So today is the first day I have had any sort of “free” time in about 5 days so I figured I would jot something’s down and go from there.
In the last 5 days I have seen myself sit in a box truck for 60 straight hours driving across the entire US of A, check out the sunrise in the Grand Canyon, break down in Kingman, AZ (not the first time), arrive way behind schedule in Los Angeles, and finally partaking in a huge show called Bamboozle yesterday in Irvine. Today we have a day off which will be spent going back to Bamboozle to check out another day of mostly crap bands except the Hot Water’s which I am super pumped on.
So this past Wednesday K8, Matt, DJ, Dubs and myself woke up early in the morning and hopped into the trucks to begin our journey across the country. The first section of drive took us through NJ, South West Pennsylvania, West Virginia,/ Virginia in which I was only about 100 miles from the ol RVA. This part of the drive we drove through the Appalachians and the Shenadoah National Park which is super beautiful and amazing. The Appalachians aren’t super huge mountains like you would see in BC/Alberta but they are still grand in their own right. A lot of mining goes on in these parts which is what PA, and West Virginia are known for.
We stopped in Harrisburg, VA so we could grab a bite to eat (Curry Tofu with Rice- definitely good considering we were in the middle of nowhere Virginia) and DJ could watch the Liverpool Football game.
Then back in the trucks to continue on through Tennesse and the Smokey Mountains in which at this time is when I pulled over. I figured when your eyes start going nuts as well as your head it’s a sign you’ve been driving too long and your time is done. Some 900 miles later. I crashed out and Dubs took over for the late evening/ early morning hours.
I woke up and we were continuing on thru Okalahoma towards the Panhandle of Texas in which we tried not to stop at all. Mission failed though. We couldn’t quite make it through Texas without diesel so we had to cave in and pull over in Amarillo, TX. We tried!!
Next it was onto New Mexico in which we drove through during sunset and the late evening hours.
The skies in these parts were beyond. 360 degrees of WIDE OPEN sky as far as the eye could see. When the sun went down and the stars came out was by far the treat of the day. Stars, stars, stars stars and more stars. Too think that there are many people who don’t get too see things as such. I am sure in most cities there are people who never ever leave their zones and too think there are probably cases of people who never leave their whole lives. Crazy. Cities and their lights (and many more things) completely changing our views on the natural world.
Anyhoo…I gave the wheel over to Dubs so I could grab another couple hours of sleep after another long day of driving.
When we pulled over we all decided that while driving through AZ we would take a slight detour and head to the Grand Canyon in the early morning hours. WOW!!! I had never been too the Grand Canyon ever so this was something that I was completely pumped on as was everyone else. Last year while on a flight I recall flying over the GC and the size of this Canyon from the air was BEEEEYOND! Now I was pumped about seeing it at the same level as myself. We drove to Flagstaff and parked #2 in some parking lot around 3 in the morning so we didn’t have to take both trucks on the trip to the Grand Canyon. I slept in the Castle for a couple hours on our drive too the GC and awoke from Kate telling us “Boys, we are at the Grand Canyon”. I put on my smelling shoes with my 3 day old soiled socks ( I had been in a truck for 48 + hours) and walked outside into the freezing cold. There was not a single person in sight and the sun was just starting to come up. Amazing. Here are the 5 of us in the middle of the Grand Canyon with not another person around.
I really can’t truly describe how amazing the Grand Canyon is/ or was. I was standing on the side of a cliff which over looked miles and miles of valleys, cliffs and canyons that extended as far as the eye could see with this bright brownish reddish rock…..hahaha….That pretty much describes it. Its crazy because the actually level of the ground- earth- not the canyon is completely level 360 degrees around you however then cut out is this Canyon which twists and turns through the Earth. Totally insane too think that thousands of years ago it was once a water way from Glaciers and the last Ice Age. Nature I tell ya nature.
We chilled here for awhile as the sun came up freezing our little behinds off and then got back into the Castle to go check out a couple different look out spots. Each spot we checked out had it’s own thing going on however was still part of the Canyon. After our sight seeing and our minds coming down from the amazingness of it all we hopped back into the castle and headed back towards Flagstaff for breakfast.
Kate knew of a vegi diner in town that we could get a nice little breakfast before our westward journey continued. The place was called Macy’s and was a nice little joint that had a kind of a chilled vibe too it as you would expect from Flagstaff. I will use the word…Hippy vibe. I had a nice glasss of fresh OJ and the Vegan Spelt Waffles topped with Blueberries, Strawberries and Bananas. A treat for sure seeing how the last good meal was a day and a half prior when I had the curry tofu. In between this I did have a Subway sandwich and even went as low as Taco Bell….Again there isn’t much too eat in the middle of nowhere.
After our breakfast I gave the wheel over too Dubs so I could continue on in my dreamland of sleep. I would say about an hour or so into the drive we pulled over for some fuel. I woke up too take a pee and went right back to bed while Dubs started driving again. Within about 2 mins I was already crashed back out when Dubs woke me up and said “Keebs. The truck is acting weird and won’t accelerate at all”. So I told him too pull over while I put on my shoes-sockless now….the socks became too crusty……I tried to drive the truck too see what was up and it was definitely acting REALLY funky. We were stuck on the side of the road with the castle gone way ahead of us. We popped the hood and still could’t see anything and there were no fluids leaking from underneath so I tried to start it again and it wasn’t doing anything. I kept trying to start it and finally after about 4 trys I finally got it running and put it in drive to try to get us somewhere. The truck would accelerate extremely slowly and would only top off at around 40 mph. We exited the first exit and as soon as we did the truck completely died loosing all power. The castle had turned around and met us at this exit. Both K8 and DJ looked over somethings and thought that the problem may lie with us not having a cap for the tank. You see the day before I lost the cap which was the 2nd one I lost on the trip. WOW!!! There is no excuse but honestly I never drive- at home (only on trips as such) so I am not used to things as such although it is common sense. So at first I was pretty bummed cause if that was the problem I would feel like complete crap and it would have put a huge dent in our travels. Turns out it wasn’t..Pheww. The castle drove too a mechanic shop that was thankfully off our exit in Kingman, AZ and had some mechanics drive over too our truck. At first they couldn’t tell what was going on with it either but definitely said it’s not the cap (or missing cap) that is the issue so we fired it back up and drove to the actual shop. At this time we did more investigating when someone smelt the actual tank and noticed that a big gas scent was coming out of it not diesel. Our trucks take diesel and not gas.
I was sleeping at the time of our last stop so I have no clue what went into it but as it turns out gas was what was injected into poor poor vehicle. Everyone was in shock and Dubs was completely out of his mind bummed which wasn’t nice too see but also understandable. The mechanic dudes didn’t speak English at all but you could tell form the laughing and what not that they were having a great time with this. So we ended up having to give our little #2 some major surgery and empty the whole tank which was just filled up at the exit a mile or so ago. That’s A LOT of petrol. 45 gallons to be exact. IThe dudes at the shop were scrambling for containers to put it all in. These dudes were bad asses and I hope they are getting paid a lot because each one of them were drenched from head too toe in gas and I mean drenched. After the tank was emptied, cleared out, a new fule filter installed, a new oil filter installed we filled the truck back up and there #2 was back in action 3 hours later.
We were now WAY behind schedule with all the flights coming arriving in LA 5 hours from then and us being 300 miles away.
Pedal too the medal with us doing about 85 mph the whole way to LA which wasn’t a fun thing because my truck was filled with gear but sometimes you have too do what you have too do.
We ended up making it too LA about 20 mins after the last flights came in so we piled everyone in the Castle and drove to Irvine to catch some sleep before Bamboozle the following day.
Monday April 7, 2008- Irvine, CA
So I just got back from day # 2 here at Bamboozle fest in Irvine. This whole thing was kind of a joke. It was pretty disorganized and I would personally say about 99.9% of the bands were poop. Yesterday I was pumped about seeing the Souls, Alkaline Trio, and Jimmy Eat World although I didn’t get too see much of any of them due to me working, my location and as for hearing them I had some radio tent beside me ALL DAY blaring horrible music. I don’t get it….You are at a show and some people feel the need to blare more music then there all ready is….BOOO!!!
Today I woke up to drive K8 and Matt to another hotel so they could pick up the Hot Water’s and head to the venue for day #2. I returned back to our hotel too meet up with K8’s brother Jon too head out with him to catch some vegan delights. We went to this place named Mother’s Kitchen somewhere near here in Irvine. It was a big natural foods grocery with a nice restaurant attached.
I had the tofu chilaquiles and too be honest the tofu was super super plain and the whole dish wasn’t that good. Live and learn live and learn. What made up for it though was my chocolate peanut butter soy milkshake…..YUM!!!
The one thing that was really what I was looking forward too with my day was seeing Hot Water Music which I did. It was super super amazing although I can’t wait too hopefully see them in a club one day again but for now I’ll settle with the festival setting. I would say that the crowd definitely was there for other bands but that’s again what made it even more special.
Well that’s really that. TOOOOOOUUUUUURRRR!!!
Keebler
http://thrashhard.blogspot.com/
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