2009 -- Here is to a good year!

Well, we all survived 2008.

To catch up everyone on my happenings around New Years here is the overall schedule from Christmas until New Years. Work, Basketball tournament, work, trip. The trip involved me going out and hanging out with my friends the Mays as they were out 4-wheeling in the Mojave desert near El Centro (Salton City). I finally got out there around 7:30, and finally found the campsite around 8 (there are no landmarks in the middle of the desert at night!).

After I got there, I helped Jesse haul three Christmas trees up on top of a sand dune. We bound them together with bailing wire and eventually loaded the trees up with fireworks and propane bottles (the small ones, not the big ones). Before we light the Christmas trees up, the guys had fun loading small charges into firing tubes and creating large explosions and a couple of big fireballs, when gas is added to the explosion. After midnight, we sat around the campfire and I listened in on what is going on with the group. Someone thought they knew me, but ended up giving up on where ahe knew me from.

New Years Day, I, for some unknown reason woke up at like 7:30am. I ended up taking the May's dogs out for a morning walk so that they could do their business and then went back to the camper and fell back asleep for a couple of hours. Around 10a, I woke up to Jesse loudly asking (it wasn't quite a yell but it was close) Amanda to wake up, the ride was going to start in about 10 minutes. Cheryl asked if I had a ride, and Jesse was still working on it. He ended up getting me a ride with Ron (?) in the trail jeep. This was the first time I had ever been off-roading and it opened my eyes quickly. Anytime that the passenger nearly has to lean out side the vehicle to make sure that it doesn't roll, you're eyes will open up! We got back from the ride and as we rested a little bit, we all decided to go out for dinner. So we went "into town" to a Mexican restaurant and had dinner. After we got back, I hung out in the camper and talked to Cheryl and Eric for a little while. After that, I went out to the campfire and hung out with Amanda and Jesse.

This morning, I chose to sit out the ride so that I could get home in time to lounge a little before going into work tonight. I left the campsite around 11:45a and got to Dudley's around 1:30p. When going through Santa Ysabel you MUST stop at Dudley's, if you haven't ever stopped there, and you're in the area STOP trust me you will enjoy the bread. I finally got home around 3p.

So there you go, I am going to have dinner, and then off to work again to start another fun-filled year (I hope that doesn't turn into a sarcastic statement by the end of the year!).

Now this is the way to END the summer

So I found out a couple of hours ago that with a little moving and shifting of some shifts at work, I'll be able to go to a beach party and then after a day to recover, I will be taking off to Vegas for the 1st annual MORT (Men Of the Round Table) convention.

I will be driving to Vegas, while portions of MORT will be flying in and riding back.

Thats it for now,




BTW, for those that care, Phil won the monopoly game earlier, and I was the only one that was still alive at the end. Funny issue arose at the end of the game, I owned one entire side of the board and a couple of RR also, while Phil owned the rest of the board. There were a total of around 5 times around the board, where I landed on either Free parking, the utilities, my RR, or go to Jail. I did this for like I said about 4 or 5 times around the board. It got absolutely hilarious as I started to call out the numbers I needed and rolled it.

wrapup to the vacation

Yes we are home, and the house was in one piece for those that were wondering if Matty kept it standing. j/k Matty :)

Last we left, we were leaving Wichita. We meet up with some former neighbors at a Denny's in Wichita before we left town. We then took the Kansas Turnpike up to Topeka to see the Kansas Capitol. We got back onto the " 'pike" and got off to see the territorial capitol of Kansas about 25 miles East of the present capitol. After seeing our 5th territorial or present day capitol of the trip we went to a KFC/A&W to have dinner on the far NW outskirts of Lawrence, KS. After dinner, we went through the center of Lawrence which as those that know the Big 12 (XII) Conference know it is the home of the University of Kansas (Home of the 2008 NCAA Basketball champions).

Eventually, we got into Overland Park where we stayed for the final night in the Midwest. We stayed at an Embassy Suites, which even thou I no longer work for the Hilton Corp. I still believe that ES is the best damn hotel chain in the world (that I have stayed in).

On Monday, Mom & Dad went into a JoAnn's fabrics store, since Mom had not been in any craft stores in the Midwest. After that, we went to a Gates BBQ just a couple of exits down the road. After that we eventually got into downtown KC again. We went back to Union Station to get some daytime pictures and the WWI memorial just on the other side of the street. We went up a hill to get the other side of the memorial, and pictures of the KC Mint. As we were taking another picture of a seperate statue commemorating fallen soldiers, I got a phone call lettin me know that my friend Elizabeth had her baby about an hour before the call. I would later find out that she was admitted to the hospital around 10:45a on Monday and had her daughter around 2:15p. We left downtown KC and went back to the airport. We got on the plane and eventually got back to San Diego (YEAH!!!!!!!!!). We got our bags and called our ride, who we thought would be in the cell phone lot just 3 blocks from the terminal......wrong. She hadn't even left her house and had yet to pickup our car.

Then on Tuesday, I went to the Sugarland concert at the San Diego County Fair. I attempted to see them, I along with Sarah ended up listening to Sugarland because ofthe fact that the concert was a pay in addition to the Fair.

Tonight, we (Mom, Julie, Mary and myself) went to see Little Big Town. The concert was a really good one, out of the seven songs that I really wanted to hear, I heard six.

Thanks Wichita

Well Wichita, I'll be honest, I thought you would be able to pull off the 57th NSDC, but not a big thing. I appologize, you did a fine job, I'm sure there were many "fires" that needed to be taken care of, but for the most part those fires were kept out of the sight of most dancers.

As far as next years 58th NSDC, we need to get alot of people to register, because we are still way low on numbers the last I saw we had only 2,355 registered. I believe that I saw that the bare bones break even point is 6,000. Wichita had 6,025 but had many more advantages than we do in Long Beach.

Tomorrow, or later today, we packup to go back to KC in order to come HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love traveling, but as anyone who travels knows, some of the best moments in traveling is coming home. :)

I will update pictures and more information once I get home and rest. That probably won't be until Thursday at the earliest as I'm planning on going to the Fair on Tuesday & Wednesday to see Sugarland (Tue) and Little Big Town (Wed).

And then it was summer

WOW, my fears of Wichita in June came true today.....HOT and kinda sticky.

I woke up today late (10:30) and took care of the standard morning things. We found a Denny's for breakfast and then came back to the hotel. I called the Mays and since we were all going to be going to the same places, we did it together. We went to the NSDC to get our badges, and while the Mays were taking care of some problems they were having with the badges, we shopped at the NSDC booth (since it was the only booth open, it was not a hard choice to see where we wanted to shop!). From there we migrated over to Sheplers here in Wichita. Sheplers is a big time western catalog business that has a few actual stores (LV & Wichita to name a couple). The Mays found some stuff, I found a really sweet looking Budweiser shirt, but they did not have it in my size (I found the only one and it was a small, there is no way a small is going to fit me!!!!). After that and the group seeing someone get pulled over by Wichita police we went to a local eatery (Town & Country) to have dinner. I had a mesquite grilled catfish plate, mom had Beef brisket, and dad had wait for it...... a salad!!!!!!!! During dinner (since I know Jesse will bring it up) I was eating mom's jello that had fruit inside of it. I made a few wrong turns and quite a bit of it ended up on either me or the floor (refer to the May's P.A.D. possibly for more information).

Finally dance time came around, neither mom nor I did a lot of dancing (Mom 0, Chris 1 -- Tip scoreboard) mainly because we were as tradition, getting all of our ducks in a row for the rest of the convention. We were trying to find where the L&F booth is (really hidden behind two different halls, ours will be more in your face) and finding out what time we are going to be working the 58th NSDC shop (it was never open tonight, so we still have no idea).

Anyways so now it is time to go to bed cause we need to be at the Mays RV around 8 so that we can go to the Salt Mines about 1 hr NNW of Wichita, and when we are up there, we are going to an Amish restaurant for breakfast (hope mom can find something to eat). Later!

P.S. If you care, Fresno State ended up winning the CWS tonight after defeating Georgia 6-1. Zach Stone (son of NBC 7/39 Sports reporter/Weekend Anchor Jim Stone) bothered me tonight during the dance to let me know that the Central Valley Bull Dogs ended up winning the game with the guy form RB closing the game out. Memo to Zach, who give a bleep. It was not Wichita State, Miami, or Rice in the finals. Both Bull Dog (Dawg for Georgia) teams got hot at the end of the season, Fresno State was only 4 games above .500 going into the conference tournament, they really should not have even been in Wichita. They got there the only way they could by winning the WAC tourney, and then getting luck in the CWS tourney.

Traveling in Nebraska and Kansas

Well today we crossed into Kansas as is deminstrated by this picture below. Yes I'm being a goof ball, but every once in a while aren't you allowed to be?

We left Council Bluffs around 9:30a and got into Omaha around 4, with a 30 minute stop at a truck stop in Salina, KS. So we finally got into the hotel, and they were nicer than any other hotel that I have been to. This would be a hotel that I would be proud to work at, as long as things work as smoothly as check in did.

So I met up with the May's and Mom and I took Amanda over to a trail dance for the NSDC, with the convention actually opening on Thursday. We spent at least an hour after the dance at the May's RV just talking about random stuff.

Rosenblatt Stadium

So today, we originally were supposed to go over to the Air & Space strategic museum, but after rearranging the itinarary for our trip down to Wichita. Dad doesn't want to go to the greyhound (dog) HOF, so we are going to stop over at the museum and then continue on the I-80 West to US-81 South, and it will take us straight into Wichita.

We went over to a Super Wally to grab a couple of things. After that we came back and got ready for the College World Series and for the travel for tomorrow. We left the the hotel around 4 for a 6pm game. I got us to the stadium around 4:20 after traffic and all. I got to my General Admission section right before Fresno State had BP. During the ballgame I struck up a small conversation with a couple of good looking girls that were sitting in front of me. I didn't find out until later that they "need some seasoning". Georgia ended up winning the game 7-6, they won when Brandon Burke (Rancho Bernardo) gave up a 2-run HR and the game tying RBI Double. If Georgia wins tomorrow (6/24) they will be the National Champions.

Tomorrow, Wichita. If you are going to Nationals, I'll see you there.

Sunday in Iowa/Nebraska

So we started out with a trip around Downtown Omaha to get a few day time pictures. We then went to the Military park on the riverfront and looked at a few displays that they had there. After that we went onto a river cruise. We went 15 minutes up river from the departure point, then flowed down the river with the tide to about 3/4 mile from the hotel. The cruise then turned around and went back to base. While on the cruise I struck up a conversation with a couple that lives in Omaha and they explained a few things about the riverfront. After the cruise, we traveled south down 10th Street. 10th Street ends at Rosenblatt Stadium and the Omaha Zoo. We eventually got on I-80 East and almost immediately transitioned to I-29 South, we got something to drink and eat and hopped back on I-29 South. 48 miles later we got off and turned right headed towards Nebraska City for the VF Outlet store. For those that know the Davis' well, you know that VF Outlet is our families favorite store. There are not many stories where you can save 66% over regular store prices. We returned from Nebraska City, and went to Harrah's Council Bluffs for their buffet. Now we are bracing for an adventuresome day tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Air & Space Strategic museum in Nebraska. After that, we are Rosenblatt Bound!!!!!!

What a day

Wow, two states, many sights, and two capitols in the same state.

Now that I got your attention, lets review day 6 of "The Trip". We got a late start and didn't wake up until 10:30. I woke up with a small migrane headache as did Mom. We both took some pain reliever for the headaches. We started out for the Iowa Lincoln memorial on one of the many hill sides here in Council Bluffs (CB). The Picture below is the view of Omaha, NE from the Lincoln memorial.

From the Lincoln Memorial we went over to the Lewis & Clark Memorial. Lewis & Clark made thier first meeting with the Indians of the region here in CB. I have a video of the view from the memorial for your viewing pleasure on myspace.

From there, we went to the spot that the US Government will tell you that nothing happened, but in reality it is where the Golden Spike that really connects East and West Coast. This is were the Union Pacific began their trek to the West Coast.

From there we came back to the Hotel for me to change from sandals to shoes. We then made our way to the location in Nebraska that many many years ago where the Oregon and California trails converged. After that we went to the Teritorial Capitol of Nebraska in Omaha. From there we crossed town to see the birthplace of 38th President of the USA (Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.).

After a quick stop to get drinks, we headed off for the current capitol of the state of Nebraska, Lincoln. It was about an hour drive from Omaha. Everything went quietly today as far as Mom & Dad were concerned. Once in Lincoln we went to the Capitol (known in these parts as "The tower of the plains"). After that we traveled cross-town to see what on 8 times a year is the 3rd largest city in the state of Nebraska, Memorial Stadium. Which is home to the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team (again, I have pictures and a video over at myspace). We came back to the hotel to get directions to this steak house with a non-steak house name (Pizza King). Real old-school flavored steak house with an Italian twist, from what the front desk here at the hotel was saying pretty much all of the non-chain steak houses here in "the metro" (CB & Omaha) have an Italian twist who knew there was such an Italian base here? We went over to Pizza King and had dinner, Dad had Prime Rib (HUGE portion), Mom ordered Steak (she asked for it to be Well, it came back Medium, she wasn't happy) and shrimp and I ordered a Steak Tips and Rice. It was kinda on the expensive side, but it was overall good.

We came back to the hotel after dinner and watched the rest of the UNC/Fresno State game from 4.7 miles away (UNC won, final game on Sunday to decides who plays on Monday when we go). We got directions printed out and went over to see where the riverboat that we are going to be on in the morning is so that we know where to go. On the way over we found this really sweet looking Union Pacific Railroad memorial, unfortanatly the pictures really didn't come out. We asked a few people (include a cop) where the sign that says Omaha that ESPN always shows during the coverage of the CWS was and really no one knew where it was we got a couple of guesses, and one of them got it right, the picture is on myspace, but I'm going to go back and get another one during the day.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to go on a riverboat cruise, and then down to Nebraska City to checkout the outlet stores down there (50 or so miles South of Omaha), then for dinner we are going to the Buffet that I prommised my Dad that we would go to. As of now, it looks like on Monday we might go 30 Miles or so into Nebraska to see a Strategic Air Meuseum that we saw signs for on the way to Lincoln. Later.

Des Moines to Council Bluffs

So we left Des Moines this am and took out on I-80 West. We took that to US-6 in the outskirts of Atlantic, Iowa. We stoped at the Valley Cafe at the intersection of I-80 and US-6. The 3 of us had a 1/4 hamburger (Dad), Grilled Cheese (Mom) and a French Dip (Chris) add in two drinks and the entire bill came to $17. Compare that to dinner here in Council Bluffs at a casino that cost $60. Back to the trip. We traveled South on US-6, which joined up with US-59, continued on US-59 until we got to the outskirts of Carson, Iowa where we transitioned to Iowa 92. From there we rode IA-92 all the way into hotel (A short two exits on I-29) in Council Bluffs.

Way, way too much arguing between Mom & Dad over how to drive. Most of the arguing coming from Dad and was because of his blood sugar that he has never really gotten control over.

Final day in Des Moines

Well, today was all about my Dad and seeing where he grew up here in Des Moines. First we went to Aunt Minnie's house (?). We then went over to Aunt Hey's house (again ?). From there we went over to the Govenors mansion and the Clear Channel office that is just a block away from the mansion. We then went to the state capitol (we were there late last night, and were tailed by a Iowa State Patrol cause we pulled into the service driveway for too long apperantly, we only took two photos). After that we went to my dad's old neighborhood and found where he used to live and where he used to go to school. From there it was only two blocks to the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Mom found a bead store and went into the store with Dad, while they were inside, I stayed in the car and listened to San Diego traffic and weather on Sirius satalite radio in the rental car, it was cool to hear what was going on back home.

We went to dinner at Applebees around the corner from the hotel. After that we decided to take a look around a Super Target. Then I came back to the hotel, and getting ready to take off to go to Omaha and Council Bluffs.

Day 2 in Des Moines

Well day 2 in Des Moines found the Davis' going South back towards KC...no we didn't decide to forget teh rest of the trip, we were just going 45 minutes to the South. For those of not familiar with the greater central Iowa region, 45 minutes South of Des Moines is Madison County. Within Madison County is the famed covered bridges. There are a total of six bridges, we decided to see five of the six with the only bridge that we didn't see being the Cedar bridge. Check more out about the bridges here.

After we got done with the bridges, which took about 5 hours to complete, as the bridges are not anywhere close to I-35 and are widely spread around the Winterset community. The Imes Bridge whihc is the furthest SE on the "bridge road". From the Imes bridge to the Holliwell Bridge it took about 45 miunutes (mainly gravel roads). The Holliwell bridge was one of the two main bridges used in the movie. We then went to the Cutler-Donahue bridge which is in the city park of Winterset. After that, we went to the birthplace of John Wayne (Pilgrim!) where my Dad took the tour, and he was very happy since he is a huge John Wayne fan. The second to final bridge that we visited took us an hour to the West of Winterset to find the Roseman Bridge which was the other bridge used extensively in the movie. We made our way back to Winterset to have lunch and then finally to the only bridge that you can drive through the Cedar bridge. The reason why it is the only one that you can drive on is because it was torched by an arsonist in 2002, and was rebuilt with the same design as the original, and with the same materials.

We came back to the hotel for a few seconds and then went to Fudruckers for dinner where all three of us had Buffalo Burgers (YUM!!!!!!). We then toured Des Moines and found the Govenor's mansion along with the Capitol building and the first signs of actual damage in the downtown district. I will have more pictures up on myspace with all of the downtown areas and the area that my Dad grew up in East Des Moines.

Til later, c ya

MY BAD

Ooops, sorry, had so much fun in KC last night (not to mention I was trying to adjust to Central time) I forgot to blog.

Monday -- Left San Diego on Midwest Airlines on time (12:30pm). We got into KC right on time as we had wheels down at 3:30 (PDT)/5:30 (CDT). We got our rental car (a White Dodge Charger) and drove the 20 minutes to our Hotel. We got checked in and as we were driving into the hotel we saw that there was not only a Super Wal-Mart across the street from the hotel, but we also saw where we ended up having dinner. The resturant in question......Waffle House. This was the first time that my mom and I had ever even been inside a Waffle House, while it was the first time in more than 20 years. After dinner, we decided to go tour downtown KC. If you check out my myspace page you can checkout the pictures.

Tuesday -- Left the hotel NE of KC around 10:30am and arrived in West Des Moines around 4:30pm. In that timeframe, we drove around and attempted to find the location that the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails met (we couldn't find the marker though). After that run around, we continued North and then took a side trip to Davis City, Iowa....yes a city that has my name in it COOL!!!!! While on the way to Davis City we passed an Amish buggy on the way there. After that we stoped in Osceola to gamble alittle at my sisters hotel company. While at the casino I lost, while my father (JOKING HERE) the bastard won over $150 on the penny slots. We drove by where we will be in the next couple of days, the covered bridges of Madison County & the birthplace of John Wayne. We are in West Des Moines until Friday, so if you have any questions on Iowa, drop me a line. I'll try and figure out the answer.

OK, its time to go

Well, in just about 24 hours I will be in Kansas City, Mo. to begin "the adventure" known as a major trip. The itinarary in case you don't already know has the family leaving San Diego with a non-stop flight to Kansas City. Stay the night (Monday) in KC to get used to the time zone and everything. On Tuesday, we travel to the dry part of Des Moines, IA and stay in the "flood zone" (Des Moines) for a few days. After that we take I-80 West to Council Bluffs/Omaha for the College World Series. We will be in attendance during game one of the best-of-three championship series at the CWS. After our fun at Rosenblatt Stadium, we make the journey down I-29 South to I-70 and finally US-81 to Wichita for the National Square Dance Convention.

It will be an interesting trip, Dad is happy that we will be touring the Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, Kansas. My Dad used to run Greyhounds at Caliente in Tiajuana and other locations here in the US. Talk to you from the road.

The second 50 begins

Well, 50 posts down, a whole lot more to go! So much for my College World Series predictions.

For those that care, the CWS field consists of:
1) Miami
2) North Carolina
4) Florida State
6) Rice
8) Georgia
Stanford
and the winners between UC Irvine/(7) LSU and Fresno State/(3) Arizona State

As far things outside of College baseball, everything is ok, I'm going to officially start gettin ready for the big trip tomorrow with the fun stuff like washing clothes. I will begin packing on Friday for the trip. I have been put on notice that I might have to work the Padres game on Thursday. I hope that I get to as it will be my first Padres game of the year.

Welcome to summer!!!!!!!!

Last week was pretty quiet from me for the simple reason that it was FINALS WEEK. I technically as of this posting still have one more final period remaining, but since I took the final the final week of classes, I don't really need to get into the classroom this evening.

Obviously it has been summer for a week (unofically) on the calendar. The real start is coming up in a couple of weeks here, but I have my first sunburn of the season. After spending most of Saturday at the beach for a birthday party. This was the longest that I had been at a beach for three years. I had a good time and the look on teh birthday boys face was priceless when the surprise guest.

On Sunday, I spent the day at home and either watched on tv or on the Internet coverage of the NCAA baseball championships. I am keeping an even more intent eye on the championships this year since I will be at the World Series championships.

So now it is full speed to the big trip later this month. In case you have been living under a rock, or I just haven't mentioned it to you. I am going with my parol officers to Des Moines, Iowa (where my dad grew up for three years), then over to Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series - Championship game #1. After I watch some great college baseball, the family will be making the 6 hour drive south to Wichita, Kansas with a stop in Abilene, Kansas to checkout for my dad the Greyhound (dogs, not the bus company) Hall of Fame.