You know it's time to change the tire when you hear it explode.

We were trucking it somewhere near the AZ border when I heard the explosion. I looked out the van's back window just in time to see what was left of the driver's side trailer tire whip around and take the fender off. We'd had a blowout. Thankfully, Ari was calm and cool about pulling it over.

God bless technology. From the side of the road, using computers and cell phones, we were able to find some local garages and shop around for the best price on a new tire. Once we found the place, we detached the trailer and took the van into the nearest town, just inside the Arizona border.

The garage was surprisingly quick in putting a new tire on the rim. While we were there, we also picked up a spare, in case something like this should happen again. We drove back to the trailer, which was right where we left it, and thankfully in the same condition. Rob and Scott installed the new tire. With that out of our way, we got back on the road and eventually arrived at a place called Big Fish, where we would set up and play.

It was a decent show with a small, very mellow crowd. It felt like kind of a letdown after the enthusiasm of last night. Anna Nalick was the most enthusiastic fan at this show. She wasn't feeling well -- cold symptoms with a sore throat -- but she stuck around for the whole thing. After the show, as we were packing stuff up, our tour manager put some Meco on in the background. For those of you who don't know Meco, they were an instrumental disco band that covered various tunes. Among their songs are the Star Wars theme, Gonna Fly Now and Over the Rainbow. When Over the Rainbow came on, I told Anna, "Hey, they're playing our song!" To which she replied, "Hey, yeah! This is our song!" Then we tried to figure out where the bluebirds came in.

The next day was a travel date as we headed toward Colorado Springs for our last show before the first break.