Photos by Colin Czerwinski
The glory that is the West Coast has been the goal of this tour. It really is like the Oregon Trail of the days of old. We set out from the entire opposite end of the country and touched base with the Pacific. It really is not an easy path either. Touring two sides of the country really separates how America was settled. On the East the drives are pretty short, hitting major cities only a handful of hours away from each other. The Midwest has manageable drives, but crossing the mainlands into Colorado and Beyond offer some of the most grueling, non-friendly van drives. It can be fun to be sucked away from the world (for me almost every time without cell phone service) for hours on end, reaching a destination hungry but accomplished altogether. Other times in the back of your mind you wonder when you will ever walk again. It’s a win/win really.
Before our departure from Denver we had breakfast with the label manager (how frightening) of Animal Style Records, Matt Medina, who Henrietta call ‘boss.’ He’s a sweet guy with cool friends and was checking out The National at Red Rocks that weekend. Thanks for the invite, I hope it was fun (he asked me to mention him so I did, excuse me while I collect my .07 cents of royalty). From there we went onwards to one state that has baffled my existence for years; Wyoming. It’s a gorgeous drive full of empty marvels, but the fact that it still has under like, 500,000 total people with the nearly the same surface area as Colorado? At least that will make my hunt for Wilford Brimley easier.
From there Henrietta faced yet another long drive on the way to Salt Lake City. Not much of the city was seen that day, as we arrived to eat then hit the show then leave, splitting the drive to Reno in half by staying in who knows where Nevada. Nevada is huge, full of about two cities on opposite ends of it but in between is enough views and sand to get lost in (or finish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). While the show in Reno was a bit different, Henrietta played in a record shop and at least it looked, well, cool. If I hadn’t known the band and was just an avid music lover, I am sure seeing a band play in the place I was looking for CDs would be a treat. That might be just me though, it was an interesting dynamic. We had funds to do another hotel, then gambled a small bit before talking about batman, the joker and various other comic books till bed time.
California was graceful. Riding through Sacramento we could feel the weather change, bringing a nice relief from the vicious summer heat. We also met up with an old friend from Orlando (Hi Ryan), having a place to stay for two days in the best city; needless to say San Francisco was probably Henrietta’s most fun day. We were shown around the city, eating delicious, appetizing food and enjoying the crisp 67 degree weather. It was weird walking up to an area and seeing The Golden Gate Bridge. It always blows my mind how accessible the national landmarks are. We are just people traveling city to city, almost without a clear existence, yet, at the same time we are just like every one else. It’s therapeutic to see the bay wade back and forth. It’s a tourist attraction to see the constraints of the bridge in the back drop. It reminded me that I am here, present and involved in one of the happiest tours of my life. California, thank you for the last four days.
Due to Wi-fi restraints, sleeping on a hefty amount of floors, an unhealthy amount of long drives and the weekend flow of posts, this tour diary has been delayed a bit. By the time this diary is read, we will have conquered a few too many degrees of heat (Phoenix, Arizona may or may not be 107 degrees). In Phoenix we will have hung out with Andy from You Blew It! and had a band play a full video game medley theme as their set closer. At Andy’s we will have dipped and sipped (drank in a pool of water) and stayed up till the rest of the world is asleep being nostalgic over old metalcore/deathcore acts. We may have had a day off in which Henrietta played video games and ate a lot of food again. It’s weird how long this tour has lasted (20 something days) and that it is almost nearing the end. I will not admit I am counting down the days, I am only counting how many A/C units are in my vicinity on those days.
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