Each year, we invite members of our Pro
Team, as well as a couple skiers from around the world, to join us on our
week long trip from Texas to upper Wisconsin. This year, we invited
Andre and Zane De Villiers to join Chris Morrison, Michele, and I on the
trip.
We leave for
Wisconsin the Monday before Footstock. It's about a 1,200 mile (30
hour) trip from Texas to upper Wisconsin, so we schedule several stops along
the way. This year, we stopped in St. Louis, MO, St. Charles, IL, Chicago,
IL, and Milwaukee, WI to visit with footers, family, and friends.
Thanks to everyone who we visited for making us feel so welcome.
In
order to make the time on the road pass by faster, Andre and Zane convinced
me to take part in a cross country SLUG BUG! competition. The point of
the game is to see who can spot the most Volkswagon Beetles. If you
spot one, you have to say "SlugBug" before everyone else. To
make the game even more interesting, we created a point system. 1
Point for a new style beetle, 2 pts for an old school beetle, 3 pts for an
old school VW bus, and 5 pts for a VW dealership. We created a small
circular plaque that the would be carried by whomever had the most points
during the trip, similar to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
The person with the plaque would also be able to choose where the others sat
in the bus, have first pick at seating in restaurants, first pick on where
to sleep, and also be able to order the others around when it came to doing
chores. So, you can imagine how coveted this plaque became.
The Ultimate winner would be the person
with the most points when we arrived at Footstock. The competition
became so fierce, I didn't have to wake any of the boys up along the way.
If I woke up at 5am to start driving, as soon as I started the bus, Andre,
Zane, and Chris were fighting over who would get the front seat. We
even had an extra chair for the middle isle. And with only 3 seats,
the 4th guy would be sitting on the dash board blocking the view of the
other 3.
The ultimate winner, and holder of the
plaque the ENTIRE trip was your's truly, Chuck Gleason. The old man,
who had never played the game, beat them at their own game. Second
Place fell to Andre, 3rd to Zane, and 4th to Chris.
We stopped in St. Louis, Mo to see the
guys from MVS Barefoot and do a little Figure-8 practicing with Anthony
Gramalino and Dave Somers. We visited with several members of the Lake
St. Louis Arch Rivals Show Ski Team, then made our way to Chicago to visit
my family, who live in Hanover Park, IL.
While in the Chicago area, we met up
with Tom Hart and Kevin O'Connell, of Jan's Fans, and spent a morning
horsing around on the Fox River. Everyone wanted to learn the Dolphin
start and the basics of a side slide. We had a great time that
morning. That evening, Kevin O'Connell met us in Naperville, IL to
have dinner at Lou Malnoutti's Pizzeria. We introduced the boys to
Chicago style pizza.
The next day, we decided to take a
train ride into downtown Chicago to meet up with Chris Morrison's brother
Al. Al is working as an intern at a law firm in downtown. We met
Al at Union Station and I walked them over to my old stomping grounds at the
University of Illinois at Chicago campus. I treated them all to the
BEST sub sandwich on the plant at Fontano's Subs, then finished up with a
cool refreshing Italian lemonade in Little Italy. It doesn't get much
better than that. We then walked around the Illinois Chicago campus
and showed our daughter Kathryn where I went to college. Another GREAT
day!
When we got back out to the suburbs, we
loaded the bus, said Good-Bye to my parents and headed the bus to Milwaukee.
I had worked out an arrangement with Peter Fleck to pick him up at his
parents house on our way up to Crandon. We had kept Peter's plans to
attend Footstock 08 low key all summer. He wasn't sure he would be
able to attend, and ended up calling me on my cell phone during our bus trip
up. It all worked out great and seeing Dave Mueller's face when I told
him I had Peter on the bus, was priceless.
We made it all the way to Crandon
without any major accidents, but when we pulled the bus into the event area,
we ventered a little too far into the soft sand and got the bus stuck.
Lucky for us, we were in Wisconsin and with a bunch of guys who all owned
4-wheel drive trucks. We counted 3 white Chevy 4-wheel drive trucks.
So we all had a little fun pulling the bus out of the sand.
We (Andre & I) made a
couple videos of our trip, so be sure to click on the links below:
In
order to make the time on the road pass by faster, Andre and Zane convinced
me to take part in a cross country SLUG BUG! competition. The point of
the game is to see who can spot the most Volkswagon Beetles. If you
spot one, you have to say "SlugBug" before everyone else. To
make the game even more interesting, we created a point system. 1
Point for a new style beetle, 2 pts for an old school beetle, 3 pts for an
old school VW bus, and 5 pts for a VW dealership. We created a small
circular plaque that the would be carried by whomever had the most points
during the trip, similar to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
The person with the plaque would also be able to choose where the others sat
in the bus, have first pick at seating in restaurants, first pick on where
to sleep, and also be able to order the others around when it came to doing
chores. So, you can imagine how coveted this plaque became.
The Ultimate winner would be the person
with the most points when we arrived at Footstock. The competition
became so fierce, I didn't have to wake any of the boys up along the way.
If I woke up at 5am to start driving, as soon as I started the bus, Andre,
Zane, and Chris were fighting over who would get the front seat. We
even had an extra chair for the middle isle. And with only 3 seats,
the 4th guy would be sitting on the dash board blocking the view of the
other 3. 
The ultimate winner, and holder of the
plaque the ENTIRE trip was your's truly, Chuck Gleason. The old man,
who had never played the game, beat them at their own game. Second
Place fell to Andre, 3rd to Zane, and 4th to Chris. 
The next day, we decided to take a
train ride into downtown Chicago to meet up with Chris Morrison's brother
Al. Al is working as an intern at a law firm in downtown. We met
Al at Union Station and I walked them over to my old stomping grounds at the
University of Illinois at Chicago campus. I treated them all to the
BEST sub sandwich on the plant at Fontano's Subs, then finished up with a
cool refreshing Italian lemonade in Little Italy. It doesn't get much
better than that. We then walked around the Illinois Chicago campus
and showed our daughter Kathryn where I went to college. Another GREAT
day!