August is here and yesterday it brought with it the return of a usual offseason tradition – Kevin ‘The Bear’ Barrett coming in to secure his company’s suite/tickets for the upcoming season. More on that in a second.

There will also be signing news of players and some operations staff in the coming days. I would tell you about them, because after all, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want…

… But I’d like to stay employed.

Now for the blog…

The Bear is great. He’s had just about every job in the organization from player, coach, broadcaster, and corporate sales. Every summer he’s one of the first to get his suite nights taken care of and then spends about an hour or two catching up with everyone. In his college days, he would skate in the offseason with new assistant coach Keith McCambridge in Winnipeg. His middle son Hudson is off to UC-Santa Barbara to play for the Gauchos baseball team.

Bear dropping by was just another reminder of how far this organization has come in 25 years. When you see former players like Scott Hay, Paul Willett, Glen Mears and all they have done for youth hockey and more next door to some of the “younger” alums like Andrew Ianiero, Mike Hofstrand, Liam Huculak settling down in Bakersfield. The numbers change, but there are roughly a dozen former Condors who have raised their families and helped grow Condorstown. With 25 seasons upon us, we’ll certainly celebrate and commemorate those who have built the foundation.

Some news from around the division as Calgary’s AHL team will be called the Wranglers. Works for me. Longtime friends of the blog know I only have two criteria for team names: needs to end in S and cannot be the NHL team’s name.

Received some good recommendations from some North of the Border followers for food ventures in Calgary this season. Ten Foot Henry and Major Tom’s came up quite a bit so those have been noted and taken under consideration. For newer blog followers, road food places have to meet a certain criteria. I don’t do chains (pizza is an exception), there needs to be TV’s, and more often than not, needs to be a good bar type area. Bonus points for good breakfast spots. Best road breakfast spot? Mullet’s in Des Moines, Iowa.

Icould go on and on about food. Goalie coach and loyal friend of the blog Sly Rodrigue loves following along with the adventures too. I should do a ranking of best meal locations. Some recent ones that stick out off the top of my head, Daisy Mae’s in Tucson, Jack & Ginger’s in Austin, and the go to breakfast spot in San Jose, Whispers.

Until next time Condorstown, I’m hungry now…

Ryan Holt aka Holty enters his 12th season as the voice of the Condors. Congrats to friend of the blog and front office 5-tool player Taylor ‘Cuz’ Weldin on his engagement over the weekend. Have questions, comments, or blog ideas for Holty? Connect with him on Twitter @CondorsHolty for more nonsense or shoot him an e-mail to RHolt@BakersfieldCondors.com