Angels, Katchafire, & Stagecoach: 21 Days Till Departure

I've got a full schedule these next three weeks leading up to taking off for the Bahamas. A bit of work interspersed with just enough of baseball and music fun to keep the good times rolling right up until I get on that plane. Of course that's all on top of actually getting ready for a trip that could theoretically have me living in the Caribbean by the beginning of June...

Angel's game this Thursday night (4/19) vs Oakland A's at 7:00 PM, also it is Erick Aybar Gold Glove T-shirt giveaway night.
Here's us at last week's game...

Then Friday night (4/20) we've got Katchafire at the House of Blues Sunset in Hollywood. Katchafire is a New Zealand all Maori roots reggae band, who kill it, they started as Bob Marley cover band and have since put out four albums of their own original work. They've toured extensively all around the world and just fuckin rock. Michelle and I went to see them at HoB Anaheim last week, they were awesome, and Friday's show should be even more fun!
Here's a pic from the show...

Then I prepare myself for Stagecoach next weekend! I can see yourself asking, "What? Ryan isn't into country music?" No, I didn't and wouldn't buy tickets...I'm going VIP fo free, well I'm technically going to be "working". But the work will be fun and good, so it doesn't really count as work. I'll be "working" with my friend Dave's dad, Bad Otis Link, making hand pulled posters and T-shirts for all the cowboys and cowgirls.

Here is a snippet from Otis's artist page "Self-taught and self-educated, Otis sharpened his distinct style as an artist in the late 70s through the mid 90s as one of Los Angeles premier and most notorious punk rock artists. “The punk scene back then made a cozy home for creative rejects like myself, most of my friends today are from that camp”. Otis played saxophone in local punk bands while designing band logos, record covers, posters and producing merchandise for local punk and sub culture bands and promoters. Some later became well known including The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Goldenvoice concerts, The Damned, Social Distortion, TSOL, The Adolescents, Danzig, The Circle Jerks, Wasted Youth, and many many more."

I'm still wishing I was helping pull screens at his booth at Coachella this up coming weekend but oh well...I think Stagecoach is going to have it's own unique set of pluses...like daisy dukes and cowboy hats...

So as it would go, not necessarily being a fan of country music, I maybe even only recognize a handful of the names on this years bill. So I'm looking for any and all advice on who and where I should be wanting to listen to...and if you are planning going let me know!

Long Overdue...

So once again, my blogging and writing has completely dropped off the table, I am constantly distracted by visceral experiences and my thirst for always looking forward and moving on combined with good old fashioned laziness has left me in this writing rut in which I now sit. But fear not! I am once again making a commitment to writing/posting and recording for your vicarious viewing pleasure. Cause it's more fun when we all share in the joys, trials, and tribulations of the Road together...

Prepare for a constant stream of wonderfully fun and soon again to be worldly adventure travel stories! For I depart the good 'ol US of A in 29 days. I'm off to see Ashely & Kev

That's right I'm leaving on a jet plane for the Caribbean, down to Nassau in the Bahamas on a trip seeping with possibility, I go in search of work, adventure, fun, beautiful women, white beaches and blue seas. I'm taking two weeks to see what kind of interesting experiences I can stir up and yes really, job opportunities. Boats, bars, hotels all potential locations of glorious and endless, opportunity just look in a few of the right places and have the right mind set to be open to those possibilities and just sit back and let the world work its magic...

Queenstown is Snowless / I'm coming home

Queenstown, a beautiful fun place to visit, just a so so place to live. It's especially true if you have been waiting for three months for snow and it doesn't appear. Winterfest the big kick off festival for the winter season starts Thursday and there is no snow, on mountain events are going to have to be canceled. And snow still may be a few weeks out. The resorts have pushed back opening dates and have put their staff on hold, causing there to be a fair amount of tension hanging over the town and businesses. Which includes my two jobs more so at Quiksilver where the business is highly affected by tourists, Fat Badgers my new pizza place is doing good business but is still betting heavily that the people will come with Winterfest and well...snow.

But doesn't matter for me anymore I'm coming home early, these mountains and the snow aren't cutting it for me. I'll get a few days on the mountain when the snow does eventually show up. But my expectations for the mountains here were a bit too grand. I fully blame That's It That's All, though I guess I should have tempered my expectations a little seeing how all the NZ footage is heli. I'll catch a winter somewhere bigger and more powdery sometime in the near future.

I want summer and I want to be back in SoCal for awhile. I miss it. So yah that's what I'm doing I'll be home in 7 weeks, the first week in August. I'll see you all then!

The Remarkables from town w/ snow, 4 weeks ago

The Remarkables from town w/o snow, how it looks now

New pizza place. Stoned and baked, mmm my favorite, what a perfect match.

I never knew pizza skills would take me so far, god that looks good

Queenstown, Employment Opportunities

So I've been in Queenstown for the last couple weeks. The road trip was good, pretty quick but a fun way to see everywhere on the way down. Went to Milford Sound for a couple days and did some kayaking, it was an incredible place, huge and powerful scenery. Now I am just hanging out and playing disc golf. Made a few American friends and have met some people I've known while living in Cairns last year. It's a small town and won't take long to be come a local around here.

I've found work in town that starts in three weeks, which is when work will be coming available most places as the Winter season rolls in. The job is at the Quiksilver retail store actually, good ol' Quik. Ideally I'd like an on mountain job but they pretty tough to come by in Queenstown. So now I have two jobs lined up, Lift operator on the North Island in a small mountain town on a weather beaten resort or Quik retail in beautiful fun Queenstown buy a season pass. Not sure what I want to do...

Cruisin in the RV

The Remarkables from the park in town

Disc golf right on the lake in the middle of town

Milford Sound, that little boat is three stories tall

Kayaking in the Sound

Taupo, Job Interview, Road Trip

I've left Auckland, took the bus a few hours south to Taupo. I needed to be in Taupo for a job interview for a lift operator position at Mt. Ruapehu, http://www.mtruapehu.com/. The interview went incredibly well and they told me that I had the job. I am going to be a Lift Operator, a job that I've always wanted to have. The mountain itself is one of the world's most active volcanoes, it last erupted in 2007. Stoked to have work all sorted out, and now I can enjoy New Zealand for a month and a half while we wait for snow.

I'd been looking to head south and want to get myself to Queenstown. Checked some message boards and found a couple of English backpackers who are taking a three day road trip in a big camper-van to Queenstown and are looking some one to share petrol (gas) costs with. I hit them up and they just got back to me and said I was welcome to come along, so yah they are picking me up on Wednesday and we are hitting the road. Wellington, ferry from island to island, Christchurch and over to Queenstown.

2007 eruption

road trippin

New Country. More Blog Posts

Haven't spent much time working on this over the last few months, but I am going to return to it with a fresh attitude. Blogging. Sounds gay. Whatever, here is what's up...

Dustin is back home. My year in Australia is over. Trevor is still in Oz and I am now in New Zealand.

Hanging out around the Auckland area for a bit. I have a job interview in Taupo on the 16th for a lift operator position on one of the ski fields here, Mt Ruapehu. If all goes acording to plan than I'll be reporting for work in June when the snow starts to fall.

The people I am staying with have a scooter, I've been riding it everyday

North Shore

Downtown Auckland

Terrible blogger

So once again it has been a loonggg time since the last post. Quick update and some pictures....

No longer in Cairns, we are both now up in Cape Tribulation, about 2hrs north of Cairns, in the amazing Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world. We are working as housekeepers at PK's Jungle Village, a small resort located right near the beach surrounded by beautiful jungle. A total change in attitude from life in comparatively busy Cairns. Our days are spent fishing, hiking, swimming in the fresh water swimming holes, and all sorts of other outdoor activities. A wonderfully relaxed tropical atmosphere. The wet season has arrived and we are getting a ton of rain over large parts of the day or days, it has really started to cramp our outdoor lifestyle and the late night bonfires on the beach.

We are only here for another three weeks though, and then we start our return trip down the coast. We have decided to give the van a tune up and drive it back down the coast taking ten or so days to get ourselves back down to Sydney. Where on the 27th of December we are picking up Trevor from the airport and a third amigo is joining the adventures. Couldn't be more stoked to have another friend to share the fun with, cause there is more than enough to go around!


There is nothing like the freedom of the open road, it is so close i can almost smell it...