Yesterday marked the end of our mini stay in Virginia. As we mentioned before we had an unexpected day off so we were in town a bit longer, which was nice. We had time to hang with our friends from Pendleton and make a bunch of new friends as well.
As of last night it was back to playing gigs with no more days off for the rest of the tour. It was nice taking a break but the fast pace seems much more suited to playing on the road. We played a show at a cool bar called The Camel right in the heart of Richmond, VA. The venue had some awesome photograhpy on display, on all of the walls.
theWANDAS at The Camel: Richmond VA
Alan and JP from Pendleton put on an acoustic set before us which was great because all of their friends came out that we had been hanging with for the last couple days. Our Converse rep, Lee, also lives in Richmond so he came out as well. It was great to catch up, especially since Converse was so generous with us before the tour.
Richmond VA Friends. Left to Right: JP, Joe, Ross, Keith
We had an 8+ hour drive from Richmond to Athens GA, so we wanted to make a dent in the trip and head out right after the show. We drove for about 3 hours into North Carolina. 2 hours into the drive, Ross got pulled over for the 2nd time this tour. The cop asked if he was tired because the RV tends to drifte a bit from side to side; mostly caused from the winding roads and gusts of wind. Nonetheless the cop asked to talk to Ross in his vehicle; causing the rest of the crew to sweat it out for a good 30 minutes.
Ross returned with good blessings from his new North Carolina police officer buddy. The two talked about the tour, where we've been and where we are going. After taking note of the officer's sirius satellite radio presets; the Christian Station being #1, Ross volunteered to swear on the bible that there were no illegal substances in the bus. The officer loved it, wished us luck, and sent us on our way.
We drove for about another hour pulled into a Kmart parking lot and called it a night. We're on the road to Athens GA right now; the hometown of REM and Of Montreal. Looking forward to the show tonight!