There’s three feet of snow on top of the couple inches from last week and I just found a gnarly new, hairpin filled road 20 minutes from my house. I will not be able to skate for a long while now but on the bright side of things for the second week in March I will be in LA hanging out and skating with the boys of www.skatehousemedia.com! I’ll be missing the first race of the year on the east coast for this trip but it will be totally worth it. Check back to read about that adventure, which is sure to be action packed and see the video that comes of my journey.
In the meantime check out my youtube channel: www.youtube.com/anthonyflis
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Buffalo Bill Downhill part 3
The morning was filled with immediate disappointment as I looked out the window. It was drizzling and the roads were soaked. The top of Lookout Mt. was surrounded in an impenetrable fog and it seemed like it would be a rain race. Once again I was greeted by the Staub’s and offered coffee and food as they prepared lunch. Even though it was raining I at least had my duffle bag with my board and leathers, which got delivered while I was at the campsite. It was incredibly disheartening to look out the back window in the direction the mountain should be, only to see fog, when the day before was perfect, not too hot, little wind, clear skies and bright sun. We packed up the car, and I made sure to leave nothing behind since my final destinations were unclear.
The conditions on the hillside were horrible. Visibility was down to twenty or thirty feet and the road was absolutely soaked as the mist continued to come down. Few people were at the top of the race course yet since it was still early but we were eager to find out the conditions and the plan of attack for the race. The word was that we would wait a few hours and hope for it to dry up or at least improve. Justin’s wife rolled up with breakfast burritos and hot coffee, which was awesome and warming. As more people showed up, every tool thinkable was used to make rain wheels. Everyone took turns pushing each other along the flat to cut grooves into their wheels. I decided I didn’t care enough or have any wheels I was willing to cut into and would just go for it with what I had.
It started getting late and things weren’t getting much better as everyone started getting antsy to skate. Finally Justin decided to give everyone one practice run and then go into heats. I took it really easy on my way down, doing a lot of foot breaking, mostly concerned for the sweepers where normally you don’t expect to drift but have a lot of force sideways on your wheels where in the wet could be really dangerous. I managed to make it down without falling but also went at a pace that felt stupid. At the bottom, while waiting to get in the Uhaul to go back up, I watched Louis pick up one of the biggest, fastest, slimiest worms I’ve ever seen and try and get people to eat it. I also saw Hugh Kibbling puking next to the Uhaul and when he was done, turning around and telling Louis to throw it and he’d catch it in his mouth, and he did. He swallowed the thing down hardly a minute after puking his brains out from the night before. It might be one of the most off the wall things I’d seen on this trip. It’s one of those stories that doesn’t seem real when you see it happen even.
I really wanted to do good at this race, hoping to go back to the east coast with a good story of how my heats went and do it up for the east coast. My first heat had Dubes in it and he kicked way out in front on the soaked asphalt, screaming like crazy, catching me off guard. I kicked behind him but not as hard and navigated all the sweepers on top fine still not pushing it balls out. I got to the right hairpin and slowed down a lot but just slid right into the hay. The other two people in my heat caught up at this point but also crashed. I got on my board and kicked as hard as I could to stay in front and perfectly hit the left and the next right hairpin and had a good lead. Dubes had probably already finished by now since I hadn’t seen him since he disappeared into the fog at the start. I came into the last left with a little too much confidence and tried to rail it like I had done in the dry, surfing it with both hands in the air but my wheels caught and I did a somersault and as I slowly got up I saw the other two riders pass me and realized I was done for the day. I think I only found a picture or two of me from race day and both of them show me eating shit.
I took the shuttle back to the top after the first round heats and go out of my leathers and took a skate down the course to the first left hairpin since you could see the last few corners from there. James had also gotten out and brought a backpack of beer down with him so we drank some beers and watched the racing. I saw Krimes throw some nasty standers in the last left in the wet and you could hear the grooves he cut in his wheels just sucking on the pavement. It was almost as unbelievable as when I saw Louis throw a big standing 180 before the same last left and take it switch the day before. Seeing the kind of riding that these guys were throwing down in person and talking with them about their approach to downhilling opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn’t nearly as experienced riding turny, big mountain roads and really changed the way I skated afterwards, reshaping my outlook on how to spend my summer.
In the end the race came down to Zak Maytum, Louis, Will Brunson and King Brian. The road had gotten pretty dry and the hairpins were mostly dry for the final heat. It was a pretty close heat with Zak in front taking it home for the locals followed by King Brian ripping with his floaty, stand up style through the hairpins wearing shorts and a wind breaker type jacket. Will Brunson and Louis were a little behind them and in the last hairpin Louis took a suicide line on the inside and made the pass on the white line with his hand over the grass. It was chaos when we got to the top of the hill with beer being splashed everywhere, schwag getting thrown into the crowd a podium in front of the Loco. All the local kids were battling it out for free stuff, wrestling over boards and shirts. It was an awesome scene of celebration at the end of a successful event.
After all the podium shots were taken and everyone packed up to leave there was still the problem of course tear down. I was riding in the big passenger van so I could both get to the after part at Coop’s house and get a ride to the airport the following morning so I stayed and helped huck hay. The hay was soaked from the snow and rain, but I did my part, throwing bale after bale, and I’m a scronny person, into the Uhauls we had. It was cool seeing how the riders all take care of each other to put on these events since I wasn’t the only skater doing this. Will Brunson, Rizzo, Jason and K-Rimes were throwing hay as well as Justin Dubois who’s event it was. Will’s wife was throwing hay too, giving us all shit that we had a hard time with the 50lb bales since she deals with 80lbs daily on her farm. It’s cool to look at the way these events run because none of them are for profit, there are no big corporations and crews of people to run them. It’s all just done for each other. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see very often in the world.
Once we had the Uhauls literally packed to capacity with what hay was salvageable we needed to take them to the farm supply store to sell them back. The only problem was there were too many cars to people, so I drove a Uhaul full of hay down Lookout Mountain and a couple miles down the interstate after drank a few beers and never driving anything that big before. We had the walky-talkies from the course workers so we could communicate between the two uhauls, passenger van and Justin’s truck. It was a lot of fun driving that huge thing trying to keep up going down the mountain, cutting lanes as if it were a sports car or a skateboard. We finally got the hay unloaded and sold back with Justin coming out close to even on hay. Then we had to take the Uhauls to the rental place all the way back near town, hop in the van, then drive the hour to Coop’s for the party. We stopped in Boulder for dinner at some little Mexican burrito place before moving into the mountains to get to wherever the hell we were going.
It was getting dark and rainy as we left Boulder towards the after party. We had been driving for a while with no other cars around, completely unaware of probably breathe taking scenery that was indiscernible through the thick, dark, cloudy night. As we got settled into the drone of driving through the night we see slowly rolling along in front of us none other than the Loco Express in full rave mode. The strobe lights were on, everyone was dancing with drinks in their hand and it looked like a mad house. Justin called from his truck and said we need to try and mess with them and pull them over so we started flashing our lights and honking trying to signal them over but they were having too good a time to even notice. The bus couldn’t make it up the passes very well so we ended up passing them and took turns throwing things as we passed back and forth for a few miles. Somehow we started individually turning our lights off between the van, Justin’s truck and the Loco, sometimes resulting in no ones headlights being on as we drove through the pitch black mountainous terrain. Whenever a car was spotted we’d turn the lights back on but one time the Loco didn’t turn their lights on and there is no way the car passing saw them until they were right next to it, with the full blow of wild dance party taking place. It’s one of those scenes that sounds made up or out of some movie about hippies in the 60s or something but it was a crazy ass drive. Eventually we just went on our way leaving them to putter their way up the mountains.
When we finally got to the party there was already a ton of people, a huge bonfire and the keg was flowing. Coop’s compound is an incredible place. There are huge rocks off in the backyard framing a stage, a big six foot tall super wide mini ramp, and the most intimidating zip line I’ve ever seen. To get on the zip line you have to climb a ladder to get on top of a shed then climb another six feet or more up into this pine tree that sways with each ride down, leaving everyone clutching to stay on the platform. At the other end of the line you get stopped by a knot with a towel in it that you hit swinging you in every direction just far enough from the other anchor tree so you don’t hit it. After you stop you’re still six feet off the ground and need to hang upside down, unhook yourself off the pulley and then unhook the pulley so the next person can use it then you hang and drop to your feet. Justin Dubois’ band played a set with the rocks as a back drop and in no time there was a pit going. Dubes was in charge of the fire and it just kept getting bigger and bigger through out the night. At one point Coop threw a fallen tree on and we all took turns running over the fire on it. I also remember someone searching the dark forest floor with a head lamp and asking if anyone had seen a large quantity of weed laying around and then later finding out that it was just under his hat.
I have no idea how long the party went on for. Some people probably went all night. I spent a good amount of time talking with Rob Mckendry by the keg hearing some of his crazy stories from his travels. That guy has more experiences than I could ever hope for. I also sat by the fire with Dubes reminiscing about when we first met in 2007 at a freeride in North Carolina. I think he was still living in Florida then and was pretty sketchy and now he’s one of the fastest guys in the world. I had also been bugging Zak for bushings the whole weekend because there was no way I would ever buy bushings online or anything so this was the only time I’d be able to reasonably get Venoms. I was pretty drunk when he finally brought some bushings for me and he didn’t have exactly what I was looking for. I somehow ended up with three barrels and two eliminators for a good price and just pocketed them without thinking about what I got but eliminators didn’t even fit my downhill trucks. It was a funny drunk moment in my life, to me anyway.
As things started to die down and only the hardest partiers still going, I found myself nodding off in a chair by the fire. I decided sleeping in the van was the best option that way I couldn’t be left behind in the morning. We were going to wake up and go to Justin’s house with Graham Buska and Krimes so that we could skate and I could get a ride to the airport with Jason. I managed to stumble to the van, find my sleeping bag and pass out almost immediately regardless of the cold.
I woke up hours later to the early morning sun shining through the trees and Graham digging through gear in the back of the van. I managed to climb out into the brisk morning and survey things in the day light. The ramp looked much bigger and I could really take in the beauty of Coop’s land. Over the trees you could see the the snow caps of the Rockies looming up. Most people were in the house with Coop cooking eggs for those still around. Everyone was laying around recovering from the night before, watching a little t.v. and sharing experiences like we’d been doing all weekend. It was another great family scene of downhillers all doing what they do. I know I keep mentioning this aspect but it’s something that is actually hard to describe if you aren’t a part of something like this.
We soon said our goodbyes and Kevin, Graham and myself piled back into the van and headed to Justin’s house where he, Jason and Rizzo where. Justin lives in a really nice little town nestled in a valley near some resorts or something. It’s a picturesque small Colorado, ski town. When we got there we just missed the viewing of the Sector 9 movie that Rizzo had been working on, that has still yet to be released and I’m not sure if it ever will. The trailer for it has been online for the past year and looks so sick though. After some coffee and hanging out we decided it was time to go skate and Justin said he had the perfect little neighborhood to session.
We all piled in the van and headed down the street a mile or so to a nice little private neighborhood with a good number of hairpins and nice pitch. Jason was hurting from a bad hipper he took so he decided to just drive and film. It was such an honor to skate such a road with Rizzo and Kevin. I’ve never seen people rip so hard in my life. Rizzo was on a 36” deck with 70mm race formula wheels and throwing down so hard. Kevin was throwing standers longer than I had ever seen in my life on his avenger. Watching Kevin throw huge thirty foot stand up slides into hairpins and doing huge 180s and switch checks was an eye opening experience. Also seeing Rizzo riding a similar style on the small pool deck, sessioning the ledge at the top of the hill as well was sweet and totally changed the way I wanted to ride a skateboard. I had so much fun trying to keep up and shred this gnarly, steep, sand coated run. We only had enough time for a few runs but what we got in was so much fun and I witnessed some of the best downhill skating ever.
After that quick session we went back to Justin’s to pack up and head to the airport. On the drive back there were a couple of Caribou hanging out next to the road. I’d never seen game that big or with huge antlers like that before. It really tripped me out and completed my experience in Colorado. As I was putting my board and extraneous gear in my duffle bag I was talking to Rizzo as he was packing his stuff up and out of no where he offered me a set of Sector 9 race formula wheels. It was awesome getting to know him because he’s been in the sport for so long and such an interesting guy. As we were finishing packing, Dubes rolled up looking to go skate fast. Him, Graham and Kevin borrowed Justin’s truck to go skate Rist while Justin, Rizzo, Jason and myself headed to the airport. It’s crazy that I just missed skating the fastest road in the world and that I watched a group of guys on their way out to do it. While I was boarding my plane they were going in the upper 70s on skateboards.
The drive back to the airport was pretty fun and interesting. We drove around the opposite way from when I was picked up which takes you far off from Denver. It was interesting to realize that half of Colorado is plains and that Denver is just on the edge of the Rockies. In one direction you look out and see flat fields to the horizon and in the other you see a wall of mountains growing into the clouds and covered with snow caps. I was sad to be leaving so soon. The landscape was so beautiful and I’d only just begun to see any of it and only skated two hills in a sea of mountains. The last memorable thing before I boarded my plane was stopping on the highway just outside the airport for Rizzo to get out and pee in a field. We got to the airport and Jason had barely enough time to make his flight and I had an hour or so to wait around. When I got on the plane I passed right out and woke up in Charloette but with enough time to make it to my next gate and hang out unlike on the way there. I’m pretty sure I passed right back out once on my connecting flight too and woke up home in Virginia. It all seemed like a dream that I just woke up from and needed to continue trying to be in. This trip completely set the pace and direction for the rest of my summer which I filled with the most traveling and skating I’d ever done. It was one of the best trips of my life and I hope so badly I can do it again and stay longer this year.
The conditions on the hillside were horrible. Visibility was down to twenty or thirty feet and the road was absolutely soaked as the mist continued to come down. Few people were at the top of the race course yet since it was still early but we were eager to find out the conditions and the plan of attack for the race. The word was that we would wait a few hours and hope for it to dry up or at least improve. Justin’s wife rolled up with breakfast burritos and hot coffee, which was awesome and warming. As more people showed up, every tool thinkable was used to make rain wheels. Everyone took turns pushing each other along the flat to cut grooves into their wheels. I decided I didn’t care enough or have any wheels I was willing to cut into and would just go for it with what I had.
It started getting late and things weren’t getting much better as everyone started getting antsy to skate. Finally Justin decided to give everyone one practice run and then go into heats. I took it really easy on my way down, doing a lot of foot breaking, mostly concerned for the sweepers where normally you don’t expect to drift but have a lot of force sideways on your wheels where in the wet could be really dangerous. I managed to make it down without falling but also went at a pace that felt stupid. At the bottom, while waiting to get in the Uhaul to go back up, I watched Louis pick up one of the biggest, fastest, slimiest worms I’ve ever seen and try and get people to eat it. I also saw Hugh Kibbling puking next to the Uhaul and when he was done, turning around and telling Louis to throw it and he’d catch it in his mouth, and he did. He swallowed the thing down hardly a minute after puking his brains out from the night before. It might be one of the most off the wall things I’d seen on this trip. It’s one of those stories that doesn’t seem real when you see it happen even.
I really wanted to do good at this race, hoping to go back to the east coast with a good story of how my heats went and do it up for the east coast. My first heat had Dubes in it and he kicked way out in front on the soaked asphalt, screaming like crazy, catching me off guard. I kicked behind him but not as hard and navigated all the sweepers on top fine still not pushing it balls out. I got to the right hairpin and slowed down a lot but just slid right into the hay. The other two people in my heat caught up at this point but also crashed. I got on my board and kicked as hard as I could to stay in front and perfectly hit the left and the next right hairpin and had a good lead. Dubes had probably already finished by now since I hadn’t seen him since he disappeared into the fog at the start. I came into the last left with a little too much confidence and tried to rail it like I had done in the dry, surfing it with both hands in the air but my wheels caught and I did a somersault and as I slowly got up I saw the other two riders pass me and realized I was done for the day. I think I only found a picture or two of me from race day and both of them show me eating shit.
I took the shuttle back to the top after the first round heats and go out of my leathers and took a skate down the course to the first left hairpin since you could see the last few corners from there. James had also gotten out and brought a backpack of beer down with him so we drank some beers and watched the racing. I saw Krimes throw some nasty standers in the last left in the wet and you could hear the grooves he cut in his wheels just sucking on the pavement. It was almost as unbelievable as when I saw Louis throw a big standing 180 before the same last left and take it switch the day before. Seeing the kind of riding that these guys were throwing down in person and talking with them about their approach to downhilling opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn’t nearly as experienced riding turny, big mountain roads and really changed the way I skated afterwards, reshaping my outlook on how to spend my summer.
In the end the race came down to Zak Maytum, Louis, Will Brunson and King Brian. The road had gotten pretty dry and the hairpins were mostly dry for the final heat. It was a pretty close heat with Zak in front taking it home for the locals followed by King Brian ripping with his floaty, stand up style through the hairpins wearing shorts and a wind breaker type jacket. Will Brunson and Louis were a little behind them and in the last hairpin Louis took a suicide line on the inside and made the pass on the white line with his hand over the grass. It was chaos when we got to the top of the hill with beer being splashed everywhere, schwag getting thrown into the crowd a podium in front of the Loco. All the local kids were battling it out for free stuff, wrestling over boards and shirts. It was an awesome scene of celebration at the end of a successful event.
After all the podium shots were taken and everyone packed up to leave there was still the problem of course tear down. I was riding in the big passenger van so I could both get to the after part at Coop’s house and get a ride to the airport the following morning so I stayed and helped huck hay. The hay was soaked from the snow and rain, but I did my part, throwing bale after bale, and I’m a scronny person, into the Uhauls we had. It was cool seeing how the riders all take care of each other to put on these events since I wasn’t the only skater doing this. Will Brunson, Rizzo, Jason and K-Rimes were throwing hay as well as Justin Dubois who’s event it was. Will’s wife was throwing hay too, giving us all shit that we had a hard time with the 50lb bales since she deals with 80lbs daily on her farm. It’s cool to look at the way these events run because none of them are for profit, there are no big corporations and crews of people to run them. It’s all just done for each other. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see very often in the world.
Once we had the Uhauls literally packed to capacity with what hay was salvageable we needed to take them to the farm supply store to sell them back. The only problem was there were too many cars to people, so I drove a Uhaul full of hay down Lookout Mountain and a couple miles down the interstate after drank a few beers and never driving anything that big before. We had the walky-talkies from the course workers so we could communicate between the two uhauls, passenger van and Justin’s truck. It was a lot of fun driving that huge thing trying to keep up going down the mountain, cutting lanes as if it were a sports car or a skateboard. We finally got the hay unloaded and sold back with Justin coming out close to even on hay. Then we had to take the Uhauls to the rental place all the way back near town, hop in the van, then drive the hour to Coop’s for the party. We stopped in Boulder for dinner at some little Mexican burrito place before moving into the mountains to get to wherever the hell we were going.
It was getting dark and rainy as we left Boulder towards the after party. We had been driving for a while with no other cars around, completely unaware of probably breathe taking scenery that was indiscernible through the thick, dark, cloudy night. As we got settled into the drone of driving through the night we see slowly rolling along in front of us none other than the Loco Express in full rave mode. The strobe lights were on, everyone was dancing with drinks in their hand and it looked like a mad house. Justin called from his truck and said we need to try and mess with them and pull them over so we started flashing our lights and honking trying to signal them over but they were having too good a time to even notice. The bus couldn’t make it up the passes very well so we ended up passing them and took turns throwing things as we passed back and forth for a few miles. Somehow we started individually turning our lights off between the van, Justin’s truck and the Loco, sometimes resulting in no ones headlights being on as we drove through the pitch black mountainous terrain. Whenever a car was spotted we’d turn the lights back on but one time the Loco didn’t turn their lights on and there is no way the car passing saw them until they were right next to it, with the full blow of wild dance party taking place. It’s one of those scenes that sounds made up or out of some movie about hippies in the 60s or something but it was a crazy ass drive. Eventually we just went on our way leaving them to putter their way up the mountains.
When we finally got to the party there was already a ton of people, a huge bonfire and the keg was flowing. Coop’s compound is an incredible place. There are huge rocks off in the backyard framing a stage, a big six foot tall super wide mini ramp, and the most intimidating zip line I’ve ever seen. To get on the zip line you have to climb a ladder to get on top of a shed then climb another six feet or more up into this pine tree that sways with each ride down, leaving everyone clutching to stay on the platform. At the other end of the line you get stopped by a knot with a towel in it that you hit swinging you in every direction just far enough from the other anchor tree so you don’t hit it. After you stop you’re still six feet off the ground and need to hang upside down, unhook yourself off the pulley and then unhook the pulley so the next person can use it then you hang and drop to your feet. Justin Dubois’ band played a set with the rocks as a back drop and in no time there was a pit going. Dubes was in charge of the fire and it just kept getting bigger and bigger through out the night. At one point Coop threw a fallen tree on and we all took turns running over the fire on it. I also remember someone searching the dark forest floor with a head lamp and asking if anyone had seen a large quantity of weed laying around and then later finding out that it was just under his hat.
I have no idea how long the party went on for. Some people probably went all night. I spent a good amount of time talking with Rob Mckendry by the keg hearing some of his crazy stories from his travels. That guy has more experiences than I could ever hope for. I also sat by the fire with Dubes reminiscing about when we first met in 2007 at a freeride in North Carolina. I think he was still living in Florida then and was pretty sketchy and now he’s one of the fastest guys in the world. I had also been bugging Zak for bushings the whole weekend because there was no way I would ever buy bushings online or anything so this was the only time I’d be able to reasonably get Venoms. I was pretty drunk when he finally brought some bushings for me and he didn’t have exactly what I was looking for. I somehow ended up with three barrels and two eliminators for a good price and just pocketed them without thinking about what I got but eliminators didn’t even fit my downhill trucks. It was a funny drunk moment in my life, to me anyway.
As things started to die down and only the hardest partiers still going, I found myself nodding off in a chair by the fire. I decided sleeping in the van was the best option that way I couldn’t be left behind in the morning. We were going to wake up and go to Justin’s house with Graham Buska and Krimes so that we could skate and I could get a ride to the airport with Jason. I managed to stumble to the van, find my sleeping bag and pass out almost immediately regardless of the cold.
I woke up hours later to the early morning sun shining through the trees and Graham digging through gear in the back of the van. I managed to climb out into the brisk morning and survey things in the day light. The ramp looked much bigger and I could really take in the beauty of Coop’s land. Over the trees you could see the the snow caps of the Rockies looming up. Most people were in the house with Coop cooking eggs for those still around. Everyone was laying around recovering from the night before, watching a little t.v. and sharing experiences like we’d been doing all weekend. It was another great family scene of downhillers all doing what they do. I know I keep mentioning this aspect but it’s something that is actually hard to describe if you aren’t a part of something like this.
We soon said our goodbyes and Kevin, Graham and myself piled back into the van and headed to Justin’s house where he, Jason and Rizzo where. Justin lives in a really nice little town nestled in a valley near some resorts or something. It’s a picturesque small Colorado, ski town. When we got there we just missed the viewing of the Sector 9 movie that Rizzo had been working on, that has still yet to be released and I’m not sure if it ever will. The trailer for it has been online for the past year and looks so sick though. After some coffee and hanging out we decided it was time to go skate and Justin said he had the perfect little neighborhood to session.
We all piled in the van and headed down the street a mile or so to a nice little private neighborhood with a good number of hairpins and nice pitch. Jason was hurting from a bad hipper he took so he decided to just drive and film. It was such an honor to skate such a road with Rizzo and Kevin. I’ve never seen people rip so hard in my life. Rizzo was on a 36” deck with 70mm race formula wheels and throwing down so hard. Kevin was throwing standers longer than I had ever seen in my life on his avenger. Watching Kevin throw huge thirty foot stand up slides into hairpins and doing huge 180s and switch checks was an eye opening experience. Also seeing Rizzo riding a similar style on the small pool deck, sessioning the ledge at the top of the hill as well was sweet and totally changed the way I wanted to ride a skateboard. I had so much fun trying to keep up and shred this gnarly, steep, sand coated run. We only had enough time for a few runs but what we got in was so much fun and I witnessed some of the best downhill skating ever.
After that quick session we went back to Justin’s to pack up and head to the airport. On the drive back there were a couple of Caribou hanging out next to the road. I’d never seen game that big or with huge antlers like that before. It really tripped me out and completed my experience in Colorado. As I was putting my board and extraneous gear in my duffle bag I was talking to Rizzo as he was packing his stuff up and out of no where he offered me a set of Sector 9 race formula wheels. It was awesome getting to know him because he’s been in the sport for so long and such an interesting guy. As we were finishing packing, Dubes rolled up looking to go skate fast. Him, Graham and Kevin borrowed Justin’s truck to go skate Rist while Justin, Rizzo, Jason and myself headed to the airport. It’s crazy that I just missed skating the fastest road in the world and that I watched a group of guys on their way out to do it. While I was boarding my plane they were going in the upper 70s on skateboards.
The drive back to the airport was pretty fun and interesting. We drove around the opposite way from when I was picked up which takes you far off from Denver. It was interesting to realize that half of Colorado is plains and that Denver is just on the edge of the Rockies. In one direction you look out and see flat fields to the horizon and in the other you see a wall of mountains growing into the clouds and covered with snow caps. I was sad to be leaving so soon. The landscape was so beautiful and I’d only just begun to see any of it and only skated two hills in a sea of mountains. The last memorable thing before I boarded my plane was stopping on the highway just outside the airport for Rizzo to get out and pee in a field. We got to the airport and Jason had barely enough time to make his flight and I had an hour or so to wait around. When I got on the plane I passed right out and woke up in Charloette but with enough time to make it to my next gate and hang out unlike on the way there. I’m pretty sure I passed right back out once on my connecting flight too and woke up home in Virginia. It all seemed like a dream that I just woke up from and needed to continue trying to be in. This trip completely set the pace and direction for the rest of my summer which I filled with the most traveling and skating I’d ever done. It was one of the best trips of my life and I hope so badly I can do it again and stay longer this year.
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