We have returned...

AHHH!!! Where to begin. I guess the first day is a good place to start.

It was endlessly difficult to try to accomplish much on the road this time around. Not only were we out for a very short amount of time, but we have never been as busy as we were this past week with our events. Each day consisted of rising early with the sun (whether we wanted to our not) and then getting ready for a four hour event, driving to our destinations, setting up, and then working non-stop on bicycles until we had no choice but to turn people away every time because if we didn't stop, we would never leave. So therefore, writing on the road was not an option, especially since I don't have a computer that would fit into a small bag, and we try to travel with as little valuable items as possible. But, we are going to try to do our best to recap from memory.

We left on Monday night, getting out of town at a reasonable 10:30 pm, stoked with Ginger Ale and Goldfish snacks for the road. It was smooth sailing and a drive we had done before, so there we no surprises, except that immediately Ward and I felt the absence of both my sister and Joel the Intern. We had never been on tour without them (since it was only our second one) and the bus felt empty. But considering its so damn loud, even if they were there, we couldn't hear them, let alone hangout with them, so we figured it to be OK in the end. Ward was ready with his big apple juice jug for the when after he jugged it, it was time to let the apple juice back out. I forgot to bring something to relieve myself in the bus in a lady like manner, but our drive was less than five hours, and my bladder is strong and willing to withstand some traveling.

When it hit 2:30, we decided to pull over at the Chesapeake House rest area, less than 60 miles outside of Philly and get some sleep instead of arriving in the city at 4 and trying to park, and still waking up at 7 to the daylight bursting in through the bus windows. We pulled over, quietly curled up, with Ward on the couch and myself on the loft, and got some sleep, stoked about the week to come.

-Shelley