Spring Rewind

Spring Is Nature’s Way Of Saying, “Let’s Party!” 

A quote by the comedy legend, Robin Williams, sums up the past 12 weeks of my life! Coming off of a crappy and cold winter here in NYC, I traveled across the country to California (the place I consider my second home) to begin 7 weeks on the High School Nation Tour! 

Pop-rock group, The Plain White Tees, headlined the tour, along with a handful of supporting acts including Crimson Apple, The Haunt, Emergency Tiara and many other emerging artists. We preformed shows for teenage audiences throughout California, Arizona, and Texas.

Each day on this tour we set up at a different high school, usually on their football field. We transformed a regular school day into a music festival. For a few hours each day students would take there minds off of school work to enjoy live music, give-aways and time with their friends. I get the students hyped each day by having dance parties, hosting contests, and playing games along with the Truth Marketers. 

But some of the best moments actually happened off-hours. We got to visit many cities along the way including Oakland, Tucson and Houston, but some of my favorite memories happened in San Jose. I fell in love with that city and riding scooters… yes scooters! Don’t knock it until you try it! It was such a peaceful way to start my mornings or for a joy ride after the show. I really had such a blast on these things, even when I was trying to show off and fell off the scooter in the middle of a busy intersection!

Another fun experience was the Winchester Mystery House! This twisted mansion built in the late 1800s is full of wonder and intrigue. The tour of the house was well worth the money, as you are led through hidden door ways, stairs that lead to know where, and the seance room where Harry Houdini once stayed.

We also stopped by the San Francisco Creamer to attempt the “Man Vs. Food Challenge” and ate the monstrous dish known as “The Kitchen Sink.” As much as I would have loved to have got ICE CREAM WASTED by myself, I admittedly had the help of co-workers from tour to help me eat this delicious treat! 

We bounced around from city to city, hotel to hotel. Some hotels were more luxurious with notable pools, jacuzzis, gyms, and breakfast options. Other hotels are the stuff nightmares are made out of! For example, one hotel we found blood stained floors, where we made up an “Unsolved Mysterious” murder scenario, even going as far as reenacting it on my instagram story. At another hotel, my friend got half of her laundry stolen by some random dude under the influence and we may have also stayed at this random haunted hotel in Arizona, but I’ll save those stories for another time. 

Long travel days on the road can really suck at times, especially driving through the desert for 12 hours. Despite that, gas stations and road side attractions helped to break up the monotony of the drives. As we started making our way towards Texas, we stopped at the road side attraction called, “THE THING.” For $5 you can walk through this tiny museum and learn “The Truth” and at the end you get to witness the remains of “The Thing.” If you need to take a pee break and have $5 to waste and an interest for aliens then make the pit stop at this roadside attraction in Arizona. Plus they have a DQ with those awesome blizzard treats, which most take advantage of because that desert sun is HOT! I also ended up with what I’m calling my “good luck coin.” Again perhaps another story for another time, but to sum it up, I think the universe gave it to me?!

A few crew birthday parties, schools that turned the fuck up, even a kid who jumped on top of a cop car to pose with his middle fingers up for the best default Instagram pic ever, and a couple nights I later regret; we were at the end of that tour. Touring is sort of like sleep-away camp. You make a bunch of new friends, have some incredible experiences and adventures, and then 7 weeks later every one goes back home. 

But for me, life on the road wasn’t over just yet.

I was moving on to the next gig. The last couple weeks of Spring were setting up to be even more exciting!