September 30, 2003 - St. Louis, MO

We left Bloomington, IN at 10:30AM and for the first part of the trip I sat up front and talked to the bus driver. He purposely took the back roads so we could see some beautiful countryside. We saw a lot of tractors on the side of the road for sale. I told him I was looking into buying an old tractor to restore to have on my property. Don't know if I'll ever be able to use it for anything. I think it'll just look kinda' cool sittin' out on the front lawn. The second half of the trip I took a nap. I was looking forward to the St. Louis show because I had every intention of going up into the Arch again. We arrived in St. Louis around 2:00PM and the load in was set for 2:30PM. When I jumped off the bus it was raining. I gave my boy James a call and invited him to come check out sound check. The last time we played in this club the bus was extremely late because the transmission of Victor's SUV went out while we were going out to meet the bus in Nashville. So we ended up stranded on the side of the road for a couple of hours. We were very late getting in to St. Louis and we actually had to start the show an hour late. This time was very different though.

We had a very fast load in and smooth sound check. Enough time for Ted and Joseph to get in a couple of rounds of duct tape basketball. The games have been very intense lately. Ampeg, who is based in St. Louis, brought 2 more cabinets for Vic. After sound check I rode around St. Louis with my buddy James. He ended up buying a lot of tickets for friends of his to come out to the show. By the time we got back it was time for me to hit the stage to check the basses again. I saw Chris Jackson from Bass Camp - I liked him a lot at camp. The show went very well as expected. Victor played an AMAZING solo. He started quoting popular bass lines and then he started quoted themes from movies and TV shows with all these interesting rhythmic details. You kinda' had to be there to know what I'm talking about, but it was absolutely amazing.

After the show it seemed like we signed a lot of autographs. A lot of people in St. Louis have been following my diary so they really wanted to know about my 7 string bass. So since I had it with me I pulled it out to show everybody. The 'OM' bass is getting a good response. I saw another guy from bass camp - I can't remember his name - but he gave me one of the best laughs ever at camp. During the blindfold stalk he wore his glasses over his blindfold. Pat Roe from the last bass camp - she brought her husband to the show. So far I've seen a person from bass camp at every show. It's good to see everyone outside of camp all showered and clean! (hee hee!)

We had hotel rooms across the street at the Embassy Suites. I had to share a room with Danette and Divinity so needless to say I never went up to the room. I just had this image of 40 pairs of shoes spread out and finger nail polish everywhere and all kinds of girly stuff. When we got on the bus I was too tired to do a diary entry. I talked to my wife for a split second and then I fell asleep in the back of the bus.

peace & blessings

anthony