Finally, Phoenix!

I really wanted to write a "ph" instead of the "f" in "finally" but I didn't want you to get all judgey. I know how you are.

As  you saw from our ridiculously long journey, we FINALLY made it to Phoenix! And, no, that last part of the last post was not a lie... there was a water slide at the hotel. I feel I should pose this question now... We stay in pretty nice hotels on the road, but I don't remember or know of ANY decent hotels where I'm from ever having water slides. Is this new??? Is this common? Seems it sort of is. I don't mind it & plus it helps keep Cousin Carl happy and that's all I care about.

Since I'd craved a pool ever since San Antonio, I woke up and took my laptop right outside and got all of my work done in just a few hours pool-side. It's amazing what a great motivator sunshine is. I think about all the time I used to waste working in corporate America. Eight hours a day was definitely not eight hours of work (most days). Now, working for myself, I bang it out! Lesssfaceit... when you work for yourself, you are basically always working since the advent of the glorious iPhone, but the day-to-day stuff I need my computer for gets done pronto. I love it.

Anyway - Did I mention Cousin Carl likes water slides? OH! Right, I did. So, while I was in adult land at the regular pool, Carl & Zach stashed their stuff with me & ran off to the slide. After 15 torturous minutes of them being gone, I finally got up to see what all of the commotion was about. This thing was AMAZING. I nonchalantly brushed off the lifeguard who told me the slide rules. Who was I? I was certainly not going to ride down that slide.

That lasted approximately three more minutes.

I took my grown-up girl butt to the top of the slide, held my bikini top to my chest, and swished & swooshed all the way to the water-going-up-the-nose ending. It was SO.MUCH.FUN. So much, in fact, that I coerced Rp to finally come down to the pool & do it with me three more times. We then spent the rest of the afternoon saving ourselves from the heat by working on the lift from "Dirty Dancing" in the pool. I don't want to brag, but we nailed it. He made all of my 5 year old dreams come true. I was finally Baby.

My own personal Patrick Swayze and I realized it was indeed time for the show... so off we went. As he set up, I got a manicure (my favorite way to skip sound check) & thought of places to go for dinner. So really quick, before I go, I have a recommendation for you who live there or are traveling through! Wooo, we love recs!

We ate at a new restaurant in downtown called Blue Hound. It was actually sort of reminiscent to one you'd find in a boutique New York hotel. The food was.... good for the road, but didn't stack up the same way. That's not saying bad though! New York just has the best. Anyway... I digress. As Rp tends to do, he ordered almost every single vegetarian dish available. I would say, we enjoyed about 80% of them. The cheese plate was not their best effort (who throws a hunk of cheddar on a cheese board?); the flat breads were incredible; the cocktails were delicious; and the dessert hit it out of the park. SO, yes, this is definitely a recommendation! Hopefully they'll work out the cheese plate by next time.

menus/lighting

"caramel" popcorn: butterscotch w ancho chili/green salad & basil risotto 

brownies + nutella milkshake/cheese board

I think it's time to wake Patrick Swayze up, so off I go!

I'm getting some good questions, so keep them comin! I'll do a couple of posts for them. 

In transit

I've mentioned epic drives, right? I'm going to tell you something really cute about this particular epic drive: in total to get to Phoenix from San Antonio, it took us THREE DAYS, terrible food from Denny's, a trailer mishap, one night of me sitting alone at a casino bar drinking Jameson on the rocks... and a whole lotta complaining from more than just yours truly. 

See... initially, we had planned for a show in Albuquerque, but due to unfortunate circumstances it wasn't locked down. Bummer. BUT we had a non-refundable hotel booked already, so we were going anyway regardless of unfortunate circumstances! Yay! Who doesn't want to go to Albuquerque (which was only known as 'Alba-kwee-kway' or 'Albacraycray' by Rp & Kyle the whole time we were there)??? It appeared that we were to be saved by one key fact: this particular hotel had a WATER PARK IN IT. Oh, Cousin Carl was so excited. So excited that he forced us to leave even earlier from Roswell than we normally would have. All we hear the entire ride from him is dreams of swishing and swooshing down this magical slide. Finally, once we get within a mile of the hotel, he can't hold his excitement any longer! He calls to make sure they will be open when we get there... or if not, see how early he has to get up to use it. Unfortunate news alert: THE SLIDE WAS CLOSED & WOULD BE FOR DAYS!!! "NOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Carl as he ran to his room in tears. Only the Miami Heat could make him return when we promised to watch the game at the aforementioned casino.

Upon leaving Albuquerque for Phoenix, we needed to have our oil changed, so we unhitched the trailer. Clearly, the trailer should never be unhitched since when the guys went to reattach, it refused. Just said NOPE, not doing it. For over an hour, we called trailer places, maintenance places, and any guy with a tool box... all while Josiah kept saying "We just need a big hammer! A really big hammer, guys, COME ON!" We weren't so polite in ignoring him, so we decided to have a meeting of the minds on our next step. Finally upon incessant persisting about this "BIG HAMMER," Ron finally said... "OK, just do it and don't break anything." One problem... no big hammer... but there was a big rock. And what do you know... that little stinker was right. He smacked the hitch with a giant rock & it popped right into place. Maybe next time we'll be a little less apprehensive when Mr. Josiah Leming offers advice.

So, off we went... we drove through beautiful mountains... Zach ate a lollipop with a dead scorpion inside of it... we learned about the vast temperature difference between Flagstaff, AZ & Phoenix, AZ despite only being a few hours apart. The rest of the ride was pretty nice.

As we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel, we were tired, but glad to be there. The final twist of the trip came with no warning, but redeemed all of Carl's faith in humanity. Our hotel? HAD A WATER SLIDE.

the end. see you next time for Phoenix!

PS - I get a lot of questions about the tour, the guys, and what it was like to leave my job/life and become a vagrant (or fancy homeless as we like to call it). I'm compiling them now to answer in a post, so if you have any, feel free to email them (travelsizeme83@gmail.com) or comment below! 

Things You Didn't Know About San Antonio

I suppose I don't need to tell you this... but it's HOT in San Antonio. Like, melt your face off hot. Luckily, ours stayed in tact for the 2 nights we were there, but I don't know if we would have been as lucky on the 3rd day. Here's a crazy thing I didn't know about San Antonio: it's ridiculously touristy! Who knew The Alamo was a big enough attraction to warrant a Ripley's Believe it or Not & Times Square-esque t-shirt shops? I for sure didn't know. So there we were in tourist-town.

prickly pear marg

Normally, I'm pretty averse to touristy-type things, but my cousin (who once lived there) told us the River Walk was nothing to be afraid of.  It's full of restaurants, shops, and is probably 20 degrees cooler than the streets above. So, off we went... in search of more mexican food & margaritas.  Dear Texas - stop being so good at Mexican food! I surely gained 7-8 pounds in tortillas and cheese... I'm sure the multiple delicious margaritas had nothing to do with it - and I'll never blame them!

Another thing you don't know - ducks love mexican food. We encountered multiple ducks of this variety & if you don't feed them their favorite food, they nip at your legs. Ron learned that the hard way & now can't look a duck in the eyes again. Poor guy.  If only he'd handed over that tortilla. 

Since I wasn't prepared for the touristyness of the town, I also wasn't prepared for our hotel to be resort-like. We had exotic birds roaming around, a pool with a mini waterfall, and fruit-infused water in the lobby. I mean, lets face it... this type of hotel isn't an every-night occurance out on the road, so I took full advantage of the situation. Ron and the boys (minus Josiah, who seemed to be the only one with a brain that day) all went to go play baseball in the 100° heat. Josiah and I hung back to tan (aka freckle) ourselves by the pool. Our poor skin... so not used to these types of rays, so our fair faces got a tad burned. Lesson in sunscreen noted.

I'm going to go ahead and apologize for this overly boring post. Not my best, I'll admit. Oh, but you know what this means?? It means you're all caught up on Texas! Not one other good thing happened. I'll just cut it off here and give you the pictures. Everyone loves pictures!

the offending duck/the offended Ron

pretty pool

thanks thanks thanks, hotel

the river walk

the river walk

if you didn't know, when you go touristing with boys, they are not interested in pictures. Self portrait. You're welcome

The Alamo at night (when the guys were watching basketball)

The Alamo at night... spooky and pretty

please note the Crockett Hotel. PLEASE.

this crew

look at this crew right here. quick pic of our van crew before we go out in LA tonight. If you were in the city tonight, hope you caught the show! If you didn't get tix in time.... we'll see you soon. SUCH A GOOD CROWD!

Meet Hank Jr.

I'm not a fan of dead animals. I like them very much alive and pet-able. For some reason that is unclear to me, men like dead animals to grace the front of their trucks. "But, you guys don't have a truck" some would say with confusion in their voice.... Yes, my dear, you are correct. However, that did not stop the following from happening:

Upon driving the 20 min outside of Austin to visit the Salt Lick (in the post below), we passed a man in a van on the side of the road selling longhorns & skulls. It took every ounce of Kyle's being to not skid us into a u-turn and start the negotiating process right then and there. Luckily, the prospect of BBQ is too powerful & we made our way safely to Salt Lick with promises to return. 

After an amazing afternoon, we piled back in the van to head to San Antonio. I sat quietly in the back hoping they'd forget about the man on the side of the road... but wishful thinking only gets you so far in this van. Forget, they did not... and below is a photo journal of the events that took place in order to secure Hank Jr. on the front of the van. 

The selection: Just horns or horns + skull?? DECISIONS.

a transaction

Securing Hank Jr. to the van. Notice shirts are off since it's 100° out. Awesome.

This was a mistake. I accidentally took this, but it displays my distaste for the situation so accurately that I HAD TO POST. 

In an attempt to correct the above, I took this thinking it would show my unhappiness. Doesn't hold a candle to other. Raw emotion right there.

...and we're finally done. Here he is in all his glory. Ready for the road and tied to a van... just how God intended it. 

Austin

Confession time: Austin, I love you… ahhh, I do indeed love you so very much. I’ll never claim you as my own, but I’d like to say we have a mutual admiration for each other. Shhh, we were introduced via an ex, but that is neither here nor there. Sometimes love blossoms in the strangest of places. And now everyone knows. EVERYONE. All six people who read this.

Unfortunately, our stop in Austin was a brief one & we didn’t have time to play a show (because we’re coming back soon!). This means we didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to partake in some of my favorite things:

• Swimmin holes – Barton Springs or Hamilton Pool
• East Austin - good tex mex & bars that aren't found on 6th st (although, those are fun for people watching)
• Tacos tacos tacos (keep reading for our mistake on this)

Oddly, RP and I were craving Indian, so we went to the highest rated Indian restaurant in Austin – The Clay Pit. Umm, wouldn’t recommend. Not bad, but definitely not worth writing about.  I guess that’s what we get for craving Indian in a Mexican-centric town!

Salt Lick BBQ & RP with his ever present phone

At least we did not miss one MAJOR thing: a stop at Salt Lick BBQ. It’s about 20 min outside of the city, but well worth the trek. RP and I both classify it as the best we’ve ever had. So, we popped in, put our name on the list and got a couple buckets of beer for everyone but the driver to drink. We were set. One slight problem: my recent vegetarianism! Yikes, forgot about that little situation. I was persuaded by my fellow travelers to put it on hold… I didn’t want to miss an experience right? Plus, as I was kindly reminded, my reasons behind the diet change are varied, but do not involve me thinking that we, as human beings, SHOULDN’T eat meat (I won’t go into my reasoning here, but if you’d like a post about it, throw it in the comments). SO, I did it. I ate meat AGAIN! This is proving to be trickier and trickier the further away I get from NYC. Any vegetarian readers care to give me some support or words of wisdom of how you got through the first hurdles? I’ve been doing it for about 6 months & it’s been a breeze until these last couple of weeks.

Anyway, back to the meat. The boys decided to get "All You Can Eat"... which is not just a cute saying here, but a threat. Each plate they bring gets bigger and bigger until you have to fold and admit that you can no longer consume BBQ of any variety. 

Unfortunately, it was delicious. Too delicious. So delicious, in fact, that when we put our full bellies back into the van,  IT WOULDN’T MOVE! No matter how much Cousin Carl pushed the trailer, it just stayed put. Just kidding, but that would have been a better ending to the story. What am I saying?? That would have been horrible. Knock on wood. Instead of that, Josiah ran around like a maniac (like he tends to do), Ron picked me a very small flower for the van, and we traveled down the street to pick out Hank, Jr., who now graces the front of the van with his presence...

… but that’s a story for next time. 

Sorry for the lack of smiles in the pictures... I have an easier time being behind the camera than in front of it.

See you later!

Going through the big D

See? I told you I’d write some real words about real things. We just finished up a nice little run in Texas, so it’s about that time that I gave you an update on our whereabouts. You know what I’m skipping over? OKLAHOMA. I’m sure you guys that live there are lovely, but unfortunately I kinda thought your town was a stinker. Actually, I know you guys are great because we had amazing fans & a great turnout at the acoustic show.  Nonetheless, no OK update for the rest of y’all. If you’d like to see what it’s like, then take a trip!

who doesn't love a grainy iPhone
pic of my face?

So we begin this story in a little town called Dallas, Texas… where the margaritas are cheap, but plentiful, and the fans were rowdy, but fabulous. After waltzing our butts into a GREAT venue (TREES - where Nirvana & U2 have both graced the stage) & setting up to play, we wandered down the street to Pepe’s. Hello, happy hour! Three dollar margaritas??? YES, INDEED. If you know me at all, you know that I’m not a fan of tequila unless it is hidden by limes, salt, and ice. These were splendid & I did partake in more than one. Good choice, if I do say so myself. Our first foray into food in Texas did not disappoint either. If there is one thing you can almost 100% bank on in TX, it’s incredible Mexican cuisine.

We only stayed a night in Dallas, but it was one well spent. Fantastic venue, fans, and we can’t wait to come back. Since our journey here was mostly about the show (and $3 margs), I’ll give you some show pics below. The boys are killing it out here…

Playlist

I promise I am working on some posts about real things... things like BBQ, longhorns on the van, and swimming pools. We're on a long drive today & I'm determined to get a bunch of work done, so no time for real bloggin! Luckily, the work I'm doing partially involves listening to new music, so all time isn't wasted here. PLUS, since it's been a little bit since I talked to you, I thought I'd give you something to get you by... since I know you've missed me.

Today in my ears & things you should listen to!

Passion Pit: Take a Walk & I'll Be All Right

Wintersleep: Hello Hum (checking out the new album & diggin it)

Tanlines: Not The Same (really enjoy the whole album)

Milo Greene: Take a Step (still feeling it out... So far still partial to 1957)

Sharon Van Etten: We Are Fine

POLICA: I See My Mother & Amongster

Twin Shadow: Slow & I Can't Wait (these guys are playing all the same rooms as us, so I can't stop thinking about them!)

Yeaysayer: Henrietta

The Mynabirds: Body of Work

Walk the Moon: I Can Lift a Car


I'm also having a bit of a 90s country session, but you guys probably don't care about that. I care, but you don't.

Welp, that's all the time I have.

right now...

thursday night in Dallas...

Who has the blues?

Not me! Not me at all in Memphis. Apart from being totally exhausted from a lovely wedding weekend full of fun and zero sleep... oh and the tornado-like winds we encountered when we arrived... Memphis was quite wonderful!

The guys did a small, exclusive acoustic show. I love doing these - such a cool experience for the audience! It's like being in our living room (if we had terrible hotel room carpet).

After the show, we all headed down to Beale Street. We were STARVING, so we of course made a stop for some BBQ at the Blues City Cafe. I made an exception on the no meat rule & tried some ribs... you know, they were all right. Being a lady from the South, I've had better, but no real complaints. Plus, being the infant mostly vegetarian that I am, I had some meat eating remorse. Oh welllllll.

Beale Street

things found: Zombies & Sammy Kershaw. Not related

Anyway - since drinking in the street is a thing here, we just HAD to. Who doesn't like to drink in the street? You feel like such a rebel. True story: Brooklyn does not allow you to drink in the street. I once was gifted a $25 fine for doing so. But here, they just let you!

beers/street

OH! and if you aren't following me on the twitter, you probably don't know that I'm now obsessed with creating gifs through gifboom. They are the most fun ever. Clear representation:

  

Overall, Memphis was a blast! Met some nice people, drank some street beers, listened to some blues... and then slept for a much needed 10 hours. Any suggestions for things we missed that we need to hit next time? TELL ME in the comments!

Omaha

(somewhere in middle America...) 

(yeah, that was a Counting Crows reference. If you were too good for them in the 90s then I have no business with you! just kidding)

I guess I'll post now! OMAHA. What a great venue, indeed. Rp and the boys played at The Waiting Room. Great, great space. The crowd was certainly entertaining & we can't wait to visit again. But you guys don't care about THAT. You care about the stuff I'm about to tell you.

First of all, I booked an appointment to get my nails done while the boys were sound checking. Typically, I do anything I can to NOT be around for the glorious check of sounds.  It's boring, there's feedback from the monitors, and everyone's in a bad mood. PLUS, I had to get my nails done for the wedding weekend anyway. However, the further I walked from the venue... the more I realized I wasn't in the best neighborhood in the world. Usually, I'm an idiot & ignore my instincts but since Rp was preoccupied with the aforementioned sounds and not my whereabouts, I thought it was best to head back to the venue and avoid the ninjas that were certainly ready to kidnap. 

Luckily, by the time I got back, the guys were ready to depart to find food and drinks! Cousin Carl, Kyle, Ron, and I proceeded to go on the cutest double date ever.

First, we started out with a pre-dinner Bloody Mary at an adorable bar across the street named Krug Park.  DELICIOUS. They had an amazing array of Bloody Mary options to choose from. I got the veggie, while Cousin Carl and RP had the Chipotle. Kyle went with a Bloody Maria, which I will never touch in my life as it is made with tequila... and I don't associate myself with the stuff unless it's in margarita form.

Next, we dined at Lot 2 - an easy choice as it was directly next door to Krug Park. I don't know what it is with our luck with small, cute restaurants lately, but this did not disappoint! Everything was perfect. I wish it existed in Brooklyn. I'd go every day! Or every other day. They adjusted things to fit a vegetarian palate (on request), but the burgers looked insane if it happened to be a meat eatin day (it almost never is for me, but stillllll). The four of us even split a bottle of wine and shared dessert. I'm not sure, but I think it's getting serious and we'll go out again. Fingers crossed!

this was a cheese plate

clearly, we hated our food.

'till next time, Omaha!