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Michael Hsiung hopped in the van at the last minute and proved himself to be an asset to the tour, he is a stand up creep and a talented artist. The following photos and stories are his views from the back seat of the van.

Heavy Metal Camping Lot

Our first official camping spot.  When we arrived at our first campsite, a grass lot in an RV park across from Circus Circus, there were some doubts about whether to stay here or not.  Morale had been low since some artists weren't able to make the trip, but we were all determined to camp and still make it a great time.  I believe Andrew Pommier was the one who said, "Let's camp!" so we all agreed to do it!!!

Hoover Dam

One of our first group trips was to Hoover Dam.  It was a long, hot, crowded van ride, since we packed everyone in it.  We had Corey Adams, Sam McGuire, Todd Bratrud, Horsey, Mark Fos Foster, Greg PNUT Galinsky, Phil Toselli, Andrew Pommier, Isaac McKay-Randozzi, and me in the van.  When we finally arrived though, we all had a great time checking out the sites.  This was my favorite moment simply because everyone got a good laugh when someone discovered if you hocked a loogie off the wall that the wind or whatever would push it up like 10 feet in the air.  Here everyone is pointing at how far and high the loogie got launched.

Bratrud's ceiling drawing

I think we were on our way to or way back from Sam McGuire's favorite food spot, Denny's, when we were drawing on the roof of the van.  Todd Bratrud was drawing this skull on the roof, which I thought was super rad.  I think all of my drawings looked like I did them with my toes. . . it's pretty tricky drawing sitting and above your head in a cramped ass van.  I was going to cut this drawing out of the roof, but decided not too since I think all this gross crap or insulation stuff would be unleashed onto us.  I still thought about cutting it out when we returned the van to Volcom.

Horsey's Wall Ride

Sam and Todd took us to a spot on the way back from Hoover Dam, where we got to skate and hang out.  Horsey pulls this sick wall ride after taking a few slams.  I love this photo because I like the guy's determination.

Sam and his Otter Pop

It was hot as hell at this ditch, so Greg PNUT Galinsky and I went to the local store to get the guys some waters and otter pops. We were all pretty stoked to have one and it reminded me of Todd's story about having heat stroke while being trapped in a store. . . I think he re-hydrated on Otter Pops.  Anyhow, this photo makes me laugh pretty much every time I see it and I know Sam doesn't care if I show this one.  Ha-ha.  Never interfere with a man and his Otter Pop.  It's got 289 views on my flickr page haha

Ben and his Black Label boards.

We had headed over to another park in Nevada we heard about.  When we got there, we were disappointed to hear that we couldn't skate there without helmets and etc.  Some of us were skating on the sidewalk when Phil's board almost hit this guy's truck with a Black Label sticker on it.  He happened to be done playing hockey and when it happened I thought . . . he'll probably kick our ass or something, but it turned out he was a huge skateboarding fan.  He was super into Black Label till they changed the team and had some old boards that Mark Fos Foster had designed back in the day.  We happened to get a tip about a skatepark that was located by our hotel and when we got there, we ran into Ben again, but this time he brought his board to skate and some boards for Fos to sign and decorate.   It was pretty rad to think he had them on his wall and one day randomly got to meet and have the artist who designed them sign and draw on them.

Van Life

One of the things I really liked about the trip surprisingly is spending time in the van and hanging out with the guys, especially Greg PNUT Galinsky.  He's a fun guy and we found a lot of entertainment in drawing on walls and customizing our windows.  This is just a sample of what PNUT's wall actually turned into, but he had stuff like a mirror, foot powder, hand sanitizer, a pen, crack juice, and etc. on his window.  I mean we were like a well-oiled machine at one point.  He'd go "Let me get some napkins" and I would grab them from this pocket where the seat belts was and hand it to him.  It was like prison life but better.

Trucker Turd

I don't really remember where this is, but does it really matter?  We were all need to take a piss spot and stopped somewhere on our way to somewhere.  Corey Adams was in the bathroom first and had originally seen this monster turd in the stall and tried to flush it to no avail.  The funny part is that he got to witness each of us walk in the bathroom and do the same thing - look in the stall, yell in horror, pull our shirts over our noses and laugh.  It was the size of a 24 oz. beer and reeekeeeeddd

All Bets Are Off

We were skating another ditch in Las Vegas with the whole gang.  Sam and Todd were filming Mark Fos Foster and Horsey doing some tricks and some of the guys were getting in some relaxation time under the shade.  PNUT and I got the item of drawing on some random pieces of plexi-glass and wood.  I mean we had BB guns in the car we didn't get to shoot, so we put two and two together.  I remember trying to draw things that the guys might want to shoot like Hitler and a KKK guy and then it evolved into anything funny like dicks and totem poles.  PNUT and I had a great time coming up with stuff and this was our shooting gallery.  We joked that we should have drawn this as an installation and given everyone BB guns to use to shoot up some art.

P.I.T in the U.S.A.

I don't really remember how it started, but I know Andrew Pommier had this song on his iPod, Party in the U.S.A., which he played as a joke at some point.  Jokes can get dangerous. . . the song stuck in our heads and especially in PNUT's head.  "Party In the U.S.A" became our skate/van theme song in a sick twisted way.  I mean we are not Mylie Cyrus fans by any means.

More to come in Part Two.