PORTLAND - We were so hooked up in this city with food and showers, so before any explanation of our time here, a big thanks is in order to Jordan, Adam, and Skyler for feeding and housing us. Adam and Skyler are in an awesome band called The Forth so check them out if you can.

We had no idea that Portland was as big as it is, but I suppose we should have figured. It takes a pretty good sized area to support an NBA franchise. Once we hit the outskirts though, it was almost like home. It's Gainesville if it were cloudy all the time. Lots of cool independent stores. A forward thinking community. Oh yeah, and the nations highest population of heroin users.

We played at the Blackbird with The Dishes and Goddamn Gentlemen. Just the way that Portland reminded me somewhat of Gainesville, this club for some reason reminded me of the Common Grounds back home. Small place with a really cool atmosphere and some old school video games. Blackbird even has an original 1981 Atari Asteroids game. It's pretty short and apparently was released before the whole joystick thing was around. Vector graphics too.

There were 8 people at the show from Gainesville and it was quite comforting for our first time in the opposite corner of the country. As you can tell, we were pretty happy with most everything at this show and the club itself was no exception. Everybody there was super nice and they prepared some of the best food we've had in some time free of charge to the band. On top of that, we weren't even supposed to be paid, but they somehow found some gas money to help us up to Quincy, WA. Anyhow, I can't wait until next time we play there. It was an all around great experience.

PORTLAND TO QUINCY - Uneventful.

QUINCY - We had no idea what to expect pulling up to The Gorge Amphitheatre. We're still looking for the definition of "gorge". The venue is pretty far off the highway and there is absolutely nothing close by. We even thought we were going the wrong way for a while but then we found it and went to bed.

We woke up to the most beautiful place I've ever seen. As tempted as I was to take photos, I didn't, becuase you would all see them but still not understand. You definitely need to be there to understand. From what I was told, Radiohead played here on their US tour. Pretty exciting to play the same place one of your favorite bands. This place is the Mecca of concert venues. Pick any one show and some time in your life make the pilgrimage. It's definitely worth the trip.

We played second at the show and not many people were at the venue yet but word must have got out, becuase we met a lot of fans, signed some autographs, and did interviews with a few zines by the end of the day.

Today we also saw this band we've heard about called The Start. Their set was really tight and like us, they mix sequenced keyboards with live guitars, drums and vocals. Check them please at www.thisisthestart.com.

QUINCY TO BILLINGS - This is possibly the longest drive between shows that we have but at least we have a day off to do it. We left Quincy and didn't make it that far before stopping in Spokane.

The proper way to pronounce Spokane, as we found out, is (spohKAN). Just something to consider if you ever visit the northwest and you are ignorant east coasters like ourselves. While we're at it, I may as well tell you that Oregon is pronounced (ORruhgen). I didn't know that either.

We slept in a Wal Mart parking lot and in the morning we shopped. We shopped long and hard too. I'm not sure that we left Spokane before 5pm but I haven't been paying attention to time so much these days unless it's "What time do we play?"

Brush with death #108: We got our oil changed at Wal Mart and when the initially checked the dip stick, there was no oil on it. Fan-fucking-tastic. Score another one to our rental company who obviously didn't check the oil (along with the brakes now) when they gave us the RV. There's no way that we burned all that oil in only 3500 miles. Hour and a half to take care of that.

We got to Billings at something like 4:30 and for some reason the directions we got off the internet took us to a dead end street in a neighborhood. Not only was it a dead end, but it was staring at this huge ass rock, one lane and the road was made up of small round pebbles. Brush with death #126: Brad and I helped James back it down the hill very slowly. Every time James hit the brakes to slow down the RV slid back 10 feet because of the loose pebbles. Then he did a 25 point turn in a driveway and we could have all sworn the thing was gonna tip. It didn't and we found the venue an hour later.

BILLINGS - The people here are not so nice, in general. Met a few that were pleasant to talk to, but I'm not even talking about at the stage. I mean just walking around and talking to people away from the stage.

I felt like we played pretty well, but there wasn't much traffic at the punkrocks.net stage all day long. A few people who did enjoy our set were Volumen. I had been in contact with them through email about 5 years ago and it was great to finally meet them. They played the Kevin Says stage and you should check them out at www.volumen.net. It was really weird becuase neither of us expected the other to be at the show.

The venue was a dust pit. Dust was all over our gear, our merch, and ourselves. I actually felt bad for the bands playing in front of mosh pits. They were the dirtiest of all. My lungs are still feeling the wrath.

Not much else to say, glad this one is over.