Vegas, a cow, and the most dangerous city in America

The last time I posted we were getting ready for our show in LA at the Nokia Theater. We had an amazing show and had representatives from some local associations and management companies in the audience. There was time to hang out with the Glitch Mob after the performance and we got to see Nigel our producer from the show as well.

We got on the buses for a short 4 hour trip over to Las Vegas. Most of us stayed up for awhile knowing we would be getting to the hotel around five in the morning. Coming into the Vegas strip at night was an amazing view and the lights could be seen for miles leading up to it. This was my first time in the city so I was excited to see the sights I had seen so many times before on TV and in movies. After a few hours of sleep Caleb and I went out for a run to see the strip in more detail. Our hotel was about a half mile off the strip behind the Wynn and Encore hotels which were some of the

largest I’ve seen. We passed many of the famous ones including the Bellagio, Venetian and where we were performing, Caesars Palace. The city itself isn’t the nicest I’ve been to but it was good to see it with its famous history. The theater was absolutely insane. One of the largest we are performing in, the holding and dressing rooms were huge with tons of space for the 40 or so cast members to spread out. The Coliseum Theater is the same one that Cher uses so it was interesting seeing all of the props and set pieces for those shows. The performance went smoothly as usual and we packed up the buses for our move to San Diego.

Everyone was exhausted getting into the hotel at San Diego. Having the lobby on the 12^th floor added to the confusion but we got into the rooms and to sleep quickly. It was nice sleeping in a little bit more and not going for a run but Rob, Caleb and I walked a few blocks to the mall. This was my first experience eating a California Burrito, an item that Chipotle needs to start serving. It included steak, guacamole, cheese and fries. We went down to the edge of the harbor and got some views of the marina as well as the navy shipyard. Later in the day we drove to the venue and got prepped for our show as normal but this time the crowd was much different. Being in a beach city possibly added to a younger crowd, but the support was amazing. People were cheering for our act as well as the others long before they even began playing. The meet and greet after the show was a lot more fun since we got to see the fans that had come out specifically for our performance. Some fans even had pictures printed out of the group to be signed and others just wanted personal pictures with the group.

The trip away from San Diego was nice knowing that we didn’t have to perform for the next few days. The only hiccup of the night was that our bus hit a cow somewhere in between Arizona and New Mexico. Only 3 people were already awake and saw the damage once the bus pulled over but the rest of us stayed asleep. The damage was pretty extensive, it broke the windshield in two places and tore up the front and side bumpers. I woke up as we were crossing the Rio Grande in New Mexico right before we crossed over into Texas and began to see the Mexico/Texas border. Our stop for the day was in El Paso, one of the U.S.’s most dangerous cities with the drug cartel issues there. We went for a run during the day and in the nicer part of downtown since there was a street festival going on.

The trip to Dallas was again enjoyable since we had nothing specific to do the next day. The buses pulled into the hotel around noon and after unloading gear into the rooms we hopped on the shuttle for Six Flags. Most of the acts got the chance to go and hit all of the rides before the park closed and since then we have been enjoying the break before our show in Dallas tomorrow. It’s a horrible view from our hotel room having to look at the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium but I guess I’ll deal since they haven’t been doing all too well this season. From Dallas we are driving to Kansas City, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.