Yeah, so, I know I haven't been doing too well with entries on this, but you have to understand that we drove over 1500 miles and played 2 cities in the past week and a half. So, very sparse internet access+travel tiredness= no blog entries :-( But, I promise that I will update you on everything since my last entry.
So, today is thursday, and we just had our sound check and meeting for opening night. Last time I wrote it was sunday and I was leaving Calgary to head up up to Prince Geaorge, so here we go
Sunday: After having a rather difficult and frustrating time emptying my waste tanks, I finally left the campground and drove about 1 1/2 hours to cannmore, which is just outside of Banff. Spent the night in the Canadian Petrol parking lot, and woke up to some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.
Monday: Got some Tim Hortons for breakfast, then headed out for a day of driving to Prince George. Now, I have to say that the US is definately missing out on Tim Hortons, yes we have starbucks, new york bagel, krispy kremes and dunkin donuts. BUT, where is the US is there a chain restaurant that offers a soup/sandwich/coffee as a combo AND serves it in a ceramic mug and bowl. Plus, as their motto states, "Always fresh" it was always fresh, even their chicken salad sandwhich, which I consider taboo at most chain restaurants for fear of my health and long life. Yes, I miss Tim Hortons (hmmmm, make I can franchise a location when I go back to a stationary life, but, it America ready? I mean, are we americans really repsonsible enough to enjoy sitting down to eat our food? Are we ready to be invaded by Canada? ) Ok, enough from my inner voice. So, yes I travelled from about 9Am that morning till about 7PM when I arrived in Prince George. I have to say, driving through the Canadian Rockies left me a changed person. This mountain range is arguably one of the most scenic on earth. There were so many times that day when I said "this can't get any more beautiful" and every time it did. It was just once of those experiences where, you can't believe this is not imaginary, this is really happening, I'm really here driving in my house through this amazing creation. Plus, I pretty much hit every kind of weather known to man on that route to. I hit snow and rain at least 3 times, and all 3 times it eventually became sunny agian and made the clouds all the more beautiful of a backdrop to the mountians and forest before me. I tried not to stop every time there was a pullout, but it was just that amazing, like driving through a calendar, only everything was more vivid, and larger. The old saying that pictures don't did it justice is right....they only serve as a reminder of what the real thing looks like. I feel the same way about live music and CDs, but that's for another blog entry. So, after several mountain passes, snow, and some crazy canadians in their rental RVs, I made it to Jasper where I took a pit stop, got food recommendations from an australian, and at lunch at a little cafe along the main drag that had something to do with rock and roll and thai food. Couldn't quite figure out what the exact niche of the place was, but in any case, the food was a little overpriced for what it was, but it was good and filled my tummy, so I was happier. After walking a bit I stopped at a fudge shop....their fudge was ok (definatley not Mackinac Island standard) but it was edible, but their chochoclate, ewwwwww If you're ever in that part of Canada, don't, I repeat DO NOT buy chocolate from the Fudgery chain, whatever their recipe is for their chocolate, they fudged it up, haha In any case, the rest of the journey was rather non-remarkable, which, in the backwoods of British Columbia where you have 2 and 3 length logging trucks moose the size freakishly large horses and the token Canadian goose, is good. I arivved in Prince George at sunset, got lost, and found directions from some random people at a dairy queen.
Tuesday: I was tired, so I don't know when I got up, but I did a little bit of exploring on my bike. I definately had to find a place to get my RV fixed and maybe pick up a 100ft hose at sears and adopt a manatee if time permitted. I did eventually set up an appointment for my RV the next day, bought a 50ft hose (they didn't have any 100ft), and found out that manatees don't and haven't ever lived in British Columbia. That night was the first of our 2 shows in that town, it was well attnded AND we were able to do the full gator act since BC doesn't have any stupid rules about alligators or snakes in public like Alberta does. Went to bed a little early to prepare for the day ahead.
Wednesday: Dropped my RV off, but they wouldn't accept it with anything in the tanks, so had to find a place to empty them, then took it back to the RV place. I was going to wait out the repair time, but was able to get a ride with a native Prince Georgian. Cool guy, 3 times my age, retired truck driver, now works for the RV place for something to do in his retirement. After I got back to our "city", I took the bike out and aboot. Got some tasty morsels at Tim Hortons, took a ride up around the local college campus to check the cool architecture, and then took a ride out on this newly paved curvy road. Well, the road had some good curves in it, but since it was mainly a logging road, there were a lot of stones and pebbles on the road, which spells bad news if you're trying to lean into a turn at 125kph (about 80mph) So I rode till the road ended and it turned into dirt which my bike isn't exactly suited to travel on. This was definately rural BC, and I happened upon a beautiful secluded park. Unfortunately it was a little chilly to enjoy it, but as you can see on my pbase pics, the leaves were all turning and it was absolutely stunnung. It's funny because here in Billings the leaves haven't turned yet, so I'll get to see fall happen twice! In any case, I picked up the RV, it was fixed but the labor charges left a hole in my CC, but what is the price for the comfort of knowing your poop and shower water isn't being sprayed all over Canada's highways?
Thursday: So, since my RV was pretty much all packed up from being at the RV service place, I decided to hit the road wednesday night after the show with the band leader robbie and his family. We drove about 2 1/2 hours into the BC wilderness thankfully didn't hit any of those mutated horses commonly known as moose (by the way, what is a group of moose called???? if anyone knows, email me...there may be a picture of an elephant in it as a reward ;-) ) And we camped out in this abandoned campground in Tudyah park. Unfortunately there weren't any hookups and my generator was being preissy, BUT what we woke up to the next morning made it all worth the trouble. (once again, check out the pics on the pbase site) So, thursday morning we hit the road around 9AM and arrived in Grande Prairie (that's right, grand with an "e", only in Canada eh? ) around 4PM. It was actually quite a nice situation. I was able to park in the part of the parking lot where there was a little island with tress and a turf of grass. So, for a couple days I had a little oasis outside my house door. After getting settled in, that night the promoters took us out to some of the hopping local night spots, it was fun, but I lost the paper airplane contest at the lion's den pub.....I demand a recount!
Friday: Pretty much all work today. We had the compulspory 4:30 sound check, then company meeting, then a 7PM show. Once again opening night was pretty much sold out, which was a nice change from the empty arenas in Edmonton and Calgary. That evening I decided to break the grill out and cook up some of that good german meat I stocked up on at the campground in calgary. It went pretty well, although I needed to get some new charcoal rocks and a wire brush or brillo pad to scrape the carbon off the grate from past grilling expiditions. After I figured out how NOT to burn my food, I actually did have some success with my Bockwurst and Bratwurst. It was a good day.
Saturday: It was a loooong day. My chops (for all you non-brass players, that's trumpet lingo for our lips) were on the protest. They pretty much decided not to show up for work that day. I have to say, I think it's the worst they've felt since I started out here. But, I was warned by people who've done this gig for a while that usually your 3rd or 4th week in you hit this kind of "funk" in your playing. So, I tried not to freak out and attempted to take it in stride, but all the same, it's annoying when you can't do your job the way you know you're able to. In any case, it was a long day and I rewarded myself by watched several season 1 episodes of Enterprise. Live long, and pros.........er play circus music
Sunday: This was out last day in Grande Prairie, I think everyone was ready to leave after the show. I don't recall seeing any tears at our last playing of "O Canada" (the Canadian national anthem), I think everyone liked the fact of knowing that we were soon going to be back in the land of 24hr walmarts, mph, and money that's mostly paper and only 1 color. So, after hitting up the discount closeout store across the parking lot (I picked up some new items to make my RV a little more like home) I left and begun the 1200 mile journey to Bilings. That night I got into the Flying J in Edmonton and finally read the generator manual and figured out why I wasn't getting any 110 volt power. So I had power for most of the night, it kept turning off on me and blowing fuses (which I later found out was because I was putting too much amp load on it, these are the kind of things they DIDN'T teach you in elementary school) Anyhow, I paid the 5 bucks for the 24 hour internet and the next morning checked all of the important parts cyberspace as I had a good hot breakfast inside the Flying J. I then departed to find a canadian tire so I could get my oil changed and tires balanced. But after finding out that most canadian tires don't service RVs, I decided to head south toward my goal of the Great Falls MT flying J for that night. Well, it was a pretty smooth journey as I passsed through Calgary for the 3rd time! and then made my way down to the border. It was definately a challenge driving acriss the prairies with the strong crosswind, but countersteering was my friend and we played nice, so I arrived at the border safely. The border crossing was surprising smooth, he asked if I had any guns, knives, or illegal first borns....none of which applied to me. He asked where I was headed, and through my bloodshot travel weary eyes I tried as perkily (I know, this word wouldn't fly in scrabble) as possible to tell the kind sir that I was with the circus and on my way ti Billings for our next set of shows. All was well, I got my Canada receipts stamped for the GST tax refund (which will total $90.00 canadian) and he waved me on my way. That evening I made to Great Falls and camped out in the Flying j parking lot, while practicing and watching more Enterprise season 2 episodes.
Tuesday: After travelling for a day and a half, I departed for Billings. I was tired to begin with, and the drive from Great Falls to Billings is rather wide open and boring, so I took up an in depth conversation with bobble head Bach (which resulted in some earth shattering revelations about 2 species counterpiont) and read the rules and manual for my newest RV/home purchase, a CB. Did you know that an attenna for a CB can be no higher than 20ft above your broadcast site, and no higher than 60ft total? who knew? Anyhow, reached Billings around 2PM that afternoon and got settled in and practiced a bit, relaxed, and watched more Enterprise episodes.
Wednesday: Our show isn't till today, so I slept in and spent the rest of the day wednesday cleaning and organizing my RV. It's amazing how even after a month I feel that I'm still just getting settled in. And you know you're most certifiably an RV nerd when you clap for joy at finding extra storage under your dinette seats. But, storage in such a small is a premium, so it was justifiably good news. That afternoon I found this great little coffee shop where they have decent coffee as well as free high speed wireless internet, so I stopped there, typed for a while then went next door to check out the wine shop. Well, as it turns out, they were having their monthly wine tasting event. I couldn’t pass this up. It was fun, I got to try some regional wines, got advice of where to visit in the Columbia valley when I get to Washington and got to meet some locals.
Thursday: well, that brings me to today, we have our opening night tonight, should be fun. From talking to poeple around here, they've at least heard that we're in town, which is usually a good indicator as to whether anyone will show up the to the shows or not. In any case, this place has a good vibe, but we shall see......until next time
Thursday, September 29, 2005
O Canada........
Yeah, so, I know I haven't been doing too well with entries on this, but you have to understand that we drove over 1500 miles and played 2 cities in the past week and a half. So, very sparse internet access+travel tiredness= no blog entries :-( But, I promise that I will update you on everything since my last entry.
So, today is thursday, and we just had our sound check and meeting for opening night. Last time I wrote it was sunday and I was leaving Calgary to head up up to Prince Geaorge, so here we go
Sunday: After having a rather difficult and frustrating time emptying my waste tanks, I finally left the campground and drove about 1 1/2 hours to cannmore, which is just outside of Banff. Spent the night in the Canadian Petrol parking lot, and woke up to some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.
Monday: Got some Tim Hortons for breakfast, then headed out for a day of driving to Prince George. Now, I have to say that the US is definately missing out on Tim Hortons, yes we have starbucks, new york bagel, krispy kremes and dunkin donuts. BUT, where is the US is there a chain restaurant that offers a soup/sandwich/coffee as a combo AND serves it in a ceramic mug and bowl. Plus, as their motto states, "Always fresh" it was always fresh, even their chicken salad sandwhich, which I consider taboo at most chain restaurants for fear of my health and long life. Yes, I miss Tim Hortons (hmmmm, make I can franchise a location when I go back to a stationary life, but, it America ready? I mean, are we americans really repsonsible enough to enjoy sitting down to eat our food? Are we ready to be invaded by Canada? ) Ok, enough from my inner voice. So, yes I travelled from about 9Am that morning till about 7PM when I arrived in Prince George. I have to say, driving through the Canadian Rockies left me a changed person. This mountain range is arguably one of the most scenic on earth. There were so many times that day when I said "this can't get any more beautiful" and every time it did. It was just once of those experiences where, you can't believe this is not imaginary, this is really happening, I'm really here driving in my house through this amazing creation. Plus, I pretty much hit every kind of weather known to man on that route to. I hit snow and rain at least 3 times, and all 3 times it eventually became sunny agian and made the clouds all the more beautiful of a backdrop to the mountians and forest before me. I tried not to stop every time there was a pullout, but it was just that amazing, like driving through a calendar, only everything was more vivid, and larger. The old saying that pictures don't did it justice is right....they only serve as a reminder of what the real thing looks like. I feel the same way about live music and CDs, but that's for another blog entry. So, after several mountain passes, snow, and some crazy canadians in their rental RVs, I made it to Jasper where I took a pit stop, got food recommendations from an australian, and at lunch at a little cafe along the main drag that had something to do with rock and roll and thai food. Couldn't quite figure out what the exact niche of the place was, but in any case, the food was a little overpriced for what it was, but it was good and filled my tummy, so I was happier. After walking a bit I stopped at a fudge shop....their fudge was ok (definatley not Mackinac Island standard) but it was edible, but their chochoclate, ewwwwww If you're ever in that part of Canada, don't, I repeat DO NOT buy chocolate from the Fudgery chain, whatever their recipe is for their chocolate, they fudged it up, haha In any case, the rest of the journey was rather non-remarkable, which, in the backwoods of British Columbia where you have 2 and 3 length logging trucks moose the size freakishly large horses and the token Canadian goose, is good. I arivved in Prince George at sunset, got lost, and found directions from some random people at a dairy queen.
Tuesday: I was tired, so I don't know when I got up, but I did a little bit of exploring on my bike. I definately had to find a place to get my RV fixed and maybe pick up a 100ft hose at sears and adopt a manatee if time permitted. I did eventually set up an appointment for my RV the next day, bought a 50ft hose (they didn't have any 100ft), and found out that manatees don't and haven't ever lived in British Columbia. That night was the first of our 2 shows in that town, it was well attnded AND we were able to do the full gator act since BC doesn't have any stupid rules about alligators or snakes in public like Alberta does. Went to bed a little early to prepare for the day ahead.
Wednesday: Dropped my RV off, but they wouldn't accept it with anything in the tanks, so had to find a place to empty them, then took it back to the RV place. I was going to wait out the repair time, but was able to get a ride with a native Prince Georgian. Cool guy, 3 times my age, retired truck driver, now works for the RV place for something to do in his retirement. After I got back to our "city", I took the bike out and aboot. Got some tasty morsels at Tim Hortons, took a ride up around the local college campus to check the cool architecture, and then took a ride out on this newly paved curvy road. Well, the road had some good curves in it, but since it was mainly a logging road, there were a lot of stones and pebbles on the road, which spells bad news if you're trying to lean into a turn at 125kph (about 80mph) So I rode till the road ended and it turned into dirt which my bike isn't exactly suited to travel on. This was definately rural BC, and I happened upon a beautiful secluded park. Unfortunately it was a little chilly to enjoy it, but as you can see on my pbase pics, the leaves were all turning and it was absolutely stunnung. It's funny because here in Billings the leaves haven't turned yet, so I'll get to see fall happen twice! In any case, I picked up the RV, it was fixed but the labor charges left a hole in my CC, but what is the price for the comfort of knowing your poop and shower water isn't being sprayed all over Canada's highways?
Thursday: So, since my RV was pretty much all packed up from being at the RV service place, I decided to hit the road wednesday night after the show with the band leader robbie and his family. We drove about 2 1/2 hours into the BC wilderness thankfully didn't hit any of those mutated horses commonly known as moose (by the way, what is a group of moose called???? if anyone knows, email me...there may be a picture of an elephant in it as a reward ;-) ) And we camped out in this abandoned campground in Tudyah park. Unfortunately there weren't any hookups and my generator was being preissy, BUT what we woke up to the next morning made it all worth the trouble. (once again, check out the pics on the pbase site) So, thursday morning we hit the road around 9AM and arrived in Grande Prairie (that's right, grand with an "e", only in Canada eh? ) around 4PM. It was actually quite a nice situation. I was able to park in the part of the parking lot where there was a little island with tress and a turf of grass. So, for a couple days I had a little oasis outside my house door. After getting settled in, that night the promoters took us out to some of the hopping local night spots, it was fun, but I lost the paper airplane contest at the lion's den pub.....I demand a recount!
Friday: Pretty much all work today. We had the compulspory 4:30 sound check, then company meeting, then a 7PM show. Once again opening night was pretty much sold out, which was a nice change from the empty arenas in Edmonton and Calgary. That evening I decided to break the grill out and cook up some of that good german meat I stocked up on at the campground in calgary. It went pretty well, although I needed to get some new charcoal rocks and a wire brush or brillo pad to scrape the carbon off the grate from past grilling expiditions. After I figured out how NOT to burn my food, I actually did have some success with my Bockwurst and Bratwurst. It was a good day.
Saturday: It was a loooong day. My chops (for all you non-brass players, that's trumpet lingo for our lips) were on the protest. They pretty much decided not to show up for work that day. I have to say, I think it's the worst they've felt since I started out here. But, I was warned by people who've done this gig for a while that usually your 3rd or 4th week in you hit this kind of "funk" in your playing. So, I tried not to freak out and attempted to take it in stride, but all the same, it's annoying when you can't do your job the way you know you're able to. In any case, it was a long day and I rewarded myself by watched several season 1 episodes of Enterprise. Live long, and pros.........er play circus music
Sunday: This was out last day in Grande Prairie, I think everyone was ready to leave after the show. I don't recall seeing any tears at our last playing of "O Canada" (the Canadian national anthem), I think everyone liked the fact of knowing that we were soon going to be back in the land of 24hr walmarts, mph, and money that's mostly paper and only 1 color. So, after hitting up the discount closeout store across the parking lot (I picked up some new items to make my RV a little more like home) I left and begun the 1200 mile journey to Bilings. That night I got into the Flying J in Edmonton and finally read the generator manual and figured out why I wasn't getting any 110 volt power. So I had power for most of the night, it kept turning off on me and blowing fuses (which I later found out was because I was putting too much amp load on it, these are the kind of things they DIDN'T teach you in elementary school) Anyhow, I paid the 5 bucks for the 24 hour internet and the next morning checked all of the important parts cyberspace as I had a good hot breakfast inside the Flying J. I then departed to find a canadian tire so I could get my oil changed and tires balanced. But after finding out that most canadian tires don't service RVs, I decided to head south toward my goal of the Great Falls MT flying J for that night. Well, it was a pretty smooth journey as I passsed through Calgary for the 3rd time! and then made my way down to the border. It was definately a challenge driving acriss the prairies with the strong crosswind, but countersteering was my friend and we played nice, so I arrived at the border safely. The border crossing was surprising smooth, he asked if I had any guns, knives, or illegal first borns....none of which applied to me. He asked where I was headed, and through my bloodshot travel weary eyes I tried as perkily (I know, this word wouldn't fly in scrabble) as possible to tell the kind sir that I was with the circus and on my way ti Billings for our next set of shows. All was well, I got my Canada receipts stamped for the GST tax refund (which will total $90.00 canadian) and he waved me on my way. That evening I made to Great Falls and camped out in the Flying j parking lot, while practicing and watching more Enterprise season 2 episodes.
Tuesday: After travelling for a day and a half, I departed for Billings. I was tired to begin with, and the drive from Great Falls to Billings is rather wide open and boring, so I took up an in depth conversation with bobble head Bach (which resulted in some earth shattering revelations about 2 species counterpiont) and read the rules and manual for my newest RV/home purchase, a CB. Did you know that an attenna for a CB can be no higher than 20ft above your broadcast site, and no higher than 60ft total? who knew? Anyhow, reached Billings around 2PM that afternoon and got settled in and practiced a bit, relaxed, and watched more Enterprise episodes.
Wednesday: Our show isn't till today, so I slept in and spent the rest of the day wednesday cleaning and organizing my RV. It's amazing how even after a month I feel that I'm still just getting settled in. And you know you're most certifiably an RV nerd when you clap for joy at finding extra storage under your dinette seats. But, storage in such a small is a premium, so it was justifiably good news. That afternoon I found this great little coffee shop where they have decent coffee as well as free high speed wireless internet, so I stopped there, typed for a while then went next door to check out the wine shop. Well, as it turns out, they were having their monthly wine tasting event. I couldn’t pass this up. It was fun, I got to try some regional wines, got advice of where to visit in the Columbia valley when I get to Washington and got to meet some locals.
Thursday: well, that brings me to today, we have our opening night tonight, should be fun. From talking to poeple around here, they've at least heard that we're in town, which is usually a good indicator as to whether anyone will show up the to the shows or not. In any case, this place has a good vibe, but we shall see......until next time
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PANERA!! That is our USA franchise substitute for Tim Hortons - just arrived in Newport News. Okay, maybe without the donuts, but other pastries are yummy. The soup does come in ceramic bowls and you can do a pick two combo with soup, salad or sandwich. I highly recommend eating any of it on the comfy leather chairs next to the fireplace along with a free refill cup of coffee -- also in a ceramic mug.
Though I must note that if you do want to open a franchise when you return, a Tim Hortons franchise looks to be MUCH easier to open than a Panera franchise...
Can't wait to see the Hometown Edition when it travels a little closer to the east coast. Put in a request, ok? How about Charlottesville?
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