August 1st -San Francisco,CA August 2nd-Reno, NV

Here is the story of my Summer 2007 tour/vacation, finally. It was a good trip and again, more so than ever, a trip I did not want to return from. It did save my sanity and I was able to return to work a few days late, so no complaining from me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had living it.

I got a late start after trying to pull everything together on my one day off . I got the rental car the day before and had to haggle for it the better part of two hours. I think when it was all done it might have been cheaper to buy something off of a dealer in Daly City. Anyhoo, I stayed up late the night before packing everything last minute and worrying about my young roommate and how he was going to fare while I was gone. So I woke late and still tried t o get some errands done before finally leaving the city . There was some serious slow moving traffic from SF to Vacaville. I pulled off in a familiar place, found some Subway and fell a sleep in the 90 degree weather. After a bit of a drool fest , Tellez called me up to say goodbye as he was finally waking. He reminded me that I should be driving so I made my way up north to Reno.

It took me all day and into the late evening to get to Reno. It was a good thing my gig in Reno had fell through because there was no way I was going to make it. I found a restaurant open a bit off the main strip and pulled into the parking lot and up to the counter as the only customer in the joint. My waitress was Bob Dole and she was not a happy camper to be at work.

She did have a few good stories to share. She told me how she had been to SF once when she was a girl and her mom made sure she and her sister wore their white gloves. She always remembered that and how the city still seemed like a fairytale to her. It seemed as though she lost a little bit of that glitter working 20 years in the this joint. She told me about Virginia City, where she grew up, and how it had a ridiculous drop out rate but that it once or maybe still held the world's records for most Royals Royces per capita due to the size of the town. The city council made sure every visitor knew it. I had a decent meal and a few good laughs. I should have got a picture with her I was afraid of her and so I didn't ask.

I rolled out and to the grocery store to get some congestion medicine and laughed a bit at the slot machines by the exits. Everything really does have gambling in Nevada. Crazy. I did some adventure driving and found a motel 6 with one room left for me to crash and shower in. Ah, it's good to be home.

August 3rd Salt Lake City, UT

I woke up late, too late. I had to bust out for a 10 hour drive to Salt Lake City in time to play a gig at Cup of Joe in downtown SLC. The drive was not so bad as but it was 90 degrees and rising the further east I drove. The only down side to this day's trip aside from starting late and still having a full day of driving ahead was that along the way between Reno and SLC must be the worst rest stops. It seemed it did not matter which one I stopped at there were dirty melted seats and flies everywhere, without enough running water to go around. I get the dirty restroom bit but how do melted seats go undiscovered. Crazy!

At one point in my beautiful drive I hit some sort of unusual weather zone. First, out of nowhere I looked to my left and saw a mini-twister just spinning up a bunch of sand. I watched in slow motion as it came down the side of the hill and struck my car , shaking me and everything else. Luckily I had a firm grip on the wheel at the time because I might have ran off the road but it came and went and I thought it all pretty funny. The luck continued because not 15 minutes later did it start to rain in 90 degree weather. Ten or so minutes after that it finally stopped and the heat continued to rise. I eventually hit the pretty Salt Flats and the stench of the Salt Lake filled the cabin. I knew I was close and figuring I was making good time so I pulled over to grab a bite of food at my tour favorite, Subway. I went in and ordered my usual footlong veggie and the pubescent starlet behind the counter asked me, "So what, are you veggie." I laughed out loud. I had never been questioned on my order before and I saw the humor in a large beast like myself ordering a veggie sandwich and the hilarity of her having the nerve to ask. Oh, that teenage charm is so cute. I told her that I did love to eat the cold cut trio but sometimes you need a big salad smothered on bread so it doesn't bog you down. duh!!

I headed on to the gig bumping the Sirius radio between the top 40 punkish station to the coffee house channel and then back to the ipod and repeat cycle. It did the trick. I pulled into SLC about 9pm and setup. Kristy and Kaitlund were very accommodating and were happy to have me as it was a slow night downtown. Of course some huge event was going on the same night i was playing but I had a good time playing for the folks and eating some delicioso food from Cup of Joe . The cafe was uber cool as it had good food and coffee, a pool table and art, some of which was Kaitlund's. She had a bunch of her stuff up and I was impressed so we chatted about it and I challenged her to a draw something for me on the spot in exchange for some merch. She obliged and ended up with the cool design you see to the right. She was so modest and kept saying it was horrible but I was blown away by what she came up with in only a few minutes time. Little did I know that the dragon she drew would show up on the last day of my trip as well. Spooky! I packed up my stuff and headed out to the hotel that my sister had so graciously reserved for me.

My sister has the hookups and she did it right with a room at the Sheraton that had it's own living room and king sized bed. The only down side was the bathroom was set for a handicapped person and so the while there was a huge shower, there was poor design in that the drain was in the middle of the room and higher than the rest of the floor. So after taking a shower and watching all the water seep out onto the floor and into the bedroom, I finally realized why the living room floor was wet . I thought it was incredible that they had shampooed the carpet before I got there but it turns out , the bathroom just leaked. I cleaned up what I could and crawled into bed and a deep deep slumber.

Cup of Joe, SLC Utah

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!

August 4th Niwot, Colorado

I woke up, flooded the hotel room and bounced back to Cup of Joe for the famous breakfast burrito. It was tasty and I got to meet the the other daughter in the cafe running . The whole set was complete. I loaded up on coffee and internet and headed out of town towards Boulder, Colorado to hang with my old friend and bandmate Sanford and his wife and daughter. On the way I listened to the "5 People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. I know everyone has read this and I am late on it but it take time and I had nothing but time on my hands. I loved it. We can chat about that later but I digress. I took in more of the sights of mountains and sounds of the book as I scuttled across the state of Utah and into Colorado. I made my usual stops at all the same truck stops. It is incredible how I always have to pee at the same places whenever I drive cross-country. I got my veggie sub, window shopped and even saw a guy at a gas station that had a beard that started with sideburns and traveled down and expa nded into a neck-mullet. Awesome!!! That one's for you Dan Vall.

I pulled into Niwot, CO and hit a dirt road. I was worried for a second because I couldn't imagine them living in the country. The pave streets reemerged and I pulled up onto Sanford's house. I got to chat it up with him for a while before Lisa and the baby got home. It was great to catch up and to see how sweet they had set themselves up. Their house was big and it had some interesting color changes as the previous owners were teachers with 6 kids and they painted every wall a different color. It was interesting but also nice. They showed me to my room and it ended up being a whole basement with my own tv, bathroom and couch. I was in heaven. I got cleaned up, the babysitter showed up and we rolled into Boulder for some dinner at the Teahouse.

Apparently Boulder is the sister city of a city in India and through the connection this teahouse was able to get all their art and the place designed and built to a perfect replica. They even had the ceilings flown in or the artist flown in to do these incredible designs all over. The place was pretty nice and the food was good. My favorite part were the rich folks near by that were walking around looking at the pieces of art and trying to break down the meaning. It was just comical as to what they were trying to pull out of the abstract art. After dinner we headed off to a club to check out a cd release party of one of their friends. He was a promoter/recording engineer and he had put a bunch of bands together on a cd and a show to celebrate it. Some of the bands were ok and some not. The cd ended up being ok but hey that's rock n' roll. It did get me and Sanford chatting about the good ol days and how we should have taken over the world when we had the chance. We slipped out a little early and back to the house in time to send the baby sitter home early and me to sleep.

Bugs on my window, make me happy but...

it's pretty otherwise.

August 5th Niwot, CO

Like good hosts, they let me sleep in and we were still able to make it over to one of the popular joints in town for some cajun breakfast. Naomi was not the only kid there but she was very well behaved and so she deserved kudos for sure. We did some running around downtown Boulder and checked out the shops. We checked out some of there neighbors that had llamas down the street. We didn't roll to the farm but did see it all online. There is nothing likely neighborly llamas. We had some shish kabobs and rice and then Sanford and I watched the Tenacious D movie. It was pretty bad. I love the D but it was pretty rough. We still laughed it up. He went to bed and I finished a song I had been working on for awhile. I had written my brother and his wife a song for their wedding but never got to play it for them. I like the song enough that I rewrote it with more general lyrics that everyone could identify with . It was cool to finally finish the radio version in time for my next set of show, kicking off in Green Bay a few days later. I also had a chance to cut up a Matt Nathanson radio broadcast in time to put it on my ipod before heading out the next day. It was a very productive night. I decided to stay the night instead of driving off and set out to wake early and bust out to Green Bay.

August 6th La Crosse, WI

I headed out, found some coffee and was on my way for another full day of driving. This time I listened to "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown. This wasn't the controversy of his other books but a good enough story to get me through the day. On my way I passed the town of Friend at exit 369 in Nebraska and eventually drove until I hit a little town. I found a Quik Trip gas station for some bathroom and gas. This was the greatest gas station display I have ever seen. Every item inside was super stocked to the brim. They had a wall of coffee choices and a whole island of coffee fixings. I still hadn't had dinner so I passed on the goods until after I hit up the Bennigan's for a quesadilla. After dinner and coffee I rolled on until I absolutely could not drive anymore. I pulled off to use the restroom at a gas station only to find it closed to consumers and there was law enforcement pow-wow going on. There was a local cop car, a sheriff and a highway patrol car all sitting in the parking lot of the gas station out of their cars just talking. They stopped their conversation when I walked up to the gas station door and stared at me and I quietly went back to my car and tried to be as innocent looking as possible. I committed no crimes but I still felt guilty of some deed and feared for my immediate arrest like the oversized wuss that I am. I then drove on a bit further until I found a super well lit truck stop in LaCrosse , WI for sleep. I crawled in the back of the van and was outsies.

August 7,8,9 Green Bay, WI

I woke up in the warm of the sunshine and took a peek at my maps to see that the back roads to Green Bay would allow me to skip the Chicago traffic and that is was a pretty straight shot. So I took the scenic route and only got lost once. On the way up I saw a place in De Pere that sells school buses. That would be awesome. Upon retelling the story to Beth and Janna May later, they decided they could easily pimp my bus and I would have the best touring vehicle around. Me in the short bus,oh ya! I eventually pulled into Green Bay and rolled up to the Attic for some coffee and free internet. It was good to see Beth but I was two days early. I am a good guest like that. Over the next few days I spent most of my days sitting at the attic doing the web-thing and then hanging with Beth and Janna May eating ice cream, Blizzard style. Some of the other highlights were a trip to a bank with a chute , listening to two artists talking to each other without either of them stopping to hear what the other was saying, folding merch and making personal cd sleeves, Beth wrestling with the dog and people watching at the Attic.

We also spent a good amount of time before after and during Janna May's tattoo. Upon meeting Janna May, I realized she maybe about the sweetest, cutest tiny girl I have met on my travels. She should be hugged and squeezed and called George. I could never imagine her getting a tattoo. We rolled into the parlor and there were guys covered in tats, spikes coming out of lips and then there was little Janna May. She talked to the artist while I seized up the peeps around. There were a couple of high school kids that came in and were staring at a design for a long time. One guy got the fox logo on his arm done in marker, so he could decide if he liked it. He felt pretty cool. His friend was real nervous and tired of waiting so eventually he left, feeling dejected for not being able to get the Sharpie tattoo. he wanted. Another guy brought in a picture of an eagle on his tshirt that was some sort of metal shirt you could find at any gas station. He was going to have the whole thing done on his back. Ouch! Another guy had his neck touched up. Ouch ouch!! One of the artists was so pumped and so eager to prove her skills that she couldn't stop hustling the customers and unsuccessfully bulling jobs away from her co-workers. On the day of Janna May's tattoo., we stopped in to see her get it all done and she sat in the chair nervous but was unphased by the pain. She is one tough cookie. She definitely has earned her name Compass Kid. Afterwards we rolled out for some more victory ice cream.

The 9th was the day of my show at the Van Buren residence and a bunch of fun people showed up. I was honored to have Jana Holland in attendance as well as Janna May. The highlight was Zackattack. He put on a better show than I ever could have. Since it was a house show, we got to chat a bit throughout the set and he had great stories for every situation we could name. I unveiled the "new song" called Simple and Happy and it went over well. We finished off the night with some berry stix and some more chatting. It was a great kick-off to the rest of the tour.

Also Congrats to Kelley for engagement and eventual marriage to her fiancé, whom she high tailed cross country to Montana to see shortly after I left. All the best to you.

August 10th -Escanaba, MI

The next day I went and hung out at the Attic all day and updated April's journal (gosh I am slow!) and looked at books on tape for the ride up. Beth and I went to the Jitterbug for lunch and I taught her how to play Uno. I am the master but as a great teacher, she eventually became the master. She was bored of me by then I set out towards the next show and seeing my good friend Dan Vaillancourt.

I listened to some murder mystery on the way up in which a grandma pulls the strings on a few murders and some stock tips. It held my attention for the 2 hour drive. I rolled up to the 8th Street Coffee House just in time for the show. Dan and Erin were already there and in minutes we were up and running. Dan had brought out a bunch of regulars including Kate and Rock n' Roll Grandma, a woman that must have been in her 80's and she was still going to shows. Kate is also a bit of a rocker and we chatted it up a bit about music and the simplicity of my songs. Throughout our set there was a little cowboy shooting his guns off and creating all kinds of fun for all of us. It felt like an intimate family show. It was fun. I also chatted it up with Margaret whom had been to SF. It is fun to talk about home but only makes you miss it more. Darn.

After the show we stopped by Mueller's for some burgers. The town folks said it was shady but we should try it anyway. It wasn't that bad and not that shady. We then rolled out of town to a state park to set up camp. There were no lights and no envelopes to pay so we pulled off the road and got setup. Dan had to set up the tent and I just crawled into the back of the van. The only problem was that when I opened the door a billion gnats(?) flew in and attacked. It made the first portion of falling to sleep hard but soon I was out.

August 11th Munising, MI

The next morning feeling bushy eyed and funktified I headed to the park bathrooms for the coldest shower I have had in a long time but it did feel nice to be clean. We rolled back into town to grab some pancakes at Drifters and then onto Munising , MI, about 2 hours east in the UP. We stopped in to check in at the Falling Rock where we would be plauying later and we bumped into Jesse's (of Last Step fame) mom. We tried to do some work but the lappy wasn't connecting for Dan so we went to check out the waterfalls, look for fresh berries on the beach and had a yeti-sighting. Apparently some guy has a direct line to where yetis hang out and for a small fee, he would take you there. We skipped tour and took a picture instead.

We went back to the Falling Rock for our show and by the time it started the place was packed. There was a bunch of good folks out to see the show and we had a chance to chat it up a good amount. We evenentually went back to the cabin, watched some shooting stars and sattelites before crawling into bed for the longest slumber of the trip.

August 12, 13, 14 Thunder Lake/Munising

For the second year I was invited to stay with the Vaillancourt family and more at the Thunder Lake Lodge in the UP. This was just vacation and so it was a chance to do nothing for a few days. Instead of nothing I read Harry Potter 7, got whooped on by Randy (Dan's dad) on a bike ride, did laundry, ate, took a boat ride, saw an eagle, read, ate, killed in Yahtzee, drove to the store to get cell phone reception, made fresh salsa, ate it, read, slept, ate, made Erin mad, ate and read 3 more books. It was fun.

On the 14th we went back to Munising to meet up with Rhyan for some Rice Paddy Chinese food, a ritual for Rhyan, Dan and Erin. Becky joined us and we went swimming in freezing water, saw some trail workers fixing erosion of trees, hung out at the Falling Rock again for some internet and coffee. I had a chance to take in the place even more. This place was so cool. It is a full bookstore with just about everything, it serves great ice cream , good coffee and everyone that works there is gorgeous. A little shop in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Pretty cool.

After lounging we decided to head over to the local bowling alley because they had such great deals posted outside. We went inside and it was a ghost town. Everything was lit up but no one was there. A few minutes later,a maintenance man came out and chased us away with stories of "closed until Friday night." We then started walking around trying to find food and went into one bar where they stared at us like tourists and another which was happy to take our hard earned money. We ordered everything in the kitchen and sat around chatting it up. We went back for more ice cream at the Falling Rock and said our goodbyes to Rhyan. More reading and sleeping ensued.

August 15th Green Bay, WI

The next day we set off for Green Bay again and on the way down I listed to a recording of Dr. Spock reading the Time Machine. That was crazy but it kept me entertained and glued to the road instead of falling asleep. I was following Dan down and we tried to find a bathroom in Marinette, WI. We got lost trying to get to one cafe and instead pulled into a mall. We ended up going into some sort of employee hallway to finally find one. We actually thought about going into the arm forces office and pretending to enlist just so we could use the bathroom. Thankfully for my weak heart, we didn't enlist and found the other.

We got down to Green Bay to find Beth was laid up after hurting her back. She was faking it because she really didn't want to have to drive back to SF with me, as she had planned. Girls can be so sneaky. ;) ha! The show was almost canceled but like a trooper she smiled on. Dan played a bunch of good stuff and some quiet stuff I haven't heard in a while. It was a sad night because Janna May left but a good night because Sarah L and Sarah B, showed up as well as Heidi returning from Reno, Ca. as well as Jen. We had fun and chatted up a bit until the bat came flying out of the fire place.

Yes, that is a right a BAT. It was chillin in the fireplace all night probably and then it whisked by everyone's head. We all jumped under the mattress because nobody saw what it was at first and once we did we were scared like crazy. The wusses that we were , Dan and I were hiding. Eventually Heidi and I made our way up the stairs to see where it went. It had parked itself in Beth's room. We snuck in with covered heads and tried to find it. It was perched upside down in the corner of the room . I tried to open the windows so it could fly away but the windows were double sealed and stuck. A fire hazard probably but a bat hazard definitely. Without another option we talked it out and decided to grab it in a sheet and bring it outside. Heidi tried first because I was a wuss and since she is too nice, eventually I just went for it and got it in the sheet. I ran downstairs and tossed it out the door. The sheet opened the bat flew out and bounced a bit. I felt terrible because I thought I had killed it. (uh oh a family guy-esque flashback... like the time I was at summer camp in high school and a bat entered our cabin. One guy beat it down with a broom and we had a funeral service for it.) Thankfully this time the bat was not dead. It shook off the crash landing and hobbled a few steps before taking flight. I had relieves us of our pest without taking its life. I felt like a good wuss. We laughed about it for another hour before finally feeling safe enough to go to sleep.

August 16th Sheboygan, WI

We woke up and went to the Pancake Place, Dan and Beth's ritual, for plate sized pancakes. You can't even eat one. Seriously. We ran some errands and then stuffed Beth and her bad back into the car for a short trip to Sheboygan. We rolled up on the Paradigm Coffeehouse to find out there was another singer-songwriter from San Francisco playing on the bill with us. Figuring I know everyone in SF, I thought for sure I would have heard of her. I saw her name and it didn't ring a bell. Then we met and it didn't ring a bell. Finally I saw her we address on a postcard and realized I had seen it before and I had saved the address on my cell phone. I still couldn't figure out how we met. She came back and she recognized me from the Red Vic show of Face on Straight. Holy helmet! We played a show together only a month prior to this one. That is crazy. The story gets better. At that show she mentioned it was her last SF show and she was moving to Toronto. She had a new cd and I wanted one but she didn't have copies yet. I told her that I was going to stalk her until I got a cd. Ha ha, funny joke right. Well, here I was following her cross-country to Sheboygan, WI. We had a good laugh over that one. Eventually Kristin Lagasse took the stage and rocked it quiet style. She has a very pretty voice and is sweet to match. Dan liked her set so much he invited her back for our show on Saturday. She had a song about being lonely and fed up in Nebraska which she had written the week before. It was one of my favorites.

I got up to play and got all sorts of cat calls from the ladies. Ashley and Tracey were there as usual as well as some of our out of town friends. The girls were scared. It was a fun set and I even unveiled another new song. It is called Blind and it is about how sometimes we look outside to solve our problems when we really need to look inside and find that inner confidence. ahhhhh! I know gag me. Dan was up next and he tore it up as usual but he ended up breaking a string for the first time in 5 years or so. It was funny. Ya figure he has a 10-string guitar, he has 4 extra. If he loses one oh well, right. Dan took it like a champ. After the show we sat and chatted a bit and ate all the goodies Kate made for us. We rolled back to Green Bay and listened to Drake's new ep and then dozed out (because we were tired, not because of the cd..it's actually really really good. You should check it out already. They're nice guys. They wear my wpf shirts. They won't make me an XL Drake shirt though. They have a great violinist that plays with them alot. She's nice. She's short and cute. She played on one of my songs recently. They do great na na na's and write catchy songs about spiritual and funny things too. )

August 17th Oshkosh, WI

Once we woke we did more of the same until we made our way down to Oshkosh for a show at another one of my favorite venues , the New Moon Cafe. We had some stiff competition as they were showing the Wedding Singer in the park across the street. We did have some help from The Jackson Street Polecats, made up of Aaron Baer and Jeff Mitchell. They were a riot. They had a bunch of ole-timey songs about fictitious characters and Wisconsin women. We had a great night seeing a bunch of old friends but not including our Oshkosh best friend, Cassie. After the show we rolled down to New Bend for some microwave pizza, hot tubs, beautiful ladies and sleeping in the band trailer. Oh the rock n' roll lifestyle. All of that is true but without the details it sounds so much more glamorous, so I'll leave it that way. After all, it is my journal. I can write it the way I want and you can't stop me. Ha! goodnight.

August 18th Manitowoc, WI

Aside from Heidi, I was up the earliest and decided instead of running around making noise I was going to read a bit more. I had a children's book called Brian's Return by Gary Paulsen and so I killed an hour and a half by reading that whole thing. By the time I finished I met Heidi's brother and father , played some basketball and ate some breakfast. We all sat around and chatted it up with Heidi's dad and I convinced him to give his daughter enough money to buy a mac instead of a dump of a pc. I do what I can. So after we sat around shooting the breeze we packed up and headed to ManitoRawk, WI. The Premier Cafe is probably my favorite venue in the Midwest because the people are so nice and we always have a good show. The weather was not on our side that day because even though it was August it was raining. It was raining so hard that we could not have the show outside as planned and we had to do it in the cramped quarters of the cafe itself. We made due and had a good time. Kristin made it out and so she started off the show with a bunch of good stories and some serious heckling from us. She took it like a champ but by the end of the night she was a bit upset with us and probably wished we had never met. Sometimes our sense of humor is not well appreciated. I am happy to say she eventually understood our silliness and we are still friends today. Anyhoo, back to the show:

Cassie, our best friend from Oshkosh, made it up from Chicago to see the show and she brought her sister. That was nice. Chelsey the Rahr from Ripon was there and we all went out for spicy wings afterwards with Premier owners Kim and Ryan. We had a blast as the food was good and Chelsey kept us entertained. Kim and Ryan offered their mobile home, serious-deluxe edition , for another night in a band trailer. I got the master suite to myself and Kristin and Dan fought over bunk beds. Kids...they're so cute.

August 19th-22nd The Voyage Home

On the morning of the 19th Ryan took us out for some breakfast, Dan and Ryan's tradition. (Dan has a lot of food traditions with the various people of the towns he plays in. That 's how he keeps his girlish figure). We all said our goodbyes after the hearty feast and I went on my way back home and Dan onto a whole mess of problems and more fun. You can read all about what happened next in his journal as well as how accurate mine is here.

On the way home, I realized my friend Eric Nassau was out on the road and I thought to catch up to him. He had been out on tour and was driving his friends out west from Columbus, OH to Portland, OR. Driving at the speed limit but for 16 hour days I caught up with Eric and friends in Boise, ID. They were hanging out at a bar that had an open mic and having some brews. I showed up and we both played a couple songs before we headed over to Sharon's house for some more music and food. I made a few friends and hopefully I will be back soon. We ate breakfast at a cafe that had a small art dispenser made from an old cigarette dispenser. So cool.

The next day we made our way to Portland, OR to see some more friends from Columbus and on the way stopped to check out some beautiful water falls. Once in town we ate a bit of pizza and then went to stay at a friends house. This was the house where the cat flushed the toilet. It hadn't learned how to use the toilet yet but one thing at a time. I slept in the car and left early to make my way home. I pulled in dirty and made my first stop at Mamá Art Cafe. Home sweet Home.