Dates: December 12th, 2005
Title: And it Starts Again...
View the this Through the Lens Video (MPG 7MB)
So we have just released Carpe Diem 2, and are extremely proud of how it came out and have heard great feedback. But now we find ourselves thinking, what next? It has become almost second nature already to book the plane ticket, grab the camera gear, and start traveling again; but first, a little celebrating! Before we could get down to the business of getting down to business we had to pack up and head to Ft. Mitchell, KY for the GNC awards banquet. We started a ritual last year that we had to carry on this year; the biggest and best after party there was! Frankly, I’m surprised I wasn’t on the hotel blacklist from 2004. We started the trip by driving from Iowa City to Indianapolis to meet up with Brock Lyons, Klint Anderson, and Erin (a female friend of Klints’ that proved to be good company!). From there it was on to KY.
We got to the hotel around 4 o’clock, about an hour before the banquet started. We walked around for awhile, got checked in and started to set-up the room for the after party. After that we went to Outback to get some grub. As we left Outback, Brock started to harass Erin, which led to Klint chasing Brock around the parking lot. As they were chasing each other I got in the truck, Klint jumped in the back and Brock was going for the front seat as I was creeping forward in the truck. Right as he jumped up to get in the truck I hit the brakes, I have never seen anyone hit the dash so hard in my life, I thought I killed him, but he was okay.
For the first time I didn’t actually attend much of the banquet, I was busy getting everything else ready. Around 9 o’clock Klint and I went to a local store to buy “supplies” (over $300 worth). When we got back to the hotel we snuck the “supplies” in the back door and filled the bathtub with them. After that we officially started the party. I spent most of my time walking around the hotel in and out of the banquet and back and forth from my room. I even got caught by the ATVScene.com camera crew for a second, which proved interesting since I had already started to celebrate. You can take a look at that here.
As the banquet wrapped up our hotel room started to fill. Everyone who was anyone was there for at least a little bit. The list included John Natalie Jr., the Hetricks, Dunk, Cody Anderson, the ATVScene.com crew, Harlen Foley, Cale Downen, Jeremy Lawson, and several others. We had Carpe Diem 2 playing on the TV, 
Klint was at the bar mixing drinks, and Brock was lost most of the time (we still don’t know where he went). At some point in the night some of the ATVScene.com guys met Erin and deemed her a “photo opportunity” carefully placing some stickers on her body and began shooting (their cameras). I watched in enjoyment and even played along myself with the video camera. Around 5 a.m. we got the usual knock on the door by the Kentucky State Patrol, they decided the party was over so we quickly broke it up for good. After a quick nap we were back on the road again. As I drove home from the banquet I got a call from Skyler Stewart. Skyler and some of his friends were going to Glamis for Thanksgiving weekend. There was no way I would miss this! So I quickly booked plane tickets (as I was driving home) to fly out to Phoenix for Thanksgiving.
My plane touched down in Phoenix around noon, November 22nd, I got my rental car and drove about 2 miles to meet Skyler for lunch. As I pulled into the Quiznos parking lot I began the proper “rental car break-in process” with a quick E-brake (the first of many), almost hitting a tree much to Skyler’s amusement. After lunch I met up with Brock and Klint (they drove down after the banquet). The rest of that day and the next one were pretty boring. We just sat around and got machines ready for the dunes. Finally, on the 24th we loaded up and headed for Glamis.
We were about 30 minutes from Glamis when a crazy man in a truck flew by us in Brock’s rig on the shoulder. As he pulled up next to Skyler something was thrown out of Skyler’s rig and into the truck. We later found out the crazy man in the truck was Darrel Patton and he was apparently thirsty from his long drive. The closer we got to the dunes the more excited I got; I couldn’t believe the number of people (and the amount of money) that were just hanging out in the dunes. There had to be at least 250,000 people there over the weekend! Once we pulled into our spot in the middle of the desert we unloaded all of the toys and began to play. Before I could even unload my camera gear they had built a fire and were jumping it on the 50’s. The rest of the night went pretty much the same.
The next morning we got the race bikes and sand rails out to go look for some jumps to film. We found some pretty good hits but weren’t able to do as much filming as I would have liked. The day quickly turned into a screw-off day (we have way too many of those!) At night the usual activities commenced, with one exception, someone gave Skyler the keys to a Yamaha Rhino. Brock, deciding not to let his buddy go off into the desert alone, got in with Skyler. You have now taken some explosives (Skyler) and mixed it with an igniter (Brock), bad things were bound to happen! About 2 hours after they left, we started to get worried, and about an hour later we started to get really worried, about an hour after that they finally came back…with a broken foot. Skyler apparently tried to hit a sand berm at 45 MPH. The Rhino rolled, Brock got his foot caught under the roll cage, which ended his fun at Glamis and my ability to film much more riding. So we continued to have fun other ways with the realization that we would have to come back to Glamis later in the year to finish shooting. After a tiring 4 days in the desert we took it easy for the next couple of days until I had to fly out on Tuesday.
I am now back in the office finalizing my plans to go back down to Phoenix to film more for Carpe Diem 3. We had plans to film some of the indoor series, but since they were unexpectedly cancelled, we are just going to concentrate on Carpe Diem 3. We are planning on going back to Glamis to finish the riding part of the shoot and then head over to Ocotillo Wells, then on to Texas. You can check out that trip in future columns.
Brad Phillips
www.Premisind.com
