Insomniac Folklore Tour: Parting Ways

July 16th

Last night we had a show in Olympia— our last show with Ayden. We arrived in Washington’s capital city after sitting in traffic for two hours, met our contact Scott, and unloaded into the Reality Church. Over the course of the night we met the three members of Lower Lights Burning (some of the friendliest people I’ve met on tour), gorged ourselves on free pasta and oreos, napped on couches, watched Tyler and Ayden have an epic wrestling battle, played a fun show to an attentive audience, and saw a great set by Lower Lights Burning. We slept at Scott’s house, most of us sprawling on the floor even though there were beds and couches available.

I surfaced around 11:30am and saw my bandmates scattered around the room, half-asleep. Almost time to say goodbye. When would we meet again, and for how long? We don’t know. It suddenly struck me that every time you say goodbye to someone, you have no idea if you’ll see him again on this side.

We all congregated in the living room and talked. I tried to remember every detail of the moment: my body slumped on the carpet, head propped up on my rolled sleeping bag— my left arm lying on a blanket, my right hand loosely tangled in the sleeping bag strap. Adrienne to my left, curled up on Tyler’s shoulder. Zach to my right, sitting in the lotus position. Amanda, Ayden and Kourtney across from me. Small-talk conversation. Legend of Zelda. Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Marionettes. Tyler and Adrienne began wrestling and the rest of us watched in amusement. One last morning together.

Scott and his son made us breakfast— bacon, sausage, and whole-wheat waffles stuffed with fruit! The generosity of people we stay with continues to bless and surprise me.

Then it was time to say goodbye. It felt like a breaking of the Fellowship. I had tried not to dread it too much, to embrace it, to not let it make me sad, but now I didn’t want it all to come to a close. I hugged Kourtney, Ayden and Zach in turn. I called them losers and said they were lame for not coming back to St. Louis with us. Zach lent me a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien short stories. I cried.

We all stood around, not wanting to say goodbye. We extolled the virtues of St. Louis (namely, City Museum and fireflies). We talked about the difference between Missouri and Missoura. We all said how much we didn’t want to say goodbye. But at last we all climbed into our respective vehicles, and waved farewell, and shut the doors, and pulled out of the driveway. Ayden, Kourtney and Zach started back to Portland. The rest of us headed toward Spokane. 

I’m fairly sure we’re all see each other again— we are indeed bandmates. But I realized today how very much I hate saying goodbye to friends.

~Lisa Shafter