We spent the last three days in Flagstaff, AZ, a town that was originally not even part of our summer itinerary, being hosted by a man and his seemingly endless stream of roommates and friends. We were initially a little leery about what would be in store for us in Flagstaff. I had talked to him on the phone the night before we arrived and decided that he would be either really cool or really weird. Either way, it was going to make for a good story.

This man runs a bike shop out of his back yard, but if you think that just means he keeps a couple of parts around and helps fix up his friends bikes, you would be as wrong as we were. While he doesn’t have an exact count, he told us that he has between 70-80 bikes in his shop, mostly vintage, and all pretty valuable. After a lengthy conversation about our backgrounds, covering topics well beyond Ultimate, he took it upon himself to show us around HIS town.

He sized us up for a couple of his bikes and we spent the next two days riding all around town. He took us to all his favorite spots so we could experience the Flagstaff culture, one that is unlike any other place we’ve been so far. We played Ultimate, spent time in café’s, ate at his favorite restaurants, and went to a short film festival and outdoor concert, all in three days. We met more people than we can count, many of whom greeted us with a hug and treated us like family.

The point of our trip is to make connections through Ultimate and show people all the awesome experiences that can be had just by reaching out to other players. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room in this blog to effectively show that, but we wanted to post something just to keep you updated. However, we will be releasing a video featuring him and his town within the next few weeks that will hopefully do them justice. Stay tuned.