photo update: i've uploaded the last of the pics i have from tour to the flickr page for those of you who have been checking them out...i included some "closing credits" to the tour of sorts...we messed around with my camera while we were waiting for our food at a restaurant the last night...so thus, lots of random pictures...enjoy!
so the last show of the tour...it was an interesting and bittersweet day to say the least...after waking up kind of late at owen's house we packed up and headed to the beach...pensacola is right on a bay but there's a thin strip of land out past the bay that borders the gulf of mexico...it's a pretty neat drive over long bridges to get out there...we spent a few hours there...coby trapped nate in a beach chair by piling sand on him...he got chris and i to join in and you can see the results on the flickr page...it was pretty comical...after we got all beached out we retired back to chris' girlfriend hailey's house...there we got some much deserved showers and rest...
we then went to this pretty alright pizza joint called "ozones" and just generally acted tired a lot cuz we all were pretty whipped at this point...the show that night was at a place called "the handlebar" and it definitely lived up to it's name if you get my drift...it was kind of a honky-tonk bar but boy did the kiddies show up...next to cornerstone i'd say this was one of the biggest turnouts of the tour...not that they were there to see us...they were mostly there to dance and get drunk to the local band that played after us, reynosa (sp?)...i wasn't a huge fan of their music and we all just pretty much wanted to get home as their set dragged on into the wee morning hours...we didn't go on until 11pm and then discover america went on at midnight...we did end up selling a good bit of cd's and a few t-shirts which was cool...i know this because i inherited much of the merch duties (along with matt) since ashten couldn't make this last week of the tour...she was definitely alot more skilled in the merch-y ways than we were...
we ended up finally getting out of there at like 2:30am...said our goodbyes to chris and started on the road towards home...just to cap off the craziness of the tour we had another hairy event happen just outside town...i had stopped at a gas station to top off the van and grab some red bull for the drive...i went inside to pee quick while the guys were waiting in the van...i came out of the restroom to find the glass front door to the station shattered...the very door i had just walked in a few minutes prior...matt ran up to me saying that some guy had just drove by and shot like 5 times into the gas station! at this point none of us were that amazed...these crazy close calls just went right along with how things went on the tour...none of the guys actually saw the shooter, i guess he sped away quick but the guys all heard the shots....i think a guy in a parked car had a ricochet or something hit his arm...it was late, we were tired so we just got the heck out of there...i feel kinda bad now that we just left that guy...but as soon as we pulled out the cops flew right by us on their way there...
so after that crazy ordeal the rest of the guys settled in to sleep while i drove all night til about 9am when we reached nashville...that red bull really helped plus the drive through alabama and tennessee was pretty amazing (just a few of the highlights: a big sign that read "go to church or the devil will get you!" in someone's yard plus a billboard for "big jim's boobie bonanza"...you can just imagine what goes on there)...i actually didn't even really feel that tired when we stopped in nashville but coby agreed to take over from there and as soon as my head hit the pillow in the backseat, i was out...i woke up once or twice on the way back but slept for most of the 8 or so hours from nashville back to ohio...
well this is where i wrap up the entire tour into a few cute little phrases that sum up the entire experience...i've determined that would pretty much be impossible, however...but i've had to encapsulize the whole trip to nearly everyone that's asked me in person how it went...so here's what i usually say: we had the time of our lives...the trip was filled with many, many incredible experiences that also included a few potentially bad situations as well...but ones that actually ended up turning into some pretty great stories in hindsight...
i'm bad at summing things up but i guess that's why i decided to do this blog in the first place...you guys were right there along with us the whole time...and thanks to those of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers as well...judging by the few close calls we had you can be sure those prayers were not in vain...
thanks for reading, everyone!
God bless,
ryan
p.s. - there's too much merch for the church!
p.s.s. - aw, this ought to be a rippin' good time...merch sales are gonna be through the roof!
p.s.s.s. - tour inside jokes!!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
niceville, fl
since we drove about an hour up i-75 the night before our drive to niceville wasn’t too bad…i think it was about 5-5 ½ hours…niceville is a town outside of pensacola and in the general vicinity of where one chris staples was born and raised…
as soon as we got into town we met up with chris’ girlfriend hailey at this place called “turkey creek” and all went for a little swim…our a/c broke again a few days prior and we were all dying from the florida heat so swimming felt really nice…this particular creek was like a nature preserve of some sort with a boardwalk meandering through the woods…at various points there were docks out into the creek and you could jump in and float along with the current (kind of like those lazy rivers at water parks)…it was a lot of fun…
after we went to eat at a nearby pizza shop and met up with some members of the local band we were gonna be playing with that night…the group was called “gileah and the ghost train”…gileah was actually the name of the lead girl in the group and “the ghost train” was her backup band per say…one of the members was a guy named kevin who was also in the band “twothirtyeight” with chris back in the day…they were all really nice people…
this particular show was at a local church in niceville and a nice big crowd of kids showed up…we played first once again, with discover america going second and gileah and the ghost train going last…we had a pretty good response to our set but of course most everyone was there to see their hometown boy, chris staples…it was fun listening to him tell the story of us getting robbed from the stage for the millionth time…though he kind of changes it a little each time…
after the show we all went out to a local beach and hung out with a few of chris’ friends…i’m not sure what beach it was because it was dark out but it was really nice…the beaches on the gulf side of florida all have white sand so with the moonlight you could see pretty well…we ended up staying at chris’ friend owen’s house in pensacola which was about an 45 minute drive from where we played and close to where we would be playing the next night…
only one more show to go…
as soon as we got into town we met up with chris’ girlfriend hailey at this place called “turkey creek” and all went for a little swim…our a/c broke again a few days prior and we were all dying from the florida heat so swimming felt really nice…this particular creek was like a nature preserve of some sort with a boardwalk meandering through the woods…at various points there were docks out into the creek and you could jump in and float along with the current (kind of like those lazy rivers at water parks)…it was a lot of fun…
after we went to eat at a nearby pizza shop and met up with some members of the local band we were gonna be playing with that night…the group was called “gileah and the ghost train”…gileah was actually the name of the lead girl in the group and “the ghost train” was her backup band per say…one of the members was a guy named kevin who was also in the band “twothirtyeight” with chris back in the day…they were all really nice people…
this particular show was at a local church in niceville and a nice big crowd of kids showed up…we played first once again, with discover america going second and gileah and the ghost train going last…we had a pretty good response to our set but of course most everyone was there to see their hometown boy, chris staples…it was fun listening to him tell the story of us getting robbed from the stage for the millionth time…though he kind of changes it a little each time…
after the show we all went out to a local beach and hung out with a few of chris’ friends…i’m not sure what beach it was because it was dark out but it was really nice…the beaches on the gulf side of florida all have white sand so with the moonlight you could see pretty well…we ended up staying at chris’ friend owen’s house in pensacola which was about an 45 minute drive from where we played and close to where we would be playing the next night…
only one more show to go…
tampa, fl
the drive to tampa from savannah was about 6 hours…pretty much our standard driving time for this tour…i don’t think we had one drive over 6 hours and by this time we were all pretty used to it…with the end of the tour in sight though, we were all getting worn down and missing home…
these last three shows were all set up by chris and since they were in his home state promised to all be pretty good…in tampa we played a bar called the “new world brewery”…it was in an old part of tampa called ybor city…they had a working trolley and a lot of cool old buildings as well…we bummed around town for a while and had dinner before we loaded in (shows in bars typically start a lot later for those of you who might wonder about that)…
this one started around 10pm if i remember correctly…state bird played first, then discover america and then this local band called “mouse fire”…there wasn’t a huge turnout for the show but it was definitely a lot better than the savannah show…a lot of people were really into chris’ set which was cool…mouse fire was also very good…they were really tight and had a great live sound…a few of their members used to be in a band called anberlin which i’m sure some of you have heard of…
we met a few kids after the show that had actually saw us play at cornerstone a few weeks back and got wind of our show in tampa and made about an hour’s drive to come see us…so that was pretty neat…
afterwards we ended up just getting a hotel again…one of the members of mouse fire was going to put us up at his house but it was 45 minutes in the wrong direction so we just decided to head about an hour in the right direction and grab another hotel…we were usually so exhausted by that time at night that having an actual bed to sleep in made alot more sense...
these last three shows were all set up by chris and since they were in his home state promised to all be pretty good…in tampa we played a bar called the “new world brewery”…it was in an old part of tampa called ybor city…they had a working trolley and a lot of cool old buildings as well…we bummed around town for a while and had dinner before we loaded in (shows in bars typically start a lot later for those of you who might wonder about that)…
this one started around 10pm if i remember correctly…state bird played first, then discover america and then this local band called “mouse fire”…there wasn’t a huge turnout for the show but it was definitely a lot better than the savannah show…a lot of people were really into chris’ set which was cool…mouse fire was also very good…they were really tight and had a great live sound…a few of their members used to be in a band called anberlin which i’m sure some of you have heard of…
we met a few kids after the show that had actually saw us play at cornerstone a few weeks back and got wind of our show in tampa and made about an hour’s drive to come see us…so that was pretty neat…
afterwards we ended up just getting a hotel again…one of the members of mouse fire was going to put us up at his house but it was 45 minutes in the wrong direction so we just decided to head about an hour in the right direction and grab another hotel…we were usually so exhausted by that time at night that having an actual bed to sleep in made alot more sense...
Saturday, July 7, 2007
savannah, ga
so as we learned in little rock, some bad shows can be partially redeemed by awesome events surrounding the show…in that case it was a sweet place to stay afterwards but in savannah it was just the chance to hang out in the city itself…if you’ve been to savannah before you know what i mean…it’s just a really cool old “deep south” town…a lot of brick streets, old buildings and mossy trees…
we only had a 2 hour drive or so from our hotel in florence to savannah so we took off a little earlier than we normally would of so that we could grab some lunch and check out the town…chris had been there a few times before and i had been there once with my family…we wanted to eat somewhere cool and chris knew of this good lil bbq place somewhere in the historical district so we scoured around for a good hour before we finally found it…coby and chris got a rickshaw ride from a guy we met at the bbq place to this huge park that was near where we played at…we all met up there, threw a frisbee around and just generally chilled out for a couple hours til we had to load in for the show…it was a very relaxing afternoon…
but it couldn’t make up for the disappointment of our show that night, however…we had all kind of wondered how a show would go over on the evening of july 4th and the obvious answer was: not well…you just can’t compete with fireworks…heck, we all would have rather watched the fireworks than a couple of bands we didn’t know much about…surprisingly, a lot of people showed up for the opening, local band…they were called “unsolved mysteries”…they must have liked the tv show…they were a little different but nice folks…after they were done about 75% of the people there left with them…i’ll omit the exact attendance totals for embarrassment reasons but let’s just say we pretty much played for ourselves…it wasn’t fun but was kind of expected…
we’re not sure why the promoter wanted the show on the 4th…we had an off day the 3rd and said we could switch to that day if it would be better but apparently he had something else going that day…he must of also had something going during our show because he took off sometime during it as well… we ended up getting an offer for a place to stay afterwards but opted to just grab some dinner in town and then a hotel on our way to florida…
so the show was a letdown but at least it was in an interesting city…
we only had a 2 hour drive or so from our hotel in florence to savannah so we took off a little earlier than we normally would of so that we could grab some lunch and check out the town…chris had been there a few times before and i had been there once with my family…we wanted to eat somewhere cool and chris knew of this good lil bbq place somewhere in the historical district so we scoured around for a good hour before we finally found it…coby and chris got a rickshaw ride from a guy we met at the bbq place to this huge park that was near where we played at…we all met up there, threw a frisbee around and just generally chilled out for a couple hours til we had to load in for the show…it was a very relaxing afternoon…
but it couldn’t make up for the disappointment of our show that night, however…we had all kind of wondered how a show would go over on the evening of july 4th and the obvious answer was: not well…you just can’t compete with fireworks…heck, we all would have rather watched the fireworks than a couple of bands we didn’t know much about…surprisingly, a lot of people showed up for the opening, local band…they were called “unsolved mysteries”…they must have liked the tv show…they were a little different but nice folks…after they were done about 75% of the people there left with them…i’ll omit the exact attendance totals for embarrassment reasons but let’s just say we pretty much played for ourselves…it wasn’t fun but was kind of expected…
we’re not sure why the promoter wanted the show on the 4th…we had an off day the 3rd and said we could switch to that day if it would be better but apparently he had something else going that day…he must of also had something going during our show because he took off sometime during it as well… we ended up getting an offer for a place to stay afterwards but opted to just grab some dinner in town and then a hotel on our way to florida…
so the show was a letdown but at least it was in an interesting city…
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
norfolk & virginia beach, va
well we initially thought we were playing virginia beach but the show actually ended up being in norfolk...they're right next to each other but i thought i'd just clear that up for the record...hah...the drive from harrisonburg to norfolk was about 3 hours...the show was set up by this really cool guy, james...he had done a few shows with chris in the past and definitely knew what he was doing...it's always nice to do shows with good promoters...they make a huge difference...
the place we played at was called "the boot"...it was this neat bar/restaurant...i guess as neat as norfolk, virginia can be...the show went pretty well and quite a few people showed up for it...the best part of the night thought was the sleeping accomodations james hooked us up with...he didn't really have a place for us to stay so he set up some tents at these campgrounds on the chesapeake bay...it was very rad...we roasted weenies and smores and all that good stuff...a few of his friends came out and we told some stories around the campfire...it had been a while since i had "traditionally" camped out so it was fun for me personally...
the next day was an off day for us...the next show we had to play was savannah, georgia so we just kind of kicked it around virginia beach for the day...james took us to the beach and we just walked around and had a few smoothies...he also took us to this cool burrito bar as well...we then started driving towards georgia...we initially planned to stop for the night and get a hotel in fayetteville, nc but ended up going all the way to florence, sc before we felt like stopping...we took our time though and stopped at some cheesy interstate outlets along the way...really taking in all the sights, ya know...
we got a hotel in florence and then made the short drive to savannah (about 2-3 hours) which is where i am now...so i'll stop there...we're playing tonight at this cool coffee shop called "the sentient bean"...it's in the historical (aka uber-cool) district of savannah...but i'll talk more about that tomorrow...
i can't believe i'm actually caught up on the journal...i'm so proud of myself...
only 4 more days til we're home...
the place we played at was called "the boot"...it was this neat bar/restaurant...i guess as neat as norfolk, virginia can be...the show went pretty well and quite a few people showed up for it...the best part of the night thought was the sleeping accomodations james hooked us up with...he didn't really have a place for us to stay so he set up some tents at these campgrounds on the chesapeake bay...it was very rad...we roasted weenies and smores and all that good stuff...a few of his friends came out and we told some stories around the campfire...it had been a while since i had "traditionally" camped out so it was fun for me personally...
the next day was an off day for us...the next show we had to play was savannah, georgia so we just kind of kicked it around virginia beach for the day...james took us to the beach and we just walked around and had a few smoothies...he also took us to this cool burrito bar as well...we then started driving towards georgia...we initially planned to stop for the night and get a hotel in fayetteville, nc but ended up going all the way to florence, sc before we felt like stopping...we took our time though and stopped at some cheesy interstate outlets along the way...really taking in all the sights, ya know...
we got a hotel in florence and then made the short drive to savannah (about 2-3 hours) which is where i am now...so i'll stop there...we're playing tonight at this cool coffee shop called "the sentient bean"...it's in the historical (aka uber-cool) district of savannah...but i'll talk more about that tomorrow...
i can't believe i'm actually caught up on the journal...i'm so proud of myself...
only 4 more days til we're home...
harrisonburg, va
it was really nice to get one good night's sleep at home in ohio sat.. night/sun morning...i slept in til around 11am or so, did some laundry and then repacked into a smaller bag...i had just enough time to enjoy dinner w/ my folks before heading to the guy's house to get ready to take off for virginia...
coby returned the uhaul trailer because there was only going to be 6 of us and a lot less gear for the last week of the tour...he also managed to get the a/c fixed in the van so that was a definite plus...unfortunately, ashten wasn't able to make the last leg of the tour with us due to a wedding...she's definitely missed...
we headed out for harrisonburg around 3pm and got in at close to 9pm...it was a pretty good haul to down there...we were playing kind of a last minute house show at our good friends' ryan and dustin miller's house...we played probably our worst set of the tour so far...we all took our shirts off and were generally acting like idiots the entire time...so that definitely factored in...but it was still fun...our friends dave, marcie and sarah all made the trek down from ohio as well to be there so it was good to see all of them...
after getting a good night's rest at the miller's spacious house we packed up the next afternoon for our show in virginia beach/norfolk...
coby returned the uhaul trailer because there was only going to be 6 of us and a lot less gear for the last week of the tour...he also managed to get the a/c fixed in the van so that was a definite plus...unfortunately, ashten wasn't able to make the last leg of the tour with us due to a wedding...she's definitely missed...
we headed out for harrisonburg around 3pm and got in at close to 9pm...it was a pretty good haul to down there...we were playing kind of a last minute house show at our good friends' ryan and dustin miller's house...we played probably our worst set of the tour so far...we all took our shirts off and were generally acting like idiots the entire time...so that definitely factored in...but it was still fun...our friends dave, marcie and sarah all made the trek down from ohio as well to be there so it was good to see all of them...
after getting a good night's rest at the miller's spacious house we packed up the next afternoon for our show in virginia beach/norfolk...
Monday, July 2, 2007
marion, in
ok so the last night at cornerstone i knew i just couldn't sleep on the cold, hard ground again so i enlisted the help of my good friend colleen...she works for the management of the band cool hand luke and they put her and another merch girl up in the swanky days inn in nearby macomb, illinois...they just so happened to have an empty bed on said night so chris and i got the hookup...we didn't get a lot of sleep but it was at least nice to sleep on a real, live bed...
we had to take a shuttle van from the festival to the hotel and the four of us had signed up for the last one of the night...while we were waiting for chris to get his things and meet us at the transportation tent none other than shane claiborne walked in...turns out he was staying at the same hotel (actually most of the bands and speakers from the festival stay at that hotel)...so we got to ride over and back with him...he really is a great guy, real down to earth and a lot of fun to talk to...i'm hoping to pick up his book "irresistible revolution" soon...you all should too if you haven't already...
chris and i got back to the campsite saturday morning and helped everyone load the van back up...we took off on the 5-6 hour drive for indiana after getting lunch in bushnell with all the record machine guys...we played at some place in marion called "803"...i'm not sure if it was a church-run place or what actually...the people were nice but it was kind of a weird place to play right after all the craziness of cornerstone...about 20-25 people were there...a far cry from the 200-250 we got at cornerstone...we made it really fun though as this was winston jazz's last show with us on the tour...they all got crazy and danced around during our set with their shirts off...then we had the whole crowd come up with us on the last song...that was pretty cool...
afterwards we packed up and drove through the night back to ohio...we dropped winston jazz off in mansfield, said our goodbyes and then continued on home...we got in around 4:30-5am and all went to sleep at our respective homes...
the rest of us are continuing on in the tour for another week...winston were only planning on doing two weeks because they had to get back to their jobs/etc...i'm going to really miss all of them and am especially going to miss hearing them play every night...they're such cool guys and i hope we get a chance to tour with them again sometime soon...
we had to take a shuttle van from the festival to the hotel and the four of us had signed up for the last one of the night...while we were waiting for chris to get his things and meet us at the transportation tent none other than shane claiborne walked in...turns out he was staying at the same hotel (actually most of the bands and speakers from the festival stay at that hotel)...so we got to ride over and back with him...he really is a great guy, real down to earth and a lot of fun to talk to...i'm hoping to pick up his book "irresistible revolution" soon...you all should too if you haven't already...
chris and i got back to the campsite saturday morning and helped everyone load the van back up...we took off on the 5-6 hour drive for indiana after getting lunch in bushnell with all the record machine guys...we played at some place in marion called "803"...i'm not sure if it was a church-run place or what actually...the people were nice but it was kind of a weird place to play right after all the craziness of cornerstone...about 20-25 people were there...a far cry from the 200-250 we got at cornerstone...we made it really fun though as this was winston jazz's last show with us on the tour...they all got crazy and danced around during our set with their shirts off...then we had the whole crowd come up with us on the last song...that was pretty cool...
afterwards we packed up and drove through the night back to ohio...we dropped winston jazz off in mansfield, said our goodbyes and then continued on home...we got in around 4:30-5am and all went to sleep at our respective homes...
the rest of us are continuing on in the tour for another week...winston were only planning on doing two weeks because they had to get back to their jobs/etc...i'm going to really miss all of them and am especially going to miss hearing them play every night...they're such cool guys and i hope we get a chance to tour with them again sometime soon...
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