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ROAD TRIP to FOOTSTOCK |
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Our trip to Footstock 2005 began early on Tuesday morning, Aug 23rd. We loaded up the new BFC Traveling Pro Shop with plenty of gear along with the Barefoot Central Harley Davidson. It's always nice to take a motorcycle ride around the places we visit along the way. August in Texas can be brutally hot, so getting a chance to ride the bike in 70 degree temps up North is quite nice. This year we decided to rent a triple slide-out coach. What we found out on our previous trip is that we can always use more room. Ya see, Mike Salber brings 3 suit cases to everyone else's one suitcase. I swear he must have been a woman in a previous life. haha Just kidding Mike. The plan this year was for Michele and I to leave Dallas early Tuesday morning. We ended up hitting the road at 7am. We had our 3 year only daughter Kathryn with us until Tulsa, OK, where we dropped her at he Great Aunt Elaine's house. Kathryn loves visiting Elaine because she gets a week of Chucky Cheese, McDonald's happy meals, and all kinds of fun activities. We arrived in Tulsa around noon and were able to spend a couple hours visiting my aunt and grandfather. Michele and I then hit the road again and pointed the bus up Interstate 44 to St. Louis. Our plan was to make St. Louis by night fall. Michele and I shared driving time. A word of advise to any guys planning to travel across country in a 40ft RV with your wife. Bring some ear plugs when it's time for your wife to drive the first time. Michele did a bit of freaking out when I asked her to take the wheel for the first time. It was similar to the first time I asked her to back the boat trailer in the water, it's just the consequences of messing up were a bit higher. Getting her in the seat was the hard part, but once she figured out it was as easy as driving a Cadalac down the road, she calmed down and actually seemed to enjoy it. It can be a bit intimidating the first time you drive a 40 ft rig with a 20 ft trailor on the back. We arrived in St. Louis around 9:30 pm. All the guys in the Lake St. Louis ski club were waiting for us at their gorgious community center on the lake. Keith St. Onge had been with them all week conducting ski clinics. The plan was to spend the night, ski with the gang in the morning, then head off to Chicago around noon the next day. Keith St. Onge was joining us on the bus and would continue with us the balance of the trip. We spend the night in the RV right a lake side. So all we had to do in the morning was wake up and walk right out onto the dock. The members of Team MVS Barefoot had the boats ready and waiting for us. We all decided to do some step-off practice and endurance training. I reviewed the newest Rapid Transition method with Team MVS so they would be prepared for the race in Dallas. We had recently cut a deal to sponsor their team, along with Eagle wetsuits, so they were excited to show us their new logos on their boat. What these boys lack in racing experience, they more than make up for in showmanship. We're excited to have them as a part of the Barefoot Central and Eagle family. Thanks to Dave Sommer, Mike Schneider, Doug Winters, and all the guys that helped make our visit a memorable one. We left St. Louis right on schedule and headed Northeast to Joliet, IL, just southwest of Chicago. We were planning to spend the night in Joliet at Mike Salber's inlaws house, as well as pick up Mike, Stuart Singer, and Dave Slemp for the balance of the bus trip. Keith and I shared bus driving from St. Louis to Joliet. Michele had no problems with Keith taking over her spot. Keith really enjoyed driving the bus, so he did most of it. We arrived in Joliet right on time around 4:30 pm. Mike, Stuart and Dave had flown into Chicago and arrived about 30 minutes in front of us. So, to my amazement, we were right on time. It was now Wed evening and we didn't plan to leave for Crandon until early Friday morning. We purposely planned an extra day into our trip so we could spend some fun time in Chicago. Our good friends Kyle and Debbie Fahrenthold had never been to Chicago, or Footstock, so they flew into Chicago and planned to meet up with us Thursday evening. For now, we were sitting in Joliet. For those of you who haven't been to Joliet, it's been immortalized in movies like The Blues Brothers, and is known for being the location of the Illinois State Prison. What I noticed about Joliet is that's it's surrounded by corn fields, flat corn fields as far as you can see. Mike wanted us to have a fun night out, so he surprised everyone with a night out at the go-cart track. I felt like I was in the movie "Field of Dreams". Mike drove the bus about 20 miles west of Joliet down a long narrow two lane road. You couldn't see anything but corn on both sides of the road. Then all of the sudden, out of nowhere, we see a professional go-cart track. Stuart couldn't get at the carts fast enough. Stuart is a very experienced car racer and loves it as much as he loves to foot. So we all got a chance to test our skills on a really cool track. We had some great battles as we all tried our best to stay away from Michele. Like driving the bus, she was willing to do it for only a short period of time. She didn't like having us wiz by on all sides. She kept accusing us of forcing her off the road. She took part in a few of the races then decided she would be better off taking pictures and videoing. We all had a great time, and thanks to Mike for setting it all up. Stuart took home the biggest trophy, Mike was 2nd, I was 3rd, Keith 4th and Dave 5th I think. We woke up the next morning around 4:30 am. The plan was to meet the Chicago boys consisting of Jim Cochran, Jeff Peterson, Richy Hagely, Mike Schoenke and the rest of the gang up on the Fox River around 6:30 am. We had a good hour and a half drive to the river so I drove as everyone else slept. We pulled into the Broken Oar around 6:15 and prepared to do some footin. The boys showed up with 4 boats, and we put 3 in the water. The water couldn't have been nicer. Glass calm as far as you could see. I took the rare opportunity to do a double long-line run with Keith. We don't get to ski together much due to our busy schedules, so I jump at the chance when it presents itself. We skiied until the boats ran out of gas, then we gassed them up again and skiied some more. It was quite a morning. We were all wore out by 10:30 and sitting in the Broken Oar eating a late breakfast. Jim Cochran and Jeff Peterson were also planning to attend Footstock. As a matter of fact, almost everybody was planning to stay at Jim's cabin up in Crandon. He had recently finished expanding his cabin and it could accommodate about 20 people. He and Jeff left from the Broken Oar to head up to Crandon that evening to be prepared for everyone the next day. Jim was also pulling his boat to Crandon to be used at Footstock. We had all day Thursday to relax and enjoy Chicago. Our plan was to relax during the day and then meet up with Kevin O'Connell, the 2005 Footer of the Year, in Naperville that evening. If you all remember, Kevin is a Naperville Police Officer. He makes sure we get the VIP treatment when we come through. This year would be no exception. We ate some great Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnatti's and hung out at some cool bars in downtown Naperville. Mike got a chance to ride the Harley that evening as the rest of us drove in the bus. Pull up in front of a restaurant in a 60 ft rig and ask the vale' to park it and see what kind of looks you get. We got a ton of looks from people since our new trailer has pictures of Keith, Mike and Stuart on the sides, each in a different barefoot position. Everyone wanted to know where we were headed. We spend Thursday night at my brother's house in Carol Stream, just north of Naperville, half of us in the bus, and the other half on air mattresses in the house. We got to bed around midnight, and the alarm was set for 6 am. At least my alarm was. I was up at 6, but by the time I was able to wake everyone else up, it was 7:30 as we pulled away on our way to Crandon. I made a decision to drive to Crandon by going west to Rockford and then up through Madison. It was more to avoid rush hour in Chicago, but also just to see some sights we hadn't seen before. Mike and Stuart were now doing most of the driving. Seemed every time I turned around, they were lost. We were all having such a good time talking we'd forget to make an exit and have to circle back. Michele kept reminding me that the other route was shorter. At one point, we had a vote to throw her off the bus, but thought better of it. If she wasn't with us, we wouldn't have anyone to run the pro shop at Footstock. Plus she was keeping the bus in order. It had a central vacuum system and every time we turned around, Michele was sucking up dirt. It sometimes seems she loves to vacuum as much as she loves to foot. We were able to stop at a truck stop in Madison and meet up with Teri Larsen, now Teri Jones. She's a footer and college professor and University of Wisconsin in Madison. Mike called her to tell her we'd be driving through, so she met us at a truck stop to say hello. Click
here to watch a video of the Bus Trip We finally arrived in Crandon Friday around 3:30 pm. Gary Mueller and Bucky Daily were waiting on us and had plenty of room to accommodate our rig. I can't thank them enough for making us feel welcome. Bill Brzoza in Crandon right around the same time we did. He wasn't able to make it to Chicago in time to catch the bus, but he wasn't about to miss Footstock. Kyle and Debbie Fahrenthold arrived right before us. They had spent the morning touring downtown Chicago. After setting up the bus and pro shop, we all headed to Duck Bar for a Friday dinner and socializing. The dinner was great and the drinking was in full force. as it always is at Ducks. Michele and I ducked out around 10:30 pm, but I left my video camera with Keith. He took some very funny video, almost got beat up by a lady bar tender, and still managed to find himself and Billy a ride to Jim Cochran's cabin. Click
here to watch Keith's video from Friday Night at Duck's |
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