Stranger #10

Photo from his web site.

Jim ”Jet” Neilson

I met Jim at Signature Bistro in Seabrook, Texas. It is a small intimate bar and has become one of mine and Marsene’s favorite places to go have a drink and relax. The restaurant was very crowded this evening and there was only one seat left at the bar. Afraid that Marsene would not have a place to sit I took it. Jim was setting right next to me and I simply introduced myself.

"Hi, I’m Matt Henson."

“Well Hello Matt, my name is Jim Jet.”

From there the conversation just took off. Jim is a very friendly and engaging person. He came to Seabrook to sell his 41’ sail boat and his brokerage firm of Flagship Yachts of Texas brought him to the bar for a bit of entertainment.

“Why are you selling your boat?”

“Well I need the money to finish building my new jet car.”

“Excuse me.”

“A jet car. I race for a living and I hold 4 urban world land speed records and I working of my 5^th.  I am presently working with the Columbian government to build a car that will set a new land speed record. I set the record so I will be in effect beating my own records. Then I plan on doing it again in Panama.”

Now that is not something you hear in normal conversations and yes I was skeptical but here is his web site. You can check it out for yourself.  Marsene now has entered the bar and there is still no other seat available and she is hungry anyway so we excuse ourselves and head over to the restaurant side, But before I leave I get his contact information so I can interview him for my blog because he is truly interesting and friendly.

We meet the next day on his Sail boat which by the way is absolutely gorgeous.  Here is his sale listing if your interested i assure you it is has been well maintained.

“So what would make a person feel the need to strap himself to a jet engine and fly down the road at breakneck speeds?”

“I blame it on my Mom. I think she dropped me on my head and it’s been downhill ever since.” He says laughing.  “When I was 5 first she put me in a quarter midget that some friends had in a parking lot push started it and I shot through the hay bails barrier and across the Van Nuys boulevard at full speed during Sunday morning trafficand wrecked on the center medium. Scared my mom to death. I’ve been hooked to speed ever since. It’s like a drug.”

“How many times have you crashed?”

I had one really bad crash in 1984. Crashed at around 260. I broke a vertebrae in my neck, broke my leg in 5 places cracked all my ribs, I was banged up pretty bad. Lucky to be alive.  Then in 1985 on my birthday I had the” Joan Jett and the Black Hearts” funny car. I burnt that car down to the ground in Salt Lake City. I left the track and hit some electrical poles, I had live wires all around me and the safety crew could not get to me and the car was burning all around me. I thought “you done it now Jim.” I really thought I was going to die but somehow only god knows how, I lived.

“But you keep doing it?”

“Well people keep getting remarried.” he laughs “ It’s.. You know,…. It’s in my blood, I’m addicted to it. I thought I was out of it, but now I’m being pulled back in. I seem to be drawn to Columbia and feel it is something that I am led to do.  It seems that I have a life changing event every 7 years. But you know…It’s what I know.. So what else am I going to do. It’s going to be a big event with paratroopers and worldwide media coverage.”

“So how do you handle all the notoriety?”

“I love it. I’m not a shy person so..  You know people love what I do. They scream and yell and I guess wonder what it must feel like to scream down the track.”

That is so true isn’t it? We all get to imagine his feelings and get a since of excitement even though we are just sitting on the sidelines and watching.  We live vicariously through them while they take all the risk.  Somehow we get caught up in the excitement of their quests. I know I will be setting in my easy chair, in front of the TV drinking a beer and watching as he explodes down the track at breakneck speed yelling… GO!!  GO!!  GO!! Then wait with great anticipation for the speed to announced, and the record shattered, stand up and yell YES!!! WE DID IT!!  Then fall back into my easy chair, exhausted, adrenalin pulsing through my veins with a feeling of great accomplishment

I’ve met several celebrities in my life time and I’m always struck at how normal and friendly they are. We all think that they are somehow different than us. That they are some kind of god, but they are just normal people. The only difference is that they seem to possess is a belief in themselves that lets them face their fears head on.  We all benefit from their brave experiments of pushing the human experience and we are all empowered by their achievements.  So open yourself up to them and just introduce yourself, you will find a great but normal person and who knows if your lucky maybe a great friend.

Stranger #9

Ken Orth

I met Ken while on a skiing trip in Angle Fire New Mexico. We had been skiing and stopped for some Hot Chocolate at the top of the slope. All of the tables were filled when Ken and his son came in. He asked if he could join us since we had two extra chairs. He was very easy to get to know and when I asked him to be stranger #9, he quickly said yes.

Ken lives in Albuquerque and came up here to spend the day with his youngest son, Quinn.. “I have another son but he had a hockey game today so his mom is with him.”

Ken is the “ editor, publisher, writer and photographer” for a paper in Albuquerque called Duke City Fit, highlighting all the sports activities in the area.

“It’s printed on recycled paper using soy based ink” he states with a huge smile on his face. “You can eat it.  No really, you can eat it.”

“I hope to get people off the couch and into exercising.  I write about everything from Yoga to mountain biking, kayaking to weight lifting. I try my best to cover any and all the activities in and around the area in hopes that something will spark an interest in someone. There is such a variety of things to do here that surely one of these activities will inspire you to get out and try one. Enjoyment is the key to getting and staying fit.”

“What I basically do is go out and try different things and write about my experience and hopefully show that if I can do it you can do it.”

"There are really a lot of different activities around Albuquerque. It has become a Mecca of sorts for people who are training because of the altitude and the good weather.  Last weekend I was up on the top of the crest for the ninth annual Great Snow Shoe Race.  It’s a three and half mile race, with about 150 participants ranging in age from 10 to 84. The guy that won it did it in like 28 minutes, which in snow shoes and snow is simply outrageous, OUTRAGEOUS!”

You can tell Ken really enjoys life. “What good is health if you’re not enjoying life?”

Thank God for people like Ken who inspire us to try different things and remind us that life can be fun and exciting. To stop watching others live their lives on the television set and get out there and put some life in our lives.

 So what excites you? What will make you say “THAT WAS FANTASTIC!”  If you don’t yet know what that might be maybe you should check out Duke City Fit, even if you don’t live in Albuquerque. I’m sure Ken will show you something that will excite you. There is a archive of past stories on his web site.