Pete's Hangout

1) Travel 2) Automobiles 3) Aviation 4) Marine 5) Books 6) Space Launch Pete and long-time friends at the 14,494 foot peak of Mount Whitney, 2004 Pete’s Hangout is an area reserved for non-work related interests and activities that I’m excited about discussing, or doing, or sharing with our growing constituency of friends. Those who visit Deragons.com know that we have a lifestyle theme going on. That’s because our business tends to attract highly successful, active, adventure-related individualists. You can visit Pete’s hangout and expect to see spectacular original photographs, or some unspectacular ones, chronicling events we’ve attended. You will also find announcements or information regarding events and activities that are taking place that relate to these areas. After all, there is more to life than work, and if we are good at designing our careers, we can design a pretty satisfactory life-STYLE. This area of the website is going to selfishly focus on the intellectual and physical activities that I like, and some of the photography and stories will premiered in the coming weeks. I anticipate this will be of interest for those of you that enjoy Kayaking, Golf, Running, Mountain Biking, Snowboarding, Sailing, Automobiles, Auto Racing, Airplanes, Travel, Adventure, and Books. Pete's Jeanneau sloop, "Pacifico" in 2002 at Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Santa Barbara As for Kayaking, our home on the Central Coast of San Luis Obispo offers a variety of lakes and bays for protected kayaking, as well as open ocean expanses for trekking journeys and hanging out with the “great whites”. Avila Beach and Montana de Oro state park, as well as Morro Bay, Cambria, and Cayucos, offer a variety of seascapes and abundant wildlife. For Golf, Avila Beach, Cypress Ridge, Blacklake, Morro Bay, Dairy Creek, and Sea Pines resort are regular stops, and offer extremely reasonable golf with world-class vistas of our coastline. My passion for automobiles is a legacy from my upbringing in Los Angeles County. As a 15 year old without a driver’s license, I bought a 1935 Ford and started hot-rodding in the early 1970’s. The mold was cast. This carried through to many interesting and some marginal cars, including a 1936 Chevrolet that I drove in to work every day, to the San Francisco Financial District, complete with a Corvette engine and modern suspension that I parked alongside everyone’s BMW’s, Porsches, and Mercedes Benzes. I had a pair of ’55 Chevrolets, (a truck and a hardtop), that passed through the garage, and led to new chapters of auto fanaticism. A Ferrari magazine that I subscribe to now, called Forza may lead to other dangerous habits and addictions, but the current collection looks pretty practical and normal now, and includes the wheels for two teen-aged drivers. San Luis Obispo County is absolute heaven for Mountain Bikers. We have eight “morros” which are conical shaped mountains of volcanic origin that are lined up in a row from the famous Morro Rock to the hill near my home over a fifteen mile long valley. Each cone is 800 to 1500 feet and most have a fire road to the top and a hair-raising descent available for the ultimate one-hour workout. The Santa Lucia Range to our North is a step up in challenge and variety, offering one-hour to all-day rides with thousands of feet of ascent and descent available. The coastal mountains North of Vandenberg AFB offer views of the satellite launch areas and Montana De Oro State Park North of Diablo Canyon offers additional thrills. Auto Racing is relatively close and abundant; from the ButtonWillow raceway near Bakersfield to Laguna Seca in Monterey and Infineon Raceway (the old Sears Point) in Sonoma County, open wheel and SCCA and hobbyist racers can get almost year-round racing within a few hour’s drive.