Day 4 - Minden, NV

After leaving Sacramento the night before, we headed up the Sierras towards my hometown of Minden, NV for a day off. The Sierras are notoriously dangerous in the winter and we were faced with some snow and ice. We hit a road block about 60 miles from Minden and were stopped for about a half hour while they tried to make the road safer. We drove another 20 minutes then were stopped again. This one lasted longer. Much longer. We had to wait for the sun to come up and help melt some of the ice. We were on the side of the road for at least six hours. The windows fogged up and condensation formed on the inside which subsequently froze. We managed to keep pretty warm with what blankets we had but moving out of our perfect spots meant we'd freeze for a little bit. At about 9:30 we got moving and finished the 37 miles we had left. We had breakfast at my dad's house and just hung out for a bit. We took care of some instrument maintenance. Joe, my best friend from Nevada, came over to hang out for a bit. His friend Cam came with him. They have a band called Disfiguring the Goddess that gets a lot of Myspace and YouTube attention. We talked about writing a collaborative song. While we ate dinner they started writing it. We went to Cam's at about 8 and spent the rest of the night writing and recording this ridiculous song. It was a lot of fun and Jon was in heaven singing alongside Cam. We all contributed and played little bits of the song. The song turned out great and has already gotten a huge response online in the less than 12 hours it has been up. It was a great time and I'd love to get a chance to do that with them again. We went to bed around 2 and are on our way to Provo, Utah right now where we'll play tonight and I'll get to see my sister.