Thursday, September 27, 2007

Po-Toe-Mac-'n-Cheese Please!!!

After an extraordinary ending to Pat and I's California wonderland tour (Desert in the Moonlight Gorge, more on that later) I headed back east in time to catch a ride with hands paddling ninja, Adam Seacrest, up to the Potomac River Festival held in Great Falls, MD/VA...


South Carolina home-boy, Andy Gates, launching his watercraft of choice into an oblivion of water, rock, air and gold.


The main event of the weekend was the down-river race held on Saturday. This here is a dude named Nates trying to spear fish for dinner off of Pummel. Not gettin' donkey kicked like a jack-rabbit being chased by a Chinese firecracker was the first objective in racer's minds.


Next up was haulin' so much ass through the pool between Pummel and Pencil Sharpener here, that your boat skimmed off the water like your third grade slip-'n-slide all greased up with K-Y Jelly. Nasty Nate and Adam practice proper slip-'n-slide etiquette.


Race day came, and Billy Murphy was there to say, it's on. I was there to look like an idiot. See what had happened was... I had been informed that I finished one second slower than my man Billy. Results were tallied; top-10 went on to finals. Billy got 11th, he was pissed; I thought I got 12th, I was really pissed. Turns out that night at the party, when the official results were shown, I had really placed 10th, (one second AHEAD of Murph) then I was really, really pissed. Doh!


Spencer Cooke was the true recipient of the 12th place finish. He seemed really happy about that, it was written all over his face.


Nathan Silsbee, (pictured here doing the hokey-pokey off the VA side of Great Falls) placed 8th overall, he was aware of his standings and did get to race in the finals. Genius!!! Adam Johnson, another fellow Rioter dove into the top 10 as well with an amazingly quick 6th place. The winner in the end was local punk-ass kayak race wonder-boy, Geoff Calhoun.


Spence, sitting on the half pence fence, about to take the plunge on the same drop as above. I think it's called the last drop on the Virginia side of things.


Spencer Cooke, of Effort Inc. always has a video camera in his hands. He's started to kayak with one instead of using a paddle these days. It's really remarkable. Anyways, he made a really cool VIDEO of the weekend. You should watch it, if you're into that sort of activity, video watching, that is.


Picture your self in a boat on a river, with blueberry water and marshmallow clouds. Suddenly someone appears in the water, a boy with fire in his eyes...Andy Gates in the sky with diamonds.


After Andy came out of the clouds he dropped into this charge-fest of a whirly-ma-gig. There's also a middle line, which was fun; Will Berkeley's son would have loved it, getting to run some "tight slots and big twops."


This is probably the best picture I took on the trip. It's amazing.


On Sunday after the race we went kayaking again. We sometimes enjoy partaking in such kinds of activities. Drew Hayes showed up, and said boo-ya-ka-sha. Spencer got scared and paddled away into the sunset, to a land where palm trees sway.


Here's Jake Greenbaum running that waterfall on the VA side, no wait, I think it's called the Spout. That sounds right. Spoutin' like a fountain with red Cheerwine flowing like cherry ice cream melting off the rear bumper of a '65 Chevy parked in the sun on a July summer's day in Great Falls, Virgin-e-ia.

Peace out, big-ups and respect to ya' mon!


This here's that motion picture I was talkin' bout earlier...