Brookings Weekend

2007 Brookings Weekend - By Egbert: Posted 8-23-07
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Brookings Weekend

So a couple of weekends ago Dave Vieira, Pete Panagakos, Jeff Fryer, and myself set out for a little 3 day weekend trip to beautiful Brookings, Oregon. Our plan was to skate, drink some beer, and for me to shoot a machine gun in Eugene.

Our first stop was in Albany. I’d never skated there and everyone was into it, so we stopped. It was fun. I like that park. It has a little of everything to keep it interesting, even some 30 year old guy selling smokes with his buddy to the local kids. Rad. Those kids need to get their smokes somewhere, right? Who am I to judge? I was trying to sell those same kids some knives, so that they could protect their smokes from other kids. USA #1. Anyway, that was a pretty fun park.

Our next stop was in Springfield/Eugene. We went to the Cactus Skateboard shop so Dave could grip up a new board. Redneck, the proprietor there, is a cool guy. Go support this place if you’re in the area. He even has a little training facility in the back on those rainy days. We skated a little curb on his sidewalk for awhile. That was pretty cool.

Next stop was the Baron’s Den. I wanted to shoot a “Real Tommy Gun.” It was more expensive than last time I did it (5 yrs +) ,and it was over really fast. It kind of reminded me of how I lost my virginity, although that was a little more exciting because it involved a vagina instead of a gun. Girls rule…if that’s your thing. I never want to assume, you know.

Amazon was a requested by someone in the back of the car. Man, I’ll tell you one thing about driving with a bunch of dudes in one car. You get heckled for your driving style constantly. I guess now I know how my wife feels. She deserves it though, her driving sucks, but you didn’t hear that from me (see above paragraph re: vagina). Anyhoo, Amazon was cool and everyone had a good time.

We got back on the road and headed for Reedsport. Reedsport is scary to me…not the town, the park. I went flying through the air about 10 feet and hovered about 2 feet off the ground. It was one of those instances that seemed like time stood still. The thought, “I’m currently in the process of eating shit” passed through my mind, at the same pace as say, “No mayonnaise please on my Bacon-Cheeseburger.” Either way the lads had fun.

We finally rolled into Brookings that night. God bless my Mother-In-Law for letting us stay at her place there. It is one of those gated communities on the beach deals. I’m not a real endorser of gated communities, but in a town like Brookings you have to have some kind of barrier between you and all the retirees that live there. Old people can be kind of scary.

The next day we ate at this kick ass diner down at the harbor (can’t remember the name) and then headed to the park. Usually the park is dead, but there were some kids from Coos Bay there, so it was a little more crowded than usual. It was cool though. Dave even nicknamed this one kid Skippy, from Coos Bay, “Rigatoni.” Pretty cool when a nickname gets a nickname. That may have caused a slight fluctuation in the time/space continuum, but everything seemed alright, so we didn’t trip.

We were going to try and make it to Arcata, CA., but it was getting pretty late for that kind of day trip. We made it as far as Crescent City. We asked a local where to eat (who I consequently determined had future vibed Dave on the restaurant recommendation) and were accosted by another guy trying to hitch a ride. Note to hitchhikers: when attempting to gain entry into a vehicle for the purposes of hitchhikery, you may not want to yell and flip off said vehicle when entry is denied. Especially when you are hitchhiking on a corner, and there are vehicles all around you. It makes you look a little crazy. But what do I know, I have a car and don’t hitchhike. Maybe it’s some kind of reverse psychology thing, but what do I know, I work at a bank.

The Crescent City park was a prefab thingy. It was OK, but you know, it was a prefab park, so it wasn’t that great. One of the local guys there said that the World Industries Am team was up there for a demo a while back. Who buys World Industries stuff anymore? I figured even little kids are too jaded for that crap. But what do I know, I’m old and I suck.

The rest of trip was cool. We had some beach fires, drank more beer, and skated a little the next day. All in all, a fun weekend. Thanks Penny for letting us stay. For that I’ll retract my statement about my wife’s driving sucking.

- Egbert

2007 Brookings Weekend - By Egbert: Posted 8-23-07
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