Modesto Cali

We rolled down to Modesto after work yesterday. It should be about 90 minutes but took a little longer as we hit some traffic through Lodi, Stockton, etc.... I saw the sign for Manteca and had to be reminded of BIG Drew's old neighbor who was constantly telling stories about Man-TEEK-a. She was about 110 years old so she is probably at the big Manteca in the sky now. We went to see cousin Matt play in his high school hoop's game against some school I never heard of from the San Joaquin valley. Matt goes to Central Catholic in Modesto which is a big player in high school sports (their football team was in the Cali state championship football game for their sized school. Matt is a junior there, the starting point guard, and really developing into a nice ball player.

Let me tell you the first I saw him with a basketball was summer of '02 so he was about 11. He could not even dribble or anything. Fast forward a little over 5 years and he has a great shot, drives the lane well, handles the ball well, plays great D and above all else does everything the coach wants him to. Really a great kid too. We saw him play in December and he played well but his shooting is even better than then. He is amongst the leaders, if not #1, in his conference for 3 point shooting. Some of the kids out there can barely hit the broad side of a barn on long range shots, miss lay-ups, etc... but not cousin Matt. He has skillz. Simply put: he looks like a basketball player where as some of the kids look like high school kids playing basketball.

It reminds me that I am glad I beat him last time we played one-on-one, some time last year. I have a hunch I won't be beating him again unless I get really lucky.

Matt has his eye on Stanford next year. I believe he is #1 or 2 in his class academically so I think he has a good chance. Great student, great hoopster and great person! Of course, he might want to play ball in college. I doubt he has division 1 skillz and I only say that since so few have those type of skillz. However, he definitely has DII skillz and could maybe even walk on to a DI program since he will be a coach's dream. I will be curious....

Ok, so we picked the Red Lion to crash for the night since the game was late. The Red Lion has an indoor pool and hot tub so it was an easy choice. Let me just say it reminded me a lot of the Holiday Inn in Farmington Hills; if you weren't there you missed out. Damn, I might have to tell that story because if you were there you will enjoy hearing it again and if you weren't there... you will enjoy it too. I'll get to that one another day but let me tease you with "his nose is gone." Oh ya, plus they only wanted $71 a night so it was a deal. Got to love that! NOT as nice as the old Red Lion in the Friendly City but it was fine. We occasionally stay at more upscale places so you can't help but notice the dirt on the ground, poor quality towels, bad food, etc... but it was really fine. Plus, the pool and hot tub were sweet. Sure, they looked they were put in around 1953 but they still served their purpose!

A few things I found funny....

The pool was not supposed to open until 10 AM but we were ready at 9 so we went out there. The rooms are all around the pool area so we tried to be careful about not making too much noise. Then about 9:15 a made came out to clean up the pool area. She was dragging tables and chairs all around and making a huge amount of noise. Not sure why they bother with the 10:00 Am pool sign.

We got locked out of our room twice as the key de-activated. This morning was one of those times... after going swimming. I thus had to walk into the lobby to get the key fixed. Funny the sign on the door to the lobby said "shoes and shirt required in lobby." Difficult under the circumstances so I kept walking. Luckily nobody sweated me on the shoes and shirt issue.

Oh ya, and the game. I forgot to tell you that Matt's team WON! I happened to pick up the Modesto Bee and, of course, they have the box score in the paper. Matt only had 7 points but it was efficient (3 for 5 I believe) and his 2 misses were in and out type shots. More importantly he never forced his shot, always looked to pass (had several assists) and was just the total team player. They won the game 58-35! I have to say the tall ref was good but the other ref... oy vey! That guy wishes he were a cop. Total control freak. He pulled kids aside at least ten times last night to tell them to calm down. I would say 1 or 2 of those talks were needed. I am just glad Central Catholic won as otherwise there might have been a lynching in Modesto last night!

My kids ate too much candy and were hyped up last night! The dude didn't crash until about 11 and it was really a crash. He was crying, trying to wake up the girl, moving from bed to bed, going potty numerous times, etc... damn I was happy when he finally crashed. Of course he woke up at the normal time this morning as if everything was gravy. I normally jump up with him but I begged for 5 more minutes today; didn't get it.

We will be back in Modesto to watch Matt play again. Might even stay at that dump again since they have the indoor pool. If anybody knows of a nicer place, down there, with an indoor pool let me know! Also, keep an eye on young Matt!

Peace out.