Make-A-Wish Road Trip 2003 Day 1

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2003 by Ryan

Make-A-Wish Road Trip 2003 By Ryan Clements Thursday the 13th This is definitely not the usual type of road trip that I take. Normally I’d just be with one or two other people and on a strict mission to get somewhere in my truck. Our three-car, 10-skater caravan to the Make-A-Wish Jam at South Side Skatepark in Texas is a bit of a different story. The drivers consist of me in the old F-150, Giles in the half-assed rice rocket, and Afro-Jim in his car (it’s pretty standard – not much to say about it). We headed out from Skatepark at 9am and drove right to Tallahassee. I’m the type of driver that literally won’t stop unless I have to, but when there’s a crew 10 deep, you have to take others into consideration. Tallahassee did one hell of a job on their skate park. It’s well-constructed, free, has no pad rules, and you just walk up and skate. I don’t understand why all skate parks don’t operate as such, but that’s an entire other story. I figured that it was kind going to be kind of a pit-stop and we’d be back in the cars in no time, but we ended up skating for nearly three hours. Every time the session would die down, someone else would start it up on another obstacle. After gathering everyone together and getting back on the road, we drove for another five hours or so and I was fortunate enough to get pulled over by some county cop in Mississippi. Surprisingly, he was cool as hell and just a quick check-out and let me got. But then again, if you’re not doing anything illegal then you have nothing to worry about. Know what I mean? It was getting late and everyone was tired, so we got off I-10 at a place called Hammond. Whenever you plan to spend the night in a place you’ve never heard of, be prepared for a tiny adventure. Our adventure consisted of attempting to find a restaurant that actually served alcohol. But since that was a no-go, we ended up at a bar called Deluxe Club – Home of the Most Beautiful Bartenders, and honestly, for Hammond standards, they were pretty good looking. This is a bit off of the subject, but I was reading about Oxy - Contin usage in Newsweek not too long ago. They mentioned how usage is high in small towns (like Hammond). I tested the theory at the bar by asking around on what drugs are ‘hot’ there. She verified that we could definitely get some Oxys. Great. And most importantly, our waitress at Waffle House afterwards said that normally we could get some Crystal Meth, but that it’s currently “dry.” But then she thought that I was a cop and ended the conversation. Side note to parents: I was only joking – I didn’t really want Oxys or Crystal Meth. Now it’s time to get back on the road...
Craig Kaths - backside nosegrind 180 out	Matt Giles - frontside 5-0 back 180 out	Matt Giles - front crook	Matt Giles - front crook	Matt Giles - frontside ollie to tail
Adam Burgess - backside nollie	Adam Burgess - wallie	Ryan Clements - frontside boneless to tail	Ryan Clements - boardslide	Ryan Clements - tail block
Matt Giles - lein to tail	Ian Gow - backside tailslide	Ian Gow - frontside rock	Ian Gow - kickflip nosegrind	Kyle Stone - frontside 180 melon
Rob Meronek - frontside rock	Rob Meronek - melon	Scotty Conley - sit down board slide	Steve Brandi - frontside 5-0	Steve Brandi - backside noseblunt slide
Ian Gow - kickflip 50-50	Matt Giles - ollie into the quarter	Ian Gow - ollie	Ian Gow - frontside bluntslide	Yeah bra, it's the Nugget Store