DAY 27

Drove to Chicago to play at The Darkroom. Our agent, Mary, came to the show and we hung out and we got a hot beef and peppers on a bun to split. It was good. Thax came to the show with another poem he wrote for us. He came to our last Chicago show and read the first one before we played. He did a new one tonight and I got a copy of his book of poetry. Thanks, Thax. You honor us.

DAY 28

Had a day off so we got a hotel, went crazy at Half Price Books, ate at Olive Garden, went and saw Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. The first hotel we checked into, we immediately checked back out of it because it smelled intensely bad. Bad things have happened at this hotel I shall not name. The one we switched to was only 8 dollars more. 8 dollars to not smell a combination of mold, hurl, smoke and possible murder? A bargain.

DAY 29

Drove to Fargo, ND to play at Aqarium. Long drive. Basically not very exciting. Our friend Don drove his motorcycle from St. Cloud, MN to see us though and so that was awesome.

DAY 30

Drove back to Canada :) . Had a Joe Louis to commemorate. Played at The Exchange in Regina, SK. The stage was coming apart like ice floes or Teutonic plates in the earth. We survived. Broke 2 drumsticks in one show about it. By the way, I was chastised by 2 different drummers while in America about the state of my drum heads. My rack tom has a hole in it - I put a piece of tape on it - good as new! So there. Becky broke a string on her guitar 2 songs into the show - too bad she can’t just slap some tape on it.

DAY 31

Got up unnaturally early to drive to Saskatoon, SK for a live noon hour interview on CTV. It went well - and we were surprisingly awake. Wandered downtown - got cd’s and records and such. Many good used stores here. Ate at Amigo’s - damn fine. Did an interview on CFCR - fun. Played at Amigo’s Cantina that night - also good time. Back to the hotel - and scene.

DAY 32

This hotel had a 1pm checkout!! Awesome. Drove to Lethbridge, AB to play at Henotic. We beat the storm, which raged nearby this night. Super nice fellow who owns the joint had a place for us to stay and so we had tequila about it.

DAY 33

Drove to Calgary to find a hotel for which to spend our 2 whole days off in and around. Did so. We’re on a mutual reading kick and spent most of the day doing just that. Actually, that’s been most of the past week. We’re reading fools. We also went to a mall and shopped about it.

DAY 34

Day off. Read books. Went shopping…again. There’s a song right now with a line about how the singer is going to party like a rockstar…books and shopping is how we roll. Ordered in Indian food and did not use the indoor waterslide because it was constantly over run by a serious progression of screaming kids. Sigh.

DAY 35

Got up, tried to do the waterslide only to find the aforementioned screaming kids had control of it at 9 in the morning…they never sleep. Just like the girl in The Ring. We found a cheap movie theatre and saw Year One - finally a movie that was funny. We have this knack of picking the worst movies. For instance we went and saw Aeon Flux a few years back and had to go get popcorn to make the movie worthwhile. Hmm, we probably did some more mall this day too. Drove to Banff and played at The Storm Cellar in the H.I. Hostel. They treated us like gold and in turn, we drank about it.

DAY 36

Got up, had a great breakfast at the Hostel, loaded up, drove to Calgary. Spent the day doing not a helluva lot. Played at Broken City. Easily one of our favorite shows we’ve ever played. Thanks, Calgary. Drove out to just past Banff, pulled over and slept about it amongst semi’s.

DAY 37

Got up, drove and drove and….have I mentioned how tired of driving we are? I digress. Got to Vancouver in record time and went to our respective homes. Woohoo. A night in my own bed.

DAY 38

We got haircuts from the best hairdresser in Vancouver - our man, Preston. Then we had sushi! Then we took the ferry to Victoria and played at Logan’s Pub.

DAY 39

We played at The Green Mountain Music Festival in Nanaimo. Our friends James and Kim put this festival on every year to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research. It was a long, good day, of seeing friends and hanging out and having a drink or 15 about it.

DAY 40

Caught a ferry, dropped off the gear, went home. Summer Canadian Tour done. Thanks, everyone.