February 2, 2003 - Boise, Idaho

In the middle of the night while we were traveling from Salt Lake City to Idaho I had a lot of weird dreams. I can't remember what they were about, but I remember having weird dreams - not good or bad, just weird. I think it's caused from me sleeping in a moving vehicle. When I felt the bus stop, I automatically woke up. I assumed we were at the hotel, but we weren't. We were at a truck stop. When you're riding on the tour bus, most of the stops made are truck stops. Truck stops, I think are kinda' cool places - almost like small cities contained. Even though I realized we weren't at our destination, I decided to stay awake anyway.

When we got to Boise, I realized we were at the same hotel we stayed at the last time we were here. That was cool because I remembered a lot of places from last time. So I went into my room and slept for a couple of hours then I got up, showered and went for a walk downtown. One of the things I've noticed being in this part of the country is that it seems like I was closer to the sky. I don't think it was because I was at higher altitudes, because I don't think I WAS at a higher altitude. But out here, everything is so spread out that you can see more of the sky. It's not broken up by tall buildings…you can look straight ahead or all around and see the sky. (If that makes any sense!)

Idaho is Victor's birthplace, by the way. If you had given me 50 guesses to guess what state he was born in, Idaho would have been my 50th guess!

Bus call was 12:30PM, so we went over to the venue, the "Big Easy", which was walking distance for the hotel. It was the same venue we played at last time we were in Boise. We set up and sound checked and then the venue provided meals for us. I ordered crawfish etouffeé and it was VERY good. After dinner, Victor, Derico and I walked back to the hotel to chill for a while since we had 2 hours before we had to be back.

When I got back the opening band was playing. They were called Mark Eaton & the Lobby - and they were very good. They sounded very reminiscent of the Dave Matthews band. We went on at 9:00PM. It was a very good show with a full house and a VERY enthusiastic crowd. To me, it seemed like the band was a little on the tired side from working so hard the past couple of weeks. So it's a good thing that tomorrow will be a day off. After the show we broke down the gear - Victor asked me if I was still having fun and I told him, "Very much so!"

After the concert we headed straight for Missoula, Montana. Everyone was watching "Death to Smoochy" on DVD on the front of the bus. I watched about half of the movie and then went to the back of the bus. It's a very good movie but I had seen it before. So I pulled out the CD's that I had brought with me and I put in Joe Sample and Layla Hathaway, doing "When Your Life was Low". It's one of my favorite songs of all time. Joseph Wooten must feel the same way because he replayed the song 4 more times! It's become one of our traditions on tour that we listen to that song together, along with a couple of other songs. After he left, I put on Norah Jones CD and went to sleep to that … and had more weird dreams.

My condolences go out to Danette, our tour manager. We found out today that she had lost a close relative. He actually came to see her at our show in San Juan Capistrano a couple of days ago. He was only 22 years old. You should make a point of telling people that you are close to you love them because one time when you see them, IS going to be the last time that you see them.

peace & blessings,

anthony