Tour

Since I quit my job I have really been doing nothing but having a lot of fun with my friends. Which is fine I guess but I am about ready to get back to work. I guess it wasn't all just fun and games. I did help the band I was on tour with, So Long Forgotten, with their equipment and merchandise. Plus I did do quite a bit of work on their bus.
Anyway, I am just writing this blog cause I wanted to talk about my travels this past month. As I said I went on tour with So Long Forgotten. We left from champaign in a bus named Gus which I helped modify to run on used vegetable oil. I will talk more on that subject later. Anyway, we left without getting to do a test run, which I was a little nervous about. We drove down to St. Louis without any problems which I was very happy, and pleasantly surprised about. We actually went through the entire tour without any major problems with the veggi system.
After St. Louis we went to Kansas City where they played at a really neat coffee shop venue called Main Street Cafe. The lady that owned it was really nice, she made us all dinner and she had an apartment upstairs that she let us stay in that night. It was really nice of her since sleeping on a bus night after night can get old fast. Well i am pretty used to it but for a normal person that lives in a house it can get old fast. She is a wonderful woman and she opens up this venue for the youth of the community so that they have a safe place to hang out. She also hangs out with them and talks with them she is kind of like an older sister to all of them.
We also met Thad in Kansas City. Thad is an amazing promoter who has since come to be our friend. He is from Topika KS and him and his family were very helpful to us and were very generous. He was able to get SLF on the 4 O'clock local news which was quite an experience in itself. Although the best thing about Thad is Thad himself. After Kansas City we played in Topika KS for Thad and then we raced off to Manhattan KS to see the Dark Knight at midnight the day it came out, which was amazing in all respects.
After Kansas City and Topika we were off to Colorado where we had several shows in a row around Denver. The first was in Johnstown at a place called 3js coffee house. It was a really cool place and there were like 6 bands that played that night. This old hippy guy ran it and he loved music, bikes, and most of all Jesus. He was really nice and he fed us all tacos. That night we stayed in Greeley, a college town, in a house with several students and in the morning they made us a wonderful breakfast. That night we played on the south side of Denver at a christian youth hang out center called Lifespot. We got there early to build a bed in our trailer.
The day after the Lifespot show I wanted to change the brake pads on the bus since it was pretty obvious that they were shot and I didn't want to drive over the mountains on bad brakes. So Joe, Dustin, and I decided to stay and work on the brakes. The rest of the guys decided to go to a nearby river to tube down it. We changed them in a auto zone parking lot and we ended up changing the pads, rotor, and caliper on one side so it turned out to be a very long and expensive job. The people that worked at auto zone were very helpful also and they let us barrow their impact drill which helped out a lot.
After Colorado we had a couple days off and the next place we had to be was in California. So along the way we stopped at Zion National Park in Utah. We got there late so there was no camping in the park left so the park ranger told us to go exactly 4 miles up the road and there is free camping there. when we got there it turned out to be a small dirt turn off from the main road and a small sign that said “camping 14 day max”. That was a great night cause we just set up camp next to a river and spent a lot of time trying to start a campfire. Then we sat around the campfire singing songs with an acoustic guitar before we went to bed.
The next day we climbed a mountain called Angels Landing in Zion National Park. That hike was one of the hardest things I have ever done partly because we did it so fast. There were points when you are climbing up this mountain on all fours and you come to an edge and you look down and it is a strait drop for 1300 feet to a river below. There was also a spot where you are pulling yourself up the mountain with a chain and you are on this narrow walk way holding onto this chain and you look to your left and its about a 700 foot drop and on your right its that same 1300 foot drop. But once we got to the top the view was absolutely breathtaking. It was like this valley that was so deep and it seemed to go on for miles.
That night we went to Barstow CA to play there. We met some really peppy high schoolers who were absolutely hilarious. They told us about how they would go ice blocking. Since they don't get snow there they would go to a liquor store and ask them for a big block of ice. They would take them to a hill, put a towel over them and slide down the hill on them. I thought that it was hilarious and I didn't believe them so they showed me some pictures and I told them that when I come back through town I wanted to try it with them.
The next day we went to Los Angeles we got to walk along the beach and I got to hang out with my good friend Mara, which was great.
We continued onto Bakersfield to play at a youth hang out that was run by a church. They had a whole skate park set up and there were over a hundred kids there but they seemed to be much more interested in the skate park than the band.
The next show that we had was in San Jose where they played at a really cool bar/pool hall. Afterwards we went to a hookah bar across the street.
After California we made our way to Ashland Oregon. On the way we had to replace three flat tires two on the trailer and one on the bus. Which was a bummer because we were going to go visit Seattle and we decided that since we were out of money and we still had two other tires that needed to be changed we probably should keep unnecessary driving to a minimum. We also picked up two hippie hitch hikers that were going to Ashland for some kind of a hippie festival they were very interesting and their names were Scotty and Banana Raptor who we then offered a banana to. That night we stayed at a truck stop. The next day we split up and some people went to the Oregon coast and the rest of us stayed in Ashland and hung out with one of the local bands from the night before. We went to their guitar players house where he lived with his parents up in the mountains. We drove on the most twisted road I think i have ever been on to get up to their house. It was a beautiful house and the guys father was a contractor and he had built the house himself. They made us a wonderful dinner and let us use their shower and we slept in the basement. The next day they took us to a state park in ashland that was son beautiful and peaceful. There was a small lake there that had a rope swing near it. There were these one kids that would take the rope swing and stand on the top platform for it and started to climb a tree that was nearby so they could jump out of the tree swing on the rope and then do like two flips in a row before hitting the water. I tried to do a flip but ended up landing on my head instead. There was also this stream that emptied into the lake that was so great. It was just crystal clear and there were so many soft stones in it.
We were soon on our way again. We headed to Salt Lake City to play in a back alley at an interesting venue that was essentially a garage. We kept moving along back to Colorado where we made a stop in Fort Collins and then stayed in Greeley again. It was a weekend and there were a lot of college parties going on around the area where we stayed. I was going to sleep in the trailer that night so I was getting my bed ready and one by one people started to come up to me asking me about the bus that we traveled in and who we were. I guess a big shuttle bus with a trailer behind it is a strange sight to see on a college campus. Anyway all these people were really nice and they invited me to go to a party with them which was really cool cause everyone was very friendly. I went with them to like 3 house parties before I went to bed.
After leaving Colorado we continued on to Topeka KS once again where we played for a youth group that was absolutely fantastic and we talked with many of them for a couple hours after the show. They were also very generous, they bought quite a bit of merch. That night we also decided to drive past the Phelps house. They are the creators of the website godhatesamerica.com. They like to picket dead soldiers funerals and they fly an upside down american flag in their lawn. On one of the signs around their house there are the words “go to hell Fred Phelps!!!” spray painted on the wall. I wanted to take gay pictures in front but we were afraid that they would call the cops. We also got to stay at our good friend Thad's grandparent's house. They live on a small lake and Thad's dad took us out on their boat which was very refreshing. They also made us an amazing dinner and they were cramming food down our throats. It was so delicious.
Finally it was time for our last stop on tour in Omaha where the show was in the basement of a church. Afterwards we went to on of Greenwood's friend's house to eat spaghetti and say our final farewells. That night I drove the bus late into the night and then fell asleep in one of the bunks and when I woke up we were home again.
After over 6400 miles and about 3 weeks we were back at home in Champaign. We had a lot of fun and there was also a lot of tension at times between that many people in such a small place. But it was all worth it and I am glad that I got to help these guys out with their tour. If you guys are reading i love you all and I am blessed to have you all in my life.
So now the fun is over even though I had some pretty exciting adventures since then. (I will save them for another blog entry.) It is time to get back to work thanks for reading.

Love, Sam

A big thanks to So Long Forgotten
www.myspace.com/solongforgotten