FHST week # 9 Houston TX Oct 31st - Nov 4th 2011

Another week down, and another trip to the airport. It seems like every weekend on this tour, I have had to run off on Friday after the shows and get myself to an airport to head off to another show or contest. That wasn't the case this weekend. I did have to go the airport, but not rush there after the show. Myself and the crew were able to spend a relaxing Friday night before flying out Saturday to the next stop of the tour in Houston. We spent Friday night watching game 7 of the World Series, and it was quite a rollercoaster playoffs and in the end, my St Louis Cardinals won it all. The next morning we packed it all up and headed to the Lone Star State.

Our shows this week bring us to Lee, Milby, Sharpstown, Westbury, and Channelview High Schools. Our athlete roster once again is Anthony Furlong (skateboard), Eito Yasutoko (inline), Jimmy Walker (BMX), Zack Warden (BMX), and Gabe Weed (flatland BMX). We started off the week on Halloween, just down the road from the hotel at Lee High School. It was a very warm day, and the field we were set up on, had apparently been flooded over the weekend. It made it very tricky to drive the ramp truck on. I still don't know how they pulled that off. We did 2 assemblies at this school. They had some of the cheerleaders stand by the doors, and greet students with cheers as they came out for the assembly. That was a new experience for me on this tour.

Tuesday we headed off to the southeast side of town to Milby High. This was another two show day, and it was during lunch time. The students were a little slow to warm up to us, but they really seemed to enjoy the Marines setup and the pull up bar challenges. Two shows and a quick wiffle ball game with the crew, and we were heading down the road.

Wednesday found us around the corner from the hotel again, at Sharpstown High. This was another lunchtime show, but it was a one show day. We thought it was going to be rough, because the ramp was sitting on the opposite corner of campus from the cafeteria. Shortly after the bell rang, we had quite a crowd brewing up around the ramp, and to my amazement, we had pretty much the entire campus out there. They got quite an eyeful from the riders, because they packed that 45 minutes with plenty of tricks.

We didn't see much rain this week, but we did see some issues with the wind. Unfortunately, the wind caught up with us on Thursday and we had to take the show indoors at Westbury High. They had a very small gym, and it could only accommodate one class group. They decided that the Junior class would be the ones to see the show, so they filled the gym with 11th graders. It was a pretty short show, but the students really reacted to Zack Warden's 360 tailwhips and his backflips.

We rounded out the week at Channelview High on the east side of Houston. We were at this same school last year on the fall tour. Once again they had us set up behind campus and we did 2 assembly shows for the students. The first group was big number of students, but they seemed to lack the enthusiasm for the show. The second group was smaller, but they definitely were way into the show. After we were finished, the lunch ladies were nice enough to bring us some catfish and gumbo for lunch. Not a bad way to end the week.

So far, we have 9 weeks down and 2 more to go. Our travels take us about 110 miles to east on I-10 to the city of Beaumont TX next week. See you in bayou country