A day with Robby Gordon, team, family and friends.

A day with Robby Gordon, team, family and friends.

This is being written from the prospective of a fan looking to share his experience, not someone looking to show-off. I have been a long time friend of Robby’s attorney and new business partner, Steve Nichols. I have also known Bob Gordon for over 5 years. While having coffee on Friday with Steve he invited me to go out to Glamis with him on Saturday. I had originally planned to fly back home on Saturday(from Orange County), but how many times in a lifetime do you have the opportunity to hang out with Robby Gordon. I jumped at the opportunity and changed my flight to 6am out of LAX. Although pricey and much more inconvenient, the change proved to be well worth it.

7am on Saturday we hopped in a truck with another Gordon family friend and headed on down to Glamis. 3+hrs later we showed up to the RGM camp, which happened to be empty. A good sign we thought, so we jumped back in the truck and met up with Robby and the Trophy Truck. Robby had just finished giving another guest a ride. The guest hopped out of the truck grinning from ear-to-ear and noticeably shaking. We knew this was going to be an awesome day. After a little prodding we got Steve to hop in the Trophy Truck. Robby seemed pretty excited too, maybe a little payback for all the legal fees with the BS Nascar issues Steve has dealt with for Robby over the years? ;)

Steve Ready for the ride with Robby.


They headed out onto the dunes and we took the highway to meet them at Robby’s trailer about 6 miles away. Not two minutes later we saw the TT pulled up to the side of the road with a loud popping noise. The Engine had dropped a valve and would be out of commission for the rest of the day. Robby got a tow back to camp and we met him there. Robby hopped in a freightliner support truck and we all loaded into the 4 Robby Gordon Edition Polaris RZR’s. There were 5 originally, but the BLM seemed to be getting its Jollys off of screwing with RG(more to come), and they impounded one of them.

When we showed up to the trailer the crew handed out over a thousand free Speed Energy Drinks. Myself and the other friend that came with us took out one of the Polaris’ on the dunes and he taught me a few new tricks about off-road driving(he is a very experienced off-road driver). I must say, these RZRs were AMAZING! Although they didn’t have a great top speed, they had good torque and the suspension was exceptional. If you are a novice/intermediate off-road enthusiast I highly suggest you check out a dealership and take one of these for a spin. We were out there for an hour than headed back to watch the drag races.

A few of the RZRs with the TT in the background.

On the way over to the races BJ Baldwin’s pre-runner was spotted and covered in tons of Speed Energy stickers by a member of the group I will leave unnamed.

Robby once again made a big showing with the RZRs, Freightliner and killer Pre-runner at the races. FYI the pre-runner is basically a complete Trophy Truck with a truck cab and 5 racing seats inside. The unofficial drag races began and most of us hopped on top of the Freightliner to watch. For those of you who don’t know what happens at these races, it is basically the biggest and baddest ATVs, Buggies, and trucks all hauling ass down the strip with lilttle to no organizers. Basically people showing off and everyone else ooing and aweing. A few of the buggies pulled huge wheelies all the way down the half mile strip of sand. We also spotted David Gilliland watching the races

Everyone was having a great time…CUE THE BLM.

They demanded to talk to Robby. So Steve and Robby climbed off the truck and went and spoke with them. The BLM said Robby had an unlawful gathering and would need to leave the drag races, or be arrested(By the way there were about 20,000 other spectators). We we’re a bit confused as to why this was considered an unlawful gathering. Although a few pictures were being taken by spectators, there was nothing that Robby or anyone in his camp did to attract additional visitors. We were just watching the race. We relunctantly headed back to camp.

Because of its sheer size the Freightliner was always last into camp. By now it was dark and it seemed to be taking longer than usual to arrive. We got a call from Robby that the BLM had stopped them AGAIN! They were deflating the tires when a BLM officer told them they were being evicted. We hopped in an RZR and met them. While Steve and Robby spoke to the police an RG employee filmed the whole thing, as a protective measure. There were 5 BLM and Forrest Service vehicles on scene. The voice of reason finally prevailed. We we’re allowed to stay, but Robby was given a citation for handing out free Speed Energy to fans earlier in the week(They said some BS permit was needed to do so). We heard a group off in the distance yell "Free Robby Gordon."

We hung out, had dinner, and watched 2yr old max tear up the sand on his ATV while enjoying some Absolut Speeds. He really is a chip off the old block.

Team Gordon Prepping Max's ATV

Overall the Gordons and Team Gordon could not be more hospitable. Robby is a master of PR and really seems to enjoy meeting new fans. I had a great time in Glamis and intend to return next year.

Amazing...

The only way I can explain the last three weeks since I last posted. I was writing my newest blog this past weekend when my computer shut off and wouldn't turn back on. Effectively losing all my work.

So From The Beginning:

We took a 6 hour train ride to Interlaken Switzerland, which required that we switch trains three different times. When we arrived on Friday most people were tired and decided to go to bed. A few of us went to a local club for a couple drinks before calling it a night. I was first up the next morning to research some activities for the day.

I found the most popular option to be a guided canyoning tour. Canyoning involves traversing down a canyon filled with running glacier water. The Alpine Raft Company(ARC) was highly recommended by a friend so I made a reservation with them for later that morning. I went back woke up my friends and we left for ARC. When we got there they had two options for canyoning. A 3 1/2 hour tour or an "extreme" 7 hour tour. I jumped at the seven hour one, while the rest of my friends decided for the shorter option.

Myself and the others who decided on the seven hour trip picked out our wetsuits and headed out on an hour long van ride to our Canyon. The van ride alone was gorgeous and enabled us to see a good part of Interlaken.

When we arrived at the canyon we all struggled to get suited up in our three layers of thick neopryne suits, on a dirt road nonetheless. We then hiked into the canyon, about 20 minutes, which felt like a sauna in our suits. By the time we reached the water everyone was drenched in sweat. Jumping in the freshly melted glacier water was refreshing, but it took the air right out of you. We then walked a few feet before getting our final rundown. It was obvious by all the four letter words our 2 guides were using that we were about to partake in a very dangerous activity that they take extremely seriously. We were told to listen at all times, never take off our helmets or lifevests, and not to be F***ing idiots. We then headed on to our first activity. A thirty-three foot cliff jump. It was exilerating. From then on my adrenaline didn't seem to stop for the next four hours. Some other fun things we did:

We were repelled down a sixty foot waterfall.
We repelled ourself down a 80ft+ cliff
Natural rock slides: some involved us having to protect ourselves to avoid having a broken nose from being thrown into the rock face by the curvature.
A section where we had to run, jump off a cliff and land butt first on an almost sheer wall that we slid down to the bottom.
We had many other Cliff jumps including a 34 foot jump and a 15 foot jump that I did a front flip off of.

Part 2 to follow...
Thank you all for your interest in my blog, I will post again very soon.

Photos

So the long awaited photos are up!!! My life these last few weeks has been fairly normal. Been hanging out in Torino, making friends, and generally enjoying life. I see pictures of friends back home and wish that I was able to hang with them, but would never give up this experience to do so. I've made tons of friends here and I honestly can't believe I'm a third of the way through, time is flying by. There is a cool Irish pub about 2 miles from our place that has an international night. We've become great friends with the bartenders and they throw a theme party every Wednesday. It's a little taste of home and it doesn't hurt that one of the bartenders gives a couple of us our drinks for free. Switzerland this weekend! Hope you all are well.

And the photos, If you guys have any questions/comments about the photos leave a comment and I will reply in my next blog.

Albums-
Torino in General: 9050126-208
Geneva: 209-259
Oktoberfest: 357-394
Concept car museum: 395-end

Cinque Terre coming in about a week.

The Link: http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b104/Bricoop

Ciao

Coop

48 Hours of Awesomeness...And Oktoberfest

48 Hours of Awesomeness

My last blog ended and I was on my way to the Italian Riviera, this was about a week ago. About 60 of us took a bus downtown Geneva. We then took a guided tour, in English, of Geneva. My buddy Adam and I separated from the group for lunch in an attempt to find a traditional Italian meal. We walked down random allies, passing a prostitute and hundreds of pigeons whose cruising altitude was about five feet; Which ended in us getting wacked by a few of them. We then came upon this nice little hole in the wall restaurant. The food was amazing and moderately priced. We had our pasta, water, and wine for under 10 Euros each. We then met back up with the group and boarded the bus for Santa Margarita.

We checked into the hotel and were free for the rest of the evening. About 10 of us got some great pizza along with wine and ate on a rock jetty. Afterwards we went to an Irish pub and had some drinks before heading to club Miami. They had some music playing and tables around a large walkway. It was cool, but kind of boring. I then asked the bartenders if they had Y.M.C.A. available, and sure enough three songs later it came on. I don’t know if it’s all Europeans or just Italians, but they go crazy for it. As soon as it came on myself and 4 friends jumped into the walkway and turned it into a dance floor. Three gay Italian guys then joined us before the girls in our group came out to rescue us. The rest of the night was a ton of fun. Weird side note: before I knew the guys were gay, two of them walked into the single bathroom together. One of them saw me staring at them and winked at me. That was almost the end of club Miami for me, but I’m glad I hung around.

After breakfast the next day we went out to Porta Fina to check out a castle and a church on top of this hill, overlooking the port. The view was amazing, as you will see in the pictures. We went back to Santa Margarita and were fed the most amazing pesto feccacia I have ever had. We were then released from the group and we were free to do what we wanted. A large group of people were headed down to Cinque Terre and had booked hostels for the night. We decided to tag along and take a late train back to Torino that night. What many people don’t know is that you are required to validate your ticket before getting on the train. Adam ran ahead to go pee and didn’t hear us reminding everyone to validate their ticket. After we got on the train this Rocky Balboa lookalike came by to make sure we had all bought tickets, which we had. Unfortunately for Adam is that Rocky is a complete ass and demanded fifty Euros from Adam for not validating his ticket. He paid it, but it seemed steep to be fined that much for not validating a three Euro ticket. People on another train were fined only 5 Euro for the same offense. It looks like Rocky will be able to keep his steroid fund alive.

My roommates Brad and Kyle got off at the northernmost city of Cinque Terre with Adam and me. We did the hike and it was amazing. Unfortunately we were fighting daylight and couldn’t admire as many of the views as we wanted to. We made the hike to the southernmost city in just over 3 hours. We stopped in a couple of towns, but at most for five minutes. When we got to the final city we headed directly to the train station. Adam talked to a guy at a window and found out the last train to Torino left in 3 hours. We then met up with our friends before heading out to dinner. Dinner consisted of mostly seafood. We got a seafood mixture sampler that was very strange. Interestingly the item I most feared eating was everyone’s favorite…the anchovies. They were fresh and hardly salty at all. They tasted almost like tuna. We left the restaurant to go buy our tickets home, Brad decided to stay the night and hike Cinque Terre again the next day with everyone else.

Mind you, it’s about 10 at night and we are all exhausted from the long day. We get to the station to find the ticket window is closed, no biggie so we went to the automated ticket box. Unfortunately someone must have not gotten their change and it looked as if Rocky had smashed his foot through it. We were getting kind of nervous so we asked the conductor of a southbound train if it is possible to buy a ticket onboard the train, he said yes, but it is a 5 Euro fee. We were in the clear. We waited for our train to come, but it never showed up. Unfortunately the guy at the ticket office told us the wrong time. We waited around for almost an hour before our train finally made it.

We got onboard and asked the conductor if we can buy a ticket all the way to Torino, or if we should get it when we get to Geneva (because we knew we had to switch trains there). Well, turns out that there were no more trains to Torino that night and we would have a seven hour layover. The guy took pity on us and let us off at the first stop without charge(about 10 minutes away). We would much rather hang out in Cinque Terre for seven hours, than a sketchy train station in Geneva. We got off the train, saw the southbound train was already approaching the station, sprinted through the tunnel under the station and hopped on just in time(finally something that went our way). This conductor didn’t speak very much English though. He was very kind though and only charged us a combined 5 Euro for the ride.

We made it back, bought some wine and went out on the jetty. Randomly we met up with other Americans who were studying in Rome. They had nothing to do so we all just hung out on the rocks and played cards. Interestingly they know many of my friends at Cal Poly. When it got too cold we went back to their hostel/apartment and talked until we had to leave at 4am. We made it home. Tired, yet still on a rush from the two days we had just experience. Personally I think it was one of the best times I have ever had.

Oktoberfest

The next few days were pretty much uneventful. Someone had organized a group bus to Oktoberfest and there were a few available seats. Kyle and I decided at the last minute that we wanted to go. We left Friday at 11pm. When we got there(9 hours later) a group of 12 of us waited in line for one of the houses. Crammed like sardines we stood there for over 2 hours. When the doors finally opened there was literal stampede forward. Germans will trample someone in an attempt to get the first beer. We sat at a table that had a reservation beginning at one. That gave us about 3 hours to stay there. The entire wait staff was incredibly friendly. We had some beers and were getting ready to leave, it was about half past noon. I was standing next to our table talking with friends when all of the sudden I got a strong shove from behind that almost knocked me to the ground.

I turned around just in time to get shoved on the chest. Before I knew what had happened a door shut and I was locked outside. Then the same thing happened to my buddy standing next to me. It turned out to be a short German security guard with a stupid haircut, that for one reason or another was pissed and decided to take it out on us. It’s probably better for me and the security guard that the door locked automatically. I was pissed and wanted to go after the guy, but in hindsight I know he would have had back up instantly. The rest of the group quickly got up and met us outside.

We went to another place to drink. I went to the bathroom and came back to find my group had left. I then walked around Oktoberfest for the next 6 hours exploring everything that makes it the greatest drinking festival in the world. There was this one game for 2 Euros, that if you won(about a one in 10 shot) you would win a pair of thong panties. I watched for a while and tried to figure out the fascination of a new pair of thong panties to these German men. I also went to this one place, I will post a video of later, that had this giant spinning disc and the goal was to stay on for as long as possible. Most people spectated, like me, but some went out and gave it a shot. Most failed miserably, but still gained the cheers and laughter from the audience. After that I left and went to a slope I named pass out hill. Basically all the Germans that drink too much go there to pass out. I watched for a few minutes and one guy really gathered my attention. EMTs came by to put him on their coffin looking stretcher. He refused to go with them, but in order for them to leave him alone they made him sign a release of liability form. He began to sign it, fell over, and then got back up to sign the rest of his name. I made my way back over to the bus and we headed home shortly thereafter.

Sorry again about the long break between blogs. I appreciate any comments you guys have. I will post all pictures very soon. My internet at home is no longer working so I can only update at school. Ciao

No Blog Today

Hey guys, my schedule turned out to be busier than I thought. I will update my blog when I get back on Sunday.

Ciao Mi despierce

Week 2

Wow, two weeks have flown by. Sorry about the last few days and the lack of blogging. I have had an extremely busy week.

Saturday
So Ryan, a friend that is backpacking Europe, made it in just fine. Saturday night we wanted to go to a club called Hennessey for their grand opening. After walking to the Po we were informed by a friend that we needed a cab to get to Hennessey. Everyone we were with said screw that and decided to head to pub. After about an hour Ryan and I left and visited some small clubs along the Po. We grabbed a bite to eat then walked the hour or so home at around 3:30.

Sunday
After about 4 or so hours of sleep we were awoken by my roommate yelling for no apparent reason. We got up and kind of chilled all day; Saturday night took a bit of a toll on us. Later that night we were picked up by a French friend, Clemont(sp), and headed out to the Olympic Stadium. We hung out around the stadium for a couple of hours, grabbed a beer at the pub, and headed across the street to watch Juventus play. Juventus is a very popular soccer team in Europe, in fact they are the largest team in all of Italy. They played so-so and won 1-0. Although many Americans don’t understand it, soccer is a very exciting sport. No wonder so many people considered it a religion. We then headed home and went straight to bed.

Monday
After a full night’s sleep(finally) Ryan left and I headed off to school. Three hellish hours of Italian later I made it back home. I decided to relax and take a night off. The internet wasn’t working so I headed to bed early, around Midnight.

Tuesday
More Italian Class then decided to go to the gym. I was given one free workout to decide if I wanted to join or not. It was easily the nicest gym I have ever been in. Unfortunately it is smaller than gyms at home and all of the free weight benches are way too close to each other. One thing I enjoyed is that Italian women wear very revealing clothing, likewise so do the men. Confined spaces and revealing clothing made for some awkward situations. It felt amazing to finally lift again. That night we went to Cacao. We danced for a few hours before walking home.

Wednesday
Italian again then headed home to change and eat. I went to a bar nearby to watch Juventus play. I then met up with a bunch of kids that live near school. We headed to an Irish pub that has a special for us every Wednesday night. A few hours later my roommate Kyle and I headed to another bar before heading home.

Thursday
After struggling through my last “Intensive” Italian class I came home to hang out with my roommates. I think I’m going to stay in tonight. I’m off to the Italian Riviera tomorrow for two nights. I will definitely take tons of pictures while I’m there.

Thank you to everyone who has left a note. I will try and post more pictures from now on for everyone to enjoy.


Ciao

The now extinguished Olympic Flame


Juventus Fans. VIVE JUVE!


A cool looking building

Discos, police, and sleepless nights

Chalet was so much fun. Not as big as cacao, but much more exclusive. It was indoors with a large dance floor in the middle and tables all around the outside. When we arrived there was about a 500 person line to get in. We thought we were screwed. Our program director had an ace up his sleeve though. He called someone working at Chalet and we were all briskly rushed through the side door. He then led us to our private table. After drinks and dancing we grabbed a couple of Taxis home. I finally made it to bed around 5.
The next day I had to wake up at 9 to sign papers with the police for my permit of stay. I then passed out in the USAC lounge for a couple of hours before heading over to the lingotto mall. It is huge, in fact it is the former Fiat factory that is slowly being converted into a very large mall. We cruised around grabbed some grub then went back to school for class. Afterwards we went home got ready and headed out to Rumbar(sp) with our neighbors.
It is a small bar, but a fun atmosphere. I learned some Italian from them, then headed over to Murphy’s with some friends. As you can probably tell by the name it is an Irish pub. I met some random Italians that were extremely nice. They took me down to the Po where we checked out some different places then said Ciao. I did the hour walk home by myself. After checking some things on the internet I made it to bed around 6.
I then awoke around noon to the neighbors’ sawz-all. After he stopped I fell back asleep til 2:30. I made some pasta for lunch and plan on relaxing for a while. Ryan Nichols is coming in about an hour. I’m supposed to meet him at a train station, but he doesn’t know which one he’s going to. Hopefully it’s the main one or it may make for an interesting evening. Thanks again for everyone that has been reading my blog. I’m sorry the blog did live up to the title.
Ciao