Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:42:27 AM EST
BILLINGS TO FARGO - This is about the length of the drive from Quincy to Billings without the day off in between. Brush with death #133: It's storming and we just drove by a tornado. I drove a lopsided majority of the trip without any sleep. We got in at 10 am.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:43:38 AM EST
FARGO - I'm delrious and still without sleep. My sentences come out slow and stupid. I wonder if it came across like that when I played. We played first today. Midwest ain't our thang. Less dust than Billings, but I didn't eat a meal today.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:44:55 AM EST
FARGO TO MILWAUKEE - First there was nothing. Then, Eisenhower said "Let there be roads." And there were. It's times like this that you get thankful for the interstate system. It gets you out of places like that and to places like this. It was noticable how much better the roads even got the closer we were to the place where beer, dairy, and all other things that increase your pants size come from.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:45:28 AM EST
MILWAUKEE - People here know about Fueled By Ramen. We sold out of the new FBR sampler at this show. It's cool that we could sell so many, but now we're out of one of our best sellers. That means less gas money for us. We'll survive as always. There was a decent gathering of people for our set which, as many times as it's happened, is always a nice surprise to us. One of the people there was Nick Chipman who interviewed us for an issue of his zine "Road to Acceptance." Nick was awesome and it was cool to meet him in person. This whole journal will actually be published in a future issue of the zine and it will be funny to read this blatant ass-kissing in there.

He also took me to a local pizzeria called Pizza Shuttle, where I got food for the band and brought it back and introduced me to something I had never had before, frozen custard. That stuff tastes amazing. Definitely try some if you can find it.

Most of the days are getting short becuase I spend so much of it asleep becuase I'm exhausted from driving all night.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:46:32 AM EST
MILWAUKEE TO INDIANAPOLIS - Stupid.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:47:09 AM EST
INDIANAPOLIS - Nothing memorable about this show except the one gutter punk out of his luck sitting on the ground with a cardboard sign that read "Spit in my face. 50 cents." I read the sign and looked at the gutter punk. He shook his head up and down to signal that he meant it. I think Indianapolis could boost their tourism revenue if they had a cool slogan like "Indianapolis... sweet, bro!" or "More fun than a goggle-wearing running back." Do you know what point I am trying to make?

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:48:49 AM EST
CLEVELAND - This show was awesome for a couple of reasons. First off, we were next to a mall. The mall was a much needed escape from this touring carnival. So many choices to eat and real people to blend in with. At least I hope I blended in. It was so nice (and so air conditioned).

It started raining so I got a jacket from the "stop racism" tent run by the Positive Youth Foundation. In doing so, I hung up my laptop on their clothes rack and left it there. It took me 20 minutes to realize that and I when I did, I ran as fast and hard as I could. I plowed through hordes of small children watching whatever pop punk band was slinging their shit at the time. Luckily, it was there.

The barbeque today had boca burgers. First time the barbeque has had anything vegetarian in a while. Right behind where we played that day, there were the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indians' stadiums and a ton of fireworks. We ate burgers, drank soda and watched some fireworks. Not too shabby.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:49:49 AM EST
CHICAGO - Hellllllll yes. This is what we've been waiting for. There was a pre-built stage on site just waiting for us. Not only a stage, but loaders on the venue staff. Wow, the royal treatment. We had our biggest crowd of the tour and also played our best. Scott from Punknews.org gave us an interview after our set in which I said a couple things that were funny, but I hope I don't regret later. Told some more people about the free show at Reckless with Ozma. It should be really fun. Those guys are super nice.

Joe is with us now. He's our manager but strangely, we had never met him in person. He's done a lot for us already and he's the reason we're here on this tour. We're having a lot of fun and he's just as cool in person.

There is no to/from preceding this journal but... brush with death #304 - blew out a tire on the way to Chicago. No need to panic. We're okay.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:50:38 AM EST
MINNEAPOLIS - This started out as one of the hottest days of the tour. What it turned into was a severe storm that had the rain blowing sideways and people running for cover. I saw Trent and James from Cadillac Blindside at the show and it was good to see them. It was also The Start's last show on the tour and they played awesome. They even had an all-girl mosh pit going. It was also the last day we got to hang with Park. I don't think spirits were up with the guys unfortunately because of Justin's Marshall Head being stolen in Chicago. They're really good and I hope you get to check them out.

Anyhow, the storm destroyed our tent. Now we have to share with Punkrocks.net or face the threat of skin cancer. That's going to be crowded since there are a lot of bands in their tent to start with. The security at the show were dickheads. They refused to let us leave at the end of the night. Why? Beats me. We finally got to leave after 25 minutes of bickering. Stupid pricks. It's one thing if there's a reason but when you give someone a little power and they start pulling this "you'll leave when I say so" shit, I ain't havin it.

From the venue we actually went and met up with Jamie of The Stereo for some dinner. He took us to a local italian restaurant that was pretty good. I ate veggie chicken parm. We got to head back up to his place and check our email and then we were off. Back to Chicago for our show at Reckless.

Wednesday, 31 July 2002 - 11:56:07 AM EST
CHICAGO - Our show at Reckless was awesome. The store is awesome. Ozma was awesome. The kids who showed up were awesome and also the ones that worked at the store. Our friends Doug and Jason who put on the show were awesome. The pizza they ordered us was awesome. Ozma's set was awesome. Our set was lots of fun. The conversations we had afterwards were awesome and the people we met were awesome. The area of town we were in was awesome. Joe went back home after the night was done. He seemed pretty pleased with everything over the 3 days he was with us and it was good to hang with him. Actually, something interesting is that There was something in Joe's windshield wiper and we all thought it was a ticket but it was a police report and the back of his truck had been hit. The damage was minimal but it was there nevertheless. This is one city I'd like to come back and spend some time in. Oh yeah, we saw something in the sky that night too. Steve and I were the only ones to see. It was really far away. Too high to be fireworks. Too bright to be a shooting star. No following explosion to make it a missile. It was a brief greenish streak.



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