Friday, August 22, 2008

Another ferry ride, this time to the big city

The one downside to sleeping over at a coffee house would be having to get up at 5:30am so that they could start selling coffee, right? Well it would, if the coffeehouse wasn't run by teenagers. In fact, the only pressure to get up early came from the fact, learned late the night before, that the Port Townsend to Seattle ferry no longer runs, and the band would need to ride 40 extra miles to catch the one at Bainbridge. Still there was time enough for Kati to demonstrate her espresso making abilities and make us all lattes. A real master of the craft (She and Ryan met while working at Common Grounds) it was quite the treat after a few days of gas station coffee. After a leisurely breakfast, we hit the road by noon and promptly lost them. Max had written down what appeared to be their route for the day, but turned out to be only the second half of their directions, and Emily had missed Ryan's call alerting us to their route. We ended up finding them at a gas station where they were engaging in a corn dog eating contest. They had a show that night at the High Dive in Seattle, and were planning on meeting up with members of the .83 bicycle group, who Ryan and Israel had met two summers ago on their first bike tour, at 7pm for a group bike ride. They made it by seven, but as we approached Seattle, the rain that had been following us so far began again. The bike ride was put off, but the .83 bikers still showed up at the High Dive anyway to encourage their favorite biking band.

The Seattle Weekly had a nice blurb and picture about their concert, and a sizable crowd braved the rain to see them play. Although we are not on bicycles, we are still able to experience the wonderful slowness of a bike tour. Seattle was the first major city that we had visited since starting the tour 5 days prior, which would be unheard of in a typical tour. Although the band was fully miked, they still managed to create an intimate sound in the noisy venue. We were able to plug into a board for the first time to record sound (thanks, Robert!) We then spent a much appreciated dry night at Luke's friend from Astoria, Britta's, apartment, which was only 6 blocks away, albeit the steepest 6 blocks you ever did see. The plan was to meet Israel, who stayed with some other friends, at pier 52 at 8am, where the ferry would take them from Seattle to Bremerton. The ferry would begin the long ride to Astoria to make it to their next show at the Concert for Big Red. Due to some scheduling issues, they had to arrive for their first set Friday morning instead of Sunday, and the 180 miles that separated them loomed large.