California

This is the view that I wake up to one tuesday morning. WOW. Our first trip to California, it's such a romanticized state and it succeeded in romanticizing me. As I looked out the window, I try and describe it in my head: "hills blanketed in brown, no prettier than brown......yielded in yellow, no more regal than yellow......garnished with Gold, that's it! Gold- for the Golden State." If there is anything that can put you in a better mood after being in a van for 40 hours, this could! So we made it, 46 hours later to this camp in Cali where we are to play. We drive up a 25 mile steep switchback which takes us 1.5 hours with the van and heavy trailer. We try not to think about the trip that awaits us, the trek back down,,,,,,dun Dun Dun.

At the camp, I take to the hills solo as soon as I have the chance to a lookout called 'Inspiration Point'. It was perfect therapy after the longest van ride to date. My soul was quiet and that's when I heard it. One of the most beautiful sounds ever (i think). I've heard it before, on a run, but not to this magnitude.

The sound of Trees. Evergreens. Like a distant waterfall, but less fluid, less predictable. Like a moving train, but not so strong, more breakable. As if they are whispering to each other some sweet endless secret.

The camp is home to "King David". Supposedly, the 5th largest Sequoia tree in California. Of course we had to see it! It was awesomely big, this is us standing in the trunk. King David was unfortunately no longer alive due to a lightning strike, must have been a major bolt to knock this guy down! Giminee!

The sun goes down on a wonderful day in California, but the adventure had just begun. The guys played at 10:30 PM. Started out great, typical show. In the middle of the 4th song, all power is LOST! uh oh. Multiple people try and fix it, but the show is inevitably canceled. We travel 46 hours to play 4.5 songs.....a little too ironic, yeah i really do think.

1:00 AM PT. We're all bummed and exhausted as we start the trip back down the steep mountain road. We get about 20 minutes down the mountain and we have no break pressure! not good. Chris assesses the situation as breaks that have overheated due to the strain of our heavy trailer. We wait all night, still not safe to go down with the trailer. So we leave it where we are and head down just with the van. It was a fairly minor problem that was fixed later that day and had us back on the road (w trailer) that afternoon. We are grateful that things worked out as well as they did =)

This event triggered us missing our shows for the next two nights (Arizona and CO show), but as you will see - we made the most of it! Or lost most of it ;) $$$$$