So, we woke up to tackle the flat tire around 11am on Sunday. Our new friend, Justin, had all sorts of tools and ideas for how to get the lugs off without further twistage of the tire iron, so we trekked back to the van and started going at it. With lots of leverage, some magic, and a little bit of luck, we were able to remove four of the five lugs, but that last one wasn't budging. It was on tighter than a clam's ass and with persistence and sheer strength we succeeded in stripping it round.

Shit. Time to change gears. Justin gave us a quick tutorial on how to fix a flat, and we got it done.

We were rolling by about 4pm and it took 30 minutes or so just to get to the freeway through the city snow. About 15 minutes after hopping onto 405 we heard the passenger side chain start flapping up against the wheel well….no bueno. We pulled over to the side of the highway to discover that one of the cross chains had broken. We were just about to hop back in and head to the next exit at 5mph when a fire truck pulled up behind us. Turns out somebody had called us in as an accident. Oops.

So we embarked on our mission to mend the wound. Over the next several hours we experimented with zip-ties, bungee cords, and little hose clamps, all to no avail. We were trying to find a pair of bolt cutters to get rid of the excess, but you'd never guess how hard it is to find a pair of those at 9pm on a Sunday in the worst snow storm in years. After the 5th or 6th stop to re-fasten the flopping chains, we determined that the damage the flopping chains was doing to the wheel well wasn't worth stopping every 30 minutes, and we kept pushing onto Portland. We still had 50 miles to go around 1am when two more cross sections of the chain snapped. Roadside assist had already failed us once that day (with the flat), so we really didn't have anything else to do but take that chain off all together and just take the rest of the trip slowly with one chain.

Somewhere in the mix we rolled into a Burger King with a neon sign that said "24 hour drive thru." Apparently the storm had incapacitated the teenagers working there, and they refused to serve anybody. They wouldn't even open the window so we could tell them they should turn the neon sign off. Oh well.

Next little bundle of joy involved stopping for gas at a Texaco where every single one of the pumps was out of order.

We finally got into Portland around 3am. A couple pieces of pizza and an Obsideon Stout later we were lights out.

Another foot of snow had dumped by the time we woke up around 8am, and it was beginning to look like we'd be snowed in if we didn't make a miracle happen. Still rolling on only one chain, the van got stuck just backing out of the parking space. We pulled all sorts of tricks out our asses, but the thing wasn't budging. Finally ended up jimmy-rigging the broken chain and crossing our fingers that it would get us to the nearest place that still had chains in stock.

We were back on the road with new chains in a jiffy, and it was 25mph from Portland to Eugene. We finally got out of the last bit of snow just south of Shasta and rolled into Sacramento a little after midnight. Short as it was, this trip was jam packed with all sorts of ridiculous stuff. We didn't even tell you about the raging show in Vashon and the equally raging show at the after party.

Special thanks to Pete, Pete, Adriane, Marty, Brian, Dave, WendyJo, and all the rest of the party animals for helping make Vashon yet another epic experience.

Special thanks to Moe, Ammie, Justin, and the staff at Conor Byrne for helping us get out of the bind on Saturday night.

Bonus points to everybody involved in the snowball war, and EXTRA EXTRA special thanks to Josh for not only opening up his home to us every time we come through Portland, but for waiting up for us until 3am and then helping us wiggle out of the snow on Monday morning. We'd have been totally F'd without him.

Merry Christmas, folks. The new CD just landed on our doorstep last night. We're giddy with anticipation for the CD release party on Friday.

Big ups.