This is the tour diary of our very first tour. Come read and follow us for a week of craziness as we experience life on the road. It took a while to put this together and we'll finish it soon. Thank you to all the fans who support us, you gave us the confidence to take our music on the road. We really appreciate all the support. And here it is at last, the Tour Diaries.

Thanks

Vince Carone

“Pick up the Pieces” Tour Diary:

May 16th - The Great Departure

As we gathered up our final belongings (including clothes and equipment), and made sure we had enough strings and drumsticks to last for the trip, we were ready to take off about 10:00 pm that Thursday evening. Our first stop would be Peoria, IL where Randy wanted to go to see his friend Amanda. Our first show wasn’t until Friday night in Missouri, so we decided we would get a few hours of driving under our belts and stop in Peoria where we would sleep for the night. The van we were riding in was equipped with a TV/VCR/DVD/Play Station 2 to make for an exciting ride. Randy and I watched Blink 182’s new video along with Playboy’s Girlfriends 2 on the way down. Chris pulled the first driving shift. We ended up staying at a Motel 8 in Peoria and Randy had the room put in his name (big mistake as you will learn). Chris, who had gotten beer for the band, brought it right past the lady at the front desk (big mistake as you will learn) and into our room. We all cracked open a beer and Joey cracked open a few (big mistake as you will learn). The jokes started flying around and some fun was had. The tour was starting off well. Randy was hanging out with his friend Amanda. I was bored so I picked up my acoustic guitar and launched into an improv’d song that got the whole room singing and laughing (big mistake as you're about to learn). It was then that we heard a knock at the door. I got up and checked the peephole and someone was blocking it (real smooth police out there, very sneaky-DUH!) Anyway we decide we’re not gonna answer the door. WRONG MOVE, they wouldn’t leave, then they finally said “This is the police, open it up now!” So we had to do something, we did the only logical thing we could think of. We panicked! I said “hey put all the beer in the bathroom/shower and I’ll go in there and take a shower, that way they won’t think anything of it.” Quick thinking/panicking never works in these situations, as I was taking a shower and the cops just open the door and come in and see me naked. Horrible, they start looking around seeing if we had anything in there, aside from the few beer cans in the sink and the rest of the case in the shower, we had nothing. So we were busted, they said we were playing our music too loud. Time for the entire room search, here’s the part of the evening where the Police found the materials needed to sell “Crack” under one of the mattresses in the hotel room. (SHIT!). Lucky for us, the cops also found a receipt in one of the bags saying April 27th, so they knew it wasn’t ours. Onto the next part of the Busted Olympics “The Breathalyzer Test”. Joey took Gold by blowing a .022 (he was awarded a city ordinance ticket requesting his presence in court on June 19th), taking home silver was Chris blowing a .009, hell yeah Chris, you make us proud, have fun in court with Joe. Randy was the bronze medalist with blowing a .004 and I blew a .002. Now since we were under .005 the cops weren’t going to give us any tickets, but since Randy had the hotel room under his name (the big mistake), he got a ticket for possession of alcohol. It was official, after 5 hours of tour and 2 hours of hassle, we were busted. Now it’s about 2:30 in the morning and we all had to get some sleep for the huge drive to MO the next day. This would have been doable had Britney (Amanda’s friend) not talked for the next 2 hours, between her talking and Girls Gone Wild on the TV, we didn’t fall asleep until 4:30, day one was complete.

May 17th - We was on Fire!

So we all take showers and head out on the road, leaving Peoria at 9:30am. Driving, Driving, and more driving, in between all this was the mooning girls and flashing a bus full of students. After two hours of being in MO we saw a sign saying “MO’s Strawberry Patch” So we did the only logical thing, we stopped the van, got out, and took a picture of our naked asses next to the sign, we were country. A couple of suburban boys from Chi-town see a sign saying FIREWORKS, we were stoked, and we all spent about $30 each on fireworks. We arrived in Warrensburg, MO around 6 pm; the show didn’t start till around 9. The dude’s house we were playing at said we could practice if we wanted, so we started setting up, only to find out that…………..CHRIS FORGOT HIS FUCKING DRUM STOOL…how do you do that when you’re on the most important band event of your life? Regardless, there happened to be a music store right around the corner from his house that closed at 6, but we got there around 6:10 and they still let us in. The only drum stool they had was $50, so it was now ours. We set up and start practicing and everything was going well until………..the new bass amp I had bought right before we left started smoking at the head. Now I read the back of it and it said “caution gets hot”, this thing was burning alive dude, I turned it off and back on a few minutes later and…BANG…a cloud of smoke, my amp was history, my new bass amp blew up before the first show had started. I was going to have to plug into the PA for the night and wait until Colorado to get to a Guitar Center for a new one. We shake that off and Randy and I go to Wal-Mart for a few necessities. We come out of Wal-Mart, Randy starts driving away…we throw on the valence lights in the van (the interiors lined on the top). We keep driving and our van starts smoking…FROM THE INSIDE…FUCK! We slam on the brakes and start throwing all the fireworks out of the van, last thing Randy and I need are Roman Candles shooting up our Asses. Turns out a fuse was too powerful and the valence lights started melting the plastic coating protecting them…. what a relief…the tour went on. We went back to the house party, ended up playing later than we were supposed too for a few select people (drunks) who all liked hardcore. We rocked the shit out of the place; 2PL4EVER went over well like it always does and we headed out of MO around 12:00am.

May 18th - Night to Remember/Day to Forget

Ok what do you get when you cross a cornfield, lots of roads, and absolutely no population? If you guessed Kansas you are correct. What a boring state to drive through. Now we were on the road at midnight, in Kansas by 1:00am. We just wanted to get a jump on the drive, so we were gonna pull a few hours then get a hotel. Hahahahaha YEAH RIGHT! Not in Kansas. In Kansas there are only two things, and they are both colleges. Just our luck both colleges graduate the weekend we need to find a hotel. From 1:00 am- 4:30 am we drove around looking for a hotel or a motel. We were so tired; we stopped so many times, but no luck. I drove from 12-2, Chris from 2-4, Joey from 4-4:30. Fucking Randy sleeps the whole time, what a dick! Finally at 4:30 in the morning we pulled into an Econo Lodge where Chris got out and asked if they had any rooms, the lady replied “No we’re full”, FUCK!, back in the van and we started to drive off, she comes running out after us saying “wait we’ve got one”, awesome, we get out, grab our stuff and head in. When we get to the front desk to pay, she says, “do you guys want one room or two?”. Now a minute ago, this lady was saying they didn’t have any, and now she just offered us two? Whatever, we’ll take one. We had one bed in the room that Randy and I shared and Chris and Joe slept on sleeping bags and pillows on the floor. Now we had to be out by noon to avoid paying for another day. Since we were all so tired and didn’t care enough to set an alarm we woke up at 11:40. Here’s the catch, we woke up to someone walking out of our room and shutting the door behind them. Hahahaha IT WASN’T ONE OF US! What the fuck! Somehow we all showered and got out of there on time and we’re on the road by 12:15. Good ol’ Randy drove for the next 7 or 8 hours since he had slept the night before, a good man he is. While the rest of us watched nothing the whole time, boring ride, we couldn’t even make any good jokes (believe me we tried) cause we were in Kansas. We did have fun shooting Roman Candles out the window though. Now one thing you will learn if you’re ever driving through Kansas on a Saturday is that Kansas closes at 2pm. At least that’s what we figured. We couldn’t find any place to eat, and then finally around 4pm we see a sign with tons of restaurants on it. We pull off the highway to get some food. We pull into the Burger King and some dude (yes someone in Kansas, there are actually people there) comes up to us and says, “hey the power is out, all the restaurants are closed” ARE YOU SERIOUS, ONLY US! But he then said (and don’t ask how he knew) “if you go up the road a few miles, you’ll see a Pizza Hut and they still have power”. Pizza Hut it was, we shared a Pizza Hut buffet with Kansas at 4:15pm. We stopped to take a dump at 4:45pm. Then back on the road to Denver it was. About an hour outside of Denver we catch a traffic jam and we’re dead stopped. So we knew what we had to do to keep the fun going. We lit a 5-minute smoke bomb and Randy launched it up in front of us. It was hilarious, the huge cloud of smoke right in the middle of a traffic jam. All right it’s now 7:00pm, we’re in Denver, going to meet up with my buddy that I know out there. But we decide to look for a hotel in the city first. Couldn’t find anything, then we ended up getting lost and getting to my friends house at 8:30. He takes us to some motels by his house and we get a room at the Red Roof Inn. We play some guitar in the room and head out to McDonald’s for dinner. Followed by a Strip Club baby. It was called Saturday’s and damn were there some gorgeous ladies in there. So gorgeous that I blew $120 on them (well worth it that night, definitely not worth it now)(and the naked women fund was hurting after that). I had just broke up with my girlfriend recently before the tour, the strip club cured the heartache. After tons of money and jokes between all of us, we dropped my friend John back off at home and headed to our hotel to get some sleep for the night, it was about 2:30am and we needed to be up at 9:00 am. In the morning we had to go to guitar center (half hour north) and get me a new bass head and then drive to Colorado Springs (hour and a half the other way).

May 19th - We Were Trippin’

Ok so it’s 2:30am, Chris and Joey were sharing a bed and Randy and I were (I don’t know why, but we all felt comfortable that way). Colorado was about to have some of the funniest times of the tour. It started out with Chris and I just talking for a few, after a few minutes the conversation got pretty interesting. About a half hour later Joey was in on it and so was Randy. 4 in the morning we all decide to finally shut up and go to bed. Randy goes to roll over (not realizing how close he is to the end of the bed) and goes flying off. We are all laughing our asses off. Then we notice that the curtains are still open a little and that some sunlight is coming through. Chris gets up all pissed off because nobody else would. He cracks a funny joke on the way to the curtains, we all start laughing and then in the dark he trips over my suitcase that was in the middle of the floor. And it laid him out; he went flying across the room, full sprawl out onto the floor, absolutely hilarious. We are all laughing so hard. He gets back in the bed and Joe decides he has to take a piss, so he gets up and goes. Randy runs over into his bed and cuddles up next to Chris so Joe wouldn’t know he’s there. Joe hops back into bed only to find Randy on top of him when he rolled over. Joe’s reaction was priceless; Randy scared the shit out of him. We are all cracking up now. We go to sleep. We awake in the morning to the sound of Joe in the shower going “ohhhhhh, ohhhhhhhhh, ohhhhh”, we start cracking up. It turns out he got burned by the hot water (yeah right). On his way out of the bathroom we start giving him shit about it, he starts arguing back and then…oops…he trips over the same exact suitcase Chris did the night before, then starts walking back the other way laughing about it and trips over it coming back the other way. By this time Randy and I were rolling all over, it was so funny. Chris gets out of the shower and while we’re telling him what Joey just did, Chris trips over the suitcase again himself. You want to talk about a hilarious time, Colorado was it! We hit the road and have to get to a Guitar Center so I can get a new head for my amp. We finally make it there after getting lost and the dude tells us “We don’t open till 12 on Sunday.” SHIT! Colorado Springs is 80 miles away and we have to play at 1:30. But there was nothing we could do, so I just gave him all the information so they could have it ready by the time we came back (It was already 11:30am, we just were gonna grab some lunch). So we go to Subway where Randy orders a Teriyaki Chicken Sub with everything on it, and I mean EVERYTHING on it, whatever they have behind that counter, he got on it (big mistake as you will learn). We go back to Guitar Center and get my head. After about an hour of fucking around there, they had it ready. We headed out to Colorado Springs. We start driving to Colorado Springs and we’re doing great. So far we hadn’t gotten lost yet on the tour, we were driving across the country and doing great at it. Figures that on the way to our show we got lost on side streets, what the hell? We still blame Chris cause he was the one guiding us. Every time Chris says “Mapquest says this, but if we take this here it should meet with that…” we know we’re in trouble. Anyway we finally find this place after calling them 18 times. It’s called “The Industrial Nation”. Our name was on the marquee out front, we felt like rock stars. Now as Kil’ Cupid luck would have it the local band in town had cancelled their slot for that day, so now it was going to be 3 out of town bands. Awesome, the show must go on, we were still stoked to play. Now we end up waiting later than we’re suppose to cause the lady said people were going come. So we wait and we wait. We were getting bored; Randy and I went next door to look at the guy selling used Nintendo games (and I mean regular 1988 Nintendo). We head back over and the lady is like “well unless 20 people come we can’t have a show”. We said “Listen lady, we’re from Chicago, we drove through the entire state of Kansas, we don’t care if it’s just you guys here, please let us play?” And so she did and we did. We started rocking out for about 10 people, by the time the show was over we had about 20 or so there and they liked us, so it was a lot of fun. Although we couldn’t figure out why other people didn’t come, because this club said they advertised a lot. Well we snatch one of their colored flyers with our name on it, just for a souvenir and we headed on the road to Arizona. We come to find out that the flyer said April 19th on it instead of May 19th, DAMMIT! Only Kil’ Cupid luck. So we get back on the road and we finish driving through Colorado and we enter New Mexico (which is Kansas’ cousin state), BORING! Not to mention all the radiation from where they use to test bombs. We stop to get something to eat. We went to Taco Bell. Chris and I just each got a taco and Randy ordered the Nachos Bell Grande (big mistake as your about to learn). What do you get when you cross a Chicken Teriyaki sub with everything on it from Subway and Nachos Bell Grande from Taco Bell? If you guessed Randy clogging the toilet in Raton, New Mexico you were right. That’s right, Randy gets big credibility points for clogging the first out of state toilet on the tour, fuck yeah Randy.

May 20th - Recover From a 14 Hour Drive!

We were now into the morning hours. The rest of the drive to Arizona was very boring and long, we made it there about 5 in the morning, which was cool because then the clocks shifted back an hour for Pacific time and it was only 4 in the morning. We said our quick hellos to Joe’s mom and went to bed, Randy and I shared a bed and Chris and Joe shared a pullout couch. We woke up around 10 o clock. While Chris and Randy hit the pool early for a little tan, Joey and I had to run to the mall so I could get a swimsuit. Damn, we are so fucking irresponsible and forgetful. Anyway, a new swimsuit and a new hat later, we were back at the house and ready to attack that pool and the kegerator his mom had set up for us. The keg tapper was built right into the Fridge. So we swam and drank for a nice early morning buzz. Getting a little hungry we had Joey whip us up some fried bologna sandwiches. That’s when we decided to bleach our hair. So we ran out to the store and bought some products and went at it. Randy and I just bleached the tips, but Chris bleached the whole thing. And we just kinda hung out and swam for the rest of the afternoon. Then at night we decided to hit up a nice little hang out in Arizona. So we went away looking for chicks, just kind hanging out. I think we met more bums out there than girls. But never the less, it was fun. We came back to the house, hung out for about an hour and then crashed; we were all too tired that day.

May 21st - They Turned Us Loose!

Now we were all refreshed and we were ready to go out. So we hit up the AZ malls. Making fun of people left and right, what a bunch of laughs. We saw a few photo machines in there, so we all crammed into them and had our pictures taken, which you will all see soon, it’s going to become our signature photo. I had picked up the Boxcar Racer CD while we were at the mall; it became the soundtrack for the rest of our tour. We love the song “There Is”. We also had bought a sticker when we were there and it was a sticker of a Unicorn. Joey was wearing a white shirt at the time (big mistake), so Randy slapped the sticker to his back. Then we went back to Joey’s house for some more swimming. Then Joe’s mom and fiancé took us out to dinner at a local restaurant. It’s about 7 at night; we got back from the mall around 4. We get to the restaurant only to find out that Joe still had that stupid Unicorn sticker stuck to his back. It was so damn funny; it wasn’t until the waitress mentioned it to him that he knew it was there. We were laughing. Joe’s mom was mad at us for doing that to her son…..hahahaha……Joe took it off his back and slapped it to Randy’s head. Anyway after dinner, we headed back out to the streets of AZ. So many bums serenaded us. In the midst of all this we had to make a stop at Hooters. The hooters girls always beautiful, but especially in AZ. We were talking to the one, using all our corny jokes and pick up lines. We told her how we were in a band and on tour and shit, we figured that might impress her……..Nope, it didn’t. She’s like “Yeah the other night I went to this party and this band (saying the name like she’s unsure) Jimmy Eats World was there???”. FUCK YOU LADY!!!!! Jimmy EATS World. Are you serious??? She got to meet them and she didn’t even know them, it’s so unfair. She’s like “yeah they were all offended that I didn’t know them”. Hahahaha, yeah no shit! So she goes “they put on this song that’s on the radio (that would be, the middle) and then I recognized them”. Fuck that, what a crock of shit. We ended up leaving with blue balls and feeling of depression as a Hooters girl got to meet an awesome band and we’re going home to play with ourselves for the night. Anyway we roamed the streets for a while, nothing really left to do, so we went back to Joey’s house. We get back around Midnight and we just sat around drinking some beer. That’s when Joe and I broke out the 2 acoustic guitars. Nothing better than playing Peace, Love, and Pussylips in the backyard at 2 in the morning, drinking some beer. We played every song we have, we were all singing and having a good time….until his mom came out. She had to work the next morning, hahaha………Peace, Love woke her up. So she sent us to the front yard to go play. We finished up our set over there, by this time Joey was so drunk that Dream Date sounded like MMMMBop, so we called it a night and went to bed. Randy and I still had to share a bed again for another night. There was a TV in the room we were in, and the only movies that were in that room were Disney movies, so we watched Beauty and the Beast.

May 22nd - What a Whore!

Alrite, aside from hitting up the mall again and swimming, we really didn’t do much during the day on Wednesday. So I’m gonna skip till nighttime when shit started happening. We went into the city of AZ again and stopped by a totally kick ass record shop. We spent a while in there and Chris and Joe made some hook ups of people who we can send our demo’s too. Randy wasn’t really feeling too well at this point, but he tried toughing it out. We keep walking down the street, every night we were getting hit on by these bums. We got stopped by this one, who didn’t want any money unless we felt he earned it. He wanted to play the guitar for us. So we humored him and had him play something. He starts playing some chords and rapping like Eminem, only it sounded horrible. A bum, trying to make money on the street, trying to pull off Eminem covers was not going to work. We left and said sorry we don’t have any money. On another weirder note we saw the same exact bum for the third night in a row, wearing the same exact thing. By this point, Randy didn’t feel well at all so he wanted to go home. We took him back to the house. Chris, Joe, and myself were all completely bored. We decided to head back into the city and look for a cheap strip joint. We figured we had like 2 hours to kill before we got tired, so we would go to a strip club, pay like $10 to get in and then just kind hang out. Better than anything else….little did we know, the night was just about to begin. We pull into this one place with a neon sign saying “Naked Ladies”. Fuck, sounded good enough to us. But there weren’t hardly any cars there and we didn’t hear any music, suspicions started rising, but so did our dicks, so we went in anyway. Chris asked the lady at the door if it was a club…she replied “yes (hesitation), this is a club”. Fuck, good enough for us, she said it was a $5 cover charge and we went in to her house. Did you hear what I just said??? We went into her HOUSE? The inside of this place had TV’s, carpet, couches, nice everything. What kind of fucking club was this you’re asking….your gonna find out soon enough. The lady goes “have you ever been to a private room before?”, none of us had. She explains that we’re each going to go into a different room and then a lady will be in there shortly. It sounded so cool, like a private strip show. I go into a room, with a nice leather couch, stereo, nice tables, carpet, TOWELS, TOYS???? A few minutes later a lady comes in and says that in a few minutes, a couple girls will come by my room and I get to pick one. Sounded fucking nice. A few minutes later I hear them go into Joey’s room…I hear them talking, then I hear Joey go “Hey actually, I know we don’t want this, can I go get my friends?”. I’m thinking “Fuck you Joe, I don’t know what troll just walked into your room, but I want to see this girl.” They wouldn’t let him come see us, so they made him go outside. Then they went into Chris’s room. I hear Chris go “yeah, I’d like too, but I don’t have a lot of money, can I think about it?” So they left and went back to his room a few minutes later, and then he finally said no. Now it was my turn, they finally come to my room and I pick the brunette (there was a blonde also). She says “Alrite, get as comfortable as you want, and I’ll be back shortly. Remember…as comfortable as you want (all sexy).” So I took off my shoes, what the fuck, I’m nervous as shit, I’m like a 6th grader looking at his dads porno collection for the first time, I didn’t know what to do. So she comes back in and explains it to me. “For $100 (already, my boner went away), I will do a strip tease where I can touch you, for $200 you can touch me, for $300 we can use toys, and for $500 anything goes…”Boner was back…shit, I didn’t have any cash. I had to be honest with her. I told her I thought we were going to a strip club, so I didn’t have that kinda cash. And she’s like “well everything is negotiable.” WHAT A WHORE! She’s like, “how much cash can you spend.” I said “about $30”. She goes “Well I can do a dance for $30”. The blood is rushing to my penis a mile a minute now. I figure it’s just me and her, she’s going to do a dance for only me, if she even thinks I’m semi-cute, she might do more??? WRONG! Dude, she starts dancing like 5 feet away from me to a song that I hate. Doesn’t have any dancing skills, and when she turned on the regular lights instead of fluorescent lighting, she was fucking ugly. Not to mention, she kept her clothes on the whole time. I got fucking ripped off beyond belief. So I paid $30 for a Disney movie dance and $5 to get in. I was hoping to throw in an extra $2 and buy a condom that way it’s safe when their fucking me in the ass. I went back in the car, we went back to the house, and went to sleep. I was so pissed off. I couldn’t wait for the show the next day.

May 23rd - Again and Again

So we wake up on Thursday morning and everything seems to be ok so far. A little swimming and a little tanning and in the midst of all this, a little beer drinking. Randy and I still had one more day before our final was due in our college history class back home. But dammit we were going to wait until the absolute last minute. The company I worked for in Chicago had an office in Arizona, and I actually worked for the West Region, so I worked with all these people daily but had never met them. So I called the office and told them my band was on tour and I was in the area. Turns out we were actually like 10 minutes away from the office, which was so cool. So I met them all up for lunch. I went and got something to eat and the other guys in the band went and did their own thing. These people were so cool, we had a lot of fun trading stories back and forth of the offices. I invited them all out to our show that night. So the boys come back and pick me up a couple hours later and we go cruising the mall scene. We had our fun causing trouble over there. Then we went back to Joey’s house where we started getting ready for the show. We then headed over to the show which was about a nice 45 minute drive. We get out to the area early (I know, this isn’t usually like Kil’ Cupid, getting somewhere early). However, when we did call the venue just to ensure we were playing, they said “Wait, you are who?”, shit, here we go again. Of course with our luck the guy who booked us was no longer there and left no records of us coming in from Chicago, but the bands that we were suppose to be playing with were still there that night, so after we named the bands and stuff he decided to let us play. So we now still had a show after a little scare. We stopped and got some Subway for dinner (Fuck I hate that place), we all felt sick like right after. Then we went around the area and started flyering for the show. We get to the show and our name is up on the marquee again, man that always makes us feel so good. We get in there and the stage is so high up, yet so fucking small. Seriously, one good fart on this thing and someone would have had a concussion. But we watched a local opener and then we went on and rocked hard for the next 45 minutes. It was so hot in there it was unbelievable. Turns out everyone really enjoyed us and it ended up being a good show. We said our goodbyes to people from the AZ office and we headed back to our town where a lot needed to be done before the next day. We had to pack up everything, reload the van, and not to mention Randy and I still had to write our final exam papers. Well Randy started writing his and I ended up passing out, I was so tired. This leads us to Friday where we had to be up and out on the road by 9 in the morning.

May 24th - Being Under 21 Didn’t Stop us From Looking at the Prostitutes

So I had to wake up extra early this next morning to write this final exam paper so I could e-mail it to the teacher as it was due that day. So I’m up and trying to figure out how to write this thing since I didn’t look at the question the whole fucking time we were gone. Randy is at the other end of the table trying to finish his since he didn’t get it done the night before. We are all trying to take quick showers and eat breakfast. Randy and I finally finish our papers, so I offered to type them since Randy still had to shower. I type them and get them all done and then we realize there wasn’t any e-mail system at the house. FUCK! So we load up the van and head out. We say our goodbyes to Joe’s mom and we head out to get gas. We were on our way to the Office with the people I worked with to see if I could use their e-mail. Well just our luck, while we were at the gas station we ran into the dude who works there. So we followed him back to the office and we e-mailed our shit and we were on our way. Joey drove the 7 hours to Vegas. Now we were told a quicker way to get there but Joey was being real stubborn and insisted on using the way his mom’s fiance gave him. So we ended up tacking on an extra hour or two, it should have only been about 5 hours. Anyway, we get out on the side of the road and put our hazards on so we could get pictures of Hoover Dam. Then onto Vegas we went. Joey left his left arm out the window the whole time he was driving and the sun just beat down on it. He had the worst sunburn on it, it was so funny. I wanted to go get some dinner before the show cause Las Vegas has the best buffets. But Chris and Joe wanted to stop by the venue to make sure everything was still cool. Kil’ Cupid luck strikes again. We send Joey up to the door with Chris and a minute after talking to the guy, I see Chris shaking his head in disgust. As it turns out the lady who booked our show there didn’t even work for the fucking place, she cleared it with the wrong guy and nobody had seen the girl in weeks. However earlier in the week when I asked Joey if he called Vegas to make sure we were still on, out of laziness he said “yeah”. So we were possibly fucked, but then after talking to them and them being really cool, they decided they’d let us play, but we had to open. Which was cool with us, cause we wanted to get out and see Vegas. Turns out that with all that aggression and anger over Joey, we ended up rocking the living shit out of the place. All our CD’s went after we played and everything. They loved us out there. And the crowd was good too, we got them moshing to Peace, Love. We packed up and headed out to enjoy some of Vegas. We parked at one end of the strip and walked it all the way down and all the way back. Something like 3 miles each way. Fuck were we tired. But I got the coolest idea while we were out there. Instead of taking pictures of scenery like Chris kept doing, I started taking pictures of all the hot girls that were out there. That turned out to be a lot better memory when we got them developed. So we ate at the MGM hotel, we went and did a little shopping for our families and about midnight we decided the tour was over and it was time to go home. It’s not everyday though that you’re in Vegas and at midnight you go “hey guys you want to go home” and then head into your car and start driving home. So that was kinda weird. Now for the long 25 hour drive home.

May 24th - We’ll be Coming Around the Mountain When we Come!

Ok so it’s midnight and it’s time to go home. Chris was going to pull the first shift. We figured if everyone took 6 hour shifts we should be ok. We owe Chris a lot of thanks for his shift, cause he actually drove from midnight till six in the morning and stayed up the whole time. That was crucial because there are no cars on the road then so you can get your best driving in then. I stayed up from midnight till 2 with Chris in the front seat, but since I was pulling the 6am-Noon shift, I had Joey switch with me and stay up so I could sleep. 6 in the morning Chris wakes me up to tell me it’s my turn. He got us out of Vegas, through the little part of AZ we had to get through, and halfway through Utah. So Joey and Chris hop in the back to sleep and Randy hops in the front with me. For the first 2 or 3 hours everyone just slept on and off, so I was just kinda chillin and crusin’. Then around 8 or 9 Randy wakes up and we start talking and laughing. Chris and Joe were totally passed out by this point. Well I had been driving in the mountains now for about 3 straight hours, so at first I was going slow around the turns and taking my time. Chris and Joe fell asleep with me doing this. Well about 9 or 10 in the morning Randy and I pop on the Good Charlotte CD and start rocking out like crazy. By this time I got the hang of all these mountains, so I was flying around them as fast as the van would let us. But then Chris and Joe woke up. Now when they fell asleep I was going all slow, they woke up with me flying around them and they were scared shitless. We told them to go back to sleep cause we knew what we were doing. Well now we’re in Colorado and there is snow in the mountains. So we come from Vegas where it was 90 something, and we’re all wearing shorts and then driving through Colorado it go so fucking cold in a second. That sucked. I drove till Noon (which was still 11 Pacific time, but we went through a time zone), and then we stopped at a Wendy’s for some lunch. At the Wendy’s we met some kid in a band and traded CD’s and information and stuff, so that was cool. We got back in the van and I drove for about another hour before switching it over to Joey. From this point on, nothing exciting happened at all, Joey drove till about 6 at night and then Randy took over. Somehow during Randy’s shift, we were all awake. And about 9 at night in either Nebraska or Iowa the road got all red for a while, then we figured out why when Randy ran over what was an already dead deer. Our van went up and down, it was scary. About an hour later in Iowa we stopped at a rest stop. Sure as shit, there was blood all over the tires it was so gross, not to mention it smelled so bad. But I will say this, Iowa rest stops have without a doubt the cleanest fucking bathrooms on the planet. So we all did the deed and headed back out. I think Randy drove till about midnight and then Chris took over again. We were only a few hours away now. We were so tired, scummy, and worn out, we couldn’t wait to get home. Luckily we still had all day Sunday to rest and Monday off work for Memorial Day.

May 25th - Home Sweet…FUCK I Got a Ticket!

So Chris drives from about midnight till 2 which is now 3 central time. So we’re all fuck up on our time. And then Chris asks me to drive the last hour or so home. Of course I did, it was no big deal. Now, since we left Las Vegas we did 90-100 the whole way home, aside from the mountains where the incline only let you do about 50-60. But we all did good the whole way there and home and then we get into Dekalb, 45 minutes from home and I got pulled over and got a fucking ticket doing 90 in a 65. That sucked so bad. Everyone else was so happy though because they had gotten tickets on our first night out and I gave them shit the whole time and then I end up getting one on the way back in. All of us ended up with tickets in Illinois, that fucking sucked. Although it was good for me cause had it been any other state I wouldn’t have been able to go to traffic school. So we pull in back home and drop everyone off. Our first road trip/tour was complete. And what a lot of fun it was, as you can tell from all the stuff that happened. Thank you for following this whole story. Sorry it took so long to get up, but there was a lot of stuff that needed to be told. Hopefully you enjoyed it and other tour diaries will be posted as the tours happen. But this one will always be a great memory cause it was Kil’ Cupid’s first tour “Pick up the Pieces 02’ “ Thanks everyone for the support and confidence to have us do this, it means a lot.