toledo, oh toledo

In light of myself and other barn dudes having been born and bred in the rusty old town of toledo, ohio, and as well several readers of this blog, I have decided to post some pics from my just recent trip there. And for all you Montana kids and New York kids and Portland kids and Maryland kids and everyone else who has had to sit and listen to our tales of yore, most notably about skate spots, here are some visual aids. let the nostalgic tour begin...

a main stay. portside. the stage. the edge used to be all angle iron.

obligatory river front shot.

edison plaza. second stage.

bump to ledge.

O-I. best ledge spot hands down.

Kevin likes hot dogs.

Now, having seen those spots, which are pretty great, you must realize that the place we went the most was media play, which is essentially just a parking lot and two small manuel pads. but it's still my favorite spot.

really? oh wait, hell yes. many good times had. just ask derek. mopey's switch flip nose wheelie fakie flip out was pretty mid 90's epic.

speaking of nostalgia, my mom's yard in fall is pretty great.
and i got to rake the leaves.

the end.

East Coast Reppin'

Fun things happen here in Brooklyn, such as this beer bong contest. Dude Barn would have killed it.



Speaking of Brew Barn, Brandon came out for a short visit.


And of course its World Series time. Sorry Johnny, we got god on our side.

Saturday in the Hate Truck.

Having Dave posting to the blog with me must have made me lazy. It's been a while since I've made a good, long post. I also went to Arizona to see the family so that took some time away from blogging and internetting. Bummer. Anyway, here are some photos for you.

If you find yourself in Phoenix, make it a point to go to Joe's NY Pizza. My friend Jody's mom runs the joint and makes some amazing food.

These are all the wild beasts (minus Joey, the cat) that live at my mom and sister's house.

We spent a day at Out of Africa and got to see some amazing animals.
Mackenzie got to feed the tiger.

These Hyenas wanted to eat every little kid that walked by their enclosure.

Arctic Wolf.

Cougar.

Baby grizzly bears.

Here's the whole family.

Back to Portland...
Verg is back and we rode bikes to a Mean Jeans house show.

Howie has a great mustache right now.

What to do when the mic stand breaks? Have this dude hold it for you.

Hegarty has been doing a lot of driving us around for skating. We've named his truck the Hate Truck because we end up talking tons of shit while riding around in it. This Saturday was no exception.

Here, Koerner gets shifty.

And here he almost did a melon grab.

Mark kickflipped.

And Healy tweaked this out for style points.

After skating food and drinks lead us inevitably to the Bye and Bye. The Hate Truck was parked out front so the hating continued. It took the form of torturing your friends. Mark said he would buy Derek a drink and shot but only if Mark got to choose what they were. Fernet and some cocktail in a mason jar was what he got.

Not sure if Derek really liked his first Fernet shot.

Hate Truck at night.

Listened to this classic before skating to Lovejoy's house.

The scene at Lovejoy's looked like this.

The torture your friends game continued. First, with money on the line for Derek to drink a whole 2 liter of coke. He declined the money and the coke. Then we wanted him to eat one of these onions. There was $5 more on the big onion. Again, Derek refused. But just to spite Derek, Jonny stepped up and ate almost an entire onion.

And just because we're idiots let's see who can snort some Emergen-c.

Ryan was foaming from this nose. But the morning after he said that nostril has never felt so clear.

You know the night is over when Lovejoy starts looking like this.