Arizona to LA

When your sleep is intermittent and you have to snatch it when you can, time doesn't seem to mean anything anymore. 
I know I only left on Sunday with Jason and Kim but that feels like ages ago.  I haven't had the chance to update this blog since we were in El Paso, TX and now we're in LA staying with this awesome One-Eyed Doll fan named Rob Ross. (Kim named him Lob-Loss of life). It's been two days but so much has already happened.

We left El Paso around 9 PM on Tuesday.  Way later than we originally intended.  Jason and Kim had to stop by a Starbucks around 2:30PM so they could take care of some business with the new shiny OED shirts they'll be selling this tour.  Jason also ordered new banners for the show.  We were there for 2.5 hours while Kim worked out the details of the shirt in Photoshop (she runs their website in addition to, ya know, being a rockstar) and Jason took care of the details on the new banner.  I sat around feeling pretty useless for a while.

After we were done there we went to this awesome Chinese Buffet place, ate, recharged and got back on the road to Arizona.  Jason took the first 3 hour shift while I slept.  Multiple gas stations later it was my turn and I continued the journey while Jason slept in the back while Kim and I were up front.

Traveling is a great way to get to know someone as I'm sure some of y'all know.  Kim and I talked for hours and I got a deeper understanding of who she is and where she came from.  I won't go into any detail as its not my place to repeat what she said and betray her confidence in me but I will say that after hearing about some of the things she's been through I have an even greater respect for her.  She's a strong woman in more ways than one.

After 2 hours or so Google Maps turned us off the 10 and onto this long, dark road. Driving in the middle of nowhere, on a completely dark and deserted road with nothing but desert around you for miles in a van that's on its last legs is pretty damn scary.  Exciting... but scary.  We would hit pockets of civilization here and there but it was mostly enveloping darkness.  I love how your mind brings up every bad thing you've ever heard about traveling down long deserted roads in a time like this. I kept thinking, Fuck you brain!  You're supposed to be helpful! 

After an hour of this we finally made it into Kim's cousin's.  Where, at 3:30 AM, they were up and waiting for us with gifts of food and hospitality.  I cannot begin to express how grateful I felt for their hospitality.  Here were these people that had only recently gotten into contact with Kim for about an hour at a show last year extending their home to us.  Its a beautiful thing to meet good people like that. 

We ended up staying up pretty late talking with them.  They're filmmakers and we watched two of their short films.  Her cousin is so passionate about filmmaking and I really enjoyed talking to him and his wife.  Extremely awesome people that I feel lucky to have met. 

I ended up going to sleep because I was dead tired but they stayed up til morning.  As a result I was up by ten or so.  I watched some Futurama on my phone for a while.  Her cousin and his wife got up before Jason/Kim so we ended up talking for a good deal of time.  One of his short films is about the bullshit drug war and we got into deep discussion about it.  I really enjoyed talking with him.

Several hours later, JK finally woke up and after her cousins fed us one more time we were on the road again.  We stopped by this place called Queen Creek Olive Mill.  If you're ever in Arizona I highly, highly recommend getting coffee at this shop called Superstition Coffee.  Bill, who runs the place, is extremely passionate about his coffee and after seeing how we were on the road and traveling he hooked us up with some free espresso shots.  He also gave us a run down of his coffee, showed us his process and I gained a new respect for making coffee.  He turned a morning routine most of us don't even think twice about into an art form.  Needless to say it was some of the best coffee I have ever tasted in my life.  If you're a coffee lover do yourself a favor and in the words of Liz Lemon, "Go to there."

After the coffee we stopped by a Kinko's for 3 hours to make VIP badges.  Kim designed them by hand and once again I was reminded how hard these two work.  Once the initial design was taken care of Kim made about 100 copies of them and I helped package them up.  Afterwards we hit a sushi place and it was time to hit the road again. 

Jason took the first shift as I had been up since 10AM.  It was around 1130PM by the time we got back on the road.  3 hours later it was my turn.  Driving to LA, up those steep hills in a best up old Econoline that seems like its going to break down at any second was definitely an experience.

Come 7AM and we finally get to LA.  Jee-zus-christ!  I thought Austin traffic was bad but LA...LA is goddamn ridiculous!  First off its massive and there is traffic everywhere.  At least in Austin I know ways to circumvent I35 but here in LA I was wary of turning off the highways lest I inadvertently take us to Skid Row or Compton.  In Austin there are places its probably best to avoid but here there are goddamn war zones.  I kept thinking about this documentary that I watched called Crips and Bloods: Made in America.  Needless to say there are place you just don't go here.

Finally, around 9AM we make to Rob Ross's house and once again I am both grateful and humbled that someone would extend their house.  Rob is an awesome dude and I'm glad I've met him.  We dropped Kim off so she could sleep more and Jason and I went to go pick up the new wheels...a swank ass Mercedes Limo.  After the Econoline this thing was a breath of fresh air.  Like night and day.  Even though it has satellite Wi-Fi, power outlets, room enough to stand up in, built in XBOX and TV, wireless headphones, touch screen radio and a sleek black design I'd have to say my favorite feature is the brakes.  I can finally use the brakes without fear of them going out, ha! 

Jason and I drove both vans to a grocery store parking lot where we proceed to transfer everything out of the old van and into the new.  I'd been up for a long time, had intermittent sleep and now it was time to unload and load a a whole van full of equipment.  I can totally see how this kind of life would break people down.  And the tour hasn't even started yet!

Once things were loaded we drove back to Rob Ross's house and Jason dropped me off and picked up Kim.  They had an important lunch meeting with some record execs that was going to last a while.  I took this opportunity to sleeeeep.....

5 hours later I wake up to Jason calling my name.  I was so disoriented.  For a couple seconds there I had no idea where I was or what was happening.  Then it all came back.  It was time to drive Kim to Hollywood Boulevard so she could meet up with Dave Navarro and drop off his custom One-Eyed Doll signature guitar.  She also had a meeting with some important modeling scouts who know the major players in the business.

While Kim was off doing important networking Justin, Rob and I went to pick up our merch girl Melinda.  Another awesome person who'll be traveling with us all over the country helping Kim sell mercy at shows. She and her roommate Corey were in the Committed video.  We went to this bad ass little Indian restaurant in Pasadena, ate some food then went back to Melinda's to chill and wait until Kim was ready to be picked up.  After shooting the shit for a while Kim messaged Jason and it was time to jet.  We said our goodbyes to Melinda until the next day (she had one more night of stability) and went to pick up Kim. 

After we picked her up went to Canters so Kim could eat.  Canters has great food and I recommend stopping by if you ever get the chance.  Apparently the owner is friends with Slash and there's Guns'n'Roses stuff everywhere.  After we were done there we headed back to Robs place, jammed on acoustic for a little while and went to bed.

I then woke up 2 hours ago and started writing this post on my phone.  Today we head to Sacramento and tomorrow is the first day of the tour. 

I can't wait.