According to Chris, the coffee at the Motel 6 we stayed at in Salt Lake City was far better than it should have been. The beds were shockingly un-long, though; I can’t remember the last time my feet hung off the end of a mattress. We were somewhat well-rested nevertheless, and ready for the obscenely spectacular drive to Vegas (excluding the part where you actually go through Salt Lake City).
Where did we leave off? Oh yes, the cowboy hat. Let me move back a bit and let you know what we did to deserve such a fine fluffy shout-out from the heavens. Like any band worth our salt, we made a gruelling trek to an important cultural shrine: the grave of the late, great Jimi Hendrix. So what if our trek only took us 4.9 miles out of our way, and the only gruelling part of the journey was getting our cellphone GPS to work? This is immaterial. We came, we saw, we took pictures. And then the hat appeared.
First and foremost I would like to give a shout-out to my girlfriend Penelope, who is at home feeling not-so-well. I love you, P! Send her healing vibes. I know I am.
Today was a good day. We started out at around 12pm after a well-deserved long sleep. Breakfast was leftover burritos and a Clif Bar. We have lots of Clif Bars. Ask Matt. Anyhow, the drive to Portland was quick and uneventful, if a bit wet since the rain has invaded this otherwise unspeakably exquisite landscape. (I will soon run out of positive adjectives.) We stopped in downtown PDX to get some fog juice and other touring essentials and then headed to our destination, the Tonic Lounge, for scoping-out purposes.
The first day of the tour was long and satisfying. We woke up at 5:30am in El Cerrito, loaded the van, and drove for 9 hours up the 5, enjoying amazing views of the California and Oregon terrain as we drove. Of particular note was Mt. Shasta, which, aside from being gorgeous and awe-inspiring, is also home to a little town of the same name which has a great little coffee shop that sells fireman-approved breakfast burritos. It is called the Seven Suns Coffee & Cafe. Yum.
The Carnegie-Mellon Tartan has a great write-up of the album in which the reviewer states that I create a cacophony of sound that elevates the acute listener onto another plane. Score!
sending...