Butler’s Cross-Country Adventure
A journey unfolds as the Rock and Roll Geek Michael Butler embarks on a cross-country trip in a 16-foot Penske truck from San Francisco to upstate New York. The adventure kicks off with a lively road trip atmosphere, filled with memorable moments, including a birthday cake party with friends. Highlights from performances along the way showcase a good crowd and positive reception. As the trip progresses, there’s a call for donations to support the journey.
Chapters:
00:00:13 – Introduction to the journey
00:01:11 – The road trip begins
00:01:53 – Memorable moments
00:02:59 – Celebration with friends
00:03:32 – Performance highlights
00:05:07 – Funding the trip
00:05:41 – Planning the night
00:07:03 – Invitation to connect
00:11:00 – Optimism for the future
Music by
Foghat
Donate to the show – Rock and Roll Geek Friends And Family Membership
Thanks to Ralph Miller for the $125 Penske truck donation
Dan Gerawan – $100 Concerned Donation
John Morgan – $50 Hang In There Bud
Kirk Crawford – $50
Tim Schall – $50
Rockbottom Rob Giglio – $25
Gregg Brofer – $20
Blake Johnston – $20
Todd Cunningham – $10
Danny Borden – $5
Steven Cohen $5
Richard Fusey – $4.44
Richard Fusey – $6.66
Bruce McMillan – $3
(Venmo donation id is @Michael-Butler-11)
Joe Pawlak – $16.66
Kirk Crawford – $12.77
Patrick Shanahan – $10
Brian Springer – $8
Jon Scott – $8
Michael Street – $7.50
Dave Slusher – $5.55
Robert Harvey – $5
Chiaki Hinohara – $5 MedakiMetal on Instagram
Jamie Jefford – $5
Erik Klein – $5
Paul Smith – $5
Justin Lefkowitz – $5
Steve Trice – $5
James Shapiro – $5
Martin Clawley – $5
Nadi Itani – $5
Eric Stowell – $4
Mike Hellyer – 4 pounds
Mark Mazzel – $3
Adrian Boschan – $2
Amelia Bowen – $2
RnR Pleeb – $1.42
3Legs4wheels – $1
Arne Stach – $1
Richard Strom – $20
Dave Franco – $20
Steven Laperriere – $20
Bradley Lisko – $10
William Bealle – $10
Ralph Miller – $10
School Of Podcasting – $10
Jason Shepard – $10
Jeff and Cheri Thieleke – $10
Christopher Del Grande – $5
Jayce Lesniewski – $5
Benjamin Mueller – $5
Jon Tennis – $5
Rachel Rosenberg – $5
Vincent Crimi – $5
Gregg Long – $5
Peter Spark $5
Andrew Howe – $5
John Ofenloch – $5
Chad Kiffmeyer – $2
Dave Alexander – $2
Adam Croft – $2
Kai Matsuda – $2
Lasse Satvedthagen – $2
Brian Grattidge – $2
William Moffett – $2
Deborah Dreyfus – $2
Show Transcript
Road1
00:00:06
From somewhere in the middle of nowhere, this is the Rock and Roll Geek Show. This is the story of my Rock and Roll Butler. Welcome to the Rock and Roll Geek Show.
00:00:23
My name is Michael Butler. Thanks a lot for joining me. I really appreciate it.
00:00:27
Today is Monday, July 13, 2026. I am somewhere on the road, on the way, we’re driving today to Winnemucca, Nevada. We left San Francisco this morning, rented a Penske truck.
00:00:48
I picked up the Penske truck at 9 o’clock a.m. I told you in the last episode it cost me $3,600.
00:00:56
That’s actually not true. It actually cost me five big ones, because your credit card company and your auto insurance doesn’t cover truck rental. We are in a 16-foot Penske truck driving it across the country, all the way from San Francisco to an undisclosed location in New York, upstate New York.
00:01:23
We’re expecting it to take us 46 hours. It’s going to go over eight days, that’s the plan. We flew into San Francisco on Thursday, stayed at a hotel at JFK on Wednesday night, the TWA Hotel.
00:01:40
Compliments of the undisclosed person traveling with me. Thank you very much. Beautiful undisclosed person.
00:01:48
Had a good time. We drank a lot. Let’s put it that way.
00:01:53
We had a fun time. TWA Hotel is an interesting hotel. It’s set up like the old TWA Airlines.
00:02:04
They even have a cocktail lounge in an airplane. It’s quite interesting. Pretty expensive, but it was fun. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it, but the undisclosed person put in the bill, and
00:02:16
I very much appreciate it, I’ve got to tell you. So then we flew into San Francisco on Friday. We met up with Craig and his wife, Pam, and their friend Dianne.
00:02:34
Is it Dianne or Diana, or something like that? Super nice woman. We went to Oakland, met with them for drinks and dinner, and we stayed in an Airbnb in Oakland, which was left a little bit to be desired, the Airbnb, but it had a shower, let’s put it that way. Then we drove all the way to Ukiah, met up with Casey, Casey Crenshaw, and the girls
00:02:59
in Featherwitch. It was Erica’s husband’s birthday, and they were having a cake party, so we stopped, a cake, not a keg, a cake party. We stopped in there for some cake, and it was nice to see the Featherwitch girls, haven’t seen them in a long time. And of course, there was talk about getting the band back together and all that, and I’m
00:03:15
holding my breath for that one, girls. Then we drove to Ukiah and stayed at a hotel in Ukiah, and then on Saturday, I had a Chad gig up in Fortuna, which is near Eureka. We opened up for a band called Shenandoah.
00:03:33
That was a fun show, a lot of people there, a good crowd, and they liked us. As usual, people thought that I was not a country guy, more of a rock and roll guy, but they seemed to like it, at least the kids that were shouting my name, holding up the metal horns, liked me. There was a cute little punk rock couple dressed as cowboys, and they were line dancing while we were playing.
00:03:55
It was fun. So then after that, the next morning, Sunday morning, we got up and drove all the way to the Mountain House and picked up the rest of my shift from the Mountain House, and then drove all the way to San Francisco and stayed at Don’s Basement on Sunday night. There was nobody else there because the kids are being withheld, the grandkids are being withheld from Michael Butler, from Papa, because Papa’s an asshole, apparently.
00:04:24
I don’t know. I’m not going to get into that, but yeah, we stayed there, went to the Pinsky Truck Company this morning, drove it back to the house in San Francisco, loaded that Pinsky Truck up with all my guitars, all my amps. Did I tell you how much the Pinsky Truck cost?
00:04:42
Well, see, the insurance, your insurance doesn’t cover it. It doesn’t cover the lost damage waiver. Your credit cards don’t cover it.
00:04:50
You have to buy the lost damage waiver. They’re walking around showing every scratch. So I had to get the lost damage waiver, which costs $1,000, actually $900 and change.
00:05:01
So this truck ended up costing me close to $5,000. Did I mention that I need some donations? By the way, thank you, Ralph Miller, for contributing to the Pinsky Truck Fund.
00:05:13
You donated $125. Thank you very much, Ralph. You’re a great man, I’ll tell you.
00:05:18
If you’d like to help contribute, it would be much appreciated. It’s $5,000 for a truck, not counting gas. We just pulled over for gas right outside Lake Tahoe.
00:05:27
$6.99 a gallon.
00:05:30
I never paid $6.99 a gallon since Joe Biden was president. I think I paid close to that.
00:05:37
But yeah, $6.99 a gallon. So we’re driving to Winnemucca, Nevada.
00:05:42
We’re going to stay there tonight. We put into the AI route us to some places with some good dive bars. This place is telling us to go to Winnemucca.
00:05:53
Hold on, I’ll take you to some of this water. I can’t wait to have a beer. The undisclosed, beautiful undisclosed person is driving the Pinsky truck right now.
00:06:07
I drove the whole way, but I needed to get a podcast in. She’s going to take us into Reno. Stopping at Winnemucca.
00:06:14
The chat GPT said there’s a couple of great bars in Winnemucca. Walking distance from the hotel. Or it’s actually a motel.
00:06:24
So we’re pulling into the motel. We’re going to park the Pinsky truck and walk to one of the two dive bars it suggested. Billy the Kid’s Hole in the Wall.
00:06:34
No, is it? Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall. And there was another one.
00:06:37
I forget what it’s called. So we’re going to do that tonight. And then we’re going to get up in the morning and drive somewhere on the route to Catskills of New York.
00:06:48
So if you’re along that route, please hit me up friends. I would love to meet up with you. A few people have.
00:06:57
And we’re hoping to meet up with some of them. Depends on where we are. But thank you everybody who’s offered to meet up so far.
00:07:04
Please look at the route from Winnemucca, Nevada to Catskills of New York. And let’s meet up friends. So that’s the update for day one.
00:07:18
The dive bar road trip. The dive bar road trip with all Butler’s shit in the back of the Pinsky truck. I got about 30 guitars.
00:07:27
An SVT-810. An SVT-410. A little PV-412.
00:07:34
Bass amp. All the bass heads. What else do I have?
00:07:43
The PV Mark IV that I’ve had since the Stevie Stiletto days. Two kayaks. A log splitter.
00:07:54
An electric bike. Which I’m selling. So if anybody wants an electric bike, hit me up.
00:08:03
What else do I have? All of my albums. About 1,000 record albums.
00:08:08
All my rock and roll books. Which is about 2,000 rock and roll books. All my clothes.
00:08:17
And various other things. Driving it across the country. Goodbye, California.
00:08:24
I’m coming back on the 24th because I have an AZDZ gig. And then I’m going to fly right back. Yes, it costs me money to play.
00:08:33
Yes, I’m paying to play. But hey, I want to play. And I have not found a band yet in New York.
00:08:37
I will. I’ll find more than one band in New York. But I like playing with Chad.
00:08:41
I like playing with the Butlers. And I like playing with the AZDZ band. And I like playing with the Plunkets.
00:08:46
And every other band that I’m in. As long as I can do it, I’m going to do it. Damn it.
00:08:53
Why not? But in the meantime, we’re going to enjoy these eight days on the road. And in honor of this road trip.
00:09:01
This dive bar road trip. With the beautiful undisclosed person at the wheel. I’m going to be playing all songs about the road.
00:09:11
And we’re going to start off with the first one. By the great band Foghat. Eight Days on the Road.
00:09:18
I think this is from the Rock and Roll album. It’s got a rock and a roll. And like a dinner roll on the cover.
00:09:24
This one goes out to you, Chuck Spear. Because I know he’s a huge Foghat fan. He’s a fan of the hat.
00:09:30
All right. I will talk to you tomorrow. There’s a little update from the road.
00:09:36
It’s beautiful on this drive. I’ll tell you. We’re right outside Lake Tahoe.
00:09:40
And there’s all kinds of mountains. It’s just a beautiful view.
00:09:44
Not worth the $6.99 a gallon gas. But yeah.
00:09:48
All right. Thank you for listening, friends. If you get any value out of these daily updates.
00:09:54
Little dog days in advance. In July. If you get any value.
00:10:01
You’d really be helping me out with this road trip. Helping me out with the Penske truck. Rental.
00:10:07
I’m putting it all on the credit card. So at least I’ll get some points. I think.
00:10:11
I’ll get some time to pay it off. 22% interest. Yes.
00:10:17
The end is in sight. What do you call it? The end of the rainbow is going to be worth it.
00:10:25
I’m convinced of it. Because I like the person I’m with. And it’s going to be a lot better than it was. Hopefully the grandkids will
00:10:37
eventually come back into my life. But we’ll see. It’s not my doings.
00:10:43
And that’s all I can say of that. Because the last episode I got a bunch of shit about talking about my family life. But hey.
00:10:51
I’m public enemy number one. Enough of this. I’m not going to give you my problems.
00:10:56
Thank you for listening. It’s going to be great. It’s going to work out great. And it’s all going to end
00:11:04
like everybody wants it to end. Except I won’t be dead. I’ll talk to you soon.
00:11:11
Please keep the donations coming. Without your donations this show will die. A horrible, putrid, stench filled death.
00:11:16
Rockandrollgeek.com I’d love to meet up with you. Find me on the Facebook.
00:11:23
Rockandrollgeek Facebook group. Going strong. And thank you to Kirk Crawford for not sending me that new Rolling Stones album.
00:11:30
Which I have not listened to yet. But I’m going to. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
00:11:35
Here’s Foghat. Eight days on the road.
00:12:19
Rockandrollgeek.com
00:12:41
Rockandrollgeek.com Rockandrollgeek.com Ain’t no rest tonight.
00:12:57
Broken, busted. Standing on a county line. I’ve been traveling.
00:13:06
Eight days on the road. That’s right. Eight days on the road.
00:13:17
Driving me through the night. There ain’t no time. Ain’t no time.
00:13:24
Ain’t no rest tonight.
00:13:40
I’m out here thinking. Thinking about what I’ve done. That’s why.
00:13:49
That’s why. Eight days on the road. That’s right.
00:13:56
Eight days on the road. Driving me through the night. I’m coming home.
00:14:06
I won’t be long. I’ll make love again tonight.
00:14:32
Rockandrollgeek.com Rockandrollgeek.com Rockandrollgeek.com
00:14:45
Rockandrollgeek.co
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