The "tour"
August 20th was the day the "cross-Canada tour" started with Bullet Theory.
Day 1.
The forces were to muster at Carl's house. I was the first there - 20 minutes late, yet still the first somehow? At about 10 Kevin, our merch/photo/driver guy showed up. Soon after, well not THAT soon after, Shan and Jared showed up in the van. Then at about 12ish, arriving oh so fashionably late, Ross showed up. We packed all our stuff into the van and trailer, bid farewell to our parents, took a picture of us all in front of the van, then set off.
We had to pick up a lock at Canadian Tier first, so we headed over there. After we got the lock we attempted to start the van with the intent of getting the hell out of this city, but to no one's surprise something was wrong; the van wouldn't start. We revved, and revved, and revved some more. Little did we know by doing this repeated reving we were flooding the engine. Long story short we ended up spending the next couple hours in the Canadian Tier parking lot waiting for the fuel to leave the engine so we could actually start the thing. So, finally, at about 3 o'clock we left Canadian Tier and were on our way to Burlington, Ontario. We made a small pit stop at Jared's uncle's place though so he could check the engine out. He told us we should change some filter inside there, of course we never did though. Once again, we began heading off towards Ontario.
We drove a few hours and made a pit stop in Princeton for gas. Damn did that van ever guzzle the stuff, and with the prices of gas nowadays, filling it came at quite the price - about 120 dollars to be a bit more precise. We got some food, went to the bathroom and set off again. Before we did though, we decided to have a little bit of fun. This story requires an introduction to the band mascot though - the Mastodon; the Mastodon was a 18 something inch black rubber you know what that Shan's friends got him as a grad present (or so he says). Being the little hellions we are we drove by these girls who were just minding their own business, none-expecting of the mental scarring about to be inflicted upon them. We swung up the door of the van as we drove past them and I, being the caring sensitive soul that I am, had the Mastodon hanging out of my pants swinging around like a wild boar on crack. I also yelled a rather obscene sentence not quite suitable for the ears of anything but teenage boys. But hey, it was all in good fun, right?
After a few more hours of driving, or rather sitting in my case, we had hit the Rockies. This was one of the scarier parts of the trip. Why? Because the van could barely go 40 going up hill and couldn't go less than 30 doing down even with the brakes practically to the floor. Around this time we set up the bed in the back and a few of us attempted sleeping. And so ended day one of our little adventure.
Day 2.
I woke up just before we were entering Lethbridge where we stopped for gas and food briefly, then it was off again in the direction of Regina. A few hours of sleep, and a couple fill-ups later we were in Regina. We wanted to let the van cool-down for a bit so we had dinner at Roxie's, at least that's what I think it was called. I had the grilled chicken served with mash potatoes, gravy and mixed vegetables. Not exactly the best bang for my buck, but it did the trick. We asked the waiter where the "happening place in town" was and got directed towards a bar a couple blocks from there. Ross and I aren't legal age in Saskatchewon but in these crappy, so called "happening" bars they never ID anyway. We got inside and discovered that there were about 5 people engorged in this amazingly happening bar. Kevin ordered a pint and Shan and I just ordered water. However, when I tried to order it I encountered a wee bit of difficulty as the waitress was obviously not very educated to the rest of the world and didn't understand me when I said "water" because of my accent. This is the conversation that took place:
"can I just have a water"
"excuse me?"
"water, please"
"Kokanne?"
"... no... WATER"
"sorry, we don't have that here"
"you don't have WATER?!"
"huh?"
"WAR-TER, I just want a WAR-TER!"
"oh, okay."
Bloody hell, I mean really is it THAT hard to understand me sometimes? Anyhow, after we finished having the time of our life at the bar that employs people who live in holes, we began the drive towards our next big stop: Winnipeg.
To be continued...
Day 1.
The forces were to muster at Carl's house. I was the first there - 20 minutes late, yet still the first somehow? At about 10 Kevin, our merch/photo/driver guy showed up. Soon after, well not THAT soon after, Shan and Jared showed up in the van. Then at about 12ish, arriving oh so fashionably late, Ross showed up. We packed all our stuff into the van and trailer, bid farewell to our parents, took a picture of us all in front of the van, then set off.
We had to pick up a lock at Canadian Tier first, so we headed over there. After we got the lock we attempted to start the van with the intent of getting the hell out of this city, but to no one's surprise something was wrong; the van wouldn't start. We revved, and revved, and revved some more. Little did we know by doing this repeated reving we were flooding the engine. Long story short we ended up spending the next couple hours in the Canadian Tier parking lot waiting for the fuel to leave the engine so we could actually start the thing. So, finally, at about 3 o'clock we left Canadian Tier and were on our way to Burlington, Ontario. We made a small pit stop at Jared's uncle's place though so he could check the engine out. He told us we should change some filter inside there, of course we never did though. Once again, we began heading off towards Ontario.
We drove a few hours and made a pit stop in Princeton for gas. Damn did that van ever guzzle the stuff, and with the prices of gas nowadays, filling it came at quite the price - about 120 dollars to be a bit more precise. We got some food, went to the bathroom and set off again. Before we did though, we decided to have a little bit of fun. This story requires an introduction to the band mascot though - the Mastodon; the Mastodon was a 18 something inch black rubber you know what that Shan's friends got him as a grad present (or so he says). Being the little hellions we are we drove by these girls who were just minding their own business, none-expecting of the mental scarring about to be inflicted upon them. We swung up the door of the van as we drove past them and I, being the caring sensitive soul that I am, had the Mastodon hanging out of my pants swinging around like a wild boar on crack. I also yelled a rather obscene sentence not quite suitable for the ears of anything but teenage boys. But hey, it was all in good fun, right?
After a few more hours of driving, or rather sitting in my case, we had hit the Rockies. This was one of the scarier parts of the trip. Why? Because the van could barely go 40 going up hill and couldn't go less than 30 doing down even with the brakes practically to the floor. Around this time we set up the bed in the back and a few of us attempted sleeping. And so ended day one of our little adventure.
Day 2.
I woke up just before we were entering Lethbridge where we stopped for gas and food briefly, then it was off again in the direction of Regina. A few hours of sleep, and a couple fill-ups later we were in Regina. We wanted to let the van cool-down for a bit so we had dinner at Roxie's, at least that's what I think it was called. I had the grilled chicken served with mash potatoes, gravy and mixed vegetables. Not exactly the best bang for my buck, but it did the trick. We asked the waiter where the "happening place in town" was and got directed towards a bar a couple blocks from there. Ross and I aren't legal age in Saskatchewon but in these crappy, so called "happening" bars they never ID anyway. We got inside and discovered that there were about 5 people engorged in this amazingly happening bar. Kevin ordered a pint and Shan and I just ordered water. However, when I tried to order it I encountered a wee bit of difficulty as the waitress was obviously not very educated to the rest of the world and didn't understand me when I said "water" because of my accent. This is the conversation that took place:
"can I just have a water"
"excuse me?"
"water, please"
"Kokanne?"
"... no... WATER"
"sorry, we don't have that here"
"you don't have WATER?!"
"huh?"
"WAR-TER, I just want a WAR-TER!"
"oh, okay."
Bloody hell, I mean really is it THAT hard to understand me sometimes? Anyhow, after we finished having the time of our life at the bar that employs people who live in holes, we began the drive towards our next big stop: Winnipeg.
To be continued...