Day One: Friday 3 March

[Transcribed from my contemporaneous journal notes, which explains the annoying jumps in verb tenses -- i'm going for kind of a past-future-perfect kind of thing, even within sentences...]

   Everything fits! Much to our surprise and delight, all of our gear (+ extra gtr and basshead) AND 6 bags of clothes, etc., fit into the newly refurbished Bordello!
   Last week in Auburn & Montevallo AL we made, quite surprisingly, about $700 (thanks, Clay Couch!), so we were able to get new seals on the windows/doors and have many small holes in the floor welded, + we got a reardoor tire mount (but no tire!) and the Truck Club^TM, + Alyson made heavy curtains for the window and Michael made wooden panels for the back rear windows -- SO! we're ready to drive the approximately 3000 miles of this trip.
   We left exactly at 2.30pm, which is a good time to leave for our schedule but which we only accomplished by shooting for 1pm -- ROCK BAND!
   I've got about 30 CDs for the trip of all Gainesville and PC-affiliated bands (Squeaky, Dirty Poodle, Pain, Kenny Howes: bands from Gainesville or elsewhere with whom we've played). First we listened to the blisteringly funny Bill Hicks CD that Robby brought, then Talking Heads' Remain In Light (nice work on that ONE chord over and over, Byrne), and now Kenny Howes' Second Album is in as I write.
   What just happened in the Ridgeville SC gas station we stopped at was: I drove the first half of the trip (2.30-6.30pm) and after filling the two tanks went in to pee in the wading pool men's toilet and thought that someone else had finished gassing up the van and closed up the second tank. I was mistaken. As Michael drove off, we all heard the {SNAP!} of the hose breaking off the pump! And much like in the movies, gas started pouring from the breached tank. In a panic -- but unable to leave because (as usual) Robby wasn't ready since he was 'smoking up' around the corner -- I screamed for Rob and he came running (in slo-mo), but he dropped his lit match, naturally igniting the gas now spreading all over the ground, blowing up the gas station like that scene in Thelma & Louise. (See drawing.)
   Actually, after we heard the hose snap off and instantly passed recriminations around the van, Alyson went in and 'fessed up to our crime, and we had to pay $20 for pump replacement. She even got a receipt -- fantastic! The pump is obviously designed for this kind of accident, as it snapped cleanly off. It was quite a sight to see the disaffected gas station clerk woman dragging the hose behind her into the store, gas leaking out of it and sparks flying from its metal clamp.

   So that's the first event of the trip (besides me immediately driving west towards I75 instead of east towards I95 from the RockRoom^TM out of habit) -- NOT an omen!

   OK, so we get to Myrtle Beach SC and arrive around 10pm at The Lazy I, a very small record store with a rock room in the back. There are about a dozen kids there, and the owner (Michael Wood)'s band ExWife plays first. They're a very cool trio -- the drummer has a great, fast, jazzy style, and Michael sings and plays an SG but also uses a Dr. Rhythm sampler to do some amazing loops and samples between and during songs. It's really cool and a lot of fun. We ask for a tape of it when he is done, and I ask him to sit in and sample during our set, which he does.
   We load in to this tiny room and rip through a highspirited set to the dozen kids who are there. The unquestionable highlight (as it will be often this tour) is the John Zorn medley, when Michael samples my Eye-esque scream and drops it in several places during the song. It is rocking and scary and funny all at once -- a good motto for this trip, I think.
   A few kids (including Forrest, Lazy I Employee of the Week*) say they'll come out to the Rawbar in Wilmington NC next Thursday when we play there. We hope so.

(*Employee of the Week apparently means 'the ONLY employee THIS week' -- it's a very small place, people.)

   We were finished way early (12.30am!) so we drove out to the beach and found a nice cheap hotel ($38) with 2 big beds AND a couch and kitchenette.
   Most of us went to bed, but Rockin' Robby hit the beach and, naturally, hooked up with a transvestite who took Robby back to his place to 'smoke out' -- and of course he lived with two exotic dancers. (Rob: 'They were pretty, but were at HOME, so they weren't exotic dancing around.') After a while the herm told Robby 'I'm a professional massage therapist, but that doesn't mean I'm going to try and suck your dick!'
   Robby decides to come back to our hotel room then.

On to Day Two...