We finished up our west coast shows with The Used in San Francisco at the Warfield last week. Crazy place! The venue is really nice, but the area surrounding was sketchier than the worst DC neighborhood I've ever seen! A friend of mine got beat up by a bum who wanted a cigarette. Anyway, we said our goodbyes to Bert, Quinn, Jeff, Dan, and the dudes from The Bled. All those guys were really cool to us on this tour, much love!

We pushed east with almost a week off. The first night we stayed in Salt Lake City, and the second night we stayed in Kansas City. We played golf the next day in Kansas City. Imagine a bunch of guys in ripped skinny jeans, thrift store t-shirts roaming a Kansas City golf course, aiming for the fairway on Hole #14, and hitting the fairway of Hole #17. That was us. But it was fun. When you hit a shot that is supposed to go up in the air, but instead just skims the surface of the grass, it's called a "worm burner." We are really good at those. But I actually had a few good shots and even shot one legitimate par on a hole!

Then, this past weekend we camped out on a farm in Southern Illinois. The place we stayed was owned by a couple that owns something like 5,000 acres of corn, soybean, and wheat. There was this little pond on the farm and I spent a bunch of time fly-fishing, one of my favorite hobbies. I had my fly rod in the van, and a bunch of trout flies. But the problem was that the pond had bass, bluegill, and catfish. No trout. But I managed to still catch a few bass, and actually hooked an enormous 15 lb catfish. I fought it for 15 minutes, a serious battle. The fly rod I had with me wasn't meant for fish that size, but I eventually landed it with the help of Brad, who was holding the net!

Now for the coolest (or nerdiest, depending on your opinion) part of the weekend... Because the people we stayed with had all this farmland, they had a huge collection of Native American artifacts, mostly arrowheads. In the spring, when they plow their fields, the plows turn up tons of stuff that's under the surface of the dirt. Over the years of working in the fields, they had found arrowheads, spearheads, tools, etc etc. Ever since I was a kid, I've been kinda obsessed with arrowheads. I don't know if it's because I'm part American Indian, but they are so cool to me. It's a weapon, but also a work of art and craftsmanship.

Everywhere we go, I'm always looking for them, but I never really have much luck. So, if anyone reading this knows a good place to find them, or lives on a farm or something, let me know - email me through our website. We can go arrowhead hunting together. I'm very serious! :)

OK, well we're on our way to go play a show with The Starting Line, should be cool. Later!

Vince