Even though we were trying to get back in only a couple days, we still made a few stops along the way. From Phoenix, we went down to Tucson to check out the Rattlesnake Bridge. Designed by local artist Simon Donovan and built in 2002, the bridge went over the busy Broadway Boulevard and was designed to look like the native diamondback rattlesnake. ( Read more... )

Saturday, January 16th

After stepping off the Greyhound bus in Memphis, I started the almost five-mile walk to Imagine Cafe, the only and best vegan spot there. Everything around me was familiar; I'd walked these streets before and been in this station several times. I once had a big group of friends in Memphis, but they were all gone; they'd ( Read more... )

Sunday, January 10th

The bus dropped me off at a gas station right off I-40 outside of tiny Statesville. To one side, just ramps; to the other, a couple houses. Next door was an old diner. I stood around as the chilly breeze pushed against me and waited for Jess's mother, Dawn, to come and pick me up.

The first time I saw Dawn, Matt and I were ( Read more... )

My last couple of weeks on tour are more or less a blur. For some reason, I'd stopped taking notes and all I really have left are some vague fragmented sentences in a Notepad file and these pictures. As the end of April neared, the need to drop off tour became more and more apparent. I was definitely feeling the wear and tear of being on the road ( Read more... )

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I spent the fourth of July with Greg, Dana, and Shea. Obviously, none of us really give a fuck about or even have any respect for America and its history, but we used everyone else's celebration of the day to get together for our own reasons at Shea's parents' house in the outer suburbs a half hour away and have a big cookout. His parents were out ( Read more... )

We woke up really early the morning after Plan-It-X Fest ended. It would be the last Plan-It-X Fest until 2014, too, unfortunately. We had to skip over some plans we originally wanted to follow through on, but Shea had started helping book and run shows at a local art space in his city of Memphis and actually had to be there that night to put on a ( Read more... )

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When we finally woke up, we noticed someone had probably gone inside the future spa. All the lights were on. Inside, it was empty other than a few salon chairs. A guy stopped his car and put down his passenger seat window to ask if we were okay. When we told him we were just trying to sleep, he said, "Right there? That's rough! I mean, I live in my ( Read more... )

The next morning when we woke up, we had reached our hundredth day on the road. We were woken up abruptly two hours before check-out time by an angry maid who, when I answered the door, asked if we were checking out. I tried to remind her that check-out was at noon and we weren't leaving until then. She let out a loud, long sigh, leaned against the ( Read more... )