Aug. 22 - Abeline

Clearly touring has got me on a strange schedule. We got in at 5am and I slept 'till about 1:30 and ate my first meal. Now it's 2:51 and I'm eating my third meal of the day. so backwards!

Let me tell you about last night first. Now, I don't know what everyone else was thinking as we approached an Abilene coffee shop called "Monks," but I was skeptical. A) Coffee shops usually don't have great sound systems. and more importantly, B) It's Abilene (no offense...).

Who's actually going to show up?

Lots of high school kids. The place was packed! Apparently, one of the schools was having an orientation movie night, and after the film there were signs up promoting the show. Thanks Monks. That coffee shop did more work and treated us nicer than lots of the other venue's we played. Free coffee. Free dinner. Free snacks. Patient, friendly sound guy. Video taped the show AND promoted it. Anyway, these are details. The show was great. Everything felt really good. We ended with the new clapping song, which people seem to enjoy. I know Taylor did. Everyone I look over at him he's grinning while drumming the entire time. We autographed a few things for some very excited people and left feeling good. So good that we decided to drive straight to Austin--after a stop at Whataburger. We were so glad to be in Texas, how could we not? We had a lively dinner which must've energized is all. Somehow, everyone stayed awake and talking the entire drive home. We talked about our favorite shows, favorite places, and the weirdest people we'd met. The drive home tour recap is always fun for me. That's the moment you really realize how much you've done in such a short amount of time. We have covered a ridiculous amount of ground in just 18 days.

I was the first one to be dropped off so that's where my tale ends. Despite the fact that it was a really long day, we had a really great night.

-aisha