In the morning, we went to see the hospital where Laura had been interning before our short drive to Denver. We went straight to Michelangelo's Wine Bar, where we were playing a gig that night. We had vlogs to catch up on, so we took the free Wifi wherever we could get it.
It was kind of crazy, because a guy from Mark's hometown (Birnamwood, WI) lives in Denver, and his mom saw that we were going on this tour and told him that we were headed to Denver. It also happened to be around his birthday, so he set things up with Michelangelo's to have his birthday party there that night. What are the chances?? Plus I got to see one of my teachers from high school that moved out to Denver a few years ago. Emily had no idea that I did music, so it was such a treat to see her and get to show her that side of me.
While we were in Denver we were staying with one of Mark's good friends from college, Dan. Dan is a hoot. If you have ever met him, you would agree with me on that statement. The next day I stayed back at Dan's place to try and fix one of the vlogs that was giving me a hard time. I think one of the video files is corrupt and so it is messing up the timing of the video and sound in everything else. Totally frustrating. But Dan, who does graphic design from home, tried to cheer me up by bringing out his Lego truck. Yeah, this guy collects Lego. It's his thing. And he's really protective of it. But he even let me hold the Lego truck, so I knew he at least trusted me to some extent. While we were doing some work, Mark went over to Morrison to go for a bike ride at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
What a neat experience for him. My only regret is that I didn't go see this for myself. The pictures he took were awesome. And I've now put it on my bucket list to go see a concert there at some point in my life. He put together another montage from this ride and I highly recommend checking it out. It's really unlike anything else.
It was time for our last last show of the tour. Cafe de Paris in Louisville. It was awesome to end with good friends in the audience. Dan came out, Laura and her brother Chris and cousin Bonnie came, along with a bunch of people in a knitting group. Hahah. It was pretty surreal afterwards, and called for a giant hug. We did it.
We all drove back to Denver and went out for dinner as our last hoorah. What a great way to end out this trip. Surrounded by great friends, celebrating the journey of a lifetime.
The trip really flew by. 23 days. 13 states. 15 cities. 14 shows.
We were never in a place long enough to get bored. It was always on the move, always on the go. We got to see friends and family, and we got to meet some amazing people that blessed us with their incredible hospitality. The trip of a lifetime. It's so hard to process it all, because we saw so much in such a short amount of time. Thankfully we have these vlogs, pictures, and blogs to look back on to remember, to be reminded of something that undoubtedly changed our lives.
Thank you for being interested in our lives. For going on this journey alongside of us.
One of my best friends, Laura, just so happened to be interning for the summer out in Colorado. So on our way to Denver, we took a little detour to spend the night in Frisco at her aunt and uncle's house.
The drive to Frisco was the first time I had started seeing mountains like this. I mean, we saw grassy mountains in Idaho, the snowy Mt. Rainier in Washington, and desert mountains in Arizona and New Mexico. But this was different. This was the kind of mountain with grass and trees on it until you got to a certain point, and then there would be just a little bit of snow right at the top. Like I mentioned before, each drive was vastly different from the one before.
This happened to be our most intense car conversation day. We had been in the car together for over two weeks, the conversation was bound to get pretty deep at some point, and this leg of the journey just so happened to be that time. But that didn't stop me from taking note of Mark's awesome bike tan. Different lines from wearing different jerseys on different rides. Too funny!
As soon as Laura got off work we went out in the unexpected rainstorm for dinner at the Dam Brewery. I honestly think we only went there because of the name. Who wouldn't want to say that they've eaten at the Dam Brewery?
I only wish that I would have gotten one of their t-shirts. We laughed a lot at dinner and enjoyed every second that we had together.
When we got back to the house, Mark let Laura and I have some time to hangout together one-on-one. Breaks from school have been the only time I have gotten to see Laura lately. Summer vacation, Winter Break, and Spring Break. But we were both away for this summer, but it worked out awesomely that our paths could cross in Colorado. It's so crazy when you are so used to seeing someone in a certain city and then you get to meet up somewhere completely different.
We stayed up late playing games, talking and eating chocolate. And once again, before we knew it, it was time to leave again. Though I knew I would see Laura again in just a couple days in Denver!
Once again the theme for this drive was hot. It was in the 100's again, and it is a reminder to me why I live in Wisconsin. Hah. Mark was wiped from his early morning bike ride, so I drove the majority of this drive. Fine by me, because it was nice and flat. Although, there were times where these big dust storms would blow through and signs on the side of the road warning you about the dangers of them. But the clouds in the sky totally reminded me of Toy Story.
Mark was especially excited for this stop of our tour because we were staying with his cousin Todd and his wife Nina and their daughter Asha. Mark and Todd hadn't seen each other in a long time, but they both have a huge, huge passion for cycling so he was so pumped to reconnect with Todd in that way. We got to their house and Nina told us that Todd had been called in for an emergency at the school, that something was wrong with the pipes and he would come home as soon as it got figured out. We ate tacos for dinner and then went over to Mandi's house, one of Mark's friends.
Back in college, Mark was an RA at Madison and Mandi and her sister were residents of his. They've kept in touch over the years and now she lives in Albuquerque so we made it a priority to go hang out for a little while and chat and play a little bit of music. We were wiped, though. Days were long for us. So we headed back over to Todd's house and he still wasn't home yet. Later we found out that he wasn't at the school, that he had been at the hospital all night. He didn't want to worry us, so he waited until he could explain it in person. He was fine, everything was okay. And the two guys went for a bike ride in the morning.
We had time in the afternoon to just hang out with everyone in the living room, talking, playing music, and watching the US lose in the soccer match. Then they took us up the Sandia Mountains for dinner.
It was absolutely wonderful spending time with their family. They are so loving and inviting. I got to hear a lot of stories about their family and it was all so very special. I loved getting to be a part of it, and I know how much it meant to Mark to have these moments.
And even though Mark was wiped from two really big days of biking in a row, he wasn't going to miss out on one last bike ride with his cousin the morning we were going to leave. They left early morning to ride the Sandia Mountains and Mark described it like they were chasing the sun. The sun was just starting to rise, so they would bike to certain points and it was dark, but then the sun would catch up. And they'd bike even more and get to a point where it was dark again, and then the sun would catch up. I think it was a really neat experience for him and they got to have some really special time together one-on-one.
Todd is the principal at La Cueva, a high school in ABQ. So before we hit the road he gave us a tour of the school and sent us off with many hugs.
Our time in Albuquerque was really special. I got to be a part of the family. It went by way too quick, because before we knew it, we were in the car headed to Frisco, CO.
Our last little bit in Los Angeles wasn't great. We awoke to a giant parking ticket for not moving the car while the street sweeper went by AND we found a nail in our tire when we stopped at the grocery store before hitting the road for Tucson. Thank goodness for the way Mark pulled in and turned the tires, because that would have been an even worse discovery during our drive. We had to carry on, so I went inside to pick up stuff to restock the cooler while Mark put on the spare tire.
We knew that we would need to get the tire fixed up but we decided that we would figure it out along the way. We started driving towards the interstate and we just so happened to pass this tire shop that wasn't too busy so we quick turned around and Mark went to see if they could fix our tire right on the spot. Sure enough, they told us to bring it on over. In a matter of minutes, and for REALLY cheap, they fixed the tire and had it back on the car and we were ready for our drive. That was such a blessing for us in what could have been a disaster.
Each of our drives were different from each other, we seriously got to see so many different landscapes. From flatlands, to rolling hills, to luscious trees, to the ocean, and now we were driving in the desert. And it was HOT. We always tried to quiz each other, whoever was driving would cover up thermometer in the car and ask the other what they thought the temperature was. These were by far our hottest days. It got to 100 and then climbed to 103, 105, and eventually got to 108 degrees. So yeah, we were thankful for a tire that was fixed and air conditioning that worked.
We went straight to A Shot in the Dark Cafe where we were playing a show our first night and got things set up right away so that we could have a little chill time.
Any time I had the chance I was on the computer trying to keep up with documenting our adventures. I was posting something to our facebook when I got a little facebook chat from Stacy, Mark's sister, telling me to go on Skype. So we logged on and got to have a little Skype session with their family and it was just terrific timing. Adi showed us her beatboxing skills that she had been practicing since she saw me beatbox at a show and it was absolutely adorable.
I got a chai tea latte during this show and I have got to say it was THE best chai tea latte I have ever had. The perfect blend of cream and spice. And I pretty much got a chai tea latte wherever we went. So if you ever find your way to Tucson, stop in for a chai tea latte at A Shot in the Dark.
Before I go any further I should probably include a little backstory of our Tucson adventure. We originally put this stop on the map because an old friend of Mark's lives in Tucson. So when we were planning the trip Mark had talked to him about swinging down there, playing a couple shows and staying with his family. It was going to be a cool time to connect in Arizona. Well, the day before we left for the tour, Mark's friend told him that he wasn't going to be in town and we couldn't stay with his family. Talk about quite the surprise just as we were getting ready to leave. We had a couple friends over for our last night in Madison, and one of them said he had a friend in Tucson that he would talk to and see if they could figure something out. Thankfully in those next couple days we got in touch with Jason, who offered to be our host for the two days we would be in town. So after the show we went to go meet Jason. [This was from a picture that he got on the ground to take of us, so I had to quick snap one of him and his commitment.]
The next day Jason decided to take us up the Santa Catalina mountains, specifically Mt. Lemmon, which is the tallest peak there. Every couple thousand feet of elevation that you climbed up, there were spots where you could pull over and park and check out the scenery. It's crazy how much the scenery could look different from one stop to the next. Different plants, different cacti, different animals.
I had this book with me called Wreck This Journal, where I was doing different things that would go against every fiber in my being that wants to keep a book perfect, in order to wreck it in some way. We thought this would be the perfect time to throw my journal at a cactus and then proceed to throw it off the ledge to the landing below. In the midst of all of that, I also thought it was the perfect time to hug a cactus, just for the sake of saying that I hugged a cactus. (And yes, I had little spines stuck all over me after that. And yes, it was worth it.)
We got to the top of the mountain and it was the first time it was comfortable being outside because the temperature dropped 30 degrees from the base of the mountain to the top. We soaked in the scenery, stopped to have a little pizza for lunch, and then headed back down.
We had a show that night at Java Edge in Tanque Verde. What a terrific night. First of all, I had the greatest Italian soda there and they kept offering to hook us up with whatever we needed. The owner showed us incredible hospitality and really went out of her way to promote the show. She had created fliers and sent out our press release and put a big effort in inviting people from the community to come out to the show. So the folks that were there that night really came to listen.
It was honestly the best show of the tour. One of those ones where Mark got to tell the stories behind the songs and we both felt really strong and connected. Everything lined up perfectly, and it was one of those nights that reminds you why you love doing what you're doing. And you wish every show was like that, but they happen just often enough to keep you going until the next show where everything feels perfect.
I was so happy that Mark was cool with packing up by himself that night, because I had been dying to go swimming all tour long. (And our quick hop in the ocean doesn't count!) So Jason and I went back to the pool to hang out and chat for a while before it closed for the night and I finally got my swim in. Mark packed up and immediately went back to get some rest because he decided that he was going to get up super early and bike up Mt. Lemmon. Yeah, that huge mountain that we just drove up earlier in the day, he decided he was going to BIKE it. One of the people at the show mentioned that Lance Armstrong had trained on that mountain and Mark made the decision that he was going to do it, too, because he didn't know if he'd ever get the chance to do it again. What an inspiration. If this guy puts his mind to it, he will do everything in his power to make it happen. He even picked up breakfast burritos for us on his way back! He showered, we packed up and of course, it was time to get back on the road again.
It was a long day. We drove into Los Angeles in the middle of the night. We were bantering as we drove in, as you'll hear at the beginning of the vlog, but we had definitely come to the conclusion that we had made the right decision in continuing to LA. First of all, driving into the city while it was dark was really cool. Cityscapes are beautiful with all of the twinkling lights. Plus, there was no traffic so we didn't waste time being stuck in a dead stop. It was smooth sailing for us.
We were staying at my sister's apartment, so we called her when we got into town. Brought our stuff in, and then went to park the car in the driveway of one of her friend's house behind a locked gate. [Finally, we were a little more at ease with that.] It didn't take long before we crashed for the night.
The next day we had plans to bring Mark's bike to a bike shop to get his tire fixed. He had called them and had them order the part so that it would be there by the time we got there. He was obviously anxious to get that fixed since he had been itching to ride so bad. As they were fixing his bike, we decided to head to the beach.
This was probably one of my favorite moments from the trip. I love water. I love the ocean. It calms me, it refreshes me, it brings so much happiness to me. We saw this huge group of kids that were trying to learn how to surf and it was so entertaining. Especially when all of the girls went out on the surf boards and tried to paddle against the waves. They just kept getting knocked over and we couldn't help but giggle. And then we saw a guy flying a giant kite and we started picking up little shells and oysters and Mark took what instantly became one of our favorite pictures from the trip. An oyster shell opened to look like a heart with the foam of the ocean wave receding. How beautiful.
As we were walking back to the car to have lunch we saw this group of people and all of this video equipment and knew there was some kind of shoot happening. So we asked one of the guys that we passed on the sidewalk what was going on and he said they were from NCIS: Los Angeles and they were filming a scene. It was a fun little thing to walk through and see and make a joke out of later.
We had lunch, picked up the bike, and then headed back to the apartment to relax and fiddle around playing music as we waited for my sister to get off work.
After she got back she gave us a tour of the city. She showed us the Staples Center, the tunnel they filmed a scene from The Transformers in, and the bench in the park from 500 Days of Summer. My sister and Mark both really like sushi, so they had previously decided that we'd be going to a place where they could get sushi. Since I'm not a fan, I went a little more of the Hibachi route.
The next day Mark and I went on our separate adventures. It was the first time in the trip that we had substantial time away from each other. Since the bike was finally fixed, he had set up a route in Malibu and was going to go on a long bike ride. Totally fine with me. My sister and I had other plans. We both wanted to get footage from our different escapades, so I sent Mark with the still camera and I took the Flip video camera, because we thought that was more fitting with what we were doing.
Mark got some absolutely gorgeous shots on his ride, but I won't fill the blog with a ton. He put together a photo montage of the ride and I really encourage you to check it out, because it's really gorgeous.
Anyways, my sister and I went to Hollywood for the afternoon! I got to ride the Subway for the first time ever. We went to an outdoor mall, sat on the giant casting couch, saw the Hollywood sign from a distance, walked down Hollywood Boulevard and checked out a bunch of the stars on the ground. And of course I had to stop for a picture with this Star.
It was the week of the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Pt 2 premier so Grauman's Chinese Theatre had these huge posters up and a lot of people were hanging out by the handprints. We even came across this Shrek statue and I had to pause to give him a little kiss on the cheek.
My sister took me to a couple other Subway stations because they all look different, especially the ones right in the middle of Hollywood. They make them bright and colorful and have film reels and palm trees and painted tiles. We hopped back on the subway and I made a joke to some stranger and by the end of the ride we had made a new friend.
Before heading back to the apartment we met up with my sister's friend Stephen for giant burritos for lunch at a little mom and pop place.
That night we were putting on a private show for my sister and her friends in the backyard where Stephen lived. A bunch of people came over to help set up and arrange couches, hang rope lights, and set up food. We played for a while over the PA and then did a few old songs unplugged sitting around the couches. After the show a few of the closer friends went over to my sister's for spaghetti and we all had a peach ring in honor of my Dad who always got us peach rings when we took a long trip. It was a special moment for us that they all joined in on. And since it was our last night in LA, we decided to go downtown for a little bit. We went for drinks at a bar just outside of the Staples Center, and enjoyed some last moments of hanging out and then walked around a little bit. We got to see the red carpet from the ESPY's that were there that night.
It was time for us to get some rest before the next stop. Which also meant the last time Daniel was going to get to sleep with Mark. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more. They had a little bromance going on.
Los Angeles was a pleasant surprise. It wasn't as dirty as we anticipated, and it was the longest we stayed in one place. It was cool for me to see my sister's apartment for the first time since she moved out there and fun for us to have a little time together just the two of us.
I'm not sure if I should tell you this now, or if I should tell you this later. The plan was to stay in San Francisco on Monday night. It was about the halfway point from Eureka to LA, and a cool spot to check out since neither one of us had ever been there before.
Well...long story short... we stayed in San Francisco no more than 4 hours and then we left. It's kind of a complicated story.
As we were approaching San Francisco we caught sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, it's pretty big. And long. Ever since I was in middle school I have done this thing where I hold my breath while crossing bridges. I'm pretty good at it, but I knew it was not happening with this. It literally took almost 2 full minutes to get from one side to the other. That's a long bridge! AND it cost us $13 just to cross it and get into the city because we had the trailer. Yikes! So that kind of set the tone for our San Francisco visit.
As soon as we got into the city we headed to Guitar Center to bring Mark's guitar in to get fixed. It wasn't going to take too long, and he had called ahead of time to see if the work could be done. So we found a spot to park on one of the hills and had to pay on two meters, once again because of the trailer. And a quarter only got you 5 minutes in the meter. No joke. So it was $3 an hour per meter. So this trip was adding up pretty fast.
We went to a Starbucks that was close by while the guitar was being fixed. Mark was doing some and I was editing the vlogs and our time on the meters was winding down so Mark went to go plug the meters again. When he came back he said that there were cop cars on the street in front of where we parked and a guy was getting arrested. So he went up to one of the cops and asked what was going on and he said that this guy was breaking into one of the cars parked in front of us! Now we started to worry a bit. We were planning on spending the night in the city, but totally did not feel comfortable leaving the car and trailer out on the street all night with all of our equipment, in addition to the major cost it was going to be. Mark started looking into parking garages to see what their overnight rates were, but nothing was protected, there wasn't security or anything, so it was almost as bad as just being parked on the street.
We were faced with a tough decision. The plan had been to stay with Matt, a relative of a friend of Mark's, for the night and head to LA in the morning. We had already driven 5 hours, and it would be another 6 to LA. But when it came down to it, we just couldn't take the risk. We decided that we would continue driving and get to my sister's place in LA in the middle of the night. But since we were already in San Francisco (and had paid $13 to get in) we wanted to go at least meet Matt before heading out. So we went over to Matt's place and got a little tour, Mark walked out on the roof, and then Matt gave us a route to take on our way out of the city so we could see a few sites. We made sandwiches outside of the car and got ready to start part two of our traveling journey for the day.
I was so happy to get out of the city, everything had brought about high levels of anxiety. The hilly roads did not mesh well with our manual car with the trailer attached. There's no way I could have driven in the city. I was really appreciative of Mark doing that. We went to Lombard Street, the famous really windy road that's on a steep hill with eight hairpin turns, an adventure in itself.
And we could see Alcatraz in the distance and headed towards this bridge, which is much cooler than the Golden Gate, in my opinion.
San Francisco was not quite what we expected. It was a 4 hour long whirlwind trip that was very stressful. I'm glad we went just to be able to say we've been there, but I was relieved that we were going to Los Angeles, even if that meant I had to drive the late night shift.
I know we've said it before when we've talked about having some pretty amazing scenery in our drives, but this one was unlike any other. We took Hwy 101 from Bandon, OR to Eureka, CA. The front half of the trip was right up next to the ocean. Really special. There was something so refreshing about taking a break from driving along the mountains and driving along the coast.
There were a couple points where we would pause and take a few pictures, or slow down just a tad to get them as we went. We kept seeing these giant rocks shooting out of the water, but it never got old. The water was so close, I told Mark that I just wanted to touch it. There were little beaches all along the way and we decided we would stop at one of them and jump in, because who knew when we'd get the chance to do it again.
So we picked one of the next beaches and pulled off on the side of the road, went down the side of the hill and stepped on the sand. The glorious sand that's been touched by the salty lips of the ocean. There were a few other people on the beach and they were panning for gold. No joke, Gold Beach was the next beach along the drive, but they were searching the beach that we were at. I asked one of the guys if he would record us jumping into the ocean. That would have been a FAIL blog if we didn't get that on video.
I think he was amused by us, and as we gallivanted towards the water he yelled that it was 46 degrees, but we didn't hear him because we were already enticed by the ocean's waves and committed to throwing our bodies into them.
Cold. It was cold.
We came out shivering. Mark says he immediately regretted going completely under. I don't believe him. The memory was too special and absolutely necessary. It was worth it. We can now say we jumped into the ocean. I won't ever forget that moment.
We climbed up the hill back to our car and changed into some dry clothes for the rest of our drive.
Our fascination with bridges continued.
I can't get enough of these pictures, they're so perfect. But about halfway through the ride we took a little break from the ocean because the road started going a little inland. There are some giant red trees that I guess they wanted people to drive in the middle of.
I wish I had a picture of one of the Redwoods, but every picture I have is mostly blurry. We were going too fast to catch any of them in stillness. They aren't all so big that you can't wrap your arms around them, but there definitely were some.
When we got into town we found a hotel to stay at for the night and brought our stuff there and then headed downtown to Old Town Coffee & Chocolates.
We set up in the corner of the room, got a couple chai teas and played a couple hours for the kind folks of Eureka. We met a rather nice gentleman who tipped us very well as he left, I grabbed a CD and brought it outside to him and he told me "Bless your heart." It's those small things that stick with you.
The hotel we were staying at didn't have any double parking spots, so we unhooked the trailer and just chained it to the brick post. It was literally right next to our room so that made Mark more comfortable with that.
Our show was in the afternoon and it was our first night that we had free in four days, so we decided that we needed to enjoy it. I was feeling pretty tired and I was backed up on the vlogs and it seemed like there was so much to do and I didn't know how I'd get it all done. But we decided to just put that on hold and enjoy dinner. Mark wanted sushi and I was wanting some Italian and we hadn't seen a sunset yet, and lo and behold Eureka has a Japanese/Italian restaurant that is right on the ocean. Who would've thought? So we went to Bayfront. Mark's sushi was good, my pasta was mediocre at best, our waitress was terrible. But we went outside on the pier after dinner, because the table next to us said there were seals out there.
It was a great view. We didn't really catch the sunset, but it was just starting to get dark and the lighting is always really pretty. But it was really chilly so we didn't stick around long. We went to the grocery store to fill up our cooler with lunch supplies for the next few days and we picked up a couple drinks and went back to the hotel room to work.
While I was editing the Portland vlog, Mark edited the vlog from Bandon. I'm a bit of a control freak so it was hard to give up some of my responsibilities and ask for help, but it was necessary so that we didn't fall even more behind.
We started doing voiceovers to the vlogs, sort of like a director's commentary and we were pretty giggly so it made it even better. After the vlogs finished we got some sleep and it was time to go to our next destination.
Hwy 101 was taking us all the way to San Francisco.
