Beginning of Tour

Sunday was the day of the first show. We'd stayed the night in Joliet, but ended up having to head into Chicago to find Junior a new fedora, and some costume stuff for Kim. We got really lucky and found this awesome hat shop that carried a ton of different hats, and they were cheaper than what Junior usually pays. Mike even ended up going back and getting a hat. It was also just down the road from an AWESOME costume shop. Fantasy Costume has just about everything. There's full costumes, accessories, costumes for rent, wigs, make-up, props, etc etc etc. They even carry foam display heads, which I had been looking into getting, but Kim said she had 3 and I could have/borrow one :) Kim used her birthday money from fans to get a bunch of stuff for tour. We bought so much stuff the girl gave us a discount, and even gave us free hats with their logo on it. There were 5 of us but only 4 hats left, so she let Paulo have the kitty ears he was going to buy for his daughter for free as his “hat.” You can order online and they ship anywhere, so you should definitely check them out!

After our shopping trip we needed to get to the venue for the first show. It was at MoJo's in Joliet where they played with Otep on the last tour. It was a really good crowd for a Sunday night. They played an unreleased song, as well as UFO which I've never seen live before. We also had 13 VIPS!!!!! Many of them were repeat VIPs, and many we'll be seeing at other shows. Allie who followed us around for 6 shows last tour was back, as well as her better half, Jaye this time :) We had the regular VIP party at Denny's because there were so many, but after we had a flan after party in the parking lot. We were seriously there for at least another hour hanging out in the parking lot. VIP Mike was teaching roadie Mike some juggling tricks. We decided that there should be a super hero that shoots flan from his wrist like Spiderman shoots web, except he'd hold his had like an “f” in sign language. We ran around the parking lot “flanning” each other like that. I think a few people have video, and there's even video of people taking the video. You'll have to check the One-Eyed Doll facebook page to see if anyone posts them. It was a super fun night despite going to bed exhausted at 4am.

We stayed at our hotel room again that night since the drive to St. Joseph, MI wasn't that far. On the way, we stopped at the coffee shop and Italian/Greek restaurant/store in Merrillville, IN that we went to 3 times last tour. It was as delicious as we remembered :) We were hoping to stop again on our way to St. Louis, but it was a little bit out of the way, and we were running behind, as usual :(

Second show was even better than the first! Even though One-Eyed Doll had never played in St. Joseph before, I think over half the crowd was OED fans!!! Mardie from last tour (as well as my second show ever years ago), was there, as well as 4 of our VIPs from the night before. This show they played Recipe 4 success and PAO!, both of which I'd never seen live before, as well as UFO again. It's fun being on a different style tour because I get to see different songs and different interaction with the crowd. During one song Kim even gave a shout out to Allie and Jaye! :D We only had the 5 VIPs that night, Brad from the night before and last tour didn't make it :( so we just rode around in the van and listened to a few unreleased songs. It was a good time, as we got back to our hotel room early since we had a long drive the next day. The hotel was actually booked for us by the venue! This never happened last tour and I didn't realize it was a thing! The Super 8 was pretty nice too! Thanks Czars in St. Joseph! Before we settled in for the night we drove around for a bit looking for a little something to eat, when we passed a Meijer. For those of you not from the area, it's like a Wal-Mart but awesomer. I've said/thought so many times since moving to CA that I miss Meijer. They're 24 hours, carry just about everything, you can run there in the middle of the night to pick something up, I know exactly what section to find most things in, it's fairly cheap, and they're everywhere. There's no place open late in my city and no place that carries everything. Plus, I can never seem to find what I want half the time and go to 3 different stores trying to find it. But anyway... we stopped into Meijer, got a variety of food and a few things we needed before heading to our nice hotel room to get a few hours of sleep before our drive.

All the fans there to see One-Eyed Doll

Grainy because I was so far away :(

The awesome rainbow alarm clock at our hotel

Funny side story from the show that night, and yet another reason I'm glad I'm not addicted to my phone. Mike was texting on his phone and accidentally went into the women's restroom because he wasn't paying attention :P

More Pre-Polkadot

Friday there wasn't really anything we needed to get accomplished, so we actually got to sleep in!  I don't think I woke up until 12:45.  That's about 10:45 LA time, which is about normal for me.  We just hung out drinking coffee and taking advantage of Johnny's internet, then went to grab some "lunch" (it was 4pm) at a Korean BBQ place.

Not very vegetarian friendly, but I still left full :)

After hanging out for too long (as usual) at Johnny Zero's, we went to pick up Paulo. You might remember him from the end of the last tour. Well, he's going to be our driver for this tour! We stopped for dinner at a place called Burguesa where we all became space explorers. 

 

Paulo then drove through the night while the rest of us slept. At some insanely early hour we stopped in Memphis, TN for breakfast at a fun little place called the Eclectic Cafe. Eventually at some point in the early afternoon we made it to Salem, IL and stopped for lunch. While we were there the sky grew dark and it got really windy. Junior and Mike looked up the weather, and we were going to be heading straight into a ton of bad weather. We hung out in the little strip of stores the restaurant was in, hoping some of it would die out. Kim got a few cool things at this awesome little store called The Attic. It was like a thrift store, but everything was new. As we were leaving the girl working (who's also the owner) complimented me on my “Be My Friend” hoodie. We explained that it was Kim and Junior's band and gave her a One-Eyed Doll sticker. She was pretty awesome. If you for whatever reason find yourself in the little middle of nowhere town of Salem, Il you should go check out The Attic. There was a pawn shop down the strip from The Attic and Junior was hoping to pick up some VHS tapes to watch in the van. But they were closed. What kind of a pawn shop closes at 5 on a Saturday? There was also a Dollar General in the strip where I picked up some fun, cheap, thick eyeliners in a few different colors. Eventually we decided just to try heading out, and the rain wasn't too bad. Random comment – I was a Zebra Fruit Stripped Gum semi-truck going the other way on the highway. I didn't realize that gum still existed! Now I keep seeing it at every gas station we stop at. We got into Joliet about 10pm Saturday night, and got a hotel room. We then spent the next hour and a half trying to find some place to eat that was still open. What's up with that, Joliet?!?!

Pre-Polkadot

As I mentioned before, One-Eyed Doll is heading back out for a mini-tour.  What I haven't mentioned because I've been so busy with work and making sure it's being organized, is Mike and I are going again!  It's a short tour, and there's no wifi in our van this time, but I'm hoping to attempt to blog again.

Tuesday I flew out of Long Beach, CA.  I was a little nervous because I've only flown about 4 or 5 times before, never flown by myself, and never even been to this airport.  Things went super well though.  Corey drove me to the airport, and we left early so we'd get there with plenty of time.  We'd planned on getting some lunch once we made it to Long Beach, but there was nothing around the airport, and we didn't want to spend money on parking, so he just dropped me off.  I got checked in and through security.  The machine randomly selected me for extra screening, which meant they swabbed my shoes and put the swab in a machine to test it.  It came back negative and sent me on my way.  Only took about an extra minute.

The airport was really small.  I've never been to an airport this small before.  For the first time I walked out on the cement and up a ramp to get into a plane.  Here's me plane, with a minions blimp on the background:

While waiting I grabbed some coffee, sushi, and a "Southern Style" red velvet cupcakes for later, and read my book.  The wait wasn't very long at all.  And because it was a small plane, maybe 80 people max, it was quick boarding.  My seat was in the very last row, across from the back lavatory.  It was really loud back there.  Luckily I had a window seat so it wasn't so claustrophobic.  They served complimentary pop, coffee, water, etc and food and alcohol for an additional cost.  I skimmed through the US Airways magazine, and before I knew it we were in Phoenix already.  I was staying on the same plane to get to Austin, but I still had to de-board and re-board.  When leaving I asked the guy at the counter when re-board was.  He said it was in 27 minutes, and asked me where my seat was.  I told him, and his response was "That's a TERRIBLE seat!" There were a few open seats still at that time, and he moved me to a window seat in the emergency exit row.  So from Phoenix to Austin it was quieter, and I had more leg room.  We also got complimentary drinks again. 

Over all the flights went super well, and we ended up landing in Austin a bit before 11pm.  Junior picked me up from the airport and we went to get Kim form her friend Crystal's apartment.  I finally got to meet Crystal!!!  We became friends on Facebook at the beginning of last tour, but she was sick the day of the Austin show :(  She's also been a loyal reader of my blog :)  Hi Crystal!!!  *waves*  We grabbed some dinner with her, then packed up some stuff from the practice room Kim and Jason had been renting, and headed to the hotel room they've been staying in.

Wednesday we picked Mike up, ran some errands, then spent the afternoon in 100 degree weather moving things out of their storage unit to get to the merch we needed in back.  It sucked, but we got it done.  Dropped Mike back off so he could go to a birthday party, then had sushi at Kim and Jason's favorite sushi place made by their favorite sushi chef, Toshi.  He made me an AMAZING veggie roll packed with all sorts of yummy things.  Afterwards we stopped for Kim's newest addiction - shaved ice.  Not like a snow cone, it's more like an ice cream with toppings.

Thursday was spent finishing up errands before leaving Austin, like getting the van's oil changed and eating at delicious Pars Mediterranean Deli while waiting, packing up the practice space. Then (way later then intended) we headed to Johnny's Zero's house in Dallas for the night.  And here we are, Friday morning afternoon, hanging out at Johnny Zero's before making our way to the first show in Joliet, IL  :)

Gift tips

There were a lot of things I noticed when it came to fan gifts on the last One-Eyed Doll tour, and with another tour coming up, I thought I'd give you some tips.

It's almost always better to mail gifts.  I know you want to give them to Kim and Jason in person, but they have very limited space in the van.  Plus, things get moved around, lost, possibly searched by the police, and there's a good chance things will get ruined or lost.  You can always bring the gift to the show so Kim can put a face with the gift, but then send it to their PO Box:

ATTN: Kimberly or Junior
PO Box 80017
Austin, TX 78708  USA

That way you know for sure it will be ok.

If you want to give them food, keep in mind they live out of a van.  No microwave.  No refrigeration.  No utensils.  Things that will get stale or moldy are a bad idea.  Resealable packages are awesome!  If it's going to get stale or spill all over, it'll probably be thrown away soon after it's opened.  Also, as much as they appreciate goodies that are homemade with love, they can be questionable.  They never know what crazy fan may be trying to drug them.  Or maybe you didn't realize the milk you used was expired and now they both have food poisoning.  You never know what might go wrong.  The van can also get warm sometimes sitting in the sun, so stay away from things that might get melty.

Some things we went through a lot of on tour - Dried Seaweed, Japanese fruit jelly cups, Tea Bags (Kim has a herbal throat coat tea she likes, I don't know exactly what it's called, but we all drank a lot of various teas as well), Emergen-C, dried fruit, pretty much anything yummy and healthy to snack on that you can get from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.  Kim also mentioned once that Hi-Chews were her favorite candy.

Kim is allergic to bananas, a certain preservative they use in some dried fruits (a quick google search makes me think it's Sulfur Dioxide, but I'm not 100% sure), and cats.  As far as I know, Jason's good with just about everything

Hmm...  I thought I had more tips when I started this.  Well, if I think of anything else I'll let you know!