2 weeks of improv down the west coast April 2008 October 9, 2008

Richie told me about the road trip a year ago. An annual adventure straight down the west coast from Canada to Mexico in an old conversion van, with no set plans or schedule. Each day when we wake up we decide what we want to do, and whatever happens happens, the only goal being to have as much fun as possible. I think Richie was a little skeptical when I told him to count me in 100%, but I knew from the beginning that this would be something I’d better not miss.

I touched down in Spokanne Washington sometime after sunset. When the van pulled up, people jumped out and surprised me, full of energy. Video and photo cameras were out, everybody was excited. The guys had already been road tripping for about 2 days from Canada, and apparently crossed the border without any ID just by flirting with the female border guard. I climbed into the van, Dan cracked a beer for me, and we drove off into the night exchanging all sorts of stories. Right away I felt lucky to be there.

the general direction

Threading the needle through an alley in Spokanne

Richie at the wheel paying close attention

Our first stop was Pullman Washington. We had no place to stay, and ended up parking behind an Architecture building at the University and crashing in the van. 6 people plus bags proved to be quite a mission, but we slept pretty well despite the sardine style accomodations. Even when the police found us at 4am and saw how rediculous we looked, they just laughed and let us be.

hotel pullman

luxury

make yourself at home

 

So much happened every day, there is no way i’ll be able to put it all on here.  Pullman ended up being a great spot for skating, even though we only went to some really generic spots instead of all the unique exclusive spots that made us want to come there in the first place.  The Canadian guys have a love of drinking but a fear of police that ended in some hillarious police chase scenarios.  I watched in amazement as these guys were leaping into the bushes and woods to hide, or running up hills just to get caught by another officer.  They would always get caught, but somehow always talked their way out of it and never got in trouble. 

filming lines

Alf

found on campus

portals

These babes were watching us skate from their window and summoned us up.

 Richie on his only skate day before hurting the ankle

texture found on campus

The guys discovering american beer

On the third day, a snowstorm moved in, so we headed to Portland Oregon. The drive was amazing. It was my first time seeing this part of the country. Giant rolling hills and rivers, some really amazing scenery. Everybody was in good spirits.

 

bridge crossing

constantly changing weather

somewhere in washington

richie brought this book to inspire him for las vegas.  later we changed the tour name from “the no-plans tour”, to the “fear and loathing tour”, and i think by the end we agreed it should be the “beer and loathing tour”

pitstop

roadside scenery featuring devon

richie

alf

After hours of driving, we arrived only to find the entire downtown shut down and deserted. It was really bizzare. Eventually we found one street with humans, and it was filled with swat vehicles, undercover police cars, and any other sort of law enforcement vehicle you can think of. Curiosity got the best of us, so we roamed around to figure out what was happening. We snuck around some barriers and climbed a parking garage only to discover a mad on the building next to us threatening to commit suicide.  It was a really intense scenario, especially the more we learned about it. He had been up on the balcony all day, through the rain and hail. We all wished there was something we could do to help, but at the same time it feels so helpless. They called his parents and projected it through the PA system that echoed through the streets. It was really eerie. We stayed for a few hours hoping to watch him come down, but he didnt’ budge, and eventually we had to leave. The next day we checked the news and found out that he did come down afterall. Good choice buddy.

 

arriving in portland

all sorts of police vehicles closing off the streets

view from our parking garage hideout spot

 

getting the stare down from the swat team

this guy had been up threatening to jump since 8am.  this was shot at sunset.

it started raining and hailing on him while he balanced on the edge

into the night

 

It was a really interesting day. I remember how nice the drive was, and shot a photo of Jessie reading a newspaper in the van while the sun was shining on the word life. There was such a contrast from a rich sense of life one moment, and then into a scenario staring into the face of death the next. The scenery, the mood, and the experiences kept transitioning as we continued down the road to see what would happen next.

 

The next day was a long Journey along the west coast. We wanted to get on the 101 and take the coastline all the way till San Francisco. Until this trip, i-70 through Colorado/Utah had been my favorite drive, but the 101 raised the bar in my book. We had complete freedom to do whatever we wanted, so we would pull over and wander on mountain tops, or explore random dunes, overlook the coast, and watch the lanscape change dramatically the farther we went.

prime real estate

green engine

weathered vessel

just off the road, 5 minutes of a great view before the rain came in

spielberg

from lush forests to the sahara

did i mention everybody got hooked on kendama?

this thing will make it right?

 

We spent the night in a random town just a few hous drive from the Redwood forest.  We were all really excited to spend some time there, and it didn’t let us down.  We followed the old 101 right down the avenue of the giants (thanks to a quick call home for some mapquest help).  The road winds through the forest, then along the coastline, then back into the forest.  It’s such an unreal place.  It was completely deserted except for 2 random hippies we saw tripping out of their minds and nice enough to show us the way to a trail.  We hiked around a while, but the weather limited us from going very far.  If you get the chance to visit the Redwoods, GO!

 

an oldie but a goodie

made it!

paul bunyan and babe welcomed us

big roots, little alf

shot this 5 seconds before the light surrounded Dan and he ascended into the clouds

scale

some bark thats been alive twice as long as i have

misty

ok so the famous “drive thru tree” actually requires a pretty tiny vehicle.  The van wasn’t really cutting it.

on the road again

rainy day in the forest

yellow tomato?

portable dj

everybody overlooking the pacific

epic coastline

no pirate ships?

this place brought out the ninja in us

dan n richie

panoramic of our hidden beach

We left the forest and the coastline in awe, and headed for the next best thing on the map, San Francisco.  For a lot of the guys it was their first trip there.  We planned to skate a legendary park the first day, and once we drove out we found it soaking wet with fresh rain.  Despite the hiccup, SF is home to plenty of other amazing spots.  A few stayed with our friends Pat,Adam, and Nick while the others slept in the van.  There were competitions each night to determine who would sleep where.  We hung out at D-Structure a bit, and took some trolly’s around town, had an amazing meal at the wharf, and really let ourselves be toursits for a day.  We found all sorts of things to skate, and met up with old friends.  I can’t even remember how many days we stayed in SF.  It seemed like we kept extending it another day because of how good it was. 

Closing in on SF

 

Shattered Dreams

SF hills

oakland sesh

trying to get dressed and brush teeth simultaneously

barrier spot thanks to nick

rooftop view

most generic SF photo, why am i posting this?

100% tourist

downtown park

wig factory?

Ivan, Rob, Jon, and Pat came out to Oakland for a session.  Here they are watching a clip back.

Loudest sea lions ever at the wharf

the most appetizing burger ad

rusty blue

Some texture from a fellow road warriors vehicle

The Cali-School entrance

senor devon

out with the old

on the way to d-structure

sneaky throwing down a few tricks at sunset

alf ripped this spots to shreds.  backslide on a piece of skate history

 

We left SF in hopes of getting some good skating done in LA.  There were some famous schools that proved to just be bust spots, so we spend a lot of time just driving and wandering around.  I think we also managed to get banned from motel 6 for a year, due to some disagreements about why we couldn’t lounge around in their pool after checkout.  Anyhow, we were gaining miles on the border and booked it to San Diego.  We got some bad news about Mexico however.  There was a drug bust unprecedented in size in Tijuana the previous day, and a huge gun battle broke out.  Everything was really unstable and we decided not to get mixed up in it all, so we just kicked it in San Diego for a while.  Jon and Brian were on their way to China to work on their skate mold.  I forget why, but we stayed less than 24 hours and decided to hit the road again.

 

meet nimh

i can’t believe my hair in this photo

the whirlwind that followed us 

Backyard camping Jon Elliot style, complete with electricity and appliances

We had one more major stop before leaving California, probably the most random of all stops on the entire trip.  Alf was related to the wife of this pro wrestler Goldberg, and his mansion was somewhere in the hills nearby.  Alf called her up and we stopped in for a visit.  Our van struggled just to make it up the hill, and we got lost on his property trying to find his house.  Even his garage is the size of a 3 story house.  I wonder what he thought as this van full of grimy skater kids pulled up to his door and piled out.  Anyhow, we stayed for a while and chatted it up, but couldn’t really get past the fact that he was wearing this bright neon fanny pack.  It was one of those situations where you try not to laugh because you know the guy could crush you like a fly, but its just too hilarious.  He was rocking this thing hard, in his own kitchen nonetheless.  We were hoping to get the invite to stay overnight so we could roam around the mansion more, but it never came, so we got back in the van and pointed towards Las Vegas.

as if the trip actually needed the chaos of vegas

spotted this doggy outside a gas station while we bought our convenient store dinner

no no no, YOU rule

one of the best art pieces in vegas

fake france

the new bridge being built at the hoover dam

We were pretty low on cash to live it up in Vegas properly, but we still made the most of it. Enough crazy stuff happens just walking around to stay entertained. It’s a state law that whatever happens there stays there, so unfortunately I’m unable to go into any more detail than that. The last big finale was a poorly planned journey to the Grand Canyon. We left late, spent 6 hours driving there, just to arrive right at the end of sunset. We soaked it in for 30 minutes and then drove the 6 hours straight back to Vegas. Even a 12 hour mission is worth it just to stand at the edge and gaze.

days of being on the road, and eventually things like this happen

if driving gets boring just put all your focus into kendama

30 minutes… 

no caption necessary

The fast paced whirlwind trip came to a screeching halt the next day, as everybody packed up and hit the road for a 30 something hour straight shot to Canada with a detour through Glacier National Park. I had to catch a flight to Phoenix, and just like that it was over. This is up there for one of the all time best road trips. This whole entry just scratches the surface of all the good times, hilarious random encounters, and memories packed into those 2 weeks. It’s nice to take an extended vacation in the middle of April.  Same time next year?