Once again it’s the end of May and that means that Oh My Back hits the road for the Memorial Day weekend. This year six of us all got in the van and left on Thursday night for a trip that will take us to Boise, Idaho and back finishing up on a Monday night. Ultimately four full days and one evening of driving, skating, and sleeping with some hanging around in between.

Day 1 (Thursday):

We left Seattle at about 8:30pm and drove straight to Yakima, Washington to get a jump on the traffic and also break up the hours it takes to get to Boise in the van. The drive was pretty uneventful and we made it to our AirBnB house by about 11:30 and were able to make a crucial trip to the a Safeway for essential road trip items (food and beer). A successful first leg of the trip.

Day 2 (Friday):

Friday morning we got all of our things back in the van and hit the road. Our fist stop was Union Gap skatepark. Some of us had been there before but it seemed like the best way to start off our trip.

 

The first interesting

part of this stop at Union Gap was the guy who was sleeping in the space between an obstacle who looked, for lack of a better way to describe him, like he was still tweaking from whatever he might have been doing the night before. He never moved from his spot for the duration of our visit and talked to himself or imaginary friends.

We had a pretty good time skating Union Gap until we didn’t. Erik, unfortunately, collided with Mikhel and had what could only be described as a one-in-a-million result by spiral fracturing the his pinky finger. Nobody even fell down. It was strange.

Thanks to the wonderful health care system in the United States (note sarcasm), we did a lot of driving around Yakima to find urgent care for Erik’s finger at a place that was in his insurance network. We ended up spending several hours at the hospital where they set the break and got Erik set up with a splint/wrap to keep him on the healing path. We were all glad he was able to get fixed up.

Once Erik was good to ge we hit the road toward Echo, Oregon with a short stop to gas up the van and take in the roadside attractions, call home to explain etc… There always seems to be something entertaining to purchase at truck stops and this place was no exception.

We hit the road again to our first planned destination, Echo, Oregon. Echo is has a fun little skatepark and we had a really good time skating it. We probably spent a little bit too much time as we had planned to stop at two more parks on the way to Boise. But it’s a vacation and why wouldn’t you continue to have fun when other than a place to sleep we really had no schedule.

After we left Echo we headed toward La Grande, Oregon to skate at their old park that looked a bit long in the tooth. We got a few runs in before the sun went down completely and the rain started falling which meant that we were going to push straight on through to Boise in one go rather than two jumps with another stop in Baker City. The hospital delay the thunder storm put the damper on that. Baker City would have to wait for the return trip.

The Three hour, fifty five minute trip between La Grande and Boise in a thunder storm was both spectacular and harrowing. The light show in the sky was really amazing.; but the construction zones with poorly marked lane shifts were not. It’s amazing that we could tell what was going on at all in the dark with driving rain. We all felt relief when the storm passed and we pulled into our next Airbnb which would be our home for the next two nights.

Day 3 (Saturday):

This fine Saturday found us skating the new Rhodes skatepark in Boise. Grindline did an excellent job with this one and it was so much fun to skate. We spent the day there and met up with Tom Kilroy, Dan Hughes,

and some amazing locals. Near the end of the day, even though the park is under two bridges the wind and rain started to blow in and we left to check out two local skate shops.

The Prestige, and The Boardroom had all a Boise skateboarder would ever need in a skate shop, and then some.

After that we got  some dinner and, of course, some adult beverages before hitting the hay. It was a full day to be sure!

Day 4 (Sunday):

Sunday was another big day. We went back to Rhodes park to get some skating in before we began our drive to two more Idaho parks on our way back into Oregon. The first stop after Rhodes was the Star skatepark in Star, Idaho.

The Star Skatepark was a lot of fun and it’s another Grindline racetrack. You can go around and across and all over the place and we had a great time with it. We also ran into the Have Fun Zine guy as well. Then we headed to Middleton for some lunch and skating.

Middleton, Idaho has a brand new Grindline skatepark and it was also a lot of fun. Situated right off the main road through town and next to a water splash park it had all you would need on a hot day. And it was hot. We got a good bunch of runs in before saying goodbye to Dan Hughes and essentially goodbye to Idaho as well.

We hit the road as our spot for sleeping the next night was Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

On the way we stopped at probably the jankyest skatepark ever, in Baker City, Oregon. Of course a park like this makes for some challenging terrain and it didn’t disappoint there.  It did have a slightly less janky new portion which was still pretty challenging but in all, Baker City was a pretty good leg stretcher.

After driving from Baker City we hit Pendleton, Oregon for some skating in the excellent Dreamland park there along with some dinner before we headed to Milton-Freewater to crash for the night.

Day 5 (Monday):

Because we woke up in Milton-Freewater we had to skate the park there and since it is an older Dreamland park it is quite a challenge. It’s pretty fun as well especially when goals are set and made. After spending a bit of time there we headed to Walla Walla for some more fun in the sun.

On the way we noticed the old Walla Walla skatepark and had to go have a look and a short ride. It isn’t the best but why wouldn’t you stop to try it out? We did. It also has a decent toilet which is a plus.

Walla Walla is a favorite park of the OMB crew and we always have  a good time there. The newer small bowl is fun and so is the big bowl as well. We spend the greater part of our day there skating before we headed back toward home and a stop off at Yakima.

Everyone had a good time and got what they were after as far as a good day out skating. It was hot and there really isn’t a lot of shade but we all made due, hydrated and skated.

We eventually had to get on the road and headed toward Yakima.

In Yakima we had a short skate at the Yakima skatepark but everyone was super exhausted. We really had to get on the road to make it home as well. So we stopped off for a bit of dinner and then hit the road back to Seattle.

The trip home included some super awful traffic on Snoqualmie  Pass but it was pretty much our only option to crawl along with everyone else. I think we all made it back to our homes before midnight.

Epilogue:

It was a great weekend out and it couldn’t have been done without the heroic driving from Mike Lynch, the ability for Erik Whittaker to tough out the trip with a broken finger, and the camaraderie and  coolness of Mikhel Boldyn, Andy Caro, and Ramadan Russel. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun without you guys and a better group can’t be found anywhere. They all contributed photos for this and helped with video as well.

I’ll be working on editing some video to hopefully convey the fun we had. Stay tuned for that soon.

Go out and skate!!