Monday, April 06, 2009

West Coast & Stonebrae Classic

A fun west coast trip for a new Nationwide event, The Stonebrae Classic. The course is pretty close to my brother Don's house, so I set up camp with he and Vivian for the week. I also commandeered Don's BMW 1200RT for a few days. What a nice ride! Best media parking ever!The Big Truck is the "Mothership" of the Nationwide Tour and ops base for every event.The golf course is at the top of a mountain and
very scenic. (But a long hike!)Nationwide Tour CEO Bill Calfee manned the grill during the Pro-Am and cooked his famous pork chop sandwiches. Yum!Thursday brought the fog and a cold wind to the mountain top. Many players were wearing gloves, rainsuits and wool hats.The sun eventually came back out and it was a beautiful weekend.Sunday I got a rare treat, a chance to ride in a zeppelin airship! It's run by Airship Ventures
and is based in the bay area. It usually flies tours over downtown SanFrancisco but we got a special tour over the TPC Stonebrae.
After being driven to a field at the Oakland airport, we wait for the airship to pick us up.
It's larger than a 747 and has seating for 12 plus flight crew.Pretty modern cockpit!A great view of the Oakland sports complex.There was a great panoramic window in the rear to shoot from. Looking back at Oakland.Here's a view of the course. What a fun flight!