Tour Blog 6: Heading Home

When we woke up this morning in a campground near the ferry back to Vancouver from Victoria, there was a giant yellow slug the size of a Schneider’s Juicy Jumbo on a log near the tent. We were all pretty fascinated by it, including Steph, who wondered aloud what slugs are, and posited that perhaps they were made of bacteria. I hope he wasn’t offended when I burst out laughing, or by this blog post, which he will undoubtedly read in which I am referring to my laughter; he’s a drummer, not a biologist I guess.

The ferry to Vancouver Island is ridiculously expensive. It cost us $85 to get to Van Island, and $115 to return to the mainland. I’m not at all sure why it costs more to leave. Jon thinks it’s like Hotel California. Maybe I’m onboard a ferry that is perpetually traveling eastward right now and I’ll be forced to spend all my money at the $20 buffet.

After Regina, we had a great show in Calgary with the awesome band Gunther. They are a three-piece instrumental band with heavy tunes. We were all pretty blown away. Our next show was Penticton, which was on a Monday, but ended up being one of the best shows of the tour at least in terms of audience reception. Chasing Red Lights played a great set, and brought out a bunch of people. We played to a very enthusiastic crowd that was dancing the entire time, working themselves into a sweaty turmoil. No one other than Sudbury has ever acted like that at our shows.

One of the girls in the Penticton crowd said that she felt like taking her clothes off during our set since it was so hot inside the bar. I said she should have, but apparently the only reason she didn’t was because she had tan lines. I told her no one cared about tan lines and that it wasn’t too late. She kept her clothes on.

So I’m 27 years old now, having had my birthday on May 30th. The band bought me a cherry cheesecake from the grocery store and stuck a bunch of candles in it. I thought it was a very touching gesture. They sang happy birthday to me in the band rooms at the Canmore Hotel. I realized that this is the third year in a row that I’ve been out of town on my birthday. Eventually, I’ll be out of town most of the time. I’m looking out the window on the ferry back to Vancouver at a hazy fog sitting gently on top of the rolling islands, stacked behind each other like so many shadows of shadows, and I’m thinking I’m okay with that, although the side to side motion of the ferry itself is a bit nauseating.