CashVille Trip Report June 2-5, 2005
by Troy Merkle

Everything I thought would happen on this trip didn't, and everything I never thought would happen did .. either way it was a blast.

Day 1
The Crew was Tony Cherry, Jon Bechtold, Casey Longshore, Jim Basske, and myself. We left from Tony's graduation party to Pittsburgh, I thought. But after heading south a few miles Jon informed us that we were goin to Nashville instead. The reason we didn't go to Pittsburgh was a sudden change in not having a place to stay. But we didnt have a place to stay in Tennesse either. We dicided to stop at Louisville to ride street. After riding the park for about 20 minutes we went out street riding, after street riding we got back to the park to pack up. I ended up running into my friend Joey from Cincy, and Alex who recently moved to Louisville so we stayed and chilled till about 4 in the morning. We then drove out and headed south. We made it to Tennesse and found a roadside rest to camp out under some trees at.

First stop: Louisville. It was Jim's first time in Louisville, but he spent the night riding street instead of the park.	Casey stuntin' it up the ledge.	The crew's first "shower" of the trip.
Jon pullin' a backwards grind.	T-roy calls this the lazy manual. Haul ass, no hoppin'.	"I was playin' a little b-ball outsida school, when a couple a guys up to no good started causin' trouble in ma neighborhood..." Jon will smith any ledge.
Only in Louisville will you unexpectedly run into friends from far away at 4 in the morning.	The Gremlin tellin' bedtime stories somewhere between Louisville and Nashville.	Gremlin's don't sleep. Look at him, he's ready to roll.

Day 2
At about 8 a.m. some dudes started mowing the trees the crew was sleeping under. So we woke up got some waffle house and headed towards "Cashville". We ended up gettin to Cashville early in the afternoon and began riding street. We rode street in Nashville about all day then we got some food and headed out. But on our way out we found a little college and decided to check it out.. the campus was good but we didnt stay long. On our departure we saw a festival going on in a park. So we decided to check it out, only to find out after walking around a bit it was a gay pride festival. Tony had a purple shirt on so he wasn't feeling the situtation so we headed out of that party. I dont care how gay you are, if it's 96 degrees out you shouldn't be wearin' leather chaps. And for the record, it was the Gremlin's idea to go to the festival. ha.
Well we headed out and decided that we needed to shower, or find somewhere to swim. Cause they are basically the same thing. After searching for parks or pools to swim in, we just ended up finding a river and Jon and Casey jumped in. We were definitly in some back hills way off from the dirt road we took there. Some rednecks in a fishing boat cruised up so we left our swimming hole, or for Jon and Casey their shower.. we ended up driving till we found a truck stop to sleep in that night.

The hot hot heat can't stop Casey's icepick grinds.	Troy with a high speed rail hop...	...and a low speed footplant over the rail.
Jim Baaskeet-skeet on his way to a double pegger.	Jimmy has tons of style... it takes a real man to wear a head-band like that.	Jimmer carvin' over the benches.
The Expedition somewhere in the Tennessee back country in search of a good swimmin' hole.	The Gremlin' far from his natural habitat.	Chony Terry.
The Gremlin' dreaming of barchucks, and Tony dreaming of...

Day 3
The truck stop we stayed at had some really good handrails at it for some reason. Jon decided to wake up at like 9 in the morning and do some rails before I could put pants on. He did a rail to barspin long before I was fully awake. We hit up a Dick's sporting goods store and some food and headed out for Lexington KY, to ride the University of Kentucky. We got to UK at around 3 and rode street at UK for a few hours. Everyone rode good all weekend.. and we were definitley feeling sore and tired. And after riding UK I think all our energy was gone. So we packed up and headed back to Dayton. This trip was unorganized, cheap, and dirty. But it was sweet.

I told you what The Gremlin' was dreamin' of. Who needs coffee when you can wake up with a rail to barchuck?	2 pegs + 1 rail = The Merk-Man gettin' his grind on.
The Gremlin' back in his natural habitat... the street.	Troy pullin' the last trick of the trip. Tall ledge/Rail feeble with a big drop on the other side.