Thanks

Thanks.......

for setting up all those shows and letting us play with your band

for getting up on stage to perform a song with us

for living in a 1950s mansion and sharing it with us

for the pool party and the BBQ

for that time you dressed up like Buzz Lightyear

for coming to see almost all of our shows in Indiana

for giving us your house for a few days

for sending us beef jerky and delivering it to us in Louisville

for being a cool bartender in Lexington and showing up in LA to see us

for looking like Mickey Rourke and having a big heart

for having the same exact rig as me and letting me play yours

for paying us a lot of money to perform

for letting us shop at 11pm for western clothes

for putting our show on the Internet and writing a review of our CD

for being Owen

for being so generous and not laughing when we squeezed into a gazebo to play

for looking like Kenny Rogers

for the moonshine and Pizza Hut

to those four people who listened to us in Athens

for letting us end early on a bad night and sample beers instead

for the oysters

for having a tuned piano to play on

for bringing your parents to see us

for marrying an awesome girl from Laos that we got to meet

for wearing your rodeo shirt to the performance

for being Matt Clark

for being two friends in an empty club

for the dinner party and the Michael Jackson dance off. I won't tell anyone you dropped your daughter on her head.

for letting us play even though we were late

for being Ron Jeremy

for letting us crash in your awesome house for an entire week

for getting married and throwing a great party

for being a coffee shop and having your shit together

for the pasta, the guest house, and the best show on the west coast

for having a cool baby daughter to play with

for being nice to us house guests during a heat wave

for being a sound guy who did his job well

for feeding us (pasta, grilled fish, salmon quesadillas, Queso Machine....)

for shooting me with a pellet gun and giving me something exciting to write about in my blog

for that one tattoo

for your company

for sharing the music you play

for letting us sleep in your bed/couch/extra room/air mattress/ guest house

for letting us use your washing machine

for being nice even after I broke your shower

for giving the touring band the money

for bringing home fine wine and serving it to us on a sailboat

for spoiling us

for trading T-shirts with us

for mailing us that package of CDs

for the overnight package to LA

for driving so far to see us

to Kenny Chesney for understanding that this is something I just had to do for myself

to Mario, for reviving our van

to the GPS for saving our relationship. Sorry we yelled at you and made fun of your soothing British accent.

Day 52 - THE LAST DAY!! Verona Wisconsin

We woke up to an exciting and fun-filled afternoon at the Horning household. The brand new living room furniture arrived AND Mark gave free electrocardiograms during breakfast! I brought my printout home with me.

We headed to Verona Wisconsin (just outside of Madison) for our last show. When we arrived, we stopped for some food at an Italian restaurant and my parents, brother Jon, and Amy happened to be there eating! What a coincidence! It was great to see them. We had a quick dinner and then headed to the Tuvalu Coffeehouse for a final set.

Listen: something my dad does when a friend is running a marathon or a long race is that he will meet the runner towards the end of the race (when they have a mile or two left) and "run them in" (run with them to the finish line). It means providing moral support and keeping them company during the grueling end of the race. There is an art to this running in business. You don't want to run someone in and talk the entire time, messing up the zen running state of mind they have developed during 25 miles but you want to give them that extra push they need to make it. I find that talking about Red Lobster is a great conversation starter when running someone in. In any case, my dad played the last song of our seven week tour with us (Annamosity). He ran us in, right?

After Joe wrung out his shirt (see photo above), we sat around with Jon and Amy for a few drinks after the show, and then made the trek back home to Chicago!

Days 50-51 Minneapolis Minnesota

We rolled into Minneapolis around 6pm after a necessary (according to Joe) pit stop at Maid Rite. We met Jessica and Mark, our hosts for the stay. Jessica and I met when we volunteered in the same program after college. Jessica was wearing an old school Additives T-shirt and Mark had on a shirt Joe had given him the last time they were in Chicago. It was a grand and hilarious welcome! We headed to the gig at Big V's, a cool venue and bar. We played with two other bands and the show was also ambushed by a Norwegian punk band. In addition to Jess and Mark, Alyssa met up with us with a bunch of friends in tow. It was great to see some friendly faces. I asked Jess to take pictures of us while we played our set. I'll have to ask Mark next time (see top photo). After the show, we drove Uncle Rick home and sat up late eating Tombstone pizza, listening to old country, and catching up.

Friday was a day off for us. Joe watched the rest of Mad Men (Season 2) and Jess and I went to a coffee shop to give each other two hour slide shows of our summer adventures. Joe and I cooked dinner for Jess and Mark that night before we all retired to the basement den to play cribbage, eat two rounds of ice cream, watch "Yes Man", giggle like twelve year old girls, and watch the tender bromance develop between Joe and Mark.

We can't believe we are in the Midwest and will be home tomorrow.

Days 46 - 49

Sunday: We spent the entire day sleeping, eating, and watching movies with Mike and Becky.

Monday - Wednesday: From Seattle, we started our trek back east to Minnesota. It was a beautiful drive through Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. We stayed at a rest stop the first night, Billings Montana the second night, and Fargo North Dakota the third night. Joe went for it and ate a tator tot casserole (ground beef, mushroom soup, tator tots) in a seven-table-cafe in a small farm town of Montana. It is part of his “Thicker in Thirty Days” plan which is all the rage in LA. At a pawn shop, Joe bought a bunch of old country and Doors tapes and I picked up an old game boy. Our van took out a third of the bug population in North Dakota. We found a bar in Fargo called “Sports Bar” and ate at a $15 Indian buffet. A cow climbed on top of our car providing for an excellent photo op. We picked sage off the highway in Montana so that Joe could dry it and burn it to ward off bad energy (for example, every time I get home from work). At Rooters, a huge bar in Fargo, Joe got classy and had a dirty martini and popcorn. In our last night spent in the van, we toasted sips of moonshine compliments of Andy Weatherman which also serves as excellent degreaser for oily van parts. No joke. The moonshine was so good that Joe regretted wasting it on the van.

Did you know? Sudafed and espresso at 2pm can keep you up all night.

Day 45 - Bremerton Washington

Joe got a Super Cut and we stopped by the water for another basket of fish and chips.
Our last show out west was in Bremerton, home to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. You can get to Bremerton via ferry or you can drive around the horn 65 miles. Both trips take about an hour so we just decided to drive. We played at the Manette Saloon, a nice sized bar with a great stage and sound system. The sound guy had lived in Pilsen (Chicago) for a number of years. It was a sleepy show. Joe was still fighting his cold from LA and I had caught a stomach flu somewhere along the way. We played two tired sets, someone asked Joe if he could marry me, I threw up in the alley (unrelated to the proposal, related to the fish and chips and energy drink combo), and then we headed back to Seattle.

Day 44 - Seattle Washington

The weather was finally beautiful. We spent a few hours at Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the US. It opened in 1907. The top floor has fishmongers, fresh produce stands, and craft stalls. The lower levels feature a variety of shops: antique dealers, comic book sellers, head shops, and even a magic store. It looks like a very old shopping mall. The most famous stand appeared to be a fish stand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the table picks it up and hurls it to a worker at the counter so they can prep it for sale. Flying fish - how can you not be entertained?

We ate dinner at an oyster bar. Joe had seafood gumbo and I had fish and chips.

Then we headed over to our coffee shop show, played an inspired set, made $1,000 and went to sleep early.

I don't know what you heard, but we did not call in sick to our gig. We did not go see Kenny Chesney's 13 song soundcheck at Qwest Field. We did not meet up with my cousin Mike who happened to be in Seattle recording Kenny. Kenny did not look right at me while he was singing, no pizza was stolen, Don Julio did not come out to play, and Joe did not lose three games of pool to Mike. We did not have an awesome night.

Days 42 - 43 Seattle Washington

We arrived in Seattle just in time for the hottest day in recorded history!! We went to the water to cool off and attended the best happy hour ever with Mike Padilla. We sat right on the water, had a few drinks, and ordered a ton of cheap seafood. We then headed over to the Comet Tavern in Capitol Hill for our show. The Comet is a very cool bar (ha). It has been open since 1936 and was named one of the top ten dive bars by Maxim Magazine. We played third out of four bands. It was a decent show but another sweltering night and we got paid only in drink tickets. The other bands were a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed "Ocean of Algebra" for obvious reasons. Joe had a Seattle style hot dog after the show (cream cheese and grilled onions).

Our day off was a very lazy one. I watched a ton of Mad Men and Joe got the timing set on the van. I visited the bookstore and genuinely thought about exercising. We had a beautiful meal with Mike and Becky - grilled steak, salmon and chicken, potato salad, cheese, hummus and wine. It was very relaxing. We sat out on the deck to eat as the sun went down. The heat wave is finally breaking and tomorrow we will definitely leave the house and do something!