We're driving through the desert right now, on our way to El Paso, TX. Today's drive should take about 9 1/2 to 10 hours. There are lots of bugs being smashed on our windshield. Going on tour is not good for bugs.. at least the ones that live near interstates. Every time a new bug meets it's death on our windshield glass, Joe and Brian shout out in excitement and point at it. I can't really make out what they're saying because I've got headphones on, but I think they might be trying to find different splatter shapes, kind of like some people do with clouds.

The night before last, we played in Lubbock, TX, hometown of Buddy Holly. I've had lots of people tell me that I look like Buddy Holly, but I think it's just because I wear glasses and play the guitar. Nobody in Lubbock called out any resemblance I might have to Buddy Holly... probably because they know better. They know what Buddy Holly looked like.

The show in Lubbock was a good one. There were about 100-120 people at the show. Treephort had a really good show. That crowd was ready to rock. I felt like the show was a little bit weird for me. Certain settings just work better than others for solo sets. Tokyo Joe's was definitely a rock-band kind of setting. I still had a good show, but I felt like the majority of the people there were ready to rock out to a band. I played a second set outside the club after the show, and that was really fun.

After the show we stayed with some friends of Treephort, (Diana and Kim's) and watched Total Recall. Fun! The next morning we ate breakfast at a Long John Silvers/A&W fast food place. I was into it because they give you frosty mugs for your root beer and paper pirate hats, and they have a jukebox.. and yes, we heard at least 2 Buddy Holly songs in Lubbock, TX while eating hush puppies and deep fried mystery fish.

After eating breakfast we drove to Austin, straight through the heart of Texas. I'm realizing as I look back on this tour diary, that I write a lot more about food than I do about the shows. Truth be told, though, I think one of my main motivations for touring and going on the road is to discover new food, and re-visit places that I love to eat at. I went for a walk down 6th street in Austin before the show and discovered a new place. I had a Charcoal Shrimp Vermicelli bowl from a Thai/Vietnamese place and it totally rocked.

There was a really small turnout at the show in Austin, but it was really a great show. I feel sad for everyone in Austin that rented a movie or stayed in and watched TV last night. You should have been at Emo's!!! I got to see Jerm and the Total Foxes for the first time, and I was blown away. They really Rocked it and were really fun to watch. It seems like Jerm has found a couple of people to play with him that really fit with the kind of stuff he's doing. It just seems like they really get it and are really complimentary to his songs. Go Jerm! I'm excited about the possibility of our bands playing shows together someday.

Treephort had a huge set despite the small crowd size. I thought they really rocked out last night. It was good to see them still light themselves on fire even though it was a small show.

Thank you to everybody who came to the Austin show and requested songs. That was really great. I had a good time playing at Emo's. I went PA-less and just stood by the bar and rocked out.

This morning we went to Tamale house and got breakfast tacos. I'll try not to talk too much more about food, but I have to mention the Tamale house in Austin. It is definitely in my top 5 restaurants of all time, and it is my #1 favorite breakfast place. Is it the potatoes? The tortillas? The Salsa? The rice? The 85 cent price tag for a taco? The love that goes into each taco? I would have to argue that it is ALL OF THE ABOVE!!! What a great way to start the day.

Just two more shows with Treephort, and then I fly back to Santa Cruz to teach guitar lessons and try to wrap things up and get everything together for the UK/Europe/Russia MU330 tour, which is directly followed by a 10 day "Electrodan" tour, (me playing solo stuff with Shannon on bass, Greg on drums, and Mia on guitar/keys/tambourine) and then that tour is almost directly followed by a 5 week US tour. Lots to do when I get home!

I'm in Ft. Worth. We played tonight at 1919 Hemphill tonight, and it was probably the best show of the tour for me so far even though I'm getting kind of sick and my throat is starting to hurt when I sing. It was good to have my nephews Gabe and Noah at the show. We stayed at an apartment tonight, and this guy Alan let us stay at his house and his mom, Susan, made hamburgers and tater tots. Yum. I met a couple of really nice guys that drove up all the way from Oklahoma to see the show. Yahoo! Hopefully we'll be able to set up a show in OK this summer with MU330. It's been years since we've been to OK.

Today's show in Baton Rouge was cancelled. We drove for a while towards Texas, and we hit a pretty intense storm. We tried to stop for gas but all of the highway exits for a while were totally flooded. We kept going for a while, and then just pulled over and got a hotel room at the Red Roof Inn.. and it's next to a Waffle House, which is definitely a good thing. We had lots of time to kill so we went to see that movie "Envy" with Jack Black and Ben Stiller. It was OK, but when we got out to the parking lot, someone had broken into the van and stole the stereo and Kirk's video Camera. Total bummer. It's amazing that they didn't steal any gear out of the back of the van. They must have been in a big hurry. I'm excited to get to Texas tomorrow, but I'm hoping that maybe there's a chance I could get one more po-boy before we cross into Texas.

We have a nine and a half hour drive today from Ft. Meyers, to Pensecola. FL. Tonight we're playing at a place called "The End Of The Line Cafe." We are all trying to guess what the club will be like. Here's some predictions

Joe thinks the club will have nicely dressed custodians. Kirk believes that it will be some kind of death row themed cafe Brian envisions a run down, dirty club, but with really nice, clean bathrooms with attendants. Jeremy says that it will be run by sweaty skinny guys w/ long greasy hair, smoking cigarettes. Lee has three word: Bikers, beer and babes. Time will tell.

We're driving through the Everglades on our way to Ft. Meyers. We pulled over at a rest area and saw an alligator. It was about four feet long and just sitting there hanging out. Wicked!

Big thank you's to Sharon and Yessinia and Alexis and of course Cooper. Thanks for feeding all of us (Multiple times!) and letting us sleep at your house. I realized today that I got fried while I was swimming yesterday. I put sun block on my face, but my chest and back look pretty lobster-esque. It doesn't really hurt though, so that's a good thing. We're getting closer to New Orleans, and that means we're getting closer to shrimp po-boys. Does anybody that's reading this know where Verti-Mart is in the French Quarter? It's my favorite place to get Po-Boys at, and I can't remember what street it's on. Please e-mail me with this very important info! dan@threespeedbooking.com

Today as we pulled up to our hotel, there was a group of people hanging out at the pool drinking and swimming and celebrating Mother's day. We parked in our spot outside the room, and I got my guitar out and we all walked over to them and sang them "Happy Mother's Day" to the tune of "Happy Birthday." It was really strange and fun and weird.

Tonight I'm in Miami, FL at Cafe Krystal w/Treephort and many other bands. We played the first show of our tour last night in Melbourne at a community center. It was really fun. Big thanks to Josh the promoter for putting on a great show. I totally need to say big thank you's to Sarah and Chris from the Playground Heroes. They were nice enough to pick me up from the airport the day before yesterday and set up a rockin' fun show at the PG Heroes' drummer's house. I played in his living room to about 20-25 people, most of them smoking and drinking sam's choice orange soda. It was really fun. The next day they drove me to downtown Orlando and we met up with Mike Park for pizza slices. He happened to be in Orlando on the same night for Plea For Peace. I got to see the amazing Gerry Lundquist for a little bit, too.

Did I say thanks to Sarah and Chris yet? They were so nice. They drove me all the way to Melbourne yesterday, and then they let me beat them at HORSE! Amazing!

After the show in Melbourne, I hopped in the van with Treephort for the first time, and we drove to Miami to stay with a friend of theirs. We got there kind of late.. at about 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning I think. I stayed up and rode shotgun and tried to keep Lee awake while he drove. I was the last one to wake up, and when I got up, there was breakfast all laid out. Amazing! Bagels and Lox and cream cheese and juice!

The best thing though was that they have a swimming pool. We swam all day and now I'm totally sleepy, and the show is going on right now. I took a nap in the van, but it got really hot. There's pretty many people at the show tonight. It should be fun.

OK, now I'm back at the house after the gig. Some thing's in life just don't make any sense.. I was just watching the animal planet and there was this countdown on about the top 50 TV animals of all time, and somehow that dog on Frazier beat out the Yo Quiero Taco Bell dog.. AND BUGS BUNNY! I should have suspected such confused decision making from a show that chose A.C. Slater to be the host. Another thing that doesn't make sense is how five bands can play a show and have 140 people show up at $8 a head, and the bands get paid a total of $50 to split between them. Ouch! Such is the life of the Rock N' Roll Star. Hopefully there will be more swimming tomorrow before we drive to Ft. Meyers. -dp