Day 3, Phildo

Having a huge, somewhat warm living room to crash in allowed us to recharge after our first hectic day. Eggs were prepared and enjoyed with some Sriracha and engine cleaner toast. (There was a loaf that didn't get hit too hard) Our lovely host had some errands to run, so we lured her into the bus yet again and hit up a camera shop and a Wal-Mart so she could do some x-mas shopping and we could get some tools and a second camera for the Hall boys. After all that logistic bs it was time for another absolutely necessary food mission: Cheese Steaks! StephSteph gave us live turn by turn directions to the big two: Pat's and Geeno's. We opted for Pat's, as Pierre had experienced Geeno's and was not impressed. Geeno's is lit up like a Christmas tree, but Pat's just has a simlpe looking setup. We ordered, and before the change hit the bottom of our pockets we were holding onto some fat steaming cheese whizzy delights. That shit was good, but according to Phil, the street vendors are the way to go. Whatever, it was the touristy things to do. With our bellies full we tried unsuccessfully to find a Bank of America, so we dropped Steph off and then pointed the Beer Gut down broad toward city hall to go skate an amazing looking barrier spot. Philup was kind enough to leave us a voicemail with clear concise directions to the spot. As we pulled up to the colored pillars, we discovered that the cover of the bridge was not enough to keep the snow away. A big icy slushy mess had posted up directly in front of the buttery looking barrier. Some boys from the hood gave us some funny looks as we stood there in dismay, wondering what to do. The raised barrier with added transition looked far to good to pass up, so I began sweeping away some of the shmutz with my foot. A 4 foot wide section was cleared and while the rest of the crew looked on, Evan and I proceeded to get some, rusted bearings be damned. Evan went straight for the throat with his proper balls deep front rocks. I surprised myself with a rock fakie, and a wallie launch over the back. Evan kept slipping out as I reached for my goto back d. After three or four tries, I succeeded somewhat sketchily, with Evan right behind me. At this point it was dark, the boys were cold, and we were ready to really skate the bowl. We dried off our skates, got a group photo from a kind 24" rimmed Caddy driving gentlemen, and headed back to HQ. After an hour wait at Steph's house, Phil called and gave us the green light. After a brisk walk in the winter air, we were back in the warehouse excited to git some. I'll let the video do the talking from here on out, there was too much ripping to list it all here...

Day 2, Philly

So we woke up, took some showers and pillaged the continental breakfast in shifts. We shoveled ourselves out of the parking lot and then helped a couple of other stranded motorists escape their snow pits. We went and picked up Loki, then headed to Columbia University so that Geoff could hang out with a giiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrl. During that time, I took it upon myself to geek out and completely organize and pack the van to a T. We also fixed a drawer, cleaned out all of the trash, and got a bunch of funny looks, questions and comments about our home sweet home. After all of that we were on a mission; to score some real NY Pizza. It didn't take long, we only had to walk a block and a half and in and out of some posh salad bar/pizza everything else spot with some bullshit looking frechetta type balogna. The boys looked at the Pizza longingly, but I didn't give a second thought to walking out the door to find the real thing. It wasn't far away...across the street and up a block. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was legit; HUGE slices for 3.25$. That's what's up. We grabbed a slice for Philthee and headed back to the pristine, spacious van to G.T.F.O. of NY and hit the road to Philly. We picked up Steph, busted out the blankets and the Yahtzee and we were off.

Our arrival in Philly was much more pleasant than our arrival in NY. We were full, warm, had a definite place to stay, and had plenty of time to hook up with Phil and shred Philly's indoor slice of round walled heaven. (I met Phil back in 2008 while working at Camp Woodward) Within an hour of pulling into Philadelphia, we were seeing Phil Jackson's sweet smiling mug open the door to our real destination. Introductions were made, the snow was kicked off of our shoes, and the shredding began. I had been talking up Phil's front blunts for a bit, and he delivered one right away. We fumbled our way around the many curves and contours while we studied Phil's lines. By the end of the night, we all had some lines, I had figured out how to get over the love seat, Evan had bumped up to tailslide, Geoffrey got a second try wall smack, and Pierre had slashed up most every wall. Apparently Geoff was only the second to drop in on the big extension and Phil both ended and made out night/lives with an amazing fs wall jam to unexpected manual roll in. The first of which he had ever landed. Phil kept telling us that he had to leave soon, and eventually we took the hint. It was back to Stephs for a quick bite of leftovers and to litter the floor with our tired stinky asses and get some sleep for the next day of adventure...

Day Won

Heard about a possible noreaster on Friday night. We were bummed and talked about staying until Monday, but that's so not hesh. Packed the van and left Warren VT by 11 Saturday morning. To hell with the wether reports, we are Vermonters we do what we want to. Discovered a shortage of power for the space heaters, thus no heat in the van. Drove 4 hours to Nassau NY to pick up Evan. Evan prepared fine meats for us while Pierre and Everett did some tests to further confirm that we had no heat. We hit the road for NYC and got all snuggled up for the ride. Blankets, sleeping bags, long underpants and highly visible breath. Ended up soaking a 25lb bag of black beans and a loaf of bread with engine cleaner. (Not on purpose) We hit snow about 40 minutes outside the city and by the time we were in the thick of it, the roads were slick and littered with New Yorkers completely devoid of any common sense or winter driving ability. Despite having to scrape the ice off the inside of the windshield every minute or so, the "Beer Gut" (Everetts '75 VW Bus) rallied through the city streets with the greatest of ease. We met up with Crubin and Tim outside of KCDC around 9:30 and were warming up (literally, we couldn't feel our feet) on the Autumn mini ramp a few minutes later. Despite the frozen feet, the ripping began immediately. Highlights from the mini included Crubin's crailblock on the extension, Evan's crailsmack, and his first try low to high front d. Then it was onto the bowl. The pool coping was rough and loud and the lines were plentiful. Corey showed that ridiculous speeds were attainable, and that you can indeed get tricks on that crazy extension. It didn't seem like long, but apparently we were there for about 3 and a half hours. Tim had proper form on his rock n' rolls and ripped some front smiths, Corey ripped, Evan endured a mild concussion after hanging up on a front d, but continued to rip regardless. I took my pants off and tried to go fast and enjoy the longest grinds I could. Corey almost broke his neck screwing around in a wheelchair (after we talked about the possibility of that very occurrence). Everett kept carving the twinkie, Pierre slashed and napped, and Geoffrey and I worked hard for a rock fakie and front slash on the extension (respectively). Just as we were about to leave we received some devastating news. We got screwed last minute out of a place to stay. Phone calls were made, plans were made but ultimately we ended up at a 24 hour White Castle wondering what to do. We ate 18 sliders and got creeped out by some old lady that was crying to herself. We decided to break down and get a hotel. At 4:36 yesterday morning, we shut the lights off at the Days Inn in Brooklyn and finally called it a night. Then Evan farted.