Brice!

After losing three passengers by NY, the van had began to feel a little lonely. Never fear, Brice is here! My brother Brice just finished up his scholastic obligations and decided he couldn't pass up a road trip from Montana back to Santa Cruz, so he flew out to Billings, Montana for some fun. He'll be playing the rest of our shows with us, and sharing his knowledge of road delicatessens.

Myrtle vs. The Muthafuggin Hail Storm

On our way to pick up Brice in Montana, Orion, Addy and I had one last crazy adventure and have decided to illustrate a blog about this muthafuggin' storm we were in. Brice also contributed by adding the final illustration. We were all pretty certain we were going to be hurled off of a cliff into a lake by a tornado, so here it goes...

The night started off beautiful with huge clouds, a glassy lake front camping spot, and a sunset that was framed by lightening storms off on the horizon. We've had plenty of weather reports call for "severe thunderstorms" while on tour, and had seen some decent storms, so we felt we could handle whatever was coming through that night. However, this hail storm was by far the scariest storm I have personally ever been in.We went to bed in the dry cozy van after a nice night by the campfire with our bellies full of warm soup. We put the screens in the windows to keep cool, and went to bed. It wasn't until about 1AM that Addy awoke out of instinct and suggested to take the screens out and close the windows as she was fairly certain it was going to rain soon. After removing the screens and giving the approaching storm little thought, we all went back to bed.
With little to no warning, the van was shaking like a leaf, lightening was crashing literally almost two or three times a second, and the hail fall was so dense and hard, it felt like we had been sealed in a giant oil drum with industrial sized firecrackers. The first thing to cross my mind was that the wind was rocking the van towards the cliff we were parked on, and it looked like a creek had recently formed on the road and was now running under the van.Hoping for some advice on what to do in a Midwest "shit-storm", the only thing Addy said to me "Well, if it is a tornado, these isn't really anything we can do. We're pretty much fucked." After these words of wisdom and encouragement, I decided that getting away from the cliff and under some thicker cover would be best, so I climbed up front, turned the key and and rode Myrtle into the storm. While Orion agreed this was a good idea, he failed to put his glasses on, and freaked out when I started driving because he thought I was driving us off the cliff. After scaling the steep dirt road that looked more like a creek bed, we emerged to the upper part of the campsite where we waited out the storm. Yet again, Myrtle saved us from certain death and we all lived happily ever after.

Badlands National Park

The most beautiful park we have been to on this trip so far.

Enough said.

Badlands Big-Ass Steak

In the spirit of telling stories about trying to gain more weight, I was persuaded by hundreds of road signs that I needed to eat steak while in South Dakota or else I wasn't being American. The signs also said that animal rights activists were not welcome in the state (not joking) and that I should wear more fur to support the local industry...

While I didn't invest in any new animal skin sportswear, I did support the tourist industry by buying a sticker at The Corn Palace as well as purchasing a Badlands Steak for dinner. The steak was 1.5 pounds and I ate every last bite. I don't think I'll be able to eat meat for the next week, but it was worth it. Addy just reminded me that I failed to mention the can of baked beans and the two pound bag of peanut butter cookies I had to go along with this meal. It would seem that I should be about 400 pounds after eating like this...

Madison Cheese!

While I usually don't concern myself with me weight, I have lost 20 pounds while on tour!?! This is definitely a bad thing in my case, so it recently became a goal of mine to start packing back on the pounds. My first act to accomplish my goal was to sample as much cheese as I could at the Madison Farmers' Market. From fried cheese, to jabenero cheddar, to fresh cheese curds, it was cheese heaven. Mission accomplished.

King of Karaoke!

We arrived in Madison, Wisconsin just in time. By just in time, I'm referring to the fact that there were severe thunder storms, tornadoes, and flooding all around us. We parked the van, ran into Addy's friend's house, grabbed a deck of cards and her two cats, then headed for the basement to wait out yet another storm. If we had come into town a couple hours later, we would have had to do some tornado dodging in the van!?! Thank goodness luck was on our side this time.

After the tornado warnings had been lifted, Addy's friend brought it to our attention that she had made plans for us that evening already. So what did she plan? A night of karaoke American Idol style! Despite every impulse in my body telling me this was a bad idea, I've jumped into stranger adventures! Ha ha... It actually turned out to be really fun. Check out Orion, The King of Karaoke, bust out one of his better performances.

A break in the storm

After the storm passed, our drive through Ohio was beautiful. Despite all the amazing clouds, the thing that really caught our attention was the drive-in theatre we passed while in route to Madison, Wisconsin! Double feature of Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones? Hell yes!

Take Cover at the Laundromat!

With severe thunderstorms heading our way, we didn't have much option but to take cover in Ohio. When trying to decide where we should go, it somehow came to be known that none of us were wearing underwear. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't seem like pertinent information, however, seeing how it had been 94 degrees and humid the last few days and we hadn't had a shower in almost a week, we deemed the situation an underwear emergency.We headed over to the nearest local laundromat, put in our laundry, then watched as the rain and thunder came crashing down. Much to our amazement, it only cooled down to about 85 degrees that stormy night so we ended up staying in our bathing suits and playing cards outside under the laundromat overhang until our cloths were dry.

Threading the Needle...

After a few nights of unexpected rain storms, we've gotten in the habit of trying to find a weather report. Today we stopped at the library and checked the weather... It turns out that http://www.weather.com/ is expecting 60+ mph winds in the next two states we're supposed to drive through... They have, in fact, labeled the weather in our path as "Severe Thunderstorms". Seeing as how the van is about 10 feet tall and top heavy, it looks like we're going to have to take cover for the next couple days. Keep your fingers crossed for us and hopefully we'll see you all on the other side of the storm! Tonight we'll be stopping to get plastic rain ponchos!

The Land of Make Believe (PA)

You would think that dropping the number of passengers from six to three in the van would have a significant impact on the amount of trouble we could get ourselves into, but Addy, Orion and I seem to have no trouble keeping things interesting.

After checking the weather in Cambridge and seeing that it was supposed to be sunny in Pennsylvania, we decided we'd head out and do some camping. However, as the sun began to set, some awfully dark clouds were looming on the horizon... with lightening... and rain! Once again, the weather report nailed it! In an attempt to find a hotel to get out of the rain, we started driving through a town where we began to see signs for "Make Believe Land". Without knowing exactly what "Make Believe Land" was, we realized we'd be fools to not investigate.

As it turned out, the clouds were upon us quite quickly, and we found ourselves it a hot, heavy, lightning filled rainstorm. Naturally, everyone agreed that breaking into the land of make believe was the thing to do. We suited up, got our game faces on, and went for it!

After scaling the fence, we found out the Make Believe Land was actually a water park filled with high metal structures and pools of water everywhere. Seeing as how the lightening was striking less than a mile away, we all agreed that playing at the closed amusement park would be one of the less intelligent decisions any of us would have made in our adult lives. With lightning striking all around us, we got the hell out of there as soon as we could!

Now that we were all wet, and unbearably hot, we decided we'd save some cash, rearrange the contents of the van and sleep at Wallmart. It was hot, it was wet and it was sticky. It was the perfect start to our adventures back West.

Headin' West

We did it! Somehow we managed to make it all the way to the East Coast without dying! Now all we have to do it make it back to California... to be continued...

Farewell to Friends

The journey East has been long and short, cold and hot, and filled with adventure. It feels like it's been a year, but could have just as easily been a week at the same time. With about 30 shows under our belts, 20 or more states, and very little sleep, the drive from The Pacific to The Atlantic probably won't start to sink in until I finally return home and sleep for a week. However, for now, I'm still out on the East Coast in a van, trying to keep it between the lines.Starting about a month ago, we had six jobless homeless happy people squeezed into the van, ready for adventure. After about a week of travel, Victor just couldn't take it anymore and opted to return home from Minneapolis. The remaining five spent the next three weeks bouncing across the country until finally landing in NYC.Sadly, NYC was the end of the line for John (guitar) and Eric (drums). I suppose not everyone can remain jobless and homeless indefinitely like myself. As a result, Addy, Orion and I watched our two good friends stand on the curb as we started a new journey West without them. The music, jokes and adventures will be memories of a lifetime.

NYC!!!

Oh hell yes! We had the opportunity to play a show with Beards at Pianos and what a jam it was. The night has a reoccurring theme called "Cross Pollination". The whole schtick is that we play a set, Beards plays a set, then we improvise a few songs together. Beards were terrific and we loved every minute of it! To top it all off, the show was followed by a Guitar Hero jam-a-thon?! Rock out!

After our day of "work" in the city, we spent the next day exploring while Myrtle rested. Coincidentally, my friend Nate "The Wildman" Lindaman was in the city and decided to roam the streets with us. While the Statue of Liberty, Time Square and the likes were all super, taking jumping pictures in Central Park was naturally the highlight! Nate heads off to Alaska to do some commercial fishing, so we hit it hard, ate like crazy and topped the night off with fruit crepes, and managed to avoid getting any sleep... again...

New Jersey!

Big city after big city, I felt like if I had to sprint across one more street to avoid a taxi cab taking me out, I was going to lose my mind. Thank goodness my aunt was there to save us in New Jersey! Kris came in like a big city angle, swept us off to lunch, took us to a spicy pickle stand, got us to our gig at Pianos, and finished the night off with a late night hamburger run at a diner that probable should have killed us. Yet another highlight to an already wondrous trip.

Baltimore

While we've received nothing but love on this tour, Baltimore showered us with affection. Steve Hefter (who I'm a huge fan of) put us up in his apartment for a few days, booked us a couple great shows, and showed us a great time. So great, that I completely forgot to pick up my camera during the best moments! You'll just have to imagine what our big smiles must have looked like in the this cozy city! Besides a cozy couch and nice back yard for a couple BBQ's, Baltimore also has a pretty awesome submarine... ha ha...

Addy's Haircut (NC)

After our show with Secondhand Stories in North Carolina (excellent show), we took a day to get an oil change, clean the van out and give Addy a haircut. Yes, Addy needed a haircut and decided that she'd like me to cut it... with my mustache trimmers?! While this seemed absolutely crazy to me (due to the fact that I have never cut hair before, and I'm pretty sure if you were cut someones hair, mustache trimmers are not the appropriate tool) Addy was tired of looking like a "bag lady" and needed a low cost make-over.

I'm not going to exaggerate and pretend I was good at cutting hair, despite how tempting it is to inflate the story that way. Instead, I'll say that I cut her hair in a straight line, which was hard enough, and left her with what looked like a long bowl cut! Ha ha... While we all agreed that it was an upgrade from her "bag lady" look, I think something a little less "soccer mom-ish" would be another step in the right direction! As of now, Addy is still rocking the soccer mom look, while we all wait in great anticipation of her next styling.

Catchup and Liquor

The road has been busy so I've been neglectful. I'm sorry... Since Kentucky, we've been through Chicago, Baltimore, Pennsylvania, NYC, Cambridge and more. I'm going to try to lay them all out right now and do my best to remember everything.

The van was a little overworked and a little under loved so we had to cancel a couple of our East Coast shows while the van was in the shop and to allow us a little more time to drive West. It seems as though all is order now so thank you all for your notes of concern and love for good ol' Myrtle.

Post Show Ritual

While it may seem counter intuitive, after every mellow, soft spoken folk-rock show we do, we wind down by crankin' up the 50 Cent, turning up the sub-woofer, and hand-dancing the night away as we drive to our next town. Here are Eric and I tearin' it up in the van.