Red Bull Trip to Key Largo
Posted
on
on Monday, April 27, 2009
by Ryan
Photos from a business trip to Key Largo.
By Ryan Clements
The images below can also be viewed as a slide show.
The images below can also be viewed as a slide show.
 Red Bull Sarah summoned me for a brain-storming/idea-sharing session in Key Largo a few weeks back. Of course the first thing I thought was, "Cool. A five-hour bike ride sounds good to me." This is what it looked like on Alligator Alley from my vantage point |
 This was my rear view. A fellow biker rode with me for about 60 miles on Alligator Alley |
 I arrived in Key Largo just in time to catch the sunset. In the Keys, when the sun goes down, everyone applauds |
 Any bar where I can get four Coors Light drafts, a side salad, and an order of wings for $20 is paradise to me |
 The next day I spent most of my hours working with a great view, but took a break and headed down to the pool to grab some free lunch |
 I was really hyped when I found out that there was a skate park about five miles away. I rode around for a minute, but was told that I had to leave because I didn't have a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards. No joke |
 The lady running the park was super-nice and gave me the email address of one of the county commissioners. I sent a long email about how I will not be going back to Key Largo, spending my hard-earned money, as long as they have these ridiculous pad rules in effect |
 The skate park was actually in a city park, but none of the baseball fields or basketball courts had any rules posted at all. How sad. Are us skateboarders really that bad? Not in my opinion. I skated in the parking lot, in and out of traffic, barely avoiding pedestrians and no one said a word to me, which seemed much more dangerous...all while the skate park looked like a ghost town |
 The nice lady that ran the park took about 20 minutes out of her day to talk to me. This was her new puppy. I couldn't resist |
 Ryan Llamos of Red Bull writes down some of the amazing ideas I came up with |
 Eat, work, eat, work, eat, drink, repeat. Do that for three days in a row without a break and you'll see what I experienced |
 I never liked birds until I got to know Derewenko's bird, Skittles. These dudes were chillin' by the pool |
 Ah. Paradise. There was a hot tub on the other side of this fountain. I got in there with a newlywed couple, possibly on their honeymoon. I don't think they'd ever seen a heavily tattooed, white-trash skateboarder before. I said 'hello' and they just looked at me |
 I took a field trip one of the days during our free time and rode my bike about an hour south. I found a statue with this plaque on the bottom |
 On the ride back to the hotel I saw "BAR" from the road. I couldn't resist, but got a kick out of it because at 35 I think I was the youngest guy in the bar by about 20 years |
 One day I might buy a place on a secluded island and quit life, but I'm having too much fun right now to do much more than think about it |
 This picture took me about 50 tries to shoot. I had the bike on cruise control at 50mph, let go of the bars, hopped on the back seat, leaned back as far as I could, and shot the pic...and my cheap-ass camera doesn't have a fish-eye. Some dudes in a car rode up next to me and gave me the "shakka" sign |
 I got back to the hotel just in time to catch the sunset with the tunes of a reggae band that Red Bull hired |
 Clements: Hey Red Bull, can we please have a delicious dinner and open bar while the sun sets? Red Bull: No problem, Clements. We've got you covered |
 Ryan King and Marcos, Red Bull field marketing managers from Jacksonville and Ft. Lauderdale respectively |
 Where in the world did he get those eS Koston's? |
 They don't call it Alligator Alley for nothing. I saw about 100 of these dudes on the ride back, no exaggeration. Thanks for the fun time, Red Bull, and let's use some of my great ideas! |
