Tour early start, Hurricane Ike, Death, Destruction and Brothers

Alright,

Here it is. I'm usually pretty against this whole "blogging" thing (it sounds like a creature that would come into the middle of the night and steal your children {yeah, so what if coincidentally the word "blog" was used by my mom instead of the "boogey-man", whatever}) but I've decided that I will try and ignore my better judgment and try this thing. So, here it goes.

The past couple of days have been a crazy mish-mash of music and exploring the shitty cement strip between Austin and Dallas known as I-35. Thursday, I get up for work in the morning at 5:30AM to go to work from 6AM-12PM slinging latte art after working the shift the night before (getting out at 1AM). Covered in coffee grounds and heavily caffeinated, I jumped in the car with a some amazing friends to head up to Dallas to see the musical group "the Avett Brothers" (you'll hear about that soon).

I haven't spent much time outside of Austin since I've been in Texas and everytime I do... I get a little bit terrified and a little bit more confused at who exactly all these Texans think they are. I-35 is filled with all of your typical highway attractions: space caverns, wall to wall porn stores, booze barns etc... but the most interesting (and possibly the most mind boggling) would probably be a Czech Bakery right outside of Waco. Out of nowhere you are bombarded with the the sound of polka music screaming over the combination of fumes from modern gasoline pumps (not from Czechoslovakia), the rich smell of wood build of the establishment and then the smell of freshly baked Kolaches that reside inside. Honestly, the juxtaposition of this put me into some kind of haze... but somehow I came out with a Gatorade and a delicious BBQ treat. This state of mind continued until Dallas (along with me dozing off {you know, the kind where your head falls forward really quickly and then yanks back up like you have a string tied to the end of your hair}).

Getting into Dallas was hilarious/terrifying. We had Matt playing driver and Nimai playing navagator (or... Nimai the Navagator) which turned out to be one of the most brilliant comedic duos you could ever have imagined. As a result, we ended up driving around in circles until we could find the theatre (Grananda) and immediately trying to find a bar to grab a drink at to waste the 4 hours that we had to blow. We found a place called "The Dubliner" where Matt and I had ourselves a Guiness each and played a couple rounds of a game called "Firetruck" (feel free to ask what it is [apparently, its a game you shouldn't play anywhere in Texas besides Austin... man-love isn't accepted, really]) to pass the time while the girls (Nimai and Megan) talked girl stuff (I don't know about these sort of things... they were probably talking about their periods and boys and make-up and whatever they like to talk about).

Ok, the next couple of hours didn't hold much excitement... just some drunken antics at a rundown middleschoole playground where hanging upside down and jumping distance competitions off of swingsets where executed in the most sloppy blood rushing to the face manners.

Then the Avett Brothers happened. Big whoop. Whatever.

Ok. So it was fucking incredible. I was totally ready to head out on the tour with a revitalized sense of excitement. With the adreneline rushing through my veins and my head full of cockiness from all of the mustache compliments that I got while leaving the show and standing outside after the show (note: guys, if you like to lead on other men [who may or may-not be gay] and not be taken seriously by the ladies... grow a mustache]), we followed our friend Kirby out to her parents house about a half an hour north of Dallas where we were innundated by love from her mom and her two puppies. Though we were tired, it was still an hour or so before we could really get to sleep because of our confusion of what the sleeping situations were going to be. Matt and I had decided that we were going to have a no girls allowed pillow fort but kept getting interrupted by all of these pesky girls trying to get in the middle of this love. Either way, at the end of the night I ended up sleeping alone on the floor in the pillow fort while Matt enjoy the cloudly fluff of the couch perched above my feathery stronghold (little asshole).

3 hours back down I-35, another Czech reststop and noosefilled sleep later we were back in Austin and just in time for me work another latte art filled shift... only to rush back home and franically start packing for the 2 week tour up the east coast. At the last minute, Krista and I (as Mountains in the Moon) decided to head out two days earlier than expected to try and outrun the killer hurrican, Ike (Tina is NOT HERE!), that is currently pummeling the coast of Texas. Just to let you know... trying to pack and make sure you have all of your gear organized in 45 minutes is not fun. There are lots of things to try and remember. Here was my priority list:

1. Mustache Wax (and other mustache grooming tools)
2. Guitars
3. Amplifier/PA
4. Cds
5. Clothes
6. Other toilettries
7. Camera
8. Books
9. Telephone

I'm sure I forgot something... I just haven't figured it out yet. I'll be sure to let you know.

Packing the car with all of this shit was a lot easier than I thought it would be. With just a little fanagelling, we had the two door Chevy Colbalt filled fuller than she had ever been filled before (which is what she said). Only one problem. 2 feet of legroom. On the passenger side. Which I was sitting for the first leg of the trip. Trying to sleep. Back up through Dallas.

Now, don't get me wrong, I've slept in cars before but this was the most difficult car sleeping situation I have encountered, by far. I have gotten some great advice from a friend who is on tour right now also (Bearkat... which out her blog). Apparently, the burrito style of sleeping is very affective. But in this space, a burrito couldn't fit. I wish I could draw you a graph for all of the different positions in which I tried but I don't have the means to do that. I tried the legs on the dashboard, legs crossed and head against the windown, body sideways in the fetal position in the seat, head down on the dashboard arms under the knees, all of the previous positions with the wallet out of the pocket (because my left ass cheek start to fall asleep) and many other dozen circus style contortionist positions. Imagine a sperlunker climbing through some tiny grags in rocks. Enough said.

Despite my inability to get into a good sleeping position, we made great time to Dallas. Less then three hours! But as soon as that was said we got stuck in traffic... for 2 and a half hours. Its always frustrating to be sitting in the middle of the interstate trying to figure out what is holding you up and how far ahead of you it is on the road. Especially when you have a long drive ahead of your anyway and its 1AM in the morning and why the HELL does someone get into a wreck at that time anyway? Oh wait, it wasn't just a regular accident. It was a truck explosion on the highway. It was brutal. The only thing that was left of the truck was pistons. Aweful.

Just in passing, I would just like to say... Texarkana?! What kind of name for a town is that? Get out of here.

Alright, we made it to Nashville through a brilliant sunrise and now we're staying with our great friends Johnathan and Tish talking about how gas prices are going to go up because of Ike. That fucker. I just really crapped out on this. I'll write another one after the first show. Hopefully. I promise, this will be the longest one (which is also what she said).

Cheers,
Luke