Las Vegas 10/15/10

So while we were driving to Costa Mesa we noticed a leak under the van, and seeing as the van is not ours we wanted to get that shit fixed quick. Nothing would be worse than having to make the “Hey Mark, thanks for the van, but we ‘sploded it” phone call. After a couple calls an appointment was made at a Ford dealership right outside of Costa Mesa. It shouldn’t be more than a few hours and a couple hundred bucks we were told. Aaron, being the champ he is, got up at 6:30 in the morning and brought the van in. A couple hours later it had gone from a couple hours and a few hundred to three days and a grand. This was not an option. We were supposed to be in Vegas in eight hours and now we had a van that was leaking diesel all over the engine.

Numbers were crunched, favors were called in, egos were massaged and soon enough we had a plan. Once again, thanks to our awesome friends we had yet another van. This time it was a mini-van from Jared. Valient Thorr gave us a big thumbs up on using their gear, while I found another mechanic that said he could fit me in that day about thirty miles away. With them heading east bound in a late ‘80’s Aerostar, I headed towards Orange County with a trail of diesel in my wake.

I spent the next six hours reading copies of Diesel Power and Diesel World magazine hoping that I wasn’t going to have to find a hotel for the next three days. Luckily the dudes at Orange County Diesel Shop are some bad-ass motherfuckers and got the problem fixed quick and for less than half the price of the other spot. Thanks OCD! You guys rule.

I made the call to drive back up to L.A. and stay with Mike since we had a show there the next night. He had to work that night so I was on my own. I made my way to the closest bar that wasn't over run with dudes in $600 t-shirts and grabbed a drink. Meanwhile I started getting texts about how amazing the show was, stories of topless bartenders with Valient Thorr vests painted on…