Tickets have been purchased.

Annnnd…drum roll…. it’s no longer a direct flight from New York to Beijing!!!!

That’s right folks! we’ll be stopping in San Fran. What does this mean for travel times?

Instead of a comfortable 17 hours of travel, I get to travel for 26 hours!!

I leave at 4AM EST Thursday from the HoR. I arrive at 6PM China time on Friday. That’s 6AM EST.

The good news is that we get to rest for a full day in Beijing before heading onward to our final destination.

People use the term “duck billed platypus” as if “duck billed” is the type of platypus.

This is not the case. All platypus have duck like bills.

Although it’d be interesting if there were Parakeet Beaked Platypus, Hammerhead Platypus, Pig Snout Platypus, and the like.

The Name of a Famous Historical Figure
Two Words
5 Consonants
2 Vowels

All the consonants are Roman Numerals.

Who is this historical figure?

*UPDATE! I’m an idiot. it’s 8 letters. Two words. 6 consonants. 2 vowels.

The answer is in the comments.

Oh yes. The 6 hours of travel was quite worth it. Yesterday, the cape winds were mighty.

Upon arriving in Falmouth, I helped Ryan pack up the car with our gear. Ruth looked on, prepared for windy beach adventures.

There are two kites in the picture to the right, the one on the right is my 15meter, and the one on the left is Ryan’s 9meter. We figured between the two we’d be prepared for most wind scenarios.

I got in a few great runs, and started getting the hang of leaning back and powering the kite properly. I would say my longest run lasted for about 15-25 seconds and felt great.

The wind continued to strengthen as the afternoon progressed, so we switched to Ryan’s 9meter kite. His kite has significantly longer lines and a different aspect ratio (width vs. length). As a result, you can get killer speed with his kite, and killer ‘torque’ with my kite.

The killer speed was indeed killer. During one particular launch, I maneuvered the kite unexpectedly and was whipped forward. The kiteboard which had been calmly sitting in the water, waiting for my eager feet, smashed into my shins. The resulting pain was sharp and lenthy. A few minutes passed before I could comfortably stand.

Ryan pulled off a successful backflip. Check it out on YouTube here.
I like how the kite sweeps into view at the end of the clip.

While the kiteboarding was good, the post-kiteboarding action was not. As we drove home Ryan’s Subaru died. When put in drive, the transmission sounded like someone was throwing rocks down a gutter. So we waited patiently for a friend to come pick us up and as we locked up the car to leave it there for later towing, Ryan mistakenly locked the keys in the car… while it was running.

We went back to the house, and as Ryan zipped off on his scooter with the spare key to turn off the broken subaru, Ruth made some speghetti and I headed home. I got back to CT around 11:30, and I’m feeling it this morning. It was worth it though, I am one weekend closer to complete Kiteboard domination.

Was your weekend Righteous?