:: Events - Xtreme Week - March 2003 ::

This is a recap of our Xtreme Week March 2003

San Jose / Monterey

 Thursday, BBGun, Radforce and I (Drat) flew into San Jose where the game developer’s conference was taking place.  We met up with Esrohkrad who had come down from WA and we went and saw “Old School” and discovered that it is just as funny of movie the 2^nd time as the 1^st.  We awoke Friday morning to Radforce’s cell phone going off.  It turns out his wife was in labor so Esrohkrad zoomed Radforce over to the airport at 6am breaking every speed limit posted in the rented jaguar. (btw, he did get back in time to be there as his baby was born)

With 12 scuba tanks and a bunch of dive gear loaded in the Jag, the rest of us drove down to Monterey with the back of the car so loaded down that we were almost scraping bottom.  We did also rent a van, which we were planning on taking before Radforce had to leave but come on, Van or Jag?  Of course we’d opt for the Jag.  J

Point Lobos Reserve is an awesome state park right on the ocean.  Half of the reserve is all you see unless you're a diver and visit the underwater world just offshore. This is one of the richest marine habitats in California. What's so great about Point Lobos? Everything. There's a variety of diving: shallow reefs, deep kelp beds, walls, pinnacles, caves and sandy coves with the state's largest variety of sea stars. The swimming marine life ranges from seals, sea lions and otters to torpedo rays, rockfish and lingcod.  Its animals and plants are fully protected by state law from any disturbance.  They also limit divers to 15 pairs of divers a day so it seems you have the whole area to yourself. 

The dives went great, other then BBGun almost dieing, being picked on by some seals, and coming up a hole at the top of a cave realizing that waves were crashing on top of us and trapping us against the rocks. 

After diving we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and to dinner at Bubba Gump on Monterey's Cannery Row.  The Aquarium was awesome and we would recommend that if you are in the area that you pay it a visit.  Dinner was great too.  After loading everything back up in the Jag, we traveled back to San Jose where we relaxed for the rest of the night. 

Saturday, was a fun day.  We decide to pack up and drop off our gear early at the airport.  So we go, return the Jag, and unpack the gear at the airport curb.  After a bit of confusion, we find out that you can not check your bags earlier then 4 hours before your flight time, so we have to load everything back up in the van.  We spend a couple hours having lunch and seeing "Tears of the Sun"  at the Great Mall.

Now this whole airport thing would have been a lot easier except Radforce, BBGun and My tickets back to Ontario were all purchased together.  Radforce had went home early and I was going to fly straight to Salt Lake instead of returning on my round trip ticket.  BBGun had planned on taking my big SCUBA case with all his equipment home with him, but now since Radforce left so suddenly, BBGun had to take his equipment home as well.  So BBGun has three huge overweight bags plus a few carryons to get on the plane with.  The airport workers were very suspicious of this guy carrying tons of luggage who shows up without his two other flying companions.  Esroh and I were already in Salt Lake as BBGun was still trying to get on the plane.  lol.  They had even closed the door on the plane and were beginning to start the take off process when they finally figured everything out and had to open the plane door and let him on the plane.

Yellowstone

Esrohkrad and I went from San Jose to Salt Lake up to the Idaho Falls Airport where they rented a 4x4 and drove to West Yellowstone, Montana.  We were awakened in the morning by a call stating that our sleds were ready.  After getting the proper National Park Permit, and being outfitted with the warm clothes and helmets that we would need we were on our way in to the park aboard our snowmobiles.  Yellowstone is completely closed to cars in the winter.  The only way into the park is via snowmobile.  We saw literally over a thousand Bison and many Elk and other wild life.  The Bison were everywhere.  We would have to to slowly pass them on the trail so we wouldn't startle them.

Esroh just about got one of us killed by a huge Bison once.  We came upon a group of 20 or so Bison that were walking to one side of the trail.  We decided to slowly pass them on the left.  As we got about half way through them, the herd started widening out and we were trapped in the middle of this herd of Giant Bison.  We were both pretty concerned based on the warnings that we had got from the park rangers to keep our distance from the Bison.  As we look behind us we have giant Bison horns a few feet from us, but we had no way out.  We just had to try to travel at the same speed as the herd.  Finally as a few of the beasts were getting irritated by our presents among them, The Front Bison (and I should say the Biggest of the bunch) moved over to the left a few feet making about an 8 foot gap between him and the animal on his right.  After taking another look behind us and seeing the now irritated animals so close to us, Ross, who was in front, took off full speed and aimed for the gap in front of him.

If you've never been on a sled, you'll have to realize how fast these things can take off.  He went from like 0 to 60 in a few seconds.  This started the herd so much that they all panicked.  The biggest one that Esroh went right by actually got on it's hind legs with it's front legs in the air and bucked around.  It looked just like a wild giant bull at a rodeo.  If Esroh would have been a few seconds slower this beast would have landed on top of him.  I on the other hand was still in the middle of the herd and definitely scared for my life.  The animals were moving a lot more now and another gap opened so I took off and we both left the herd in our tracks as we continued on our journey.  Our hearts pumping a little slower now that we were on our own.

We visited Old Faithful among some other sites in the park and then returned to West Yellowstone where we traded in our sleds for some touring sleds.  (a lot more comfy yet not as powerful.) 

Then we spent a few hours riding different trails that allowed us more freedom to wonder off the main trails and really test out the sleds.  We traveled all the way to Idaho and made it to the top of this mountain that allowed us to see down every side overlooking Montana, Idaho, Yellowstone and Wyoming.  It was awesome.  For the most part it went great.  Esroh got stuck on a really steep hill and Drat rolled his sled but other then that things went fine.  lol

We learned that you should be really careful when driving after you've been on a snowmobile all day.  You tend to think your car is capable of feats that only snowmobiles can do.  :)  Ross discovered that putting 2 feet of snow under your car when you only have less then a food of clearance is bad.  After a 45 minute delay while we waited for the tow truck to pull us out of the snowmobiling trail, we were on our way to our next destination. 

Salmon, Idaho

Esrohkrad is a video game producer.  He is working on a new game called Men of Valor: Vietnam.  It will be out on Xbox, PS2 and PC in 2004.  We are in Salmon Idaho to record sounds for the game.  We need to record sounds of guns going off and bullets hitting objects etc. in 5.1 surround sound for use in the game.  The only guy we could find that had all the class 3 weapons and explosives lives in Salmon, Idaho.  Salmon is located out in middle of nowhere in Northern Idaho.  The road you take to get there is like 200 miles long perfectly straight as far as you can see.

We arrive in Salmon, Idaho on Sunday Night and stay in what we were told was the best hotel around.  It was a dirty old hotel with smelly rooms, old, beat up decor and tiny bathrooms.  Worst of all there weren't any in room movies.  We decide that this will be our last night we stay at this hotel.  It was right on the river though, that was nice, kinda.

Monday was the slowest day of our lives.  It turns out the sound crew wouldn't arrive until that evening, so we couldn't start our project until the next day.  So we set out to find something to do in this wonderful town. 

The main road in the town has all the business along it.  We traveled this road about 30 times.  Esrohkrad got his hair cut, we bought some eye and ear protection to muffle the rifle sounds, we had breakfast, lunch, dinner.  We stopped by the supermarket.  We even went to the local internet business and ordered a few days worth of local dial up so we could connect to our friends from there, cause cell phones don't work there.  Everywhere we went we asked the same question.  We'd be like, "Hi, were here in town for the day and are looking for something fun to do, what do you suggest?"  They would look at us with a blank stare and reply, "This is Salmon, there aint nothin' to do here"

Other then one place that was acceptable, no one knows how to cook in the whole town.  We tried a few places and were treated to bad service and even worse food.  Even the local burger king served us soggy French toast sticks.

The fact that Ross wasn't feeling well added to the misery.  This day went on and on and on.  I think it lasted about a week and a half.  We decided based on this miserable day, that we will never return to this sorry little town.

The day did get over and our lives were exciting once again.  We met the sound guys and traveled 30 miles up the back roads to Kent Lamont's compound.  These roads would be hard enough to travel on if they were dry but having snow everywhere turned them all to deep mud and ice.  It made for a very interesting trip.  :) 

For the next couple days we were witness to the most incredible collection of firearms and ammunition that I could ever imagine.  This guy knows about and owns thousands of guns.  If you ask him to show you an AK-47 for instance, he will ask: What version?  Russian or Yugoslavian?  What year model?  Low Serial Number or High?  What color?  This guy has everything.  He has many weapons that are worth 1/4 million dollars or more.  He could fill a grocery store with all the ammunition he has.

During the gulf war, the special forces ran out of the clips that clip their ammo together in belts.  They called him by satellite phone from the front lines and had him ship them a few cases via UPS next day service.  They said that going through govt channels would take too long.

We shot tons of different guns and recorded them for the game.  We also recorded bullets impacting different surfaces like glass, rock, wood, baskets, metal, etc.  We recorded the gun workings like the sound of reloading your clip as well as the sound each weapon makes while running with it.  This guy also had big army transport jeeps and trucks and stuff which we recorded the engine sounds and movements.  This whole thing was an awesome experience and I could talk for days on how cool it was.  My job on the trip was to video the whole thing.  I am making a documentary on the whole process that will be used for marketing purposed for the game.  I will post more and more pictures as time goes on.  I can't wait to show everyone this documentary.  :)