Shawn's Blog #5

November 5, 2012

7:00am RUDE alarm wake up but I don’t care, I jump out of bed (couch) and run upstairs. Kris is already up and first thing he says is “Dude I’m so excited” I agree and we truck it straight to Performance All-Terrain. We had pre ordered a mountain of spare parts and a Honda generator for the racing season. Without the sweet hook-up from Jim we would have been much less prepared for the start of the season. Thanks Jim!

9:00am after some BSing, handshakes and high fives we leave Performance All-Terrain and head up to see our buddy Mike at GT Auto Recyclers about a front driveshaft for the diesel, he hooks us up with a good deal on a good used shaft, bring on the snow!

10:00am FINALLY we get on the road out of 100 Mile House, way later than we would have liked. Pop in the PulpMX podcast, crack a fresh Monster and away we go, heading for RMR/H2R Fox Racing Shox in Abbotsford to pick up my shocks.

2:00pm we have a fight and become “friends off” with Apple Maps just to learn we were wrong and Apple Maps was actually right… for once… We were very pleased to meet Rod and Melissa at RMR/H2R Fox Racing Shox, very friendly and willing to help us however they can! They fitted us with some sweet Fox Racing Shox pit shirts, decals and a huge banner and built my Fox Float2’s into evols!, Thanks guys we are stoked to work with you!

A few moments later it was time to brave the dreaded border crossing.. After they gave Kris a cavity search and gave me a high five and some candy we headed towards HMK headquarters in Hood River OR.  We shot Kirk at HMK a text to let him know we made it across but behind schedule, we didn’t hear back right away and were un sure if it was too late to still stay at his place.

We arrived in Portland around 10:00pm several hours later than we had hoped, kinda bummed we’d have to sleep in the trailer and test out our new cots instead of warm beds at HMK, just then my phone rings… “Kirk HMK” I answer it , Kirk says “hey where are you guys?” I tell him were still 40 miles out. He says “what mile marker?” ummm mile marker 24 I say “I’m 2 miles behind you guys! Ill speed up hold on” 5 minutes later we see Kirk’s HMK mobile and trailer in town catch up and pass us! He calls back and says “FOLLOW ME!” Seriously? He just happened to be 2 miles away when he calls. We were stoked.

We arrive at HMK headquarters in Hood River Oregon around 11:30pm. Kirk gives us the tour of his operation, then to the guest house which was a pretty sick setup. We’re starving because we haven’t eaten today, Kirk points us in the direction of a 24 hour restaurant and throws us the keys to the HMK van and says good night. Kris and I go stuff ourselves with extremely healthy burgers and pie shakes, yes you read that right PIE shake, haha. After attempting to get on Kirks wifi several times we give up and pass out.