June 21, 2003_Portland
I made it to Portland. This morning I went over to the one indoor park in this city—the Department of Skateboarding. I met a kid named Austin that had just gotten out of the hospital after finishing his last chemo treatment. I hooked him up with a box of Andy Mac swag and we skated a bit on the street course together. Then I did a little mini-demo in the bowl for him and his family and a few groms that were at the park. I gave Austin my book and told him that it was probably going to be almost as big as the new Harry Potter book, so he’d better get reading. Then I was off to skate some cement.
I had spent some time online the night before and had mapped out my road line. I drove south about a half hour in the rain and pulled up to the new West Linn skatepark just as the rain let up. I grabbed a quick bite to eat from the local Safeway, and by the time I made it back, the park was dry with two kids riding the mini bowl. West Linn is a pretty advanced park. There's a lot going on in a relatively small area. The highlights were the over-vert pocket and pool coping around the whole park. Challenging, to say the least. It started raining again after a quick half hour session and I was back on the road.
The next stop was Aumsville. It’s about an hour south of Portland and I already can’t wait to go back. Aumsville is a teeny little farming town with the best bowl configuration I’ve ever skated. Once again, a park done right: lights on, open 24/7, skate at your own risk, pads "strongly RECOMMENDED." Really, it’s the only way to run a public skatepark. The guys at Dreamland built this one from what I hear and the cement work is flawless! A local told me that they designed it in a wet sandbox. Whatever works! Again, it was raining when I arrived. I headed back down the road to the Home Depot to pick up a floor squeegee. While I was gone, the skate gods smiled down on me. The rain stopped and the sun came out. A few kids helped me unclog the drains and I squeegeed like a mad man. I felt like a little kid. I couldn’t wait to skate the place!
Within the first few runs, I could do airs six feet out of hips that were only eight feet deep. There was a new line everywhere I looked. Every time I found a speed line to a hip, I’d discover three new lines I hadn’t thought of yet. I skated until I thought my legs where going to fall off. Then a local dad came by with a SoBe and a freezy-pop for me—that was enough to keep me skating another hour. Aumsville is my kind of park. I could spend days there and never get bored. I only wish there were something like it closer to San Diego. When I come back through Portland with the Huck Jam tour this fall, you’ll know where to find me when the show's not on.

June 20, 2003_Louisville
I finally got to skate the Louisville park! It came at a price but it was all worth it in the end. Did you ever have one of those days? My travel day to Louisville was one of those. What should have been a standard five-hour commute turned into a seventeen-hour travel nightmare.
We were in the air on our way to Chicago when the flight attendant came over the intercom wondering if there was a medical doctor on the flight. That didn’t sound good. If there was a doctor, I thought maybe I’d ask what could be done about the pounding in my head and the water dripping out of my nose. I’d developed a cold and it was in full swing now. The altitude wasn’t helping. I felt like my ears were going to explode. It turned out that besides my own problems, there was not one, but two, medical emergencies going down on our plane at the same time. I don’t know what was wrong with them, but one person in the front of the plane and one person in the back of the plane, were both having serious problems. Five minutes later, the pilot lets us know that we’d be making an emergency landing in New Mexico. We land, get the sick people off the plane and sit on the runway for two hours. Not that it was anyone’s fault, but we were all now missing our connections in Chi town. Eventually, we got back in the air, but just outside Chicago we find that there is "weather in the area." (Isn't it still called "weather" when it's sunny and 75?) We circle for a while, but we were running low on fuel. The pilot informed us that we’d have to divert to Milwaukee. However, just outside Milwaukee, we find there is "weather" there, too. There's weather everywhere. We were thus diverted to Rockford, Illinois where we refueled and sat on the runway for an hour and a half. There was a three-year-old boy named Skyler sitting next to me with his mother. It was his first time on an airplane. I told him he was really getting his money’s worth for his first trip. Three take-off and landings for the price of one! Finally, we reached Chicago, but because of the "weather," the airport was a mess. Stranded travelers everywhere. Cancelled and delayed flights abound. My original connection was cancelled and the last flight out on United was booked solid. It was looking like I was going to have to spend the night, and my head was still pounding and my nose was still dripping.
It may seem like I’m complaining as I write this, but realize that this kind of thing happens fairly often when you travel as much as I do. Really, all you can do is find the humor in it. It becomes a game trying to find a way to get to your destination. I’ve learned that the people that are good at the game often make it to where they’re going. The ones that are not so good tend to get left behind. I'm good at the game. I know the roads and rules of travel. I know, for instance, that in Chicago it will take me five minutes to get from the B concourse to the C concourse if I run full out with a backpack on. If I have my board with me, I can make it in about a minute and a half. [Correction: I just made the B to C concourse run in three and a half minutes to catch a connection to Portland. The trade off was that I was sweating through my clothes when I got to the gate.] Often times, it just takes a little foresight. Knowing the right people helps, too.
While in line for customer service I sent an email to my publicist, Mariana, to work on the hotel situation in case I didn’t make it. I also considered renting a car and driving the five hours down to Louisville if I couldn’t work something out. Mariana, in turn, called Simon at SoBe who has a wizard for a travel agent. By the time I got to the front of the line, Simon had called to tell me that his master travel agent had me booked on the last sold out American Airlines flight leaving that night for Louisville. Just to keep me in suspense, American held my baggage claim ticket when I checked in with them, claiming they wouldn’t let me on the flight until they confirmed that United had sent my checked bag over. Lucky for me, there were two gate changes during the next three hour delay and by the time my claim ticket made it to the last ticket counter, the new agent had no idea why she had it. I just asked for it back and got on the plane. I knew United wasn’t going to transfer my bag over. They never do.
I arrived in Louisville a little past midnight and walked over to the closed United baggage office. I could see my bag through the window but there was nobody there to open the door. I checked into my hotel, slept for three hours, and woke up at 4:30 a.m. trying to find out when United baggage opened at the airport. At most of the larger cities, airport personnel starts around 4 a.m. Ticketing usually starts around five. I had a t.v. morning show to do at six. Turned out United baggage didn’t start until seven. Slackers.
I did a six o’clock spot, and another at seven, in the same scruffy clothes I’d worn the day before and with a two-day-beard from not getting a chance to shave. I went straight to the airport from the t.v. station to fetch my bag then went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
I had heard that my friends Preston "the Loaf" Maigetter and Chet Childress were on their way across country again and just happened to be in Louisville. I also heard that Lance Mountain was in town. I called Lance to find out that he was not only with Preston and Chet, but also with Max Schaaf, Karma, Dan Drehoble and Joe Brook from Slap Magazine. They said they’d be at the park in time for the event that night.
Once again, I was not disappointed by the local talent in the SoBe Gravity Am contest. Kids were charging the street section of the park. While they did, I couldn’t help sampling the bowls, hips and snake runs the rest of the park had to offer. It was everything I’d heard it was. Plus, there was the full pipe. It was huge!
After the contest I did a quick demo on the vert ramp and signed autographs until kids and parents were satisfied. All the free SoBes were gone and it was already closing in on nine p.m., but the park was still jumping. The lights came on and I padded up for round two. Lance and the boys were already sessioning the vert-bowl/full-pipe section, so I joined in. It took a while, but I made a big frontside air transfer that I’d noticed right when I got there. Chet was killing it padless and everyone was having a great time. I looked at my watch and noticed it was pushing midnight. There were still at least a hundred people at the park! The stories I'd heard about sessions at 4 a.m. rang true.
The Louisville park it the best! Free. Skate at your own risk. Lights on and open 24/7. It should be something that every other public city park in the world strives for. I met the woman that owns the snack stand at the park. She just opened a skater youth hostel. For seventeen bucks a night, skaters who travel from far and wide to skate the park can get a bunk for the night and breakfast in the morning. It’s a dream come true. I’m jealous that there was never anything like this when I was a kid. Citizens of Louisville, KY, I commend you! Skaters of Louisville, KY, I envy you…

June 14, 2003_Minneapolis
Yesterday was Friday the 13th and there was a full moon—spooky! I was in Minneapolis for another stop on the SoBe Gravity Games Am series. I woke up early for a radio interview and the guys on the morning show and I hit it off talking about 80’s TV and movies. We decided that Lamont of Sanford and Son was the best comic for setting his dad up for jokes. I put in my vote for "best guy movie ever" as Top Gun and they were backing me. They threw on the Top Gun theme song and we started quoting. "I feel the need… the need, for speed!" We also mentioned that I was going to be at the Mall of America that night for a signing.
Next was a quick trip to the local NBC affiliate to skate around the studio with the sports news anchor. It’s amazing how many people I meet these days in all sorts of different fields that grew up skateboarding. He was pretty rusty but he could still roll around just fine. From there I cruised over to the 3rd Lair skatepark for some more media stuff. I arrived just in time for lunch with the local skate camp kids. I taught a woman reporter how to get rolling in the bowl and got to skate the street course with the kids a bit. They even had a sweet Skatewave course set up out back.
Then it was off to the Mall of America. It’s the largest mall in the world, complete with hotels and an amusement park. People actually take their vacations at this mall. The Payless had a giant pyramid of my shoes stacked up and the Barnes and Noble had a cart full of my books. It was a good time but I couldn’t wait to get back to the park to catch the Friday night session.
John is a friend of mine that judges sometimes on the World Cup tour. We used to skate the amateur contest together back in the day. He and a bunch of other local rippers were skating the bowl when I arrived. It was a heated session. We had the best time trying to transfer out of the bowl, over a wall and onto a bank in the street course. I made a 360 transfer and was trying to get John to put down the bean plant transfer he was trying when I noticed another option. If I could get the speed, I might be able to go the other way—from the bank to the bowl. The scary part was that the wall was higher from the street course side (about five feet) and I’d be ollieing off a bank rather than just floating off the transition of the bowl. On the first few tried I thought I was going to clip my toes on the way over the wall. I wasn’t even bringing my board with me. The other problem was speed. I was starting all the way at the back of the street course but if I didn’t pump everything just right, I wouldn’t have the trajectory to carry me over the wall (if I could ollie that high) and still clear the deck of the bowl. Eventually I was clearing the deck and knee sliding right into the bowl. Now if I could just keep my board on my feet. Like I always say, when in doubt, grab melon. I did, and was able to get my board out in front of me enough to clear the wall, barely. I wanted to set it down but I was too close to hanging up on the way in so I threw it away again. On the next try though, I gave it a bit more speed and made it.
I love finding new lines and different ways of looking at things. This was one of those tricks where, even as I was trying it, I wasn’t sure if it was even possible. Sometimes you’ll never know unless you try. I found out it was possible and I was stoked.
At the contest the next day I did a demo in the bowl and made my new transfer second try. I was also lucky enough to get to grant another wish through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Keenen and his family showed up to check out the contest and hang out with me for a while. I showed them around and fetched them some SoBe while they watched. They seemed pretty psyched on the whole scene. Keenen’s got a cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma but you would never know it with the positive attitude he had all day. I hooked him up with a bunch of Andy Mac gear and took him for a ride on the street course with his new kicks on. Keenen was all smiles at the end of the day and that’s what it’s all about. It was time to head home.

June 8, 2003