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Sunday, September 20, 2009
Day 9
w/ 2 Frail, Savi0r,& The Hallowed Din
Aside from driving around Berkley and Oakland, today was mostly spent problem-solving. Before our show at Annie's (doors at 9:00, show at 10:00) we had to do a grand total of two things: fix the blinkers on the trailer, and replace a headlight.
Apparently, when the van signals left, the trailer signaled right... and has been since the start. We needed to fix that, but driving when you know everything's wrong, and that you need to signal backwards for anyone behind you (but normally for oncoming traffic) is amazingly stressful.
We had to look up where we were, where we needed to be, and an auto parts store, so we found a coffee shop with free wifi and terrible coffee. For the record, Oakland has a bad rep, but hanging out downtown was very nice. From there, we headed to Berkeley, walked the tourist trap that is Telegraph, and split up and lost each other.
I teamed up with Joe, our merch guy, who's been ubik.member #5 for the entirety of the tour: we passed by "1/2 off rolls" happy hour at a sushi place in Sacramento, and we've both been talking about getting sushi for a few days now: sadly, the first week of the trip had been almost nothing but Mexican food, and sushi was the order of the day. Joel spent time with an old flame, and Michelle and Tyler (vegan and vegetarian, respectively) struck out on their own.(the Joe picture, by the way, was taken in Pine Grove, where we were homesteading with Michelle's family... so we didn't spend the whole time in the hot, flat, central valley. The mountains are a much nicer side of california)
That, and after yesterday's show, we noticed we were short one headlight. The van's lights have always been kind of dim, and both brights work... so that was a workaround. Last night, that headlight was just plain done. Today, we had to try and find an auto parts store in a strange town (just so you know, the Kragens in Berkeley on MLK & University isn't there anymore. It was fun to find that out in the now). Eventually we found one in San Fransisco, not too far from the show.
We now have working blinkers and two headlights (though the new one is much brighter than the other).
We also got to crash with Amber, who lives two blocks from Annie's. There was no reason to move the van because of the Sat night/Sunday lack of parking enforcement, but I'm sleeping in the van again for defense against smash-and-grabs. Just playing it smart... and, hey, I get my own room.
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