Blogs Results

   Day 15/30: As I’m trying to decide which adventure to write about, I’m getting far too distracted by the thought of fresh snow in the alpine. Could yesterday really have been the first day of spring?! Not on the mountains, not in the trees and not in my mind.

   The other day I uploaded with two good buddies; Stu and Derek. Stu had his Vholdr cam so we were on a tree mission! It’s no secret the coverage hasn’t been good enough to venture too deeply into the woods this season. That was until last weekend when a huge storm hit Whistler Blackcomb dumping 158cms in total. So that was our cue to head out and rip some pow!

   Stu’s been around these parts for ages, so I was expecting him to teach us a thing or two, but it just so happens we showed him some sweet spots he had never hit before. We started in Crystal by dropping off our bags at the snow fort, from there we headed to a super fun & short section of trees referred to as “the picnic table.” It’s literally a picnic table sitting on top of a knoll in the trees. It has an awesome view of the valley but that’s not why you go there. Below the table is a sweet pillow line, but watch your speed as it ends in tight trees and comes out onto a cat track.

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Hey just thought i'd promote the rail jam being put on by the City of Revelstoke tomorrow (Feb 7). There's an amateur class and open(Pro) class for skiers and snowboarders. Ams have the opportunities to win gear prizes etc, while there's $5000 cash up for grabs in the pro category! Helmets are mandatory!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2009 Tour Dates Announced by The North Face and Mountain Sports International

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding is the largest big mountain snowboarding tour in the country, with a prize purse of $45,000 and two new world-class venues

 

Registration is now open on www.thenorthfacemasters.com

 

Salt Lake City, Utah, December 17, 2008 – Now in its sophomore year, The North Face Masters of Snowboarding (TNF Masters) has become the largest cohesive competitive big mountain snowboarding tour in the country. A three-stop tour, TNF Masters is designed to cater to the motivation, talent and skill of world-class big mountain snowboarders. The 2009 tour visits Snowbird, Utah, Crested Butte, Colorado, and culminates at the ultimate big mountain competition venue of Kirkwood, California.

 

“The North Face Masters tour is going to be off the chain this year,” said TNF Masters Alyeska, Alaska, 2008 champion Rob Kingwill. “I am excited to be a part of the movement toward giving big mountain snowboarding competition the recognition it deserves. All three 2009 venues are world-class, and I can't wait to see what happens.”

 

TNF Masters features a $45,000 cash prize purse and serves as a qualifier event to the Freeride World Tour. Winners from the Snowbird and Crested Butte TNF Masters events will have the opportunity to compete in the Nissan Tram Face at Squaw Valley, California.

 

"Freeriding, the use of natural terrain, fall line, and innovation from riding style is the essence of big mountain snowboarding,” said TNF Masters Head Judge Tom Burt. “The TNF Masters series is designed around this and that is the reason why I agreed to become the head judge. The terrain will be delivered by Snowbird, Crested Butte, and Kirkwood. All have different flavors of terrain so each will bring its own challenges for the riders, and every rider will bring their own style and innovation to each venue. When the two mesh the best freerider will emerge.“

 

TNF Masters gathers big mountain snowboarding tribes from all around the world. All male and female snowboarding competitors above age 18 are welcomed to participate. Registration is now open on www.thenorthfacemasters.com.

 

The North Face Masters of Snowboarding 2009 Series Schedule

Stop #1 – Snowbird, Utah.                  January 29-February 1, 2009

Stop #2 –Crested Butte, Colorado. February 12-15, 2009

Stop #3 –Kirkwood, California         March 5-8, 2009

 

Fans of big mountain snowboarding can catch same-day coverage of the Semi-Final and Final rounds of each TNF Masters event on www.thenorthfacemasters.com where there are complete videos, photos, athlete profiles, detailed event schedules, registration information and more.

 

For more information please visit www.thenorthfacemasters.com.

 

Special Thanks To:

The North Face

Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort

Crested Butte Mountain Resort

Kirkwood Mountain Resort

Primaloft

Snowboard Magazine

Mountain Sports International

 

REGISTRATION INFORMATION AND ATHLETE INQUIRIES CONTACT

Sara Pinsoneault

Athlete Communications

Mountain Sports International

801.349.4650

sarap@mtsports.com

 

MEDIA INQUIRES AND FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Cara Williams

PR, Communications & Media Manager

Mountain Sports International

801.349.4608

cara@mtsports.com

 

Pamela Bennett

Communications Manager

The North Face

510.618.3654

pamela_bennett@vfc.com

 

About MSI

Mountain Sports International (MSI) is a private company, founded in 1997, to develop and produce action/adventure sports events and programming in North America. MSI owns and produces the U.S. Freeskiing Series, the U.S. Skiercross Series, and the Freeskiing World Tour, in addition to several other properties and concepts.

 

MSI provides event management services for Burton, Salomon, and Red Bull and has provided infrastructure and expertise for the NBC Gravity Games and ESPN Action Sports Projects, including the Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour. MSI specializes in matching clients with events for brand penetration into target demographics, developing product identification and loyalty. MSI matches brand and culture, company and credibility to create sought-after events that help to define the action sports culture.

 

About The North Face

The North Face, a division of VF Outdoor, Inc., was founded in 1968. Headquartered in San Leandro, California, the company offers the most technically advanced products in the market to accomplished climbers, mountaineers, snowsport athletes, endurance athletes, and explorers. The company’s products are sold in specialty mountaineering, backpacking, running, and snowsport retailers, premium-sporting goods retailers and major outdoor specialty retail chains.

 

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Mammoth Mountain, CA – The Town of Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area welcomed the first commercial aircraft in over a decade to arrive in Mammoth Lakes, California on October 14, 2008. Travelling from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 74 seat, high-speed, twin-engine turboprop Bombardier Q400 operated by Horizon Air safely touched down as scheduled at 10:05 a.m. 

 

With a snowy Mammoth Mountain in the background, courtesy of an early-season snowstorm the previous weekend, the first passengers exited the plane to be greeted by a gathering of town dignitaries and local residents. This inaugural flight was designed to give Horizon Air staff and special media guests a glimpse of what will come when nonstop daily service from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Mammoth Lakes begins on December 18, 2008. 

 

“We have been working very hard to get commercial air service back to Mammoth after a 13-year absence,” said Howard Pickett, Chief Marketing Officer at Mammoth Mountain. Pickett continued, “Horizon’s daily flights will make it even easier to get to California’s biggest playground here in the Eastern Sierra. Now winter enthusiasts will be able to spend more time enjoying the slopes, and less time trying to get here.”

 

Horizon Air will run daily service from Dec. 18, 2008, through April 12, 2009. The 65 minute flight departs Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) daily at 2:20 p.m. and arrives at Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) at 3:25 p.m. The return flight leaves Mammoth at 4:05 p.m. and arrives at LAX at 5:10 p.m. Introductory fares for select flights from Los Angeles to Mammoth Lakes are available for $79 each way, and standard fares are available starting at $99 each way.*

 

In preparation for commercial air service from Horizon Air, Mammoth Yosemite Airport recently underwent $12 million in improvements including a new 5,000 sq. foot commercial terminal building, a reconstructed runway and taxiway, new runway lighting, new ramp lighting and a new automated weather system. The last commercial air service to MMH airport was Transworld Express in 1995. 

 

Photo: Horizon Air touches down at Mammoth Yosemite Airport. Credit: Peatross/MMSA

 

*See horizonair.com for complete fare rules. All schedules subject to change without notice.

 

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is the leading four-season mountain resort in California. With 1.5 million annual skier visits, Mammoth Mountain is currently the third most frequented ski resort in the United States. The company owns and operates a variety of resort businesses including recreation, hospitality, real estate development, food and beverage and retail. Specific businesses owned and operated by Mammoth Mountain include Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, June Mountain, Tamarack Lodge and Resort, Mammoth Snowmobile Adventures, Mammoth Mountain Bike Park and the Mammoth Mountain Inn. Mammoth Mountain also operates Juniper Springs Resort, the Village Lodge and Sierra Star Golf Course in Mammoth Lakes, California. For more information on Mammoth Mountain, visit MammothMountain.com or call 800.MAMMOTH.

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What is the hardest thing about Snowboarding the first day of the year?  Putting down the board and taking pictures. The mood was epic on the afternoon of the 11th, boards and shovels in hand we embarked on a journey that would bring friends of all types and styles together.  While most kids were playing video games and sleeping in we were playing in the snow that friday nights storm left for us.  Matty McInnis, Chris Bartowski and I headed up there around 11 and met up with the heavy hitting crew including Brandon Cocard, Nick Visconti, Joshua Parker, Niki, Brandon Dury, Who, Brandon Hays, Andrew Brewer and RV. Check out these photos from our long trip to our patch somewhere above the greater Reno/Carson City area.

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The season kicked off this past weekend with the freestyle.ch in-city event in Zurich, Switzerland. For the snowboarding part of the action sports show, the biggest names in the game gathered on the lakeside of "Downtown Zurich“, including Burton shreds Mikkel Bang, Chris Sörman, Marko Grilc, Peetu Piiroinen, Wang Lei and last year's winner Stephan Maurer.

The Burton Euro Squad was busy all weekend throwing it down on the 37 meter tall ramp, the signing session marathons and the late night parties. And everybody scored at some point!

We will stick to talking about the official competition on snow here: Peetu Piiroinen opened his season like he ended the past one – on the podium! He only got beaten by Stephan Gimpl and Hampus Mosseson, and landed himself in the third spot with high scores for his Backside Rodeo 7 Tailgrab and Cab 1080.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

 

Help a blogger out / Swords will... / Kale's not ready for Fall

This blog brought to you buy ISeyewear.

08/09 Signature Forma goggles now available!



If you're interested in sponsoring a furiousblog post hit me here.



Help a blogger out. Kenta just brought to my attention that our buddy Matt has a Vancouver based food blog called vancouverslop. The blog focuses on Matt's food experiences around the city and his dislike for scenesters. He's currently working on finding the best burger in the city. According to Kenta, Matt recently received a check for $10 for advertisements on his blog. His average blog gets about a hundred views. So I'm conducting a little experiment here for Matt. Everyone reading this please go to vancouverslop and click on the advertisement to the right of the blog. I'll let you know how much his next check is and hopefully fill you in on how to get paid for blogging.

If swords, the F word or asians bug you don't watch this video.



I talked to Kale Today and he couldn't believe it was already Fall.



He was like "where did the summer go?" and I was like "tell me about it."

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Brothers Factory finally releases a new movie this fall. The premiere will be held at the world-famous Chateau Frontenac.

When: September 27th, 20h, Chateau Frontenac, Québec City
What: What



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So last month I entered a local skate comp in Park City, and I totally took 1st place.  Cool huh?  I knew my practice would pay off one day!  It was my first and only comp so far... and I will have to admit... Competing makes me sick.  Like people who get sick when they speak in public, I got sick to my stomach each time I dropped in for my one minute run.  Dang. 



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Porters Sports of Lake Tahoe – one of the country’s premier ski and snowboard shops – is proud to announce the launch of a new version of its website porterstahoe.com. In less than two years, its first version achieved multi-million dollar revenues and became one of the fastest growing ski and snowboard ecommerce websites in the country. The new website offers greater and easier navigation, the inclusion of community forums and user-generated product reviews as well as a series of Porters-produced, on-snow ski and snowboard video reviews.

Beyond the enhanced features, there have been several major customer service improvements. Porterstahoe.com now pays the sales tax for California and Nevada residents, meaning that any purchases made online from porterstahoe.com are completely sales tax free. In addition, porterstahoe.com now offers a 100% “Satisfaction & Price Match Guarantee” as well as lifetime, unconditional return policy. It still offers free, ground UPS shipping for anyone in the United States’ “lower 48.” This past spring it also began shipping a large percentage of the almost 20,000 items available to purchase on porterstahoe.com to international customers. However certain brands, such as Burton and K2, can only be shipped domestically due to contractual limitations.

Porters Sports of Lake Tahoe began selling ski equipment in Tahoe City, CA in 1960 – the year the Winter Olympics came to Squaw Valley. Since that time it has added two other locations in Truckee, CA and Incline Village, NV. It also has an “off-price” only store next to the Tahoe City dam and Truckee river outlet affectionately named the “Dam Outlet.” Porterstahoe.com was launched in the fall of 2006.

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The first weekend of August is a busy one.  Three things you should know about this upcoming weekend.

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’ve never been exposed to military life, and I’ve certainly never been in a combat zone - until last week.



I spent a good part of my summer vacation in Afghanistan. Danny Kass, Grete Elliassen, and I spent 10 days in the Middle East, visiting our troops on an "X Games themed meet and greet." Our mission was simple: boost moral. If you’ve ever hung out with Danny, Grete, or I you’d know not only did we accomplish our mission, we went above and beyond the call of duty. It was a small sacrifice compared to what the servicemen and women of the Armed Forces are doing for our great nation.

I went over to Afghanistan with an open mind, to see first hand what was going on and how the troops were doing. I came back humbled and with a true understanding of sacrifice. I mean, I know how trying “the road” can be, but giving yourself for 15 months of your life, away from family and friends, is one hell of a sacrifice and a test of a true patriot in my book.

Our Middle East tour started in Qatar, a small but very wealthy country on the Persian Gulf just off of Saudi Arabia.

Qatar is the hottest place I’ve ever been to - including the sauna at your local health club. The temperatures ranged from 120 degrees during the mid-day heat, and would drop to around 90 degrees at night. Needless to say, we spent the majority of our time in doors soaking up every ounce of air conditioning we could before bolting to an air-conditioned car, and off to the next air-conditioned building.

Other than the heat being almost unbearable, the troops were amazing. The base in Qatar isn’t only a fully-functioning military base, it’s also a rest and relaxation base for solders to get out of the combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan for four days every six months. This was their R&R time. The feeling in Qatar was pretty light hearted. The solders were allowed three beers a day, which loosened them up enough for Danny to olli four of them laying down - including Col. Cotter on his skateboard.



From Qatar we boarded a C130 military plane flight into Afghanistan. Once we arrived in Afghani air space the plane blacked out completely into the night sky. A young soldier with a thick Kentucky accent leaned over and said, “We're going to drop in fast, they have a tendency to try and shoot these things down.” That’s when the realization that I was in a war zone fully hit me.

He was right, too, the C130 plane dropped like a rock out of the night sky from about 20-30 thousand feet up to the runway below. A “combat landing” is one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. My face was glued to the window praying I didn’t see a rocked fire out of one of the many clusters of lights seen below. Thankfully nothing “exciting” as another soldier put it happened.



Once we were “safely” in Afghanistan, Grete fell ill with salmonella poisoning. She was hospitalized and our tour was put into a holding pattern. Not only would Danny and I visit Grete in the Afghanistan Hospitals but we ventured around a met most of the Doctors, Nurses, Staff, and of course the injured and sick. Carmen our guide practically lived at the bedside of Grete, what a guide! My experiences of Hospitals are that they always have an eerie feeling to them, and this one was no exception. My heart sank as we toured room after room. Everyone had a different story to tell why they were there. A group of local Men were all smiles getting routine check ups, so they were able to get a job on base. Then there was an American Soldier awaiting hand surgery after his armored vehicle was rolled during a roadside attack. The most disturbing was by far the small children. One little girl lost her leg from an old Russian land mind, and in the very next room a little boy laid out dressed in bandages healing burns from an explosion. Experiences like these are reinsuring my thoughts and wishes to have peace on earth.



Danny and I carried on and entertained ourselves by exploring the rest of the base. While checking out the base we met a group of armored truck guys who called themselves “The Reapers”. These guys were cool as hell and had story after story to tell Danny and I about their life in the military and their tour in Afghanistan.
While hanging with The Reapers I felt safe - these guys were the bad asses on the front lines. They gave Danny and I a full tour of their armored vehicle, including sitting in the gunner’s chair. Spinning around in that chair armed with a 50 cal and a grenade launcher was quite a feeling.

Grete wasn’t getting any better after a couple of days so Danny and I left her and our tour guide Carmen behind as we ventured to a FOB (Forward Operating Base) named Solerno - better know as Rocket City.

While in Rocket City, the Air Calvary gave us a tour of the Heli pad holding Blackhawks, Apaches, and a smaller surveillance chopper. We took shooting lessons from a sniper and visited an artillery group of guys who are responsible for shooting back at the Taliban after Rocket City is attacked by, well, rockets. Danny and I were reminded that we were at a FOB nicknamed Rocket City at about 2 am by our guide McKnight. I was abruptly awoken my McKnight’s deep voice saying, “come on, get your sh*# on, get your sh*# on, we got to get to the hard building.” I looked over at Danny while he was throwing his bulletproof vest and helmet on and started to do the same.



We all grabbed our blanket and pillow and ran across the street to the hard building, aka a bunker. It was thought that we may be getting attacked by rockets that night so we all spent the night tossing and turning on the concrete floor wearing bullet proof vests and Kevlar helmets. Let me tell you that was one hell of a night. Let’s just say I wasn’t missing my flight out of Rocket City.



After our Rocket City adventures Danny, aka Afghan Dan, and I met back up with Grete and Carmen, did one last signing in Afghanistan and started our trip back home.



Although our trip was short and sweet, I think I got a pretty basic taste of military life in a war torn country. The highs of hanging out with the gung-ho soldiers and their weapons, to the lows of visiting a four year old girl who lost a leg from a land mine are just two extreme emotions I felt in just one week.

Again my hat goes off to the servicemen and women who sacrifice so much to protect this great country we all love.

www.porterstahoe.com


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One of the most beautiful things about Lake Tahoe is well….. the lake and there is no better way to enjoy it then with friends. On Saturday evening the Porters Crew headed out on a three hour tour of the lake on the Tahoe Gal, now you must be thinking a “three hour tour” hmmmm there must have been a few Gilligans and some Professors. Not on this three hour tour as it was the “Love Boat”. For those of you that grew up with the Love Boat know the era and the fashion for the kiddies that have no clue take a look at the pictures in this post and you will see our cruise worthy apparel.

We had a few captains, one that was actually navigating the Tahoe Gal, and another whom is our fearless leader, Chappy. We had ladies in lovely 70’s evening attire with furs coats, heels and gold clutches, we had gentlemen in sweaters and action slacks, I do have to say that Burton's Nor Cal rep Trevor Patterson had on a wonderful mustard yellow sweater, and needless to say there were a few Hawaiian shirts and boat shoes! Michelle Parker who is on the Porters team as well as the K2 skis team and Orage was there with some very stylish Vans boat shoes. The outfits of the evening went to Lars our web guy who showed up with two outfits and Aaron Gaines, our warehouse manager who showed up with three things! Notice how I didn’t say three outfits, take a gander at the pictures below and see if you can figure it out.

The Tahoe Gal crew put on a great party for us, the food was great and bartender was doing it right. Chappy brought his computer so we could have some Love Boat era tunes and once the alcohol started to take effect the grooving dance moves started to pop up. At the end of our three hour tour most of us still had sea legs as we exited the boat but that didn’t stop us from heading to our after party at Lakeside Pizza in Tahoe City, formerly known as Pierce Street. Do not be fooled by the new name as it is also a night club and they are doing it right there. With free keg of CL smooth and beats to make you move there was no stopping the Love Boat crew. A few left early as they did most of their drinking on the boat, others stayed to get their dance on and others stayed even later. Rumor has that the club locked the doors and Chappy and a few ladies stayed and dance until three in the morning.

I do have to say the Porters Crew knows how to party and I think I speak for all of us when I say thanks to Kelly and Chap!

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I woke up the other morning to the realisation that it's already the month of June. Which means that winter is less than six months away. One reason I suspect the time seems to have gone by so quickly is that, by most standards, the weather this spring has been rather sub-par with cooler than usual temperatures and lots of rain (let's save that precipitation for the winter folks). In the spirit of making the best of it, the Snowboard.Com east coast crew decided to end the month of May with a bang (from a boom stick) by taking in a musical.

The city of Toronto has a rather vibrant theatre scene. Which is not something you would expect snowboarders to notice but we can be highbrow once in a while too. Of particular interest, the Diesel Playhouse was putting on an adaptation of a classic cult zombie movie Evil Dead throughout the spring. When I tell people about it, they usually give me a strange "it's a musical about zombies?" look. I'm quick to point out that It can't possibly be any worse than the opera adaptation of An Inconvenient Truth (an opera about a PowerPoint presentation? Really?) Besides, how often can you say you've been to a musical and left covered in fake blood (I assume it's fake). It's like Shakespeare meets Gwar, how can this possibly suck?

The Ottawa contingent of the crew stayed at the Holiday Inn on King street, only two blocks away from the playhouse. Upon arriving, we shared the elevator with some nice ladies who were in town to see the Dirty Dancing musical at the Princess, and they asked us if we were there for the same reason. Based on my general appearance, I found this question somewhat odd. The look on their face was priceless once we told them we were going to see Evil Dead, and it led me to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't to be going down with them (in the elevator you perverts).

The East Coast Crew waiting to get Evil

After scattering to track down food and beer for later, it was time to meet up with the rest of the crew. Since we were all coming from different directions, and not everyone had actually met in person prior to this meet, the logistics of meeting up were a slight bit difficult. In fact, one of my road trip companions, Chris, called my cell to tell me he was going to meet one of the other members of the crew, also named Chris, whom he had never met previously. I said "you don't know what he looks like, how are you going to spot him on a downtown Toronto street?" His response: "He's a snowboarder." That's when it occurred to me that we snowboarders do live at a different pace than most people (skiers too). Especially in a metropolitan area such as Toronto where people seem to be in much more of a hurry and much more concerned about their image than in most places. I actually had faith, due in no small part to Chris' response, that my shred pals would have no problems finding each other. I was not mistaken, I caught up with the rest of the group in front of the hotel and we made our way to the playhouse.

The musical itself was extremely entertaining. Since it's based on the Evil Dead series of movies (Evil Dead , Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness), we were expecting a certain amount of camp, and this stage show was certainly full of it. It was done in the perfect self-effacing way which rendered it amusing rather than annoying. The actors even joked about how Spider-Man 3 was a horrible movie (Sam Raimi directed the Evil Dead movie). The highlight of the musical was the final battle at where Ash slayed all the zombies (sorry for the spoiler). I have never seen so much fake blood used in my life. It was squirting out of the walls all over the crowd. Fun times.

After the show, stoked on being evil, the crew got up to some pre-drinking at the hotel in preparation for painting the town red (with blood?). After getting nicely warmed up, we were off to find establishments to consume refreshments. Yet somehow this feat could not be managed without a tree being transplanted into the hallway to our hotel. Apparently alcohol turns people into landscapers.

After walking around for a while and ducking into a number of pubs for refreshments, along with some other random shenanigans, it was time to call it a night since the bars were closing. On the way back to the hotel, I received a text message from Chris saying that apparently someone was shot behind the princess theatre. They were cleaning up the scene as he was walking to meet his ride to Whitby. All this time, I was expecting that our musical would prove more violent than Dirty Dancing, which our lovely friends from the elevator were attending. Clearly I was mistaken on that count.

Puppet Jesus sitting at the top of the Big Apple in Colborne.

The following morning, we decided to locate a Golden Griddle we had seen the night before to have breakfast before we left. After fueling up on the all you can eat buffet and omelet bar, it was time to hit the road. On the way home, we decided to stop at the Big Apple in Colborne to buy some pies. This is where our trip took on a whole new dimension of cool when picked up an itinerant puppet with long hair, a beard, and some crazy ideas. That puppet turned out to be Jesus (or at least a very striking likeness thereof). The irony in all this is that we found him at a Big Apple which, if memory serves, is the forbidden fruit of the Genesis. Jesus was quick to participate in our road games of "hot or not" and was surprisingly good at it. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since he is the son of god. In any case, Jesus is dope and he's certainly a good road trip companion, a fan of metal and a darn good dancer. When we first picked him up, he was rather subdued. Nathan even thought he was dead but we knew not to worry, "he'll be full of life in three days." It certainly didn't take three days, especially after a can of Saskatoon Beaver Buzz.

The Beaver Buzz turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Although tasty, it must contain some kind of super diaretic because it made me have to pull off the highway to pee. I was going to wait for the gas station restrooms until Jesus pointed out that the world is my gas station rest room. He's so wise. We finally made it home satisfied with our road trip shenanigans and happy for having found Jesus.

In sticking with my usual modus operandi of never walking away from an experience without learning something, here's what I learned this past weekend:

• Snowboarders are recognisable everywhere. They seem to have a different gate about them.
• Apparently the Dirty Dancing musical, counter to conventional wisdom, was much more violent that the Evil Dead musical... go figure.
• Jesus Saves... road trips. Although ours didn't need saving by any stretch. He sure made it more interesting. Keep your eye open for him, you never know where you might find Jesus.

Phew! Those are important life lessons indeed. Now I'm looking forward to my next live theatre excursion. Rumour has it that Monty Python's Spamalot is coming to Toronto in the fall, maybe I'll check that out. I'll be staying away from the Dirty Dancing musical though, that's much do violent for my sensibilities. In the meantime, I'm rejoicing in the fact that there's less than six months until winter and you can bet that I'm counting down the days.

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