Ok, I’m back. I know, I know. I haven’t blogged in a long time. It’s true. To be honest after losing Laura’s mom, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about it. I put it off and the days stretched into weeks and now a few months have passed. I’m not going to write about it now. I posted a podcast in her memory a little while ago if you’re interested. This new blog is being started at the beginning of a road trip. It started 2 days ago when I left CO driving to CA. I drove for 10 hours, got tired, slept in the expedition for a few hours, woke up, drove to my friend Dave’s house in Rialto. Dave is a long time friend from my high school days. I had an extra ticket and Dave had some time off coming so he agreed to come on this mini road trip. I took a little nap at Dave’s while he finished up some last minute work. We drove down to San Clemente, where I used to live, and met up with my friend Greg and his wife Sue and picked up some books for this trip. I met Greg through Christian Surfers International . He’s a good guy. Actually, Sue is the first person I saw (that I knew) the day after Laura and I got married. I was going to Starbucks to get Laura a coffee and Sue was in line in front of me. Anyway, we left Greg’s place and had an amazing lunch at Pedro’s Fish Tacos. It’s one of the things I really miss about leaving CA. After that we went to the Newport Beach “Vans”
store to pick up a new pair of kicks. Vans, after all these years, is still producing my favorite shoes. Love them. We were on our way to Hawleywood’s Barbershop when I remembered that I had accidentally locked my trailer hitch shut on my truck and I had lost the keys. I saw a locksmith shop and we headed in. We met up with a super cool kid working behind the counter. He is a craftsman. My hitch is in an awkward position so he couldn’t really pick the lock or drill it out so he used a rat tail file and made a key for it. It was cool to watch. It took him four tries, but we were both super impressed. After that it was off to Hawleywood’s Barbershop. I’ve been coming here for years for haircuts and old school straight razor shaves. You really have to trust a guy to let him take a straight razor to you. Eli is my man there. He always cleans me up nice. Donnie Hawley has been the owner operator for a long time. His dad was an old school motorcycle racer back in the day. Donnie has the greatest collection of memorabilia on those walls. His slogan for the shop is “Where a Man can still be a Man.” It’s true and it sticks. Every time I’m back in CA I call up Eli for an appointment. Women need not call, you’re not allowed. Sorry J Dave and I went to Jalapeno’s for diner and then stopped by Sid’s and said “Hi” to my friend Rob. I would’ve said “Hi” to Little John, but he ditched out early. Punk! Christopher let us couch crash and it was a lifesaver. His little boy, Seven, just learned to do front flips on the couch and it was fun to watch.