Connecticut. Here, we met up with drummer George, who had jumped ahead to spend more time with his Dad. Connecticut was George's home turf and, god bless him, he arranged quite a welcome for us. We arrived for our gig at a local Italian restaurant (friend's of George) where we met all of George's people.

He is immensely popular in Connecticut. The chow was free and so we played a sweet set for the locals before Nirvan launched into his pitch. Thanks to George, Connecticut was the 2nd most lucrative fundraiser on our tour!



Ohio. All of the big shows were now behind us except for the big Oprah Finale. So we stopped off in Ohio to visit the World's Largest Ball of Paint and to say hello to touring bassist Sarah's parents.



More SUPER-NICE mid-westerners who bathed us, fed us, and put us up overnight and let us watch TV all night long!!!! This was a funny scene. In one room, there was George and I, along with Sarah's Dad, Mom & brother all watching the World Series. In the adjacent room, everyone else were glued to another TV watching movies from the 80's. Weird. In my mind, it just seemed like good manners to chat it up and watch a little ball with our hosts. Were George and I just too old for this sort of thing? Because I'm starting to sound like somebody's parents.



Indiana. Now it was time to meet with Levi's family. They lived on a genuine FARM with Amish locals to the left and the right. When we showed up, they had pizza and a big bonfire waiting for us to torch.



That fire burned well into the night and kept us hella warm in that cold, cold, town. Old Brettster spent a good chunk of the night shooting the shit with none other than Levi's dad about politics and the state of the union. Levi's dad, like Sarah's, was not affiliated with any party in particular. One year they'd vote Republican and the next election they might go Democrat or Independent. I had never met a bonafide swing voter before (let alone two). I'm from Texas and Cali and where you vote their way or the highway. Anyway, it was great fun to relax a bit and talk with Levi's old man who still liked his Wild Turkey and Marlboros.



Finally Chicago. My first time in the windy city. I was so excited to be in Chicago because I knew this meant we were just a few more days away from a hug from my honey and long hot shower. As it turned out, Oprah had a big emergency in Africa with her school scandal and so she was nowhere to be seen. Of course, we had all prepared long ago for the possibility of an Oprah no-show.



But as we grew closer, I have to say I was pretty surprized at discovering that no one had any idea of Oprah's whereabouts until the day we arrived at Harpo Studios, when we bumped into an NBC news crew there trying to build a story about the school scandal. Still, a few Harpo employees stopped by and became producers and that was really cool. Finally, we celebrated the tail end of our journey by eating at another vegan restaurant. I forget the name of this place, but I can tell you they had the BEST fake malt/shake I've ever had in my entire life! Yum.



Back to L.A. The next 48 hours were a sleepless mad dash for home. We all wanted to get home pronto and the only way that was going to happen was if we worked the night driving shift and kept that trusty bus moving at all times. This created more tension for Lisa and I. She discovered early on that she had trouble sleeping while the bus was in motion. But most of us really wanted to get home YESTERDAY and so George and I carried on with our red-eye shifts.



God bless Nirvan and Levi and Mike for having a vision and sticking to it and including this raggedy old band for the kicks. It was a beautiful, most difficult journey that, in the end, I will fondly never forget. But I was hella glad to be home. Home. Home. Home.