In the middle of the night, tired after playing our first gig, we drove from Seattle through Portland to Wilsonville. To us, this place is special because we recorded our album right where we’d spend the night. But when exhausted and unwashed bodies arrive anywhere near a bed, utility overshadows nostalgia and we all passed out.
Back in Vancouver, Sam had printed out and gathered every single paper he owned with some semblance of his life. Tax receipts, cheque receipts from jobs of the past, acceptance letters. Then, to avoid a costly cab ride and from a lack of nightbus service, he walked from Alma St to Cambie St at around 4 in the morning (it took an hour and a half) then caught a cab to Pacific Centre train station. With record of his previous attempt, the US border guards spared no effort in reading each and every piece of paper Sam brought with him, as if he was a gatekeeper to heaven on earth. Contrary to popular American border guard belief, not all Canadians long to live in the land of the free.
Later that morning, stuffed in a sleeping bag, Charley hears the ding-ding of an incoming text. “Oh God,” he mutters to himself as he feels around for it. It was good news. Sam had made it into the United States of America.
Back in Vancouver, Sam had printed out and gathered every single paper he owned with some semblance of his life. Tax receipts, cheque receipts from jobs of the past, acceptance letters. Then, to avoid a costly cab ride and from a lack of nightbus service, he walked from Alma St to Cambie St at around 4 in the morning (it took an hour and a half) then caught a cab to Pacific Centre train station. With record of his previous attempt, the US border guards spared no effort in reading each and every piece of paper Sam brought with him, as if he was a gatekeeper to heaven on earth. Contrary to popular American border guard belief, not all Canadians long to live in the land of the free.
Later that morning, stuffed in a sleeping bag, Charley hears the ding-ding of an incoming text. “Oh God,” he mutters to himself as he feels around for it. It was good news. Sam had made it into the United States of America.
In Chapter 4, as Sam buses down to Portland, the band discovers they are about to enter what one ex-girlfriend-of-a-Deerhoof-guitarist calls “The Valley of Sickness and Death.”
- Andrew
- Andrew
