Day 10: spring fever

This time of year is the ugliest. The whole country is brown. Every tree, shrub, blade of grass is grey-brown, stiff and lifeless. Mile after mile after mile after mile. Spring hasn't quite sprung. But the sun is out and it's starting to be warm. Tanktops and flip flops are dusted off. The college students are equally unattractive. Pale from the winter but freshly, awkwardly blotchy red from the first burn. Put them under flourescent lights and it's a horrific scene.

Day 9: Driving and Babeville

Driving day: Ohio near Cleveland to Easton, MA. And we stopped in Buffalo for a meal (Merge - a delicious veggie friendly restaurant downtown on Delaware St.), and a quick visit to Babeville. Babeville is an old church converted into a music and arts venue, and headquarters of Righteous Babe Records, Ani DiFranco's label. Kind of a Mecca of sorts for us.

Day 8: the old lady who checked us in

Last night I checked us in to a Hampton Inn outside of Minneapolis at about 1am. Every so often, the person working at the front desk will become inquisitive, ask where we're from, why we're in town, etc. This leads to a conversation about the band and further questions. On this particular night, none of this questioning occurred. I didn't tell her we're a band. The only clue "Sherry" had as to our identity was the business name on the credit card. She must have googled it and done further research because in the morning, we found this note slipped under the door.

Day 7: Minnesota via North Dakota

Remnants of flooding near Fargo... I accidently took these pictures in the b&w mode. Water still flooding fields and covering some roads.
Just a usual everyday scene.

Day 6: Havre, MT

Played a college in Havre, MT. 50 miles from Canada. Warned against
driving east on highway 2 because of deer on the roads. "55 to stay
alive" is what we were told. On that highway now. So far i've seen one
deer and one hitchhiker. Rarely see hitchhikers.

Tonight someone was selling tickets for a raffle, and one of the
prizes was a quarter beef. That's 1/4 of a cow. While playing onstage
i could see a man drumming along with his hands on his huge belly. A
13 year old girl came to the show, she saw us four years ago for her
birthday, and it's her birthday tomorrow. A few other returners. An
older woman who sings in a vocal folk trio brought us her cd's and a
cassette tape.

It's nice to revisit places during a different season than when
previously there. The landscape and experience are different. I
remember ice, slipping on rocks on the ground, everything frozen.

Day 5: Helena, MT & Blackfoot Brewery

Salt Lake City to Havre, MT. Straight up I-15. Tonight we stopped in
Helena, unfortunately too brief. This is a town I love to visit and
would like to come back to on my own. Small, hippie, college arts
town. My favorite espresso (served at the wonderful General
Mercantile), my favorite beer (Blackfoot), one of my favorite
breakfasts (No Sweat Cafe), and amazing gold rush history. Doesn't get
better. Actually it does. I played a really, really fun bar gig here
once so the memories are all good.

When people ask what my favorite place is from all my travels (there
are many answers that are all right), this is one of them. Other
cities in Montana get more attention, but Helena is my favorite. It's
a great small town, like Walla Walla, WA or Portland, ME, also at the
top of my list.

When I left LA I packed my empty growler from Blackfoot Brewery - I
had no idea if we were actually passing through Helena. Tonight I had
it filled with their Scottish! This is a big accomplishment for me.
Full circle.

Day 4: Still in Utah

Ah the Cadbury Egg. A genius invention. Today I ate a mini one and loved it almost as much as the regular size.

Tonight we played a house concert with Stephanie S. and Debra F. in Highland, UT. I ran the sound board, which was pretty fun. And I set up my computer to record the whole show in Logic, and it worked out! One line from the board and one mic in the room. I think the only problem was that some of the vocal mics peaked and may have distorted occasionally. And the bass didn't go through the board so I only have it in the room mic. It was just an experiment, something to play with, but I'd like to record more - more of other people playing, not necessarily RJ - while I'm out on the road.