For me this is going to be a REAL vacation. Not some vacation where you go to some crowded park or building and get pushed through the sights like cattle going to slaughter. This is freedom. Every day we have a start and a finish point (and a few days we don’t even have a finish point!) and all we have to do is be at that finish point in time to get enough sleep for the next day. What happens between start and finish is completely up to us and chance. It’s unplanned. It’s unknown.

One thing that really bugs me though is the people who tell me I’m crazy. I’ve also been hearing people’s negative comments about the girl who got stranded after trying to sail around the world. A few people even had the balls to say that people who look for adventure are just selfish and instead of spending money buying boats and sailing around the world, we should give that money to the poor and be content with knowing that our adventure comes in the next life. Yeah. Well let me tell you something; That’s just Christian-ese for “I’m a big fat wussy”. If that’s your state of mind, then the next time you get the urge to go to Yosemite, or San Francisco, or Disneyland, just keep your butt home. Because somebody explored, built up and provided access those areas at great expense, and I don’t want you to feel guilty.

Anyway, so we’re all set. The travel map is below. We’ve had to alter the route just a bit to accommodate family visits. It would be a shame to ride all that way and not spend quality time with relatives after all. But the ride is still going to be awesome, and truth be told, we’re probably going to need the extra rest. If anyone has any suggestions of things to see along the way, drop me a comment below.

First up: P90X. Michelle and I finished our first round of P90X last week and have started the program over again. The question everyone wants to know the answer to is: “Does it work”? Well, I would say that depends. Like any other exercise program it depends on how hard you work, and what you eat. These programs love to show people losing 50lbs and getting six pack abs in 90 days, and that’s certainly possible for some. But the reason most of us are fat and tired is because we simply eat wrong and don’t put in the time to exercise. So unless you change habits, this program is no better than any other.

What I do like about this program though is that it’s got great variety and it doesn’t require fancy equipment. For me those are the two things that make it easy for me to stick to it. So for me, it’s working. I’m building muscle and losing fat. My progress has been slower because, well, I just don’t want to make exercising a full time hobby. I miss a day here and there. And I like to have a pizza and beer occasionally. But overall I’m happy with the progress. I feel much stronger, I’ve lost 7 pounds, and I still enjoy doing the program, so for me it’s a total win.

Ok, so since I mentioned beer, let’s switch gears and talk about home brew. I’ve been home brewing for a few months now and I’m happy to announce that my second batch has gone into the bottles. In two weeks I will have a beautiful Dry Irish Stout. Oh man, it smelled so good when I cracked open the fermenter yesterday. I think this is going to me a very nice batch. So on May 7th, the bottles go into the fridge and it’s time to have a tasting party! Put it on your calendars. I’ve also got the ingredients for my next batch already which I plan to cook up early next week. It’s going to be a mild Ale and only takes 4 weeks to make, so I’m hoping to get a nice rotation of beers going on. I’m telling you though, this whole bottling thing sucks. I really gotta get me a kegging system soon.

OK, lastly let’s talk about some music because there’s been a few great albums that have hit the streets recently.

Slash released what I think is his second solo album. The cool thing about this album is that on each song he collaborated with a different singer. The result is an incredibly varied album with musical styles ranging from arena rock to blues to metal to southern rock, you name it.

I’m completely blown away by this album. There’s really not a bad song on it, though the one with Iggy Pop called “We’re All Gonna Die” is probably the dumbest song lyrically, but it’s still catchy. The tracks I think are most impressive are the instrumental with Dave Grohl called “Watch This”, “Beautiful Dangerous” with Fergie (who know she could rock?), and the two songs featuring Myles Kennedy. Kennedy in my mind is the absolute best rock singer on the planet and if you want to see what he’s capable of, check out the band Alter Bridge. He’s also did a track on Sevendust’s last album which was fantastic. Slash is a great album full of great rock and roll. Pick it up.

And speaking of Sevendust (am I not the master of the segue?), my favorite band in the entire world has released their 8th studio album and the first since original guitarist Clint Lowery returned to the band after leaving in 2004.

This album is flat out amazing. While the albums written in Lowery’s absence where killer, I really didn’t realize how much had been lost in his absence. Yeah there were high points, but a lot of those songs sounded just a tad flat in comparison to this latest collection. The new album is ferocious, melodic, emotional and extremely powerful. It just smacks you right in the face with track one and continues pummeling you all the way through track twelve. It’s simply fantastic.

I’d say the stand out tracks are Splinter, which is a metal heads dream. Crazy guitar antics, insane double base runs, and ferocious chunkiness. Great way to start the ride. They immediately follow that with Forever which is my favorite track on the album. It sounds like no other Sevendust song with it’s great dynamics, it’s breakneck soaring chorus line and crunchy breakdowns. It saw them do this one live and it was amazing. The rest of the album continues with exactly what you’d expect from a Sevendust album and that’s a good thing. Sevendust is one of those bands that know what they do best and don’t vary too much from the formula. It’s good melodic heavy metal. The way it should be.

Alright so that’s my catch up post! Today is Saturday and it’s going to be a beautiful sunny California day so I’m gonna do my P90X this morning and then get on the bike and go visit an old buddy of mine back in my high school stomping grounds, Manteca. This guy was the bass player of my very first band. I haven’t seen him in 20 years. This should be good times.

We hit the road at 9:00am on a nice Saturday morning. We cruised up 99 and cut across 152 heading for Los Banos. We made our usual stop at Starbucks just inside the Los Banos city limits and grabbed some coffee. It was then I realized Michelle wasn’t herself. She had been feeling under the weather and had recently started taking some antibiotics for a lingering infection and I think it was just catching up with her. The weather was quickly going south and we knew we’d be facing cold, rainy weather soon so I made the decision to run her back home while the rest of the group continued on to the coast. So I ran back to Fresno, dropped Michelle off, then hauled butt to catch up to the group. I stopped only to fuel at Casa De Fruita and finally caught up with everyone in Santa Cruz a few hours later.

The group had already been there for several hours so I took a quick break and got back on the bike to lead us into the hills. We had planned to ride Skyline Blvd., which is a favorite road of bikers and car enthusiasts with it’s long sweeper turns and beautiful vistas. What I didn’t realize was that the GPS had plotted a route to Skyline Blvd. using a very small, one lane road aptly named Black Rd.

We got onto Black Rd. and quickly found that it was extremely cold, extremely wet, and extremely twisty with harsh swtichbacks and severe elevation changes. Nowhere near the ideal for big cruisers like ours. The going was extremely tedious with several of us nearly dumping our bikes on the slick wet pavement but we continued to climb until we finally reached what we thought was surely going to kill our trip; A downed tree across the road.

A giant sequoia, nearly 15ft thick, had fallen across the entire road. And not only that, there was a kitten trapped underneath it wailing for help as it faced a certain slow death. Quickly assessing the situation we determined that our options were limited. Matt could either carve a hole through the fallen beast of a tree with his pocket knife allowing us to drive directly through it, but this would still sacrifice the flailing kitten. That was unacceptable. Instead, Wayne rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath, summoned the strength of the gods, and single handedly lifted the giant tree, while simultaneously grabbing the kitten with his spare hand. He then tossed the giant tree aside, opening the road for the thankful travellers who would have certainly starved waiting for the authorities to come clear the mess. The day was saved and the ride continued!!!!!

Ok, that’s the story we all agreed upon on, but I have to confess that’s not really what happened. There was in fact a tree fallen across the road, but it wasn’t a giant sequoia, it was a regular tree about 10 inches thick, and with about 6 of us there, we easily pulled it off the road. Oh, and there wasn’t a kitten trapped either, but I’m sure there was a squirrel or something close by that would have surely been emotionally distraught had we not moved that tree.

Anyway, with the road cleared we continued on to Skyline Blvd., and on to the famous Alice’s restaurant for a rest and a beer. After the break, we continued on to Half Moon Bay. We checked into a cool little hotel called the Harbor View Inn and had a our ritual beer and cigar before heading to dinner and stuffing ourselves, and I mean literally stuffing ourselves, on fish and chips.

The next day I woke up early and looked at the weather. High wind warnings and heavy rains were in the forecast, predicted to hit hardest at around 11am. We had planned to leave at 10am which would have surely put us in the middle of the storm as we headed south down the coast. Instead we quickly packed the bikes and hit the road early and thank God we got all the way home without hitting any serious weather. It was cold and damp in places, but nothing crazy. We literally rode between storms all the way home!

So despite the cold weather, the rough roads and crazy circumstances, we had a great weekend. This is what motorcycling is all about. Dealing with things as they come, making the best of situations, and hanging with great friends. This will certainly be a ride to remember.

We drove down Thursday morning and checked into the Silverton Casino. Every time we go to Vegas we like to stay someplace different, and in Vegas you can do that so easily. We go three or four times a year and have almost never stayed in the same place twice. The Silverton is a smaller casino/hotel just off the southern end of the strip. What this means is that it’s about half the price of a strip casino yet only 3 miles from the action. So if you have a car, it’s a great deal. Of course it’s more relaxed and not as trendy as most strip casinos but then again Michelle and I are more into shooting pool than we are “clubbing” so it works for us. Anyway, we checked in and then headed down to Fremont street for a beer and Ruben at Hennesey’s, then strolled over to the Cuban Cigar Factory for some killer smokes. I highly recommend this cigar shop. The owner is a super cool guy, the prices are awesome and the smokes are second to none.

On Friday we decided to check out the new Las Vegas City Center which is the latest mega-resort complex right in the center of The Strip across the street from the Harley Davidson Cafe. I gotta say, I was less than impressed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super high class. Everything is first rate. But it’s just boring. The shopping area is really cool and could easily be a movie set for some futuristic sci-fi flick, but the stores are all so ridiculously high-end, you really can’t even window shop without a credit check. We also checked out the Aria hotel/casino and while it was very, very nice, I just felt like I didn’t belong there with my middle class salary. It did have one high point and that was an English style pub we found. The staff was cool there and they had great english style food and a truckload of imported beers on tap. They also had a gimmick going where they would turn an hourglass over and if you could drink a beer before the sands ran out, they’d buy the next round. I timed the hourglass at 7 seconds and promptly passed on the challenge. LOL!

After we got stuffed on fish and chips and english beer we found a bowling alley and bowled a few games. michelle of course kicked my butt with a 191 on the first game and something like a 170 on the second. I turned down a third game and decided we needed to go!

We then headed to the Sevendust show at the House of Blues. I can’t say enough about this band and I’m listening to them as I write this post. They’ve been doing this so long that they could play a show in their sleep. However, they were as energetic and obviously having as much fun as the very first time I saw them over 10 years ago. These guys are just fantastic and the House of Blues is probably my favorite venue in the world. It was an absolutely outstanding show. I really don’t know what else to say about them.

So even though it was a quick three days in Vegas, especially with two of those days spent mostly driving, Michelle and I just had a fantastic time. Though I’m not one to post mushy messages on my blog or Facebook about how my wife “completes me” or is my “soul mate”, I have to say that we have a lot of fun together. I’m so blessed that after 21 years, we can just hang out and have a few beers together, walk around holding hands, and laugh our asses off while just doing the simplest of things. It was truly an outstanding time all the way around.

If there’s one thing I really like about Fresno it’s the fact that we can easily spend a weekend or even just a day in Sacramento, San Francisco or Los Angeles. They are all close enough to enjoy without having to actually live there. San Francisco is even easier because the transit system is so good. We left at 6:30am, drove to Pleasanton, hopped on BART and by 9:30am we were in the city. Not bad at all.

We started our exploration in the Haight-Ashbury section of the city. I’d never been there before and Deanna wanted to do some thrift store shopping so we headed in. Made famous back in the 60′s for being the place to be for pot smoking hippies, it’s still an eclectic neighborhood, but not as weird as you’d expect. There’s a lot of cool cafe’s, used clothing stores, record stores, tattoo shops and stuff like that. Everyone we came in contact with was super cool, and we enjoyed shopping and then a sandwich at a the Peace Cafe.

After that we decided to head to China Town. There was some huge flower festival going on and the whole area was packed full of people. Chinatown is a trip because it’s such a radical change in culture from just a few blocks over. The city literally changes in a heartbeat and suddenly there’s chinese architecture everywhere, all signage is in chinese, and there are almost no people groups other than chinese. It’s really wild, but very cool.

We strolled around for a while and then decided to head over to Fisherman’s Wharf so we walked over to Little Italy, and hopped back on the bus. Fisherman’s Wharf is what it is. It’s far more commercial and less interesting than other parts of the city, but it’s fun none the less. We had lunch at the Hard Rock and then jumped on the train back to Market Street and to our BART station.

We had a great day out together. I really love San Francisco. It’s just such a diverse town and there’s always so much going on and so much to see. It’s easy to think of it as some crazy place if you’ve never been there, but honestly, my experiences in The City have always been positive. I’ve never been attacked by gay sex addicts, or stabbed by a crazed homeless person. It’s actually a very civil city and much more comfortable than most places I’ve been to in the L.A. basin. Honestly, I’d say the rudest people in San Fran are probably the tourists in the high traffic areas. There is definitely a very liberal vibe to the place, but all in all, the city is a live and let live type of place.

One thing I really love about San Francisco is how easy it is to get around. I always take BART to get to the city, but today was the first time I ever spent time getting around on the buses and trolleys. $2 takes you anywhere you want to go in the city. That’s a steal considering that in places like Chicago you take cabs everywhere and they usually hit you for $10 a ride. I also can not get over how many interesting restaurants there are. I swear could have eaten 8 meals today if I had the room in my belly. The only downside really is that the place starts closing in on me after a while. San Fran is just so packed. There’s no open land anywhere with the exception of Golden Gate Park, but even that is fairly small considering the wide open spaces we’re used to here in the valley. So while I really enjoy visiting, I could never live there without getting claustrophobic.

So it was a great time hanging in The City with my girls. We’re already planning our next trip.

P90X consists of 13 DVD’s. Each DVD is one workout and they run from 60 to 90 minutes each. The whole set is broken up into phases, and each phase is broken up into weeks where the exercises change every so often. These workouts include strength training, but also some great cardio workouts and even some yoga. This does several things; It keeps the body guessing utilizing a concept called muscle confusion. The theory goes that if you do anything over and over again, the body will adapt, so by mixing it up, you keep the body working harder. I think this also gives you a more well rounded physique and keeps you from getting strong arms and skinny legs. Lastly, it makes the program more interesting.

The workouts themselves are dynamite. I had been going to the gym three times a week for the past few years and really had not seen any improvement. I wasn’t really getting fatter, but not really getting any more fit. I think when you are a slave to workout machines, you kind of get used to doing certain things and so you go on cruise control after a while. The P90X workout really made me realize how little effort I’d been putting in. These workouts are strenuous! But the good thing is that you can tailor them to meet your fitness level, and they give you something to shoot for. The day that I can follow the DVD to the letter without an extra break or a altered movement is the day I’ll know I’ve accomplished my goals.

One of the great things about this workout too is that you don’t need a lot of gear. I bought a chin up bar and some weight bands from a local sporting goods store and that’s all I’ve needed. Most of the exercises use your own weight against you and honestly I think that gives you a better perspective on your fitness level. It’s easy to put a certain weight on a machine and feel good about pushing it around, but try and do a pull up or 20 push ups, and suddenly you realize how out of shape you are. If there’s one thing we should all be able to do is carry our own weight right? So I think the industry has made a lot of money off of gym memberships and whatnot, but Jack Lalaine was right. All we really need is a chair, a few hand weights and some motivation.

That motivation comes from a guy named Tony Horton. Horton is annoying as heck at first and comes off as some genetically perfect psychopath bent on turning you into a pile of mush. However, after doing two weeks of P90X I’m actually starting to admire the guy. He was in his mid 40′s at the time of the making of P90X and he’s in dynamite shape. I also get the feeling that he’s a genuinely nice guy. He motivates without sounding like a drill sergeant and constantly reminds you to go ahead and take a break if you need it. “Do your best and forget the rest” is repeated constantly during the workouts which gives me the urge to push, but doesn’t make me feel like a total loser in these early weeks.

So I give the P90X workout 5 stars. It’s a great workout and you can do it in your own home without buying a bunch of gear. It’s still too early in my plan to say what the results are going to be, but I do feel much stronger already. I’m able to get further into the ab workout without taking a break, and I’ve noticed my coordination and balance have improved a lot in the Yoga and Kenpo workouts in just these two weeks. I expect to start seeing noticeable fat loss and muscle growth in the coming 2 to 4 weeks. I’ll be sure to post here as the program continues.

Check out the P90X workout at the following website. The workout alone is around $100 which compared to a gym membership is pretty affordable. They also sell packages if you need a chin up bar, etc., but I found that you can get the equipment for much cheaper by shopping around.

http://www.Beachbody.com/P90X

See the thing is, I have this bicycle ride planned. Just a little one. Oh, a hundred miles or so. And several miles of that is some wicked hill climbing. Standing over 6 feet and weighing in at around 210 pounds, means I’m just too freaking large to push myself up those hills. I gotta lose weight. About 15 pounds I figure at least. That combined with weight training and a ton of cardio should give me what I need to do this ride without my heart and lungs exploding.

Now that the holidays are over I’ve been lifting and watching my diet and stuff, but I’m approaching 42 years old and let’s face it, the body just does not burn fat like it used to. So I need some extra oomph. So I’m taking on P90X in addition to my cycling. I’ve got 6 months to get in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

I’m determined to succeed!

I went to Vegas last week for the big Microsoft SharePoint conference. For those who don’t know what SharePoint is, it’s a collaboration and content management system. If that still doesn’t make sense, at it’s most basic, it’s a system for building websites. It goes way beyond that, but I like to keep most of the techie stuff off of this blog.

Anyway, one of the amazing things about these conferences (to me anyway) is the logistics. Microsoft knows how to put on a conference. This event was sold out at 7000 attendees. That’s 7000 geeks all in one place to discuss software. This is a big deal. People come from all over the world to attend this conference and I met one guy who came all the way from Jordan!

The keynote address on the first day is setup to accomodate all 7000 attendees. The head of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, was the speaker and it’s amazing to see that many people crammed into one room. The place was massive, with 6 giant 20ft projector screens showing the action. Microsoft took over every inch of meeting space in the Mandalay Bay Casino to put this thing on.

In addition, they fed us all…. yes all of us, twice a day, and they had to do it in an hour. Imagine the organization that needs to take place to get 7000 people in, fed, and out in less than an hour. The Mandalay people really know what they are doing.

And of course with all the technical presentations and what-not going on, geeks need some fun time to offset the seriousness of everything, so Microsoft rented the entire Mandalay Beach, hired Huey Lewis to play (yeah not my first choice either), had an open bar (can you imaging what that bar tab looked like?) and finished it off with a firework show. Microsoft knows how to do a conference.

Anyway, it was a great experience and I picked up a boatload of great information. Looking forward to next year.

So I’m back in town now and settling back in. Coming home after a week in Vegas takes some adjustment. It’s been a good few days back though. I got to jam with an old friend of mine, Alan Yerxa, at his new church on Sunday and that was pretty awesome. Jamming with Alan is a lot different than jamming at my church. The main difference is that it’s a lot smaller, and a lot looser. Both churches are come-as-you-are churches, but Clovis Hills has a much higher production standard, and so there’s a lot more rehearsal and a lot more polish that goes on. Alan’s church on the other hand is small, and intimate, and Alan is a free wheeling kind of guy who’s been playing guitar forever, so it’s more of a come in, run through the songs once, and you’re expected to rock type of situation. Neither approach is better than the other, it’s just different, and so it was nice as a drummer to have a bit of a change in style and presentation.

And speaking of change in style and presentation, tonight I’m hitting a concert and it’s no ordinary concert. This show is going to be the epitome of theatrics and heavy metal music. I’m going to see Slipknot. And what’s better than seeing the insane show that is Slipknot? Taking a pastor to see Slipknot. That’s right, Paul, our worship pastor is going with me. Now honestly, I was taken aback when I put the invite out on Twitter and Paul replied with an affirmative. Paul is a young and hip guy, but I don’t think he owns a single Slipknot album, or any heavy metal album to be honest. Nor do I think he really understood what a Slipknot show looks like, so this should be an eye opening experience. Of course I may be wrong. Maybe he’s been a closet Slipknot fan his whole life and is going to show up dressed in black overalls and a halloween mask? We’ll see.

Now I know it sounds weird for a worship drummer and a pastor to be going to a Slipknot show to begin with. Slipknot is about as anti-establishment, anti-religion as it gets. But honestly, I learned when I was but a wee lad that if I wanted to enjoy heavy music (which I do immensely) I was going to have to tune out most of the lyrics. So for me, this show is about hearing some fantastic musicianship, and seeing some crazy theatrics. To me heavy metal is theater, and Slipknot is one heck of a show. It should be fun.

-Update-….. Well Paul just texted me and said he’s not coming. Said his wife is sick. Not sure I’m buying that, but I guess we’ll never know. Hope you get better soon Jenn!

This weekend Michelle and I hopped on the motorcycle with two other couples and headed into the high Sierras. We started the tour heading up 99 and then cutting across to the Sierras on Hwy 59. We stopped in Jamestown, which is a great little gold town, for breakfast. Once full, we crossed over to Hwy 4 to begin the journey over the mighty Sierras.

The first stop was the Calaveras Big Trees. It’s a large grove of some of the most humongous redwoods on the planet. Living in Fresno, I’ve seen my share of big trees in Yosemite and Sequioa NP, but these were flat out awesome. I could have walked around there for hours, but I was with a group who wasn’t big on walking, so we saw what we could from the trail and headed back to the bikes. Even the short walk we did was immensely satisfying and I’ve made a mental note to go back. Next time with my hiking boots.

We continued on up the mountain and I noticed something interesting and it never fails to surprise me. In just about any mountain range you travel, once you get past the first big tourist area, the mountains empty out. The traffic thins to nothing. I always wonder why this is.

We rode on and up through the cooling mountains as the road changed from a two lane highway to a one lane mountain pass, twisting it’s way through the trees and following the contours of the hills. After a bit,we rounded a corner and out popped the gorgeous Mosquito Lake (pictured above). We stopped and got off the bikes to stretch and take some pictures of what I think is one of the most picturesque and beautiful lakes I’ve seen. The air was calm and quiet, the sky was a brilliant blue and laced with pure white puffs of clouds, and the water was as smooth as glass. This is why I ride.

Continuing on we came across many, many similarly beautiful sights. The sheer scale of what you take in with your eyes boggles the mind. At one point as we were descending the east side of the mountains heading down to Hwy 395 we stopped at a vista overlooking the valley below. I’m telling you, my mind could not register what my eyes were seeing, and a photograph cheapens the experience. As I stood there just floored by the scale and beauty of everything, it struck me that even though man has created some pretty impressive things, there’s nothing we’ve done that compares to God’s work. We’re freaking amateurs. We have nothing to be proud of.

We finished the days ride at the Virginia Creek Settlement which is a cool little campground we’ve stayed at before. We rented a few tent cabins and had some amazing pizza before chilling out at our camp with a twelve pack of Tecate, some snacks, and good conversation. We met one gentlemen named Thomas who was from Denmark. The guy and his girlfriend were hiking from Mexico to Canada! They had started in May and expected to finish by October. It’s amazing to meet such interesting people.

Sunday we got up, packed the bikes, had breakfast and then hit the road. This time we would head south to Tioga Pass and come home through the always amazing Yosemite National Park. I honestly never get tired of seeing Yosemite and even though it was a bit crowded, I enjoyed the ride.

The only downside of the trip came during the last hour of riding. Turns out we came back to the valley on the hottest day Fresno had seen in over 100 years. Nothing like being wrapped in black leather, sitting on top of a running motor, and moving along a black tarred surface when it’s 112° outside. Still, motorcycling is like that. To get the rewards you have to deal with the inconveniences. It was worth it.

So it was an amazing weekend. I mean, look at that picture at the top of this post. That’s not a stock photo from some far off place, or a photo taken by a hardened professional photographer trekking through the wilderness. That’s a picture I took myself after pulling off to the side of the road. That’s HOW IT REALLY LOOKS. And it’s right in our backyard. Get out there!

[Click here for trip photos]