Road Trip Update #2

We then decided we were going to head to Chattanooga to ride some street.  As soon as we parked the bus we found some cool stuff.  Negative Mike pulled out his camera and got some stuff done.  While we were riding street we kinda broke off into two different groups.  This way we didn't stand out much to the police.  Well, within about 10 mins of splitting both groups we hassled by the Police.  Funny thing is both cops told the groups to go down the street a mile or two and ride the new skate park.  One of the cops even gave us directions and a map so we went to check it out.  The park was one of those parks with the pre-manufactured ramps but had some really cool lines and we super excited to ride it.  We went in and introduced ourselfs to the nice fellow running the place and he told us we could ride for very cheap / free.  He then told us he would come out in a bit and ride with us.  Pretty cool.  After we rode for an hour or two the fellow was coming out to ride with us as we were getting done.  Sorry we didn't get to ride with you dude.  Thanks for hooking us up though.  If you are in the Chattanooga, TN. Check out "chat town skate park."  Their website is www.chattownskatepark.com.

Here are some of the photos of our shreadfest.

Allan Smalls

Vinny

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Dane Wild

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Negative Mike

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Kenny Sanders

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After we left that park we were going to meet up with some people in Atlanta and get some more riding and hanging out done. This is where the fun came in......

As we are driving down I-75 Evan notices the bus has a flat tire. Normally this is no big deal but our bus didn't come with a spare when we bought it. hahaha! I know it's dumb but we joked about it and left for the trip anyway since the tires were almost new. So here we are on the side of the freeway with a flat tire. Where we broke down was kinda out in the middle of nowhere so we pretty much set up camp in the grassy knoll on the side of the freeway while the go getters of the group decided they could fix the tire. Rusty Keys decides he's going to use a bolt to sick in the hole in the tire to plug it. We all giggle and start to make fun of him but he claims it will work. We really had no choice so we let him get to work. We sent Negative Mike off to buy some tire plugs and fixaflat just in case Rusty's plan didn't work. Before you know it Rusty has a stem bolt (yes a stem bolt with a 6mm alllen head on it) stuffed in the hole. We then all took turns pumping air into a 16" truck tire that takes 80psi WITH A HAND PUMP! After about 20 minutes of taking turns the tire had about 50 psi in and we decided it was safe to drive to the gas station to put more air in it and it was holding air!!! You go rusty magyver (sounds painfull huh todd?) We loaded up and drove off. We made it to the gas station with no problems and bought some fixaflat. Once we used the fixaflat we all felt the tire was good and we would drive on and head to Atlanta to have some fun. We made it about 10 miles before the tire went flat again. We all ripped on Rusty and used the plugs bought to fix the tire again. All was good and after about 20 minutes of filling the tire with the hand air pump again we were on our way. We made it about 5 miles and all was good...Another 10 miles and we got ANOTHER FLAT!! We called AAA this time and they sent out a pro to fix it. When he when the very large balding fellow showed up he though we were the biggest bunch of fools in the world. We stuffed 15 people in the a shady bus drove from Detroit with no spare, jack or air compressor. I don't think we are idiots, I just think we didn't care. We told him we already fixed it a few times he asked us how we filled the tire and when we informed him we used a hand pump I though the guy was going to end it all and a jump out in the traffic just to get away from us and I didn't blame him. He held his cool and started to work on another plug for the tire. We knew he knew what he was doing so we sat back and had a little party on the side of the road for the 3rd time in a 2 hour span. It was quite fun really. Instead of everybody being all uptight everybody was having a good time on the side of the freeway. I think the 70 degree weather helped as I hear it's about 25 degrees at home. As "Cooter" was finishing Sparks offered to hold the flashlight for him. I guess Sparks wasn't holding it right because I heard Cooter call Sparks a "cracker" and "dummy" all in a matter of a few seconds. I laughed so hard I think some snot came out my nose. Cooter finished and said we were good to go. We thanked him and we were on our way. We only had about 30 miles to go to Atlanta and we made it about 2 of those miles when the tire exploded into a cloud of smoke and went flat AGAIN. We made it to the nearest hotel and plan to chill and hang out for the night and get up in the morning to get us a new tire. We will then be on our way to Florida's east coast. All you really need to remember from the above writings is the fact that we got 3 flats in 3 hours and still had a goodtime. I love road trips with cool people.

Rusty Keys

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brokedown roadside.

click on any of the photos to see them bigger.

thanks to Evan and Negative Mike for the photos.

more updates to come when i have more updates to update so check back.

--Flip