Break in the chain

So, after more then a month of no blogging…I am back!  But only for one post.  You see the phone I brought with me on tour to check my email with will no longer allow me to access my site and blog  

The only reason I am on now is because we are on a two day break after a 12 day run, and I managed to steal away to my parents house in N.J. and am using their computer! 

Tomorrow we start again on another 12 day stretch, beginning in Massachusetts.  The tour is now a little over halfway over!   It has had its trials and tribulations surely, but on the whole has been going well.  It has been so nice for me to come home to my old childhood home and rest and relax.

I will start my blog up again when I get back home after the tour, and have access to a computer.  Thanks everyone for reading it..and I promise there is more fun food adventures to come!!

Day 1, 107 degrees, 15 hours

Well it started all over again…it is like riding a bike. You never forget…how to cook, how to work…how to DO the Warped tour. We started early this morning in Pomona at 6:30am with lots to do. Worked all the way through until after 9pm.
While we work we are also being filmed for a reality tv show…odd to be at the deep fryer with a camera over your shoulder…
Food for vegans today:
Lunch: Tofu “egg” salad, vegan pasta and potato salad, vegan deli “meats”, Vegan shrimp po’ boy sandwiches with breaded fried vegan shrimp, remoulade, lettuce, tomato and lemon on a soft roll.
Soup, salad and fruit salad.

Dinner: Salad bar with assorted toppings and vegan ranch dressing
Sauteed veggie black pepper “steaks”
Vegan jalapeno mashed potatoes
Roasted asparagus and cauliflower
Blueberry pie

Enough food you think?
Tomorrow to San Fran! Yay! Some cooler weather!
For me now….sleep…while the bus rolls along zzzzzzzzzzzz

Here I go again…..

Well it is starting again…another year has gone, another summer is just around the corner…and another Warped tour is days away.
In two days I leave for another 2 months of craziness, music and vegan food. We are starting in Southern California…going up North a bit, then coming back South for the trip West.
My intention is to try to blog regularly..(using my cell phone, so no fancy pictures or stuff) and tell a bit of the Warped tour tale as I see it. Of course I will try to talk about the food I am cooking, and the sights I am seeing! If anyone reads this drop a line!
Have a great summer, and be writing real soon.

losing time

Hello everyone!  It has been a long time since I have written. The Internet connection on the bus is not stellar, so it has been hard getting my computer to work.. but tonight it is working just fine.  I am holed away in my cozy bunk shutting out the world. 

The Warped tour seems to be a test for me…a test of my emotional strength mostly…it seems to push all available buttons that I have. What a learning experience.  This is definitely not a tour for cry babies and softies..and I can be both..oh well. 

Anyway, time is flying on by.  We were in Boston today, tomorrow we are in Buffalo, NY.  Then on to Canada for 2 days before a day off.  Then we start the trip back across the country to the West coast…

I really have been enjoying my days off when we have them..I just love to explore places I have never been before.  One of my favorite places was Butte, Montana of all places.  The old town was just beautiful, perched up high, big sky above, beautiful light everywhere, and a feeling of quiet magic about the place.  Almost eerily so. I loved it though and want to go back.  I also really enjoyed Milwaukee..some great old buildings and nice neighborhoods with cool stores, cafes and bars.

It is funny, you would think that all of the travel that I am doing would make me want to go home and stay there for awhile.  Well, sure, I can’t wait to get back to SF and be able to relax.  But, I have the travel bug, and I would love to go on a cross country trip by car and check out all of these places I have seen and other small towns and just explore lazily…..it really makes me appreciate the beauty of this country I live in, which is actually hard for me to say.   Not that I am usually anti-American necessarily….just anti our stupid government, and big business, and stupid decision makers.  I am blessed to be here.  Not only for the fact that this land that we are all on was once occupied by people that were mostly annihilated by our ancestors and we should feel privileged to be here…but also because it is such a beautiful, varied place.    Some of these landscapes I have seen just make me cry.    Hmm..did any of that make any sense?  I am not sure.

Well..time for me to tuck in very soon, so I will end this one.  Oh, the reason I titled this one losing time is because being on tour makes you do just that.  Lose all sense of time and place and date and day.  It is an odd bubble to be in, this Warped tour thing.

Goodnight…

bye bye Detroit..hello Illinois

So today we are in Detroit after being in Scranton, PA yesterday…saw my Mom and Dad which was soo great.  It felt good to be with loved ones..and to get spoiled…they brought me a lot of treats and fun things to read.  Thanks Ma and Pa!  I love you!

So we woke up today to sprinkling rain, which quickly turned into a downpour.  We were all wet and soggy (no raincoat/poncho), but it ended up clearing up in an hour and was clear for the rest of the day.  The venue was trippy, our kitchen truck was parked on a sidewalk between two stadiums, one for the Detroit Tigers and the other for the ….uh…whatever the football team is in Detroit..

The day got stranger when the head chef sliced his finger badly and had to go to the hospital for stitches.

Need to go to sleep early tonight as lots of people are sick and I need to keep up my energy.  Just 2 more work days before a day off!!  Yahoo! 

I miss home, I miss my Joey and I miss a nice comfy bed and good ol healthy food…ahh, can’t wait to make a good green juice!

Tomorrow we are in Illinois so we gain an hour!  That is awesome, I will take that extra hour gladly…

goodnight…

Hi from North Carolina

Well today was a good day and a nice venue…we woke up early and discovered upon leaving the bus that we could have put on sweatshirts!  It registered in the low 60’s !  How wonderful.  It warmed up considerably of course, but not being in Florida anymore and sweltering, was a welcome change.  Today was burrito’s for lunch and lasagna for dinner.  I made a vegan filling for the lunch burritos by sauteing onions, garlic, potatoes, red peppers and vegan chorizo together with some cumin and spices…it was quite delicious and I couldn’t resist scooping several chunks of it while I was making it. 

For dinner I made vegan lasagna…herbed tofu ricotta layered between dried lasagna noodles (didn’t cook em before hand even..the sauce was wet enough to cook it through and it came out great!) marinara sauce and grilled veggies (mushies,zukes and eggplant).  Turned out quite yummy.

 Tomorrow is Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I am glad to be on the east coast.  All of these trees make me feel warm and cozy inside.   Best of all I get to see my parents in a few days..in Scranton, PA!  Yay!  Embraced by the people I love the most…how wonderful.

On a personal health note, I am not doing SO great on the healthy eating thing…last night for dinner I ate a big vegan chocolate chip cookie from Whole Foods…it was so delicous..but not exactly balanced.  I will try harder…maybe.

 Goodnight…

Long stretch

Hi everyone,

We are now 3 days into our longest work stretch of no days off..12 days to be exact.  I am trying to look at it one day at a time, but sometimes it is difficult.  We are in Florida.  It rained 3 times today with lots of thunder and lightning…my favorite!  Don’t get enough of it in SF where I live.

In food info, for lunch today the vegan’s feasted on tofu “egg” salad, hummus, white bean salad, salad bar, smoothies, etc….legumes anyone?

For dinner the vegan’s got bamboo skewered vegan shrimp slathered in chimachurri sauce.  The veg shrimp are pretty good.  I grilled them on the flat grill where they got nice and golden then sauced them up.  As far as fake animal products go they are pretty tasty and amazingly don’t contain soy or wheat of any kind!  They are basically comprised of starches of some sort all rolled up in a shrimpy looking package!

Tomorrow is Miami, then Orlando….then out of this blessed moist, humid, lovely environment..detect any angst there?  Yeah, there is some.  On a nice note though, our venue today was lovely.  Right on the water with lots of palm trees all around.

I am in my bunk lying down writing this, and I am feeling my eyelids grow heavy…it is time to turn in.

Goodnight…don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Rained out….

Currently Warped!

Hello world! My name is Alyssa Cox and this is my first attempt at creating a blog.  I am currently on the Van’s Warped tour as the vegan catering chef.  The tour started on the 29th of June and ends on the 25th of August.  I will try to update this blog as much as possible while on the road….which can be difficult when you are travelling around on a bus all over the United States and Canada.

Today we are in Litchfield, Arizona where it was a balmy 107 degrees!  Ahh yes, but hey, it is a day off, so I can’t complain.  Since days off are few and far between, I try to make the most out of them.  I try to explore as much as possible.  Today that meant walking alongside a 6 lane highway (there was a sidewalk!!) amidst palms and buzzing cicadas in the searing heat.  I found a Walmart grocery store ( I know it is the devil) a Safeway and a Walgreens.  I visited all of them and bought some bottled water and some Lara bars.  I am trying my best on this tour to have a healthy, high raw vegan diet.   Tomorrow we are back at work in Phoenix.  Then we are on to New Mexico, and then on to Texas.  You can follow the tour at www.warpedtour.com. 

Okay, off to the hotel room and perhaps some food from a nearby Persian restaurant…mmm hummus.