Concretehenge. You know, some people have strange ideas. And some people have too much time on their hands. Neither is a bad thing unto itself. Combine the two traits, however, and you find yourself with some pretty awful things. But first ...

Our morning was marked by a decidedly poor breakfast at a restaurant in Portland called Vita (See photos). Purportedly a healthy and natural food establishment, what they provided was slow service and improperly-prepared, bland food. Judah's "tofu scramble" was just a cube of unseasoned tofu. Blah. My breakfast burrito didn't have any cheese! Can you believe that crap? What is up with that? You'd think that they might put some cheese on that thing. Maybe. I mean, sure, it wasn't in the description, but hey--it's a breakfast burrito. Cheese is a given. Doesn't everybody know that? Well, I guess not everybody.

We said our goodbyes to Ezra and Soon-Yi, lubed up the old Ak-Mak (ooh, sexy), and set out towards Spokane, WA.

On our way, we stopped at the world-famous monument at Stonehenge (See photos). (pronounced "Stown-inge") Oh, not the real Stonehenge. This one was made of concrete. A slightly smaller replica of the original, it was still large and foreboding. This is one of those things that is born of a combination of a strange idea and an abundance of free time. We wandered around the pillars for a little while, soaking in the cheesy atmosphere. I could see the seams where the architect had cemented the bricks together to make the giant stones. I don't think the ancient monks at Stonehenge had cement mixers. I guess if they had, Stonehenge might have looked as crappy as this replica. I give it a thumbs-down on looks, but a thumbs-up on cheesy road-side attractionosity. I didn't buy a t-shirt.

On our way from Stonehenge to Spokane, we passed through some kind of freaky vortex like in "In The Mouth Of Madness." I saw a kid on a bike. Freaky. Josh took pictures (See photos).

About a month ago, when our tour dates were still in flux, Josh tried to coordinate a show in Spokane so we wouldn't have a six million mile drive to Missoula. He found a band with good reviews and local acclaim called Madison. He called their bass player, Andrew, and talked to him, but the show never happened. We ultimately ended up having a day free, no show booked. So we needed a place to stay, preferably somewhere along the way to Missoula. Josh called Madison (who had changed their name to Rand Univac) again from Portland and asked if there might be anywhere we could stay in Spokane. Andrew graciously offered his home. So here we were, driving to Spokane to stay with people we had never met, who were members of a band we had never heard or played a show with. They were very very hospitable.

We noticed that, in Spokane, every single business has a marquee with those movable plastic letters. Most of the signs were presentable, but some made no sense at all, random letters having fallen off some time ago. My favorite was "god bless erica." Spokane also has a very high instance of bad fonts. Comic Sans abounds. I guess I've been spoiled by Californian capitalist vanity, but give me some interesting fonts! Then again, the bad fonts drew my eye because of their badness. Maybe Spokane has the right idea.

We offered to play a show for Andrew and Josh (Andrew's housemate/electric guitarist) and their friends, but we ended up being too hungry and tired, so we all went with Andrew and about eight of his friends and roommates to The Onion for some dinner and some "Good Times." (See photos) Judah's bad food luck had not yet run out, and his Boca Burger was not to his liking. My bad food luck had run out by now, and I ate the best corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich ever. Josh, the world's biggest corned beef fan, had been screaming loudly for corned beef ever since January, when someone mentioned St. Patrick's Day. Thankfully, the corned beef sandwich he ate was satisfactory. We may live another year.

I retired to a small bedroom in the basement of Andrew and Josh's house, where I promptly fell asleep. Unbeknownst to me, there was no window in the room, and I ended up sleeping until eleven in the morning.

-- Logan