March 23 – 10:47 a.m.
Leaving for our maiden trip to Chicago. It's supposed to take 7.5 hours to get there. Highlights of the few days back home: changing Carl's water, getting a $157 fucking traffic citation, visiting my parents and hanging with Penny and Isabelle.

March 23 – 11:07 a.m. .8 miles.
First stop. Need to fill up the tank.

Seating chart:
John-Paul and Matthew (front)
Anthony (middle)
Paul and Jesse (back)

March 24 – 5:48 p.m. 537.6 miles. 100.7 Love FM.
We're in Hobart, Indiana. First major seat change --- Paul has moved up to the middle with Anthony.

Anthony and Paul (middle)

Jesse is asleep in the back. We sold a lot of merchandise in Chicago, which came in handy since the show's promoters didn't pay us --- or even show up to the show. We had authentic Chicago deep dish today at Geno's East. Anthony, Paul and I split a medium supreme and Jesse had a vegetarian (sans cheese, of course), which I managed to sneak a few bites of. John-Paul, on the other hand, slept in the van at a gas station parking lot. Paul almost threw down with a few brosefs today. John-Paul's amp shit the bed last night.

March 24 – 6:12 p.m. 553.8 miles. Rooney - "Rooney"
Anthony fell asleep and Paul went back to his assigned seat, maneuvering his way over a sleeping Jesse in the process. That didn't take long. And my mom sent me yet another text message.

March 24 – 7:54 p.m. 604.3 miles. Hall and Oates - "Greatest Hits."
Back in the eastern time zone, which is great because we have one less hour to try to find something to do in Indianapolis before load-in.

March 24 – 9:06 p.m.
Hello, Indianapolis! This place looks like a combination of the Pub and Gooski's --- definitely the coolest-looking place we'll be playing on tour.

March 25 – 2:57 p.m. 680.1 miles. !!! - "Myth Takes."
Leaving Indianapolis. Just passed Triceratops Lane. Played a good show last night. Stayed with Jo and Greg of Punk Rock Night. Hajime from the Spunks got ridiculously hammered last night and slept in their van. He ended up waking up around 2:00 p.m. The look on his face as he stumbled to the house was priceless. I'll be sure to buy him a shot of tequila tonight.

March 25 – 4:37 p.m. 757.9 miles.
Ohio!

March 26 – 1:47 a.m. 858.4 miles.
Hugfest, USA. Hajime's visa is up, so he unfortunately has to go back to Japan and that totally sucks. You can't meet a better group of dudes than the Spunks. Shots of tequila for the group were bought. New line-up:

Anthony and John-Paul (front)
Matthew (middle)
Paul and Jesse (back)

March 26 – 7:28 a.m. 1,066.3 miles.
We drove through the night from Columbus and are now back in Pittsburgh. BTR's first tour of the new year has come to an end. An interesting switch happened along the way:

Paul and J-P (front)
Me (middle)
Jesse and Anthony (back)

Paul says he took over driving responsibilities around 5:45 a.m. Pittsburgh style.

Total tour mileage: 4,829.7 miles.
Total number of states visited: 12.
Tour casualties: Anthony's guitar (stolen in Austin), John-Paul's amplifier, Matthew's tuner.

I hope you enjoyed my ridiculously comprehensive tour diary. Thank you to everyone we played with and all of you that came out to see us on this tour. Don't forget to buy our album, "Code Fun," in stores on April 17!

xoxo,
Matthew / BTR