Finally, this is it.
The last page of my blog… It’s my third day in Grand Junction. It’s cold. But when I open the door to the patio, I am glad I chose to be here.
Thanks, CF Flipside and CF Junction for having me. It sucks my phone died after WOD at CF Junction, But great meeting you Kevin and Jamie!
Thanks everyone!!!
Happy New Year!
Las Vegas, I don’t know. I really wanted to get out of that city despite the cheapest hostel. Huge different feeling day and night. I have stopped at so many cities and many of the hostels I stayed were located at pretty beat up places. But no one touched my bike…until Las Vegas. The hostel is located in downtown and parking lot has a lot of traffic. I found my bike was gone this morning. Wa… Dropping in another CF box in Las Vegas and headed out to my new hometown, Grand Junction.
Crossfit Culmination, very interesting location. It was actually pretty hard for me to find it, however it was inside of indoor soccer building little bit north side of Las Vegas. The neighborhood looks quite wealthy and clean comparing to downtown. Definitely great location and I believe there are so many leads from soccer parents. Ramon the owner? probably looks quite young entrepreneur just merged another box, around there. Pretty box. Coach Turrel ran the 9am class and had a great time with everyone as always.
Driving 15 north through AZ, UT to CO was delightful inspire of 11 hours of driving today. The best part of it was the Hawaiian restaurant in St. George, UT. I dropped by St. George for lunch and looking through the rank on TripAdvisor. This Hawaiian restaurant was ranked at the first place, but I wanted to do something else interest me on the list, but could not find it and decided to check out this restaurant. The sisters there Roberta and Anna were very pleasant people and I shared my travel story w
ith them. Surprisingly they did not know their restaurant was ranked #1 on the web site. The food was great. It reminded me how the business is supposed to be. People will review and put you on the first rank if you do something right and keep it right all the time. Just like Greg Grossman said that if we keep trying our best to make athletes better consistently, the money will come. Make the best program and the best community. That’s right. Let’s go CF Juke Joint!
I left after 9am CF right away and arrived Grand Junction about 9:30pm. Another long drive. But I feel great already. I can see it.
When I got to Hostel Cats in Las Vegas, it was around 10pm. Do you want to be rich? Open a Starbucks or a Gas station on I-15 between Bakersfield and Las Vegas. Never seen that crazy line at Starbucks and girl’s bathroom line at Gas Station. And that Gas Station charging $4.28/gal for the gas. Thought it’s Nevada gas price. I think there is only one of those each on I-95 between Bakersfield and Vegas.
I was looking for a blues joint as I always did for the other cities. Found an interesting place, The Sand Dollar Lounge on the first night, I was not fortunate. No show. But decided to stay one more day to figure out the game plan from now to New year’s day. I have to look for a roommate sublet in Grand Junction first. I was thinking if it is better to staying at cheaper hostel in Las Vegas, or if is better to staying at GJ hostel, about $20 costs more per a night, and look for the room. Either way, I decided to stay just one more night to see what this city can offer to me.
Dropped by Crossfit Max Effort, did not know it was a popular box until I checked at Google map. The class was huge for 10 am, around 30-40? And 30% or more were drop-ins. Coaches split the group into 2 classes (Beg-Fitness, Experienced-Performance) Each class ran different WOD. Met Coach Coup, very friendly, great class management, awesome 7-45-48, I thought these coaches been trained for greetings, scripts, and 7-45-48. I could find each different level from each, but definitely well trained CF box it was.
After work out and T-shirt, I headed to The valley of fire state park. Took some pictures.
It was a great Christmas eve with great people.
Max, Dina, Roy, Nicole, Kristoffer, Vidar, and Mauro, Thank you guys. You guys made my Christmas this year. Thank you.
Merry Christmas
Finally I got the confirmation from Crossfit HQ on the name of my Crossfit box.
Crossfit Juke Joint
This is my CF box. The place where crossfiters, weightlifters and blues artists become family. The place where they have fun. The place where they can jam. This is our Crossfit Juke Joint.
Let me tell you why it must be CF Juke Joint. All this trip, all along, I was lead by CF Juke Joint.
Up to here is the back ground. Now listen to this.
The only reason I chose to stay at San Francisco was because there is no hostel or a cheap motel around San Ramon. I had to visit California Strength. And Fisherman’s Walf hostel was the farthest from the downtown. That was the only reason I chose that hostel so I don’t have to get stuck in traffic much when I was going to California Strength in San Ramon. I wanted to spend Christmas at Yosemite because it sounds pretty cool to spend my Christmas. And it is on the way to Gand Junction. Driving through those traffic on the way I was thinking It is a very right decision not living in CA. After checked in at Yosemite Bug hostel, I happened to talk to my roommates, Roy from LA and Dina from San Francisco. We were talking about what to do here, and making jokes about me being pussy at climbing. I don’t want to climb and die, period. Anyway, we happened to start talking about my trip and Blues. I told them about Clarksdale and how I fell in love with blues music. Starting from Zee, Riverside hotel, Delta museum, Red’s, Robert Bilbo Walker, and on and on and on. I told them about CF Juke Joint and what it is going to be like.
When Dina heard my blues love story, she told me about a hostel in Fisherman’s Walf. She said that the hostel is related to music. Specially blues. She told me about SF has a it’s own style of blues that has jazzy feeling in it. When SF had Blues Festivals, artists were staying at the Fisherman’s Walf hostel. When they were staying, they practiced at the middle lounge with fake stove. I was sitting down there last night and wrote the blog. It was, no it is a Juke Joint in SF for Blues lovers there Fisherman’s Walf Hostel. I was staying there last night without knowing it, and received the confirmation email from Sarah at CF HQ saying that CF Juke Joint or Barrelhouse CF is ok to use.
Do you feel what I feel? If I did not come here, if I did not meet Dina, if it was not snowing in Santa Fe…blah blah blah 🙂
It was meant to be.
Santa Barbara is a beautiful town. People seem nice too. How do I know? A car stopped for me when I was waiting for crossing the road.
Dropped in at Crossfit Santa Barbara. It looked like about 3000 sqf with full of weight training machines. Crossfit classes are getting done at the outside in fenced parking lot. When I came in for 8:30am class, I could see 1 member at the earlier class and 3-4 more people with 2-3 personal trainers. It has every thing from Crossfit, Powerlifting, PTs, martial arts when I see the equipments. It looked cool but for me, it was not much profitable nor efficient. Its need more trainers, and you can do only 1 client at a time. On the other hand, CF can have a group classes with less trainers. It reminded me Cheesecake factory menu. Well, as long as I have barbell, plates, WOD and a good music, it is always awesome start of a day. I met Coach Tyler and Jon from Hungary in 8:30 session with 600+ reps. Oh Holidays!
Dropped by KUT Santa Barbara right after CF Santa Barbara, it was right around the corner! Master David welcomed me despite his busy schedule and shared some wisdom. I was very appreciate for his reminder of me being martial artist. Of course the KUT class was going on with a good size of a class.
Just like I am bringing cold weather and rain everywhere I go for this trip, it was but rainy on the way to Santa Maria after. But the rainbow in the sky through rainy clouds looks pretty nice.
I wanted to get some good BBQ in Santa Maria since it is popular for that just like the nickname, “BBQ capital of California.” I googled the best BBQ place there. I found one place but I was waiting at the door for somebody get me to the table or greeting at least, none of them made an eye contact with me. Of course I left after waiting like 6-7 minutes. Ironically I found a BBQ Land owned by Koreans. They even had kimchi!
Checked in at San Francisco hostel and planning to drop in at California Strength tomorrow. But I am not sure they have class for me tomorrow. It is Christmas season. Either way I will drop by and then I am planning to spend my Christmas at Yosemite Hostel.
Left the hostel around 8am to do 9am class at Crossfit Fortius in the morning. I could not find the sign for the box at the address. I picked this box based on Google reviews, and I knew it was an active box. I had to ask to the people near that address to find it. It has a blue door, no sign, 2 porter parties in front. Very interesting. When Coach Willi opened the door, it was pretty huge inside. 13,000 sqf. We had pretty good amount of members for 9am class. No sign, good size class, isn;t it interesting? After I heard that they just moved into this address from 5000sqf 6 weeks ago, everything made sense. Great weightlifting platforms setup on the one corner was telling me that it has a good Oly program there. For the holiday season we did 12 days of Christmas with time cap 40mins. I mean 40 mins… Great one!
I could not leave San Diego just yet. I thought I had to do at least one more sightseeing. Sea World was not too far from CF Fortius. Sea World was so much more expensive than I thought. I never paid that much for 2 hot dogs before. After watching dolphins, whales, penguins, and so many people there, I left to Santa Barbara. It is about 220miles away from San Diego, but it took me more than 5 hours. Driving through LA was not a great route. Thought about my ultimate location. Somehow I felt like I wanted to drive to Grand Junction, CO. Even though it has a pretty cold winter, the elevation and the trails around attracted me so much. Driving through CA was not cool as CO or NM, $2.80-3.20 per gallon of gas, huge gap between rich and poor, scarcity of water, CA is not only saturated with CF boxes but also with people already. On the other hand, CO has abundant of resources around rocky mountain, $1.60-1.80 per gallon of gas, great atmosphere for training, beautiful scenery wherever I go, cheaper cost of living. I could not stop thinking about it. I am checking my route to Grand Junction now.
Tomorrow, I am planning to do a drop in at CF Santa Barbara, and drop by Master David’s TKD school. Think I should go to San Ramon for California Strength. Guess Grand Junction after that.
Damn, I am a pretty darn good photographer!
As soon as getting into San Diego, I went to a Korean restaurant expecting a Korean style lunch. However Taekeukgi restaurant was a huge Americanized restaurant. None of the servers spoke Korean to me. All the servers were very well scripted and look trained, did not feel any sincerity from their 7-45-48. I was looking for some authenticity after long driving not robots.
Arrived to HI San Diego, Point Loma hostel around 5pm, and met some new friends. I like staying at hostels, it is cheap and very easy to meet many friends from around the world. Per the popularity of this city, I could find a Korean friend, Oh here. Did not have a chance to hang out with him because he wants to check many tourist sites as he can while he is staying. But it is always great to see another Korean around. 🙂
Went to Patrick’s Gaslamp Pub for a blues in downtown, they had a cover band playing that night, and the saxophone was amazing.
Next morning, I went to La Jolla Cove. It was a beautiful beach but little chilly today. Walked along the beach shore and listening to the wave and thought that it has been a long time to listen to the wave. The wave was pretty big and thought it would be great if I could surf. La Jolla beach area was looking luxurious with all the cool beach houses, great cars parked in front of expensive restaurants and stores. I walked away thinking that definitely it is not my place to live. 🙂
It is Santa Barbara tomorrow, from there I will check Oxnard and Santa Maria.
Laurie from Wildcat introduced me another box in Tucson. Gym 244 was located just outside of Tucson downtown. Met Leslie, the owner and Regional Crossfitter. She welcomed me very well and I was very grateful. 9am class was busy and reminding me Hammerdown. Most of the close distance but outside of downtown gyms are having pretty good size classes after kids dropping off at the schools. And I could see coaches with great 7-45-48. Liked Coach Andrew’s tonality, confidence and connection with members. Facility looks beautiful with red bricks and wood frames inside. Graffiti on the walls look real cool. Beautiful box. I could see Leslie is a very energetic/strong leader. The young weightlifters I met humbled me so much. Jackie’s snatch widened my small eyes. I was very thankful to be able to Laurie to introduce me this box. I was thinking about staying at San Ramon for 3-6 months if I can. I really want to be good at weightlifting. We will see.
Quick idea on my class plan, part a. techniques – LLI (Let’s Learn It). part b.-wod – LDI(Let’s Do it)
Got the group picture with the biggest group of friends and tightened the saddle on my Prius, gassed to Brawley, CA.
Brawley is one of the towns on my list with 23000 population and no CF boxes yet. Farming city. I did not know about how it was like. Sam at Desert Inn said that there is no job here, everyone’s working for Farms for 5-6 months and they are all unemployed for the rest of the year. He said the water gets expensive and taxes are very high, 44%. He recommended me Sun city or just outside of San Diego. More people and opportunities there. By the way this motel is only $50 but its very clean and nice. I noticed the gas price is a lot higher than AZ, TX, and CO. It was $2.50 comparing to $1.70 per gallon.
Anyway it’s San Diego tomorrow. Excited!
Drove around Tucson to see the possible spots. Dylan, who works at hostel, told me South Tucson would not be the best choice for the safety. All the Crossfit boxes are on the upper side of Tuscon around I-10. I checked Starbucks and Whole food locations and found they are on Southwest side of Tucson and North East side of Tucson. Southwest side has been developed with a huge shopping mall. I can see the best chance there for CF JJ. I found an abandoned church on W Irving rd right in the middle of it and right out from I-19. I took some picture and asked around about it to the neighbors. A guy told me that it has been abandoned for 15 years and there was no activity for past 5 years. I am not sure about zoning or stuffs, but I kept it in my mind in case I decided to come back to Tucson for CF JJ.Right around there at a newly built shopping mall, I found a tire shop and had to come back to downtown for Drop-in at Wildcat Crossfit. Met Sam working out by herself and she helped me to get ready. Met Coach Laurie and all Corssfit lovers there and had a great work out, as always.
I like Tucson, but it was around 30s this morning. I should not forget about the my taste of the weather. I will be staying another night at Tucson and tomorrow I am heading out to Brawley CA. Laurie recommended me to do a drop in at Gym 244 where she is training. Will do the one at 9am and going to CA tomorrow.
Thinking about
checking out Bundocks Lounge in Downtown tonight for a falk band Titan Valley Warheads.
Crossfit Boxes across country 2015 