The View From The Trail at Pompano Airpark Sometimes Has A Goodyear Blimp

Always have a camera.

Always look for the beauty around you.

Always look for the unexpected.

I have a very aggressive workout schedule.  So far in four weeks, I have skated four Marathon sessions.  155 miles and the month is not done.

I'm not patting myself on the back but more to say that if you do what you love, you will have opportunities to enjoy yourself in life.

This Marathon business was never a big deal for me, when I was in Philadelphia I would skate at least three of them a week from April to October.  The runner's high would last from March until November.

However here, I am getting to the "More or Less" stage.  Either slow down and skate less, or add another session and skate more.  It's a haul to get to Pompano Airpark from here, and my Jeep gets pretty poor mileage.

Two inline skate sessions a week, two bicycle half-marathons a week, plus four miles of dog walks daily.   

Care to join me?  Cardio can be fun!

All of this is outdoors.   So I see a lot of things at a lot of odd hours.  It just takes a lot of time.

"Left Foot, Right Foot, You'll Get There In Time" is a mantra.

While I am out there carving a groove into the trail, I have company.  This happened to be a day that the conditions were right for the Goodyear Blimp to be out practicing landings and takeoffs.  I am at one of two locations where that activity can be seen. 

The blimp does make for an interesting partner in my workouts.   Here at home, if we hear a loud propeller noise, it is indeed possible to have that blue and yellow cigar overhead so we all tend to glance up.

This day was just stunningly perfect.  Temperatures were perfect, breezes were perfect, and I was on my inline skates so that was perfect.

I have sat on the front bumper of my Jeep downing some water and watching the blimp come in at an angle, clamp on the mobile mooring mast, then take off again.  It is rather interesting to watch so I look for the hangar door to be open on any given workout day.

This day was the first workout of the week so it was going to be another Marathon for me.  This was my last lap around the park.  I do six laps for 27 miles.  I had missed the take off but as I got around the corner and headed North along Federal Highway, US 1, there it was just over the trees and to the west.  It was gliding over the heads of South Florida heading North and East towards the nearby Atlantic Ocean.  

I consider myself very fortunate to have that opportunity, to watch it come and go.  I knew that it was based there since I was a Snowbird, and I knew of the park around that airport.  It's actually a main reason why I moved here.  I would not move to another city where I could not have a mid to long distance track where I could practice my eight wheel obsession unencumbered. 

So here I am rolling along, smiling at the cigar in the sky, enjoying the sun, and doing my own best flight around the park.

Yes, it was a good day.  One of the best.

Skating with the Goodyear Blimp at the Pompano Airpark

A couple miles north of me, a couple miles in from the ocean in Pompano Beach, FL is the Pompano Airpark.

When they carved up the flat swampy ground and drained the soon to be populated area of South Florida, there was this large plot of land that was once out where nobody lived. 

People eventually back-filled their lives into the area, there are homes surrounding the park in the large sprawl that is what is the metropolitan area.

Goodyear got there first and bought that plot before we all moved in.  They put in an airport, landing strip and the hangar for the Goodyear Blimp.  There are two that I know of, the other being in California.  San Diego I believe but I could be wrong.

It's more than a square mile of land serving light aircraft and the worlds largest flying billboard, the Goodyear Blimp.

When I was growing up in South Jersey, we only ever saw it once or twice so it was a curiosity.

Moving here, I have put that plot of land to my own uses, skating on the "black ice" trail that encircles the Hangar and the civil airport.

It is 4.6 miles around, if you are needing a place to skate here that you won't get hunted down by the ferocious drivers.

If Boston has the reputation where driving is a contact sport, they need to come down here and see how hunting down others is really done. 

That is why I went back to the Airpark.  I had some moron from Townhouse Isles in Wilton Manors pass me on NE 7th Avenue more than once in an all fired rush to get out to whatever their lives had in store for them, and as a result nearly take my own life with them.

Trust me, don't skate or bike on the roads in South Florida, it's dangerous.  This coming from someone who has ridden a motorcycle in Manhattan, drives a Jeep Wrangler, and skates a lot.

But, the Airpark and its trail is safer.  Even if it is a bit short at 4.6 miles, and totally flat, you can get miles in.

I needed to get back skating because, while it is not fashionable, inline skating is probably the

best sport for me that I can come up with.  You might have a different one, go and enjoy, but after skating 21,000 miles since 1992, this is mine.

I did notice that when I started that workout, the blimp was practicing maneuvers, and that can be entertaining.  Once sitting on a bench near the end of the landing strip, I watched that giant cigar coming in for a landing at what looked close to a 45 degree angle.  In the wind.

Snapping a picture, I started skating around the trail.   The hangar sits at the midway point, 2 miles in, and there's a shaded portion at mile marker 1.  When I came out of the shaded portion, I noticed the blimp hanging overhead coming into the approach for landing, along with a small civil fixed aircraft.  At that same time, there was a bird heading into the view.  Most likely flushed out by the fans that push that blimp around, no doubt.

This was not going to be a fast workout.  I had for all intents and purposes, stopped skating a few years ago, rolled to a stop.  It was much more fun to skate with the team, and there just weren't any people around.

Life moved on and, Life is better on 8 or 10 wheels.  Someone else in the neighborhood knows that too because slowly more people started dusting off their skates and are skating around town.

By the time I got to where I wanted to turn around, after all this was a "Get Reacquainted" workout, I got to the back of the hangar.  I'm right around 2 to 2.5 miles anyway, and I wanted to see what was going on.

Well really, I was trying to skate at my old competition speeds and my fitness levels weren't up to cruising at 16 mph (4 minute mile) so I slowed to stop at the back of the Hangar.

Sitting there on the ground, visible through the fence and the back door of the hangar was the blimp being stowed after a landing.

Cool!  Firing off a couple more pictures, I left with a grin.

I needed that pause.  While I did finish the lap plus a half mile, this workout told me I slacked too much, too long.

So Instead of doing my usual training workouts of 33 miles at a shot, yes, three times a week, I am doing a 5 mile loop, and starting over.

After all, you can't skate 100 miles in a week if you don't skate 5 first.  I'm back at a steady pace, skating the airpark and wearing out my wheels.

We all need a sport, this is mine.