In one of the worst parts between Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA, our van's transmission threw a $1,500 hissy fit.
A stranger saw us in need, and pulled over to help us assess the situation. His name was Mason.
After some time tinkering with the van on the side of the road. He proceeded to push our van from behind with his truck, further off the road, and further away from traffic (which was 2 trucks per hour). There we hung tight, while him and Daniel went off to the nearest gas station to buy transmission fluid. It didn't do the trick, so he pulled our van with his truck and a chain to the nearest mechanic. We left the van overnight since everything in Pecos closes around 430pm, and by that point it was 6pm. I wish I had pictures of the next point in the story, but I don't. We stayed at this guy's (Mason) house haha. I literally could go on for hours and hours about what his house looked like, and it's location, but to save time; imagine The Hills Have Eyes. When we entered his house in the middle of the desert, which was dusty and miles and miles away from anything, we realized how scared we should be. Mason is a fully trained black belt in Karate. He was on his way to being a contender for the Olympics, but was in an auto accident which prohibited it, and his massive display of trophies showed us he could easily kill us. Also the large amount of buck knives, switch blades, and throwing knives was a good indicator that we should turn around and run, but we didn't. I mean he wore a cross around his neck, we should trust him right? haha. Either way, we ended up being safe, but he had to wake up very early for work, which sucked since it was already after midnight by the time he was done making us TV dinners and telling us about himself. Around 530AM, I kid you not, I awake to Mason standing in the corner of the room while the stereo is BLARING Nickelback's "Gotta Be Somebody". The absolute worst way I have ever woken up. Tired, and listening to Nickelback. He took us to the mechanic, and left for work. We hung out around the van until the shop opened up 2 hours later. He couldn't fix it, so we paid to have us and the van towed 70 miles to the nearest city with a public school system. Odessa, Texas.
There we met Carl.
We left the van at Carl's shop, but had to keep moving. We had a fairly big show to play in Los Angeles, CA and we wanted to make it, so what to do? Rent a box truck! Here is that truck.
We then proceeded to travel to California, all while living out of the back of it. Below if you look closely you will see our equipment against the back wall, and sleeping bags on the floor. Whenever we all 4 slept at the same time, there was plenty of room. Usually only two would sleep in the back though, while two drove up front. No equipment ever rolled, and it was a totally awesome experience being able to run around while in a vehicle traveling 75MPH.
We got to Los Angeles the day before the festival and met up with our lawyer for lunch. He took us to this awesome outdoor restaurant/hotel. It looked extremely expensive. Good thing HE paid haha. We got a hotel, and rested up for the festival we were playing the next day (Bamboozle). It was a lot of fun playing Bamboozle. We played both Saturday and Sunday of the festival, so we got to meet a lot of people both days. I am sure we will probably post photos from the festival on our page sometime soon, so if you are interested in what it looked like there, be sure to check out our page. Here is a photo of one of the walkways at the festival.
Someone sent me a picture of our set that they took with their phone.
After Bamboozle, we drove 15 hours with the box truck, back to Odessa,TX to pick up our newly fixed van from Carl the wonder mechanic. From there we drove 22 hours home. We are home until the CD release, then back out on the road with Lydia. Sleeping in your own bed is a very nice thing.
It was definitely a good time, and the whole journey was one that we will talk about for many years. Definitely set us back a good chunk of change though. Transmission rebuild, box truck rental for 2300 miles, hotels, etc. Oh well! Hopefully the CD release will help put us back on our feet.
DON'T MISS THIS! IT'S COMING UP REALLY FAST!
