Jan 30th - more travel time....

It’s an early start today and the bus is already rolling when I stir from my slumber and I’m told we have been on the road for well over an hour. We are just pulling into a big gas station to grab supplies. Billy slept on the bus last night and seems to have a pretty bad cold, as does Scott who is actually starting to recover – but as a singer I need to take precautions so I decide to travel with Rob for today’s journey. I get myself the biggest coffee I can find and we’re off. Unfortunately it’s a false start cause Rob takes the wrong road out of the gas station meaning that we have a 30 mile round journey to get back on the other side of the road. It’s frustrating but there is no alternative and it is well over an hour before we see the sun reflecting off of the big turquoise silver eagle tour bus – it is actually an awesome sight to see it rolling through the desert with nothing else around except for the occasional big-rig.

Today is one of the most picturesque drives so far and the rolling desert and huge mountains are amazing – it just had to be the day that my camera battery is dead! Rob does have a little battery left so I lean out of the window to take some pictures….. and watch my sun glasses take an 80mph flight down the road. I am mad! They cost me £5 but that aint the point.

The road is carved out of the mountains at some points and it truly is an amazing sight and at times it leaves you breathless with it’s beauty. That is possibly the gayest I have ever sounded but I just want you people to appreciate it a little. Scott says that the scenery is nothing compared to the rolling fields of Warminster, but I’m not so sure. Every time I drive down the M4 I am quite impressed with the sight of the wind turbine thingy that you see somewhere between Reading and London. Today there is a cluster of them stretching for miles and I lose count at 100ish – there are at least 10 times that amount, and they look strangely serene and natural and certainly don’t ruin the landscape at all.

6 hours have flown by and we find an RV park in the middle of the desert. This has to be the most remote place you can ever imagine, but the place is packed full of these huge RV’s and mostly post-retirement couples who have spent half their money on one of these things and now travel around the US for six months of the year, or maybe even live on the road. We have the chance to do laundry for the first time in over a week and Freddie has his first shower in over a week to celebrate. Rob decides that he is treating us to an evening meal. This seems strange. Who in their right mind volunteers to feed himself and 11 others……….. if anyone reading this knows Rob you won’t be surprised to learn that we have a BBQ next to our ‘plot’ and Rob likes a BBQ like Scott likes beer. So it’s burgers all round and we crack open a couple of beers and enjoy the desert sunshine…… until the sun goes down and the desert cold sets in!!! It gets really dark in a matter of minutes and then if you aren’t in a bar somewhere ready to play a gig it is hard not to just go to bed – so that’s what us Riot:Noise blokes do. I think it was around 8pm. I wake up to the sound of Johnny telling stories of his dreams of pet elephants and other random rubbish and assume it is morning and time to leave. Nope! It’s 11:15pm and I am wide awake. Within 10 minutes I am joined at the front by the other Riots and Johnny. It’s now 12:20am and I am sat up front with Scott and Dan writing this blog entry. Kevin and Nick are still up too. We have another early start tomorrow and a drive of around 5 hours. I am now officially getting addicted to Mountain Dew and my can has just run out – and the shop is closed. I hope you are proud Tim.

Marty:Riot