Texas, West Texas.

This is what nothing looks like.

On the ride to Del Rio we encountered a drastic change of scenery. The sky opened up revealing flat bottomed clouds, the Grass turned into sand, and trees morphed into cacti. Upon entering the city limits we struggled to meet up with our friend Jay from home. When we finally united we decided to take a trek to Lake Amistad. At the lake we compared our intersecting cross country journeys, talked about Canadians, and future travel plans. Post-lake we went to see the best movie ever. It was so great, I would pay someone to forget i saw it. I wont tell you what movie it is, you have to find that out on your own! But at least it was a cheap, and we had a great IHOP meal afterwards. And yes, we did get stuck to the booth.













That night we were lucky enough to stay with Lt. Dave Smith of the United States Air Force. It was pretty neat, and unexpected to stay in an air force base. Dave was awesome, he had really comfortable couches, showed us around the town, and took us to get some amazing breakfast Tacos before our depature to Marfa, TX. But one stop to a canyon along the way.


















Everyone we encounterd in Texas said Marfa was really cool, which made the anticipation to see the town build, and build and....well when we got to Marfa everything was closed. It was wednesday at 2:00 pm, the only thing open was a Dairy Queen, and a hair salon.

Aside from our disapointments it did look like a pretty "hip" town, there were tons of art galleries and plenty of eccentric little places to eat... except they were all closed. The Marfa Lights??...maybe next time Marfa, Maybe next time.

Now off to the Birthplace of our forefathers. El Paso, TX. We were in for another change of scenary. The parched air cracked the soil beneath us and mountains rose from the flat, barren earth in the distance. Little did we know, those mountains were luring us to an uncharted victory.












- John Cat.

Austin

Then, we made our way to the wonderful city of Austin, Texas. We had been told of Austin's greatness countless times along our journey, and needless to say we we're pumped to arrive in the live music capital of the world. We spent our first night with Julie, an internet tycoon, and awesome host. She opened up her awesome house to us on short notice. She had so much to share with us. we had a really nice time. She also happened to be the owner of a unique instrument known as the theremin. (an instrument best known for it's classic 50's sci-fi UFO sound).


The following day we spent the afternoon at Barton Springs, a natural swimming pool, a great way to beat the heat I'll tell you what.











Later that afternoon we made our way to Waterloo records and caught an in-store performance by a Chicago band named Maps & Atlases.















Nick locked his keys in the car for the second time in two days and we found ourselves stuck at a record store waiting for AAA once again.
















At dusk we went below the congress bridge in Austin to watch the nightly exodus of bats.














That night we made our way to a local bar called Emo's to see The Maps and Atlases concert. The opening acts were The Globes and Cults, great show, great show. After the concert we spent the night couch surfing with Ryan G.

- Josh Curry

Big Texas

Dallas was super neat.

First stop in Dallas... Taco Cabana: The pink taco. The closer you get to Mexico the better the Mexican food tastes.

After a delicious lunch, we went to our gig at Bill's Records.













We had a great set, and then got to watch the Marmalakes, a cool folk rock trio from Austin. They were a super cool, and great musicians.

After realizing that I had locked my keys in my car, we went inside and hung out with Bill, while we waited for AAA to come. Bill is an awesome guy, hes owned his record store for more than 30 years, he's sold records to all the cats, from Radiohead to the Beastie Boys. He even lives next door to Eryka Badu! It was an honor to not only meet him, but also to play in his store.

After we got back into the car, we headed over to the grassy knoll, where Kennedy was shot. There is still an X in the street where it happened. It was pretty crazy to see.













From there we headed to the house of another fellow Cherry Hillian named Mike, who used to work with Josh at the Little Tuna. Mike opened up his beautiful house to us, and showed us a great night.














We hung out with him and his friends, playing pool, hot tubbing, and Broing out.













The next morning we headed to a pool volleyball game/fish fry before heading south for Austin.

Shreveport

What can you say about Shreveport LA...













Not a whole lot to do there. We hung out with our Couch surfing host Kelly and her friends, and her cool cat Bean Curd.






















Off to Dallas...

Norlans

Time to get phucked.

New Orleans! Crazy city... It's like one big drunk party. We got there early, walked around the french quarter in the blistering heat of mid day. Then we stopped for some Jambalaya. Shit was killin.


















After that we enjoyed the air conditioning at the riverwalk mall, where we experienced our first beignets, as we sat overlooking the Mississippi.

Later we found our way to Will's house. A fellow bass player from Cherry Hill, who is living in New Orleans. We hung out at his place for a hot second, before we went to go see his band play on frenchman street, they were awesome.

Within the hour we found ourselves wandering around bourbon street, taking shots from the mouths of large breasted women, and sipping on big frozen alcoholic beverages. Bourbon street is great.













I made friends with a horse, and Josh made friends with a window manikin.


























There was this bad ass brass band playing some second line stuff on the street corner. They were all kids about our age, and could play their asses off. Almost every bar had music in it, and all the musicians were incredible.
















We stopped for a breather on Canal street, and met a guy from Washington Township... you just can't escape New Jersey!

We made it back to Will's at about 3, and went to bed. Gotta be well rested for Shreveport! On the way out of New Orleans, we stopped for Po' Boys, and Gumbo. mmmmm

Pensacola

Attn: Jake Miller, we got your message in a bottle.




















First stop in Pensacola: Pensacola Beach.
We drove to Pensacola beach parked on the side of the road, got changed and ran over the dunes to the beach only to find hot seaweed filled water. If there's one thing I hate swimming in more than oil, its seaweed. The beach was beautiful, white, sandy, and empty.












Gotta protect that beautiful pale skin from the sun:


















After the beach we wanted to clean ourselves off before getting back into the car...

Our first atempt was a foot pump operated sink. I stuck my foot in the sink while John attempted to operate the foot pump, but the water pressure was not strong enough. So then we attempted to steal a hose hook up from a beach front property that appeared to be empty, but ended up being occupied by a woman who doesn't like to share her hose hook up with 3 strange boys.

Later we went to a peer over the bay to watch the sunset. John and Josh called home to talk to their friends and family, while I had fun with the camera.


Then we went back to our couch surfer's house, where we spent some time with Tom and his friend Miles, who were awesome guys. We learned about the oil spill, and hung out watching myth busters. We had a good nights sleep before driving along the gulf coast to NEW ORLEANS!!!

Birmingham

Birmingham was an awesome city. We got there at about noon. After walking around for a while, we stopped at a local eatery known as "Sneaky Pete's" We learned later why they call it SNEAKY Pete's. We went for the 5 Hot dogs for 5 dollars with ALL the fixin's....


















Later we met up with the wonderful Punky and Lee, who used to be neighbors of the Rahn's 40 years ago in Haddonfield. They were wonderful people, and they took us all over the city, and showed us a great time. We saw the old Sloss Furnace, and the art museum, and they even bought us a delicious BBQ rib dinner :)













Later we met up with our couch surfer Beau, and his friends, who are in an awesome band called "The Arrangement".

From there we went to our gig at "The Nick". The venue ended up being just as cool as its name...

We played with another touring band from Virginia called "The Nerve Scheme" They were really great dudes, and played some awesome punk rock music. The show was truly awesome. We had a great set, the venue was cool as shit, the sound guy was the best I've ever seen (He even re-coned a speaker between the soundcheck and our set.), the bartender was beautiful, and we got 16 free beers!!

After the show we went back to Beau's and went out for some late night food at around 4 AM at this amazing place called "Al's Deli". The perfect end to a perfect day.

We woke up at noon, and drove to the gulf coast....

Tennessee

We drove into Tennessee Nashville bound. We stopped in knoxville for a hot minute, but nothing too exciting there. Nashville was interesting. Lots of over-weight people walking around.












Lots of cowboy hats, and boots,


and 1000 Bluesy Bar bands.












It was very touristy. We played our gig just outside Nashville at the Loud house coffee. We met and interesting family that owns the venue, and spent the night at their house.

Roanoke no Joke

Arrived at the lovely parking lot of "Happy's Flea Market" in Roanoke Virginia at about 2:00 A.M. after fleeing the ultimate basement while we still had all of our kidneys intact. We slept in the car. First time for that... probably won't be the last time.

Our gig in Roanoke was in the "bingo room" of Happy's Flea Market. Happy's is a great little indoor market, where you can get a bargain on used cassettes, broken furniture, and personal weapons.












Although we were skeptical at first the show ended up being really cool. It was organized by a local artist named Dickie, and it was tons of fun.

North Carolina:

A little southern twang served fresh at no extra charge.
Had such a good time in Chapel Hill. We go to see the UNC campus with Garrett, and went swimming with Geoff. We played our first show in Chapel Hill and had an incredible time with Chris and Garrett, and their friends at Jack Sprat.












Next day was spent in search of "compression falls" in Boone NC. We never found it, but got to see some beautiful sights in the mountains of western NC.












The day ended in Mill Spring, where we played a show at "The Ultimate Basement" a video game, skateboard, music, center for kids. Pictures from that show coming soon!













Next stop: Roanoke!

So Far So Good

So we made it all the way to North Carolina!! We are staying in the beautiful "Chapel Hill" home of the UNC Tarheels. I (Nick) have been reunited with some friends who I met in the Netherlands while studying abroad. It's been a night of reminiscing, with fellow study abroaders Chris, and Garrett, while Josh, and John, were forced to hear story after story of fun times had in Europe.

We are playing our first show of the tour tomorrow at Jack Sprat in Chapel Hill. We have a handful of new, unrehearsed material to unveil, hopefuly it all goes well. We are curious to see how these different towns react to our unique breed of music.

...and I can't seem to get Katy Perry's "California Girls" out of my head


Act One: The Paleozoic Era, and what an Era it has been. This was taken from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.. We enjoyed a day trip to the museum where we learned everything ever. Did you know that polar bears have hollow hair? I waited in line for a while to try to get my picture taken holding a giant hissing cockroach, but a bunch of little girls kept butting in front of me, so I gave up, we also attempted to enter the "live butterfly room" before realizing a ticket needed to be purchased.


We checked out the D.C. scene for a hot minute, and had a splendid stay in Arlington, enjoying good food, good company, and a fat old cat.










Delaware was... Delaware. We got to see some farms, and then we went to Rehoboth Beach: "The Melancholy beach"... Delaware

Getting ready

OMG!!! Less than 2 weeks before we leave for our tour!!

We're naming the tour:

"Manifest Destiny Tour"
pushing the envelope cross America.

Wadda think? Pretty great huh?

So far we have 12 shows, out of 45 nights... so you know...

Do you live in the U.S. and want us to come to your town? Let us know, we will try our best!

You are probably thinking, how can they afford to travel for 45 days? Well thanks to Couchsurfing.org where you can electronically meet cool people from all over the world, who are willing to let us crash on their couch for a night, and thanks to volvo's unbeatable fuel efficiency, and the fact that we are traveling in a 5 cyclinder stationwagon, plus the introduction of ketchup packets into mcdonalds condiment counter, and with a little help from our parents unconditional generosity, we will be traveling in style without breaking the bank.

...but if you would like to help us buy some food to put spread that ketchup on, we are offering really cool proffesionaly printed Papyrus Like You T-shirts for a small $10 Donation, and we are also offering professionaly made CDs for a small $5 Donation.

... A little Shameless Self Promition

In other news... The great Michael Boyce filmed us performing at the Khyber on June 2nd, and edited up real nice for us! It looks Incredible! Check it out http://www.vimeo.com/12996900 He also did a really nice job filming the wonderful "Galaxies" that night, which is also up on vimeo. YOU can hire Michael Boyce for your own event or project if you'd like to. His companies website is: http://www.littlemomentsvideo.com/