I made a list of My Road Trips I took in 2009. With two rallies, one move, and several OEM car manufacturer tests it was quite a busy year. Gumball 3000 was by far the most memorable trip I made this year over seven days in May. These were the 10 best trips I took and remembered for the year. Thanks everyone who came with me on these adventures and hopefully we can do 20 for 2010.

February 2009: Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California

May 2009: Gumball 3000 from Santa Monica Pier to Miami, Florida (Gumball3000.com)

May 2009: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (You can only do public transit maps on Google Maps here so I just marked some places I went on a drive)

July 2009: 2010 Ford Mustang Road Trip (Red Rock Canyon, Formula D Las Vegas)

August 2009:2010 Hyundai Genesis Road Trip (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle)

August 2009: 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid (LA to SF)

September 2009: 2009 Targa Trophy Rally: Los Angeles Leg

October 2009: 2010 Mitsubishi RalliArt Sportback Evo (Lima Ohio to Los Angeles, CA)

November 2009: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro (San Diego Beaches & PCH Cruise)

Decmeber 2009: 2010 Nissan 370z Vert. (Salton Sea, Joshua Tree Ntl. Forest, Hover Dam)

Here is a compilation of my encounters with the law in 2009. That would be 8 total that I can remember, one pull over wasn’t covered since it happened late at night in Oregon.

May 2009: Bentley Continental GT (Arizona)

Gumball+3000+-+Cops+Take+Our+Bentley+License+Plate

May 2009 Scion tC (Grand Canyon Area)

May 2009: Bentley Continental GT (New Mexico)

July 2009: Scion tC (Los Angeles, California)

August 2009: Hyundai Genesis (Somewhere in Southern Washington)

October 2009 – Mitsubishi Evo (Nebraska)

Will Roegge snapped this photo of me pulled over in Nebraska! You can see me sitting in the cop car.

December 2009 – Nissan 370z (Laughlin, Nevada)

December 2009 – Nissan 370z (State Highway 95)

So on our convertible Nissan 370z drive we found ourselves spending the night in Laughlin, Nevada. Ricky Cervantes and I came up with the most amazing game ever. We played roulette at every casino on the “Strip” in Laughlin with a system. The first person to lose $20.00 at the table (you start with a $20.00 bill) we have to walk away and leave. The only casino we ended up never reaching this point was River Palms where we played for around two hours and were both up so we left. Here is how I stacked up and we plan to head that way again so let me know if you wish to join.

2009 Laughlin Roulette Crawl Results
Harrah’s: -$20.00
River Palms: +$30.00
Golden Nugget: +$60.00
Pioneer: +$20.00
Colorado Bell: -$20.00
Edgewater: -$20.00
Aquarius: -$20.00
Riverside: Tables Closed (Weak!)
Tropicana: -$10.00

We are finally making our trek back down the 1,200 mile Pacific Ocean/West cooridor back into Los Angeles. With a late afternoon start we headed down Washington and somewhere in Woodland, WA we spotted this old barn off the highway and went out for a photoshoot. The local police were not as keen as we were on the idea and we got escorted back to I-5 and moved on to Portland, OR. We stopped at Rogue Ales Public House in downtown Portland for a quick bit which is where I am blogging from now.

The snap I took was a photo I was able to get off before the police ruined our great shooting location. Stay tuned to my page and the main blog where you will find much more information on how much I am loving the Hyundai Genesis and how fun our 2,000 mile trip up the west coast has been.

Wallpaper Version of the Barn Hyundai Genesis Photo:

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/images/joeyredmond/hyundai.barn.wallpaper.jpg

After missing our chance to make it to the Formula 1 race this weekend due to the crazy Memorial Day traveling nightmares (that we totally forgot about) when booking this trip. After faulting on our Formula 1 chances in Monte Carlo we figured Europe was no longer worth our travels and we have deceided to head out to the beach in the Persian Gulf for the week. See everyone soon, I will have some updates on the blog from my trip.

Early on New Year’s Eve I visited the Bellagio with my Canon 30d and produced this time lapse with my SLR camera. The show lasted about two minutes and 15 seconds total and this is the fountain condensed into ten seconds. I shot this in the early afternoon of New Year’s and will have more to come from my week in Las Vegas soon.

Well I sat down early which ended up being a big mistake I think. I started imaging my first hand would be A/A and losing horribly. Well ironically it was my first hand, I went 3x the big blind with no callers. Phew…. still alive in this one. After making a great run up to 8200 chips I got moved tables.

Second hand the A/A is back and second from the button goes all-in. It is sort of automatic for me to call and I do. Everyone else folds and I flip over my A/A to his 10/10. The flop started with a 10 and never got much better for me. Now I sit with 2500 and unfearhered. Well I think unfearheted because I push a move I know I shouldn’t make very soon. After going back and forth on small pots I find K/9 H on the buttonand raise to 300.

I get one called who is the big blind. The flop is Q / K / 6 and I bet 300 again. He moves all-in and barely has me covered with around 4k. After saying “you should fold” in my head 10 times I call. He flips over Q/6 and after two dead cards he takes the win. Now did I make the right play or was I influenced by getting my Aces cracked..Not sure but I will think about it and report back if I shed light on the play. Right now Fiodor is at the end of hour two with 8k hanging strong. About 7 more out and he is in the money!!

After a couple hours Fiodor took home a victory marking our cashes up to two in the first two days. Not a bad average! The day of poker got cut short by us heading over to Mandalay Bay’s House of Blues for the Girl Talk x Dan Deacon x Wallpaper concert. It was totally amazing and a great way to finish up the second night of Las Vegas.

Hot Import Nights in Miami, Florida with NOS

As you all know if your a frequent blog follower that we produce NOS Energy Drink’s NOS TV series. To close out the 2007 season we headed to Miami, Florida for Hot Import Nights. This is our quick trailer from the show and we have a full version from the event coming out soon. The black Bentley in our video looked amazing. We had a blast in Miami Beach and enjoyed some amazing weather and food for December. Love to hear some feedback from everyone.

So every Miami trip doesn’t even come close to being complete without a stop at Pizza Rustica  in South Beach. Located in the heart of the party scene this place is insane on the weekend late nights and the first thing I did when I hopped off my flight at Miami International was drive here. After a check on their website tonight they have one open in West Hollywood on Sunset which I will be visiting promptly upon my return. Myself and Will Roegge are out here shooting a NOS TV episode at Hot Import Nights tomorrow and we are pumped up and ready to go. We swam a ton of laps in this crazy pool at our resort that changes colors from yellow/green/blue/red/purple with tons of lights within the pool. The thing always tripped me out a little when the pool went red for a minute. Here is my Yelp review of Pizza Rustica in South Beach: 

This place is a must stop for me every time I come to Miami Beach. I prefer this one since it’s the original location and love to just order more food than I could ever eat and hope for the best. Once you cram into this New York sized place you will be greeted by a glass display full of pizza. Huge square sicilian style pizza ready for your order. A friend and myself ordered a Hawaiian slice, Pepperoni, and Sweet Sausage.

Three slices and drinks out the door for under $20 (which could feed three easily) and we sat down enjoying ourselves and people watching in the crazy part of South Beach. Each slice of pizza was top shelf as always which is a combo including minimal sauce and a ton of dough. It’s an interesting approach for pizza and it works, Pizza Rustica knocks it out of the park. 

While eating someone spotted us for non locals and picked up that we could never finish these four huge slices among us. We brokered a deal to sell two squares for $1.00 so this man wouldn’t have to “wait in the long line he claimed” and we were happy to receive some return on our pizza investment. My buddy wanted to hang out and sell the rest of our leftover pizza but I was ready to check in to our hotel at this point. Our left over pizza didn’t make it to the trash can outside as a homeless person asked if he could finish it. Mission accomplished, we ate amazing pizza, people watched in South Beach, made a return on our pizza investment and fed the homeless all in twenty minutes.    

No where else are you going to find this kind of silly entertainment while gorging yourself in delicious pizza. A+ for atmosphere, location, and taste by me. The only issue your going to run into is PARKING. Especially if it’s a weekend night note that this is a huge post night club scene here. This is the South Beach fourth meal (not Taco Bell) and things can get a little crazy. If your flying in for some food and Washington has no street parking my approach is always to go one block over onto Pennsylvania and park in the residential permit parking (illegally) and hope people take pity on me with my rental car decals! Even though parking will be a battle you will realize it was worth every moment of frustration when you step inside.

http://www.pizza-rustica.com
Yelp Review
Style: Pizza
863 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 674-8244