Bossier City:

New Orleans:

Dallas:

Duluth:

Houston:

Chicago:

So yeah, some pretty nice places, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I stayed in some more super nice places…  I do know that next leg we do stay in a Ritz-Carlton…

So for the past few weeks my home has been a bus.  The bus though is incredibly nice.  Heres the line of the 7 buses that the tour travels on:

And the side of one of the buses.  They all look the same on the outside.

And the inside.  Theres a front lounge/bathroom/kitchen area.

Then theres the back lounge…

And then the bunk hallway in the middle, along with a picture of my bunk.

My bunk is small, not 3 feet tall, by 3 feet by a little over 6 feet.  In it theres a single outlet, two  vents, a light, a pouch and a portable TV/dvd.  The TV can get whatever channels the front or back lounge TVs are on.  The bunk is quite comfortable and with the bus running and the constant hum of the engine I sleep great every time I sleep on it.

So thats my summer home on wheels.

Hershey, PA was the last show before I got to go home for my break.  Hershey is supposed to smell like chocolate, but the venue was next to a sewage treatment plant, so it smelled nothing close to chocolate.  One of the truck drivers found a name tag on the ground and gave it to me.  I fixed it up so that it looked like this:

After the show we rode the bus to Philly where we had a hotel room and I caught a few hours of sleep before catching a ride to the airport for a flight home.  I enjoyed the first leg of the tour immensely and can’t wait for the second one and to head out West.

Richmond, VA was a lot of fun.  One of the bus drivers organized a White Water Rafting trip.  There was also a pool party organized by Misty.  The hotel was in an incredibly sketchy area.  The front desk told us not to turn right out of the hotel…  And in one of my buddies rooms we found this:

Still had to make the most out of the place though.  We left in the morning for white water rafting which was a great time.  There were only six of us that went, but we split up into 2 boats.  The river was pretty mellow and the water was very warm.  The temperature was very hot so it was always nice to hop in the water and float for a bit.  The river went right by the city, which was really cool.  We rafted under a bunch of bridges, both decrepit and functioning.  In the end everyone had brutal sunburns from being in direct sun for 3 hours along with the reflection of the sun off the water adding to it.  We got some disposable underwater cameras for the trip.  Only one got developed and some of the pictures came out pretty well.

And my sunburn after….

After rafting we went to the pool party, which ended up being on the roof.  It was really cool having the pool on the roof with an awesome view:

I only stayed at the pool for a little while before I went and bought a large bottle of aloe and repeatedly applied it to my skin.

To finish up the second I day I walked a few blocks to the right (oh god!) out of the hotel for dinner.  We got to the Penny Lane Pub, which only played Beatles music.  I had a delicious meal of fish and chips before I headed back to the hotel, with a few people to be safe, to conclude my days off.  One more date until a 3 week break that I get to go home for.

Raleigh, another show day, nothing super interesting to report.  Just another place I’ve been to.  Bus to Richmond, VA for 2 days off.

Charlotte was very uneventful.  We had a day off but it was pouring rain outside, so I ended up staying in the hotel the entire day.  It was a good catch up on sleep day.  I even went to the hotel restaurant for a subpar dinner. I did snap a picture during the day.

And another uneventful show day then the bus to Raleigh, NC.

We got to Duluth around noon and a buddy and I decided to go rock climbing.  He found an amazing place called Stone Summit.  This place was huge!  They said it was the gym with the largest square climbing area in the United States.  I don’t know if that was true, but the place was massive.  We had to pass some safety tests before we could climb and then we climbed for a few hours.  After climbing we got a ride back to the hotel from his girlfriend who was in the area.  This was the climbing place:

I chilled for the rest of the day and got McDonalds for dinner because its what I felt like eating.  Then a typical show day in the morning.

So for our 2 days off we went to Greenville, SC, which sounds like it wouldn’t be a fun place to be.  It ended up being a really cool place that I enjoyed.  I think that if we were there for one more day I would’ve gotten sick of it.  It was a small town with one main street that was lined with shops, restaurants and bars.  Right in the middle of the street was a big park with a waterfall and a bridge.  Our hotel was right on the main street which was nice.  I was on steroids for 2 days here and was recovering nicely with them.

The first day I went to the park with some friends to play frisbee.  After a bit of frisbee one of my friends decided to climb the waterfall.  He slipped at one point and fell flat on his face.  He then started sliding down the waterfall a bit, but luckily he stopped himself.  After he got to the top he saw a sign forbidding swimming and climbing… Whoops.  That night we went out to a sushi place.  It was quite delicious and I tried jellyfish.  It was good, but not worth the price.  It was prepared like seaweed salad and had a similar consistency so it was like eating seaweed salad…  Then I hung around with some of the crew bar hoping.  Played pool with some guys and watched the Bruins game.  I called it a night around 1AM and headed back to the hotel.

The next day I spent similarly.  I went to the park to play some frisbee with friends and then went out at night.  Went to watch “Spill the Wine” play at an open mic night.  This was members of the crew, combining one’s last name with another’s love of wine.  Hung out there until late and then left and walked a very sketchy walk of at least 10 blocks at night with a friend.

Here are some pics of the park:

Also a cool tree in the park:

The next day was supposed to be a show but it ended up being cancelled, so the show was changed for a travel day.  So we left in the morning to travel to Atlanta.

Cleveland was another day I was sick at work. I got my morning work done and was taken to a quick clinic to hopefully find the source of my problems.  I ended up having some virus that caused major swelling in my throat.  I was prescribed some antibiotics and some steroids.  After taking the steroids I felt better.  The steroids were to make the following days better, which worked well.  After another typical work day we rode the bus to Greenville, SC… Woo…

The bus had an 8 hour drive to Buffalo.  The drive was during the day, the first time on the tour that we would be traveling a large distance during the day.  This was also the time when my body decided to get sick.  I ended up sleeping for 7 hours of the bus ride, and woke up so that I could throw up during the rest of it.  Really not a fun trip.  I went to bed as soon as we arrived in Buffalo and slept so that I had some strength for work the next day.  I still felt awful in the morning and did my work slowly.  I did get everything done, but it was a tough day.  Then took a bus ride to Cleveland for another show day.