Day1-
So I woke up late. We went to pack the van at 10pm Friday, which was a mistake, since I had to be up at 6:30am Saturday to start my pickup run. I also had to do my laundry, but fell asleep once I put everything in the dryer.
I woke up to my cell phone jingle ringing on my desk across the room. I darted up and over to pick it up and had an awkward conversation with Armine. He asked if I had just woke up, I said, "kinda..." and then hungup to freak out for a second before taking a shower, collecting my laundry/etc, packing it all, and rushing out the door like a madman.
Everything after that went pretty much off without a hitch. The van was a little crowded with 5 dudes and tons of extra merch that hadn't been sorted yet, but we coor tough it to Detroit. Once on the highway it was smooth sailing. A little hot, a few hills, but nothing special. Zoning in and out and being slowly worked into my driving tdance, all is well...till I miss te exit and we have to pay extra money to get off the highway and turn around.
Okay, one little hiccup so far, no biggie. But when it rains, it pours. Heading up one hill I hear a clank and see the 'check engine' light flashing. It's been on before, but never flashed before. I started to smell something weird, an odor similar to a 'Deejay' fog machine. Never a good sign. About a quarter mile later the blinking stops, and the smell dissipates. Another quarter mile though, the engine temperature starts rising dramatically. The smoke machine smell gets more intense, an when the temperature hit the red, smoke started coming out of the vents.
I'm on hold with AAA transferring me around to different departments because many places already being closed for the 4th of July weekend. Luckily one towing place was open, and one garage. The towing company even had a truck with an extended cab to accommodate our plethora of dudes.
At first, we weren't guaranteed the van could be fixed today, which would blow, because it wouldn't be worked on till Monday (because of the 4th), blowing 3 days of show right off the bat. However, they were able to get us in at the last second. Turns out some pipe somewhere between the engine and the engine coolant exploded off the van, probably due to all the hills, and the amount if gear, extra merch, and dudes it was having to pull up them. The part and labor only cost us an hour or so of drive time and $188.
We're in our way to Detroit now; hoping the van lives the remainder of tour (the entirety) and hoping we make it in time to actually play.
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Despite the fact that it was midnight when we got there, a few people stuck around and rocked out. We even played an encore, which is always a weird thing to me.
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