West Coast!!

Well we are finally in Portland, OR and staying with the lovely Amanda Breese!

Golden Gate Bridge!

San Francisco was wonderful and welcoming to us.  Joe A. got to catch up with some old friends and we all enjoyed a good show at The Plough and Stars, an authentic irish pub on Clement St.  It was good to be playing again after taking a few days off to camp in Yosemite.  After SF we hit Hwy. 1 for a beautiful drive up the coast.  We stopped in Arcata, CA to play an open mic and catch up with an old friend.  In Arcata met a fellow-traveller named Harper who ended up hitching a ride with us to Portland.

Joe standing on the trunk of a Redwood

Stopped in the Redwoods, which were incredible, camped on the beach, playing shows in Portland and then heading back east!

The road goes on forever...

Well it's been a while since we've had enough time or access to wi-fi to post a new blog entry but here it is!  We finally made it to the west coast and are currently in San Francisco!  Since the last post we went to Flagstaff, AZ where our good friends Tarik, Stephen and Anthony met us and played a great show.  Flagstaff was awesome, great vibe and very cool people.

Vegas!

We spent 3 great days with our Binghamton friends and saw the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and Las Vegas (aaahhhh!) with them before parting ways.

Grand Canyon!

After that we continued on our journey and drove through Death Valley (hotttttt) and into Yosemite Ntnl Park.  Yosemite was absolutely gorgeous (if you haven't been there, you need to go).  Although we didn't see any of the bears they kept warning us about, we did get to see some giant sequoias and the beautiful Sierras.

Yosemite!

We are playing a show in San Fran tonight and hopefully will be seeing our good friend Franny Urda!  More to come soon and lots of stories to tell when we get back!

Lubbock, TX rules!

Well everyone in Austin, TX told us Lubbock would suck and they all referred to it as "Buttocks" too but when we pulled into the Buddy Holly's hometown we met some wonderful people, had great BBQ and found a gorgeous campsite on Buffalo Springs Lake.  We all played a great show at the Blue Light for a bunch of college kids (Texas Tech is in Lubbock, 32,000 undergrads) who loved us and we can't wait to go back!  "Tear it up Yankees!", they kept shouting.  Too funny.  Now we are in Santa Fe, NM.  Beautiful town with an old "pueblo" vibe.  Turns out they are having their "Burning of the Zozobra" festival today so fortunately for us we get to see a 40-foot figure go up in flames!  Very exciting!  Pictures to come once we see it all go down!

Here are some pics I couldn't upload yesterday:

Driftwood at Momo's

The crew with our wonderful new friend Eric in Austin!  He was great!

Nashville/Arkansas!/Austin, TX

Well it's been a while since we have had a chance to update the blog but we haven't had any internet in a while.  There are so many stories to tell but I will keep it short and snappy for now and let the stories be told when we get back home.  After Johnson City, TN we hit Nashville for a night and got to see a few good friends including Aaron Raitiere, who played on the same bill as us at The Listening Room.  

Aaron Raitiere

After Nashville we headed to Arkansas!!!  Crossing over the Mississippi River into Arkansas was an exciting moment for us all and we were greeted with the sweet smell of wildflowers alongside of the highway.   We played a show in Little Rock with a band called Mockingbird (check them out online if you get a chance, they were awesome!) and then took a night to camp on one of the beautiful lakes near Hot Springs National park. We didn't get to see any live Armadillos but we saw 3 dead ones on the side of the highway...  

After Arkansas we fastened our seat belts for the long and hot drive to Austin, TX.  What a time we had in Austin!  We knew the lovely weather we'd experienced for over a week wouldn't last but we didn't realize it would end with a hurricane!  After one day of beautiful weather in Austin, Hurricane Hermine hit with a bang.  Tuesday night we got about 11 inches of rain and some serious flooding. Our friend Eric Jones (good friend of our Binghamton friend Steve Argento) said he hadn't seen weather like this in ages.  We played a show at Momo's which was an awesome venue and then found ourselves at a fiddler's jam with a couple of old-timers.  Eric and his neighbor Jeff showed us around the city and even took us to an old spanish church-turned home where we played for the likes of Kelly Gruber (3rd basemen for the Toronto Bluejays).  It's on to Lubbock, TX now (everyone around here calls in Buttocks), the redneck capitol of the U.S.!  

Taking too long to load pics here with this McDonald's wifi so more to come later!

Asheville, NC

Hey all!  Phew what a couple of days it's been!  Yesterday we spent the day driving from Charlottesville to Asheville.  Absolutely gorgeous drive that took us through the Blue Ridge Mtns and the Pisgah Mtns.  We were all in complete awe of the views.  We pulled into Asheville around 7pm after stopping off in the small mountain town of Marshall, NC (Joe A. lived here for a while).  First sight we saw was a hula-hooping party in the park in the middle of town... yowzers!

Making friends in Asheville, NC

Driftwood set up to do some busking while Joe A. went in search of a gig for the evening.  Busking went alright but we were able to nab the stage at Jack of the Wood (a nice venue for string bands in town) where we ended up getting a gig for the future!  We all really liked Asheville, reminded us of a bigger Ithaca.  Slept in the van along the side of the Blue Ridge Pkwy... a mediocre sleep had by all.  Today we drove to Johnson City, TN where we will be playing with The Barefoot Movement tonight at The Acoustic Coffeehouse.  We stopped off at the beautiful but apparently quite polluted French Broad River (fishing was not so hot).

Chillin' on the French Broad River

Tomorrow... Nashville!!

Charlottesville, VA

After a gorgeous drive through the Shenandoah Valley this morning (see picture of Seneca Rocks...incredible!) we pulled into our second show at The Blue Moon Diner in Charlottesville, VA.  Joe A. had played here before with The Slaves on tour last summer and I had also stopped here once for good food and a delicious local brew.  We were well received and even had some friends there to support us.  Cousins, our couch-surfing host Ross and of course Miss. Wren Plain!!  It was a bit of a scorcher today so busking was difficult but the show was great and everyone was so friendly.  The woman who owns the diner even mentioned having Rally Day pressed onto vinyl! Woohoo!  Off to Asheville, NC now to see what kind of ruckus we can create!

First stop: West Virginia!!

We are finally on the road!  After playing a lovely wedding yesterday in Delhi, NY we passed back through Binghamton one last time (at 1am) to pick up Joe Alston and start our journey.  At about 8:30am we pulled into Thomas, W, a quaint old coal-mining town of appx. 400.   Joe A. and I stopped into a cafe for a coffee and immediately hit it off with one of the locals, who gave us a little history of the town and showed us his art gallery.  Our first show is at the Purple Fiddle today at 1pm and we are super excited!  The venue is always spoken highly of and the people that work here are very warm.  We will be staying at the Purple Fiddle Inn tonight (right next door) where we will hopefully get some much needed sleep, then it's off to Charlottesville, VA tomorrow!