Summer is hot!

I completely forgot to mention last blog, we flew near lightning clouds when I was traveling back from Chicago. It was really cool to see from up in the air, but also terrifying knowing I was inside a flying metal tube…

The day after Denver we had a day off already. I honestly don’t remember what we did. Probably lots of driving, sleeping, stopped for food at some point. Oh! That’s right! We got Korean BBQ for dinner then later stopped in Des Moines and picked up some food from Zombie Burger. I was still full from dinner, so I just got a small salad I only ate half of, but also decided I couldn’t pass up finally trying one of their shakes. I got the “Tallahassee” which is vanilla ice cream, cherry Kool Aid powder, and a twinkie. It was good, but I only managed half of it and put the other half in the freezer for after the show the next night. Anyways, enough about food…

The second show of the tour was in Dubuque, IA. Somewhere we’ve never been before. The venue was this awkward, but cool place downstairs (luckily they had an elevator).  It was a maze of caves down there that I wandered before doors opened.

I scored a homerun, with 2 players on base, on this!

The show was a small, but fun one. The local band was a group of teenage boys, and female rapper Whitney Peyton was on the bill as well. She was also with us the next night in La Crosse, WI. I meant to get a picture of her show because she was awesome, but the second night I was hanging out in the crowd enjoying her show and completely forgot.

Load in at La Crosse sucked. Luckily we got there early, stalked some cars, and managed to park right across the street from the venue. Unfortunately, the stage is up 2 flights stairs and there’s no elevator or AC. We managed, but I think the show ended up being cut a little bit short. We also had some AMAZING VIPs that helped us load out. It was rough, but again, we all survived. La Crosse wasn’t all bad. It was an all ages venue with no alcohol. Instead, they had a wide variety of soda for sale. They also had cool posters all over the walls. I grabbed a couple of quick photos of some that I found interesting.

Junior had his own department

Kidney Thieves!

That 1 Guy!

The all ages venue had this centered on the wall

I also need to take a mini moment to rant. We stopped at Perkins (it was the only place open) after the show to replenish the calories we burned. One of the quarter machines had grumpy cat stickers! So I bought one. It was a sugar glider that had nothing to do with Grumpy Cat >:( Luckily Jordan has a friend that likes sugar gliders so I gave it to him.

The last show of this little leg of tour was in Minneapolis, MN. We had a group of awesome VIP fans come to all of these shows. You guys rock! While it wasn’t a new city, this was another new venue for us. This one used to be a bowling alley. The stage is set up in the pin area, and there are still lanes on either side of the “dance floor” area with tables and chairs. It was a pretty cool set up. I probably wrote about it in old blogs, but it’s been 2 years so I’ll remind you. We used to play at this weird bar in Minneapolis that always seemed to have poker going on in one corner while the show was going on, and they were raffling off steaks while we loaded in/sound checked. We made jokes about there being a meat raffle before we got there. Then they had these posted all over. (We played Wednesday night)

Another fun show and a lot of familiar faces. Again, the owner really liked the show, even had them sign a bowling pin for the club. Sounds like we’ll probably be back again! Which reminds me, if I haven’t already mentioned it, fan demand is really what gets a band booked. It’s like calling into a radio station to get your favorite song played. Call your local venues, tell them you’re a One-Eyed Doll fan and you’d love to have them play at their venue. Get other fans to call to let them know there are fans in the area and a demand for the show. Then maybe the next time OEDs booking agent puts out the call that they’re going on tour, they’ll remember all of you asking for them, and they’ll book them. La Crosse is a perfect example. It’s the home town of long time super fan, Jacob. He’s been telling them for a while that there’s an awesome all ages club they should play at. The club listened, and we finally played there this tour. It’s really you guys that make it happen.

I also saw my special helper for the first time in about 2 years in Minneapolis. There’s a fan named Chloe that we, and her photographer dad, would sneak into the non-all ages shows. There was one show where we were both wearing our hair in pigtails and similar skirt. I was mini Kimberly, and she was mini mini Kimberly. We hid her behind the table helping with merch to keep her from getting kicked out. She was a really awesome helper. Somewhere there are pictures of it. She’s all grown up and beautiful now. I think she’s mini Kimberly and I’ve been demoted to mini mini Kimberly.

Apparently Minneapolis didn't want us to leave. Junior had put the jacks for the RV down to level us where we were parked. We went to leave, and they didn't want to go up. It's a long story, but we finally got them up by jacking up the jacks. Lol. Then, after we finally got on the road, Jordan was changing in back when we hit a bump. He fell into the shower door, which fell off into the closet mirror and cracked it. The shower door went back on, we taped the mirror up and vacuumed up any shards of glass, and the crisis has been averted.