TBT WIRE

*Disclaimer: this entry was written last week, so we apologize for the lag in our updates…

Greetings from rainy Southern California! So far, it has rained in Cali every single day we’ve been here. Not like peaceful rain either, the treacherous downpour rain. And the one thing that I have discovered about LA and rain, is that the locals don’t know how to drive in it. It’s like they don’t know what this liquid is falling from the sky. Thankfully we haven’t gotten into an accident. Fingers crossed.

So earlier this week, we played at The Living Room on Loyola Marymount’s campus. The turnout was great for our first time playing there.

After the show a couple of girls gave us goodie bags with our names on them, which included a personal note and a brownie. Thanks girls!

It has been great to enjoy some free time on the West Coast. One of our favorite pastimes is eating. I have to say to everyone who has not tried it, go eat some Korean BBQ. It was amazing and all you can eat!

After dinner, most of us went to Guppy House, which is a like fruit and shaved ice place.  Jim went to the famed Watkins’ Family Hour at The Largo with our road manager, Steve, and our manager, Jack. I kind of wish I had been there because they all said it was one of the best shows they had ever seen.

Next week we head off to Northern California and then on up towards the Seattle area. . . . Hopefully we will see some sun at least one of those days.

Parker

Doing What we Love

The Crowd

Greetings. So many things have happened since we hit the road last Wednesday. Our first stop was in Austin. We weren’t sure what the crowd would be like with the city being an entirely new market and all, but were pleasantly surprised to see the venue packed when our set started. After the show, some folks invited us to their place for some steaks – which were incredible (thanks Chris Lu and company)! Next was Houston where we had two stops. We had a feeling that they were going to be great shows since we’d played at both churches before, and our expectations were more than met – thanks FBCC and HCC!

After Houston, we started the long trek to Los Angeles, with a pit stop in San Antonio for breakfast burritos (courtesy of our road manager Steve’s Uncle Jim). During our lovely breakfast, Uncle Jim proceeded to inform us of a recent incident that occurred in one of the cities we would be passing through. This incident involved a man en route to Los Angeles, his car, and burning flames, which were not accidental. Needless to say, we stayed pretty alert during the next 7000 hours to California. We took some pictures of the scenery for your viewing pleasure. During this trip, we unknowingly came to a border patrol checkpoint and were momentarily excited at the prospect of our tour becoming international….But the only border we got to cross was into New Mexico.

In short, 22 hours after leaving San Antonio, we arrived at Andrew’s sister’s place in Irvine and crashed for a few minutes before getting ready for our first show in Los Angeles (which was this past Monday). We’ll post more about our time in CA soon, so until next time…

Grace and peace,

Jim and Parker

So we have officially been driving the van for 24 hours. Nothing exciting has really happened except for the massive fallen Super 8 sign we found near a Tennessee gas station.

We’ve been trying to eat healthy so we bought a large bag of baby carrots and a tub of Spinach from Sam’s club. Steve (our road manager) brought one of those water boilers you can plug in.  We tried plugging it in to the van so we could cook the Spinach and we ended up blowing up the outlet.  Apparently the cigarette lighters in a vehicle can only deliver 300 watts of power.  The water boiler needed 1000 watts. Oops.

We finally got a fancy GPS guide that speaks to us with a British accent.  Sometimes she gets angry at us when we deviate from her appointed route and says “recalculating route” with such frustration we have simply learned to obey.  We haven’t figured out how to lower the volume, so until then, she is in charge.

Personally, I have given up movies and television for the year, so it’s back to the written word for me.  I haven’t really read anything in years, so it’s been good to know that I am still literate.  I am currently reading:

A Time to Kill (John Grisham)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon)

We are now napping/blogging at the hotel in Austin, TX before we have to get to the venue at 3pm.  I am going to sleep now because Parker and Steve are breathing so loud I can’t concentrate anymore.

Peace out from the South,

Tim

Well friends – it’s been too long since we updated this, so here we (I) go.  Tomorrow marks the first day of our winter tour, and I cannot begin to tell you how excited and anxious we are. Though we’re scheduled to leave Charlottesville at 8 am (to make it to Austin, TX by 4 pm on Thursday – ugh), I’ve only begun to pack…good times.  We’re excited about seeing old friends, new friends, and future friends!  And to add to the already high levels of excitement, we’ll be traversing around the country in a new(er) van!!! For those of you who’ve seen our beloved Dodge Ramwagon, you know that pretty much anything is a step up; however, we will miss that old van.  So in short, check out our myspace (www.myspace.com/timbetold) to see where we’ll be stopping, and if you’re free and able, please come out to see us and say hello!

Grace and peace,

Jim

P.S. We will be updating our blog more frequently during this tour, so be on the lookout for some sweet videos, pictures, and stories.