We made our way down to Lansing, VA where we met up with our host couple, Suzy and Brian Spears. This was a unique situation in which Suzy had offered to give us free haircuts. It was like nothing we had ever experienced! When we got to the salon there was dinner and drinks waiting for us… so while one of us was in the hot seat, the rest of us were chilling out and eating. Good stuff. This again, was a late night. The haircuts started at around 9pm and finished at 2am. Here’s a video recapping this experience….

We spent the night at the Spears.  The next morning we woke up to an overwhelming breakfast, said our good-byes and were off to Washington.  The day in DC covered the Capitol Building, Washington Memorial, World War 2 Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, a walk by of the Vietnam Memorial, the White House, lunch, Starbucks, the Airspace Smithsonian, a drive by of the Jefferson Memorial, getting lost, finding the Iwo Jima Memorial by mistake and being thrilled that we had gotten lost because of our find,  and finally dinner with our friend Chris Stoneburner.  Our feet were a bit sore by the end of the day.

Our next stop was Richmond, VA — home of Hechler, David (our sound engineer).  It was awesome seeing where he grew up.  We stayed with his parents, and played a show the next night at his church.  It was our first time using our new in-ear system, so it was a bit rough technically on stage, but the crowd was really into and made the show!  Thank you Richmond!

The next day we welcomed the sun into the day heading down the road towards Birmingham, AL.  Traveling through Atlanta was probably the toughest part of the trip, but even there the traffic was still moving.  We arrived at the venue by 7pm.  At first glance, it seemed like we were going to have to play a stripped down set because of space, but instead, we decided to blast the speakers; and that seemed to work pretty well.

By the end of the night we had a full house, and we were having a great time!  This was where we finally felt like we were getting into the groove of the tour… we locked in and just had an awesome time playing!  We spent the next 2 nights in Birmingham with Naph’s family… thank you Aunt Lisi! Some of the guys even got a bit of Southern culture introduced to them. Bless their hearts.

Next stop… North Carolina.

Well, we made it through our first tour.  To some that may not mean too much, but to those of you that have been on the road with close friends for more than a week at a time know exactly why it’s an accomplishment!

We all convened in Bushnell, IL (home of Cornerstone Festival and the Chatterton family) for two days of prep work for the tour that included practice, oil changes, new tires, new brakes, sound system analyzing, 3am nights, and what I think took the longest… fitting everything we had into our little van and trailer.  We pack like girls.

The tour kicked off in St. Louis, MO with our good friends the Fundamental Elements.  We arrived at the venue, set up, played, packed up and were out of there.  We managed to get on the road by 1am with a 16hr. trip ahead of us and “The Office” on our minds… next stop Scranton, PA.  The trip went smoother than planned, but we braved the night without a heater, just some blankets, sleeping bags, and Starbucks… lot’s of it.  We arrived at 7pm the next day, and got to check out the local mall that had some “Office” memorabilia, including the “Welcome to Scranton” sign from the beginning credits. The show went well despite low attendance, and we had a good time on stage.  We left Scranton that night at around 12:30am and made the 3hr. drive to York, PA where we stayed with some good friends of ours, the Katz family.

Pulling in around 4am we got a good solid 4hrs. of sleep till we had to get up for sound check at Action Church.  You should check them out… it’s an awesome/unique approach to church.  I think the only thing that was keeping my eyes open was all the caffeine I had consumed… healthy? I think not, but it got the job done.  And I love coffee.

We spent the day with the Katz and got to hang out with some old friends from college.  Mr. Katz went above and beyond with fixing our heater and pretty much everything else that was wrong with the van free of charge!  Sometimes we tend to doubt that what we’re doing is what we need to be doing… it’s things like this that re-affirm our doubting minds.

Next stop… Washington DC…