December 2

All 15 of us woke up at the same time and had the dire urgency to pee, a very inconvenient happenstance seeing as how there was only one bathroom we were all sharing. After the line (similar in length to a woman’s restroom line at a ballgame) dwindled down and everyone was washed up, we started the drive to Tampa, the final show in Florida. Jeff lives in a town called Winter Park, Fl; a jazzy conglomeration of fine shops and restaurants married with the hip urban feel of a college town. We navigated our dirty oversized van and trailer through the ornate streets like the RV full of redneck cousins that show up to a formal family reunion. On the way out I spotted a Pita Pit and got a sandwich almost the size of a watermelon; chomping down on it as I steered one-handed until we hit the interstate and pressed onward with a steady cruise control. We arrived at the Brass Mug, a simple bar with a stage that features free pool and $5 pitchers at happy hour. The clock struck happy right when we arrived there and I treated myself to several friendly games of free pool after we loaded in. It was a pretty normal night. The show ran smoothly and we all were packed into the bar, which unfortunately allowed smoking. There was no ventilation and towards the end of the night my vision was more blurred from the heavy smoke than if I had been sucking down the $5 dollar pitchers all evening. When we were playing I wished I were the guy in that band Slipknot that wears the gas mask on stage because that would have been the only way I could have comfortably breathed. After the show we said bye to our Florida friends and took a massive group photo with them next to the dumpster. We drove an hour or so to Beverly Hills, FL to spend our day off at Adam’s relatives. The next day would be very low key, but the perfect set up for how absolutely crazy the following 2 days were to be. Stay tuned.