September 29, 2003 - Bloomington, IN

The way we do our tour is very intense. Most of the time we will book a 2, 3 or 4 week tour with only a couple of days off. We call it "hit'n 'em hard"! It's really the only way that we can make decent money on this tour because the expenses are so major. We have to pay for hotel rooms and tour bus even when we're not playing so we might as well try to play as many days as we can. The hard thing about a day off is that it's hard to get back into the swing of working. Victor mentioned the night before that Rod wanted to pick us up at 9:00AM and take us to breakfast. I called Victor at 9 in the morning and told him that I would be chillin' in the lobby waitin' on him.

When Rod got there we decided we would go to a local place that he knows and then we would go back to his house so he could introduce us to bow and arrows. When we got to the restaurant he decided to take us in the back door and walk us through the kitchen. He said all the locals go through the kitchen. I knew deep down inside that that was a bad idea. There ain't a whole lot of black people in Bloomington and I figured that they would panic when they saw two black people walking through the kitchen - one of them with a bald head and one with dreadlocks! I even heard that the former head of the Klu Klux Klan lives in Martinsville, which is not too far away from Bloomington. When we were walking through the kitchen I could see how stunned all the employees were that two black folks were coming in the back door and walking through the kitchen. I could've sworn I heard the music on the juke box skip! But after that, all the waitresses were very friendly.

But something very funny happened at the restaurant. I saw on the menu that they serve 'mush' and I was curious to know what 'mush' was. Our waitress didn't really know so she called in another lady to explain it to me. When our waitress told her that I didn't know what 'mush' was she just stared at me for about 15 seconds not saying anything and looking at me as if I just farted in church. Then when she went to speak 2 big wads of spit flew out of her mouth and one of the wads landed on Victor. We all just busted out in laughter! After her lengthy explanation, I still don't know what 'mush' is...I just know that I don't want to try it!

After breakfast we rode back to Rod's house. Rod is getting his doctorate in English Lit' so he had a bunch of books in his house and none of them from this century. There were a bunch of dead animals on the wall that he had killed either with bow and arrow or a shotgun. Then we went outside to shoot some arrows. He had 2 foam deer, and a foam animal that I started calling a muskrat, but I think it was really a gopher. First we started shooting what was called a re-curve bow. Both Victor and I did very well with that. The second bow we shot with was called a compound bow and the third bow we used was a cross bow. He said we did excellent for people who had never shot bow and arrow before. I had so much fun that I'm considering buying a compound bow.

After we were done I had to go to the venue to load in gear - it was around 2:00PM. Victor was going to go sit in on a class with him. So they dropped me off at the venue which was the Bluebird Cafe. The bus got there shortly after that. I was considering getting a tattoo but when I walked in the tattoo shop the employees there didn't even acknowledge my presence. I felt very uncomfortable so I left.

Set up went fast - fast enough that I was able to ride with Danette and Ted to Circuit City before sound check. I bought a computer style keyboard for my Palm Pilot to type my email with. One of the venue employees, Jeff Hasson, gave us a lift. He was very nice young man and Danette flirted with him the whole day! Our friend Kit and her daughter came in from Michigan and also Terry Voss from Bass Camp came in. So, Victor, Joseph, Rod, his wife and another friend, Kit, her daughter, Terry and I went out to dinner. When we got back to the venue we played a very good gig. Then we went back to the hotel to stay the night. Initially we weren't scheduled to stay the night but at some point somebody realized that St. Louis wasn't that far away so we did.

When we got back to the hotel I talked to my wife - she's becoming quite the celebrity. A lot of people ask me about her and comment on the tour diary. After I talked to her I checked email and then I went to sleep. We had a 10:30AM bus call for the ride to St. Louis...

peace & blessings

anthony