My dear readers, I know it has been ages since you have followed my tour ramblings. I know there have been many adventures that have occurred, enjoyed, and sent off into the ether, never to be recorded and thus not making it into written history. This will not be one of those tours.... My pen is back! Here goes....

As we rolled out of Portland I was feeling somewhat reluctant, after this crazy summer I was feeling pretty ready for some down time. The thought of cruising down I5 in a noisy alcoholic bus sounded slightly dreadful. Much to my surprise it was a fairly mellow quiet ride to Ashland. I could feel a collective sigh of relief as we headed out of Portland, everyone's pre tour rush finally coming to a close and we could just relax and know that we had about 6 hours until we needed to do anything. First stop in Ashland: The Jackson Wellsprings where we would pitch our tents and call home for one night only. Quick dip in the tub before heading out to the Stillwater for a medium attended, but super fun show. I was pleased to see that my friend Neal was one of the sound guys there, so I got to hang out with him and his dog Atlas, and that always makes me happy! Since the club was very small and there was no way we were going to fit any dancers on stage, (You would be surprised how small a space we can squeeze ourselves into!) We opted to do a couple of quick dance numbers at the top of the set and then just rock out for the rest of the show. I got up on my stilts and had a nice little dance party with Sid and Scarlett. The band played great, though i could tell that we were just getting started, the first show of a 7 week tour!
After the show we headed back to the wellsprings, where some opted to go straight to bed and some opted to move the party into a big teepee complete with campfire. In the morning (After several hours of rooster crowing) I managed to wake up and pack up camp with enough time to take a little dip in the hot tub and then take a nice refreshing sulfur shower. sweet!
Time to hit the highway! Time fir our first full travel day of the tour! 8 or so hours down to Laytonville, next stop, Earthdance! The travel day was long and slightly brutal, but I always take some joy in those days of extreme band bonding time. You always manage to have some sort of deep connection on these days, whether it is having a nice conversation, crazy beatbox session, laughing hysterically at a movie (e.g Air Guitar Nation) or in this case, making balloon animals. I have been interested in making balloon animals for quite some time now, so I decided to get everything together so I could work on my art on the bus. It is always nice to have a project to work on so that the hours are at least a little bit productive. So by the end of the ride there were bees, hippos, elephants, poodles, and one loan octopus hanging from every window of the bus. And to be expected, there were animals transformed into everything dirty you could think of....
We arrived at Earthdance Thursday night, before the event opened. There was some confusion about our camping situation, so it took a little more time than we expected to get settled. Tents finally up, we enjoyed an AMAZING dinner prepared by AnneOlivia, a beautiful being who is getting a ride down to SF with us (we are thinking of kidnapping her and not letting her go. She keeps saying she has to go back to Portland to teach a class at PSU but we know she is staying with us) Bellies full of our first warm meal of the trip, we had the chance to have a good night's sleep before the mayhem. Some of us did, some of us didn't... With the way the bus shaded the sun I got to sleep until 10:30, yippie!
Earthdance was super cool, a beautiful festival on beautiful grounds, complete with nice showers and a river. Jeremiah and I spent some time riding our bikes around the land, checking out the scene and definitely people watching a bunch. It was HOT HOT HOT on Friday! Lots to see and do, lots to buy. I am proud to say that though I saw many amazing goodies to take home, I did not buy one single thing there. One really annoying thing that happened to me was this afternoon, it was finally cool enough to think about going into my tent, so I was laying down in there having a little pre show nap, when out of nowhere the water truck comes by and sprays the shit out of my tent! Luckily I had already packed up my bedding or I would have been so pissed! I jumped up because I was all wet and I ran out and shook my fist at them. As I was trying to get all the water out, the assholes came back by AGAIN and sprayed me again! WTF?!?! Luckily there was just enough sunlight left to find a little patch to dry the tent out before I had to stuff it back in the bag. Sheesh!

8:00 showtime! we were a tweener band, meaning that we were playing twice, and between big acts at the main stage. Apparently we were booked at kind of the last minute, and since we were heading down to SF anyway we just jumped in and filled in the cracks at main stage. Unfortunately what we didn't know before hand is they had us playing on this tiny stage in front of the main stage, while they were getting the stage ready for the next act. In perfect March Fourth style, we rocked the house down anyway! Horns pirated the front of the main stage, drums hung out on the little front stage, dancers took the side wings of the little stage, and stilters took the lower side areas. The crowd was totally stoked! We rocked the hat dance and the crowd went crazy. Next up was Blvd, and then we were up for another set. Again, confusion about where we were supposed to be, because this time they didn't even have the little stage for us! So we went into the crowd and played our whole set in the crowd, and people were dancing like crazy! The energy was great and it seemed like we all left feeling high spirited and fulfilled.
Time to pack up and pack out! In true rockstar form, we rolled out about midnight, on to foggier pastures. San Francisco! We drove all night, the sleep was not so good. Lights went out in the bus and everyone slept, though fitfully. I couldn't quite find a comfortable spot, I started out on a double seat in the front, and when I decided I was no longer comfortable the bunks were all full so I headed to the back of the bus on the triple seat. It was marginally better but I am definitely tired today. We played this morning at the bike parade send off, then Jeremiah rocked the grill and made us all bacon (yum!) now we are chillin here at the Tour de Fat all day and we have a 3:00 show. I am looking forward to seeing the Perkins' here later in the day!
Sorry there's not many photos, but the internet is very slow right now. More later! For now, a nap.....
see ya!