The Morning Slammer - “Wild but Mild”

08/07/26. Chris Buck

It’s 10.30 am on the 8th July and we’re standing, bleary-eyed in a truck stop in Wallace, Idaho. There’s 5 choices of filter coffee, each more bewildering than  the next - Cinnamon Bun, White Chocolate Caramel or French Vanilla for those who like their coffee equal parts caffeine and sugar and the ‘Morning Slammer’ for those who like theirs equal parts caffeine and caffeine. We settle, somewhat suspiciously, for ‘100% Colombian’ and dutifully troop back out to the car park. We’d best get going; we’re an hour and a half into a seven hour drive to Big Sky, Montana.

Yesterday was a day…and a bit. 26 hours from its start at a Premier Inn just outside Heathrow to its end at a La Quinta Inn in Spokane, Washington. An 11 and a half hour flight, £75 in Uber fees around Seattle to collect various pieces of gear from Thunder Road Guitars and S.I.R, followed by a 5 hour drive in Tour Force One (a rental 12 seat Chevy Express) from Seattle to Spokane.

On this occasion, it’s myself - Chris - and our perennial tour buddy Tom Jenkins sharing the driving, Tom taking the first half and myself the latter. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road for 3 hours after 25 without sleep but between the best of The Police, World Cup updates and a brief podcast précis of Count Binface’s manifesto we get over the line and finally roll into Spokane at midnight, going our separate ways with little more than a mumbled acknowledgement of a 9am ‘van call’ to do it all over again. That, in a nutshell is touring. And it’s the best thing in the world.

Make mine a Morning Slammer…

Where - Super Stop Truck Stop, Wallace Idaho

Coffee - ⭐️

Vibe - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️