Day 6 monday....my sabbath and day of rest

What a treat....a day without driving or circus in it.....that's good every once in a while. For most people their weekend is sat. and sun., but in the circus it's usually mon. and tues., and those are the days when you are usually fixing stuff on the RV, running errands, doing doctor's appointments, etc. Today I got quite a bit of internet stuff done with bills, returning emails, catching up on forums and such. Late last night I finally finished a foodie article for my friends website, wcdish.com Go check it out if you have a chance, always a good read and interesting stuff. I usually write coffee stuff, but in this case I felt inspired to write about a food/wine experience I had in southern Illinois wine country. So, other than that, that's about it, we don't open till thurs. this week, so on wends. night I'm going to be going down to New Orleans (one of my favorite towns in the country, a town I haven't spent enough time in for sure) to see the Red show. I have some friends in the teeterboard troupe there as well as the band, and it's always good to reconnect with friends...especially people who share the circus lifestyle. As I've said on here before, usually when someone comes to visit, or you're talking about a friend with someone on the show, sooner or later the question, "Are they circus?" comes up, kind of one of those things where if people have never done it, it a way those persons will always be an outsider....kind of in the same way that military people relate to civilians and non-civilians. Anyhow, it will be good to hang out again with circus people. Well, I'm off to bed...tomorrow more errands, prescriptions, and the coffee west trek prep....till then

Day 5.... all in a days work

So I'm finally here sitting in my RV @ the Farr Campground and RV/horse park....I haven't really seen an horses here, but the mosquitos are the size of horses. Actually, it's dark outside, so you can't see much except the swarm of bugs that turns up when a light switches on. Anyhow, I have 24/7 internet again!! You see, in Tupelo my internet was in "Extended" network, which meant that it didn't really work at all....nothing, notta, nicht, neine, nill. So, anytime I wanted to check on anything I had to track down an internet cafe, and while I'm not opposed to traveling around a bit, it makes the frequent posting for this blog a little of a task in my daily routine....but now I'm here in Baton Rouge (literally the Red Stick) and have my Verizon zippy connection back, so all shall be well....although I am making a few trips down to New Orleans this week (It's only an hour away, and the Red show is playing there this week......so, if you get any 2 circuses that close together on a tour, and the partying is imminent) Anyhow, I'm here, after getting up early this morning to warm up (I usually start playing at least 3 hours before call time...sometimes earlier if I had a hard day before and my lips are swollen....for instance, TODAY) and then played a show, ate a quick lunch, took a power nap...well an extended power nap, and then packed up and drove 6 1/2 hours (about 360 miles) to here, Baton Rouge. It was a good drive.....I just got in the zone, called a few friends, listened to a couple of podcasts, and only stopped once for gas and a quick bite. You know you drive a lot when you can knock 6 1/2 hours and it doesn't feel anymore than driving across town to visit a friend....crazy....some people's summer total summer vacations aren't more than 6 or 7 hours of driving. Anyhow, all in a day's work. This week is going to be a lot of prep for the epic motorcycle journey to come. After this town we have 10 days to drive out to Prescott Valley, AZ and relax.....our first break since winter quarters in December. I'm really, really, really, looking forward to hopping on the bike and just riding.....just me, the wind, and the road. I can't wait.

Day 4

Yesterday was a good day........I got out and about and finally got to break in my new pedometer. THe arena here in Tupelo is pretty much walking distance to every thing downtown and it seems pretty pedestrian friendly. I had to visit the post office and then ended up checking out a few coffee shops/cafes....partly for coffee research but mostly for the free wi-fi (my verizon card doesn't work this town) Once I got back on the lot I saw one of the Russian clowns and our cross bow guy from Finland were hanging out, so I stopped by and just chatted about what ever which end up in a little "field trip" to the local watering hole........ it was a nice respite...there were 7 of us, 2 russians, 2 Finnish friends, an Aussie, a Brit, and then me, the sole American. It was a good time had by all.....live music and we were the only customers there.....plus, they had gator on the menu......and of course we had to try.....nothing like eating gator with circus folk in rural Mississippi.....let's just say our table was.....lively. So we closed out the place and ended up getting free t-shirts and Jagermeister lanyards from the owner....nothing like free Tupelo swag.....and yeah....and there's the Tupelo meteorite......I'll have to take pic for you all. Well, that was about it for yesterday......more later on the events of today.

Day 3 Tupelo

Well, I made it and I'm here. What a long day.....Ok, so I got to bed pretty late, but it wasn't so bad, even though there was a light breeze.....but the breeze seemed to ignore my open window.....ah well. But here's where it gets interesting, sometime in the middle of the night (I don't know what time, but it was still dark out) Someone knocks on my door.....I wasn't really even awake enough to it register the fact the chances of a friendly person would be at my door in a Walmart parking lot.....so I opened the door and there was a police officer....the cops finally caught up with me!..... ok not really, he said that there was a bomb threat at Walmart and that I needed to turn off my cell phone and CB radio, so I did and he went on to knocking on the doors of the other truckers in the lot. So, I tried to go back to sleep, but didn't really get much REM cycles accomplished due to the heat in my RV, noise outside, and a single fly that would not stop buzzing around my ears.....I needed A LOT of coffee at the Cracker Barrel this morning, and for future reference (I didn't know this) you can get coffee to go....makes the $1.50 for coffee on the tab a little more worthwhile, especially since the coffee is so weak and really pretty crapy. So, after my bill was rung up by a middle-aged woman named Dusty (I kid you not) I pulled out the air compressor to fill up the air ride system (It's been leaking since I fixed it last) and then hit the road. After about 2 1/2 hours on the road I made it here this afternoon, unpacked, got shower, found out that my verizon card doesn't work here, and found this little coffee place across main street (yes, there is a main street through the center of this little town. Fortunately I did get a lot of the stuff that wanted to done today,even amongst the water battle going on on the circus lot..... I got some grocery shopping done too ......tomorrow..... well, maybe the Elvis place, errands and such, and then on thurs. we open the show. Well, that's is for now from Tupelo.....nothing too exciting yet.....but it is the circus after all and it's early in the week

Day 2

Well, after a rather full day of packing up and driving, I am here at my home for the night......the Walmart parking lot of Pell City, AL. One of the great things about an RV is that once you close the blinds and wake up the next morning......you have that wonderful disorientation of travel and have to look out the window to remind myself of what part of the country I am in. I've always felt that I have a pretty good memory of places I've visited (I like to think that I have a working drivable map of a few hundred cities in the US) and am hence hesitant to buy a GPS for fear I'd stop using my memory/adventure skills and be crucially at its mercy (because lets face it, sooner or later technology will fail you) So, I sit here at Walmart typing away to you this early summer evening with nothing too exciting to report today. I left Winston-Salem around 12:30pm and arrived here around 9:45PM. I stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel (I've been craving that place lately) and stopped for gas a few times and decided to park early to relax a bit and get some internet and emailing done......I'm still getting caught up on all the stuff I should have been doing the past month......it's amazing how quickly one loses one's social interactions with the online community in a computerless vacuum......very sobering in a way I suppose. Anyhow, all is well, the new axle on the trailer seems to be adjusting to the circus itinerary well....oh, and I passed some colleagues, or a few fellow circus people I should say. I saw a few rigs from the Henneford Circus on the road......there were some horses, and I recognized an elephant trailer. It's weird to be rolling down the road and causally glance over to the lane next to you and say, "huh, there's some elephants, I wonder what they had for lunch...." But then again.....I playing for dancing elephants for a majority of the days in a calendar year...oh yeah, and they like it. Tomorrow, a shower, breakfast at the Cracker Barrel next door (the Old Timers' breakfast sounds in order), and then a quick 2 1/2 hours to Tupelo, MS to get settled in, spend some time on the horn, and maybe do some grocery shopping.....yeah, that would be a good day.

Day 1

Ok, nothing too exciting today. It's a sunday, so on the circus that typically means 1 or 2 shows and then packing up the house to move on out to the next town. In this case we're here in Winston-Salem this week and the lot we're on has its own power/water/sewer. So, since we're usually on a lot generator for power and water, this week is nice and gives me an extra incentive to stay over tonight...plus I still have dishes to wash and need to pack the house up. So, I'm here typing on the new computer which I continue to grow fond of. I have to admit, during the show today I couldn't wait for the it to finish so that I could get back here to spend more time on the computer and finish setting it up with all my files and podcast stuff....and yes, the podcast is still going, I just did an interview on Fri. as a matter of fact with Kim from Counter Culture Coffee. She's their sustainability and direct trade person there.....cool person, very interesting and enlightening conversation.....look for that in the months to come....and I say months because I'm about 2 or 3 interviews behind on getting stuff up......even so, I feel a surge of great coffee things to come out of this RV. Now that I have the new computer and the circus coffee pilot in the midst of a re-edit in gifted hands, the next few months could be very exciting. And, as some of you may or may not know, I have invested in a high-end home(i.e RV) roaster and having been bringing freshed roasted coffee to the circus lot......everyone who has tasted has fallen in love with it so far....so, business has been growing.....AND my epic coffee/motorcycle trip itinerary has been starting to solidify......I'm hoping to fit in a few podcast interviews on that trip amongst the riding and tasting as well.....it's crazy to think, that as I sit here a few hours from the atlantic ocean, in a few weeks I will be in San Francisco at the threshold of the Pacific ocean.....and not by plane, but all driven by yours truly via RV and motorcycle......last year between those 2 vehicles I averaged about 42,000 miles......maybe I should be a truck driver Happy father's day Dad

computer drama

OK........let me explain.

As fate....or shall I the computer fates shall have it, the day after I resolved to blog every day for 30 days and posted about it, MY COMPUTER DIED.  No, it wasn't funny, wasn't funny as all.  So here I am, pretty much exactly a month later typing on my NEW Apple Mac Book Pro....and I have to say, I love this thing and there's a lot to love about it.  

Basically, my old computer was an IBM/lenovo R52 series laptop.  As far as PC laptops go, IBM is probably one of the better ones you can buy, but I can say from personal experience, their customer service on their machines is not.  And that, ultimately (and the fact that Apple builds a superior machine compared to IBM), is why I have now switched to Apple.  Kind of reminds me of the that old song from yesteryear that goes, "anything you can do I can do better."  Which is what the Apple laptop is.... superior and innovative in so many ways.  I won't wax on about them here except to say that after a month of no computer, now that I have the equivalent of a computing sports car in my hands, my creativity is renewed and my mind races to give form to all of the wondrous creations that are to come from this keyboard and screen.

And so, I set the challenge for myself, once more, on this very laptop I am typing on; I will blog every day for the next 30 days......eat your heart out IBM