Le Voyage Épique

Le Voyage Épique aka The Superlative Journey aka Alan and Austin's Roadtrip to the True Color Premiere

September 30, 2009:

My day started normally: eat breakfast, rush to class, rush to my second class, have a photo critique, bike home. Three hours of packing, preparing, and eating later, and I was ready to embark on a journey of grand proportion, but one that I had barely over five days to complete. A few weeks earlier Alex Blais had asked me to come to Vermont for the True Color premiere. Of course I wanted to, but it didn't seem reasonable at the time given school and the lack of low-priced airfare. As the days went on I started to have illusions of grandeur of this journey to our own premiere. It was too late to turn back; my mind was 100% committed already and the only option was to drive my partly trustworthy Gas Saver #2 across the midwest into the northeast for nearly 1500 miles each way. It just so happened that Austin Jessup was in a similar situation. Never having met any other team riders, he really wanted to come but didn't have the means to fly or drive himself. Austin lives just a few hours off my planned route, so naturally, our trips converged into one reality.

I left Minneapolis Wednesday night, drove through Wisconsin, stopping at a skatepark for a midnight moonlight session before sleeping at a friend's house in Madison.

Waking early Thursday to fight the Chicago tollways, I drove straight to Coldwater, Michigan where I was hours late to meet Austin. I had never met Austin but because of this trip I can say that I am super hyped to have him as a friend, teammate and partner in mischief. We drove into the long and dull state of Ohio, failed to find a skatepark, condemned the entire state and continued into the sunset. By the time we entered New York, it was getting late and we estimated our arrival in Burlington around 3am. It happened to be raining and we are horrible at predicting time, so we didn't exit the freeway into the mysterious Adirondack forest in northern Ney York until nearly 3. Not fully aware where we were going on this curvy, wet road deep in the county, the rain stopped, the moon poked through, and light fog played in and around the shadows of trees and towns. A few miles off the freeway we found ourselves at this lake, in the center of a tiny town; a mysterious landscape engulfed in fog. Thinking I had reached a fleeting atmospheric utopia it was time for some photos.

Apparently I was mistaken about the utopia. A few more miles of driving too fast for the intense curves led us to a far bigger and more beautiful lake, with fog dancing on the water as the sky opened and closed with storm cloud remnants to reveal the moon. This was indeed the real atmospheric utopia. I was so eager to get a closer look that I left my car in the middle of the road, doors wide open, and walked off to start a camera exposure. It was at that moment that a semi truck came barreling out of the silence around the turn a little ways off. Austin and I glanced at each other and I took off running for the car. Starting it quickly, I got it onto a beach driveway before the semi came rattling through.

As late as it was, the ephemeral nature of the post-storm atmosphere kept the photo session going a little longer as we began to develop an illusion of time standing still, slave to the night. We no longer cared about arriving at any particular time as we continued up and down a mountain road, seeming to drop forever until we reached the river valley. Towns along the river are more interesting at night because so much is hidden, every little glimpse of something becomes extraordinary and lets the mind piece together the mystery of what lies beyond. It was as if we were traveling through a half-real dreamscape. Following the valley north, our little illusion and relaxation was quickly shattered by the sharp reality of being almost out of gas at 4 or 5am in the middle of nowhere. Sure we had a tent, but we really didn't want to be forced to use it. Luckily, after draining the tank below empty, we came to a little town with a gas station just as light started filtering into the sky. The very elderly man with missing teeth working the counter gave a friendly "good morning." I was slightly taken aback, still in a delusional mind state between day and night, reality and mystery.

We entered Vermont in the pre-morning glow, somehow found our way via back roads not on our map, and finally arrived at the familiar house of Nick Stefani about 6:30am with the sun already risen. It was straight to sleep for us as Stefani got up for class. Waking up again at noon, we were off to the skatepark and the burton bowl where we met up with Rob Provost and Phil from Quebec. Apparently there must not be any amusement parks near Burlington, because Stefani took us to a monster puddle and decided he had to demonstrate how they go on the 'wave' ride in Vermont - with the car windows open! Back at the house we met up with Alex Blais, Quimp, Rico, and Emil before heading off to set up the premiere. I was so hyped to see my snowskate friends again and see True Color for the first time in all its glory on the big screen. The after party was fun as well but will remain in memory, not writing. The following day was filled with skateboarding as you can see below:

Skateboarding makes Stefani get hyphy!

As day transitioned to night, notable accomplishments included the legacy of Austin's fun-size snickers and us chillin in random people's yards for upwards of an hour or two. Everybody else had already trickled out of Burlington, getting back to their regular lives, so we were the last to leave on Sunday. Saying goodbye to Stefani that morning, I began to realize really how much we had done in such a short stay, yet how far we still had to go. Traveling through the colorful Adirondack countryside during the day, randomly sticking the camera out the window, it occurred to me that a time lapse was in order. Peep our adventure below (or full screen HD at the link):

1 minute, 550 miles HD.

Somewhere in the forest we came upon a yard sale. We both glanced at it and returned the glance with, "was that a snowskate!?" We turned around, determined to buy it if it was a classic, but it was a junk model. It was an awkward exchange as the kid thought we were going to buy it, but we gave him a copy of True Color for his confusion.

We arrived at Niagara Falls around sunset. The thing that amazed me about Niagara falls was not the size of the falls, but the size and ridiculousness of the tourist attractions: hotels, casinos, ferris wheels, flashing lights, even color changing lights for the falls. We played around with some stop motion and then decided on the most appropriate way to photograph the falls: Austin, Ollie North

And a more standard photo for ya...

Outside the tourist zone, Niagara is a smelly industrial city, but I am always drawn to industry when I have a camera in my hand so I was happy to be there.

Finally, after putting off eating all day because the tollway traps you at oasises with ski resort food prices, it was off to McDonalds for some healthy sustenance. Hydroplaning into Ohio in a downpour, we arrived back at Austin's car around 3am. I drove until five, slept in my car and spent some time in Gary, IN on Monday. Later I drove 30 miles on a flat tire (and consequently ruined the sidewall) that had been giving us problems with a slow leak the entire trip, and finally thanks to some bubbly fix-a-flat returned to life #1. Back to school as if nothing had happened minus a few missed classes, but with memories to last a long time!

Last, if you hated the visuals and want technical detail, here's the trip by numbers:

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