=======================================================================================

Entry Two: a summary of events from July 9 through July 12, 2004

Dearest Tour Diary:

Today, Joe and I marvel at the natural beauty contained in the southwestern United States. We spent our afternoon staring down canyons in Zion National Park, and now we ride through the Nevada desert. Las Vegas fast approaches, and we will soon leave it in our dust. Tonight we will arrive in the City of Angels, but first, let me recount our recent adventures.

We drove a lot last Friday, the 9th of July, and decided to camp in the middle of Nebraska. Yes, the Corn Husker State certainly lived up to its name, as there were many husks of corn visible from our scenic drive along Interstate 80. Camping proved to be a wet experience. Thunder and lightning mildly disturbed our slumber, and eventually, we awoke to find our tent floating in a small pond.

We zipped along and eventually found ourselves in Boulder, CO for the first library show of the tour. An insane number of people came to the show and made us feel like rock stars by screaming lots and applauding loudly. We rocked this library so much that, for the first time in history, earplugs were used in a library.

Afterwards, we played to a crowd of eight at Darren's 30th birthday party. We tried out our acoustic set and it worked pretty well. This is good news because we'll have to use it at the pirate store in San Francisco.

That night we stayed with Melanie, the best librarian in Colorado. She's responsible for making the <awesome> Boulder show happen, and then she let us sleep on her couch and fed us strawberries and pancakes in the morning and even made us some French-pressed coffee. Oh yeah, and she gave us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the road. See what I mean? Best librarian ever.

The following day featured much driving. We got free slurpies at 7 Eleven (because it was 7/11), and we listened to 6 episodes of This American Life. We also broke down and had our first fast food of the trip. We each indulged ourselves with a #2 Sonic burger. We survived.

---------------------------->>>
Utah: also know as the party state!

After camping in southern Utah, we used July 12th to visit Zion National Park. The enormous rocks seemed to taunt us, but we knew in our hearts that if there had been an electrical outlet present, we could have shown those canyons a thing or two about rock. Los Angeles, you are next!

<<<---------------
Joe ignores the park recommendation and continues to rock!

Number of shows: 7
Number of doughnuts: 0 (this needs to be fixed)

- Paul 07.12.04