This is it, the final day. Seems like we just started it and it seems like it's been forever all at the same time.
The night of day 13 was tough. Me and Miles shared a bed and he is quite the snorer. Apparently he has a deviated septum, which is why he snores. I also snore quite badly, but I don't notice myself. However, with Miles next to me and the bed amplifying every move he made, let's just say it made for a challenging night of sleep.
I got up and showered and took a walk around Eureka. There was a little drive-up coffee stand, but instead, I decided to hit up McD's for coffee as I have heard their coffee is pretty good. Grabbed a sausage and egg sammy as well and I think it was my first McD's food/meal in at least 5 years.
I walked back to the room, which I didn't note, was likely a repurposed smoking room. Even though there was a no smoking placard on the outside, it didn't hide the cigarette stink from nights past. Add in the hot steamy breath of four dudes and it was pretty muggy in there. Eventually, the other dudes got up and we left the motel.
Because the spot for the next gig, Blue Lake, was only about 20 minutes away from Eureka, we had some time to kill. We found the local music shop and spent a while in there. I played a bunch of basses, from Fender P's and J's, to a couple of G&Ls (a L-2000 and a Kiloton), as well as an awful fretless. The other dudes dinked around on guitars, ukeleles, and some other instruments. I didn't get the name of the place, but for a small-town music store, they were well stocked with all sorts of stuff. I was pretty impressed and it was fun to play some of those basses.
We finally got out of Eureka, which overall was a sad little town. It was pretty reminiscent of Olympia, only not as cool because it was in such an in-between state. There were a few blocks of seemingly cool places, but there were a lot of downtrodden people, weed shops, fast food joints, and empty storefronts. We were all pretty bummed about the place.
A few minutes up the road was Arcata. A little more hippy than Eureka, but also a little rough. More people experiencing homelessness, lots of small thrift shops, a guy skateboarding around aimlessly. There was a town square that reminded me of the same from "Back to the Future," only without the clock tower or the DeLorean. There was a killer VW bus though.
We walked around town for a bit before hopping in the van again for our final destination, the Logger Bar in nearby Blue Lake. It pretty looks like what it's called. Giant sawblades embedded in the floor, giant chainsaws hanging from the ceiling, hard hats mounted to the support beams. The woman in charge apparently forgot we were coming and said she was going to put out a social media blast. Regardless, I wasn't expecting much as the town had a sign indicating about a 1000 person population.
Since it was still early, Peter disappeared on a phone call and Miles, Simon and I walked to a nearby river. It was hot and breezy and like a dork, I was in all black. We walked along a path that paralleled the river, and finally got on a trail that got us closer. We saw a young woman sunbathing and gave her a wide berth. Upon second glance, it was clear that she was nude. We were all gentlemen and didn't make a big deal out of it, but then giggled like kids once we were out of earshot.
Simon dipped his feet in the river, which was slow running and green with algae. He regretted it and had to go farther up the river to clean his feet in less gross water. Miles and I sat on the bank and watched the water not flow. We all got too hot and then headed back to the bar to load in.
Inside the bar were a handful of people. The building itself was narrow and we were to set up along one wall, facing the bar. As such, no one sat in front of us because it was just too tight and awkward. Everyone sat towards the end of the bar farther away from us and chatted or played pool.
We played a few sets and towards the end, it got a little better, with people dancing and really enjoying what we were doing. Even though it was the last show of the tour, there was no cutting loose or anything like that. In fact, Peter was being his OCD self and getting a little sour about us not being super tight on an ending. I think Miles lost count of the bars and ended after the rest of us did. He's played it fine many times before and just had a brain fart this one time. No big deal.
After finishing, we loaded out and had already decided we were going to power through the night to get home. The drive was to take about 9 hours or so and we were starting around 10pm, which meant about a 7am arrival at home. Peter took the lead and off we went.
The drive was fairly uneventful. I fell asleep a few times, but those dudes like to listen to music unbearably loud, so it was annoying at times. Sometime around 2-3am (?) I felt like Peter was starting to fade. To his credit, when I asked him, he said, yeah, he'd swap with me. I jumped behind the wheel somewhere south of Eugene and just drove north. I put in my earbuds and listened to some more KJ All Day podcast and got into Washington sometime around 5am.
I ended up swapping with Peter again somewhere north of Kelso at a rest stop. I barely slept overnight, and I was starting to fade, so I caught maybe an hour in the passenger seat while he drove the rest of the way. We dropped Miles off in White Center and Peter got me an Uber to take me home.
Finally, around 9:30, I got home and got to hug Marci, got to pet Kody, and got back to where I belong. I'm going to spend the next few hours unpacking, catching up, going for a run and sleeping. I'll write an overall recap sometime soon.
Quick notes:
- Though I didn't do a 24 hour stay up cycle, it was a lot longer than I'd stayed up for in a long time. Not a big fan.
- The last couple dates of the tour were not great, town-wise. Sort of a bummer as the physical locations (in the woods; by the ocean) were fairly spectacular at times. However, some of the people were so defeated, it just permeated everything.
- I am looking forward to not eating on the road for the next few days. Sometimes one just gets sick of eating out all the time.
- Peter still owes me for the last 3 gigs. I have no reason to think he won't pay, but I'll have to reach out to him to remind him.
