Kyles ipod connection thingy is our vehicle for excitement and as with any vehicle worth owning, its giving us hell. Fuzzing in and out of transmission, the music pumps out in rift with our bumpy ride in the truck down the tar-black highway. I hear hurricanes ablowin blare the lyrics from some old song on the classic rock playlist Kyle had set some ways back.
Not here Kyle chimes in, looking around at the bursts of color the deciduous trees around these parts flash into almost overnight. With beautiful blue skies and some wispy clouds above us, we were on a road trip from Portland, where we had just spent a week and a half touring a ski film to Oregonian mcstonian audiences, and heading to a place, for me as yet unknown, somewhere called Eastern Washington. The drive through the Hood River area was just as beautiful as I remembered it from that summer spent coaching ski racing up at Mt. Hood. We had spent a week up training on Palmer Snowfield, and by the end, we all knew it was time to go play in the river. We even jumped some cliffs and jet-skied.
Or, there was that other summer, when Collin and I had sent an amazingly crazy trip to Seattle to visit our good friend Visco. Ahh, yes115mph on the drive from Portland to Hood River, OR, passing cars and trucks as if in a video game. The pure thrill of it all alone was more than the minds of some 18 year-olds could handle, much less the rash of lowly establishments we were leaving behind in our wake.
But, this time, I was on a trip to tour a ski film. As Kyle and I take in our surroundings, the reality that this little trip of ours is actually a job and were getting paid is enough to keep the high-fives going. Though, the bumble and grumble and mumble of the trucks jolts and shudders sure made for an interesting ride. The show in Salem went as planned, and nothing really stuck out of the ordinary. So, here we were, ready to pull a few stints in Washington before shipping out to the San Francisco Bay area for the next month.
Free gas! Kyle rings out as he steps on the trucks accelerator and guns it after Al and Evan in the Jeep. Were in a race with them, they dont know it, and no one knows whos winning.
The life of a roadie, I think to myself, as I look up from the computer again to soak in some external stimuli that does a body good. Not so bad at all.
My attention soon turns back to the flash of scenery out the passenger window, and my thoughts drift to what adventures lay ahead. Yakima, here we come!
Kyle and I wish we had some sweet headphones to rock out to on our bumpy drive in the Budget Truck, so to avoid our mishaps with the radio, get your own pair of Skullcandy G.I. Headphones and get to rockin’!