You know those days that blow your mind? Those days that you're like, "man, i couldn't come up with that if i TRIED?" Well the last two days have been exactly that. Here we go...
We started two days ago on Thursday morning heading out from FL at 9am. Our plan was to drive to an hour outside Lafayette to sleep before heading to our show in Lafayette. Around 9 am, as we were starting to leave, Glenn and Wendy had been trying to take their car to their mechanic since about 8:30. They finally got it started and as we were about to follow them to pick them up, their car died. It would not start again, so we decided, we'll just go, take care of it when we get back.
We started driving and within 5 minutes, we smelled and saw smoke filling the RV. So we stopped immediately and checked it out. Thankfully, it was only some oil on the exhaust pipe that had gotten there when a quart of oil was run over on accident. I mean, honestly, who leaves a quart of oil in the road in a neighborhood. So yeah, that was okay...
So we're driving...we're driving...make it to Atlanta, get some gas, start driving again, and about an hour north of atlanta...BOOOM!!!! wup wup wup wup wup...yes folks. we blew a tire. For the first time in the touring history of this band, we blew a tire. I'd say that's pretty awesome that it took 3 and a half years of touring for this to happen, but either way, it still stinks. haha.
We pull off to the side of the road to assess the situation and turns out it's one of the back tires on the RV. It's one of those double wheel situations where only one of them exploded. However, turns out this tire had a mission. That mission was to destroy plumbing, part of the RV, and rip out the entire harness from the electrical panel in the back that controls most of the RV's major functions. So now we're not just looking at a blown tire, we're looking at replacing, in its entirety, the electrical stuff for our RV to control major things, and some of the plumbing on the right side of the vehicle.
So the tire guy gets there, replaces the tire and says that basically all our rear tires need to be replaced, which we kinda figured, but that it was possible that the other three could blow. So we decided that we were gonna rent a bus for the weekend. It's two shows, and it's last minute so it's kinda steep, but we have to get to these shows and we have to get there safely. So we call some people in Atlanta, they send a bus to us at the mechanic that fixed our tire (who is putting on 3 other ones for us) and get on a beautiful Prevost and start heading north.
For some reason, the bus seemed kinda hot, so we cranked the AC down to a more delightful temperature, but the bunks didn't seem to be cooling off. We all go to bed, but some of us were having trouble sleeping because the bunks were very stuffy and hot, so they stay awake...i personally was able to sleep okay...thankfully.
Fast forward to about 10am, mind you, we're supposed to be at the venue by then. We are stopped, the engine (and air) is off, and i feel cars and semis going past us like we're near a highway. So i wake up, to discover glenn and wendy in the front telling me that the bus has broken down. hahahhaa. Okay. the thing other bands always tell us is that if you lease, they send another one if there's a problem. unfortunately, they're all out of buses, so we have to try and figure out something else. we head up to a gas station about half a mile away (which our driver walked to to try and get oil to work on the bus) to wait.
Thankfully, the venue's production company decided to send two vehicles to get us, one to tow the trailer and the other to bring people and luggage. So we're waiting at the gas station and we go inside to get some food (i had beef jerky and a diet cherry dr. pepper for lunch) and this dude walks in and looks familiar. so i asked him his name and he said "kevin" and i looked a little closer...and lo and behold it was Kevin Max formerly of dcTalk. I mean, seriously...this sounds like i'm making it up, but i'm not, i promise...it was him. So he asks if he can help after i tell him the short version and we tell him we have a ride, so he says nice meeting you and gets gas and takes off...but seriously...Kevin Max at a gas station, in Uniontown, IN.
I know this is getting long, so i'll wrap it up. We make it to the venue and the show in Lafayette was awesome. We hadn't played there in years, so it was really cool to finally get back there. Oh, and lastly, we got another bus sent up to us, and i'm pretty sure it's brand new, because it's so much nicer than anything i've ever seen or been on. God really is taking care of us, even with all of this stupid stuff happening, but we always need your prayers. We have a few weeks off of driving, so if you guys could please keep praying that we get our bus situation squared away for real, we'd appreciate it. larry is dying, slowly, and we're working on getting the financing still for the bus, so we need all the prayer we can get.
Sorry this was so long, but it was a story worth sharing...i think at least.
Take care!
Justin