The Long Haul

Hey guys!

As always, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever, it's been just stupid busy around the office and hectic and crazy and everything that would be a legitimate excuse for not keeping up with a blog.

SO many things have happened that I honestly couldn't catch you up on everything, but the events that have transpired recently I will try to cover. Launch day was this past Wednesday. All the teams and the staff met at Mt. Soledad in San Diego for our epic launch of the Fall 2009 Rescue and Recovery Tour! Some roadies spoke, Jedidiah spoke, Jason Russell spoke, we had free coffee and 1,000 bagels, it was great. All the vans were lined up in the parking lot a little ways down from where we were sitting and eventually we all hopped in our vans and one by one filed out of there to raucous applause, cheering, and overall happiness. Launch day was super fun and awesome, but Mtn. West had work to do. We headed straight back to the office to book some more screenings.

It was a little depressing not being able to launch on launch day, but we started working hard and our contacts started getting back to us and sure enough the screenings came rolling in. It was just us and our good friends the Cal-Pacific Team for 2 days at the office and at the roadie house (there was so much extra food from the other roadies leaving it was awesome!) Eventually, we tied up most of our loose ends and headed out on the road, we launched from the office on September 11th, 2009, it was a touching moment. I thought we were just going to run into the office, say bye and be on our way, but the staff and RM's were super sweet and really nice, everyone gave us hugs and came outside to see us off! It was so great, haha made me super happy.

From there we headed to Lauren's (my teammate) friend's house in Orange County, to spend the night and leave a little bit of extra luggage we had. It was nice to spend a little time there, worked a little bit but it was a beautiful place. You hear about Orange County being snooty, I figured that was a stereotype, but this was the first place where someone legitimately saw me wave to them, looked me in the eye, and did not wave back! Crazy talk! Anyway, stayed in the OC that night and headed out for the "real" road Saturday (today) morning at 8:30. Because she's the only one who's covered by the insurance, Lauren had to drive the whole way from the OC to Salt Lake City today, what a trooper, it was 11 hours!

Today: We got to drive by Death Valley, we stopped at a gas station and when I walked in the sunlight it was the hottest I've ever felt in my life!! I'ts insane! Next we were passing Las Vegas so we decided to hop in for a peek, it was pretty crazy, like Disney World for adults, super flashy. We ate lunch at a really good Thai place in Vegas then got back on the road. While driving from Vegas to SLC, we drove through this insanely cool mountain pass, we think it was a national park, but it was a super cool like canyon where you're literally driving through mountains!

To top all of that off, we're staying with Chad Whitehead in SLC. Chad and his wife Sara are legends among Mtn. West roadies. They're a young married couple that has been housing roadies and bands passing through for years and have like four extra beds just for us!! When we got here (around 9:30pm) Chad cooked us legit Ugandan food, and it was SUPER good. These people are SO nice and sweet and hospitable, it makes me so happy!

So anyway, launch was great, the big one and the little one. The road is treating us well, props to Lauren for braving the 11 hour drive alone, she's a hoss. I hope this is semi-interesting to you guys, I love you all, I'm working hard to rescue these child soldiers! I hope you know!

I love you all so much, and I miss you too.
Andrew Billon