This weekend kicks off the 2006 season of Formula One racing with the inaugural event taking place in the island nation of Bahrain. This year there are many changes, including all new 2.4 L V8 engines, new (old?) tire change rules, a complicated but more exciting qualification procedure, and some new drivers. For the first time in 13 years, an American will be racing in this global event. Scott Speed will be racing on the Red Bull team. I’ve never had a Red Bull, but last weekend I bought a can of it and have been thinking about drinking it ever since. It’s billed as an ‘energy drink’. Its name comes from one of its ingredients, Taurine, which I’ve never seen in a soft drink before. After doing some research I found that it’s an acid found in urine and bile…yum! 🙂 The rest of the ingredients, like sugar and caffeine look pretty familiar to me, except for vitamin B. You don’t typically see any vitamins in soft drinks, only in ‘energy drinks’. At about $2 U.S. per 8 oz. can, it looks like it has the makings of a high margin product. No wonder they can afford to be the major sponsor of TWO F1 teams.

One of the unusual characteristics of one of the Red Bull teams is that they are taking advantage of a loophole in the F1 rules and running a V10 engine with a restrictor on their air intakes. Considering the other teams collectively spent an estimated $1B on V8 engine development, it will be interesting to see how it works out. I’m sure if the team does well, there will be an outcry from the other teams with predictable results. Either they’ll amend the rules to eliminate the V10 engines or everyone else will be scrambling to get their 2005 engines back in the cars.

Terri and I went to a Formula One race in Montreal in 2004 and had a wonderful time there. We had contemplated going to the 2005 race in Indianapolis, but had too many other commitments. I was in Asia at the time and Terri was in Europe. We were glad we didn’t go. Due to the no tire change rule and the construction of the Indy track with its high speed half oval section, Michelin advised the teams that it was not safe to use their tires. As a result, the race was run with only 6 cars instead of the usual 20, because it was restricted to the three teams running Bridgestone tires. The crowd was not happy and many left in protest.

HP is no longer a sponsor of an F1 car. It was something that was picked up as a result of the Compaq merger. Now that I have no reason to show any loyalty to a team, I guess I’ll need to root for a new team. Maybe I’ll root for Scott Speed and second Red Bull team which is going by the name Toro Rosso, which is Italian for Red Bull. Those guys are going to be the underdogs this year. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll go drink that Red Bull, er Toro Rosso, I’ve been saving…

Terri and I made our annual early season ski trip to Steamboat Springs a few weeks ago and had a great time there. We really love the town of Steamboat Springs and discover new places and things to do each time we visit. Early ski season can be hit or miss on the slopes, but this year there was a record snow fall with 7 feet dumping on the ski resort in a four week period during November and early December.

As you can see, we got a lot of snow in the time we were there, about 2 feet over a period of 4 days. The weather varied a lot which made some days ideal for skiing, but others a challenge. The last day we were there, the temperature was 20 below zero. The day before we left, we skied in nearly blizzard conditions, which makes for great powder, but leaves the ungroomed slopes a bit of work to get down.

This year we dined in several of our favorite places, including Giovanni’s where we have been going for over 20 years. We’ve always noticed the Old West Steak House next to it but had never eaten there, so this time we visited it for the first time and ate dinner in a barrel. You can see from the photo that there are actually 5 barrels, including 2 that you need to climb up to on ladders! They don’t serve you dinner in the upper barrels, and drinking in them could spell trouble too. I guess as a novelty, it’s something nice to try, but if we return, I think we’ll eat at a more conventional table. The owners were there and gave us a nice tour of the restaurant which wasn’t very busy because there was a snowstorm raging outside.

Steamboat Springs has such a unique and friendly atmosphere. There’s something very authenic about its old west charm and natural beauty that keeps us going back year after year.

We had the great pleasure of having some Italian house guests last weekend. My friend Silvio and his son Davide came to the U.S. for a trade show in Charlotte, NC and decided to make the trip out to Colorado to pay us a visit. I first met Silvio in 1992 when I was working on an Agilent Technologies Headspace Sampler, which is manufactured in Italy. It astonishes me that 13 years later, the product is still in production. It’s a testament to the fine work Silvio did on the product, I’m sure. Davide would have only been 7 years old at that time. Today he’s a 20 year old college sophomore majoring in chemical engineering in Milan. He is a well-spoken young man now with a passion for music and science. He got to eat a donut for the first time, much to his delight, and thus walk in the shoes of the our national hero and cultural icon, Homer Simpson.

Terri and I have visited Italy several times and we stopped to see Silvio and his family each time. I know that somewhere we have a lot of pictures from Italy and I’d like to scan them into the computer eventually. I suppose if there were weblogs back then, I would be able to search for the details of each visit and link them here but the Internet was just getting its start back then. We always have a great time in Italy and hope to return there soon, perhaps next summer. We are already planning some motorcycle side trips through the Italian countryside with Silvio as our guide and hope to return the favor when he visits the U.S. again.

As you can see from the pictures, we had a balloon festival in Greeley and the wind was such that the balloons flew right over our house. I counted more than 30 at one time, but the local newspaper said there were more than 50 launched from the old HP site.

We also flew the LongEZ this time. Silvio and I share a passion for airplanes. He likes to fly the small RC planes and I like them at 1:1 scale, although I do have some limited RC experience. Silvio has flown with me twice before, the first time in Pennsylvania in the Piper Colt and the second time here in Colorado. The first time I flew with Silvio, we came across an accident when we attempted to land on the runway at New Garden airport in Toughkennamon, PA. I was rather surprised since I had never actually witnessed a plane have a crash before, but this was rather minor where the gear had collapsed on a Bonanza during landing. We landed in the grass field next to the paved runway and taxied around it. I told Silvio it was quite unusual to witness a plane crash, even though you read about them in the news all the time.

The next time we flew it was in Greeley and, although it was calm when we departed, it was rather windy when we landed. Upon landing we saw a small Kitfox airplane that obviously had a lot of trouble landing and had flown directly into a hangar. The plane was destroyed and the people had to be taken to the hospital. According to the NTSB report, the injuries were minor. I mentioned to Silvio how unusual it was to come across and accident like that. He just smiled and said to me, “That’s what you told me last time!” So I was a little apprehensive when we flew last weekend and was hoping that no other accidents would occur. The weather was great and we got a lot of aerial photos and, much to my delight, witnessed no accidents.

After the flying, we visited a local RC airfield where a lot of people were flying their airplanes. Most of the RC airplanes were large aerobatic-type planes and Silvio was able to pick out a few Funtanas, designed by Sabastiano Silvestri from Italy, who Silvio knows personally. I was amazed by the large enclosed trailers that several club members had that contained many large models. Later we visited two hobby stores in Greeley, Things with Wings, and Don’s Hobbies, both which have large selections of RC items where Silvio picked up some nice gifts.

On Sunday we traveled to Estes Park and stopped by the Stanley Hotel the place that inspired Steven King to write The Shining. Much of the book was written there in Room 217, although the filming wasn’t done there, contrary to popular legend. We also visited many of the tourists shops that line the main street in town. Then we went to Rocky Mountain National Park where the elk were out in large numbers. We also were able to get to the top of Trail Ridge road, the highest continous road in North America, which was quite a surprise since it’s usually closed due to snow by this time of year.

It was a fun weekend and we enjoyed catching up with Silvio and Davide and we are looking forward to visiting him and his family in Italy soon…