We are sitting on a plane, the lights are dimmed and all I can think about are the restaurants I will be eating at in a few short hours. Restaurants, Dr. Pepper, Starbucks, free wireless – truly, what is better than North America?

That was only a week and a half ago and I have to say, America has not dissapointed. We arrived in Kalispell, Montana on the 30th of August, welcomed by our friends parent’s, their adorable puppy, blue skies and towering mountains. We had finally made it. After settling in to the Murray’s picturesque mountain home, we ate steak from their grill and watched the sun set from the porch. The smell of Pine was everywhere and I thought I’d strayed into a dream. This was only the first few hours.

Nick and I had a day to ourselves before everyone arrived and we decided to drive up to Glacier National Park. Nick, I must say, did an excellent job navigating the road after driving on the left hand side of the road for so long. He was an old pro. We toured along the lake, breathing in the fresh air and beholding the peaks of the Rockies in front of us. Nick attempted a “dip” in the glacier stream and quickly made his way out on to the beach, much to the amusement of some local onlookers.

Everyone in the band arrived in the next few days and we prepared for our first show in Kalispell. We had no idea what to expect. Would people like our music? Would they like us? Would we actually sound good on stage? Those answers were quickly answered as fans gushed about the music and the message after the show. We sold CD’s, raised money for Papua New Guinea and had people interested. There are now people in Montana who are playing Five Star Streets and Saving Sparrow in thier CD players, maybe even humming along.

We stayed a week in the Big Sky state and on the last day of our stay, the boys decided to see how they would fare on a hike up the mountains in the Park. We girls decided to let the boys have their fun while we went to Big Fork and did the girliest thing possible – had lunch at a tea cottage and looked at pottery. When we regrouped at the end of the day, we found the boys almost stunned with amazement. Their adventure included a full day of snow (a new thing for the Aussies on our team), mountain goats on their trail, watching a grizzly bear and her cubs and fishing in a glacier lake.  Not to mention that after dinner, they were all able to shoot a rifle off the porch. I’m not kidding. I even tried it myself.

And that’s something about America. It’s boggling that you can walk into Kmart, buy some ammo and then, heck, let’s get a gun. On our recent drive through Las Vegas, we actually saw a billboard with a semi automatic rifle with the flippant suggestion: “Just try one.” Try what, a gun? Just give it a go? Jaws dropped and we discussed the prevalence of firearms in America and the fact that you can barely get a mobile phone in Australia without giving up your rights to your home, automobile and first born son.

After Montana, we headed to Salt Lake City. The scenery along our drive changed slowly from rolling hills and green mountains to pale, treeless ranges and dusty farms. We arrived in Salt Lake to our friend’s sister’s home and yet another genuine, American barbecue. We hadn’t eaten at one restaurant yet, I realized. We made our way to our hotel and let our travels melt away in the comfy beds at Holiday Inn.

Oh yeah, hotels are totally different, too. We got to our room and for real, the television was as long and wide as our compact car back home. You know your t.v.’s big when it reflects the entire room on its’ screen. They also serve you breakfast at hotels in America! And not just cereal in boxes, no. We had eggs, cereal, yogurt, more cereal, cinnamon buns, bagels, croissants, gravy – I was totally overwhelmed and could only eat cereal.

When we made our way to the venue the next morning, we were introduced to Dave, one of the coolest Youth Pastors ever. He made sure we had lattes from their cafe before we set up and then decided to take us to lunch at Sam’s club. Sam’s is a magical place where you can get a hotdog and a drink for $1.50. We were expecting little dogs, a can of soda.

Wrong.

The lady at the counter handed me one of the biggest hot dogs I’ve ever seen and then handed my a cup larger than my purse. What the heck could I possibly drink this much of? Not to mention it was 4x the size of my bladder. But, hey, we were in America and I filled it to the brim with Dr. Pepper (I think I drank around 1/4 of the liquid and then shook for the next 3 hours from a sugar high).

We played for a great youth group that night, had them jumping and encouraged them to make a difference. It was awesome. But then we went out for pizza.  Now, there is a small chain of pizza companies named Eagle Boys in Australia that claims to have the largest “large” pizza when compared with America. Sorry, Boys. We have found a suitable competitor. We ordered not one, but two large pizzas from The Pie in SLC, both 23′ in diameter. I’m being totally truthful when I say it was the size of our Suburban’s tire. We ate it for the next two days. Cold.

The next day, we said goodbye to Salt Lake and arrived late the next evening in San Bernardino, California to our manager Jacky’s home. Boy were we glad to arrive. Just when the 10 hour drive started to wear us all thin, we started singing old sunday school songs to lighten our moods and hearts. We also started a very serious competition of the Name Game where we discovered that Dan, our bass player, hates to lose.

We had our fourth show last night and afterward, ate our very first Mexican food in America. I, though hungry, decided to order healthy and asked for the Taco Salad. Big mistake. Out came a large mixing bowl-size tostada shell filled with everything. Seriously. There was not one thing missing in there from the 18,000 food groups in America. Needless to say, I ate barely half (I was then offered a fried zucchini, which I tried and loved and then felt very, very bad).

Our troops have headed off to Disney Land today, taking in all that California has to offer. Tomorrow, we head up to San Francisco to see some old friends before our next and fifth show in Salem, Oregon. Stay tuned, friends, to hear more about what we’re eating…errr…up to!

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Tags: five star streets, let justice sing tour, saving sparrow, usa tour

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