Though I missed out on all but one of the first two weeks of tour I flew down to meet up with Colour In The Clouds to finish off the last week of it all. The journey itself was long with a two and a half hour flight to Vegas, a six and a half hour wait for a bus (which was late by nearly two hours) to LA and finally the 40 minute Amtrak to Fullerton into the van to start off the adventure in California. Lucky for me this was a day off for them and I was able to start off easy, just enjoy the day with them and new friend, Alyson. She showed us around her part of the city, took the guys to authentic Mexican food, and ended the night at the beach to hang out by the Pacific Ocean and have a fire. Alyson had been on the tour with Comrades the weeks prior and I was deeply saddened that the last week of me hopping on she would not be able to keep going with the crew. Early the next day we endured the heat through the California desert into Arizona. Wow. That's really all I can say.
I think one of my favourite parts about Arizona was the record store right next to the venue. I was able to pick up something and was pleasantly surprised by some of the things inside. I feel like Dave and Dorian's favorite part were the two dogs that occupied the space near the entrance of that store.
We made it into New Mexico around 5AM. Myself and Yosh had pulled an all nighter talking about spooky things through the winding roads. Once the sun was too much to handle Dave switched out with me. We made it to Albuquerque a few hours later and decided to hit up the Breaking Bad house. We were really careful not to upset the owners after hearing a few horror stories of different people's experiences. After that we hit up the Dunkin' Donuts for that famous cold brew. Just another substance that gave us enough energy to finish the rest of the drive going into Colorado Springs.
Three days were spent in Colorado Springs, playing shows, hiking, thrifting, and drinking a lot of Dutch Bros thanks to Ben and his obsession with the establishment. I don't think any place has ever treated us with kindness quite like them. After getting a nice blended coffee with six shots of espresso i feel like there might be no turning back from my already alarming caffeine addiction.
The last day of tour was in Denver, Colorado. I was particularly excited to see different names on posters for the venue including the Dear Hunter, Yellowcard, and Beartooth. The lighting was so relieving and nice to have, especially on the last day. Killing time before the show started a group of us played Ninja Assassin outside the venue. During this time a man came up to us claiming that he had invented that game on a previous tour of his. Through the conversation we learned that he actually played in Drop Dead Gorgeous. He took some photos of us so that he could show his old tour mates and all of us sort of stood around in awe and mild disbelief of what just happened. What are the odds? We were in Denver, after all.
At the end of the night we were prepared for the all nighter heading back into Canada. All of us could feel the sadness in saying goodbye to everyone in Comrades. We all parted at a gas station, waving goodbye to the bright orange van as it pulled away from us.
