Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

Driving Around In Our Automobile

A savage journey with LNP to Pennsylvania and beyond in the heart of Onion season

It was cold….puffy weather cold in Stowe when I made my way back to my place to pack for the next morning’s journey to the mighty Mid Atlantic territory with LNP. He would be meeting me at the Rome office in the morning so I figured he would be late for the following reasons: a) get hassled at the border as usual b) get lost pretty much as usual  c) just be late as usual…. So you can understand my surprise when I awoke early the following morning to a call from Laurent saying he was close. Early is not something usually associated with Laurent but I wasn’t complaining and quickly grabbed my things and headed down to the office to meet up with him. Somewhere around Waterbury I realized it was for some reason 60 degrees out, winter had disappeared at least for a little while. We were heading south to as George calls it “The Republic of Pennsylvania” to check out some shops and meet our new Mid Atlantic rep.

Once LNP arrived I showed him all of the super secret Rome shit for 2011 he got to see boots, boards, bindings, all kinds of hats and shirts, he was a happy little Frenchman. We grabbed a quick lunch with George and Runke at The Reservoir and then we pointed our automobile due south for 8 hours…It was entertaining drive filled with recent stories, new metal, and upcoming plans for the season. Once we crossed into PA we started to notice a disturbing trend, blood on the highway. It seemed like every corner we rounded we noticed giant blood stains, deer carcass, at one point Laurent was yelling at just a random deer leg in the middle of the road. It appeared that Pennsylvanian deer population was on the move and not having good luck. Late that night we arrived at new Rome Mid Atlantic rep Jenn Carr’s home where we shot the shit about Rome our backgrounds and then finally hit the sack.

In the am we shot down to one of the coolest shops on the east coast: Pit Crew. Owners Tim and Malcom run a tight shop which is heavily skate influenced and has been a Rome supporter since day 1. They hooked it up with some cool gear and even fixed a ticket I got out front of the shop, thanks guys! After Pit Crew we charged back to Mechanicsburg (yes the birthplace of the band Poison) grabbed Jenn and then hit up Army/Navy a rad store that sells just about anything you can think of….I bought two deactivated hand grenades, LNP bought some sick metal shirts. Laurent talked about the different boards he rides in the line to an attentive clinic, and then we shot over to Buckman’s shop to do another clinic. The guys at Buckman’s were super hyped to meet LNP and he signed several posters and movies.

That night the Buckman’s crew pointed us in the direction of a hotel that had a sports bar connected to it so we could watch Monday night football…after all we were in Steeler country and Steeler nation is world famous. After some shit talking texts back and forth with George we settled in and watched the game. The crowd was out of hand at this place, they would yell at every play, they wore their jerseys and waved their towels. The bar had some weird free buffet thing going on where the fans attacked it like they had never seen food before. In the end the Steelers won and the place turned into a hip hop club for about ten minutes or just long enough for LNP to pack the jukebox full of Slayer, and Metallica songs, It was a funny night.

The next day found us on our way to the Dirty Jersey, but not before we got to taste a little piece of heaven, we went to a Sheetz gas station and had one of their famous subs….Cheapest, best sub I’ve ever had and you just punch your order right into a computer…Awesome. For most of the day LNP slept in the car and I drove. We stopped in and checked out a Ski Barn, we went to Curry’s Sport shop, CCS, and finally Specialty Sports, big thanks to everyone at those shops we saw. Specialty Sports is right near Mt Creek and the home of the infamous Dave Schiff. While looking for one of my friend’s new shop Outkast, we randomly found the Grenade car from the Boned Age as well as received a call from Schiff’s mom informing us that it was Onion season in these parts so we should be sure to order some onion soup wherever we ate, I informed her that we were driving through a big field as she spoke to which she retorted “Well then Johnny pull over, go out in the field and grab some onions”….I passed but I’m sure they were great.

That night we met up with Rome Designer Mike Paddock who is living down in that area now, we had a great dinner, drank a few Yuenglings that we had bought for George, and had a great time shooting the shit. In the morning we charged over to Rhode Island where we met New England rep Tony Deleo at our friend Quido’s shop Civil in East Greenwich. Shop owners Quido and Rob shot the shit with LNP about skating and shredding, it’s always cool to see someone you’ve been friends with for a long time doing well with his own shop. After Civil we b-lined straight to New Hampshire and right to EasternBoarder Nashua. EasternBoarder is one of the raddest shops in the country (I’m biased I used to work there) they get snowboarding, skateboarding and all that goes along with it and they truly want every kid to not only get the right gear but they don’t want to see the culture corrupted by people that want to make a quick buck. LNP, Tony and I hung out with Earl, Fiske, Tommy, and even EB legend and good friend Eric Koval. Laurent signed a bunch of autographs and we gave away the rest of our swag. Big thanks to Tony and the EB guys.

After EB we were essentially done we sped our way back up to Stowe and the land of Rome, We delivered our precious cargo of PA’s finest beer Yuengling to George and then we threw a hang on with all of the Rome crew in Waterbury. The next day LNP handled some biz in the office and than blasted off back to Quebec where he’s now headed to Colorado for some early season riding. So that’s it, that’s my story of one of the fastest three day trips of my life a few thousand miles driven, a bunch of high fives slapped, a few Yuenglings drank, and a ton of good times. Thanks to LNP for sitting shot gun with me on the cruise.  - Cavan

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.