Day 2: Driving to Kansas City

Finger lickin' GOOD!

We rose from our slumber at the side of a man-made pond and beach in the middle of Ohio. The tent was covered in dew and some of it sprinkled onto my face as Sam shook the tent to wake us. We quickly packed up the sleeping gear, left our $20 in the campground office door and headed back onto I-70 West. Today we're pushing on to Kansas City to stay at Sam's Dad's family house, built by his grandparents in the 1960s. We had a pretty straight drive ahead of us and got incredible gas mileage, reaching 16 mpg - which is absolutely terrific for our 90s cruiser. As we reach the Bible Belt, we saw a giant Cross and countless "Did you pray today?" signs. 

Once we reached Missouri, we drove through St. Louis and crossed the Mississippi River, something Nick and Ryan had never done before. It was starting to set in that in only a matter of hours we could reach the Colorado border. 

As we approached Kansas City we stopped in a guitar center for some musical supplies and some quick jamming, then it was off to the best BBQ joint in Kansas City! As we stepped in the door the smell was overwhelming. Our mouths were watering as we waited for a table and grabbed some beer they had on tap from the local brewery. Once seated we quickly read through the different meat options and when we got the food, it was clear this wasn't your Mom's BBQ (sorry mom). It was out of this world!! Very smokey flavor and kind of sweet. Each dinner came with some sides as well, and I'd just like to say the baked beans were to die for. Rest assured we would sleep well tonight!

After dinner we got back to Sam's aunt's house (AKA the Kesler family home) and settled in for the night. Tomorrow would be the day we would reach Denver and there was lots of anticipation in the air.

Day 1: Goodbye East Coast!

"Four Dope Boyz in a Ford Van"

It's 9 am and we've started congregating in sam's driveway making the final packing decisions for the tour. There's a light rain, but nothing could soggy our moods today, this was the start of our first TOUR! We piled in the van, Nick took the helm and steered us out of the Wilton onto the open road. Thanks to Sam's brilliant van engineering, we have two subwoofers and two extra speakers to bolster the van's 1999 two blown out speaker set up. To put it lightly, this van bumps! In the cockpit we have a group collection of 100 CDs (including plenty of Outkast!), a cooler, sleeping bags and copious amounts of snacks - this is shaping up to be a most enjoyable ride. 

8 hours in - we've crossed into Ohio! Planning to pitch our tent at a campground in Springfield for the night. Driving has been smooth so far and we're averaging about 13 miles per gallon - pretty crappy, but it's a 99 15 passenger van, not sure how much better it could get. We're totally missing seth by the way. For those who don't know, he's a student at Brooklyn College in New York and couldn't take off two weeks of classes to come along. Luckily, our good friend Ethan Michael, who goes to Denver University, is more than capable of filling in on bass for the tour. Ethan played two shows on bass back in December as well. 

If all goes well tonight we'll be hitting the road again tomorrow morning en route to Sam's aunt's house in Kansas City for some southern BBQ! 

Packing the Van

We are embarking on our first ever cross-country tour to Colorado! With 8 scheduled shows, we'll be performing in Denver (x3), Boulder and the mountainous towns of Durango, Crested Butte, Vail and Crestone. Our sled is a 1999 E350 15-passenger van named 'Great White'. Along with the band, rides "super-fan" Ryan Rogers, a ton of musical gear, camping equipment and skis. Join us on this incredible two-week journey!


It's Saturday night, March 26th and we've just finished packing up 'Great White' for the first time! With outstanding luck, we actually have a lot more room than we thought and thanks to Sam's fine craftsmanship in building a gear divider wall, we were able to stack cases all the way to the ceiling. We set sail Monday morning at 10 am EST. Make sure to stay tuned throughout the entire tour as we will be doing daily posts to document the trip!

half-way full!