Carpe per diem: vox southern states of mind.

WELL, I CAME INTO THIS IN THE MIDDLE. I had to take care of things back home, but who wants to hear boring-ass crap about work, fight? I flew into Austin, TX, to meet up with the boys who had taken off from San Diego, CA, earlier in the week. Peter Watkins, JT Aultz, Emmanuel Guzman, and Mika Edin took off from Vox headquarters with Ed Dominick at the wheel. We were to meet up with Justin Strubing and Chaz Pineda in Austin.

I'D HEARD THE STORIES about their drive to Texas, with go-karts and E-Man's ollie into some crazy bank behind a taco shop with a huge crowd of just-got-let-out-of-the-club humans cheering him on at 3 am. That one sounded rad. They hit some spots in Arizona and New Mexico on the way through to the Lone Star State. I flew in halfway, but this came at a price. You see, you can't rent a van to drive across the United States and just drop it off in Orlando, FL, to hop on a plane and fly back. Nope. Ed tried and tried, but no dice. So I agreed to drive back with him from the tradeshow in Orlando on Sunday to get back to San Diego for ASR, which was happening the following weekend. I don't know if you've ever traveled this route, but let me tell you, it sucks. And we had to do it nonstop to be back in time.

Anyway, back to Austin. Donny McAllister picked me up and we went to meet up with everyone at the Death Star ramp. The skate scene in Austin is amazing; everyone is very hospitable, they skate extremely well, and they're quick to hand you a beer and ask if you'd like to barbeque. And Texans like to barbeque! It seems every night we 'qued somewhere in the Lone Star State--backyard, parking lot, wherever. Later that night we made our way to the Banana Farm ramp, where we came into one huge session, barbeque, party--the full Monty. A bonfire was lit and fire walking across was the call of the night. Good times.

Chaz Pineda met up with us at the Skatepark of Austin at the demo that was held there, and then came along for the ride to Florida. Afterwards we were on our way to Lake Charles, LA, stopping off at Rippers skatepark for a stretch and final skate before we made our way to the casino to stay the night, lose some per diem, and witness the Guzman in action. "The Guz is loose!" Yeah E-Man. This trip was a lot of fun with Emmanuel, 'cause you never know what the night might bring. Thanks to the security guards for not giving us the boot from the casino.

Now, driving through where Hurricane Katrina hit was eye opening. It's not one spot; it's three states wide. Whole towns are just gone! As well as houses everywhere that looked like they were bulldozed over. Being from Florida I have been through a few hurricanes, but it seems like they got the shaft there. I mean, what was that? Some government experiment for FEMA gone wrong? It's really sad to see that much destruction and it seems like they're ignored.

YOU SHOULD SEE under the highway running through New Orleans, LA: thousands and thousands of cars. That's where they put all the cars that got ruined from the floods. It was surreal. But we skated in New Orleans the night we got there. Cops were cool at the spot we were skating that we lit up with the lights and genny. One of the officer's kids skated, so we hooked him up with some gear and in return he let us keep skating. We hung out with the locals, hearing horror stories about the hurricane. If you have the chance to help out the people of New Orleans or the Katrina survivors, please do so. They need it. Bad.

Then it was back on the road for the 18-hour drive to Tampa, FL. Good ol' Skatepark of Tampa, my old hometown park. I visited my family, the guys did a demo, and we hit the ol' Ybor City nightlife. Next was Orlando for the tradeshow crap and nearer to the inevitable drive back to San Diego. We hooked up with Picky Oyola and skated some spots in and around Orlando. It rained a lot there so it was cut down to a minimum. Finally it was the dreaded Sunday night when we began our haul-ass back to SD. Along for the ride was Ed, JT, Chaz, who also had a plane ticket but opted to ride back with us even though he's not old enough to help out driving, and myself. The rest of the pussies flew home.

We dropped off the Tumbleweed (Chaz) in Houston and proceeded westward. Somewhere in Texas, JT said he knew some spots that we could maybe hit up. But JT's directions are sometimes a little bit off Actually, a lot off, but this time the "Dude, turn off here, I swear!" paid off We stumbled onto an unskated gold mine! Don't know how long this will stay a secret, but there was so much to skate with no signs of anyone ever skating any of it. We scouted out the campus where random humans were milling around, and I was convinced we were going to get the boot. But JT and Ed said fuck it, and tried it out to see what would happen. Weird thing--no one cared! We got our shot and after skating for almost an hour, I think about two people stopped to watch for a second. I've got to give it up to JT, who pulled off after driving for almost nine hours straight. Good work, buddy. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.