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Week Three
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Monday
March 27, 2006 - Madera High School (Madera, California) Today was the kickoff of week # 3 of the got milk? Gravity Tour, and we started it off with a bang. Our show today took place at Madera High School, which is about 25 minutes north of downtown Fresno. We were set-up on the football field today, and our show was to be one part of a giant school “rally.”
Madera High School has a huge student body. As a matter of fact, they have two campuses, and all of the students were there for the “rally.” We started things off by having the Principal introduce the school’s “BMX Club”. This was a group of students who are all BMX riders, and they were thrilled to have us there. They actually rode their bikes out onto the track in front of everyone, and the leader of the group brought one of the female students out on the back of his bike. He pedaled her to the ramp, where she took over the microphone, and proceded to introduce all of the members of the spring sports teams. After that, a group of cheerleaders came out and did a dance routine in front of the ramp, then it was our turn.
We had a few new faces on the tour this week. We traded Fabiola da Silva for Marc Englehart, and Danny Mayer was traded out for Jimmy Walker. Jimmy and Marc were practicing quite a bit before the show, and wasted no time in throwing down their hardest tricks. The students were extremely loud throughout the show, and seemed very into Gabe Weed’s flatland riding. They especially loved Marc Englehart’s flat spins. At the end of the show, Jim Burgess did a “superman air” straight into a 540, then pulled a “tailwhip” out of that. To cap off the show, Jimmy Walker went for a “flair” which is a backflip 180. He pulled it, and the crowd went nuts.
After the “rally” all of the athletes drove over to the main campus and signed autographs during lunch. It was an excellent day, and a tour first. We have never been to a school that had a BMX club. A special thanks goes out to Ryan, and all the guys from the BMX club, for all their support and help during set-up today. Another special thanks to Sara Murrietta, for bringing us to Madera high school, and for feeding us pizza today during lunch.
-- Jimmy C
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Tuesday March 28, 2006 - Buchanan High School (Clovis, California) Mother nature didn’t cooperate with us today. It started raining last night around 5:30 and it seriously has not stopped yet. I’m not talking about a light drizzle either, I am talking about a full blown downpour. When we woke up this morning, it was still coming down in buckets outside. The ramp crew drove over to the school to talk to the faculty about a back-up plan.
After some discussion, it was decided that an area would be cleared out for us indoors, and we would proceed with a flatland only show. The area they found for us was perfect for Gabe. It was a big room off to the side of the gymnasium, that was used for wrestling practice. There were mats all over the floor, but underneath them was solid concrete, a perfect riding area for Gabe.
The ramp crew and some school staff, rolled up the wrestling mats, and then enclosed an area for Gabe to ride in. The students came out during lunch, a 45 minute time block, and were treated to plenty of flatland tricks. Our friends from Producers Dairy showed up again today to give out free milk as well.
Despite the weather, it was still a successful afternoon, thanks to the quick planning of our staff and Dave Dooley from Buchanan high school.
As I write this, it is still pouring down rain outside. We are all crossing our fingers that it clears up soon.
-- Jimmy C
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Wednesday March 29, 2006 - Clovis East High School (Clovis, California) Mother nature was toying with us again today. When I looked up the weather report last night, the chance of rain was very slim. When I checked it again this morning, it had been upgraded to a 60% chance of rain, not good. It was relatively dry when the ramp crew arrived this morning, but that didn’t last long. The clouds rolled in and slow steady drizzle blanketed the area.
After realizing that the drizzle wasn’t going to let up, Alissa Emmet, the school activities director, found us an alternate indoor location so we could at least let the students watch Gabe do some flatland riding. She found us a large open room, with a stage, so we turned things into the “Gabe Weed” show. There were to be two assemblies today, each lasting about an hour. The first group contained about 1200 students, and they all packed into the room to watch Gabe ride, and to listen to me talk about the got milk? tour and give them information about the dangers of tobacco use. They were a very well behaved group, and seemed extremely happy to see Gabe ride, even though they didn’t get to see the others ride the ramp outside.
After the first assembly ended, we looked outside and saw that the sun had poked out from behind the clouds. We had 20 minutes before the next group was scheduled to come out so we decided to give the vert ramp one more try. As soon as we got the PA setup and the ramp dry, it started to rain again. We waited it out for about 20 more minutes, and then the sun came back out and it was SHOWTIME!!!!!! Needless to say, the faculty and students of Clovis East were ecstatic once they saw people warming up on the vert ramp.
It was a lot of waiting and rushing around last minute, but as the saying goes, the show must go on. Special thanks to Alissa Emmet and all of the school faculty and staff who changed their schedules, and helped us haul our equipment back and forth across the campus. Another special thanks to Producers Dairy, for coming out again to give out free chocolate milk.
-- Jimmy C
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Thursday March 30, 2006 - Central High School West (Fresno, California) The rain has finally moved on. There was nothing but sunny skies to be seen today, and that was a big relief to the students and faculty of Central High School’s west campus.
Central High West is located on the western edge of the Fresno area, and surrounded by some beautiful farm country. On the drive in, there were plenty of smaller side roads that had been flooded out due to all the recent rain. Fortunately for us, the field area we were to set up in was nice and dry. When I arrived at the school today, I was helping the ramp crew set-up the PA system and I thought I saw something move on the ground. I didn’t think much of it, until I saw something again, and again, and again. I thought I was losing my mind for a minute, but I soon realized the entire field we were on, was full of gophers. They were hilarious, they would poke their little heads up out of the ground, see us, and then scamper off.
The show was a long one, 45 minutes, during the lunch period. The students came out onto the field to check out the show and also got to sample some free double chocolate milk from our friends at Producer’s Dairy. During the show while I was announcing, it was hard to keep a straight face. This one gopher kept popping his head up from out of the ground right in front of me. I guess it was his way of letting me know that the music was too loud or that I was talking too much. I’m assuming the vibration from our PA system was probably driving those little guys insane for 45 minutes.
It was a great show, Burgess did a 540 right into a huge tailwhip, Marc tried a 900, Tas did multiple 540’s, Gabe was perfect as always, and Jimmy Walker wrapped up the show with another perfect flair (backflip 180). One more day left in Fresno, then it’s off to the big city, San Francisco.
-- Jimmy C
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Friday March 31, 2006 - Central High School East (Fresno, California) The last day of week #3 of the got milk? Gravity Tour, brought us to Central High School’s east campus. The weather has been toying with us all week long, and Friday was no exception. It pretty much rained on and off throughout the entire set-up that morning. When I arrived at the school with the athletes it was dry, but started to rain about 15 minutes prior to showtime. Fortunately, it was a light mist, and it stopped about 2 minutes before the bell rang. Then the weirdest thing happened, the sun came out. Our old friend the sun, who we had not seen much of all week, poked out of the clouds for the entire duration of the show.
The show itself was one big lunch period performance in the quad, and the whole school came out. They were hyped that the weather held out, and everyone had a good time, especially when Jimmy Walker ended the show with a giant backflip 180. As soon as the show ended, the sun said goodbye, and back came the light rain. Armand and Tyler, our ramp crew guys, pretty much tore down the whole ramp in the rain. Those guys rule.
The reason I am writing this update on Saturday instead of Friday, is because of the weather. Gabe Weed and I left straight after the show to drive back to Reno. That’s about a 250 mile drive, and it normally takes about 4 hours or so, but you have to go over the mountains. That means that when its raining in the valley, its snowing in the Sierra. We got trapped on I-80 twice last night, because of road closures. The snow was so bad and there were so many accidents, they just closed off the whole interstate for several hours. We just sat in the van and had a roadside picnic.
Thankfully my son grabbed a case of chocolate milk from the Producers Dairy folks at the school before we left. So we basically sat in the van, drank chocolate milk and had peanut butter sandwiches. Overall, it took us 13 and a half hours to get home. That’s it for week # 3, I’m off to watch the weather channel and see what my drive to San Francisco will be like tomorrow.
-- Jimmy C
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