Day 3: Bountiful, UT

The world's cutest baby golden retriever lives at the house where we're staying for these three nights in Utah. I'm in love.

Today a 12pm show in Logan at Utah State. Another solid college gig. As with many of the lunch time college shows we do, there's some sort of food giveaway happening in conjunction with the show. This one was "Walking Tacos with RJ." A walking taco has many names. It's a bag of Fritos with hot chili poured inside and cheese and sour cream. You hold it and eat it with a fork, preferably made of plastic. It's awkward and hilarious that this is going on while we perform.

It doesn't really get any more American than this does it?

This evening we went to a friend's house concert and the girls sat in on songs. It was great - Sarah S. is so talented. It's so rewarding to collaborate and share with friends in music - one of the highlights of the job. Tonight also conversed with another musician about career and making changes and how to balance life and work and when to know when it's time to move on.

What rhymes with varmint?

Two and a half excellent anecdotes from today.

We made a food stop in Elko, NV at about 5pm. I was at a large grocery store and needed to use the bathroom, which was located in the rear of the store up a flight of stairs. A woman and presumably her daughter, about 14 years old and mentally challenged, were just head of me as I walked towards the stairs. The mom went first, girl followed at a slower pace, and then me. I was immediately behind the girl and a little to her left side. Her right hand was on the rail as she stepped one step at a time, and after a few steps in, I noticed she was holding her left hand out to me, and not looking at me directly but kind of just aware of me and making a gesture. So I took her hand and we walked up the stairs together. Then we went into two stalls next to one another and after a brief moment, she started gleefully clapping as if she just won the lottery. Ah the joys of life.

I took my first driving shift after that stop, and minutes in, saw a billboard like no other I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). There was a picture of a large brown rodent on the left, and on the right the words "FIND OUT WHAT RHYMES WITH 'VARMINT'." It was an add for the "Cowboy Poetry Gathering" further details of which I do not know because I was driving and couldn't read the sign fast enough to find out when and where.

I almost ran the gas tank dry today. There's a long stretch on I-80 between NV and UT with no gas stations. I knew this and still managed to not gas up when I should have. But we made it to a Chevron, and then to our final destination: "Bountiful, UT."

Day 2: West Sacramento, CA to Bountiful, UT

Today is a driving day. 11 hours from Sacramento to Bountiful, plus a time change, slower travel rate due to trailer, a CA speed limit of 55 mph while towing, and extra slowness when driving through the mountains. It could take 15 hours. Typically with drives of four hours or more, our actual travel time is 25% longer than whatever the gps says. That accounts for gas/food/bathroom stops and trailer slowness. I am in the backseat, browsing a car maintenance book. In a few minutes i hope to be jiggled to sleep. The van is pretty bouncey. "Jiggles" is the name of a titty bar in Oregon that we've driven by a million times. It must be off I-5. Our show last night was at the University of the Pacific. We've never played there before. The venue was a very new pub area of the student center / cafeteria. Stage & PA rocked, lighting could have been good but was broken. They gave us Fat Tire from the tap! (Many college campuses are dry so this is a rarity). Most importantly, people showed up and it was a great show. A poet from the school opened. Students all super nice and organized. Although the person who worked merch didn't do the credit card purchases right so we might not get paid for everything we sold. Not surprising that our country has a credit problem; multiple people were willing to sign a credit card slip with their card info on it but no dollar amount written. We still use the old-school credit card swiping machine. It's raining and we're approaching Tahoe, hopefully won't have to deal with any serious snow.

Day 1: Los Angeles, CA

Technically, today is the first day of tour. It's five minutes 'til five a.m. and it was my goal to have this blog in place for the first day so that's what kept me up. That and everything else I had to do before leaving. Yesterday (day zero) we cleaned the van at my house, and packed the trailer at our storage space in Culver City. The freeways in the photo above are the 405 and the 90 (I repeat, "the" 405 and "the" 90, aka the 405-90 interchange), and yes those are palm trees. I then ran errands, highlighted by trips to both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I'm motivated to start this tour on the right foot (my left foot has a very painful plantar wart on it, not a joke) and so I treated myself to a bag full of healthy and delicious non-perishable foods that will go with me into the van when we leave in a few hours. Whether or not healthy eating will last on this tour only time will tell.

We depart Westchester / L.A. at 9 a.m., driving to Stockton, CA for our first show. Can't remember the name of the college.

Introduction

Today is the first day of a six-week tour. I will post something every day until the tour is over. And then I'm not sure what'll happen to the blog after that. Each blog entry title will tell you what number day of the tour it is, and my location at the moment of writing.

Why a blog?

1. People (friends) seem to be interested in where I am and what I do.

2. Although I've written while on the road before, and taken pictures, and have lots of documentation of my five years of touring and ten years in this band, it's all scattered about. I thought it would be a good project to diligently and consistently document a consolidated period of my touring life, and at the end of the tour, have a complete archive of the experience. It all blends together, I don't have a great memory, and I know I will thank myself for doing this later. And by later I mean now.

Why blog every day?

I need routine. Six weeks from now I want to feel like I accomplished something I haven't done before. It seems more complete and accurate that way. I'll have to post, even if I'm tired or can't get online or not inspired.

Who's invited?

This blog is for friends. You are welcome to share it with people you know well who know me and who would honestly care to view it. It is invitation only, so if you know someone who's interested, send me their email address and I'll invite them.