Day 1 - Hijacked Vans, Hijacked Shows

We hit the road at about 9AM on Friday the 13th. The trip there was a little bit weird, filled with odd and fun characters. We stopped at a rest stop a few miles before the border to take short break. I went into the bathroom and crapped my little heart out, people jostling the handle, trying to get in the whole time. I opened the door, and there was a red-headed man, and his two young, red-headed boys standing perhaps a foot in front of me, with the most hysterical smiles on their faces. It was sort of creepy. I laughed, washed my hands, and headed out to the van.

We got moving again, and as soon as we got into Blythe, we stopped for John to grab a bite in Pizza Hut. When we walked in, there was a man in a Verizon shirt chuckling quite robustly. He looked at Kellen and I, who were about ten feet from him, and shouted, "Welcome to California!" The man continued guffawing as Kellen and I proceeded to ignore him and continue to the restroom. It felt like something out of a Hunter S. Thompson novel, minus the hallucinogens. (Reminding me that I have a whole ton of his books to catch up on.)

Everyone took care of what they needed to, and we were off again! A few miles down the freeway, a couple of Verizon vans passed us. Then a couple more. Then three more. When all was said and done, fifteen Verizon vans had passed us in the space of about ten or fifteen miles. We had no idea where they were going or what they were doing. (I was hoping that they were actually hijacked Verizon vans, transporting money, guns, and/or drugs across the country.) A while later, we made another rest area stop. As soon as we pulled in, we saw all of the Verizon vans, and the whole rest area was littered with Verizon employees, sitting at benches, walking around, just hanging out in general, having a good time. I got out and noticed a guy, David, that I know from his great photography. (I am, unfortunately, having trouble finding a link to his photos.) I said hi to him and found out that his group was heading to The World Famous Hollywood Magic Castle, which, ironically, I had not heard of until then.

We hit the road again, and arrived at Jake's house a few hours later. Jake told us about a great vegan burrito place just down the street from his place, so we went there immediately, and were not disappointed at all. We went back to Jake's and hung out with him and his pets (my favorite of which was Simon, a cat with girth to rival Garfield), then we headed to the show.

The thing about this show, we weren't on the bill. Someone had asked the promoter about another band jumping on the bill and he had said no. So, we get to the venue, Metaphor, and we load our gear in, saying we're Fucked By Thieves, the first band, who is using some of our equipment. (Actually, they didn't even ask me what band I was in. I rolled in equipment and they stamped my hand.) Fucked By Thieves played a short set and we jumped right on after them, taking about two minutes to get ready. We cut our set a little short, but none of us had a problem with it, since we were hijacking the show and it was awesome.

After the show, we went back to Jake's place, where Kellen, Mark, Jay and I decided to go to a party at Jake's friend's house. John was the smart one who stayed back and slept in the van, but it's not like the rest of us had a terrible time. There were dead baby jokes, massive water pipes, and there was water pong, a taser and, most importantly, Jake's roommate, Kyle, who was one drunk as shit, rad and hilarious. We were there until until about three in the morning until we all begged Jake to let us drive back. As soon as we got back, we went right to sleep.