November 8, 2021
The Bus and The Holiday Inn DeForest, Wisconsin Check out the TOUR page for all venue and ticket information for upcoming dates. I think most people who are not traveling musicians may view 'the bus' as a mystical and coveted place of freedom, fun, guiltless unaccountable abandon, an illusion of success and, a place to enjoy free time and travel on the road at someone else's expense. While some of this can be true, and for some more than others, like most things in life, you have to experience it personally to appreciate it or put up with it for what it is. What you get out of it all depends on your ego, assumptions, and expectations. Most importantly, if you want to survive, being a considerate, professional team player, taking care of yourself, and being dedicated to your music and touring life are crucial. Countless books and music has been written about life on the road, and I may expand on this topic in a later blog, but for the sake of the story, I will leave it here for now. If you seriously want to know what life on the road as a rock and roll musician can do to you if you don't plan your life correctly, I highly recommend the musical masterpiece by Frank Zappa entitled 'Joes Garage - Acts 1,2 and 3. ' I first heard it when I was 18. To this day, it is still one of my top 10 favorite albums of all time. I should have paid more attention. Be careful what you wish for. Ok, I did not mean to get into all that, but I did so I could tell you this. While the bus may seem magical (ask The Beatles), they are just a vehicle, and they can have a habit of going South at precisely the wrong moment. Those of you who have been following my blog here know that we started our tour with serious bus issues from day 1. This is not the first time, and every touring band has its bus horror stories. It is just part of being on the road. Well, we were all looking forward to two days off on November 8 and 9 in the adorably beautiful little town of Shipshewana, Indiana. None of us had been there before, and we did not know what to expect, but we had heard wonderful things. If for nothing more than a comfortable bed and a warm shower, we highly anticipated 48 hours of luxurious freedom. We left after the gig in Ironwood, Michigan, the night before at midnight, with all of us looking forward to checking into the beautiful hotel early the following day. As usual, I awoke very early, and upon looking at my GPS, I noticed that we were still 5 hours away from our destination. Uh oh... To make a long story short, for the sake of this blog, we sat on the bus most of the morning while Dave, our very resourceful, cool, and dedicated driver, looked for a garage that could fix our bus. Once we found one, we spent the rest of the day and early part of the evening on the bus inside a garage (and no, it wasn't Joe's). Once it was decided that the bus would not be fixed any time soon, Todd (Our esteemed manager and extraordinarily resourceful and generous leader) booked rooms for all of us at the nearest hotel in DeForest, Wisconsin. It turned out to be a nice and clean Holiday Inn. So we all made lemonade out of our lemons and hunkered down in the Holiday Inn for the night. We were all drained and frustrated, but that is life on the road some time. I finally got into my hotel room around 9:00 pm. Being too beat to work, I surrendered and ordered some soup and salad through Uber Eats and indulged myself in reading and Netflix before calling it a night. ZZ Tops 'Waiting For The Bus' ominously played around and around inside my head all night.... "Home is where the heart is...on the bus" - The charming Mary from Canoga Park. Frank Zappa - Joes Garage
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