Start at the 3rd and read up for the Bucky and Alex Landboard show

The 2006 Dude, Where's Our Bus Tour: Sept 11th through Nov 27th: The Adventures of Sleepy and Stucky

November 27, 2006

While Alex was asleep this morning, I woke up and went to breakfast and I truly believe that I may have still been under the influence from the night before. This in turn made the food taste even better. I ran around for a while and then went and kicked Alex out of bed.

We went and scouted a couple of more spots to ride and decided on riding at Holly beach. This is the beach where I learned to stay upwind and it by far has the steadiest wind I have ever been in. Not only is the waterkiting good there but the landboarding is great too. Alex found a spot literally right behind where we kite on the water and got some of the best footage of the trip. Alex agreed that it was also some of the best dirt we had ridden on as well.

It is good to see the video is coming along and Alex has already started to edit some of the video. If we are lucky we may even see some of it this website very very soon…………..RIGHT ALEX?!

'Till next time, with a new windshield, we will report our travels, trials, tribulations, and adventures to you…………STAY TUNED!

November 26, 2006

Today we decided to break up the monotony of filming landboarding and satisfy our other kiting needs. We decided to go out on the water for the first time in a while and just focus on that. For some reason I think we weren’t focusing hard enough because the wind just wouldn’t show up. We spent about 3-4 hrs there and nothing ever really happened. The word is already out on the street here about the bus windshield and everyone seems to have a joke or comment about either me being a bad driver or some other joke…………ha ha ha hah funny isn’t?

If you ever get the chance to head down to South Padre and kiteboard DO IT!. Even though we may not have had a ton of wind right now, TRUST ME this place rocks when it is windy. The wind isn’t the only benefit the island itself is beautiful and holds a lot of cool people. The food is great, the beaches are wide open, the wind is steady and the sunsets are to die for! ~ Speaking of dying the alcohol last night nearly did kill me. Have a look at this sunset pic...

November 25, 2006

Once again, I woke up and knocked out a bunch of errands until around 11 am and then decided to go wake up the 7th dwarf…..SLEEPY. I woke him up and we took off to a moto-x track on the Brownsville ship channel. I have to hand it to Alex, as much as I give him grief for sleeping sooooo much, when he wakes up and gets on a board he is very very wide awake smashes it.

I am sure many of you are familiar with what a moto-x berm looks like. If not, it looks a lot like what a bowl would look like if you cut it in half and is used for moto-x bikes to turn at high speeds.

Coincidently, this is the same way Alex used it. The wind couldn’t have been more cooperative. Alex took the same line as the riders on the bikes did, in fact a good majority of the riders stopped and watched in awe. Alex started bombing in at around 20-25 mph and as he approached he would pop up do a 180, turn the kite back the opposite way and slash the dirt berm much like water kiters slash a wave. EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE, wait till you see the videos.

This pic is good but watching it at full speed is what really does it justice.

There were a couple of other jumps on the track that we utilized but nothing as impressive as the berm. I would tell you all about them but it might ruin the video and I probably could not make it sound as impressive as it actually was. I will say this, when you watch the video you are probably going to want to go and grab a mountain board and kite yourself.

November 24, 2006

This morning as much as I appreciate the hospitality of Mr. Cliff Stone I had to drive the bus down to the island so we could have a place to stay. I went and got the bus and drove it down at approximately 15mph for 1.5 hrs. A very interesting drive to say the least but we have a roof over our heads and food to eat. The wind once again did not cooperate but there is wind in the forecast.

November 23, 2006 Thanksgiving and we gorged ourselves. In fact we did it twice, once with my family and once with our kiting family. Special thanks goes out to Dave and Maria Hall for opening up their home to us and letting us share Thanksgiving with them and their family.

Also, the Hall's son is a talented kiteboarder who loves Krispy Kreme and is in “love” with his new girlfriend. Way to go Eddie! By the way when do we GET TO MEET HER?????? WHY SO SHY ABOUT IT?

Later that evening we went back to Cliff Stone’s house where we were staying. Cliff has a cat that was attacked by some birds for getting to close to their nest and they bit off part of his tail. I know it sounds weird but it is true. The cat constantly is licking it and tearing bandages off, which is what we found when we got home, a cat with a bleeding tail. Cliff was less than enthusiastic about this situation so we had to bandage up the cat. This was very very very interesting, ever tried to pin down a male cat who is injured and pissed? There were sounds coming out of this cat that I had only heard in horror movies. You would scream and yell too if you looked like this!

November 22, 2006

Today we woke up at, whoops sorry; I woke up at 8 am to prepare for our departure to South Padre Island. We left Corpus Christi around noon, a.k.a. "morning" for Alex. At around 3pm, we were about 25 miles from South Padre and about 8 miles outside of my hometown of Harlingen when catastrophe struck! We were just driving along when all of a sudden the LOUDEST bang I have ever heard occurred. Just then the ENTIRE windshield caved in from the top center.

I have to say that this was one of the scariest auto incidents I have ever been in. Imagine a windshield 10 ft wide by 4.5 ft tall caving in towards you at 55 mph. SCARY SCARY SCARY. Needless to say, we pulled over immediately and stopped. Alex and I must have sat there for well over a minute just looking at the glass and staring at it while it crumbled down on us.

He may have said something but my ears were still ringing from the BANG noise of the windshield collapsing. After I got through my shock, I decided we needed to get off the highway. I pulled into a lumber yard so we could figure out what to do. The owner was there and he allowed us to park the bus overnight so we could move forward with repairing it and not have to worry about it being unsecured. Fortunately for us my Dad has a HUGE Texas size truck and he loaned it to us so that we would be able to continue filming and riding. We were able to get a repair shop close that has the ability to fix these kinds of things and they placed an order for the glass we need. The good part for us is we are stuck in South Padre Island, unfortunately we will be here until the 1st which means we are going to miss "Pepper" show in Corpus on the 30th.

November 21, 2006

Today the wind wasn’t so cooperative but we were able to fly the kites. With little ability to ride, but the ability to fly a kite, we decide to get kite shots. Basically, it's for this instructional video Alex has decided to do what no one else does, which is to show what the kite is doing while you are riding. So we shot the kites in a variety of manoeuvres like jumping, kiteloops, downloops etc. This went on for around an hour until we were satisfied with all of our shots. I think Drill 2 is going to be the mother load.

November 20, 2006

No wind day and very uneventful. A lot of PC use and staring out the window awaiting the wind.

November 19, 2006

Once again the wind was blowing out of the North. which made it good conditions for Port Aransas. We got set up and because it was a Sunday we were experiencing higher amount of traffic and stupidity. Alex’s choice was the 13mtr Waroo Pro, kinda funny considering there were people on the water on 17mtrs schlogging along at no speed. As usual, this kite gets my vote as ~The best light wind kite~ I have flown in my 6 yrs of kiting. On the stupidity side of things, a group of girls come by and start screaming at Alex, something about his sexy blonde hair. One of our crew decides to go over to their car and film them for a second, and like girls do when they are in front of a camera, they got a little "Girls Gone Wild" on camera. I didn’t see that one coming!!!

Since they were so into the camera, we ask if they would like to be in the video and they happily agreed. They get out of their car and we tell them to stand together on the beach and Alex will jump them. I see Alex getting lined up and think he is just making a practice run to test the wind. I turn to the girls and say “Don’t worry he is just going to make a practice run”. As soon as I finished saying “run” I turn to see Alex barrelling right at us at full speed and then he sends the kite. I turned just in time to get the camera up and him centred and when he send the kite he boost around 10 feet over them! ...Please keep in mind about what I said about the wind and this being the best light wind kite I have ever seen... As he boost over them, the girls all grab onto each other and scream their heads off, like girls do. It made for great video and the girls have now been exposed on camera…………...to kiteboarding.

After this was done, Alex was beat so he wrapped it up and landed his kite. I noticed it starting to pickup a bit so I took his kite for a water session on my surfboard. I had a blast until the sunlight started to fade so I came in. Soon after that we decided to wrap it up and go get some beer (just me, not ALEX!) and Mexican food andcall it a night.

November 18, 2006

Today the wind came back out of the North. We decided to head over to Port Aransas, 17 miles North of Corpus Christi. We pull up next to the jetties and find some of the hardest packed sand of the whole trip. Ironic, no? We used the fish eye for a while to film and got some great shots. Alex was riding the Waroo Pro 13mtr and was just smashing it! This kid can pull just about every trick most people can do on the water but you can't afford to bail! Rightfully so, hard packed sand doesn’t splash, ask my tailbone….OWWWW!

It is funny how people stop and stare when they see someone kiting. Sometimes it looks like they have just seen Bigfoot, with a splash of stupidity mixed in there. I say that because they would just lose all common sense when looking. A good example of this was when an elderly couple came by and started "rubber-necking" and soon drove their truck into a pole because they weren’t looking forward and kept the vehicle in motion!

We continued to film until the sun went down and then we packed up and bailed back to the house in Corpus Christi.

November 17, 2006

Unfortunately for us, there was no wind this day so we spent the day cleaning the RV. Lots of fun. Where did all this sand come from??????????

November 16, 2006

The next morning I woke up early and started driving home to Corpus Christi. About halfway there, Alex woke up and joined me up front for the drive into Corpus Christi. It was just after a coldfront had gone through and the weather was epic. Beautiful blue skies, temp about 74 and sunny, perfect for a little landboarding.

First we scout out some spots to ride and then stop by Buckland to check on the house. As we drive into Corpus, we take the scenic route to look at some of the parks on Ocean Drive. We take a look at some possibilities and decide that some are good and some aren’t.

Next stop we go to or friends over at Laguna Shores Rv Park to drop our tanks and say hello and tell them about our adventures. Even though they aren’t kiteboarders, they sure are a ~kiteboard friendly~ Rv resort. LagunaShoreVillage.com

Then, we're off to my home, A.K.A. "Buckland" (no I didn’t name it that, someone else did) and this is where the story gets ugly . I had a house guest staying there from Seattle. He apparently has someone who cleans up after him at his house even though he is 22yrs old. There were several red flags when I walked in but the icing on the cake was this...He apparently was nice enough to take my glasses I drink out of and use them as ashtrays while he smoked INSIDE the house! After this wonderful surprise, Alex and I spent the rest of the day catching upon emails and getting pictures and video in order.

November 15, 2006

What a glorious day this was. We travelled Las Cruces NM, all the way to San Antonio, TX. There isn’t a whole lot of action on this drive, sorry I couldn’t be more colourful about it but there is just simply nothing between these places. When we arrived in San Antonio I was beat dead tired and even though we were only 2.5 hrs away I couldn’t drive anymore. We stopped at an old friend’s house, had one beer and a shower and couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep in about 20 seconds.

I remember when I was 18, I had more energy than 20 ravers hopped up on…….whatever it is that ravers get hopped up on and dance around all night on. However, our friend from the land of dance music and all night raves (YES, I am talking about England) doesn’t share this common characteristic the only common link there is he is 18, as I once was.

Maybe he is growing, maybe landboarding is more excursion of energy on your body than water kiting, or maybe he is just trying to limit the amount of time he has to deal with me? I think it’s probably the last one. As I write this story he is sleeping, not that it is a bad thing, we did get some of the best riding footage we have gotten the whole trip so I can understand. The trip seems to be getting better everyday and so does the riding. It’s a harsh bit of irony that we drove over 2000 miles and found some of the best riding in my hometown.

Tuesday, November 14th We woke up today and spoke with Best first thing. I informed them the trip wasn’t what we had been hoping for and requested permission to relocate to somewhere else. We are still awaiting their decision as I write this now. After I hung up the phone I noticed the wind starting to blow. I am sure as you know or can figure out on your own, Alex was still sleeping. So, I fired up the RV and went over to a spot we had looked at the night before. The place was EPIC flat, hard packed and blowing. Everything we were looking for but had yet to find. We rode for about 1.5 hrs and had quite a few people stopping to see what we were doing. After we left that spot, we saw an arroyo that looked like it could be ridden. All Alex could say was how it reminded him of DOGTOWN and Z Boys and what an “urban” feel it had because it felt like we were skating. It was quite odd, this place is the last place I expected to be flying a kite, but at the same time so was the desert where we were. Alex had a go at this little pipe wall ride that ended up being quite a good time and really got his blood going well, not to mention his eyes popping out of his head.

After that little wall ride session, we went back to Carmens house for a rest. The wind really started to pick up and gust were reported of around 40 mph, I believe this because all of the windows in the complex were shaking. I couldn’t take it anymore and needed a ride myself so I grabbed a board and the trainer kite. I rode around the street for a while and then noticed a small parking lot where there was a 3 step step down. All I could think of is how Alex kept saying “Urban Kiting” so I decided to ride around it and check it out. I had a blast but never made the step down. Alex must have felt what a good time I was having and decided to come out and see what was going on. He grabbed the kite and was immediately hitting the step down. Olly’ing off of it, doing 180’s and to top it off he put a pipe down it and rail slid it. NICE, man. Very nice.

It was going great until the camera broke and we had to focus on fixing it. With the wind dying and the camera shot we decided to pack it in. It was quite a good day and we covered some new ground, cant wait to see what happens tomorrow.

Monday, November 13th

We spent last night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Once again, Carmen played the host showing up with food, beer, and love. She is awesome and there really is no way we could repay her for what she does for us while we are in her town. Tacos in the morning and beer at night. Who could ask for a better host? We take off to find the riding spot we heard so much about by the airport. I call the guy who told me about the spot and he informs me that he just got a letter from the airport asking him not to ride there. DAMN. This just keeps getting better. We return to the house defeated and still lacking wind. Carmen made some chicken enchiladas that were out of this world and then took us to a college soccer game where I really couldn’t tell what was going on and it wasn’t because I didn’t know about soccer.

Sunday, November 12th

We meet up first thing in the morning and get a call from our “Best” friend Carmen, from Las Cruces, who plans on showing us some more of White Sands. She tells us some Geological facts about White Sands and informs us of where there may be some harder packed sand to ride on. We get up to the gate and since we are going to be there for a couple of days, we decide to buy a season pass because it was cheaper than to pay 3-4 days in a row. As soon as we finish paying at the entrance booth, a Ranger steps out and ask us if we have any kites over 5 ft. My response was, “Well, how are you measuring? witdth or length?” She then tells us that if we fly a 5m kite or larger the military likes to investigate and confiscate these objects. GREEEEAT! What about the lady that I spoke to on the phone who told me we could fly kites there? It turns out that she was either wrong by misunderstanding us or flat out lied to us. At this point, it didn’t matter. Ok, so we cant kite on big kites but we can get towed by anything! NATIONAL PARKS ARE FUN….not!!!! So we end up taking the boards anyway so we can ride down the dunes and take the Best trainer kite to mess around with. We spend the rest of the day hiking around, flying the trainer and riding the landboards down the dunes.

Saturday, November 11th

4:30 am. I woke up to a horrific sound. I couldn’t tell what it was. All I hear is wind blowing about 40 mph and a loud banging on the side of the RV. Great, I thought to myself, something else is going wrong. BANG BANG BANG BANG. What the heck is that noise? I go outside and it is about 38 degrees and blowing about 40mph...this should be fun. I bring along my $10 trusty Auto Zone spotlight and shine it towards the problem. I look up on the side of the RV and see that the awning has come out about 6 inches, which is a lot like not deflating your kite, tying it to the top of your car and driving home. Like I said, this is very interesting, very dark, and VERY cold. I wake up Alex (What?????..........he is asleep?....that's unusual!) and tell him I need some help. I can't clearly convey enough how excited he was to go outside into the cold. We get up on top and tie some rope around the awning so it will stop. Rope and a little bit of adjustment made the noise go away. Awesome. Get me back in bed where it is warm. Awwwww, bed, Where it is warm and nice. Then once again, BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! No, not that kind. I wish but NO. Sure enough the banging is back, BANG! BANG! BANG! Dammmit. “Hey Alex, get up and let's do it again.” I can tell he is happy about it. We finally get it taken care of and by the time we are done the awning isn’t going anywhere and our fingers are frozen.

We wake up in the morning and start driving towards White Sands, New Mexico in hope of riding the great white sand dunes. Along the way, we are stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint where I end up in total shock. As we pull up, the agent asks us if we are US citizens. I reply that I am and Alex is from the UK. Then the agent, without missing a beat, leans back reads the side of the bus and says, “WOW! Kiteboarding. What is that?” I explain to him what it is and what we do and he is stoked on the sport. Instead of asking us for Alex’s passport, he excitedly inquires if we have any stickers. At this point, I am amuzed by how stoked he is; asking us 20 questions. Not in an interrogative way but more like he is truly interested. Go figure.

We finally make it to White Sand and the place is offfff the hook! There are hard packed dunes for miles and miles and it is just as it says….WHITE. All we could do is look at each other going “Dude, we could ride this part and then connect over to there and hit this lip here and then go...” This went on for well over 2 hrs and we just kept walking farther and farther.

All of the sudden we were talking about the sunset and then realized how far we had walked back into the dunes and realized we had to go back to the bus.

We made it back to the bus and we were the last people out of the park.

We spent the night in the Wal Mart parking lot in Alamogorda, this place is full of Rednecks who have loud trucks and like to visit Wal Mart at all hours of the night.

Friday, November 10th

We left off with us being stuck in the desert. As soon as we were able to leave the Harvey Layton compound, where evidently Noah's Ark had crashed, we went back to Hueco Rock Ranch. It was here where we felt not only safe, but had an interent connection. There is NO connectivity of any kind out here; cell, internet, humans, etc. It was here where we wrote the last story about being stuck, and where we found out that even though it was miserable for us, some people found it HILARIOUS. I am glad our misery could humor the guys and gals back at the BEST office.

Friday, November 10, 2006

I woke up this morning and first thing I said was “Alex, get the camera and start filming the sunrise.” So he woke up and set up the camera and started filming. At around 6:30 I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to make a cup of coffee and watch it as well, So I did and soon after that around 7:30 I started shoveling the sand out from under the RV. During this time I am constantly hitting the side of the RV because I am digging so low and at the same time trying to wake up Alex to help me. I am picking up on this whole “TIME CHANGE” sleeping deal. Less manual labor more sleeping, ha ha funny isn’t it?

Around 9 am Harvey and the tow truck show up to get us out of our STUCKY situation. It took about and hour and 3 tries to get us out but we finally made it out. After they pulled us out he took us over to his house for some other minor repairs needed, it was nice because he had every tool known to man. He also gave us a tour of his home, which to say the least was interesting / incredibly freakish. This guy had a full on MINI ZOO, as I am sure you can tell from the list of animals above.

Minor repairs

We spent about 1.5 hrs there fixing the RV and touring his home. The highlight, which I missed, mind you, was when he showed Alex his snakes. He was bragging on them about how he has had them for over 6 yrs and how nice they were etc etc. When he reached in to grab his Pythons, Alex said the thing got into striking position and bit Harvey in the hand so hard it made him bleed profusely, nice snakes, HUH Harvey? Who wants a 6 yr old Python for a pet?..............the same guy who wants 3 tractor trailers, 3 llamas, 5 sheep, 5 goats, 17 dogs, 11 ducks, 4 pigs, a flock of peacocks, 65 feral cats, 3 snakes, 1 iguana, 5 donkeys, 1 miniature horse, 1 miniature donkey, 20 chickens, 3 Mexican doves, 6 regular-sized horses, 7 turkeys, and a flock of geese. Go figure.

Harvey took a good look at our Best bus and looked around at the 23 vehicles he had onsite and decided to make us a deal. He said he had the perfect vehicle for us and said that it, unlike the BEST Bus, wouldn’t get stuck. I didn’t believe him at all and thought the deal sounded a bit sketchy but when I saw the vehicle he spoke of I knew we had to have it. So I am here to tell you that we did accept his offer and we traded the Best Bus for an alternate vehicle that won’t get stuck. It may not be BIG but it has other advantages like it can fly, it doesn’t use expensive diesel, and it has a joystick like an airplane instead of a steering wheel and the toilet is operated with a keyboard. Check it out… this is us packing it.

The trade in.

After that we got back on the road and headed back to where they have internet, cell phone reception and paved roads. Which by the way I plan to stay on from now on when I am not flying. We plan on heading to White Sands New Mexico tomorrow, stay tuned. Also would someone please contact NASA and tell them that if the Shuttle needs an alternate landing spot not to do it at the Salt Flats near El Paso, it could be a bad idea, however we really don’t even know we never even made it out onto them.

Uncharted territory. (yeh $400 could have bought you guys a guided tour...)

Thursday, November 9th –

We woke up this morning for the first time in the desert. Beautiful red walled mountains, cactus, and not a breath of wind (which is typical for the desert) so you could hear everything. This is a change from my home where it is constantly blowing and you can’t hear anything. We drank, sorry … I … drank some coffee and waited for Alex to wake up……..damn time change, I think he is lying to me about this freaking time change thing. We finally hear from Alex and decide to get a game plan going. We meet with Robert Rice one more time to go over the directions and head out to the Salt Flats. This place is supposed to be epic, so flat and scenic that they film car commercials, the movie Lolita, and supposedly an alternate location for an emergency landing for the Space Shuttle. This sounds PERFECT. So we left the Ranch at about 10am and headed there. It took a little finding but we got there by 11:30. After scouting it out we decide to drive onto the flats.

Super lightweight RV.

Ok lets stop right here and rewind back to Friday when I said “I agreed as we all did that the bus was VERY large, one week later this would come back to haunt us.” Remember this? Well we got out and walked onto the Salt Flats and found it to be very solid, but there is a difference between a 170 pound guy and a 13,000lb bus. Hello and welcome to STUCKY’s-NOWHEREVILLE, USA population 2 Alex Brown and (formerly known as “Bucky” Ashcraft but now known as) “Stucky” Ashcraft.. Looks can be deceiving and so was the Salt Flat. So we tried to put wood under the tires and get out but only got more stuck. I decided to try and walk to get help but to where? This is when you find out how dependent you are on technology try living with out your PC or Cell phone for one day, it’s hard especially when you are screwed like we were.

Lethal mid day sun.

So I ended up walking in the desert sun for about 2 miles to the nearest house. Keep in mind that I have no clue what to expect or even if I will find anyone at this house and if I do will they even help me or just point the gun out the door and shoot me for trespassing.

Crazy guards at the front gates.

As I neared the house I noticed it would be easier to walk across the field and head around the back of the house. As I walked up there were like 23 broken down, fix er upper cars, a school bus, 3 tractor trailers, 3 llamas, 5 sheep, 5 goats, 17 dogs, 11 ducks, 4 pigs, a flock of peacocks, 65 ferrell cats, 3 snakes, 1 iguana, 5 donkeys, 1 miniature horse, 1 miniature donkey, 20 chickens, 3 Mexican doves, 6 horses, 7 turkeys, and a flock of geese all in the same pen………well except for the reptiles.

I did mention the snakes, right?

And as if that wasn't bad enough there was someof the biggest bugs i've ever seen

I was FREAKED. I didn’t know whether to run away or to stay and check out these weird creatures in the middle OF NOWHERE! All I could think is “What the hell did I just walk into”? So I decide to ask for help from a guy who was working there and he told me it wasn’t his place and he needed to talk to Harvey Layton, who in the hell is Harvey Layton?

This is Harvey Layton....

He replied something but I couldn’t tell what it was and didn’t want to push it, this situation was already weird enough. So as we walk over to the fence, 3 of the dogs on the other side were OUTRAGED and barking like they want to chew the fence in between us off to get to me.

Everyone likes little puppies, right?

At this point between the odd-ness of all the animals, the ferocious dogs barking and remoteness I was just about ready to run away. It didn’t help that they had been in there talking for well over 8 minutes. I was getting sketched and had thoughts of this guy in there loading guns and hatching a plan to make the sequel to Deliverance and call it “Deliverance 2 – This time we are in the Desert.” Finally they decided to come out and they didn’t have any guns……..YET. I meet Harvey Layton and he turns out to be a GREAT guy, different but still a great guy. He tells me I am in luck and that he has a tow truck (the only one within 50 miles) to pull me out.

The only tow truck for 50 miles.

As we walk over to the truck I open the door and as soon as I do there is a pistol gripped 12 gauge shotgun pointed directly at me. OK WAIT A SECOND MR, LAYTON please point that gun somewhere else. He just smiles at me and says “Don’t be scared I only use this for snakes.” I reply “yea well I am not one so please PUT THE GUN AWAY.” He laughs it off and just casually puts the shotgun next to him on the floorboard and starts driving, YEA THAT’S SAFE!

If you don't think things were creepy, check this out, I guess Scooby Doo and the crew never guessed that it was old man Layton...Before it was too late.

We head over to the RV and get hooked up and start pulling it out. We did successfully pull it out but not well enough. It looked like we were out but the RV was on an incline that worked against us. So as Harvey drove away we tried to reverse up hill and sunk even worse. Long story short I had to head back to his house and explain what happened again, and once again he came to the rescue. However, this time to no avail. We had to stop after 3 broken chains, 2 broken cables, and 3 tired men…okay 2 tired men and one semi tired English LAD.

The long shot.

ED'S NOTE... if you guys are going to get stuck in the middle of the desert and it costs $400 to get towed out, you better make damn sure you have some pictures. good call Alex....

Dude are we stuck in a rut or what?

Needless to say Alex and I spent the night in the desert stuck in Stuckys- NOWHEREVILLE population 2. He told us that he would come back first thing in the morning with a tow truck that would definitely get us out. He also offered us over for dinner with his wife and to spend the night but I declined and told him my obligation was to the Rv and needed to stay with it. He told me that there was NO ONE around for miles and not one person would mess with the RV much less know it was even there. Ironically that is also the same reason we didn’t want to go to his house at night.

Getting friendly with the locals...

There is no bigger reality check than being stuck with no signal on your cell phone, no internet and immobile in the desert. It was VERY dark, very quiet, and a bit scary, and I cried like a baby all night long. I went to bed and didn’t even bother looking at the stars even though it was so bright you cast a shadow, being outside was not an option for me. Not with that guy running around with a pistol gripped shotgun.

Wednesday, November 8th – I (Buck Ashcraft) woke up at 5 am to finish our drive to El Paso. The whole time I was driving our “LADDY” friend from England was sleeping, time change right ALEX? I decide to take some pics when I pull over to make more coffee for the drive. I thought that was what co-pilots were for but it doesn’t help when they are always sleeping however, it was still 7 am who can blame him….ME. Ever since last night when we left San Antonio we have had no signal on either of our phones. We are out in BFE for sure. Since the phone won’t work I have to buy a pre paid calling card to find out where Best shipped our stuff. I find out where it is after 10 dollars in pre paid cards and head out to the Hueco Rock Ranch to meet up with a friend and find out where the salt flats are to go riding. Does anyone know if Shannon Best has been out this way?

I have a feeling he has but I could be wrong. We went by this mountain side and saw this, but we are not sure if it is him or Sandra Bullock’s hill. I will claim it for Best though! So we end up staying the night there at the Hueco Rock Ranch and make plans to leave first thing in the AM. I don’t know if any of you all have ever been out to this area but it is absolutely breathtaking. There are HUGE mountains and scenic desert that is just amazing. The drawback is that it is very remote. Water is VERY VERY scarce and has to be trucked into everywhere. We found this out on our way out to the Ranch when we stopped in Wallace Ville. Ahhhhhh WallaceVille, a huge Real Estate Scam gone sour. It turns out they built all of these general store style shops, and also gave it an old West Saloon look to it. Anyway, long story short this place never took off and it definitely is in the middle of nowhere. The owner let us dump out tanks and fill up with fresh water and then told us about the scarce water supply. HOW CONVIENENT! It turns out that water is about $1,00 a gallon. I won’t even tell you how much water the RV hold, I have pics of me that day and I swear I do NOT see where “sucker” was stamped on my forehead but evidently they did. About 1 hour later we arrived at Hueco Rock Ranch to meet up with Robert Rice for directions and accommodations. We stayed the night and had a great time watching the sunset and having a bonfire.

Tuesday, November 7th –

We wake up and start tying up loose ends, As we are about to depart our local kiteshop owner stopped by to see us off. Les Daniels of Cline Street saw the bus prepped and ready to go and decided to stop in and say BYE!. He also offered some good info on other areas we should check out while we were out West. They sounded great and we are definitely going to check them out.

We departed shortly after 10am and headed towards San Antonio to link up with I-10 for our journey to El Paso 776 miles away. While I was driving I noticed it looked like someone had sprayed on the rear view camera so we stopped and wiped it off. Then about 20 minutes later we noticed it do the same thing. I looked and the back portion of the RV had completely been covered in some sort of oily film. Then I looked under the bus and noticed a leak…………..OH CRAPOLA, that’s diesel fuel dripping. I decided to pull over and get on the horn real quick to find the nearest diesel shop. I was in luck I found one within 20 miles and hauled butt over there.

I was then made aware they don’t work on RV’s. However we explained that it was very small problem and they decided to do the work, it’s amazing how far a poster of the Best girls will get you! We told them if they worked on the bus we would even send them one of our girls, it was done within the hour!!!! We then got on the road and went smack dab into rush hr traffic. From 0 to 10mph in 10 miles so we decided to pull off at Target and buy some supplies for the road. About an hour later we got back on the road and traveled for another 4 hrs and had to stop. I couldn’t take it anymore 400 miles in about 11 hrs, this is bad.

Almost there

Monday, Nov 6th –

Ok late departure it is. We decided we needed some other items shipped out so we will wait till tomorrow to start our journey. So we make our order and try to figure out what to start packing. As we are doing so we get a call that NO there is no wind and as a result of that the surf is reeeeallly good. Reeeeallly good for Texas. Alex mentions that he has never surfed and would like to learn so I decide to take the “LAD” for a surf. I take him and my HALO ADDICTED, X Box friend Tyson to the beach and decide to give them a small surf lesson. I say small lesson because I basically did the same thing someone did to me “Here’s a board, there is the wave, catch the wave, surf is good outside, see you later” It turns out Alex did quite well (not surprising, have you seen him ride on a kite?) and enjoyed surfing but said after 1.5 hrs of surfing he could have slept for another 10 hrs due to fatigue. I don’t know what’s up but I think he just wants to sleep a lot anyway, regardless of the time change. We got some good pics of the waves and I surfed so much my shoulders still hurt 5 days later. After we finished we decided on a game plan. The plan was to wash the bus, go home, pack our stuff and leave in the morning for El Paso 776 miles away. So we do just that.

Aint no surf in Texas

Sunday, Nov 5th –

This was the day we headed out to get Groceries for the trip. Like every good American should do, We headed to the local Super Wal-Mart. Here we stocked up on groceries for the entire trip. We also made a couple of stops to Best Buy and Radio Shack to get camera gear accessories for the trip as well. We are planning on leaving on Monday but may postpone it for a later departure so we can have some items overnighted.

Lets get the show on the road.

Saturday, Nov 4th –

Alex had just had 3 new Waroo Pro’s sent out so I thought we would let him get some water time in and get used to the kites. We decided to go to Packery Channel this would be the best scene for him to not only test his kites but to hit a slider for the first time on water. We were in luck because Ryan Riccitelli had The Kiteboarder compound up and running in FULL FORCE. To shed some light on what The Kiteboarder compound is, it is Ryan Riccitelli’s (editor of The Kiteboarder) house on Packery Channel and home to South Coast Kiteboarding (www.southcoastkiteboarding.com). Ryan, Nikki, Tony & Jane Brady, Zach Kleppe, myself, and Alex all hung out for a while and enjoyed their new toy. The new addition to the house was a trampoline and we all took turns coming close to hurting ourselves and heckling one another. Later on we got on the water for round 2 hrs, the best part about it was we were able to launch right from The Kiteboarder compound and walk down the street to the water, LUCKKKKKKKY Ryan! The wind was a bit spotty but we all had a good time, Alex never made it up to the slider because of the fluky wind.

Friday, Nov 3rd –

Alex arrived at 11pm our time and was beat. We picked him up at the airport in the Best Bus and he was truly impressed. He remarked to us that any vehicle this size in England would usually have a pair of wings and a jet engine on it. I agreed as we all did that the bus was VERY large, one week later this would come back to haunt us. We had planned to take Alex out on the town of Corpus Christi but he declined and said he needed rest.

Alex hard at work getting used to the time difference.

We then took him to my house and made him some breakfast, at midnight? Must have been breakfast in England I said and happily made him some good ol bacon sandwiches. BACON SANDWICHES?........What’s going on over there in England?....”where is the egg” I asked, he replied “just bacon please”. Just a bacon sandwich, ok whatever you would like MR Healthy. SURPRISE!!!!! WE ARE BACK!!!!

I am sure many of you have been checking the site and wondering what happened to the bus? I am sure you are also tired of seeing the same paragraphs over and over. So I am here to tell you the BEST Bus IS ALIVE AND WELL!

Currently the bus is in Corpus Christi, Texas at my house. Hello! I was your North West Captain during the month of September......Bucky Ashcraft. Remember me?...and my duck? Ha ha ha. Anyway, the RV is alive and well after many days of minor repairs and alot of my elbow grease. If you are wondering where my house is, it is in Corpus Christi, Texas. If you really, really want to know exactly where just visit ikitesurf.com and zoom into Corpus Christi. Once there go ahead and click on the "Laguna Shores" wind sensor. This sensor is located directly on top of my house.

We would also like to thank our friends at Laguna Shores RV Village. Jennie Ashmore and her staff are some of the most hospitable people around and they have a GREAT location with great amenities for the traveling RV enthusiast. Thanks for all the help and support Jennie. You can find their website here www.lagunashorevillage.com They have a great location if you are going to Rv it in Corpus Christi or the Coastal Bend area. Even better there is a launch site within a mile of there and it has fresh water showers, clean launch and the best wind in Corpus Christi. Contact Cline Street Windsports for the details of that launch.

Speaking of Cline Street, we did a demo with them on Sunday that was great. The wind wasn't so good but we had a great time anyway.

We all got to try out the new Waroo pro 13 and had a blast. This kite is epic and I am glad I am running the bus because I get to ride it alot now!~ Check out the wind graph for this day.

Can you believe we were powered on a 13mtr? I will say it right here, right now.........this 13mtr Waroo Pro is BY FAR the best light wind kite I have ever ridden. Look at the wind graph and look at the pics, you will be as surprised as we all were.

So what next for us? Mmmmmmmmmm? Let's see... How about we sign one the world's best land boarders to our team and then bring him onto the bus for a couple of weeks and shoot some video? Yes! That's it!

We have invitited one of the most talented young riders in the UK today, Alex Brown Alex Brown joins Best, to take us on a landboarding voyage. We are going to climb on the RV in Corpus Christi and travel to New Mexico and check out some flat LAND. We also plan on hitting up the plains of El Paso as well. During this time, we will be filming for an upcoming video that Alex is making for his sponsors. Alex is scheduled to arrive in Corpus on Friday, November 3rd and we will depart from here on Sunday.

Okay, maybe it isn't toooo cold to ride here, so we will stick around and let Alex get his feet wet so he can use the new kites on the water as well.

Please stay tuned as we will be updating you from the road.

P.S. Alex is going to try and jump the bus, NO LIE!

barbeque on the beach with a camp fire and watched the sunset. What a great place!

We are going to stick around because we have to score this spot.

September 14, 2006

HURDMAN BROTHERS BIG ADVENTURE

Andy Hurdman begins his voyage on the Land Yacht

After locating the Best RV in the long-term parking lot of the San Francisco airport, I was excited to pick up my brother Josh from his flight from Maui so we could begin our adventure. I don’t know anything about driving or operating anything bigger than my Toyota Tacoma and I was sorry to find out neither did Josh. I picked Josh up in the morning and we checked out all the bells and whistles on-board the RV. We circled around and around, honing our driving skills in the parking lot until airport security started wondering what we were up to! Finally, we took off for the open road.

I also forgot to mention we had no gas and a full tank of poop. Dumping the poop became or first mission, after the gas of course.

We made our first stop at 3rd Ave the next morning. The wind was light, so we checked the inventory of kites and prepared for demos and… the wind. The wind started to pick-up in the afternoon so we flew some demo kites and got ready to ride. Too bad by the time we were done with the demo, the wind was done as well.

After checking the wind the next morning, (there was none) we decided to hit the road and go south. We made our way to Pismo Beach to catch up with Kinsley Wong owner of Extreme Big Air. We got our sleeping spot with the yacht and hoped for wind the next day.

The next morning, we hooked up with Kinsley and checked the coast for wind. The wind was not working in our favor so Kinsley decided to take use in his truck to show use around. We enjoyed the wildlife and saws some amazing waterfalls and beautiful coastline.

We are on a mission to find wind today and the next and the next.

To be continued...

(Frank Sinatra) ......................and now the end is near. ha hah ahha

As I sit here in Houston, Texas, waiting for my flight I can only reflect back on my time on the bus. It was great and by far one of the top 5 trips I have ever been on. here we go.

9-14-06

Today the wind was much the same as the day before. So I woke up and cooked some breakfast and headed out on the water. I was pretty much the only guy there. Kind of nice to tell you the truth. It was my last day on the bus and there was no one there. I had the place to myself and was about to go out on my favorite kite size a 12. So I pumped up and went out for about an hour. When I came in I launched one guy and then headed back to the RV.

It was time for me to start packing and get the RV prepped for our next RV driver 'Andy "never-heard-of-him" Hurdman.' I know Andy likes to live a healthy lifestyle so I decided to go out around the island and pick some of the fresh blackberries that grow abundantly in the bushes. I must have ate about a pound of them while I was picking them, they were sooooo good. Later that day when I went to the bathroom................nevermind but I think you can figure it out. It was colorful, I will tell you that.

After I got done picking blackberries and semi packing I noticed some people started to arrive. I went down to the beach and let some people demo kites, once again people were stoked on the kites which wasn't surprising. The entire trip people were just amazed on the range and power of the kites. After the sessions were over I decided to finish up in the RV and head to San Fransisco where I would be departing for Surf Expo in Orlando at 8 am.

After some minor problems like the drivers side mirror coming loose and moving to the front of the bus, a small door coming open while driving, and the sattelite dish on top banging up and down I made it to the airport. It is funny because nothing ever happened the whole time I was driving the bus, however I think she know I was leaving and was trying to keep me there. She and I love each other and I didn't want to leave her either. However my other job was calling, so I cleaned her up, put some fuel in her and regretfully parked her in long term parking.

That morning I woke up at 6 am and started rolling all of my bags out of the RV. Halfway across the HUGE parking lot I turned around and reflected on all of the memories we had together. I was close to shedding a tear but I knew I would see her again. I have a pretty good feeling she is coming to visit me in Texas for a couple of weeks.

Together we spent 100 hrs of driving, covered 5 states, demoed to tons of people, and had some wonderful experiences together and I can honestly say I never hurt her once even though she is a behemoth to drive.

I would like to take a minute to thank everyone that made it such an enjoyable experience along the way and one of the most memorable trips of my life.

Joaquin Hubbard and Gavin McClurge - Thank you guys so much for helping me with the RV in Seattle if it wasn't for you I would have been very very lost.

Jason from Seattle Kiteboarding Center - You are an awesome guy and you just get it. Thanks for the talks.

Sky and Tyburski - Thanks for the good times in the Hood, even if I did fall asleep in the bar.

Ron from Washoe Lake - You are very good host thanks for all of the hook up and we look forward to working with you soon.

Tony & Carol Bolstad and family - YOU GUYS ROCK, Shannon was right. Your hospitality is awesome and it makes me want to come back asap.

Mira Kwon and Marina Chang - Thanks for the dinner your company is always an enjoyable experience. By the way a guy came up to me the next day in the parking lot at Stevenson and said "DUDE YOU are the luckiest guy in the Gorge" and I asked why and he told me because I was with 2 of the hottest women in the Gorge last night at the sushi bar. I could do nothing but agree!~

Sheldon Kiteboarding - YOU ROCK your repair work is some of the finest around and I love your kite dolls.

Best Kiteboarding - Thanks sooo much for allowing me to be a part of the tour. Stacey, Billy, and Jeff you guys rock and the RV tour would work without you guys. Keri without you I'd be lost. Keep on rocking!~

THE RV - Honey I love you and I will see you soon at my house in Texas! THANKS FOR THE GOOD TIMES.

9-13-06

Today we woke up to the sound of WIND!~ YES! However there were a couple of loose ends to tie up on the bus. So at 8 am I fired up the bus and headed into Rio Vista. In Washoe Lake we had a kite destroyed in a freak crashing incident so it needed some MAJOR repair. In Northern California (or anywhere in the US for that matter) there is only one place to go, Sheldon Kteboarding.

If there is anyone out there who ever needs ANY type of kite repair and you want it done with no hassles and 150% quality work send it to Sheldon in Rio Vista. I can honestly tell you this is some of the finest and quickest work I have even seen done.

Take it from me as I have destroyed a lot of kites and seen alot of repairs, Sheldon kiteboaridng is TOP NOTCH. On top of that he is a great guy and very mellow, not a self proclaimed kite designer who gripes about the brand of kite he has to repair.

To him a repair is a repair no matter what brand you ride, he is just stoked you are on the water. Sheldon thanks for all of your help with the kite, I hope to see you again soon.

Later on we made it back to the campsite at Sherman Island and demoed a few kites. Like I said there were very few people there during this time because the season is ending. Ending?......HUH? I was pumping up a 9, if this is the place in the off season what is it like when it is on? So we spent about 4 hrs riding and it was off the hook. It was pretty much me and Matthew the guy from Washoe lake on the water. We had a blast and were both pretty powered on the kites we chose. Later on that day I decided to go out on the Waroo Pro prototype 11mtr we had on the bus. This kite is the NUTS! I was a little op'ed but the depower and range on this kite in phenomenal and I in no way was uncomfortable. I could have used a 9...YES, but I wanted to use the PRO and it was worth every second.

Later that day we demoed out the 11 to a local and I am sad to say like most prototype kites they eventually die. RIP 11m proto. :( thanks for killing our kite). If you like the Waroo's you will go crazy for the Waroo Pro. It is hard to imagine the Waroo getting better but sure enough it does. That is all I am saying about that, try it for yourself if the bus is coming your way.

9-12-06

Today we woke to the sound of no wind, which is to say I was woken up by birds chirping. Alright no one is around here what do I do???? NOTHING. Actually I went in to town and sent off my expense reports as well as eat some good sushi. YUMMY!Later on I was introduced to a good Californian red wine. 80% Cab 20% Merlot is my new favorite drink. Nice to meet you Torauny.

9-11-06

Today I bailed out of Tahoe and headed for Sherman Island near Rio Vista California. I decided to take my time as I was informed there was no wind. So as I was heading out I decided to stop and take a moment like we all should every now and then and stop and take a look around. Like the Ziggy Marley song says "A lifetime isn't enough to live" So I stopped and smelled the fresh smell of trees, look at the mountains, take a walk in the river, and let Ducky get wet as well. What was a normal 2.5 to 3 hr trip took me 6 or 7 but who is counting right? So on my way out I stopped near this river and let Ducky go for a swim, he has been quacking about not getting enough water time, I told him it was because the smallest kite I had with us was a 7 and he said "WHO CARES the depower is great on the Waroos". He is a finicky little quacker sometimes. Even though the water was freezing he was still stoked to get wet \, kite or not. This was a really neat river too, a ton of fools gold was exposed in the river beds and the water was soooooo clear I could see the bottom like the water wasn't even there. Finally Ducky got too cold because he didn't have a wetsuit on so we decided to bail.

Finally at around 5 o'clock that day we arrived in Sherman Island and were greeted by local instructor Nat from Edge Kiteboarding school. Even though the season is pretty much over there Nat is quite the busy guy. Currently he is EXTREMELY ENTHRALLED and happy about getting his coast guard license. I would be too, it sounds like a fun time. Background checks, FBI interviews, tons of paperwork, drug test, nothing but good times from what I could gather. By the way does anyone know how to study for a drug test???? :) I know some people who studied for it right before they read this.

Nat was nice enough to take time out of his day to show me around the entire campground, the launches, danger zones, where to go and not to go, wind directions etc. He pretty much showed me the ropes and was a very gracious host regardless of his qualms with the regulations that were now imposed upon him. I know I would be irate but he seemed to be dealing with it quite well. No worries Nat next year just make everyone call you CAPTAIN instead of Nat.... ha hah aha ha. Later on I just decided to pack it in and crash and get a good nights sleep.