Tour Diary: Madison, WI & The Start Of The Tour

My massive west coast tour kicked off with a visit to the Harmony Bar in Madison, Wisconsin and included a night out, and morning coffee with a Substack legend.

Butterflies were raging in my gut as I awoke before 5:00 am on Thursday morning. As soon as I my eyes opened, I pulled back the sheets and set my feet to the floor. With a little more than six hours to go there was still much to be done. I packed the last of my personal shit and began to tackle corralling all of my gear, luggage, merch, and more and finding a way to get it packed into the Buick.

I’d worked incredibly hard over the last few weeks to streamline my setup for the tour. On the summer run, I took a few things that I never used and didn't pack in the most efficient way possible. For the Fall edition of the tour, I snagged a couple more road cases from Harbor Freight to carry some of my merch. Even with new cases and a streamlined approach, the Encore is still loaded to the gunnels. I managed to squeeze all of my luggage and gear into the back area with room left on the front seat for a cooler and a spot on the floor up front for a box of some dry goods.