Mt. Hood Road Trip

(Jason)

Frazier is always coming up with spontaneous ideas about what we should do while he is back for the summer, and when he said, "Road Trip to Mt. Hood," I perked up like Pamela Anderson in a wet t-shirt contest and was on board instantly. Jon was soon to stepped up to the plate, like Ichiro about to hit a home run. I was Especially stoked when Frazier continued on, and I come to find out that not only are we going to be road tripping, but snowboarding on Mt Hood's glacier as well. We learned a few things during the trip. First, road trips must include cardboard signs that say random statements and questions. Second, there must have been a nuclear disaster at Windels snowboard and skateboard camp. Third, if you haven't been snowboarding for six months, don't attempt a forty foot kicker without looking at it first. Well, I learned that lesson!

Attached to hitting the road, come the feelings of freedom and adventure, both are of the highest regard in our Hammock Brothers lifestyle. As we hit the road, we decided that it would be a good idea to make signs that we could make people laugh with while driving down I5. At the first gas station we came to, we dumpster dove in search of the perfect cardboard canvas. Being in our mid twenty's the signs of course are going to include such things as "Will You Marry Me," "I Pooped Myself," and "I Love You," to name a few... This supplied a constant stream of laughs and a few snobbish, I can't believe you guys, looks as well. One lady was so disgusted from the "I Pooped Myself" sign that she refused to acknowledge our existence for the minute or so that we awkwardly stared at her, while pacing at the same speed. For the most part we saved our enthusiasm for the good looking girls, all of which laughed hysterically at our absurd signs. We were encouraged by honks, laughs, and upset looks. Sings were the best idea for a road trip that we have ever had, right after the "To Do" list of course.

It was about five O Clock and we were getting close to Mt Hood, and all sudden Frazier noticed a sign that read "Windells, The Funnest Place On Earth." A snowboard and skateboard  camp that has world renowned training with professional riders from all over. Naturally, we were very excited, but then we read that it was closed, and we felt as Chevy Chase did when he arrived at Walley World from the movie "National Lampoons Vacation." Frazier and I were determined to make something of being there, especially since Frazier had great memories of the place from earlier in his youth, and I had imagined what it would be like as a kid but never got to go. Looking around, there was not a soul in the entire place. We meandered around for a while, jumped on the in ground trampoline,  and then found and eat gummy worms, well I did. Then fully realizing no one was around  were now thinking we wanted to snowboard so Jon decided that we should flip a coin to see if we should use the grounds to snowboard on, always a good idea. Heads we do it, tails we don't, best two out of three. Tails, Heads, Heads, it's on! We grabbed our snowboards, and made our way straight for the artificial snow down ramp, which uses plastic for snow, and included grinding boxes and rails. Frazier and I attacked the grinding boxes as if we were Lions and the grinding boxes were our prey. As we finished our lines we all ran for our lives out of fear of being fined for trespassing, nothing beats a run when you feel you are being chased.

Over the Next two day's we hammock camped, drank a lot of home brew, snowboarded, and relaxed. For two days we also enjoyed Timberline lodge's sauna, hot tub, pool, and ping pong table, even though we weren't actually staying at the lodge. We looked like we were though, especially since Jon and Frazier walked around for the most part barefoot. Jon, Frazier and I hiked roughly two thousand feet and about a mile and a half to make our way to the glacier field so that we didn't have to pay for a lift ticket. This goes back to my taking the summer off with not much saved, and the philosophy of "I'll do it if it's free," that I'm famous for. It worked out great until Karma said, "Everything has a cost," and I tore my meniscus in my right leg from casing it on the big kicker. Or in laymen terms, landing on the flat part of the jump while falling ten feet up from not having enough speed. This lesson for me is sort of like the annual sun burn that we all must learn not to do year after year. What made it worse was that not even five minutes before, Frazier and I were discussing how people get hurt snowboarding from being to excited as well as not looking at the obstacle first before they attempt to conquer it. Not us though, we know better, Frazier did anyway. This is the Law of Attraction at work, don't discuss what can go wrong, discuss only what will go right instead. A general rule of life. It was wasn't worth the risk, as we Hammock Brothers would say.

One last thing worth noting was when Frazier dropped and shattered the home brew growler, which is a jug we keep our beer in. This growler was special to our good friend Tavo, due to it being from his favorite brewery back in his home town in New Mexico. Tavo owns and operates the "Man Cave," which is where all us Hammock Brothers go and drink our beer that we brew. As well as tell our tall tails of adventure and exploration of the world. Tavo converted his garage into a fully operational bar with three TV's, a projector screen, dart board, massive kegirater, and much, much more. Arriving home, we had to break the news to Tavo that the growler was dead, and that it wasn't Frazier's fault, but all three of ours since I'm the one that came up with the idea to take it, Jon filled it up, and then Frazier actually dropped it. Our friend Joe was right there when we told Tavo and he exclaimed, "This one I had nothing to with  for once," passing the buck onto us as we all laughed.

The Mt Hood road trip was a great experience full of good laughs, good people, and good times. This trip was very inexpensive, especially because Frazier talked  his dad into allowing us to take his hybrid which managed get on average sixty miles per gallon, and because we camped two nights along a river in our hammocks for free. Not having to pay for accommodations when we travel is a huge reason we can do what we do. I will no doubt remember these grand days in my old age, especially when my knee is aching along with probably every other joint as well by that point. Here's our first video that we have edited of the road trip. We filmed it in high def but could only upload it in low quality because of YouTube's music copy writing laws, which we are going to break quickly. Not too bad for our first video though.