The best vacations I have taken have all revolved around me seeing a band, usually Phish, before that, it was the Grateful Dead. Most people who know me in person state that I definitely don�t seem like the type that would be into either of those bands. I don�t look like a �hippie�, but I learned years before, when I spent time in the punk rock scene for years, that it had nothing to do with what you looked like. Anyway, I just remembered my first trip by myself 10 years ago. I bought this book listing every single Grateful Dead show available on tape from 1988-1995 or something like that. I opened it to February 25th 1990, in Oakland, California. I was twenty years old at the time. I was going to take a train from Boston all the way to San Francisco, and meet my best friend at the time, Derek there. He flew. I had never been away from home by myself for a long period of time, so this two week journey to see two Grateful Dead shows would prove to be a stepping stone to what I would still be doing ten years later, and define when I really feel myself. On the road, by myself. So I get on this train in South Boston and I�m immediately feeling elated to be leaving, seeing the band, and seeing parts of the country I had never seen. I was a pretty shy person, as I still am now, but being on a train for four days straight will make even the most timid person a �life of the party�. I think we were maybe two hours into the trip, we stopped in Springfield, Massachusetts. The train was relatively empty, and I was lucky enough to score two seats, so I could sit at the window. In Springfield the train sort of filled up and I see this character walking down the aisle. About five feet tall, cowboy boots, denim jeans, a denim jacket, long black �ZZ Top beard�, and sunglasses (it�s 9:30PM in the dead of winter), a duffel bag in one hand, and a guitar slung around his shoulder. I of course make eye contact with him, and he immediately sits down next to me. �HOW YA DOIN BUDDY, I�M JIM (I can�t remember his name at this point), WHERE YOU GOIN!!?� �Ummmm, San Francisco.� �WELL IT LOOKS LIKE WE�RE TRAVELING TOGETHER, I�M GOING TO DENVER!!!� �Excellent� Yeah, real excellent. So he starts talking and doesn�t shut up about music and traveling. It was interesting, but his voice, and overall demeanor made it a little hard to take him serious. The best part was yet to come though. �YOU LIKE VODKA???� �No, I don�t really drink at all� WELL IF YA DO, I GOT PLENTY� He opens his jacket and has two fifths in each inside pocket of the jacket, two nips in each breast pocket, opens his duffel bag, and he literally, no joke, had a little bit of clothing, and what looked like 6 more bottles of vodka. I got up and went to the restroom, and he showed up in there. �OH THERE YOU ARE, HEY YOU WANT A SWIG OF THIS OR WHAT????� �No really, I�m all set� So we get to Albany and I know what I have to do. I knew that we would be switching trains in Chicago in the morning, but I really couldn�t deal with him anymore. I got out of the train and went into the station and asked if I could get a room for the night on the train. It would be 80 bucks. I forked down the money and got my upgraded ticket. I went back in and told �Jim� that they fucked up, my ticket stated I was to be in another train. A likely story, as anyone who knows Amtrak, you buy a cheap ticket, you sit wherever the fuck you want. I went to my room, and it was literally about the size of a stall in a restroom�okay the handicapped stall (which begs the question I often ask myself when I perpetually use the handicapped stall, can I get arrested for using this, or get a ticket? I mean it does seem to me the same crime as parking in one of the handicapped spaces, but the room in there is great, you get those railings in case you�re sick, drunk, or handicapped; it�s a whole new world in there. I imagine the women�s room to have a similar affect on me if I was to ever walk in a �good one�[as opposed to the one I was in at Saratoga Springs, New York, which was so dirty I thought I was in the men�s room]). It was tiny nonetheless, enough room to stand, and fold down the bed which was right against the window. Waking up in Ohio the next morning was an absurd feeling. Ohio. Who lives in Ohio? Guided By Voices. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and ummmm�some other people that apparently love corn like nobodies business. So Ohio is pretty boring�on the train at least. I won�t ever just say a state is boring if I haven�t stepped on the soil there. Driving through Nebraska is as boring as watching ice melt, but when you get out and walk around a little, late, in the middle of a chilly, damp night you realize there�s nothing like it in the world. Nebraska. So we arrive in Chicago, where you get to get on �the big choo-choo� , the double decker one. Much bigger, much more exciting. I still hadn�t seen �Jim�, but I was aware we has around. I did see him in the middle of the night actually for a couple of minutes at the bar (�why is he buying drinks with all that he has on him?��I figured it out, he was just making his drinks even stronger, that�s apparently what you do or something when you�re a big drinker. Up the ante a little). The next time I saw him was in Denver where he was getting off. I went up to him and, knowing he was getting off for good and said: �Hey Jim, I was looking for you the past day and a half to see if you wanted to hang out, we were supposed to be traveling together and all that�well, hopefully I�ll run into you again�have a good life� It�s funny, all of the people I met on that first train ride it always ended with �Have a good life� What a strange departing phrase. There was no internet, well, not that I was using anyway, so there was no e-mail exchanging, and I was certainly not going to write anyone letters. I met a lot of great people. The most memorable after �Jim�, were the two old black men from Mississippi who got me drunk and told me stories about segregation, and John Lee Hooker and that kind of stuff. I have an amazing picture of one of the men reading the newspaper at dawn that I will post on here some day when I figure out how to do that a little better. The other guy was an African fellow who was with me from Denver to San Francisco. He didn�t speak very good English, and he had a ton of money. He owned farms, had a big family, and traveled the world from time to time. Sam was his name. When we got to San Francisco, neither of us had been there before so we sort of hung out for a little while, until we got our shit together. I took a good photo of him at the San Francisco train station that I�d also like to put up here. I love meeting new people. I especially love it when I�m travelling though. You can�t really rely on small talk at all. You don�t have to make impressions though either. I like to put on an act from time to time when I meet people travelling. �Yeah, I�m a policeman in Boston� (well, I�ve never been that brave, plus, how the hell am I supposed to find drugs in new cities if I tell people I�m a cop? Ha! By doing nothing, anyone who knows me, knows I bring plenty of my own drugs, and I don�t need no stinking cities drugs anyway�yeah�ummm�yeah, right). So this first trip was the first of a dozen of these, most of them small ones with friends, but the past three summers were two week excursions by myself that were both healthy, and bad for me at the same time. I had this a little on the first trip. The train ride home got tedious. �Shit, Indiana again� Next summer, I will not be going on the same type of excursion though. There is no tour next summer to follow around. I am going to go somewhere though. Perhaps my band will tour�yeah right! I�m going to go towards Tennessee again I�m pretty sure about that. After that, who knows. Either way, I need it again, and it can�t come any fucking sooner. That�s it, I�m going to Maine for a weekend this winter.

I�m fucking starving at 1AM EST. I just got back from seeing �Almost Famous� with Annu. We went out, had nothing to do, and drove past a billboard for the movie and decided to see if it was playing. We got to the theatre and immediately the film started. Perfect timing for not knowing what the hell time it was. What great movie it was. Philip Seymour Hoffman played a great Lester Bangs, and there were some great references to the whole 70�s rock and roll scene. Plus Faruza Balk was in it, which is quite the big deal for me anyway. She is�she�s just yeah�

It�s funny how people just show up in your life for a brief period, and then disappear. I hope this doesn�t happen with her. I don�t think it will whatsoever. But she�s a real sweetheart, and that�s all that matters right now.

Tomorrow I will catch up on that sleep I have been promising myself for the past�.3 years.

before & after