a NoMethodError when trying to display time

I am having a unique problem with rails. I am currently trying to run this code..

<%= trip.start_date.strftime("%b %d %I:%M %p") %> 

And when I have my framework timezone set to UTC it will output the start_date correctly. But, when I change the timezone to EST/EDT it gives me a NoMethodError for nil:NilClass.

When I check the database for the trips, it is storing the time for the start_date correctly, but doesn't seem to want to format it, or display it.

Hope that makes sense, thanks!