Captain's Blog: Stardate 7734 (upside down on a calculator)

JUNE 12TH | The Bug Jar w/ The Show Is The Rainbow, UUVVWWZ | Rochester, NY
La Quinta w/ Beers | Buffalo, NY

Rise and shine in Erie, PA, and the merch spills out when we open the trailer. Should have been an obvious sign of things to come, but we weren’t looking for signs. We were looking for breakfast.


We had decided to head up to Niagra Falls on the way to Rochester, NY, so after breakfast we started on what would become quite an adventure. We got to the Canadian border, only to be redirected to the Canadian Customs immigration department for not having our passports (we had kinda sorta checked to see if we needed them or not, and the kinda sorta consensus was that we didn’t). At the immigration office we were informed that not only should we have registered all of our gear with U.S. Customs before coming to Canada, not all of us were “approved” to cross into Canada - more exclusive details on this in the Official GAH RFT Tour Diary®.

So after being declined by Canada, we were redirected back through U.S. Customs, who were significantly less polite than the Canadians. Go figure. Anyway, after 20 min. of having our van and trailer searched despite having paperwork stating that we never actually entered Canada, they sent us on our way.

As we approached a toll booth near Buffalo, Mike had the van brakes seize up on him and almost plowed into the car in front of us. We stopped at a gas station in Depew, NY to check it out, and decided to take it over to the service station next door.



We met Ernie and Johnny, the guys at FastTrack, who took a look at our brakes and determined that since we still had a warranty on the van, we should get it towed to a Ford dealer.




Mike called the Ford dealer, whose service shop was about to close for the day. Mike explained that we had a show in Rochester that we were trying to get to, but the guy on the phone told him they would look at it tomorrow, and depending on the problem, they might not be able to get a part in until Tuesday. Having no other choice, we called a tow truck to take it to the dealer. Mike rode along to drop the van off.



Ernie, being the nice guy that he is, gave Eric H. a ride to UHaul to see if they had a van that we could rent, only to find that they don’t have passenger vans. Ernie then drove Eric H. and I to the airport to try to rent a vehicle (or two), since we were still trying to make it to the show that night. After finding that almost every rental company had no available vehicles, we talked to Shannon at Enterprise, who told us she had no minivans, but if we could wait awhile, she could get us an SUV. At this point we had ruled out making it to the show, but an SUV could actually move the seven of us from the service station to a hotel, so we decided to go for it.

Meanwhile, back at the service station, Eric E., Ryan, Kiley, and Stephen had nothing but time on their hands. Boredom sets in…









A human snowman...


Herman the snail...


Ryan Archer Adams of Robin Hood's Merry Men...




Finally, Eric H. and I returned with our Chrysler Pacifica


We headed over to the Buffalo Brewpub for some hotwings. When in Buffalo…


Finally we got a room at the La Quinta down the street and put an end to a long, crazy day.
Our MVP Of The Day is shared between Ernie and Johnny at FastTrack, and Shannon and Kate at Enterprise. Thanks for your help, guys.

The Plaid O’ The Day®


Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


Cheers,
Steve | GAH

Bilbo Bloggins

JUNE 11TH | Garfield Artworks w/ The Show Is The Rainbow, UUVVWWZ, Moustache Required | Pittsburgh, PA

We got to Pittsburgh with plenty of time to kill, but we decided to find the venue first and then figure out where to go. Some shots from the drive…





We found the venue, and then headed back the way we came to a cool strip of shops. We hung out there until load-in, at which point we headed back to the venue, only to find out we still had an hour to kill. So we napped in the van.

Garfield Artworks


We opened the show with a solid set, capped off by Darren from The Show Is The Rainbow joining us onstage to bang a drum on “The Book of Matches”. We loaded off, and then proceeded to be thoroughly entertained for the next couple of hours:

Moustache Required





UUVVWWZ





The Show Is The Rainbow













For his spontaneous percussion contributions, his own energetic set, and because he tattled on us to our booking agent for playing a good show, Darren is Our MVP of the Day. Also…

The Plaid O’ The Day®:


Seven Things That Represent The Members Of Our Band:


After the show we loaded up and drove to Erie to stay with one of Stephen’s friends, planning to hit Niagra Falls on the way to Rochester, NY, the next day.

To be continued…

Cheers,
Steve | GAH