Hooked up and un-hitched

We made it to Waco after a lonnnng day of driving. Shifting forward two hours didn't help anything.

We're on a pseudo campground outside the arena. I successfully back the trailer up to the fence leveled out and unhitched (with help from Steve). I know I keep promising a real post but I'm beyond beat at this point tonight.

Lots on the agenda tomorrow too.

- Fix trailer undercarriage
- Truck in for an oil change
- Find a music store and buy another new kick pedal that won't fall apart
- laundrination

Steve and I were supposed to take a trip into Austin tomorrow but that may not happen. Normally we would have all of Wed for such a trip but I have to setup the equipment a day early since I've never done it on my own just to make sure everything is there and works.

I'll probably practice the show a couple times after that then we're having a joint birthday superbash in the ring tomorrow evening.

The Austin prospects are looking grim.

I shall try to make time for a proper post/picture upload session tomorrow.

Here's a quick one of my before my first performance:


Here's one group shot from Justin's (old drummer) farewell gathering:



I'm out.

Prescott Valley recap coming soon

.....not tonight though. We (Panda Steve) and I are in the Wal Mart lot in Gallup, NM for the night. We were monsooned on for most of the drive here. Then we were nearly run down in a Love's parking lot by a Mexican in a beat up pickup fleeing from La Policia.....

I was hoping to trek on for a while but it's prob for the best that we stopped for the night.

A proper recap of all the Prescott Valley happenings forthcoming after I'm settled into Waco.

Night....

Oh, Murphy...you and your silly law....

Things that will make my second show this evening better:

1. Not having my bass drum pedal fall apart in the middle of the dog act.
2. Not hitting the crash cymbal that starts a loop when the announce the winner of the elephant painting.
3. Not missing the cue to start the loop of the finale.

More later.

Last night was a lot of fun. Cheers to new friends.

Drum Roll Please....

I play the 3pm and 7pm shows today. Wish me luck. Bigger entry to come.

Nothing like a good Arizona rain.....

Usually you go see a movie for a temporary escape, come out, and head back to your neighborhood. We saw WALL-E tonight and for a while I kinda forgot where I was and what I was going to go "home" to. Stranger in a strange land indeed.

The movie was superb though. Highly recommended. Lots of subtleties and very well put together. I won't get into a whole review or anything but definitely go see it.

Our daily thunderstorm started early afternoon out here and is still going strong. It doesn't feel like the concept of Arizona I had in my head. There's a whole rainy/monsoon season in the Southern part of the state I was told. Apparently cacti can only survive if there's a rainy season to compliment the dry season.

I was able to touch base with a friend I worked with in Pittsburgh at the Non-Profit Life Sciences company. He's in Scottsdale and may swing up this way to check out the show. I've failed thus far in my goal to get out into the "city" and make new friends. Learning this show needs to come first though so I'll still have a job in the next city to reconcile this town's failure haha.

I'm spending most of my time organizing things in the trailer and getting as much operational/maintenance understanding under my belt as I can. So if I've been out of touch one on one with a lot of you, that will change once I get a few shows under my belt.

I did talk to SYR and Sproul a few minutes ago which was good. Sproul's big Thee Adora debut was tonight and things were rockin' as expected. That'll be the biggest change is not being able to play any "shows". But I'm keeping my focus down the road a bit and as the necessary things are taken care of I know I'll find a way to remedy that problem.

Last night was fun. I hung out with Robbie (Conductor), Vas (the "clown"), and Pete (I think he's concession's?) outside Robbie's bus. In a way it's just like any other neighborhood. I haven't had a chance to really hang out with a lot of the people here (the rain certainly didn't help things today) but know that will take care of itself in time.

I should go over the show once more tonight but have a feeling that's not going to happen. There are CDs to organize and transfer to the I-Touch. Not having a CD player in the truck is a total drag.....but it gives me something to occupy my time (transferring all my CDs to the I-Touch that is).

Waco is a 1200 mile drive from Prescott Valley. I think I'm going to follow Steve for this first one. We'll knock it out Sunday and Monday. The Waco "lot" is a campground so we can get there as early as we want and we'll have the power/water hookups right there.

I'll get our P.O. box from HR tomorrow and post that in case any of you are in a letter writing mood. The digital stuff is cool but I think another good 'time occupier' is going to be writing people actual letters.

More tomorrow....

Yay reality!

The fridge works! Easy fix.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was in bed by 9:30 last night but it was definitely for the best. Got up around 6:30 this morning and went out for a run. Perfect weather, perfect backdrop. We're at about 5,000ft elevation I think so the weather doesn't get unbearably hot. Helluva storm came through for about an hour earlier this afternoon. I was told to expect about one of those a day this time of year out here.

I haven't adjusted to the quiet yet. I keep expecting the symphony of idling diesel engines to fire up at any minute.

Drove my dad to the Phoenix airport for his first flight in 15yrs. He did very well as I got the "I'm still alive" call from Pittsburgh a little while ago.


Things have hit home for sure now. I'm on my own so to speak in a town that is already asleep. It's hard to accept that hopping in the truck and being at either a coffee shop, bar, or a friends' house in 5 minutes is now an impossibility. I may take a walk down to the Marathons (huge custom built 5th wheel trailers) to see who's around. I may take a walk by myself somewhere as well....I have the time.

I need to stay focused and occupied from this point on. There aren't any rehearsals I need to be at. There's still plenty of Arrested Development to watch but it won't be the same now.....until Erie anyway.

The Digital Voice recorder I bought isn't Mac compatible so I'll need to figure out something there.

Send me reports of Pittsburgh happenings though! I want to keep as much as a connection as possible back home. Hearing from you all is always cool.

What else.....I hit up this huge Thrift Store today...3 separate buildings with stuff outside in between them. Scored some shirts, pair of kicks and a couple belts.

The writing things just isn't happening for me tonight so I'm going to call it. I make my big debut on Saturday so I'll give a full report on that.

Off to the Marathons....

j

My Kingdom for a cold fridge.......

The drive today was a breeze. Nothing new to report.

Prescott Valley is a nice little town if a little lacking in cool places to visit. The lot we're on is huge compared to what I experienced in Tuplelo, MS.

I learned how to plug into the show power (thanks to Carlos and Kat for being totally rad) and hooked up my water hoses.

The only issue is that my fridge hasn't gotten cold. Yeah, minor detail right? The freezer works but not the fridge....... The manual lists about 10 'troubleshooting' procedures that make no sense to me. So much for the 'we test and detail everything on your trailer before you take it' promise from Valero's. I saw a couple RV parts and sales places but not sure if there was a service part. There's no way I'll have time to deal with this crap this wee. Gah. I still have a bit of work to do to be totally confident for my first performance on Saturday. There's no rehearsal of any kind...I'm just 'on'. No room for any kind of screw-ups. If they promised that everything worked perfectly.....then it should freaking work perfectly!

Ok, this isn't a livejournal.....no emo whining from me.

My Dad and I went to In and Out burger which you can only do in a few cities in the country so that was cool. T'was good but nothing stellar. Said 'hi' to a few my show neighbors and hung out with Panda Steve for a bit. Was planning on doing my cooking for the week but without a working fridge I'm holding off.....I need to check the perishables in the freezer to make sure they don't a'splode.

Oh, and I made sure to not leave my shoes outside since there are tarantulas and scorpions milling about.

No picture posting tonight. I'm totally beat. I need to run through the show once and call it an earrrly night. We're in Mountain time, but in one of the spots where they shun Daylight Savings so it's still early but feels late. I need a night off.

Taking my Dad to the airport tomorrow. Time is already starting to zip by.

Here's to waking up to a cold fridge......

Just set me fre-e-e-e-e..Home Sweet Home

I'm home.....for this week anyway.

the house

the backyard

More complete post tonight. Miss you all.

Entry 4: Amarillo, TX to Winslow, AZ

A day hasn't gone by yet without some sort of new experience or adventure. I mean, they're things that may seem trite to anyone who has experienced something similar....and I'll more than likely look back on these first entries in a year and think exactly the same thing.....but for now anyway, they're interesting.

The rest of Texas was OK. I think once I drive from Prescott Valley to Waco where my "official" first week is I'll have either a higher or lower opinion of the place. I didn't get to see enough of it to decide one way or the other. We only went through the top panhandle but checking out new types of moo cows I haven't seen in person was fun.

New Mexico was great as expected. I remember being somewhat let down a few years back when I was returning to Pittsburgh from California by train. The view we got then was severely lacking 'lines of majesty'.

Not the case today. It was flippin' awesome. Mesas and colors and things and stuff. Yeah, only the best descriptions in this blog.

I was thinking to myself as we drove through: "Where's all this crazy wind I was warned about?". That was of course answered later on in the day.

My dad requested a Mc D's stop (I kept my mouth shut about 'Fast Food Nation') so we got off in Gallup, NM. No sooner had we parked the rig that this Mexican dude was at my door greeting me in broken English.

"oh where are you from, where are you going, wow it's hot out here (actually it was overcast with a breeze)...." etc etc. Then the "Oh can you help me out? No? Maybe a sandwich?" Etc etc. I kind of brushed it off but then in the bathroom both my dad and got corned by another dude with the same story. We blew him off and sat down. Within 5 minutes the dude was back at our table asking for handouts again....... I politely said "No, I have nothing for you" and then ignored him. My dad followed suit. After a few minutes of just standing there staring at us he muttered a bit, gave a 'to hell with you' gesture with his hand and shuffled away. The same thing happened to me in the city of course, but this was kind of Culture Shock for me and I was a bit bothered. That's just how it is out here I guess...more on this later actually.

So after driving a bit, the awesome scenery worked its magic and all was well again. New Mexico did give me a little taste of Pittsburgh though, At least 20% of the time we were driving we were stuck in a narrow one lane construction zone with little work actually being done.

We were about 40mins from the final destination for the evening when I said to my dad: "Hey check out that little dust storm up ahead on the right" (It looked like a mini tornado maybe 12'-13' high...maybe 10' in diameter. I'm not sure what the proper term for the thing is). So yeah, I'm checking it out, we get closer then BAM! Middle of the road tornado thing plows right into us, tossed into the left lane (thankfully no cars), fisssshhhtalllle.....unnnstabbllleeee......then it was cool. Had we hit it even a few feet more in the middle I'm sure parts of the trailer, truck, and possibly us would've graced the landscape. Holy crap. Maybe this is normal but it was new for me. I felt like Jules in that scene in Pulp Fiction.....and I guess I am kinda 'wandering the Earth' now so I guess I can get away with putting 'Bad MF" on my wallet.

It almost looked like this but a little smaller:

Oh yeah....then we hit a second one. The left lane was clear so I drifted over into it like a dumbass (you see, when you see something like that approaching from your right.....the dumbest thing to do is move yourself to the left since that'll keep you aligned right with it.) Oops. We survived that one too.

A lot went through my head at that point. Thank MC 900ft our destination was right around the corner.

Btw...I'm getting a little better at backing the rig up....but not any better at avoiding panhandlers. As soon as we got out and leveled the trailer, I noticed two Native American dudes chilling in some brush just beyond the edge of the lot. I got the whole "We got in a car crash, they towed our vehicle over there, the lady is in the hospital for not wearing a safety restraint, the highway patrol told us it was dangerous to hitchhike at night, can you help us? All we have is this Gatorade". A 12 pack of Gatorade nonetheless. I could've pushed it and asked to see his license and stuff but just politely declined and they shuffled on their way. Then some lady ran over to us and tried to sell us a vase. It was actually pretty cool but would've been destroyed flopping around in the trailer.

So now I'm in the Flying J in Winslow, AZ typing. Short drive tomorrow and I'll be on the lot (hopefully with someone there to hook me up with power).

I'm going to run through the show again tonight as I am for sure going to play two of the shows in Prescott. I've only gone through it with a regular drum setup. I'll have to play it only Justin's weird setup where the hi hat is in the middle of the toms and the ride cymbal is always a hi-hat sample. Oh well.

I'll try to report from the lot tomorrow if I have interwebs.

Entry 3: Oklahoma and Texas

I tried to post this last night....Apparently everything is bigger in Texas except for their Wi-Fi network. So here is last night's entry:

Today started normal enough.....

Got up, went into the Flying J for breakfast (after some funny looks I was finally able to order 2 hard boiled eggs, dry wheat toast, and a fruit cup haha) and headed down the road ready to tackle "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain".

Oh yeah, Oklahoma sells big beef jerky:


The first adventure for the day happened during and after a fill-up. My dad found a 'Love's' (Kinda like a crappy Sheetz) down the way using the GPS so we set a course. Turns out it was a Love's "Country Store" and not a "Travel Center". So it was a tiny gas station with one diesel pump. I was able to squeeze my way in without too much trouble.....

The dude at the pump across from us asked in a nearly incomprehensible accent: "Y'all goin' on a treeep?" Feeling that a sarcastic response to point out the obvious reason I was hauling a massive 5th wheel trailer could leave me dead in the middle of Oklahoma, I played nice. From what I could translate, he had just been doing 150 in his car and got pulled over then got off without a ticket.....maybe...or something. He was friendly so I can't rag too hard on the guy.

Annnnyway. Getting out of the Loves to head back the way we came proved impossible. The right turn was far to sharp and there was a stupid median in the way. So we headed left in search of a place to turn around. We ended up on a side road where my dad "thought he saw a factory" that we could use. What we found was an underpass that was pretty much the exact height of my trailer. Not wanting to chance it, I got to practice my 3 point turn skills with the trailer. And of course as soon as I started maneuvering, the once dead quite street had a line of 5 cars on either side giving me the death stare. I was able to nail it on the second attempt so yay me. We will now clarify which kind of a Loves we are pulling into. Good grief.

That was just the appetizer though......

So we're cruisin' back down the road and I got to experience some hardcore Oklahoma cross-wind (I'd been warned that OK wasn't the worst of it). Whether or not that had anything to do with the next surprise I'm not sure.

My dad happened to notice we had some of the plastic that wraps from the side of the trailer and connects underneath was floppin' away in the wind. Although probably not the best idea to pull immediately off onto the shoulder of I-40 with cars and trucks zipping by, that's what we did. This is what the problem looked like:

So yeah, not good. We were able to use the bungee cords I had in the trailer to keep it temporarily stabilized. We got back on the road and as if by some divine hand, a chorus of angels resounded as the familiar Blue and White sign appeared after cresting the hill:Wal-Mart.

Yeah buddy.

So we went in and bought the tools we had decided the previous day we didn't need to buy. What had happened was the plastic covering was ripped from the rusty bolts on the undercarriage. We got some washers, a basic tool kit and some WD -40. I hosed down the rusty screws and was able to get them out. Put on a washer and re-screwed everything back through the plastic covering. Held pretty well but there's a bit more work to do. Maybe tomorrow morning before we pull out.

Yeah that's really me doing something mechanical..

We felt like badasses afterwards

So yeah, I felt even more like a different person after that. I've changed my own oil before and put front brakes on the Subie with close supervision from my ex's dad.....but that's it.

Two good things came out of it. I got a little intimate with Lawrence Long (the trailer) and my dad and I had a cool bonding/funny incident thing. Maybe it was the rush of working on the trailer but he got Rather Dashing with my camera and started snapping away (and the candy bar he bought that had melted ended up in the air conditioning vent so it would 'unmelt quicker'). He scored some good 'Mac and Me' windmill shots (would be pictures but the interwebs here is too slow).

Annnd we saw a billboard advertising: A "Spiritual experience beyond compare" "Come see the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere". For real. Thanks Texas. Heeerrre it is:


Inspiration for the Mark Griffin's stage name? "MC 900ft Jesus"? Possibly.

The drive was awesome. I've never driven through that part of the country and seeing that much sky and that many clouds was just....well huge. I don't know, if you've driven around there you know what I'm saying. Cool stuff.

The only drag about the drive....and Oklahoma in general....was that at least once every hour and a half we spotted a dead dog on the side of the road.....and one Armadillo. Only in that state though.....

T'was a good day. We're at the Flying J on the Eastern edge of Amarillo, TX for the night parked on the trucker side. It feels like I'm in the middle of Maximum Overdrive or something with all this idling. Tomorrow we tackle New Mexico which I'm sure will be even more amazing.

The I-Pod battery died during the drive and I'm pretty confident driving my rig so I had some time to wander in my head. I can't seem to make the reality of what I'm doing sink in. I think maybe I'm prolonging it since I haven't called anyone to talk on the phone (mainly because I don't like talking on the phone). But I know if I hear some voices or start looking at photos from my last few nights in town. it'll really sink in that I'm not there anymore....Well shit, it just did a little bit. I miss you guys a lot.

I dunno, I don't think my friends could have gotten any more awesome than they were when I left so I guess I went out like the Police. Only I promise when I return to the burgh it won't be some shitty 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' '86 remix.

C'mon!

J

Entry 2: Indianapolis IN to Joplin, MO

So today was somewhat of a blur. I acquired a neighbor in the Flying J lot while typing last night's entry.


Their rig made me feel kind of teeny. They were very nice though....an older couple all decked out in Harley gear head to toe. Their 5th wheel (a 'Raptor' nonetheless which obviously beats 'Cougar'....definitely Gob's 'paper' to Michael's 'rock') was a Toy Hauler so they had two cycles in the back awaiting deployment. They confirmed that the 'holy shit we're going to die effect' we experienced on the road earlier that day wasn't the truck. The pavement was just grooved funny and we caught the rhythm between truck and trailer wheels at the right speed to make it pull an "all your transmission are belong to us" joke. The couple was on their way from their home state of Arkansas to an undisclosed location in PA.

We left Indianapolis and faithfully followed the GPS which insisted we head through St. Louis instead of hopping on the by-pass. That was all fine and good until it decided "oh yeah btw, hop over a lane and get off at this exit in 500ft......" Needless to say we heard the word "Recalculating" more than a few times over the next 5 minutes. We got a picture of the Arch though. Woot!

Our next destination was the Wal-Mart parking lot in Ozark, MO where we planned to take advantage of the 'park overnight' offer. Whoever designed the 'RV' section of the lot assumed that making the spots perpendicular to an uphill slant made for easy leveling. Probably some trucker designed it as a form of passive aggressive revenge for RV's having the gall to fill up diesel at the Trucker stations since the pumps operate twice as fast.....

.....On that note, I was warned to prepare myself for some good 'ole intimidation and harassment from truckers while filling up. So far I've lucked out. They've just been pulling their shit on the highway inching over on me and flying past probably guffaw-ing farting and spitting chew at the same time.....they stereotype me....I'll stereotype them thank you very much (no offense to my Uncle and Cousin who are actually cool Truck drivers). Great way to learn control though!

All tangents aside (Ha! Get used to 'em!), we decided to bag Wal Mart and planned to head down the road an extra hour and a half to the next Flying J (not just for marching band stops anymore, right Gina?).

We met my parents' old Kansas friends (they lived out there from '75 up until about when I was born) who had taken a trip to Branson (Kind of like Nashville meets Niagara Falls Tourist Hell). Since we were already parked at the Wal Mart they came out our way and we had our reunion at the Subway in the Wal-Mart. It was an enjoyable visit since the last time I saw them (17yrs ago) my conversations mainly consisted of "I think the Ultimate Warrior is Better than Hulk.....but not as cool as The Undertaker" while sporting a fanny pack and feathery mullet.


The hour and a half drive from there to the Flying J was pretty sweet. There was this one small cluster of clouds off to the left was constantly spewing all sorts of lightning everywhere. On the right side of the highway, the sky was perfectly clear and hanging on to twilight. On top of that, people were setting off fireworks along the side of the highway and off in the distance ahead of us. Coupled with hearing some old band stories from my dad, it made for a great ride.

I can feel myself changing and becoming quickly acclimated to the road. I'm turning into one of those 'truck pride' people (insert Tim Allen's 'Toolman Grunt'). I know more about a diesel engine and how to take care of it than I had ever thought possible. There's something powerful about sitting high up hauling something behind you.

I'm also realizing that I was probably a pretty shitty driver no matter how courteous I thought I was being after dealing with peons zipping both around and in front of me, then darting off an exit ramp or slowing down immediately. Now that I realize how long it takes to slow one of these rigs down and how bad it is to have to use the brakes to stop quickly, I'll never drive a car the same again.

See? I'm getting all RV snobby and separating myself from 'normal' drivers haha.

I'm a little concerned that my Nostalgia gland hasn't kicked in yet. I had a great crew of people I felt very close to back home. I'm hoping it's just my concentrating on not dying on the highway that is keeping my mind occupied

Anyhoo, when we got to this Flying J, we didn't notice any RV spots. So after "Austin Powers"-ing for a bit to get turned around we realized that they had setup the Fireworks tent right over the RV spots and there was a car with people just hanging out on their car parked right at the edge of the RV spot. Once they left, I straightened out and leveled. That was an adventure in and of itself as we weren't balanced left to right and I didn't think to bring various thicknesses of wood. Metal needs to hit wood at the same time with regards to the jacks from what I was told. But it'll do for the night. We're going to chill in Amarillo tomorrow.

And lemme know if this crap is way long winded and lame. I've never blogged before.....

But I think my feelings on blogging are starting to parallel my feelings on being an RV'er......

More tomorrow.....

Entry 1: Pittsburgh to Indianapolis

Well, it's official. I'm no longer a Pittsburgh resident.

I don't think things will really hit until Prescott Valley when I rejoin the new family..... The shock of actually loading all my stuff into the trailer, hitching up, and pulling out hasn't worn off yet so it doesn't feel like a reality.

The 5th wheel trailer tows surprisingly well and navigating tight construction zones with Semis beside me was no problem.


We may have hit a mechanical snag though. When we were on an uphill grade on concrete parts of the highway the rig would violently shake front to back.....like real scary like..... The curious thing is once we hit asphalt on the same hill, it went away instantly. Weird. We're going to get it on the road and hope that it was just some weird road thing. There's a monstrous 5th wheel parked behind me here at the Flying J in Indianapolis (where the waitress made fun of my dad and I for just ordering English Muffins out of guilt for using their booth power outlet) and they appear to be driving a Ford Super Duty as well. Hopefully they can shed some light. I was hoping with a new vehicle I would break the eternal curse of the Chalk Outline Party Subaru road trips..... So yeah, please send my truck (Tobias maybe?) good vibes so he behaves. It's a freakin' '08? I mean....C'mon!

But yeah, we're taking it slow on the road to break in the rig. ETA is Late Tuesday morning/early afternoon in Prescott. We were planning on hitting a huge Classic Car dealership for my dad tomorrow but we left Monroeville a lot later than planned. I'm bummed we have to skip that. It was right on the way.

We are meeting a few of his old Kansas friends who will be in a city right on our way so that will.

Oh yeah, I had my first RV conversation with the dude parked in front of me here. He came right over with a "she's a beaut, is she new?" haha. I'm in a new club I think like it or not.... Turns out he's a traveling Electrician from Iowa on his way to somewhere here in Indiana. He was a talker.....but in a good way. I got advice on which route we should take (brought out the Atlas and all) and heard about how he wants to learn to play piano and was wondering if 50 was too late to start.

All in all not a bad trip thus far. Spent most of the drive trying to find empty frequencies on the radio to tune my i-pod FM transmitter thingie into. Yeah, my beefy truck doesn't even have a CD player. Hindsight is more than 20/20 now that I know more than I ever thought about diesel engines and what they will leave out of a 'basic package' truck.....I must have explained a dozen times what I needed the truck for and how much time I would spend in it.....Sales guy was too busy drooling all over himself in anticipation of selling a truck to mention that I wasn't getting a CD player. If you're in the market for a Ford anytime soon.....don't go to Day Ford in Monroeville.....

I miss all my awesome friends and family already. I still have work to do learning this show but wanted to at least get a 'first entry' in.

Hopefully the writing will improve with time.....I'm going to have a lot of it on my hands.

Until tomorrow.....