Home...home again. I like to be here, when I can...

So we have concluded the trip and found ourselves back in Summit County, Colorado. Of all the extraordinary places we have been in the last 38 days, we all agree our own back yard is as grand as it gets. Please make a point to check in one last time with the next week. We will finish the editing of our last video, post interviews from the crew, and the last of our pictures. Don't forget to stop in one more time! 

Steamboat Springs in Colorful Colorado

We spent Monday trekking our way across southern Wyoming. Scholars maintain that this is where they coined the phase 'the open road'. Its wide open out there, kind of a western kansas, fell of the face of the earth vibe. Seeing the flat tops of northern Colorado proved to be more difficult then usual as there was a fair bit of smoke in the air. Apparently, unbeknownst to Team Short Bus who tries to stay outta the loop, there are great wildfires in the west. We crossed the border back into colorful Colorado for the first time in over 5 weeks. Chris pointed the bus for Steamboat Springs for our last night. We found our way out to Strawberry Park Hot Springs to unwind. After all, 5 weeks of traveling, hiking, climbing, biking, skating, longboarding, surfing, swimming, cliff diving, kayaking, and sleeping somewhere new every night tends to take its toll in you. So we soaked in the 100+ degree rock pools alternating with dips in the 50 degrees river water right next to the hot spring. If you are ever in northern Colorado, I would highly recommend stopping at these hot springs. We met some friends that offered to let us park the C OOL Bus at their camp. A few s'mores later we went to sleep in the wonderful 35 degree Colorado mountain air. No more dessert heat. No more 7 a.m. Portland dump trucks. No more killer eastern Oregon squirrels. Just cool mountain air.

we're going to jackson!

last night the cool bus cruised into jackson, wy. we caught up with a friend josh who used to work in keystone, co. he and his 6 mo. yr old son haden have been nice enough to show us around the area. we had many options as what we could do today; kayak one of many rivers around jackson, explore the grand tetons, explore yellowstone, visit the hot springs, skate around jackson, play some disc golf, etc. . . . we narrowed today down to. . . . up by 8 am to began the day hiking the tetons; hiked up to the hidden falls, a nice 5 mile round trip hike. great views and beautiful mountains and wildlife. after the hike we played a nice round of disc golf, up at jackson hole ski resort. a fun course, with great views of the area. we made it back to jackson, where josh and haden cooked dinner for us. thanks friend. we now are headed south to the hot springs to camp for the evening. tomorrow we will make our way back towards colorado after getting the boats in the river . . . .

ps. . . the group really wanted to spend some time in yellowstone. the decision was made with our economic situation in mind, and the fact that to truly experience yellowstone we would need to dedicate 3-5 days to explore the great park, we will do it next time!

after our hike, staley took a great pic

josh and haden on chris's back

the group in tetons

a moose and her little one

the cool bus in the desert

Magically wisped away...in Idaho!

The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

— Chris McCandless

Hey team, how is it? Us short bus kids just spent some time in a beat little town, McCall, ID. Did a bit of kayaking yesterday on the Payette River and spent the evening at a house that had been turned into a brewery. The Salmon River Brewery it was called, rad scene and good beer. We also caught a band jamming, only to find they were from Wichita KS.

Today we are off for Jackson, WY. Our last few days will be spent visiting Yellowstone and Teton NP and navigating the last 1,000 miles. Stay tuned, in the next week we will be posting video interviews, clips, pics, music and more. 

This video was made for one, but can be enjoyed by all. 

Trail Boss Smith...hows them trailssss in Itlay?

Random photos from the trip

Enjoy these pics from the trip.  We have so many now it hard to choose which to share.

Need I say more

We found this bear just outside our camp...eatin some nuts

The life-saving waters of the North Rim, Grand Canyon

Brock doesn't like coffee, he sticks with Minwax

Cominagetcha

Who at can of dog is the is?

Killin it at Burnside

Looks choppy out there, but that never holds us back.

Mt. Hood

Hey gang!  As I sit here on the flanks of Mt. Hood where the bus crew camped last night I can't help but think how beautiful this place is and how fortunate we've been to find such a rad camp area and such a rad mountain all around!  For those of you who get kicks from snowboarding, this is the mountain!  You can ride all year round!  

Thanks to Alex and Mark for letting us stay in Portland for a few nights, what a stellar city!  I think I speak for all of us when I say Portland is one of the coolest cities in the world.  So far.....  Next stop, Boise.  Enjoy the pics

Kitchen jam session in Portland

The crew with Zonay, Mark and Waylan...the dog

Great close-up Steeze!

Mt. Hood from our campsite

Fire-side jam session with neighboring camper

vidayo

portland, which is in oregon

'the core of a mans spirit comes from new experiences

 (the supertramp)'

a special thanks goes out to joels grandparents! joel called his grandpop west coast to east coast when the bus broke down late in the evening to ask for assistance, his grandpop said he would have an answer on how to fix the bus by morning, and joel was to call him when he awoke up at 6am, to fix bus. . . around 11 am joel called  his grandpop who already knew what to do. he advised us to bypass the broken part, which we did and got back on the roooooooad!!!!!!! 

THANKS GRANDPOP AND GRANDMOMMY!!!!!!! from bus boys(video spoof coming)

new experiences. new friends. what a couple weeks its been. i would like to give a special thanks to brooke, andrew, zonay, patrick and john for being such gracious hosts. you guys rock, thanks much!!!

as i sit here in the historic mississippi part of portland, i realize that we are rapidly approaching the end of our magical journey. it seems like yesterday we were building the bus and hitting the road. and today i see this thing winding down. a man much wiser than myself would tell me, 'nothing comes to an end brock, there are only new beginnings.'i guess i agree, but if only the show could go on. . .  while we are on the subject of new beginnings, i have finally caught up with the tele, only to find that brett favre signed with the minnesota vikings, instantly taking the vikings from an 18-1 favorite to win the super bowl, down to 12-1 favorites. i also have learned that michael vick signed with the eagles. although at the current time eagles coach andy reid cannot commit to vick seeing any substantial p.t. in their 3rd preseason game, sad to say but michael vick will probably be on an nfl roster this year. felons and football, you have to love it. i don't think i need to point out that a certain wide receiver d. stallsworth ran over a guy and killed him, while he drove drunk in his bentley. or that a certain quarterback was murdered by his mistress, while his wife and kids. . . . blah. football, got to love it. which reminds me, i may or may not have missed my fantasy draft. blair please email me!!! i would have you call me but we need not remember the southerners that commandeered my celly and called who knows where in central americas. . . . 

turns out the bus breaking down was a blessing in disguise. i will have to check with my legal counsel to make sure the bus is 'street legal,' but, turns out the part that ceased to work was actually a mechanism to lower bus emissions. the fact that it didn't want to work anymore should increase our gas mileage on the way home, also increasing our, um......how about them chiefs? chiefs are a 65-1 favorite to win the superbowl. insiders would call this a long shot. hey at least we got coach snyder back. true to snyder form, the cats play 2 div 1-aa teams, meaning the cats must win at least 7 games to become bowl eligible. doable, but much like the chiefs, a long shot. they will beat massachussets, louisanna, and tennessee tech. beyond that i see no clear victory's.  their best hope will be to beat iowa state in kansas city. there other chances at winning are texas am, colorado, kansas and missouri; all being home games.

getting back to the cool bus trip, after crater lake we spent one night in coos bay. this stop was particularly important for me, as i'm very interested in exploring these small coastal communities along the oregon coast. after coos bay we headed north along coastal highway 1. we then camped in the foothills above lincoln city. very beautiful land. we awoke saturday morning and headed into portland where we have been catching up with friends and family. our plan is to head to either mt hood or mt rainier, first thing tomorrow morning. we shall keep you's posted. thanks again to everyone who has helped us on our voyage. 

 

bus kids with patrick
burnside skatepark in portland
right near the beach

mammaloosa bridge, portland

vidayo

break-down

the bus broke down last night. luckily we made it off of the road, to a quiet little spot. upon waking up today, we sent chris to the nearest town by bike, where he purchased a couple shorter belts. we bypassed the ferter valve (actually i have no idea what the broken part is, but we bypassed it) and are back on the road for now. 

Oregon...the land of 10.000 waterfalls

Hey team! Whats doing? The short bus boys have been up to the same ole same ole, but in Oregon! I think CP summed it up in the prior post, but what he neglected to mention was that it hit 112 degrees in Oregon! Who would have guessed it would be hotter than the mojave dessert. Luckily for us, the icy waters of the Umpqua river would be half that at a balmy 55 degrees. Kayaking a 5 mile strech with a few class III rapids proved to be just what we needed. No better way to cool off....except for maybe a 35 ft. drop off a rope swing, or attempting a gainer off a huge log. Ben's camera has this rad option for multiple frames per second, we soon will be posting our jump sequence photos of us throwing ourselves of some gnar cliffs!Oregon has proved to be a pretty mad place, we plan to head back to the coast for some cooler weather, possibly a few waves, and defiantly a good time. Shooting for Portland this weekend to see some friends, we plan on making the last 2 weeks count!....unless we are mauled by the vicious killer deer indigenous to this region. ;)

Once the Discovery Channel viewed the live video feed of Joelstralia's Abalone video they quickly wanted another.  Slowly approaching Crater Lake, Joelstralia found and captured one of Oregon's rarest animals.  Known by the locals as the Crater Lake Killer Deer, this mysterious and elusive creature was caught on camera, here is what followed.

Who would've known S. Oregon is 112 degrees!

After the hitch-hikers from the last update, we quickly found the coolest cliff jump and rope swing.  Then met John, who let us camp on his land, made us food and showed us yet another of the coolest water holes.  Since then we've met more cool people, skateboarded the rim of crater lake, camped under the brightest stars and kayaked the Umpqua River, where I was tossed at one point by some wild rapids.  Still lovin it!  Check out the pics!!!!!

Chris and Joel on the Umpqua River

Sunrise over Crater Lake...nice shot Ben!

Skateboarding the rim road of Crater Lake

John and the crew at Johns place outside Obrien, Oregon

Huge downed log across one of the coolest swimming holes yet.

Dude going for a huge swing from the rope on the Smith River.

Proctor doing a huge back flip from a rock jump

The gracefulness of Brock's launch off the cliff jump

Oregon...finally

Waking in the forest, campfire breakfasts, hiking, biking, surfing, cruising, rock skipping, long-boarding, cliff-jumping, rope-swinging and finding amazing swimming holes.  Sounds like somebody has a case of the mondays....

We picked up a couple hitch hikers yesterday afternoon in Eureka, CA, who decided to ride with us until we found a place to camp.  We camped in a nice little camp ground and headed north again this morning, where we dropped the hitchers off (after some sweet morning hikes through the red woods of course).  After we dropped them off we quickly found the sweetest watering hole where we could cliff jump and rope swing.  The best part about road trips are the sweet little parts of nature that are free99!  Lovin it.

 

3 weeks on the road

'we cling to our tried and true, we're creatures of comfort. we find our patterns and stick to what we know best, but there's a big wide and beautiful world out there, and for those who want it, its out there (the stranger).'

let it be said that today marks our 3rd week on the road. we've now been a couple places and met some new faces. our journey continues north today as we have once again packed our bags and are ready to go see whats next. the past two nights were spent in van damme state park. as fate would have it we made camp next to a group of guys who camp every year, for the past 35 years or so. the ladies stay home, and the guys do what guys do. they spoiled us with food and snacks. last night, us bus guys all ate fresh cod and taters thanks to our neighbors. cheers! an amazing meal as we are out here on the road accustomed to eating rice and soups. . . thanks friends (see picture)

i don't think much was mentioned about the meteor shower 4-5 nights ago. we were lucky enough to watch it from the beach on a crystal clear night. it just so happened the beach we watched the meteors from overlooked san fransisco. very cool. . . 

yesterday and today we have had the kayaks out on the big river, and albion river. both rivers run into the ocean. 

angelo, we ran into your friend in bolinas, ca. go there and find him at smileys!

our camping friends, thanks guys!
brock and dude on kayaks on big river
right near the beach, boi
and the winner was. . . . 

Birthday Shout to the Staleys

Happy B-day guys, to everyone else we will be trying to get a new post up for Redwood but internet is hard to find.

You have a frendo in Mendo!

Hello all, we're spending our Saturday in Mendocino, Ca. Very cool little coastal town, and naturally, we make friends quick after a lap through town in the cool bus. Camping proves to be a challenge when the weekends approach, State Parks fill up quick and your dreaming if you think you can camp on the beach in California(unless your in Bolinas). We have had some luck the last two night and rolled right into the last available sites, both of which have allowed fires. Given all the wild fires down the coast from us, that hasn't been very common. We all have agreed that Northern California has a very cool scene. The beautiful coastline and redwood forest with quaint coastal towns all down hwy 1. Way rad. Feels good minglin' with these laid back local folks.

Coastal shot on Hwy 1. Been on this road for almost 500 miles now.

Jammin in Bolinas with our new friends in our beachside villa....on wheels!

So this is a picture of our friend Billy's dog, Indiana, a siberian husky. Given the husky nature, he loves to pull longboarders. Billy had a harness and a leash to Indy, and you could yell Right or Left and he knew which way to turn. Might I note, Indiana was a rescue dog, and now he's the happiest dog on the street so long as he's pulling someone or something. Billy, you have the raddest pup ever. Pictured is Proctor havin a go.

abalone or abaloning

Abalone (from Spanish Abulón) are medium to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Haliotidae and the genusHaliotis. Common names for abalones also include ear-shells, sea-ears and Venus's-ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer inJersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa and pāua in New Zealand.

There is only the one genus in the family Haliotidae, and about four to seven subgenera. The number of species recognized worldwide is about 100.

The shells of abalones have a low and open spiral structure, and are characterized by several open respiratory pores in a row near the shell's outer edge. The thick inner layer of the shell is composed of nacre or mother-of-pearl, which in many species is highly iridescent, giving rise to a range of strong and changeable colors, which make the shells attractive to humans as decorative objects, and as a source of colorful mother-of-pearl.

The flesh (the adductor muscle) of abalones is widely considered to be a desirable food.

Abaloning

Sport harvesting of red abalone is permitted with a California fishing license and an abalone stamp card. New in 2008, the abalone card also comes with a set of 24 tags. Legal-size abalone must be tagged immediately. Abalone may only be taken using breath-hold techniques or shorepicking; scuba diving for abalone is strictly prohibited. Taking of abalone is not permitted south of the mouth of the San Francisco Bay. There is a size minimum of seven inches (178 mm) measured across the shell and a quantity limit of three per day and 24 per year. A person may be in possession of only three abalone at any given time.

Abalone may only be taken from April to November, not including July. Transportation of abalone may only legally occur while the abalone is still attached in the shell. Sale of sport-obtained abalone is illegal, including the shell. Only red abalone may be taken; black, white, pink, and flat abalone are protected by law.

leaving bolinas, heading north to bodega bay

“Freedom is something that dies unless it's used. (hst)

we have decided to pack our bags and hit the road. our stay in bolinas has been nice and refreshing, but it is time to go. we plan on heading north to bodega bay and see what we can find. hopefully there will be a spot on the beach; someplace that might allow us to have a fire on the beach would be great. we are all glad to take our time exploring the coast and all that it has to offer as we head north. if anyone knows of any places we should visit on our way up the coast to seattle please share your info. thanks to those we've met, and those who helped us out along our voyage. 

various pics from roadtrip. . . . 

crew saying hi to erica and her brother

chris by baker beach and ggb