The rest of 10.

So we had broken free of Uncle Pete's. We were on the road again! The outside was moving! We got a somewhat late start, at like 3:30pm or something, so skating was out of the question for the night. Or so we thought... We were headed to Loganville, GA about a half hour east of Atlanta. It was a pretty straight shot, but we didn't know where we were gonna stay. We decided to stop in Chatanooga for wifi and gas. We could have stopped anywhere, but anywhere is not called Chatanooga. Chatanooga. The town was ghostly. We made it into the heart of the city before we could even find someone to ask directions to a skatepark. We talked to some window shopping cuties and made our way to the gas station. There was no wifi, so we drove back into the city while Ev scanned for some free internet. As soon as we found some we pulled into a parking spot and I busted out my laptop. I started looking for a place to sleep while Pierre and Geoff took Loki for a walk. A couple minutes later they came back to the bus with reports of a dream spot. A brick roller and two perfect quarter pipes. We had to skate it. It's at the aquarium in Chatanooga. Look at the pictures. It blew our minds. In the middle of our session this dude Chad came over and shot some photos. He told us the spot was like 15 years old. He's starting a magazine. Ok so anyways, we got back on the highway. Gleaming in the night sky, there was the biggest FIREWORKS sign ever. We went inside, geeked out, and exited the store with 60 dollars worth of fireworks. It was time to make our way to the next Flying J. It was 1 am when we got there. The night manager grilled Pierre a bit for a questionable parking job, but after some conversation allowed us to run a chord until 6 am. 5 hours of heat! Nobody had any idea what we would wake up to...

Days 6, 7, 8, 9 and a little bit into 10...

Thanks for the socks Evan.








On the corner of Gay and Church
Skated a LandRover test track




Happie washed Skynard's tour bus, they hooked him up with a harp.



















Where does the time go? There's no way I can possibly recount the last 6 days by the minute so here's the general idea:

Started driving, stopped at Natural Bridge. 16$ to see a rock? We hopped the fence and saw it through the trees. Drove to Knoxville. Slept in the bus for the first time at a Flying J. Skated the park and got to take of our long johns for the first time. Met a ripper named Josh. Sessioned the peanut till' dark. Made spaghetti. Got a campground. Yahtzee and space heaters! Woke up and started driving to Nashville. Broke down an hour outside the city. Tried to figure out the problem. Called Triple A, got the runaround. Geoff and Everett hitched a ride to Lebanon where a shop was. Pierre and I waited 3+ hours for a tow. We read books and talked about feelings. Got a tow to Lebanon from a really nice deputy sheriff. Discovered that G and E had secured a place to park the van, power for our space heaters, and running water. The only downside was that we were 200' from a dog food factory. What a wonderful aroma! What was this magical place and who would be so gracious and hospitable to put up these four dastardly dirtbags? Happie; the ex-carnie, Truck washing wild man that calls the far corner of the Pete's Truck Stop parking lot home. Over the course of the next two days, he hooked us up with an extension cord, bought us coffee, chauffeured us around in his golf cart, gave us directions to Wally-World, hooked us up with a guy to fix the bus, ran Loki ragged with a non-stop game of fetch, told a hundred stories and most importantly, made us laugh our asses off every time we talked with him. While we waited through Sunday to purchase the part, we discovered a pole jam, a tipped over barrier, a bunch of regular barriers, and a manual pad; a skatepark in our temporary front yard! Pierre got the no-comply jam first try, and Geoff got the straight jam first try. Everett did it too, this being his first one. Then proceeded to roll the shit out of his ankle trying it again. We also walked the tracks to Wal Mart and found a rail yard with some big, out of commission double-decker rail cars. Once Monday rolled around, we had the part, and Allen, our private mechanic began working with the boys on getting the Beer Gut back on the road. After 2 or 3 hours of tinkering, she fired up! Then immediately stalled out... Then we got it started again! Then it stalled out again. This happened at least fifty times before the timing on the distributor was set, and the bus started up and idled like a charm. We were sooooooooooooooo pumped. Don't get me wrong, Pete's was amazing, Happie is the man, but we were ready to get back on the road and skate some crete'!

Day 5, Harrisburg

So we came to Harrisburg to see an old friend of Everett's that he worked with in Utah. Our only plan was to kick it with Leeland and get the wipers fixed. We didn't end up figuring out the wipers, but we did get a wonderful surprise that we were not expecting at all. There was talk of it the night before, and magically after a wonderful bacon n' eggs breakfast, Leeland informed us that he had an in and that we definitely could go skate a backyard bowl about a half hour away. We took care of some logistics and made a plan to hit up Knoxville then Nashville TN, and head to Atlanta where there is a cluster of decent crete', and end up in New Orleans to catch the New Years party! Evan checked out some bus times and then we were off in the Impala; 6 dudes and a big ass dog bombin' around PAs capitol. We pulled into some dudes driveway out in the sticks and were pleasantly surprised to see a buttery mini ramp and bowl. All pool coping, a vert wall, 5 foot section, a 90 degree hip, a rounded hip, a shallow end and some really cool tight quick roller coaster pockets. The owner/builder was present, ripping, and I do mean absolutely ripping with a couple of friends. Geoffrey took it easy due to a swollen knee, but the rest of us got right to thawing our feet out and finding our lines. Our host blew our minds pretty much every run by whipping around, slashing, grinding, airing, and sliding his way through and over every wall, pocket, corner, and hip, flowing like water. A face high tweaked out FS air over the rounded hip from deep to shallow made everyones jaws hit the deck. I narrowly avoided catastrophe when I blew a bearing after a drop in and a pump. Evan ruled the mini, Everett got his first pool coping 50 into a pocket, I got my first BSTS on vert, and Pierre floated some buttery fs ollies. Eventually and unfortunately it was time for Evan to catch his bus to Albany. The sun was setting, the session was heated, and now it was time for sustenance. We sped back to the Berg, dropped Evan off and said our goodbyes, and made our way back to HQ to cook up some chili. Tomatoes, corn, carrots, cheddar, black beans and chili powder combined with some rice had everyone rubbing their bellies within a couple of hours. Everyone passed out early tuckered out and full, ready to get up and charge it to Tennessee early tomorrow morning. Thanks Leeland, your floor was comfortable and your kitchen was good to us. Thanks for hooking us up with the bowl!

Day 4, FDR

We woke up today around 10 am to a cold room. Everyone got a slow start as we began to clean up our 5 dude, 2 day mess. Everett and Pierre cooked up some wonderful cheesy scrambled eggs as everyone got their shit together. We cleaned out and repacked the van in a - primo parking spot right outside Steph’s front door. Geoffrey informed of a gentlemen slingin’ some sweet blue cover-alls down the street. I was on it. I found George a few blocks away and he hooked me up with the brand new threads for a mere 4$. Thanks George, I owe you a buck. I ran back to the Van with an ear to ear smile on my face. We did a final check then hit the road for FDR! Upon a stop at the Bank, Evan and I couldn’t resist the tantalizing scent of street vendor cheese steaks right down the street. We could see the stainless steel cart just down the block. 10 minutes and 8.50$ later, we were convinced that Phil was right about the street vendors being the way to go. We rolled into FDR a few minutes later with our eyes wide and our minds blown. There was a ton of water and snow, but I could tell that FDR is one of the better flowing parks in the DIY contingent. We found a few somewhat dry lines and started geekin’ out. Evan handled a front smith stall after his board took a dozen dips. How he gripped his board I have no idea... Everett charged a snowy line with minimal difficulty, I handled a soaking back pivot, and Pierre showed us a super fun line around a big puddle. We got a train going and carved the puddle together a bunch of times with only one pile up. Loki poked around almost killed us a few times. Geoff and I squeezed in a few tricks on a deadly little tight tranny wall as the boys started the van. I cannot stress this enough; if you skateboard, and especially if you like to skate tranny, YOU MUST SKATE FDR BEFORE YOU DIE. After a few confusing laps, we found our route and were headed for Harrisburg. It was time to see another homie and replace our wiper motor. On the way to the berg we found a beer zoo, got some groceries, and got confused about how to pay for them. We just ate spaghetti and now we’re sitting in a heated living room. I can’t forsee anything major happening tonight. I hope I can keep up with the blog, I never saw myself geeking out so hard on it... BLOG BLOG BLOG BLOG!