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

A beuatiful last day in Calgary

What a beautiful Sunday is was today. First, to back track, did a two show day yesterday and then one show this afternoon @ 1PM then I'm driving tonight to Lac Louise for the night and driving the rest of the way to Prince George BC tomorrow. Yesterday seemed like such a long day, not sure why, maybe this elevation is starting to wear on everyone. I haven't really felt too much of it except that my lips get dry more often, feels like I need more breath for playing, and it takes longer to boil water and cook food. So, after managing my way through the shows yesterday, I had planned on staying in the city and getting rush tickets to the Alberta Ballet, but not such luck, they were sold out of the rish tix and I couldn't find the theater, so I ended going to hear the Calgary Philharmonic. Now, before you people is Philly laugh, because you know what it's like hear the Philly Orch every week. Calgary wasn't too bad. Last night was the second night in their season opening series. It was a pops concert with Carl Topilow as guest conductor and clarinet soloist along with special guest Canadian idol Theresa Sorkyrka. I have to say, first impression with the hall was mor ethan I expected, it was basically a long and tall rectangular box with acoustic structures on the ceiling, 2 balcaonies, and a stage with velvet bech seating for a choir and an there was also an organ there too, ala Verizon hall in philly. The orchestra itself was rather small, a lot older musicians who have been in the orchestra for most of their careers, but there was a certain "hometown" quality about the way everything was presented and displayed. Granted, the majority of the audience was the white haired folks (which I'm rapidly joining) but the usual three stereotypes of classical concertgoers (i.e. white-haired gentry, guys take their girl out to "impress" her, and the music students) But there seemed to truly be an interest among the younger sector in attendance, granted the Canadian idol was there, but one I've noticed in this Calgary that there is a bigger push AND support for the Arts in general. You can see this just by looking through a paprer, or even driving through the city. So, it was a fun concert, it wasn't intended to be a classical concert, so I didn't listen with those ears, but I did enjoy it, and I got to meet Theresa. Got to talk to her briefly about where she grew up and started music and what's next on her plate. I asked her if she had ever been to the circus, she hadn't but she had to fly back home today. So, I guess she'll just have to check it out if we ever get to Saskatoon. She's a very down to earth person, and her voice reminded a lot of Maia Sharp. I look forward to seeing her career grow over the next couple years. Today was pretty uneventful, such a warm and beautiful day, it made me wish I had time to riding, but it's exciting that I'm getting to go somewherr new AND that I get to drive through the Canadian Rockies tomorrow, I just hope the weather will hold out.........till then

a good day

Well, I'd to say today was a good day. Lots of crazy stuff this week, but pretty much everyhitng worked out today. I've been waiting for these 2 pacakages from my family, one containing some clothes I'd fogotten behind and another with the parts to fix my RV generator. So, both of those arrived through the Criders today thank goodness, I got my bike back form the shop.......a word about that ---- Anyways, back to my list, I was excited, and then I found out that my first direct deposit FINALLY hit my account which means I can stop living off my credit card. So, then I was able to download my insurance cards for my vehicals of travel, and last but not least was blessed with playing a solid show for the all of the Ringling royalty that are in town this week. So, it was a good day, a little rainy, but that's ok, for rain washes away the old, and brings forth the essence of what's there to be seen. Tomorrow, since our evening show is cancelled, I'm aiming to get rush tickets to the Alberta Ballet based here in Calgary, turns out that they're doing Swan Lake. Last time I saw this ballet was by the st. petersberg ballet when I was in Munich, but that time it was to recorded music, which I think takes away half of the excitement of a live performance. So, 2 shows to play tomorrow, then the ballet.......good times, good times

what a day, what a day

What an amazing day yesterday. Since it was going to be the only clear day this week, I, along with my friend justin, decided to to drive our bike up to Banff yesterday. It was a full day of riding, and it was cooooooold (between 36F and 55F) But, it was in one word, amazing. I'm including a pic here of the of the place where we took a rest on the way into the national park. We started out by stopping at one of the local ducati dealerships to set up an appointment for my bike to get its first tune-up. You, see after this week the next time the tour is going to be anywhere near a ducati shop is going to be at least a month. So, after drooling over the shiny new 999's, talking bikes, and reassuring a local maple leaf that he was making the right decision by getting a monster620 dark, we headed off in search for some new cold weather riding gloves. Turns out there are 3 motorcycle shops with in one block there (I'm liking this town more and more ;-) ) and so finally at the 3rd shop, the holy grail, gloves that were insulated, waterproof, the right size, AND I could afford them (although I've been living off of my credit card for the past 2 1/2 weeks anyway, been waiting for my direct deposit to kick in) Not only did we get gloves, but meet some crazy cool people besides. Best way to describe them....they're about as close to circus people as one can be w/out being in the circus, so needless to say, J and I felt at home and hanged for a while. So, we got moving in the direction of the mountains about 12:30 or so, and made the 80 drive to Banff. It was so beatiful, I know I keep saying it, but imagine riding open air on a motorcycle through what is widely know as the best scenery in North America.......it was one of those experiences I never forget. After a gargantuan lunch at Wild Bills in downtown Banff, we took 1A (the scenic route) to Lac Louise (yes, lake is lac in French) By that time it had started getting quite cloudy and was even sprinkling a bit. But, fortunately we didn't hit any animals and managed to make good time. Now, I had been at lac louise when I was younger, when out family tooka month long western US trip in a minivan (that's right, 4 kids, 8000 miles in the back of a minivan. There has to be a reality show in that somewhere) But, this time it just looked bigger. Granted, it is more developed now, there's this big resort pretty much right on the shore. They even tried to make it look rustic. A house on a lake is one thing, but when you put a business, namely a hotel, because that is what it is, on a lake an try to make it look like it fits in the scenery or even augments the scenery, well that's blasphemy to nature in my book. Anyhow, ignoring the monolith of a resort, the lake and mountains were, well, just look the pics on my pbase site. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat at the little mall nearby, and proceeded to make our way on the cold journey home. After wearing my backpack on my back all and freezing because I don't have a leather riding coat yet, stupid me relaized and I said to myself, "self, why don't you wear it on the front to break the wind" Well, I looked like a pregnant moose, but it worked and kept me warmer on the 100 mile trip back to Calgary. It was a good day. Today is opening night here in Calgary. Soon I'll have more pics of the goings on around the show, and just my life out here in general, but right now my full attention needs to be on performing. till next time.....

the RV promiseland

I have wireless internet..........for the next week!!!! So, I'm sitting here, it's monday afternoon, I'm a German mom&pop campground in Calgary, Alberta (still canada, eh? ) I typing from my RV food table, the sun is coming through the window, my laundry is drying (cost a loonie i.e. $2 canadian), there's a slight drizzle, it's cold (high of 50F today), listening to Postal Service, and eating black forest ham w/ butter and mayo on dark rye. Yeah, so it's been a crazy week. I'm still getting my RV to "live in" status. So, I got 2 new tires for the other rear side, put up a few pictures, cleaned some of the stickers off the back, got all the detectors (gas, smoke, and carbon monoxide) working, set up my stereo system, replaced some light bulbs, got new tie downs for the bike. So, I've been pretty busy in my free time doing that kind of stuff. And, I have to say the bike is coming in very handy for getting around and running errands. Although, sadly I haven't been able to do much pleasure riding. So, we finished up the week in Edmonton, cool town, but we had very bad turnouts for the shows, my personal belief is that it just wasn't promoted enough, so no one knew about it. But, the people who did come seemed to really enjoy it. It was officially a week this past friday since I've been playing w/ this company. So, it was about 7 shows in my first week, it's tiring but my lips are gradually coming along. I've been trying to take care of them as much as possible, and for you non-brass-playing types out there, that basically means do good warm-ups and take care of my chops after the show by doing a good warm down. Although,I do have to say the 3 shows every sat are quite a blow, I usually feel it pretty good the next day. So, we finished up our time in edmonton, the weather never really was very nice, pretty much overcast and drizzle the whole time. I think this left everyone in a cranky mood as a whole, but I think another aspect is the fact that everyone knows that all of our bosses are coming up from florida to check this week of shows in calgary. So, we did a 1:30PM show on Sun, and then left around 4:30PM to make the 2 1/2 hour jump to calgary. Well, no more than 10 min down the road and my friend justin is involved in an accident with his big rig (he has one of those 38ft diesel pushers with a trailer on back) Basically, at a right hand turn merge the lady in front of him started to go and then stopped. Well, he had already started to mover, and when those big things move, they can't stop right away. So, it realy messed up his front end and te back of her little focus wagon hatchback, but everyone was ok and insurance will probably cover most of it. While we were getting things sorted got to meet some nice canadian people, according to them, turns out that this rear end thing happens quite a bit in Alberta, so instead the police coming to you, if no one is hurt, you both just drive to the police station and file a report....if you tried that in the states, it would pretty much be a hit and run! So, we got down here to Calgary about 11:30PM last night and were settled in and parked by about 1AM. This place is most certainly the RV promiseland, you see, we're used to being in parking lots of the arenas we play in, and the conveinence is nice, but it's not always the qiuetest place and usually doesn't have many ammenities. But this week we're at a campground on the outskirts of calgary, and there is wireless internet, *laundry* (which I'm WAY overdue on), water and electric of course, sewer dump, a modest petting zoo, a playground for the kiddies, AND it turn out the owner is German (and a trumpet player- more about that in another blog) so they have many internaitonal clients and therefore have a stock fresh german bread and meats delivered 3 times a week. WELL, for someone who is 100% german heritage, and loves to eat, need I say more? Hence, my tasty little lunch I described earlier. I have a feeling that even with all of the stress surrounding everyone right now, it's going to be a good week. plan, tomorrow: ride my motorcycle up into the canadian rockies to Banff, go to the ice fields at Lac Louise, and maybe even have lunch on the top of a mountain.........it's going to be hard to sleep tonight, and don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures for all of you vicarious people out there :-) till next time..........

Hmmmmmmmm......

Yeah, so finding wireless internet that my computer can understand is harder than I thought. Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last typed, but I've been busy adjusting to my new life......my new life that I'm quite delighted with I might add. Right now I'm in Edmonton Alberta, that's in Canada for all of you that are geophysically challenged. I'm sitting in a hip little coffee cafe called Sugar Bowl in a part of Edmonton that is a college/hipster district. It reminds me a lot of philly, kind of a cross between south street and rittenhouse square, if that is possible. Anyhow, I'm going to work backwards, since my memory is best of recent events....so here I am sitting here, sipping my coffee, just had some wonderful goat cheese/corn/peppers/salsa thing w/pita chips, the lights are dim, there local college and city foot traffic walking purposefully down the street amodst the crisp September canada air. The waitress looks early 30's, is friendly, has a nose and tongue piercing, and is a little slow w/ the food and coffee, but she seems happy. And of course......I'm the only one in here w/ an american accent :-) So, I got up here from great falls last night, it was a long day. After crossing the border on Sun we camped out at the first RV stop we could find, not too bad. I was travelling w/ two guys (the drummer and one of the clowns) who were nice enough and very patient to take me under their wing on my first jump between cities. So we got going yesterday aboot ( <---- ;-) ) 11AM and had about 5 hours of driving to do. So, all was smooth until about 15 kilometers outside of Calgary I had a blow in my right rear outside tire. It was quite an interesting experience when you're doing 75mph down a hill and your steel belted radial explodes. So, justin and tom swung back around and helped me get the spare on, and they continued on while tried to find a place that would replace both tires (since the one tire took out the other one also) on a holiday. So I drove the 7k into the town of Okotoke (which I found out from the girl at the Quiznos sub place, means "big rock" in blackfoot...who knew????) and Mark and the Canadian Tire hooked me up, he originally wasn't going to do it, but I told him my situation and that I needed to be up in edmonton that night, so he graciously agreed to do it (otherwisde I would have had to spend the night and get it fixed when they oped at 8AM the next morning) So I got on the road with my 2 new tires on made it to edmonton about 9PM. Pretty much everyone from the whole company was there, waiting in the parking lot, waiting because there was a pearl jam concert going on in the arena and we could park our little city of RVs until the concert let out and the parking lots were empty. After everything was said and done, the was 3:30AM until we were alll parked and hooked up to the electric, I have to say, there were some frustrated poeple due to the fact that it didn't go so smoothly, but as they say, welcome to the world of the circus (that's a line form the show) So we're here now, but the rehearsal scheduled for tonight was cancelled, I think due to the fact that they're having trouble getting the animals into the country. Anyhow, we have a show tomorrow, thurs, and fri., 3 sat, and one more sun. Then we're off to calgary. So, backtracking, after after 5 days of driving and 2300 miles I arrived in grand falls montana, and interesting small city. Definitely reminded a lot of the midwest and small town america, the people in general seemed friendly and helpful w/out pretense. Anyhow, I got into town, and the next day right away I had a rehearsal and then my first show. I have to say, that first moment of the openening was quite overwhelming. With the lights, haveing a sound monitor (w/ metronome, and all the other intruments and voices) in my ear, performing walking through our stage area, and my bell mike, and the music. It was quite an experiece. That first night I was there Sapo (the contortionist) was having a birthday party for his daughter, my first impression was how everyone responded to eachother, even though it was a little girls birthday party, most of the people from the show were there...of course we all live there, but there was a sense of a family of sorts, not in the sense of a blood relative, but that kind of familiar conraderie that arises out of a shared experience. A sense, that were are what we are, and we live this life and do what we do for a job, but we're all people and are in this together. I look around me and thought how many work places have this kind of connection, this sense of togehterness. Anyhow, we had a 3 show day sat., and then one more on sun. Each show was getting better for me, I'm a perfectionist, so of course I was frustrated w/ what I saw as unneccisary (sp?) on my part. Any how, I made it through my first week, and my lips are tired, but surviving. I have to firgure out how to maintain myself, and do my job without hurting myself. Oh, yeah and I found out from a doctor that the pain Ive been having is an impacted wisdom tooth, but I have to wait to get it fixed until 1) I get back in the US 2) my union benefits kick in and 3) I have enough time in my schedule for the procedure and recovery (which might not be till Dec.) Anyhow, life is still good and I continue to pray........