9-22 Day Off. Time to fly some WW2 Planes!

27Sep08

Somewhere in Indiana…

We had a day off and a fan of the band/super nice guy invited us to go to the Indiana Aviation Museum to check out and fly some WW2 planes.

This is a 1945 P-51D “Mustang”

Supposedly these are extrememly rare and worth upwards of 2 Million dollars. I don’t have any clue as to why the would let me sit inside of it.

Here I am showing my best side while getting into the plane from the movie “Pearl Harbor”

Getting strapped into the 1953 DHC “Chipmunk”

Starting to taxi.

On the runway, ready for take off.

My view from the sky.

When up in the air, the pilot told me to hold on to the stick when he was turning, so I could get a feel for it…and then told me to make some turns while he kept his hands on the stick. After making a few turns I looked up in front of me and saw the pilot with both hands behind his head. I calmly asked, “what the hell are you doing??!?!” and he told me, “you’ve been flying the plane on your own for the last 10 minutes.” I figured this guy REALLY must be right with God if he is that trusting of my piloting skills. Turns out, he is a full time pastor, part time pilot.

I took way more pictures and video, but I’m tired of uploading…So this will have to do for now.

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NJ, Detroit, Chicago and St. Paul

23Sep08

Day off in New Jersey.

When I woke up, the bus was on a lift, getting worked on in a repair shop. I almost fell about 4 feet to my death. It ends up there was nowhere to go near the shop…except for some train tracks. Yuri google mapped our location and found out that we could walk the tracks for a short distance, we would end up at a mall with a movie theatre. We ended up walking… It was like we were in “Stand By Me.” The walk ended up being over 5 miles…but it was fun. We encountered a few interesting things, including the skeleton of a wolf/fox. Yuri disturbed it. If he has any nightmares about a ghost wolf, I won’t comfort him.

Detroit.

On our way to the show, we started to smell burning plastic and smoke started coming up from the steering console. We pulled over and were not able to figure out the problem…so we ended up just driving the rest of the way inhaling fumes which were most likely toxic. I went into the venue and shaved and I washed my face off/stuck my head under the faucet to rinse off. Right after I pulled my head out of the sink, this creature crawled up the drain.

Lagwagon dedicated the song “To All My Friends” to me and my friends Holly and Robin. After the show I got an amazing burger at an Irish pub.

Chicago

Played at a cool venue called the Metro. It was a big day for the Cubs…The streets around Wrigley Field were packed right after the game. I walked around and pet the police horses.

My friend Christina came out to visit and brought her new fiance with her. He’s a really nice guy and I hope I get to see him again sometime. We all went walking around town after the show, looking for a little bar,pub or restaurant to eat at. We ended up at Taco Bell because everything else was either crowded or closed.

St. Paul

Walked around the city…it was pretty cool, but absolutely nothing was going on. I went to Quizno’s hoping for a toasty sub…but it was closed…because it was Sunday.  I walked to a park overlooking the Mississippi River and hung out for a bit.

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NYC

18Sep08

Had a great day with a ton of walking. I got to see my good friend Brad and spend quite a bit of time catching up and walking around the city. I was never able to find Tina Fey, so we couldn’t have our wedding, which is a bummer.

I just walked Brad to the subway and took this picture on my way back. I love Times Square so much more when it is empty and deserted like this.

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Keepin up 3

16Sep08

9-15

Allston, MA (right outside of Boston)

Free japanese food for all! Let’s get out of here right now.

9-16

Philly

Went for a nice walk. Went to Jim’s Steaks. Ran lights for Mx on a sweeeeeet fancy lighting board. Now I’m sitting here watching Lagwagon…Excited for tomorrow in NYC. Hopefully I’ll get to see a good friend of mine (and Tina Fey). I’m in a pretty great mood. When I walked into the promoter’s office, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia was playing. How crazy is that? Now I’m going to watch It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia when I get back on the bus.

Here are some pics of the cool lighting board.

p.s. the Tina Fey/Palin skit on SNL was pretty funny. Don’t google the word that Hillary/Amy P googled.

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Keepin up 2

16Sep08

9-8

Rimouski

Everyone here speaks french…and smokes. Bad day.

Here is a creation by James. Don’t knock it til you try it.

9-9

Halifax

Day off. Too much money is spent on days off. Went and saw 2 movies and went to dinner. Death Race and Mirrors. Death Race was pretty cool. Went to WALMART about 5 times. It reminds me of that South Park episode where people can’t stop shopping there even though it is ruining them/their town.
I picked up the Big Lebowski 10 year anniversary edition. I had been waiting for that for a while. We are 4 hours ahead of Pacific time. I have never been this far east. I can’t wait to get back to the west coast to jump in the Pacific.
I also bought a movie called “Raging Sharks” for three dollars, courtesy of the WALMART. Looks like a winner!

9-10

Halifax again

Went for a walk to the beach with my friend Marie. We went in the Atlantic Ocean. Saw a dead crab.
I got a HUGE slice of pizza from a place called Kit Kat.
Had to say goodbye to a few good friends. Bummer.
Fireworks may or may not have been shot off later that night. Police may or may not have come.

Wearing sunglasses that did not belong to me.

9-11

Saint John, NB

Tim Hortons. Got a sweet mug.
Fun show. We broke the floor. Security had to clear the kids away from the stage because it was caving in. I have video of it and hope to get it up sometime. Who am I kidding? I’ll never get around to it. If you wanna see it just come over.

9-12

Vermont-ish

Bore-der (boarder) crossing day and day off in Vermont. I don’t know what city we are in…but we went to the movies again (surprise surprise) and saw “burn after reading.”
It was grrreat.

Here are a few pictures from our hotel room.

Here is our home, outside of our hotel room.

9-13

South Burlington, VT

Didn’t see a single Burlington Coat Factory. How lame. I did get free ice cream from some sweet girls at Ben N Jerry’s because I was “nice”. It was coffee coffee buzz buzz buzz. It was AMAZING.

Had a fun show at a really cool venue called Higher Ground. Had the best meal I’ve had in weeks…some kind of pasta with weird tofu in it and sun dried tomato sauce, with herb roasted chicken, salad and a roll. My friend Jered just got here and is going to stay with us for a few weeks. We are going to have a great time!
p.s. check out Jered’s site.

Here is a little video update from Yuri.

9-14

Right outside of Boston (I don’t know the city name)

Day off…. walked a good few miles. Went to guitar center and bought a drum practice pad. James rigged up some straps on it so I can sit and strap it around my leg. I’m pretty excited about this…hopefully I can practice at least half an hour a day. Also ate at PF Changs and had a great meal. Dali Chicken…nice and spicy.

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Keepin up

16Sep08

Even though I haven’t posted on here in a while, I have been writing almost everyday. I just didn’t have the internet too often when I was in Canada. So…I am cutting and pasting them from “Pages”

8-31

I haven’t slept since around noon yesterday…and left my apartment at 5 am to fly to Phoenix, then Omaha. We got picked up by the Black Pearl at the Omaha airport around 2 pm and Mikes bag was missing. We drove 3 hours to Sioux Falls, SD for a festival show. It was incredibly hot and dust was flying everywhere but it was fun. Some lady tried to get me to marry her 25 year old daughter.
We are now sitting in the bus in a Walmart parking lot in Sioux Falls while our driver sleeps.
I had to leave Walmart because I kept wanting to buy every little tool/gadget I saw. I bought a bunch of NECESSARY items and also ended up going in with James on a coffeemaker. James also bought a sweet movie about killer sheep.
Tomorrow we will meet up with Lagwagon and Tat. I’m looking forward to starting this tour.

9-1

Winnipeg

First day of the tour. one third of our shirt order is messed up. i ended up running lights for the show. im prettt sure i had never even touched a light board before, so im not sure why they let me. i guess it ended up turning out ok, so i get to do it again. it was the most fun ive had in a while at a show.

i made one of the best bus food meals yet tonight. it’s called a chicken fajita hp burrito.

9-2

Travel day. pretty boring. we drove by lake superior, which was cool. we stopped at a “mall” which consisted of a sears, a coffee place, grocery store, and photo copy shop. we went across the parking lot to A&W and got some great rootbeer floats. we watched a bunch of movies, most notably “black sheep” its not the one you are thinking of with chris farley. this one had genetically mutated sheep that liked the taste of human flesh.

9-3

Another travel day. Stopped in Berrie..walked around Walmart 5 times, looking at the same 8 movies in the bargain bin. Went and saw two movies in the theatre and went to eat. Blah blah blah.

9-4

London, Ontario

I couldn’t sleep last night…so I sat up front with the bus driver. I don’t remember what is was called…but we saw this huge airplane bomber and got out and checked it out.

I ate a falafel with chickpea in it.  Some crazy drunk/drugged up girl went on Lag’s bus thinking it was ours. She was thrown off and started fighting. The police eventually came and took her away. I also beat up James again.

9-5

Toronto

I dont know. I dont know.

9-6

Montreal

When I woke up, I went outside and walked down the street and there was a woman laying, passed out in the alley. She was ok…just drunk from the night before, I think. Cool city. after the show, I ran into a Japanese band, Shakalabbits. Very cool. Ate poutine for the first time. Most people here speak French. A few speak English as well..so work was a little difficult.

9-7

Quebec City

Played some tape ball during the show. Worked up quite a sweat. I also ran lights again on a super fancy board. I really enjoy running lights.

Had a little dance party on Lag’s bus before coming back to mine.

Some crazy drunk guy climbed up the front of our bus and ran across it. Me and Tom went outside, made him get down and he wanted to fight. Our manager called the police and they didn’t do a thing.

Here is what I ate for dinner tonight. Chocolate Cake, French Fries and Diet Coke.

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New Website and More Posts!

29Aug08

Really soon (I hope) my website address will be www.idontwearshoes.com instead of whatever it is now. So please, all five of you, get ready to update your bookmarks. I just need to learn how to make that address point here. I bought it a few weeks ago, but don’t know how to do anything with it.

Also, I am leaving town for about a month and a half traveling around the USA and Canada and I am going to try and start blogging every day, even if it is just a sentence or a picture (most likely of something I ate that day).

While I’m here, I should probably point you to a website for my good friend Mike. He was in a terrible car wreck on June 28th this year and is making quite an amazing recovery. If you have a second, please go over there and check out his story and pictures and send him a quick note of encouragement or say a prayer for him. Thanks!

Here we are sitting around the dinner table just a few nights ago. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but if you go read his story, you will understand what a miracle it is that he is able to be living back at home and hanging out with family and friends.

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Yearbook Yourself

17Aug08

I just saw this on a couple of good friend’s facebook pages. This is too great.

Here is me from 1970.

I will admit I actually did this from 1950 all the way to 2000.

Go to Yearbook Yourself.

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I admit.

15Jul08

I eat all of the gummy bears except for the yellow.

(Well, I eventually eat the yellows…when everything else is gone and I can’t go to the store to get more of the good colors)

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Leavin’ on a jet plane.

27Jun08

Hey guys and gals. I’m heading out with again soon with MxPx and I would love to see ya. Below is the link of where I will be in August through October….as always, I’m sure it will change a little bit. Just wanted to put this out there as a heads up, as I miss many of you. Please come and say hello and let’s grab some food and/or drinks. I’ll post exact dates when it gets closer. We are heading out with Lagwagon, Only Crime (Bill Stevenson is a drum god) and a band called Tat, who I haven’t heard yet. Should be a fun time.

My tour schedule.

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