bye, bye USA!

I came into this town as a stranger, and i'm walking out with a handful of friends who are just amazing, from day one it was so easy to meet people, everyone is so friendly and welcoming. I'm so glad i chose to visit Jon in New Castle rather than visit California or the Rockies as a tourist, this has been such a good experience and have made many friends for life.

I'd like to thank once again, those who have helped me out in any way, Jon you've put up with me for a whole month that can't have been easy, ha ha thanks man you're great! Steve and Donovan your place is where it's at thanks for letting me stay all those nights! I'll be back one day, i'd like to see a bit more of the USA and maybe the return trip will be in the form of a road trip, whatever it is i will definitely stop by New Castle, Indiana. I'll try my best to keep in touch with everyone, the next few months i might not so much as i'll be backpacking but once i settle down somewhere you'll all hear from me.

I hope you guys get your skate park, and that the skate scene here just keeps on going for many years to come, you guys have heart and that really shows, it's so easy to just have a good time!

I'm on my way to Indianapolis now, hopefully catch a train to Chicago and be in Mexico by Sunday evening, i'll update this again once I'm there.

Thank you everyone for everything!

Santiago.

"Wind in my hair i feel part of everywhere,

Underneath my being is a road that disappeared."

"Guaranteed" by Eddie Vedder.

"Let your dreams be your pilot, imagination your fuel."

Here in New Castle, there is currently nothing to skate apart from a piece of flatground in the form of a basketball court, you have to get in a car if you want to skate something half decent. Hopefully in the months to come this will change because of the love and determination of one man. Anton Payne, whom i had the honour of meeting a week or so ago, is working towards the goal of raising $100,000 for a skatepark to get built.

His plan included running 3 marathons in 3 days, a distance of 80 miles, from Kettering Ohio to New Castle Indiana. He did this run in order to raise awareness and show people that he actually cares about skateboarders in the town and their need to have something where they can skate without constantly being looked down upon by society.

I saw Anton finish his run, he was so exhausted he could barely move, but he did it, and it was such an astonishing performance which hopefully helped to jump start the movement. He organised a gathering for all skateboarders and BMX riders, and even managed to get a few ramps and rails together for the day, the little things matter most.

Below is a link to his website, where you can kindly donate anything you are able to give, however small - it all makes a difference.

Click here to enter runningforsomething.com

"These streets are your streets, this turf is your turf,

Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve got to give in,

'Cos you can make a difference, you can change everything,

Just let your dreams be your pilot, imagination your fuel,

Tear up the book and write your own damn rules,

Use all that heart, hope and soul that you’ve got,

And the love and the rage that you feel in your gut,

And realise that the other world that you’re always looking for,

Lies right here in front of us, just outside this door,

And it’s up to you to go out there and paint the canvas..."

The King Blues - What If Punk Rock Never Happened?

Above are lyrics from one of my favourite songs, which i thought summed up the fact that sitting on your butt achieves nothing, and with enough love and willpower you can achieve anything.

In the next week i'm going to be leaving New Castle for Mexico, it's been an amazing experience to see what life here is like, a town where deprivation is around everywhere but who's people are all so friendly and have so much heart.

That's all for now folks!
I'll post something on here before i leave.

Santiago.

Kettering, Ohio

Drove down to Kettering in Ohio on Saturday, home to one of the best skate parks in the country. It consists of various street obstacles - blocks, manual pads, stairs, rails, flat banks, more manual pads, paths, more blocs. The drive there, with a brief stop at Richmond to meet a guy called Anton, was really not as long as i expected it.

The park is super fun to skate, i love street skating so this place was perfect, and i am confident to say that this was probably the best skate park i have ever been to. (There's photos of the place on my Facebook).

Met up with Alec Denker too (he coincidentally lives just down the road from DC Plaza), we share a common interest in the outdoors and climbing, it's really nice to meet the people you have been talking to for a long time and actually have a proper chat with them.

We are getting so much footage for this internet edit we're working on, it should be a good one! Below you should be able to see a panorama of Forest park in Noblesville, this park is about 40 minutes drive away from New Castle and is so much fun it closely follows DC Plaza on the list of awesome skate parks!

Anyway, i know this was kinda a pointless post but i wanted to share what DC was like as i've been looking forward to visiting that park for so long - it was definitely worth the wait!

Santiago.

On the way to Indianapolis.

Noise, Spiders and Coffee.

The last few days have been about settling down in a place i can call home until November. I heard a lot of bad things about American people, perhaps it's only this region, state or town that defies them, but i am telling you right now, the American people are some of the friendliest people i have ever met. Customer service is top class, whether you head into an invidual shop or a big "Walmart" - heck, even McDonald's! Really enjoying my time here, you can start a conversation with anyone you meet.

Started polishing off plans for Mexico too, my friend Stefanie is taking a few days off school (as many as possible) and we're heading down to the beach, before coming back and going to see the Killers on Nov. 8.

We're working on a short skateboarding video which will be finished right before i leave, it's just for a laugh but we're getting some real good shit down. I will post that on here once it's done.

That's it for now, I will post up a few more photos of parks around here soon - hopefully heading down to the DC Plaza in Ohio on Saturday, that will definitely be good for photos/footage.

PS: I'd like to correct something i wrote on the previous post. Gas/Petrol is not $2.30/litre, that price actually refers to per Gallon, which makes gas here about $1 per litre...a lot cheaper than in the UK! - i guess that kinda explains why there are so many big trucks around, they're everywhere.

Santiago.

Into the unknown

Now that i am finally here, and a little bit more settled down, i'll dedicate a few minutes to update you all on how my arrival into the USA went.

Heathrow airport was good, not a lot of choice of places to eat when you wait for your plane to be ready, i mean there was Wagamama's and such, but nothing cheap like Mcdonalds or something. Nevertheless, i found a JD Whetherspoons which came in handy, had one of their breakfasts, which is a little more expensive inside the airport compared to the ones in the towns. Another pint of Fosters later and my gate was about to open.

So i headed down to gate 10e, which was actually a bus stop. The bus takes you out to where you're going, which to my understanding of Heathrow's layout was somewhere near Terminal 3. From there you board the aircraft, which happened to be a Boeing-777. Twin engined jumbojet which took off from runway 27Left and flew over the pond at no lower than 38000ft and no slower than about 500-600 Mph.
Upon boarding i asked a member of crew if there was any chance of visiting the cockpit before the flight starts, he explained that it was a little hard to do these days. So i went down to my seat which was 35c, An aisle seat in economy class which was near the rear of the plane. The legroom was way bigger than i remember it being in previous flights, which i was very happy about, and next to me sat a senior couple who were very nice to talk to and very polite, i explained how i didn't want the window seat because i'd hate to have to bother someone every single time i want to get up for a walk or use the bathroom, but that i didn't mind a single bit if they wanted to get out. I think they were fairly grateful for this and we got on real good throughout the eight hours we spent together.

Half way through the flight the same crew member came to me and said that it would be okay to visit the cockpit once we landed, providing it was all good with the Captain. So i asked again upon leaving the aircraft and i was invited to the cockpit, had a little chat with the captain, took a few photos of the flight deck. Really amazing to be actually there where it all happens, hopefully be doing that again in the flights to South America as regulations are less strict down there.

Once i arrived to Chicago O'hare Intl. Airport, i had to be processed through customs, along with the other 4 or 5 hundred people that arrived simultaneously on two or more flights. This process took an awfully long time, i watied for about an hour. On the other hand when it came to my turn, they just asked me a few questions about my travels - what i was doing, where i was staying, what was planned when i left the states - to which i answered very honestly saying i was visiting friends as it's a cheaper way to travel and didn't really have a lot planned apart from that. They were cool with it and on the first of October 2009 i got a toursit visa in the USA which lasts ninety days. Stoked!

Once i got my backpack from the conveyabouts i made my way to the departure hall where i was met by my friend Jonathan. Him and two of his friends - Ethan and Mitch - had driven about three or four hours to reach Chicago from Newcastle where they live. I wasn't aware of how far it was and the drive back was even longer, we got stuck in traffic for about three hours so we didn't get home until about 10pm. This was a very long day. I think i will be getting the train back, Chicago's highways are too busy for my liking.

Anyway after that we eventually got some sleep and woke up on friday at about eleven. We picked up Ethan and Mitch once again and drove down to get some "gas" and food. Prices of petrol are pretty similar to the UK - about 2 dollars 30 something a litre of unleaded. - The food you get in regular petrol stations is with all honesty junk. Crisps, chocolate, more crisps, a lot of stuff with preservatives and generally unhealthy. You can grab a warm cheeseburger from there for about a dollar but i even wonder what the hell is in that! It will be hard to eat healthy whilst trying to keep a low budget, but all i can do is try. Mcdonald's is a lot cheaper than in England, you can grab a regular BigMac meals for $4.59, thats with unlimited refills.

There's places like Taco bell with very cheap food also, but as i say i'm going to try keep it as healthy as possible.

On friday we went to a couple of skate shops, Imagine in Newcastle where i picked up a "chocolate" deck for $53, and Rise in a town about an hour away to grab a pair of Lakai Select shoes at $50. These were a little cheaper than you'd get them in England, i guess because they're not imported here.

We visited a couple of skateparks in the region which were very good, built to a very high standard - all concrete, good transition, smooth ground - and very well spaced out - something that lacks in a lot of British parks.

Today is Saturday and we should be heading down somewhere past Noblesville, the weather is just about holding but rain looks very probable.

I will be updating this better as soon as we get the Internet fixed at Jon's house where i'm staying, as at the moment i'm having to write this from Mitch's. I will be posting some photos i've been taking along the way very soon as well. We've been filming a lot of skateboarding as well so we'll hopefully have a short video edited and online by the time i head down to Mexico.















Having a great time here, thanks for reading this!

Your Son, Your Brother, Your Friend,

Santiago.

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