High Vantage Point

While channel surfing on the television this evening, I paused on ESPN long enough to see that they were starting the semi-finals of the Winter X Games snocross event called Style and Speed.

This event is a race between two snowmobilers who have to run through a course that combines racing with freestyle. For those of my readers who are unfamiliar with freestyle, watch this video.

Keep in mind that the video above was from a year ago. The sport has progressed to the point that most competitions feature backflips and other tricks that completely amaze me.

What caught my attention and held my interest in the program (besides the fact that I’m a motorsports junkie), was that I noticed the name “Joe Parsons” listed as one of the semi-finalists. That was a familiar name to me.

We used to live about 2 blocks from the Parsons family.

It’s not like we were friends, or anything. In fact, I didn’t even know the family. I just saw their snowmobile trailer next to their home whenever I drove by.

My daughter, Ashley, graduated with Joe. They weren’t friends, but she knew who he was. She said that Joe missed a lot of school. Presumably he was out racing his snowmobile in various events.

In the Winter X Games event for 2009, Joe Parsons went on to win the Gold Medal.

I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to speak with him, so I’ll just comment here. Congratulations, Joe, on your Winter X Games Gold Medal. It’s always exciting to see locals rise to such levels.