Day 2
Jonesboro, AR
Woke up really early because Dub had to take his family to the airport, but the good thing about that was I got to get off the floor and crawl into Dub's bed for a few more hours of sleep.
Got up a few hours later and checked email and whatnot on Dub and Bobby's computer. Then I headed to the building. This would be the home of Bell Athletics, where legendary coach Earl Bell coaches, and all sorts of cool pole vaulters train. Unfortunately, a lot of people were out of town because of track meets.
Got there and surprised Earl a little... Dub forgot to tell him I was coming! Not a problem though. We chatted for awhile while Grandpa (Earl's dad) vaulted. Grandpa cleared 9 feet for the first time this year! Guess I brought him good luck.
Then I just hung out for awhile and took some random pictures
You can't see them very well, but these are some of the mysterious prototype carbon ESSX poles.
Then, to my surprise, my teammate Dave Lemen came by. Dave is from the Seattle area as well, and just finished school at Georgia. He is too cool to tell me much though, so I didn't know what day he was coming up. But apparently he left just a few hours after me the night before, and stayed at Jillian's.
This is Dave, flexing his poles. What he will do, is take that weight in the middle, and hang it from the pole. That ruler taped to the wall will measure how far down it bends. That tells him the stiffness of the poles.
This is a random picture of Jillian Schwartz using the computer there. Earl has a computer hooked up to the internet, so that the kids who come there for pole vault camps can keep in touch with their friends and family.
So I hung out there all morning, ate lunch from Taco Bell (Taco Salads yummm) and watched NeoVault at lunch. After lunch, I got to pole vault with a few other kids!
I vaulted for 3 hours! I cleared 10-7 from 4 lefts, and 10-8 from 5. Earl and I decided that I could stay at 5 lefts until I clear 11-4. Yeah I suck, but whatever.
After I was done vaulting, some more people came back into town. Derek Miles, Tye Harvey, and Daniel Ryland all came by. I talked to each of them some, and then headed out.
It was getting pretty late by this time, but I had to stop by Lon's and say hi. He and Goose had just gotten back from their conference championships.
This is Lon's dog Shorty. He's cute :)
This is Lon, trying to look cool. I think he looked cooler with the glasses ;)
And this is Sun Belt conference (or whatever conference ASU is in) champ, Gustavo. What a stud :)
So yeah, hung out there for awhile, watched parts of NeoVault with them (and finally learned how to see the poignant introduction by Don Hood, yeah I am retarded). Then I headed back to Dub's and fell asleep.