By Skittles
So today, April 27, 2010 will officially put David, Torrent and I on the road for over 4 whole months now. We are kind of surprised that it has been that long already. I personally can’t believe that much time has flown by already! Perhaps a year long adventure may turn into another? Can’t say for certain at this point, but just that we are having the time of our lives!
Days on the Road: 132
Miles Driven: Approximately 11,000
Odometer Reading Today: 44,611
National Parks Visited: 4
Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwiches Eaten: 2
Number of times we wanted to kill each other living the RV: 3
Trade Shows Attended: 3
Festivals Attended: 3
Bike Races Attended: 1
Bags of Dog Food Torrrent’s Eaten on the Road: 3
Major RV Repairs: 1
Minor RV Repairs: 6
# of Repairs Caused By David: 6
# of Repairs Caused By Laurel: 1
Miles on the MTB: 141
Days of Rock Climbing: 17
Days on the Slopes: 8
Ski Resorts Visited: 6
Number of States Visited: 11
Friends & Family Visited Along the Way: John, Clint, Mike, Kelly & Mike, BJ & Setsuko, Trevor, Skyler, Brian, Brian & Andrea, Mom & Tom, Elizabeth & Jason, Steve & Sharon, Ryan & Val
Friends & Family Who’ve Stayed with Us: Bentley & Jessica, John, Clint, Mike, Sara Climber Girl, Trevor & Darcy
Parking Tickets: $105
Wow, what a weekend! For those of you who have not yet had a chance to attend or race the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA - holy heck, what an event for both racers and spectators! First off, a huge shout out to, Skip, one of the coolest race directors we’ve come across. He hooked us up with a sweet booth spot for the weekend which literally made ALL the difference. Thanks for everything Skip!
Our time at the Laguna Seca State Raceway started on Wednesday night after a beautiful, but grueling drive up the PCH 1 from Santa Barbara. The Pacific Coast was a sight to see from our huge RV windows and we made a couple of touristy stops at the Hearst Castle and to see the elephant seals (who were beached to go thru their annual molting process - ewww gross!) along the way. However, after about an hour into the drive, the twisty, narrow roads got to us and we were so so glad to finally hit some freeway heading towards the race venue!
This was our first bike race of the trip and we were stoked to be able to get the word out about 
As for our booth….it was probably our most EPIC event yet! We handed out over 1500 samples of our
After two beautiful days of Sea Otter Expo WE SOLD OUT OF SUNSCREEN! Unfortunately, we had underestimated the number of folks at the race who would be looking for functional and organic ways to protect their skin - both our 
Following our epic times in Vegas, it was time to start the trek up the west coast! Since we didn’t get enough “play” time in while we were there in January, we decided to head back to JTree for a week to hone our crack climbing skills. Unfortunately, at about the same time, Mother Nature decided to throw in 50mph wind gusts to add to the challenge of climbing rocks in JTree. Have you ever tried to finish on classic JTree slab moves while the wind is pushing you sideways? Scary! Towards the end of the week, we were joined by Dave’s long time friend, Trevor, and his girlfriend Darcy. It was fun introducing them into the world of climbing and climbing in JTree!
After yet another humbling experience climbing at JTree, we headed towards San Diego to spend some more time with Trevor and Darcy. It was an opportunity for us to get some much needed “work” time in, as well as visit local retailers to carry our product line. But best of all, we finally got to take Torr to the beach! And he LOVED it! The first day at the beach, he was doing hot laps up and down the beach because there were FINALLY dogs to run with and there was water (although he said it was salty and tasted bad). A huge thanks to Trevor for the hospitality, hooking us up with a lifetime supply of GU and for giving us a sick original Gordon Smith surfboard!
Our time in SoCal seemed like a whirlwind of internetzing, visiting shops, spending time at doggie beaches, checking out local MTB trails and visiting with friends as we made our way north up the coast. Good times catching up with the Shepherds in Huntington Beach, then with Dave’s friend Skyler who now runs, 
Continuing north, we headed to Ventura to holla at our friends at 
By the time we were wrapping up our play time in Arizona, I really couldn’t wait to get back to Vegas. The last time we were in Vegas we really didn’t have enough time to play and this time we were going to be back in town for two weeks for the Red Rock Rendezvous.
Fun on The Strip: check. Next stop: RRR! We had the best time over the course of the long weekend out at the Spring Mountain Ranch. A huge shout out to the folks at Mountain Gear: Paul, Phil and Alena! Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to be a part of such an amazing event…thank you, thank you, thank you! The exposure to so many climbers and mountain bikers was great and we were stoked to be picked up by the local gear shop, 
Aside from the “work” part of the event, we had a great time with all of our friends. Our RV, became somewhat of a home base for the JTree crew and it was like having a slumber party every night. I don’t think I went to sleep one night during the event that I didn’t hear “Do you wanna pet the kitty” only to be responded with thunderous laughter to put me to sleep. It was great and I can’t wait to hang with Clint, Mike and Sara again!
Post-RRR, we were able to get some chillaxin’ in and out to the park for a couple of days of climbing. We were also able to catch up with our friends Lisa and Tim, Loren and Salone, and my cousin Wyatt! We took Wyatt to Panty Wall and he did his first outdoor rock climbs ever with no falls!! I hope he had a good time and gets out rock climbing again sometime soon. 
Several times during the show, David and I turned to each other and commented on how the JTree booth had seemingly become the show “hangout” for our friends at the show. And seeing a crowd around a booth, other folks would come in to check out what the “hub bub” was all about. This is a shout out to all our friends who hung at our booth - thanks for stopping by and come hang with us again this summer!
After three orders of the Black Magic Woman roll (our favorite) the server suggested trying the Seared Sable Fish and it was amazing. The night quickly moved on to a local bar where some poser in our group decided to start off with Jagger Bombs. (Ugh, we all know what happens to Skittles after starting with these!) Which were quickly followed by a round of Rusty Nails compliments of Chris. Chris being the proud West Virginian that he is, felt obligated to introduce us to some old time, backwoods, hillbilly whisky concoction, the Rusty Nail (fitting name for a drink that bad!). On all three attempts to try a Rusty Nail, they all tasted the same: strong and bad. There might have been some dancing involved with random bar goers at that place, though not exactly sure as things started to get fuzzy….
As our OR tradition goes, on the last day of the show, Jessica and I get our shop on when all the booths try to get rid of the samples they have to pack up by selling them at cost! We hit up the sales at IceBreaker and KAVU and both got some cute stuff. Jess even got a sweet pair of new mountain biking shades at Native! To continue with our OR tradition, we hit the slopes the next couple of days, taking advantage of our OR passes getting 50% off lift tickets at all the local SLC resorts - SAAAWWEEEEET! We spent two days after the show boarding thru knee deep powder at Snowbasin and Powder Mountain and commiserating on how miserable our lives really are! Can’t wait to shred some nar pow here again next year!
By Skittles 
It’s amazing how many people would stop to tell us what a beautiful dog we have. (I have to agree he is pretty cute!) Although Torr was super disappointed by how few other dogs there were to play with at the show, the highlight for him was a visit on Day 3 by his “brother” Porter. For being cute and well-behaved, Torrent received his second Dog of the Day award at the show! Good job Torr!
After picking up B from the airport and making a few important stops (dumping holding tanks…love that smell….and hitting up the liquor store for some booth essentials…whiskey and sweet tea vodka) we headed directly to the Salt Palace for booth set up. Sign-in and badge pick up: check. Unloading the RV: check. Finding our booth #32076: what the…. Long story short, what we failed to learn until we walked out on to the showroom floor was that our booth space was directly in front of the main door that leads to the loading dock. So unless we wanted to have our booth run down by forklifts moving crates and boxes into the showroom, we were not going to be able to set up until that door was permanently shut. Now the question was: when exactly would that be? Apparently that was going to be at 8pm the night before the show. Lucky for us we pack light and move efficiently! At 9:30pm our booth was finally set up. Now it was off to get some sleep!
