November 23

Last night we successfully arrived in Lawrence, KS, the little brother version of Boulder, CO. It is full of hippies, bicycle freaks, good food and girls everywhere. We pulled in around 12:30 a.m. and because of the long drive and late hour, we were unable to visit the couple of bars there that I hold very dear to my heart. One of those is the Bottleneck. We have played there more times that I can count and I have loved that bar ever since my first tour, when I didn’t even drink. We have been there for karaoke night, dollar pint night, played first day of tour/last day of tour shows…I have even gone to a show there before. It is one of those places where you walk in to and you are bombarded with memories; total sensory overload. So dear Bottleneck, sorry we could not hangout. On the other hand, last night did end up being a corybantic evening; showing me only the tip of the iceberg of all the adventure this tour is going to be. We stayed at my friend Brecken’s house, which is inconspicuously tucked behind a modest little animal hospital—making it impossible to find. She welcomed us in to the best party environment one could ever ask for after driving 9 hours. There were plenty of people to meet and even more cold beer to drink. Some kids were even playing the drinking game called “landmines” which is a staple to my profession of recreational beer consumption. Goose and I got free haircuts in the kitchen and played with her sluggish oaf of a dog named Maddie. All of her friends were really nice and eventually the Jack Daniels and beer set in and we found ourselves laughing around the table playing a never ending drinking game and jamming out to our favorite songs. After a couple rounds of Mario Kart on Nintendo 64 I realized it was almost 6 a.m. so I called it a night and passed out on the floor downstairs. This morning we woke up and left impressively quick to meet up with our friend for lunch and pick up some merch that we had sent to her. The new designs look good and I’m excited to see kids wearin’ them. First show is tonight in St. Louis and we are going to finally meet the Dr. Manhattan guys. I am giggly excited. That’s it for now.