It was 4th of July weekend and a group of our close friends were celebrating in Whitefish, Montana.
We had been experimenting with heavy dosages of psilocybin and the day was going along swimmingly.
My brother, in his elevated state, was somehow able to rent a boat to take our group out on the lake.
At 40mph, standing out on the bow of the boat I felt like Leonardo Di Caprio - I stood up, raised my arms triumphantly and screamed "I'm on top of the world!" and promptly fell forward head first into what I thought was a football field sized McDonald's play zone ball pit.
Luckily the boat did not run me over and I had zero contact with the engine blades.
But the abrupt juxtaposition of falling into what I was 100% certain was a massive ball pit - when in reality, it was actually crystal clear cold blue lake water - I opened my eyes under water to see a twelve foot tall stallion approaching me at full speed from the depths of the ball pit.
It was galloping in an underwater rhythm and red white and blue fireworks were shooting out of its eyes, mouth and nose.
As it came closer to me and as I rose to the surface of the lake, I realized it was painted in bright metallic red white and blue and it was smiling at me saying "Hey Will- it's 4th of July. I'm the party donkey- the freedom donkey. Let's get back to the rock 'n roll." I agreed and followed him upwards out of the ball pit.
As my friends pulled me back on the vessel and my ears were immediately filled with "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen - I knew at that moment we needed to create The Freedom Donkey to help all those patriotic nut jobs tripping balls on some of the best summer holidays the world has to offer.
After the weekend wound down and I was sober enough to get out my laptop, I immediately Skyped my mentor "El Casco" down in Mazatlan and told him about my trip and my vision for The Freedom Donkey.
He could tell by the tone of my voice, that I meant business, so he immediately flew me down to Mexico in his private jet to work with him in an intensive 1 on 1 creative workshop to dial in the product.
The feel of the crepe paper on your hand needed to be perfect. The hue of the scarlet red around the eyes of the beast needed to be as red as the blood red fireworks I saw shooting out of its eyes 14 feet deep in Whitefish Lake.
I needed this product to be authentic and perfectly designed- and El Casco knew this- he wasn't the head of the North American Piñata Makers Guild for nothing.
We worked non-stop for 36 hours - stoking the flames with special 'workshop pills' that El Casco reserves for the most important creative workshop sessions.
At the end of the furious session, we had a prototype that looked almost identical to that beast I met head on in the bottom of that ball pit on 4th of July in Whitefish, Montana. And this thing was glorious.
