OK. For those of you who have been following our trip regularly, I have no excuses. When I'm old and grey and looking back over The Extreme Road Trip travelogue I will get to this big gap in the month of September and, since I won't have the strength to kick myself, I'll take my cane and rap it against my bony butt in self-scolding. I'll rack my failing memory for glimpses of what happened as autumn crept up on our camper, to no avail. I'll shout into Brant's hearing aid, "What did we do that fall?" He'll look over at me and quizzically parrot, "Cut the flea from the wall?" It'll be useless, and nearly an entire month of memories will be gone.
In one sense, this is an incredible loss of opportunity.
In another, the fact that the updates are so long in coming is also an indication that I didn't pass up some other incredible opportunities.
You see, when last I left you, our experience thus far on Hatteras had been characterized by a week of primarily windless, rainy days, followed by a huge increase in the wind factor which blew me off the water and found B white-knuckled from hanging on to his kite in the gusts. Well, a lot has happened to our Hatteras experience since then.
Basically, the skies finally cleared up, the wind got much better and consistent, we met some great folks, and the North Carolina Cape started feeling a lot more like its quasi-counterpart down in the Gulf of Mexico: Corpus Christi.
Up close and personal.
Which, for the non-wind sports folks out there, means a lot more time on the water, in the surf, and just generally outside. Which makes it all the harder to write updates.
So I'm just going to give a brief cap here on the events that have passed since that September 5 entry so many weeks ago. Then, in order to prevent such a large void of material in the future, I'm using various devices, torture and otherwise, to get on the ball. I just know there's some way to take advantage of the wind, waves, sport, whatever and still get some entries punched out without an entire month sweeping by. Short of taking up speed to increase my awake hours, that is.
So, here goes:
The Bulk of September
A Brief Look Into The Life of T.E.R.T.
Cast of Characters:
- Paul: Kite Surf The Earth guy
- Lucy: Paul's girlfriend
- Charlie: Owner of Ride Hatteras
- GS: Local kite pro
- Jimmy: Zoom Culture dude
Aryn in the bindings.
Yes, that's really Brant up there.
Act One: Brant makes a double back loop; Aryn moves onto a wakeboard; we overdose on Nino's pizza three nights in a row; Lucy gets addicted to kiting; G.S. snags a fishing pole, via fishing line, while kiting; Paul introduces the Light Wave Design board and the three of us discover we can plane in 6-8 mph on that board; Paul, a chef by trade, serves up an amazing feast; our entire rig gets stuck in the backyard of Ride Hatteras and we spend an hour with G.S. and Charlie completely destroying the lawn to free the truck and trailer...at midnight;
Act Two: The Extreme Road Trip takes off and drives to Orlando for the Surf Expo; we try the famous Krispy Kreme donuts (very health conscious, I know); Hurricane Gordon freaks out the Califorians, but turns out to be no big deal; we meet with all sorts of industry folks and mix with the likes of Shawn Murray, Tony Hawk, and Mauricio Abreu; attempt (disastrously) to kiteboard at Daytona Beach, where we learned the new definition of 'gusty.'
Act Three: Driving back up through North Carolina, we interview with Jason Leuthye's Go Show in Charlotte; interview with The Daily Tar Heel in Chapel Hill; hook up with Zoom Culture to finally meet in person and figure out how the gears work behind the scenes; discover what Jimmy looks like; our camera breaks and we shuffle around Circuit City to get it fixed; drive back out to Hatteras, where we now sit, and it is raining again.
Only this time, it is REALLY raining. And there's wind. If we get a combination of wind and no rain, we may be staying out here for a while longer before heading on down the east coast...
The End. For now....
