The Winter Warmth Tour is in my opinion the best stretch of the year, your fresh and excited for the season and the weather is summer like! I'm talking about the South West; Pasadena, Monterey, Vegas, Phoenix, Long Beach (and in years past Arcata, CA Bigfoot and Orangevale St Pats) I hit the road on Feb. 11th and will fly back on March 17th. Can't wait to get back home! I can't imagine trying to pull off 8 months straight like 2006. It's a MOUNTAIN of a journey!!

Well I started off jumping in with Pete Johnson who was staying over on his way through on a 5 week tour of his own. We dropped into Kansas City to visit Fred Smith #20578 at his FireStation -we dropped putts from the trucks, through doorways, and ate dinner with the firemen! Way cool!

From there we pretty much Ro Sham Bo'd for everything else, which took us to Leadville and Telluride Colorado (probably not the fastest way to LA), but worth the extra time, we ate at the famous "Baked in Telluride" and hit the shadiest bar the resort had to offer before ducking out of town ahead of 10 inches of snow! The VW Touareg was swift in our journey zagging around fallen rocks, correcting Pete's occassional drift into the shoulder, yes this was an engineering marvel as tour vehicles go. I found this out after jumping in with Jeff Layland #17682 from Colorado Springs. He's on a year long tour of his own, bumping around in an old VW Bus. While making our way across California we ran into a major collision that had shut down the interstate, well we pulled a move and managed to find a World Famous Mexican Rest. Domingo's! After a margerita as big as my head, we landed a local tip that the truckers didn't even know, the girl waitress assured us "she'd grown up here her whole life" and that we would find 5 unmarked desert roads that would get us around traffic. So against the advise of other patrons we took to the desert, and she was right, there was a baja style donkey trail that made the Bus lurch like a camel, but man were we moving. We drove for 7 miles, hitting moguls, tumble weed, and almost a herd of sheep, which we sheperded out the way! In all my years of detouring, this one was epic, until we hit the next highway which was also packed with semis. After 10minutes of sitting we decided there was no other option, so we dove back into the desert and after a couple launch ramps and a quick turn, we popped out at a Pilot Gas Station and jumped on the highway to Vegas with thousands of cars lined up behind us!!

The footage will be fun to edit!!

We made it into Vegas that night, meeting up with Jeff Hoepner (ex-touring player). Hoep used to travel with Iqbal Jehan, and knows how to take care of the road monkeys as well as anyone. We had a blast in Vegas...

(everything else stayed there) 

...after another solid Gentlemen's Club Challenge, we were off and running to get the VW which had it's Carb rebuilt. Zak Martin #21909 of Colorado followed us down to make sure the engine didn't blow-up, which it almost did. Jeff had to tow the Bus to a VW dealer who fixed the damaged caused by the VW mechanic in Vegas (what a mess) We were forced to jump in with Zak and finished our journey into Phoenix from Kingman (no bus).  Zak and Jeff hooked up with Mike Durco #13559 and I met up with my Kathy my sweetheart...

...it's always nice to have a grounding force like a significant other! After a week in Vegas...well you know it's Vegas!

Kathy and I spent the week with my Great Aunt who is quite the firecracker, very active, fun, and feisty!

 The Memorial well, it's an amazing tournament, there are just too many great things you can say, but do yourself a favor and play this event sometime or just spectate! It's worth the trip!!

HUK NOTE: While hiking Camel Back Mtn. in Scottsdale, a fellow hiker surprised us with a comment about throwing a hyzer off the mountain.  He went on to say he read my blog on huk lab (specifically my trip home from Oregon through the mountains).  We had exchanged emails a year before - he was down from WI visiting family and stopped to spectate at the Memorial!  Pretty cool!! 

After the Memorial, Kathy flew back home and I took the rental car back to LA. My father and stepbrother love traditional golf, so we hit the links in Hidden Valley overlooking Rancho Cucamonga in the foothills! Awesome course.

Jeff Layland and I are back traveling together here in LA, last night we hit the surf in Long Beach, and today we drove out to Innova West to introduce Jeff to the Warehouse (sort of like the chocolate factory). El Dorado starts tomorrow, so today is Rest and Relaxation day!!

See ya out there!!!