All kinds of fun things for this travelogue update.

Firstly in the Ski department, BIG NEWS FROM LIBERTY!!

Freeskiing icon Phil Belanger has just signed on to join his Plehouse Films partner Phil Larose as a Liberty Team rider.  Belanger says “Since liberty is a small independent company it’s really easy to work with them on graphics or any new idea that we might have ... We can have direct talks with the owner and things go way faster that way...”

Look for Phil in Plehouse Film’s new release, SAVE.

Last update I left off with me just about to go under the knife again for a bone transplant shoulder surgery, so here it is. The surgery went well, and I am feeling great after only being 3 weeks out.

Having a little fun with the non-working left side of my body

They actually transplanted a bone to my socket to keep me shoulder from dislocating.

And put a couple of deck screws in there to hold everything together

To check out a crazy video of my shoulder surgery from last year, visit http://youtube.com/watch?v=8H9wQuZQyIM

or maybe i can just embed it here...

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8H9wQuZQyIM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8H9wQuZQyIM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Since I was less mobile for a couple days and unable to ride a bike or do anything too active, I began roaming the neighborhood to see what I could find. Sure enough, within a 2 block radius of my house, I found enough wild fruit to have some fun with.

So, I gathered up some friends from the neighborhood to pick some fruit to make some jam. I had never made jam before so I figured I'd give er' a shot.

We of course obeyed all posted signs...  Ahem!!

Native American friend David Young joined us to provide expertise on various fruity subjects.

And even a little rat dog joined the adventure

We picked various kinds of apples, crab apples, cherries, black berries, pears, grapes, and plums.

Here Zac reaches high in a pear tree across the street to get at the good, ripe ones.

It takes some big cahones to make good jam

Cookin it up

Some of the jam turned out really well, and some of it exploded all over the kitchen while we slept. huh. oh well, can't win em all I guess.

The next day, Zac and I found a great new couch in the trash for my new place, so we decided to take my other less nice trash couch to the local free pile, a little ways across town.

And what better way to take it there, than by dragging it behind my car with Zac riding it like a gladiator?

Then it was off to CU campus for the annual "Welcome Back to Freeride Club" event, designed to gain involvement in CU's Freeride program.

Liberty had a tent set up there, so I went to lend Chris a hand and talk to kids about what Liberty had to offer for the 07-08 season.

Turn out was great, and everyone seemed really stoked on our new sticks.

Then it was off to New Orleans to pick up my new car.

Anyone who has flown through DIA knows this sight well.

This is where the update really gets interesting.

I found a good deal on the car I wanted. Same as my 02 Subaru WRX that i have now, but with less miles and 2 years newer. So I bought a 1-way plane ticket and before I knew it, I was in New Orleans checking out my new whip. I borrowed the car to drive 45 minutes north to get it checked out at a Suby dealer, and drove across the world's longest bridge that stretches Lake Pontchartrain in the process.

The bridge is divided and traffic flows at about 70 mph. Anyway, some woman decided it would be a great idea to slam on the brakes and pull an illegal u-turn (there is no shoulder) and I ended up at the tail end of a 3 car pile up. Not much I could have done about it, and slid under a truck in front of me. I completed trashed the car and had to deal with inbred corrupt Louisiana cops who abused me for 2 hours before I was able to get the car towed.

This was my first reaction to the whole situation...

So, there I was stuck in New Orleans without a car, anywhere to stay, or a way home. I had already taken out a loan on the car, and I was pretty much screwed all around.

So, Ryan (the seller of the WRX) took me and his family out to down town New Orleans for some dinner.

New Orleans was looking only a bit better than the last time I was there, which was 6 days after Katrina.

I figured I would buy Ryan a few drinks since I just destroyed his car.

Then we went with his buddy to a local bar to kick back, get to know each other, and try to put the days events behind us.

The next morning, I was up at 4am to catch some stand by flights to Atlanta and then back to Denver.

From the time I left Boulder to the time I made it back, the whole ordeal took only 28 hours. Quite the weekend.

Thats it for now, life continues in the next update...