Jim Johns Visits

I have a "long time" buddy from the hang gliding industry who came to visit last week. Jim Johns started off as an instructor at Kitty Hawk Kites in the '70's and ended up running Western Hang Gliders in Marina California. Jim was one of the more successful hang gliding business owners ever.

He sold Western Hang Gliders in the mid 90's and opened a sailboat sail warehouse called "The Sail Warehouse" in Marina/Monterey area. He also lives on a sailboat in Monterey Bay.

I've met up with him from time to time in different parts of the country. About 7 years ago we met at mutual friend's (Max and Karen) house in Hood River Oregon for a Fly Fishing expedition. A great time that was.

Jim grew up in Ormond Beach Florida - which is just north of Daytona and he comes back here once a year to visit his family. He came out with his kids and girlfriend and I was able to spend a little time with them including go to a 'speed' park. The speed park is several go-cart tracks AND a dragster track. The dragster has a chevy 350 small block engine and it SCREAMS.

You strap into it, they start it up and when the lights turn green - you floor it and the thing goes from 0-75mph in under 3 seconds!! There are 4 of them side by side - so you race the other 3 and there's a digital timing system so you can see who was on it the best. It has an automatic braking system like a roller coaster does - and it stops as quickly as it accelerates. It was quite amazing. If you come to visit me in Daytona - remind me to take you to ride this thing. It's pretty cool.