Kenya Allmond (me) » Travel

I Found Paradise in Tortola, BVI

kenya — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:45 +0000

I was looking for a birthday trip destination. I shopped all the deal sites and ALL the deals were for two. I was discouraged but kept looking. I then saw a deal from LivingSocial Escapes for the British Virgin Islands. I had never been to the British Virgin Islands nor even heard of anyone going but was intrigued. I did some price comparisons on the normal price of the resort and also compared it to what I could get in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the same price. The LivingSocial deal appeared to be a really good one even though it was for two and I was to travel solo.

(More photos are available on Flickr.)

The British Virgin Islands, specifically Tortola, is one of the best places I have been on vacation. I don’t like tourist traps with a lot of people and made up attractions. Although I go, Las Vegas, Orlando and Cancun fall into these categories. When I want to relax, it’s good to be in a place that is quiet and self-paced. Add to that natural beauty and I am in paradise.

The tourism slogan for the British Virgin Islands is “Nature’s Little Secrets” and Tortola for sure is a well kept secret. Everything there was unassuming and understated. Arriving via ferry at the West End terminal I wondered what kind of place I had gone to without doing any kind of real research. Quaint doesn’t even explain the ferry terminal and Customs and Immigration that you have to pass through to enter. I took an open air taxi bus with a family up a steep hill and a downhill hairpin turn and I was at the Long Beach Bay Resort. The resort and Sebastians, where the family got off, seemed like they was just in the middle of the road. Long Bay is the best resort on the island and after talking with other tourists about where they stayed I know why. Long Bay has 53 rooms including beach houses and villas. Those rooms are air conditioned and the resort has modern amenities like a pool, tennis courts, spa, excursions and rental cars on property. My only complaint about the resort was the steep climb to my room. My view was spectacular. The resort is on a mile long stretch of beach on Long Bay.

On the third day, I got the rental car that was included in my LivingSocial deal. I had to continuously remind myself to drive on the left which was easy when there was no oncoming traffic. Whenever I did see oncoming traffic, I would freak out a little because while I’m used to driving in the left lane on the beltway, for instance, I don’t see oncoming traffic on the right. And then I had to tackle that steep incline and hairpin on Zion Hill Road. The first day I ventured out to Road Town and then went to Beef Island since it’s connected to Tortola via bridge. The second day with the car I set out to explore the North Shore and avoid Zion Hill Road. O.M.Gee! There was a serious uphill zigzag on the way to Cane Garden Bay that the rental car DID NOT like. It made Zion Hill Road look like a flat straightaway. The view from up there was stunning but since I was concentrating on driving I couldn’t snap any pics.

I read in the my Fodor’s guide that Cane Garden Bay was the closest beach to Road Town and that it was only a steep incline up and another steep decline between them. I did the steep decline down to Road Town behind a cement truck. That was kind of scary but down is easier than up since gravity helps. The island is small and you could probably drive every road in the space of a few hours (except that Road Town does have rush hour traffic which I got stuck in the first day with the car). I was glad I took advantage of the car and didn’t chicken out with those seriously steep roads. I got to see the real Tortola and discovered that it wasn’t that much different from near my resort. The resorts and hotels aren’t isolated like in many other places; they’re right where people live. The taxi driver that took me back to the ferry station showed me that her whole family lived in several houses right beside my resort.

I did have trouble a few times finding places especially restaurants because when I hear “restaurant” I expect a building. Many of them are just outside. All three of them at my resort were outside. I found some good spots to eat and chat with locals who were really friendly unlike the tourists at my resort. While my resort seemed to have all couples, I would also recommend it for singles. You’ll just have to get off the resort to mingle with folks elsewhere.

Tonight’s the Night! Autoweek’s America Adventure Will Be on TV #AWAdventure

kenya — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:06 +0000

Today’s Autoweek’s Vinsetta Garage on the Velocity Channel will have a segment on the Autoweek America Adventure. Air time is 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Maybe I’ll be in there somewhere. Set your DVRs! (so I can watch it)

I Might Be on TV Tonight! #AWAdventure

kenya — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:00:16 +0000

Tonight is the premiere of Autoweek’s Vinsetta Garage on the Velocity Channel (formerly Discovery HD Theater) at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. The show will feature highlights from this year’s Autoweek America Adventure. You might remember that I competed in the rally race at the end of October through beginning of November. I don’t know whether I will be on the show but it could happen. Check your listings for the proper channel.

Now I need to find a way to watch this since I don’t have that channel.

Update: The show with the America Adventure segment will air on January 24.

#AWAdventure Day 6 (Final) Recap

kenya — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:00:41 +0000

On our last day of The America Adventure, we left Death Valley, California in a convoy headed for Las Vegas. We had to make it to the SEMA show by noon to complete our last mission.

From the site:

The SEMA Show is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world. It draws the industry’s brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center.

SEMA is huge. It takes up the entire Las Vegas Convention Center which includes the North, Central and South Halls. The last mission was a scavenger hunt. We were to find Mopar products cards at booths all over the convention center. I ran (or rather power walked) all over that convention center. We figured that the cards were at booths belonging to America Adventure sponsors. By the time we reached them, however, all the cards were gone.

Team Plum Floored won the scavenger hunt and a second key. It was now time to give to Mopar 11 away. Several teams tried their keys but it was the Flying Baldini Brothers (and Kaylie) that won the car.

While we did not win the car, this was a remarkable experience. With the challenges, the trip itself and the people I met, I would consider this one of the best trips I’ve been on. I mean that sincerely. I would consider doing the Adventure again and am thankful that Autoweek chose us for this experience.

The Aftermath: Scrape Peel Scrape

So later that evening we ended up at Fry’s (it’s a geek thing) and decided to start peeling stickers off the car right there. My fingers still hurt. The night was finished with a quick bite at Wolfgang Puck right the MGM Grand where we were staying as I had to be up for an early flight.

I have a ton of photos and videos to post so stay tuned.

#AWAdventure Day 5 Recap

kenya — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:04:01 +0000

Today was a day with 8 hours of driving. In the spirit of Halloween, our theme today was ghosts. We figured out our clues most expeditiously and headed from Reno to Virginia City, Nevada (Bonanza theme music playing in my head) to get a picture of the Suicide Table on display in the Delta Saloon. Apparently three different guys played poker at this table, lost all their money and committed suicide.

From there it was off to Yerington, Nevada to do a Ghost Dance a monument dedicated to Wovoka, the Northern Paiute religious leader that founded the Ghost Dance movement. Then we were off to Tonopah in search of the ghost of “The Lady in Red” in the Mizpah Hotel. Our last stop on the way to Death Valley was the Bottle House in the ghost town of Rhyolite just before the California border. GPS was absolutely no good at this point but we pulled it off. We stopped at a gas station and my iPad miraculously knew where it was and I was able to find Rhyolite on the map.

Beautiful Nevada

We can see ourselves!

Our finish line was the Furnace Creek Ranch with has its own ghost stories. On the way to Death Valley when getting onto US 190, the GPS told us to go right instead of left. We were past Stovepipe Wells when we realized that something was amiss. I’m not sure how much time was added because of this misstep but we did not make our time window. We missed it by 9 minutes. We were good on most other points except that we still needed to upload another video to YouTube video. Cell phone coverage was sketchy a good deal of the way to Death Valley so it was difficult to get another video up. Most disappointing though is that our Bottle House bonus was revoked because some other teams had convinced a groundskeeper to let them inside the locked fence to pose for their photos on the porch of the Bottle House. It was a good day overall but we were definitely disappointed. There’s only one day left and we’re coming at it hard.

#AWAdventure Day 4 Recap

kenya — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:15:02 +0000

Yesterday was our best day so far but we only have two days left for scoring. It was certainly our most adventurous day as well. We started out in Santa Rosa and headed to Sacramento for go-kart racing at RPM Indoor Kart Racing. I knew this was a serious event when they handed me a head sock. Next we had to suit up. The best times for the team were used for scoring. I’ll tell you, I’ve done well go-karting with coworkers but we have professional racers in this rally. From there we stopped at the Eagle Theater in Sacramento and a statue of former Vice President Schuyler Colfax in Colfax, California. Then we headed to Reno, Nevada for a quickie marriage and divorce or at least photographic evidence of the marriage and divorce. Don’t worry no vows were exchanged; I’m still on the market. After that we headed to the end of the USA Parkway in Clark, Nevada for Baja racing and Traxxas R/C racing. John did the Baja and I did the Traxxas. I can’t remember the last time I did R/C anything – maybe as a teenager with my little brother. I didn’t do that well but neither did a lot of folks. We ended up back in Reno at the El Dorado Hotel where John hung out in the casino while I passed out. I had every intention of writing a blog post last night but it didn’t happen. I barely made sure to charge all my devices. Today we’ll end up in Death Valley. You’ll hear from me again then.

#AWAdventure Day 3 Recap

kenya — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 08:30:31 +0000

We absolutely redeemed ourselves today. Starting in Klamath Falls, Oregon, our clues led us to the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden a few miles north of Weed, California to get a pic of the “Greatest Generation” sculpture dedicated to the veterans of World War II and then the Sundial Bridge in Redding. We had to stop for an interview at the Sundial Bridge for Autoweek TV and of course they asked about what had happened the day before. No matter, we were doing it today.

Photos:

Our next stop was Thunderhills Raceway Park in Willows, California. I don’t think you’re supposed to take rental cars onto racetracks but that’s what happened for a lot of teams (sidesteps whether we did or not). At any rate, the Lincoln MKZ that we’re driving did 23.4 seconds on a 18 second autocross course. The race track was awesome too though I didn’t drive on it.

Videos:

Open Road, Beautiful Views

Autocross in an SUV!

After lunch at the raceway, we headed south to wine country. We visited three wineries: Castello di Armorosa in Calistoga, Merryvale Vineyards in St. Helena and Kundle Family Estates in Kenwood. Castello di Amorosa was especially neat because as the name indicates it’s a castle. We weren’t sanctioned to participate in tasting but at all three wineries the gettag that we needed to scan was situated right beside someone tempting us to taste. The finish line was of course another winery St. Francis Winery in Santa Rosa.

I must say that it’s great to sit at the table to dinner and laugh and joke with the pros that are in this rally especially since there was no walk of shame involved. I’m deeply honored. Here’s to many more good days.

#AWAdventure Day 2 Recap

kenya — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:41:07 +0000

In short, we suck! On Wednesday, Natalie Furniss who is running the Autoweek America Adventure told of a team one year that was headed somewhere completely different than they were supposed to be. The were headed to the Indiana Speedway instead of a smaller track in another town in a completely different direction. Well, this year we are that team. We had a clue about one of the most beautiful and natural habitats for pinnepeds. All of my search results came back with the Oregon Coast Natural Wildlife Refuge. John searched for it on Google Navigation and it gave us directions to some place that was about 40 minutes away. Well, we went and there was nothing there. Looking at the Oregon Coast Natural Wildlife Refuge’s website again we found that the place we thought we were going was actually in the opposite direction in Bandon, Oregon and more than 100 miles away. In order to make up time, we cut over to the interstate. It was taking forever and we were way past out alloted time. I looked at Twitter and saw our competitors talking about Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. Doh! If we had stayed on Highway 101, even thinking we were going to the wildlife refuge we could have stumbled onto the caves accidentally. A lot of time had passed and we got a call telling us that since we were so far off course that we should just go to the finish line. Here we sit like kids called to the principal’s office waiting for everyone else to arrive. Today was an epic fail!

#AWAdventure Day 1 Recap

kenya — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:03:28 +0000

The day started out with us in an Aloha Karaoke taxi on the way from the Hotel Murano back to the LeMay America’s Car Museum to line up at the starting line. The taxi driver (from Hawaii) actually sings karaoke and gives a mini tour while driving passengers to their destinations. It was awesome!

Aloha Karaoke Taxi

Out of the gate we went to a maze at the Monarch Sculpture Park in Tenino, Washington to look for our next clue after visiting Torii Gate and Shinto Shrine in Tacoma. We ended up down a dirt road to nowhere on the way to the maze thanks to Google navigation but it seemed that everyone was stumped for a bit by that dirt road. We saw a lot of other teams at that dirt road. Then we were off to Marsh’s Free Museum in Long Beach, Washington after visiting a shrine dedicated to Kurt Cobain in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. I still had grass on my shoes from the maze at Marsh’s. If you’re interested, Marsh’s is the home of Jake the Alligator Man and other oddities. Then we were off to Oregon. This was the absolute first time I’ve been in Oregon. We went to the Goonies House in Astoria, Oregon and then the Peter Iredale shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park also in Astoria. My shoes were so not appropriate for the beach. The shipwreck and the almost sunset were neat though. I didn’t fall though somoeone who shall remain nameless did fall at the beach but I did not capture that on photo or video. A bunch of deer were just hanging out in the road near the state park which made driving conditions kind of precarious. It was already dark when we were on Pacific Coast Highway Route 101 headed toward Lincoln City, Oregon. I wanted to see this in daylight. Day or night we got to see a lot of quaint little towns though. And people were really nice.

We got a text to go to a resort in Newport. Aww bummer! No key for us. The good news that each day is a new day and points start anew. We will have a fresh perspective and new energy tomorrow morning. I think I know where we went wrong though. Google Navigation will give you the shortest route distance-wise and we took Pacific Coast Highway while others took I-5. (We need a map.)

Also of note is that when we have a good cell phone reception the Autonet Mobile internet connection is perfect. I was able to do FaceTime and Google+ Hangout from the moving car.

Our photo pool is at:
http://flickr.com/group/TeamSocialFTW

The Adventure Starts Today!

kenya — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:48:00 +0000

Dear Family and Friends,

I just wanted you to know that I will be competing in Autoweek’s America Adventure (theamericaadventure.com) starting tomorrow. We start out in Seattle today (starting line tomorrow) and end up in Vegas next Tuesday at the SEMA auto show (semashow.com). The catch is that we have no clue where we will end up along the way. Each day we will be given Amazing Race style clues as to where we need to go and challenges (most involving driving – including some race track driving). At the end of the day whoever scores the most points will get a key.

At SEMA each team with a key will be given a chance to see if their key starts a Mopar Charger worth $40,000. If it does, they (we) get the car. The Discovery Channel is doing a 1-hour documentary on the competition.

My partner is John Davis of Detroit. Here’s his short bio:

John Davis is a native Detroiter who has traveled the world for work and pleasure, and is always ready for a challenge. John is the host of 2 Guys & A Mic on whatchatalkinbout.com. His wit can be seen on social networks far and wide. John has appeared on numerous television programs, most notably “The Weakest Link” on NBC. John is a frequent radio guest discussing sports, technology, politics and social media.

More info including my bio at: theamericaadventure.com/teams/49

Even if we don’t win the car this could be a trip of a lifetime. I’ve always wanted to drive the Pacific Coast Highway and we likely will. And you probably dont know that I want to go on The Amazing Race. After working for FTI with all that “by the seat of your pants” travel I’m sure I could do it. You know I have my camera and a bunch of other gadgets with me.

We were selected to participate in this competition for free (entry fee is $5,000) because we will cover the competition on social media. I’m asking for your support by following along with us.

The easiest way is on Twitter at twitter.com/TeamSocialFTW. The Twitter account will include links to other media we post like photos, videos, and blog posts. If you’re on Facebook a lot of what’s posted will end up there too. Photos will be at flickr.com/groups/TeamSocialFTW. We’re working on a shared YouTube channel as well and other ways to aggregate the content in one place. On top of that we will have in car internet so well be connected wherever we go.

I hope you join us on this adventure. Thanks for your support!

Kenya

Kenya Allmond (me) » Travel

I Found Paradise in Tortola, BVI

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