Having just returned from the Miami International Boat Show five days ago, I am questioning my decision to come home rather than stay for the Florida Powerboat Club’s Miami Boat Show Poker Run. So I’m playing a wicked game of “If Only” with myself. It’s a game I play a lot, and right now it’s going like this:

If only my upcoming stories for Powerboat and H20 Full Throttle would write themselves, if only I didn’t have a stack of feaures to edit for Ned Dawson’s new automobile racing magazine called P1, if only I didn’t have a meeting tomorrow with a real estate developer who’s paying me well to develop content for his web site, if only I didn’t have four spin classes to teach through Sunday, if only I didn’t have bills to pay.

I was close, so close, to being there. I had a ride in Bob Christie’s Speed Racer catamaran. I even had a back-up ride in a Skater 36 cat driven by John Tomlinson of TNT Custom Marine, just in case Bob got sick of me and decided to maroon me after the lunch stop at Gilbert’s

But here I am at my desk in Redwood City, Calif. Still, that doesn’t mean I won’t bring you the latest news from the run—my personal favorite—as it happens. I have a whole team of reporters (OK, the crew from Typhoon Service Center) out there who’ll be ringing my phone off the hook during the next couple of days. So stay tuned.

I have to head out the Fed Ex office. Now, if only I could find my car keys.