Emerica Wild Ride 2008 Part Two Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Emerica Wild Ride 2008 Part Two

Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2008 by Rob

By Ryan Clements

After the signing in VA, Jerry Hsu hopped on the back of Jon Minor's bike to get a bit of footage from the road. Jerry is one humble, cool-ass dude
We all stopped to pay a $12 toll (yes, $12) to cross Chesapeake Bay, which consisted of two tunnels and two or three bridges. It must have taken 30 minutes to cross. You should have heard the roar of the hogs as we made our way through the tunnels
I bailed from the crew to spend a few days with my family in Wilmington, DE. This weathered sticker that is on the back on my Aunt's car has been there for quite a while
I stayed in Wilmington for a couple of nights, then rode to Frederick, MD to meet and skate with the guys one last time. Then I hit the road to Florida on Tuesday afternoon. Off of 95 I grabbed some gas at the Quantico exit. There's a Marine base there and this statue of Iwo Jima was out front of the entrance to the base
For some reason it was a bit cold in the northeast. I had to bust out the leather jacket. This is at an exit just south of Richmond
This looks familiar and is most-likely Meronek-approved
Now you know why I stopped at this particular exit south of Richmond. How could I resist?
I got on the road the next morning at about 9am. If you've ever driven up or down 95 then I'm sure you've seen the literally hundreds of signs for South of the Border. I happened to need gas right when that exit came up so I couldn't help myself. The entire place is just very odd. It's huge, but really outdated and a bit desolate
This dude is really stoked about the bathrooms
I was making great time until I hit Florida. Just outside of Jacksonville it started drizzling on me. So I pulled over and busted out the rain gear. Little did I know that I'd be dealing with this crap for the next few hours
This photo was taken at 11pm out front of my place in Ybor...14 hours after the beginning of my journey. My hands were shaking and swollen, my eyes were bloodshot, and I was still wet. The rain stopped just outside of Orlando and I got home to Tampa faster than I ever had before
This is the final mileage I logged, which gave me a total of 2298 on the Wild Ride. Thanks to Emerica and everyone along the way that made my trip so enjoyable. Now go buy a motorcycle and join us next year

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