Saturday night Travis and I went with The Influence to their show at Alley Catz in Richmond. It was the first time I had actually traveled with the band and it was actually their first trip on their brand new (to them anyway) bus. The bus is pretty freaking cool, it's like a shuttle bus and they went in and created a space in the back for their gear and moved some of the seats around and added a table. It's actually really comfortable. And they had it packed for the first trip; Collin was driving (which was a little scary occasionally), then it was me and Nick facing backwards, then John and Mickey facing backward too across from Will and Alison and then U.J. and Donny behind them. On the other side it was Brittany and Jessica facing across from Matt and JoAnna and then Tully and Travis in the back in what I'm calling the "Tully Hole". In case you're keeping score at home that's fifteen people on the bus. Rock and roll. On the way up somebody found the horse in the picture above just hanging out at a Pilot gas station. He was immediately dubbed "Ken Horse" and carried around like the band mascot. The boys stopped off at Cool Beans in Richmond to play an acoustic set and do a little thing for Virgnia's Top Band. I hadn't seen them play acoustic before and it was pretty neat because they all still look the same as when they rock out. Tully still gets bass face and Collin still looks like Animal banging on the drums like a crazy person. After that the guys when off and did a radio interview or something, I don't really know, and the rest of us ate at a terrible Mexican restaurant. Travis found a hair in his food-of course he always finds a hair in his food-the bathroom was just nasty, and the service was indifferent at best. But my food was good. Ki:Theory and Shane Hines and the Trance opened at Alley Catz and while both are talented, they just weren't my cup of tea. The boys kicked ass as usual; they played some songs I hadn't heard before. I still feel bad that I don't know all the words to the songs I do know. The ride back was pretty interesting; John was a fucking trooper and drove-honestly I think he did better than Collin, but both are serious men for driving that bus. At one point around Williamsburg he pulls off on the side of the road, waking everyone up-except me, since I was already up cause I can't sleep and Brittany who was sitting up front and keeping him company. John stands up and says, "I gotta pee" and jets out the side door into the bushes. I'm sure pulling his peeter out in twenty degree weather woke him up too. They dropped us off at Travis' around five A.M. and I slept on his couch in my clothes, which wasn't as bad as sleeping with my contacts in. I don't know if I've every really had eye gunk like that before.