yoooooo

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post!! This is not something I am going to drop so keep checking in!! I started up with classes this week so things have been pretty busy lately. The new laptop is working great and the rebate check is already here!!

I have an 8gig I-touch for sale for like $200 if anyone wants it - let me know - new in the box!!

I do not have a camera still so if someone has a camera they want to trade that is new and is worth about the same - hit me up!!

I really am hesitant to update this blog with no images, it is soooo boring without them. Ugh!!

I went surfing a couple times since I got back. The surf was not very good though but it was nice to get out on the water. I was skimming both days too so all was good. I have not skated since Saturday - this is a first. Wow! I surfed at Whiting on Sunday and MON, TUES, Wed - classes were in session and I just wasn't into it.

Got to get it flowing again starting Thursday!!! I live so far from Wilson and Whiting that the thought of an hour drive home from either is not too inviting. I have to move back into the city soon. I decided I am gonna be irresponsible and get responsible and get another damn apartment. I can't save 20G just to affort a shit house and dump another 100G into it. It just doesn't add up. Especially when I don't even want to stay here!!

damn

Anyway - There is a all night Ramp Jam in Manteno this Saturday at Todd's Barn Ramp!! Dave said that it will be going from 5pm to sun up the next day. You can bring a tent,food,beer, your skateboard and whatever - skate all night stay there and have fun!!

I am probably gonna go so let me know if you want to go too!! I'll get you directions.

I am also gonna hit up Grand Haven on Sunday and maybe kokomo the next day - or the new bowl and the new modern park near Detroit!! I also have to start on the vert ramp this weekend damn it!! Home Depot is doing one of those sales again.. temptress!!!!!

SOmeday pics will return and good posts - I am getting the flow of the semester going and then my life can go back in to spin mode.

re-coup

So wow! I am slowly getting back to the real world. At least the world I belong to. I unfortunately had to purchase a new lap top. The old G4 ibook almost made it to its 4th birthday. This is pretty good for a lap top that was used as much as that one was!! So, now after spending the last 4 months getting out of debt, I am back in. Hopefully not for long though, I am gonna try to get it paid off quickly.

Still no camera though, so no pics. I have to work on that one.

I had to get the Fit attended to - oil change, air filter, transmission flush/change. It is all good though. You have to take care of your road trip machine!!

I talked to Danforth the other day and he is working on the new Modern Skatepark in Detroit. He is super stoked on the bowl they have just finished. It looks to be super rad. The love seat seems to be in a weird spot though? on the hip? The birch surface is supposed to be super fast and fun!! I'll check it out very soon!!

What else? I had to show up at school the past two days and tomorrow will begin two days of meetings and inspirational speeches (teacher torture). But it is all part of the job and I am very glad to have one!!

I have to figure out a living situation soon. Checked out a few places and gonna try some more. Strand Artist Lofts

I want to build a small vert ramp in the barn in my parents house down south. I wonder if that would be possible... lots going on!!

Day 32 - getting over the Motherland

I technically did 32 days since I did not arrive to where I started until late Friday night. I stayed at Dacia and Calabro's place (my second home) and then headed down south to the other second home. I haven't had a home for about 5 months now. That is another story that will be remedied soon.

Anyway, I spent the day trying to get my head on straight. I was dizzy and loopy and out of it. By 4 o'clock I decided it was time to get some Wilson in and headed to the park to finish out the trip.

I noticed today that my pics on the last post are terrible!! My camera, as I have been saying is basically screwed.

So anyway, the reflection will come soon. I have to get my laptop repaired, I need to get a new camera. I switched my entire skate set up and I think I like it. Wilson is still fun and it was great to see all of the dudes and dudettes!! I was so out of it that I missed Javier and Sarah's baby shower. A thousand pardons.

Oh, and the vert dream may happen for me here in Chi. More about that later.

Motherland Stomp Day 31 - Denver and The Long Way Home - what day is?

Well, Day 31 has come and gone. I spent most of Day 31 at the wheel in my car. This is how it began:

We were able to stay with a friend in Boulder, CO last night which was great! Gregg is another old friend of Calabro's. This guy is an amazing human being. He is the CEO of a Media Company that does content for magazines, TV, adds, you name it. I think they are mostly Outdoor based. They do things for Tour de France, marathons, climbs, etc.



This guy has been to every continent accept Anarctica! He does adventure races which is going out and hiking, biking, climbing, running, etc. I guess, an Iron Man or Triathalon thing but through the wild. So to say the least he is an amazing athelete. The guy has been everywhere and back again. I was able to spend time updating the blog and then when Gregg got in, I just listened to them talk.

Wiki

Gregg is like a guru, he is quiet, reserved and intense. He showed us pics from his last trip which was to Tibet! Unreal! I really want to go there someday. Listening to all of this talk of travel and adventure really fortifies my plans for this life. I am glad about the choices I have made previously but am even more excited about the future.

Enough of that:



We hit up the Denver Skatepark in the morning. This park is big and rad. It is an older park but a really good one! There are 5 or 6 bowls and a huge street course. The only problem was that the city workers were there, power washing the bowls out! So, all were full of water accept for the clover.

Denver

I have no pics because by this time my camera would not even turn on. I was kinda crabby about the powerwashing. It is great that the city actually cares about the place and maintains it. There are so many parks that are unsupervised and not maintained and then they wonder why things get messed up... But I wanted to skate!!

I was pretty stoked on the clover, the footy bowl and the big peanut. There is also a washboard and 6 spheres connected together by little pump bumps. The park is legendary for having a slick surface. I did notice it but you adapt and ride light footed. I think the kidney at the Cove in Santa Monica was the slickest bowl on the trip but Modern Skatepark in Grand Rapids is the Slickest place I have ridden in the country... We mop and sweep it every trip up there.



So with the flood and the drive ahead of us, I was kinda ready to head out. Calabro wanted to skate a bit but agreed and we were out of there. The odd thing was that I thought today was Friday and Calabro had a story due by Friday or death! So, I was more into getting in the car and starting the torture so we could get home and get things done.

I did not find out until the next morning (this morning) that we were in Denver on Thursday. So, we probably could have skated the whole day.. I could have met up with Denver Paul and maybe got in on some of those rad back yard things that are popping up all over the area... BIG oops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The drive was uneventful accept for a serious rain storm from 10-11pm. After it cleared up, things were fine and I just kept going, taking gas/coffee stops and moving East. It took us 15 hours to ultimately get back and we arrived at 3am. Ugh. Denver to Chicago is a very long trip. I think the road through Nebraska is one of the longest stretches in the country. It does not curve, it does not turn, there is nothing to look at but flat fields. It reminds me a lot of flat ass Illinois. The drive down south is a killer!



I really wanted to stop and see my great friends Pat and Yayoi in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The time constraints just would not allow it and we did not even hit the turn off until 10pm. It was another 2 hours off the highway. I realized this the night before and had to call that night before and cancel.. But this is good because I will be getting back on the road soon to see them!! I will probably hit up the new Davenport park on the way in and out.

It is probably a good thing that I got home early, Calabro is right now scampering around trying to get his story done. Stress time at press time.

So life goes on, I spent most of today at Dacia and Calabro's apt updating the blog and getting my brain straight. I was still dizzy from the 15 hour drive last night... I am going to do a reflection post in the next few days once I process all that went on... I am also supposed to be working on a new blog soon with my good buddy Eric Frazier. Killer artist and professional hit man.



It is about 3:30pm here in Chicago and that means it is almost prime time for a sesh at Wilson!! I am gonna go hit up the ameoba for a few and then finish the stomp where I started.

Thanks all for reading, it was one of the greatest experinces in my life - I hope you all get on the road soon too and to what it is you love!! Live is short, "Life Won't Wait" get out and do it. NOW!! Email me your addresses - I want to send you T-shirts in thanks for your help and support!!

Motherland Stomp Day 30 - Carbondale and Boulder (No Pics yet)

We got in so late last night that Calabro and I pulled the sleeping bags out of the car, went around to Dave's back yard and just slept there. It didn't matter, we were supposed to get a great campsite up on a mountain but Dave's backyard did just fine. I was so tired and out of it that I could have slept on the sidewalk. I was supposed to sleep under a bridge for Danforth but that level of despiration has not occurred. yet!


I was awakened this morning by the bright sun, my cold feet, the dew on my hair and Dave's cat! He has a pet door attached to his super cozy Carbondale house! It is so fun to go into a nice cozy house after you have been sleeping in the dirt for days. He even had coffee for us this morning!! WoW! What a great guy! Dave is a big time photographer for climbing magazines, Rock and Ice, Trail Running, Outside... He also shoots for National Geographic so as you might have guessed, he is a big timer.

Calabro got caught up with Dave while the twins got fed and changed. He has newborn twins. Scary -= kids -= yikes!! I couldn't help but think about my sister and brother in law and baby to be. Very soon!! I am excited for them!


We went out to get some breakfast burritos at a really cool coffee shop. Dave pushed the twins as we walked on down through the mountain town. Very nice! While we waited, all of these famous mountain bikers, climbers, jumpers, photographers, etc were coming in and out. Kind of a who's who of that world. There are several outdoor companies and magazines that are based out of Carbondale. It is a different world for me but I am catching on to a bit of it.

My thing was to hit the big Grindline park!! My pics are terrible so I will link a few here:

pick 1

pic 2

So as you can see, the park is rad!! I have certain preferances and was not fully into this one. As I have remarked in the past that I like round walled - pool like bowls with pool/concrete coping. This one snakes a lot and has some tight pool like corners but it is mostly flat walled with all metal coping. The over vert and capsule are really fun though and Calabro shredded it!



There was a family of razor scooters there with a kind of blonde outdoor active mom roller blading around. I was a bit leary of getting a scooter dropped on me and so I kinda finished there a bit early. Calabro had some erands to run in town and talk with some industry people.




So we packed up, as an extra treat, one of the scooter kids was riding along and all of a sudden his brother just runs up and pushes him off of it! The kid goes straight to his knees but it was so comical that we had to laugh. The mom goes up and says, hey that was not nice... And the victim waited to cry until mom came by.. So after mom is yelling at the attack kid the victim kid walks up and punches the attacker in the face! It was sooooo funny and sad at the same time. I guess they didn't get McDonalds and Ice Cream for lunch|!|!



We left town around 3pm after Calabro got some bid-ness taken care of and we pointed the fit toward Denver. This was a long drive again but also amazing|! Colorado is so beautiful. But alas, the ski towns make it too expensive for my ilk. We went through veil and avoided Aspen - not my scene.



We had a couple more destination skateparks to hit but by the time we were in the Denver area it was time to get a place to stay. Luckily another friend lives here and we were able to score another night but this time indoors!! We did however hit up the Boulder skatepark. It is an older park and once again, mellow transitions, metal coping, bad design - not my kind of park.

Boulder skatepark

Like I said, I don't want to sound like a hater. I have been to nearly 60 skateparks on this trip and I guess when you go to see the greatest parks in the world, the good ones seem bad? Maybe I was just road weary at this point also. I drove for 9 hours that day... Who knows, the locals shred it. I think Calabro was a bit dissapointed in my crabbyness about the park. It looks RAD from the pics but when you see the concrete finish, the super mellow transitions, the metal coping, then...



I just wish my camera and laptop were working. I appologize for the bad pics. Calabro took the camera appart but it just keeps getting worse. I'll probably have to get another new one. I just bought this pea-shooter in June. I may need to look into getting some kind of rugged slip over case or a heavy duty one?

Day 29 - Goodbye Moab, hello Cliff Palace!

After Heather and Jared got home all was well. I got to take a shower for the first time in many days and looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that I was orange. You see, the dirt here is Orange or Red and I was a nice Red-Orange!! You know you had a good time when you can't recognize yourself in the mirror!!



They have two Boxers. Once again, something I have always was interested in. I love Boxers, but my schedule just does not work for a dog. I have to make a serious note here. I am a bad dad. Cat dad that is. Big ups go out to Dacia for taking Pauly Walnuts (my cat) in for the length of this trip. Well, and a lot longer than that too. I am a complete cat dad bastard. He is in good hands and loves his buddy Elwa the coolest other cat in the world! Thanks Dacia!!



So moving on, one of the boxers likes to eat poop and then pukes it up. I know, not that is really gross! I hope I did not spoil your dinner. Asside from that, they are great dogs! So gentile but tuff. They love to play and run.



On the way out the next morning, we stopped at the rock house just outside of Moab. This guy build a house within the rock. He spent his life carving out the live rock and in the end, had a really nice place to live! It stays cool all summer and warm all winter. Actually, I think the dwelling maintains something like a 68 degree temperature all year round!!



There were all kinds of kooky attractions to look at aside from the cave house. There was "big foot", frontier jail cells, out houses, odd sculptures and a petting zoo! I think they had emus, wallabees, goats and pot belly pigs. I like the wallabees the best. They seem to be such gentle creatures. But in reality, they'll probably bite your head off!!



Our main destination for today was the mystical Mesa Verde. This place is an International treasure. Mesa Verde is an area that houses several ruins from the Anazasi culture. The ruins are best described as cliff dwellings. Where the Anasazi built cities on extreme locations where enemies were less likely to attack. It was an amazing experience. We were able to check out several sites and look in on many smaller village ruins. We checked out the museums and were able to see the world famous Cliff Palace site from an overlook.



It was super hot despite the elevation. Calabro was getting dehydrated. He kept telling me about altitude sickness and how you should drink a lot of water. You start to feel dizzy and loose your spark. It is supposed to sneak up on you pretty quickly.



August is high tourist season and we could not get in on a guided tour but from the looks of it, we did pretty good. Oddly enough, Eastern Europeans tend to take their vacation in this area during August. So we were among the droves of Euro tourists. I took a few pics but as you can see, they suck. My camera is really damaged and as I said before, only zooms all the way in. UGH



I am so happy that I had the opportunity to see this site. It has been a favorite of mine for a long time and to witness the ruins first hand is a genuine EXP. I would like to come back one day and spend a full day or two exploring the ruins. There are many places I need to go back to now. I am really glad the stomp helped me build my travel agenda for the next 10 years!!



We spent a few hours in Mesa Verde and took the scenic route to Carbondale. We/I ended up driving until nearly midnight again. But it was way worth it! One of the routes, north of Silver-something was almost as good as Glacier National park, and I didn't have to pay addmission for it!! We saw silver mines, 1000 foot drop offs, elevation of 6000 feet? and the Fit continued to slowly make the steep grades. It was a long but amazing drive.








We got turned around a few times but made it to Carbondale after 11pm. I stopped at a pretty nasty 7Eleven with really scary clerks. I ate 2 taquitos - nasty but at that time of night it was goooooooood! I have been trying to eat healthy but sometimes, you just can't on the road.



We got to Calabro's buddy, Dave's house pretty late and just crashed!! But what an amazing day!!

Motherland Stomp Day 27-28 Moab, UT (No Pics Yet)

So, once again, it has been a while, I am going to start from where I left off here. We got out of the Outdoor Industry Trade Show on Sunday afternoon. It was an interesting experience being around all of that stuff. I went too AREI(fancy outdoor store) for the first time about a month and a half ago with Calabro. I just walked around and was like, "this is over priced yuppie gear". I went to Wal-mart and got what I needed at a fraction of the price. For what I am doing, it really is not needed but to go all hardcore like the people I have met the past few days, I can totally see the need!! I am a little ashamed now of my crappy gear but it works!! SO anyway, we drove to Moab which took like 6-7 hours from Salt Lake. We took the long route and did not get in until after 11pm. Oops, luckily Calabro had some friends Jared and Heather. Thanks so much to the coolest people in Moab! Jared is a former Pro Motocross/Freestyle Motocross dude and Heather is at High Point ATV rentals in town. Very kindred spirits. I used to race back in the day as well, never a pro though, always mediocre but havin' fun!! I took a break from skating with the trade show, driving and arriving in Moab. The local park is Ok, a mini ramp and little street features. But when you go to Moab, there are other things to do. I think that I had the most busy, dangerous and amazing day ever in Moab!! We woke up really early and headed straight out to the canyons to meet up with one of Calabro's buddies. Chris is a rad dude! He shoots for many outdoor magazines and likes to jump off of mountains for fun and for sport!! He started out as a skydiver and has something like 7000 dives?? He got into base jumping (jumping off of buildings, mountians, bridges, etc) a few years ago. The dude is rad and the video will probably give you some better insight. We pulled into this beautiful canyon and hiked up the mountain with Chris. I immediately was out of breath because of the elevation. I thought I was gonna die at first and had to stop. After a few I got caught up and looked to my left and totally forgot about the breathing and was staring at ancient pictograms!! Or rock/wall art. I took a ton of pics, these images were incised into the the mountain walls by native people of the region hundreds of years ago... Very cool!! We hiked half way up with Chris and Calabro and I rushed back down so we could get a good view of everything. After a few minutes of prep we saw the little ant like figure on top of Tombstone MT. leap off of it! yes, the dude jumped off of a mountain!! Footy: After we hooted and hollored I looked at my watch and it was only like 7:30 am.. I thought to myself, it is gonna be a long day! We moved on through the killer mountain roads with amazing views from every angle. I thought I was on mars or on the planet where Luke Skywalker grew up!! We stopped off at this little camp site and checked out some more of the pictograms. Suddenly, Calabro said, this is the "Indian Latter" I was like, huh? It was a big crack in the rock wall and native Americans placed a few fallen tree branches in the rock at diagonals and you are supposed to go up this>?> Calabro and Chris were on it and even saying, wow, this is a little tuff! I was like, I'll stay down here thanks. Then the nagging and chastising began. So, I said fuck it, I'm goin' up this thing. It was fun as hell!! You have to squeeze your body through super tight areas and pull your self up the wall. It wasn't like super duty rock climbing or anything but for me it was pretty cool!! It was very satisfying to get to the top and finally see the view. I need to follow the leader a bit more because the rock I got on was "hollow" I didn't know what that meant and I could see better from the ground, there was nothing under it! So that was pretty dumb. I am from the Midwest and we do not have anything like that at home in flat ass Chicago. Canyoniering is kinda similar to Chicago in some ways, skyscrapers are a lot like mountains and when you go down town it does feel like a canyon. Only the natural ones are way better!!! Going down the Indian Latter was even more fun than going up. It was difficult and sketchy but really fun!! |I always liked climbing up the junk pile in the barn as a kid so this was like second nature. Calabro thankfully coached me down and explained way chimeny-ing is and I got the hang of it really quickly. SO by this time is was only like 8:45am... Time for breakfast. We ate at the local diner, big breakfast!! When you ask for more water, they bring you a pitcher! My kind of place!! After that, we parted ways, Chris had to go pack his chute. He ended up doing 4 jumps that day! WoW!!! So we went to visit Heather at High Point ATV and Hummer Tours in Moab. It is a rad rental place where you can get Jeeps, quads, side by sides, dirt bikes, you name it!! The also have Hummer tours so if you are not into driving up cliffs, over rocks, through streams, you can have them do it for you... We were looking for one of the head honchos, Scott but he was not there and nobody knew where he was. I guess when you are a adventurer and own and adventure buisness, it is hard to keep a tag on the boss sometimes. Well we got a call from Scott and after a short conversation Calabro was like, well we are gonna go meet Scott, see ya'll... When we got into the car he says to me, head to the airport. I was like, airport? WTF?? Yeah, Scott is up in his plane and he is turning around to pick us up. I was still on airport and then??? huh? SO we get over there and wait a few for him to land, we go over to the runway and he just pulls right up like it is nothing. It felt like he was picking us up in his car?? He went into the office and checked in and in about 10 minutes we were in the plane! I didn't really know what to expect because I had never been up in a single engine plane before. Yes, single engine plane... I had heard a bunch about it from Calabro and I always talk about how I want a bubble helicopter and he always says, no way. You will die. Well, now I can understand. I was fine at first. We headed out to the runway and got all buckled up. |We had these cool headsets on and everything was normal. The take off was a lot more fun than a big plane and within seconds we were up in the air, all was well. I immediately began taking pics and having a great old time when suddenly, the real experience began. Moab is hot and windy so the air is a bit sketchy and the little plane was essentially getting blown all over the place like a balloon with a little fan motor. I had no idea that this was what it would be like so I have to admit, I was freaked. After Scott explained to me what he was doing and how the air heats up and essentially boils up and blasts at the plane I kinda felt a little better. It is all about correcting once you are up I guess. But, I was not in control and I did not know what to expect so I was getting nervous. If I were flying it or actually knew something about flying maybe it would not have been so freaky. The plane smoothed out once we got away from the canyons and I was feeling better. Then I realized Calabro was flying the plane!!!! I got kinda nervous again. Especially when he goes, oh so this thing makes you turn, and the whole plane tilts 90 degrees!! I tried to get some footy of his flight but after the next turn I was done. I had to gorilla grip the seat for the rest of the trip. I think my anxiety was so strong that it was all I could do to hold on. I kept looking at the horizon and trying to breathe to calm down. I would let go of the seat and take a few pics but we would get hit by the wind, or drop in altitude and the anxiety would kick in 100%. I think Scott called them thermal bubbles? The ground temp gets to be 105 degrees and as the hot air rises it the moisture boils and literally shoots up and when it hits the plane well, look out! To be honest, I was just hoping time would pass. The view was incredible though, Scott took us over "the swell" which is a geological phenomenon where the earth just buckled millions of years ago!! It is truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Finally I could see the runway and I began to get a handle on my fear. The bumps continued but knowing that we were heading in was a comfort. I got the landing on video too. It is a little hard to tell but it was a difficult one. I guess that sometimes the wind there will not let the light aircraft land? It just keeps pushing the plane up and tossing it around. Scott did a killer job of handling that and got us down safe and sound!! I was so happy to be on flat ground, I thought, I'll never complain about flat ass Illinois again! (yeah right) So big thanks to Scott for taking us up and the greatest thrill ride of my life. He even went easy on me!! No dive bombs or runs at the canyon! wow. SO, maybe single engine flying is not for me, but maybe it will make me do a big air someday in the bowl! not By this time is was about 3pm. Yes, this is still day 28! Scott gave us the combination to his storage container full of quads and said "have fun". So, we got two free quads, gassed up, geared up and headed straight into the desert!! There are thousands of miles of legal trails in Moab! You get to see some of the most amazing rock formations and hit some pretty gnarly trails as well!! I was so happy to get on a quad again. I hadn't been riding since I sold my 450 about 3 years ago. That thing was a money pit - another story. We were out riding for a good 3 hours and I was just loving it!! You need to be conscious of the area and not go off trail. I had to yell at a couple of idiot who were buzzing around in the crust. Big No NO! We stopped and chilled in the shade for about a half hour, Calabro got bit by a fire ant and I looked at the rad rock formations. I really had to pinch myself because this day was still going! The only casualty was my camera. I am a true dumb ass around tech stuff. I always forget that it is not made to last and planned obsolescence and break factor play into the industry too much. SO stupid me left the camera in the storage compartment of the quad. I meant to put in Calabro's back pack. So my camera was screwed. We got it to work a little bit the next day but it just zooms all the way in so I only take a pic of one brick rather than the whole building... Great!! We got back and put the quads away. It was about 6pm and time for dinner!! We got some grub - hunger and thirst are two things you feel after coming out of the desert in August! At 6:30 we got another call from Scott who wanted us to meet him at the shop asap. I guess Calabro had to do him a favor after he spent like $500 on gas to fly us around the canyons! So - photo shoot time. We got there and he had two side by sides (think super quad golf cart) and one 4 seater loaded up and ready to go. I got to drive Calabro around in one while he took photos of Scott's family, Heather and Jared. I have to admit that these things are fun to drive in the right application. We were hitting all of these back canyon roads and jeep trails. Imagine trying to follow Scott's lead (expert desert rider) and Jared (former pro motocrosser) in a place you have never been. I had FUN!!! We were blasting through these jeep roads bouncing off of the rev limiter the whole time and barely staying on the road with 500 feet + drop offs.. Calabro even got a little scared a couple times! Ha! So we arrived at this rad spot for the big sunset show. We had just missed the sun but the shoot came out anyway. My camera was screwed at this time so no photo for me. But memories are there forever!! All of this happened in one day. I can not believe that I was still walking by the end. But of course, Calabro lost his phone so we had to scamper all around trying to find it. We had no contact for Heather, Scott, Jared - we some how found Heather and Jared's house and just waited there for about an hour in the front yard. Please take us in! It was 11pm and too dark to find a campsite. I did see like 3 shooting stars though, so it was all worth it||!! One of the most eventful days of my life.