The return of Skateman

 It’s not often I find myself on a lonely country road, sitting in a car with a man wearing a red cape and SpongeBob SquarePants boxer shorts. Holiday SpongeBob SquarePants boxers to be exact. But I never know where my camera will take me and on Monday I was on a stretch of Midway Road west of town watching the return of Skateman.

David Goad brought his alter ego to life last year as he paid of Facebook wager to roller skate from the Hidden Lakes subdivision across town to the mall in his colorful costume with vintage style roller skates. Goad is raising funds for research on multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer that his older brother Jeff has.

To raise funds this year Goad decided on a more daunting task, a roller skate feat not yet attempted, or at least no one has owned up about trying this before.  On Oct. 6 Goad will roller skate 4 and-a-half miles up the 12 percent grade of Patterson Pass Road to the top and back down.

I’m a hiker and I know what a 4 mile, 1,300 foot climb feels like.  It’s not easy. It can’t be any easier wearing roller skates, vintage ones at that. I watched Goad’s first training run up the winding Midway Road. Not a fun time at all. The skates vibrate on the rough road, there is traffic to contend with and the downhill leg is precarious at best.  Why do it?

I talked to Jeff’s brother in Chicago and in the short conversation with the two brothers I know the love they have for each other and each would suffer any burden for the other. Though David Goad’s task is daunting his motivation is sure to keep him going to the top.