restart. Dario Franchitti's third Indy 500 victory suits me fine. Back in the 90s, I played a pay to play IndyCar Fantasy League. CART Rookie, Kanaan was one of my guys, as was Dario. I made $111.00 thanks to Dario one weekend.

In the afternoon I ignored the NASCAR race from Charlotte, NC. I was too busy tending to all the photos and video I shot Saturday

A Canadian, Ryder Hesjidal racing for an American team, Garmin-Barracuda won the Giro d'Italia, while I lead my fantasy bicycle racing league for the first week of the Giro, I finished dead last after all three weeks...as I predicted.

The next Grand Tour is a month away. Le Tour de France rolls out of the gate Saturday June30th.

While downloading, editing my videos and burning DVDs, and managing my photos of the USS Iowa and the AMGEN Tour of California, I was struck by the stark difference in the weather this year versus last year...

This year it's all fun in the sun. While doing all the video, I realized I never downloaded the video I made on top of Mt Hamilton for last year's Stage 4 of the AMGEN ToC. My email entreaty to BajaBabe convinced me that I'd been remiss last year so I ran the gamut and got 'er done. Man it looked miserable up in the fog and clouds last year! A stark contrast to my day on Mt Diablo with KirkVallus that was marked by plenty of sunscreen applications. BajaBabe and I were all bundles up in parkas and ski hats last year.

Mt Diablo was a party in the sun with thousands of fans lining the course, Mt Hamilton was more like serving in a lonely outpost in the Aleutians during WW2.