SkateAcrossUSA.com

Upon arriving at the Sioux City, Iowa campgrounds, we were sure we were ready to settle for the night. The campground was in a beautiful, wooded area, and the camping fees were cheap. After being outside for five minutes , we discovered there were no showers or electricity, and the humidity started to get to us, so we decided to search for a new place. Although we all hate to be sissy city kids who needed showers and electricity, after skating 30 miles a day we all agreed for to treat ourselves to a hotel.

That night we skated through town and got great help from the local Applebees, Dominos, and Kinko’s. The next day we made our way farther into the state, where Walmart donated $25, so we got some food/drinks.

We passed many farms and it reminded Jon of the Movie “Field of Dreams,” which was where the baseball field from the movie is located. It started to rain and my (Ari) suitcase was tied to the top of the car where all my clothes got drenched. We decided to quit a little early for the day,  slowing us down even more. Even though breaking the record is important to us, safety and finishing the trip is most important, and if we can pick up the pace it is still possible to finish the trip in good time.

We woke up and started our day off as guests on CastleRockRadio.com radio in Denver. The show is awesome and we were so happy to be invited on the air. We skated all the way across Illinois and into Indiana where we are staying with Marc’s sister. It is very nice to stay at a house again, and I am not looking forward to waking up in the AM. Days are starting to blur together and it’s hard to catch up with the changing time zones. We are all tired and sleep deprived, but we are halfway through the country and having the times of our lives while helping out a good cause! I am happy that the trip is working out, and coming this far makes us feel very accomplished. Our slogan has become “We are skating across the USA, believe it!”

Stay tuned,

SkateAcrossUSA

We left the Dubois and headed for Van Tassel with a population of around 10 people however we all knew in the back of our heads that there wouldn’t be a place to stay there. After Dubois the land turned into desert and became very humid. It started to rain so we headed to Torrington and treated ourselves to a motel with money we received from the extremely generous Neale family. We then all attempted to sleep for the night while itching at the insane amount of bug bites all over our body.

The next day our goal was to make it to Cody, Nebraska but it became even more hot and humid and we got very tired so we stopped in Valentine, Nebraska and set up camp at Wacky West. The town was very small but the people were very nice.

We then headed to Onie’ll Nebraska, there we got an oil change. We set up camp at Carney Park and it had free camping. The humidity started to get to me as I was unpacking the car while being eaten alive by pesky skeeters. We met three bikers our age that were biking across America and they were very nice. When the thunder and rain started we took the bikers up on there offer to stay under the awning with them. So we all hung out and shared life stories. Towards the end of the night some of us had a little to much aggression from being in a cramped car with five guys so Jon decided to punch the female biker in the face while Dahnny held her down and kicked her. We didn’t know what to do besides run so we left the camp site and left our extra skateboard bearings and wheels behind. Ok that whole punching and kicking thing never happened but we did forget our extra bearings and wheels somewhere. The next morning we got an early start towards Iowa, more on that in the next post.

Stay cool three bikers which I apologies for forgetting your names,

Stay tuned for more posting,

Ari and the SkateAcrossUSA.com gang

PS: Click our facebook link to the left of our page under links, we have some more pictures on there for now…

More Pictures and Video coming your way soon.

The skate was a hot uphill battle for most of the way, it started to flatten out and the weather cooled down. We started to pass beatiful fields as we got closer to Wyoming. We passed through town where Trevor at Pizza Hut really helped us out! We have had tons of pizza on this trip(eating pizza as we write this) but we are not tired of it. Our rear right blinker/hazards is out of order and the back right door seems to be coming off the hinges.

The next day we entered Wyoming it was insanely beautiful and green we loved to skate there. We passed Jackson and Yellowstone. When we got closer to Burris, WY we relized it was a very small place with absolutely no where to sleep, so we stopped in Duboise population under 1000. We got there and every motel/campground was full we were scared we had nowhere to sleep and 5 guys in a car is not comfortable. We stopped on the main street and we met some people outside of a resturaunt who saw our car. As we drove away not knowing what to do a woman followed us into a parking lot and heard we needed a place to eat/sleep. We said yes and we followed to her house where we met the Neale’s. We were overwhelmed by the kindness this family showed as they cooked us dinner, found us a place to stay, and sent us off with extra food. There kindness is something we all agreed we have never seen before in our lives it was very hard for us to leave such a friendly beuatiful place but we fianlly headed back on the road.

Stay rad Neale family,
SkateAcrossUSA

Towards the end of Oregon things got kind of difficult as we were skating along the highway with temperatures over 100 degrees, the car started to overheat from using the air conditioner so we had to sit in the heat. We were then pulled over by a police officer for skating on the highway but when we told him what we were doing he just gave us some advice on how to follow the skater and he was on his way. Seeing the Oregon trail was pretty cool and we now no what those travelers had to go through… kinda. As we crossed into Idaho the roads became flatter and smoother, the highway was wider with more lanes, more cars, and a wider shoulder. As the car followed us we got many friendly honks. We then made a stop at the first rest stop where a passing trucker came up to us asking all about our trip and he said he saw us in Oregon, he was super friendly and stolked on what we were doing. We decided to spoil ourselves on day 3 so we slept in a motel, I planned on getting some video editing done but by the time we were all unpacked we passed out.

As we made our way deeper into idaho the highway became narrower with less cars and more gravel however the wind was on our side pushing through the 90+ degree weather was surprisingly not so bad especially comparing to the day before. Passing through the more desolate parts of Idaho the people became less friendly yelling at us to get off the road… We were again pulled over, the police officer said someone called the police on us for hanging onto the car while skating (never happened). We explained to him we never did that and what were skating for and he said that was ok and left us be. We then made our way to Picabo with a population of 130+ people. We decided we would go a little further and we made it to Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve which seemed like it would be rad. When we got there it was filled with insects and was hot. The closest place which sold food and drinks was 20 miles away in a town called Arco.  We went into town and the Lost River Drive In was very nice and hooked us all up with free burgers and fries. We then headed back to camp and spend the nigh in tents where we made friends with the local chipmunks.

Stay Tuned,

SkateAcrossUSA

We woke up today in the beautiful small city of Sisters, OR we took our time packing up the camp site as none of us wanted to leave, The Depot Deli was kind enough to donate a breakfast and it was delicious! We then started to skate down the highway and it was great, perfect temperature either flat or slightly down hill and nice wide bike lanes. Towards the middle of the day it started to get very hot and the roads seemed to have more gravel, it is not fun to have to push your board downhill.. Yes Downhill. The last 30 miles of the day was a big struggle and we were very exhausted.  Elkhorn Motel and Store in John Day, OR was kind enough to donate a room for the evening. John Day is a very small city we walked through the whole thing seeing if there was anything exciting for the evening to sadly be disappointed.  We met a few residents of the  city/motel and they were all very kind and wished us the best of luck. It is very different here than back in California we hope to have videos/pictures up soon.

Stay tuned,

Ari

We left Newport and skated Highway 20 today for over 100 miles, it was awesome! We all agree that at times it can get scary when the bike lane is narrow but most of the time it wasn’t to bad. Towards the begging a few of us had to use the restroom, number 2 and we went on the side of the road. Overall it wasn’t to bad, there were a decent amount of hills both up and down but it was never to steep either way and there were lots of flats. We took a decent amount of video and hope to take way more tomorrow. We got off to a late start so we didn’t quite make it to sisters but we are very close and hope to make up ground tomorrow!

Stay tuned,

Ari

I have left San Diego picked up Marc, Brian, and Jon in LA then we picked up my friend Dahnny in SF. We then made the drive up to Arcata and finally got there and fell asleep at 4am. Luckily Marc new someone in the area so we luckily had a place to sleep. Thank you Wendy Baker for your hospitality and support it is much appreciated!!! We are now off to Oregon and will start skating tomorrow.

Today, we went to GFH headquarters to receive some equipment for the trip. So thanks to Tim, Garret, Jordan, and Danielle for hooking us up! The GFH warehouse was set up with the boards they make there and I enjoyed seeing the process of how a board company actually works behind closed doors. I was also able to test out some of their boards. Garret had tons of longboarding business to tell us and it was all very interesting. The GFH boards were awesome, fun, and very well made! I plan on putting GFH stickers everywhere I travel through on my trip across the U.S. Keep checking back, soon we will add some video footage and pictures.

Thanks again to GFH,

Ari

Click the GFH logo on the left side of the page to check out their boards!

If you are interested in skating, contact me!

Instead of the previous route of going through the hot states such as Arizona, Texas, and Alabama, we’ve decided to change our route due to the summer weather.  The new route, which can be accessed on the “Trip Route” tab, shows the new states we plan on skating through so as to escape and avoid the more severe and hotter weather conditions in the previous states.