LifeOfNathan

The Call of the Road

2011-08-31T20:05:00.000-04:00

steps...stages...eras...these all pieces of liner time that have a beginning and end, and sometimes fit into a larger picture or probably more accurately, a puzzle. And so, that is what this week will be, then end of an era...a step in my stages of life...an event that will simultaneously end one part of my life and begin another.

6 years

That's 72 months...or 2,190 days...or 52,560 hours (hooray...I can do simple maths!) That's the amount of time I have spent in the circus life...living, breathing, and growing in that lifestyle. When I drove the 2000+ miles to join up with the show playing Montana in August of 2005, I knew I was in for a wild ride, but had no idea of just how wild it would be...sure, numbers are numbers, but it is interesting look back and realize that I've played roughly 2,100 2 hour shows for over 2 million people in this time. Most certainly not as much as Merle Evans, but more than your average working trumpet player I'd say. In so many ways I've been blessed...since I graduated college in 2004 I've worked professionally in both degrees that I earned. Of the jobs and friendships that have resulted from that expensive piece of paper...all have influenced me and become part of the tapestry that is my life as a 30 year old single male (who likes long motorcycle rides on the beach). We are all the sum of the events in our lives, but it is what we do with those events that determine who we are...that determines our sense of self, ethics, and place as a human being on this planet. Some one asked me last week what was the biggest thing I have gained from this intense 6 year life experience...and after thinking about it, I said, and still feel, it's perspective. I've been to most of the US states, have driven most of this country's interstate system, have listened to hundreds of its people, and have parked/slept/practiced on a good handful of its Walmart parking lots. So what does this perspective mean to me as I move forward?

Life is about story

Everyone has a story...if you take the time to sit down with mechanic in rural mississippi and ask him about his dog, you'll learn about his life. If you ask the stripper doing laundry in the middle of missouri about her town, you will hear her life. We ALL have a story, the faces that we pass every day are but the tips of the iceberg of the pain, passion, triumph, or sacrifice that lies beneath the surface. And it's the power of those stories to transform us and change the way we will write our OWN story tomorrow that is the real meat of experience. Listen, engage, grow, feed, and BE...these are threads of my own tapestry. This 6 years has taught me to listen better and realize that not all is at is seems. I have realized that not all people in positions of power or knowledge really know as much as their position implies, and more importantly that most people are afraid. Afraid to take a risk, afraid to fail, afraid to offend, and afraid to be themselves. And so, as I move on to the next stage/step/era/ I'm jumping off into the delicious unknown...opening my arms to embrace the adventures that await and seek those relationships that will influence the next era in my life's story...my legacy

Albuquerque Blast

2011-08-31T19:08:00.001-04:00

Ringing in 2009 in style: a ride report

2009-01-12T21:27:00.012-05:00

Key West on a motorcycle.......it's something that I've wanted to do for some time now....the idea of gliding through the ocean with nothing but my bike and the bridge beneath me, needless to say I wasn't disappointed.

The plan was to leave Wellington, FL 2 up on the multistraada with my friend holly, arrive new year's eve, camp, enjoy the sun and surf, and then return a few days later. Looking back on it now, it was a great trip, and the bike performed quite admirably.

We started off a little after noon on December 31st....what better way to send out the old year and ring in the new than on a Ducati...and more specifically my multi. For me, this was my first real "trip" 2 up. So, packing for 2 people plus camping gear was a slight bit of a challenge for me, but we managed, here's a pic of the bike fully loaded and my passenger.

Having taken directions from a Wellington local, we ended up getting lost around Miami and ended in stop and go traffic for most of route 1 down to the keys. This delayed us a bit....I had planned on reaching the campground around dark, due to the delay about the last hour and half of the trip was in the dark. So it goes...at least we didn't hit any alligators. Once hitting key largo, the traffic pretty steady all the way down to our final destination, the KOA campground at mile marker 19. (in case you didn't know, key west is mile marker number 1) So we arrived at the KOA, we didn't have reservations, but I figured that they could probably fit us in tent overflow, and sure enough it wasnt' too much trouble to find a spot. Actually.....at the price of $60 a night...I'm sure the campground wasn't turning away anyone....and they were filled to capacity that night, so they must have made a small fortune.

So, we got in, got settled, got the tent up, rested a bit and then headed into downtown Key West for some dinner and to watch the them drop the conch shell to ring in the new year. We rode the 20 minutes into town, found a nice seafood place (it even had motorcycle parking....always a good sign in my book) and had a nice dinner...our last one for the year.

Having had our fill, we meandered down the wharf checking out the yachts moored there and eventually ended up at Duval street. Of course it was packed, but we made our way to a comfortable spot and watched the last 15 minutes of 2008 drift away....although in those 15 minutes, we were almost puked on(twice), saw a fight start, and noticed that the countdown clock was 3 minutes early....that's right...Key West, a place with a reputation for its laid back mentality rang the new year in early...ahhh well, who's counting anyways right?

Day 2: Having slept the previous night off, I rode the bike to the nearest grocery store (about 10 miles away) to stock up on food for a few days. Got back....made some tasty breakfast new years day breakfast including my home-roasted coffee. That afternoon we made our way back into town to check out the sights in the daylight. It's amazing how different the exact same ride into town was in the daylight...I wouldn't have recognized it. Anyhow, we went to visit the southernmost point in the continental US, rode around the conch republic (tried not to hit the wild chickens and cats), got a milekshake at Denny's and proceeded to park the bike on Duval street (there's motorcycle parking only after 6PM..sweet) and check out all the shops and the people scene and settled on grabing dinner and drinks at a place called Mangroves. A good day.

(here's the bike with the southernmost point in the continental US)

(here she is next to the world famous Sloppy Joes)

Day 3: Plan was to spend it on the beach at Bahia Honda State Park at mile marker 37. After a quick breakfast at the campsite we packed the side cases and headed out to the sandy oasis awaiting us. The state park itself was quite a treat...only $6.50 for 2 people for the day. Some nice places to hike...there's a couple nice overlooks of an old bridge that was part of the legendary Flagler railroad built around the turn of the 19th century. The beaches we pristine...the sun was clean..although the water was chilly...I made sure to grab a few beauty shots of the bike.

Having had our fill of sun, we stopped at an oversized tiki hut called Boondocks....a little pricy, but then again everything in the Keys is, but to our delight, it was half of martini night...and I'm never one to pass up a deal....so we made sure we have their martini menu a thorough thrashing before the night was over. Needless to say...I slept well that night, even if the campsite was on lumpy ground.

Day 4: Our last day in the Florida keys before we had to head back to reality...the last thing anyone wants while on vacation is a reality check! So, I headed into town to grab, some food for the planned afternoon canoe excursion, try some local coffee, and track down a tail light for the bike......yup, the running light went out sometime on the way down and the guy that was trying to tell me about was hanging out the window as he drove by...I just figured he was a drunk reveler...anyways, 20 minutes at the local key west yamaha and a few borrowed tools had me back together in legal riding mode in no time.

So, I got back...we sought out a canoe at the KOA...got some libations to fuel our paddling and headed out for an afternoon lunch around Sugarloaf key. All was well, except we were paddling against the current and a stiff head wind on the way back....a bit of hard-earned sage advice should you ever have the urge to enter a canoe: rowing into the wind in NOT fun. So, we got back and rested our row-weary torsos...made some tasty ramen for dinner and spent the evening at the pub....yes, the KOA had a pub (I think they all should) the drinks were tasty, the tab was small, and there was live music....a perfect end to our short holiday in the keys.

day 5: It rained hard ALL night...like, noah's ark style rain. So, most everything out of doors had to be packed wet, and somehow we had accumulated things...so I have away the rest of our propane and food to the campers nearest us and holly and I hit the road with our fingers crossed hoping to dodge the ominous rain clouds. Well, 5 hours and a potty/slash fuel stop later, we arrived back at my home (aka-RV) stored in Wellington and the rain barely touched us the whole trip. What a relief! The past 5 days had flown by so quickly, but had been full of adventure, vistas, and memories I won't soon forget. The bike was beautiful the whole....and must have been the "hot chick" down there. There were gaggles of Harleys, yet vitually every time I parked there was an inquisitive on looker. Would I do trip again?......in a heartbeat.

8: Happiness is........

2008-07-07T00:33:00.006-04:00

It is no secret that my life in the circus is a life of extremes, and the past 48 hours has been a lesson in extremes.

So, the last time I typed to you, I was in Vegas preparing to voyage across the great arid expanse known as Nevada. One thing I forgot to mention about Vegas was, that as I got in about 7PM friday evening, I checked into the hotel, got in touch with my russian clown friend from the show (he was staying with his wife and kid at the Circus Circus casino KOA...yes, ironic, I know) Turns out he was going to the see the Cirque show "O" at the Bellagio, so, since I'm on vacation and very rarely get to see other people work in showbiz, I decided to pay the still hefty sum for a limited view ticket, and I have to say, besides the rude people with diarrhea-of-the-mouth next to me, it was pretty amazing. Basically it's a Cirque du Soleil show utilizing a giant water tank...so in a ways I had never imagined, they were able to incorporate acrobatics, with sycronized swimming, and state of the art theatrics (not to mention the LIVE band) to deliver a show that I will be thinking about and absorbing for some time. I'd recommend it.... spend a $100 bucks on that instead of the slots.....you'll fell better about yourself on the flight home :-)

Ok, on to Sat.

So, after sleeping off my late night Mexican food (Stas- the russian clown who was in town- and I hit up Tacos Mexico @ 1AM...haha, good times) I awoke to prepare myself (mentally) and my luggage for the ride ahead. About 350 miles from Las Vegas to my destination just inside Yosemite Park. So, after packing everything up, planning my route, and scheduling my dinner reservation at the lodge for 8PM, I hopped onto the bike in the balmy 90's weather and headed the 200 miles north to Tonapah, NV. OK, so the map quest thing says that the 350 miles should have taken me about 9 hours to there....well, I made it in a little under 7 (and I stopped for a 1/2 hour lunch at the BK in Tonopah) ......hmmmmm, how fast do you think I was going? Well, let just say that I wanted to spend as little time as possible in the 105+ degree weather in the desert, AND I found out that my bike will do 120mph fully loaded, not bad for a sophisticated Italian lady. So, it was a long ride, but I knew that the cool moutnains and a nice gourmet dinner were awaiting me at the Toulomne Meadows lodge......the last 60 miles up to the park were beautiful.....I had see the mountains starting to grow in the distance already when I was 100 miles out. Each mile brought a new dimension, and cooler temps. I took this about 30 miles out..... As I entered the park I started to notice snow on the mountains! It got to the point where snow was literally a few hundred yards away, and with the steep canyon walls, the shadows were becoming much more prominent and it was getting chilly for me. As I rolled into the camp, I noticed the parking lot was rather full, but then again it's the holiday weekend. So, I checked in, told me the rules about the bears (no food allowed in the tents, all food had to go in"bear boxes") and then was given a card with my name and tent-cabin number on it, just in case I wanted to "charge" anything to my tent! I've been a lot of places, but have never charged anything to my "tent" before. So, I got settled in....my luggage system has been working surprisingly well, I can unpack the entire bike in about a minute....the same with repacking the bike. So, I showed up for my 8PM reservation, not quite sure what to expect. Well, the lodge is nice and cozy...basically a wooden building structure with a tarpaulin top to it. Efficient yet rustic I'd say.....so after my name was called I sat down to a table with 5 other strangers. I choose a Guinness (figured I had earned it that day....and with the altitude, one beer so go a long way :-) ) and ordered the almond encrusted rainbow trout. Ahhhh....what a dinner, I ended up meeting these delightful people from Spain. So, we chatted about motorcycles, traveling, RVs, the EU, immigrations issues around the world....we covered a lot of ground in a simple dinner, but I think their company is what made it memorable for me. So, we traded email addresses and I headed off to my tent-cabin to try to illuminate some warmth for my humble shelter. Now, no electricity might be alarming to must...but after living in an RV for 3 years and driving each week, you gain instincts of what to expect with out electricity (I usually don't run my generator when I'm sleeping in Walmart parking lots between towns). So, in a small way it was vaguely familiar, except the bed was more comfortable and there was a wood stove next to me. So, I gave my best circus boy attempt to light the stove, and achieved some moderate success and passed out from the exhaustion of the day before I even really got under the copious amounts of blankets.....finally I did get under those blankets and awoke @ 7AM to birds singing, the smell of the camp woodsmoke, and the sun drenching the front of my tent-cabin with its golden paint.......

Viva Las Vegas and happy 4th

2008-07-05T13:50:00.002-04:00

I'm typing here from my hotel in Las Vegas.....that's right, after a busy and fun week in the Big Easy, I have now driven 1500 miles just to get to Arizona....then hoped on the bike yesterday to begin my western US bike adventure...... I'm now in Las vegas, am leaving in a few minutes for Yosemite....staying the night in a tent cabin in the high sierra mountains, and then spend three days in San Francisco....I'm excited and tired already. I got on the road around 12pm yesterday (about 5 hours later than I wanted) I was making good time, even in the 110+ temps, but then I got to the hoover dam....5 miles and 1 1/2 hours of bumper to bumper traffic in 115 degree heat!!! Needless to say, on a bike out and exposed to the elements, it was rough, one of the rougher riding situations I've been in I think. At one point, people were taking pity on me...the RV in front of me threw his rig into park and ran back and gave me a bottle of CokaCola....a bald-headed blessing he was. And then of course my bike overheated too....the bike is fine when you're moving.....but standing still is not good for and AIR cooled engine. When I finally got to the dam I was dehydrated and a little shaky...I had brought water with me in my camel back water thing.....but there was such a strong and dry breeze, that everything I drank when in and right out through my pores. Got to love it......today I'm riding across the desert along the old missile range where the US tested all of their nuclear bombs up to Tonopah, and then head west to my tent cabin in Yosemite park in the high sierras where it's projected to be 44F tonight....whew....now I'll to bundle up...oh yeah, and there's no electricity in the tent thing....so pending no problems in the desert today, you'll probably hear from me on Sun. till then......

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

2008-06-24T02:09:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-22T00:33:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-19T13:50:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-18T18:30:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-16T21:52:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-15T23:19:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-14T00:43:00.001-04:00

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

Blog a day?

2008-05-13T11:35:00.002-04:00

Ok, so after some recent conversations with friends and family in regard to this here blog. I think I'm going to endeavor to post one blog a day for the next 30 days....I can't guarentee it will be good, but it will most certainly be interesting, I mean....it is the circus after all.

And the beat goes on.......

2008-02-29T17:46:00.004-05:00

Well, the quarters of bleak winter are finally over...FINALLY. The new tour has been out now a little over 2 months and has been setting record numbers for the Gold show history.....I'd like to think that it's due to their circus coffee and their coffee-loving trumpeter....um, riiiiiiiight, back to reality.
So, this leap year day I've been working (a morning kiddie show and the standard night time show) and resting (was half way across the country for the first part of this week) and playing with my new trumpet toys....ok, they're more like tools. One is called, ready for this?, a "PowerLung". That's right, I'm not making this up, but I think this contraption is the best thing for a wind instrument musician's breathing since, well, since God created air. Basically it has adjusting intake and exhalation valves, in essence creating strength training for all of your breathing muscle groups....hooray. I can't wait to see the positive affects on my playing...and then the other big change in my life is going to a new girlfriend...well, of sorts, she IS a redhead....I put a down payment on this bike 2 weeks ago. If all this go smoothly, I'll be picking her up in 2 days in atlanta....I can't wait to get the new bike out on the smoky mountains! Well, I need to make some espresso and head off to work, but I'll leave you with a little project I did for Karen's Coffee Art stuff, I think it turned pretty good if I do say so myself, enjoy!

If your name is Winter Quarters you are not my friend

2007-12-19T22:43:00.000-05:00

70+ Hours of rehearsal in a week isn't my idea of a good time. 20 days, that's not much, right? But working from 9AM-9PM doesn't leave much time for anything other than sleeping and eating.........so for those of you to whom I owe Christmas cards or presents, I apologize in advance if they don't make it to you in time, I haven't had time to visit the post office yet!!! Oh, and that picture is my point of view from the bandstand...yup, that right,fearless Nathan performs 5 feet away from white tigers, I'd like to see the Philly Orchestra trumpet section top that! :-)

Way to go Karen!!!

2007-11-30T01:01:00.000-05:00

Congrats Karen!!! ummmm, can I have your autograph?

Christmas?......ok, but not yet!!!

2007-11-06T18:32:00.000-05:00

So, I walked into the Walmart (the RVer's store of choice) the other night on my way into Rockford, IL and was accosted by a full section of Christmas "stuff" (because that's what it was, holiday fluff) and blaring Christmas music. At first it caught me off-guard....then I thought about it said to myself, "what the heck?! it just turned November 4 days ago...what will Thanksgiving do when it finds out Walmart is skipping it all together. Perhaps Thanksgiving might take a hit of tryptophan early and just roll over and go to sleep until next year...at which time it will awake to find Christmas is being hocked even sooner, so Thanksgiving will become depressed, go through a period of questioning its identity as a holiday and valued member the calendar year and just skip out on earth to find another planet more accommodating.....perhaps a happy place, a planet where, they too created a calendar based on it's lunar cycles and then actually FOLLOWS the holidays it creates and doesn't allow money hogs (aka-retailers) to dictate when people (ok, so aliens in this case) doesn't allow the greedy to dictate when those aliens will be surrounded by holiday "cheer."

So, after pondering Thanksgiving's cozy relationship with aliens, the next thought in my mind was, "where will they dray the line?" Next year, will it be Oct. 1 when they start to market Christmas? Will it eventually reach the point where they sell it all year....and then I remembered, there ARE places that sell Christmas stuff all year 'round....that's just sad......so what do we, as concerned citizens of America (since Thanksgiving is an American holiday after all) do about this situation??....................to be continued

I think I might be a closet Italian......

2007-10-23T12:55:00.000-04:00

So as I was sipping my daily morning espresso I also happened to be munching on nuttella on toast and then an Italian folk song came over my iTunes and it occurred to me.......many of my favorite things and preferences in life are Italian, am I closet Italian? So, I started really thinking about it, let's see....well, I LOVE espresso coffee (a form of coffee preparation invented by the Italians), prosciutto makes me a happy person, if nuttella were person I'd marry her, my motorcycle is Italian, Rome basically founded western culture (and concrete) as we know it, Leonardo DaVinci was an Italian who was a renaissance man AND left-handed (we left handers will some day take over the world, just you watch), they have more kinds of pasta than anywhere in the world, it's the womb of Vivaldi and Respeghi, home of ferrari, Tuscany, great wines, and it's even shaped like a piece of foot apparel. So, despite my german heritage maybe somewhere along the line there was an Italian ancestor.....or at least a trip to Italy by an ancestor.

The world is getting smaller.....

2007-10-16T23:24:00.000-04:00

Hmmm, today I had an experience that left me thinking how small our world is getting. Now, perhaps this experience had a greater impact on me since I've been reacquainting myself with childhood TV favorites thanks to Youtube. So what was the experience you ask? It was turning on my computer and chatting casually, face to face, with a dear friend in Switzerland....for free. (Ok, so Skype is free but the cost of internet access isn't, I know that) I was just sitting here on a sunny Tuesday in my RV parked on the circus lot in Topeka and all I had to do was click a few buttons and there I was chatting away with someone thousands of miles away...nothing to it. Thousands of miles...that's even further than chatting with the space station. And sometime in that conversation it hit me, here I grew up in a time where computers were relegated to the task of hangman, oregon trail, and math games (that's right boys and girls, the screen only had TWO colors: black and green....well, ok, I guess black is the absence of color, so maybe it's only one color) and now I can instantly speak virtually in person with a person on the other side of the world....that's across oceans, hills, towns, cities, families, governments, and archaeological secrets yet to be uncovered. I guess it's just the fact that in the past 20, heck 50 years, information and the way we interact with people globally has changed so significantly one can only wonder whom, or maybe which planet, we'll casually turn on our computer and chat with 50 years from now.....or maybe we won't even chat with computers anymore, we'll just communicate with giant interstellar passenger pigeons....yeah, I think I'd call mine Floyd, that would be some entrance for my inter-planetary message eh?

Why I love the northwest US....

2007-10-04T15:49:00.000-04:00

The northwest US of A....so what comes to mind? What's the first image that pops into your head? Lush green vistas of pine? Fishing boats? Morning fog? Rain? Rocky Coasts? Well, these things are all definite stereotypes, but there is something beyond all of these pictures that garners a fond spot south of my aorta....and that would be TASTE. I find that the more I travel around the this vast and diverse country (so far 48 states and counting) that my experiences become less about seeing "things" but more about the memories I have with the people I've met and things I've tasted. When I was in Ottumwa, IA I quickly forgot what the downtown really looked like, but my times spent eating at a hole-in-the-wall Ecuadorian eatery will forever be with me. The tastes of that food prepared in a way that had been passed down through family lines of another continent and the circus folk seated around the table enjoying that armchair taste tour.

So, I'm sure that you've gathered by now that I'm somewhat gastronomically driven, and why shouldn't I be? I mean, we are after all blessed with the ability to taste what we eat. Can you imagine how boring it would be if everything we ate had no taste at all? There would be no cause for desserts, there would be no delight in food or drink pairings....one might as well just hook up an IV and go about your business.

Ok, I'm drifting on topics here. Back to the subject at hand, WHY do I love the northwest so much? Well, my past experiences have all been positive but more importantly I think it's that fact that there are artisan foods everywhere. Someone recently told me that in the northwest there are people who find their passion for a particular thing and set about learning and apprenticing in order to bring that unique attribute to their community. In the end, what happens is that you have a person on one corner who's sole goal in life is to make the best croissant they can, and then another person down the block who's sole goal in to cure meats in the traditional Italian way as authentically as possible. What you then find is these little towns of 10 to 80 thousand people where the ingredients available rival what you could find anywhere in the world! Recently, as I was traversing the vast prairie lands of Wyoming I was thinking about this: If one looks out over the past 100 years of food, it seems as if the food culture in this country is coming full circle, or maybe even evolving into its most exciting version yet...perhaps we're in Beta version of "New" Old World Cuisine right now in the US. The way I see it, it seems that from the late 1800's up through the 1950's everything was fresh because it had to be that way. Yes, there were ice boxes, but those were a luxury and of course there were no microwaves to be found. But, as our country developed, experienced growing pains, and went through wars forcing us to develop food resources that would last longer than the weekend. Then the space race and communism came along and science reined supreme. Thus, we experimented with new materials (teflon, plastic, etc.) why not experiment with our food? If we can make a tomato that grows larger, why not? If we can develop preservatives that let bread last 3 weeks on the shelf instead a few days, why not? So, as it seems to me, this convenience of profitability was traded in for quality. And then a better infrastructure came along that made the transportation of preservative loaded foods viable for companies that would now distribute on a national scale. This, we became (to use the title of a popular book) a fast food nation.

So, somewhere along this spiraling foodline (perhaps with the new focus on health with all the studies in the late 80's and early 90's) a small part of the population started to realize that less is more and that the FDA doesn't necessarily know everything about food, and unfortunately in some cases can be persuaded to let a corporation use that controversial new ingredient if it lobbies the right way. So, there seems to be this growing segment of the population, one could say a "wave" of people who are willing to pay a little bit more money if it means that a food was raised organically. People willing to take the extra time to appreciate a drink or dish that was created in a way that hails from simpler times...quality and freshness on a plate or in a cup.

Back, once again, to the subject. As I crossed into Montana and traveled through these little towns I started to see these artisan kinds of places on the nearly every corner. For example: on my way from Loveland, CO to Spokane, WA I spent a night in the Missoula, MO WalMart parking lot (as an RV owner there aren't many places you can "legally" park overnight, and Walmart is one of the few that happen to be RV friendly). The next morning I awoke excited to try a local bakery on a tip from a friendly coffee website. I proceeded to navigate the Flying Dutchman (my RV) through the quaint downtown of Missoula and found Le Petite Outre (loosely translated "the Little Outrageous") and let me say, it was a life moment of sweet and yeasty nirvana for the croissants were the best I've ever had in my life! (and yes, I have had croissants in France) They were simply perfect, flaky and crunchy on the outside with an inner dough that was a soft pillow of buttery goodness that melted in your mouth whilst chewing....(pardon while I wipe the drool off my mouth :-) ) And it was in that moment with a perfect croissant and decent mocha latte when it hit me, I love the northwest. The people, the weather (no, it's not really as rainy as rumor has it), the coffee, the lushness, and the food. So, as the week progressed I made it to Spokane and visited my favorite local food store, Huckleberries. When I arrived I made a beeline for the meats department to buy some of their bratwurst (made in-house of course) that I had been craving since my last visit to Spokane 2 years ago. Ah, Spokane....I wrote about my wonderful experience there 2 years ago and upon my recent return visit I was delighted to find it the way I had left it before and in some ways even better. And this time around was twice as good because I had the wonderful fortune to be shown around by a local foodie. Now, during the course of this week I had the chance to test of conclusion about the northwest. You see, during that week in Spokane I flew back to the east coast for my little sister's wedding. So, as you may imagine I got a first hand demonstration of the differences in food, people, attitudes, driving styles etc. between the 2 opposing coasts. Then, to top it all of, upon returning to Washington I spent 3 days in Seattle checking out the scene (and coffee of course) andwas again reminded why I'm so fond of this region of the US....lushness in a city surrounded by water. Beautiful hills, cozy neighborhoods, espresso everywhere, misty mornings, and just plain cool people. So, these are just a few reasons of the many to draw me to a certain direction of the compass....attached a few pics to make you swoon, enjoy

To Dream

2007-06-26T01:18:00.000-04:00

To Dream, is to be Alive

Hawaii Part 1......In the beginning

2007-06-21T00:18:00.000-04:00

So, as I sit here on a noisy Wednesday night in my RV on the circus lot in downtown Memphis I reflect back on those 2 weeks in the middle of the pacific. Those 2 weeks or adventure and expensive rental cars, well, ok, I didn't have to take the upgrade to the Jeep, but the 4X drive was fun....and it did keep me from getting stuck a few times. OK, ok, I digress...let me start, as the title of this entry suggests...."In the beginning" (you have to imagine that phrase in your head as said by a booming voice-of-God announcer person. ahem,

So, upon finding out that our unusual (and unpaid :-( ) 3 week break was confirmed, my mind went racing. Time off from work, WOW, and enough to travel even, travel internationally. I thought seriously about taking the bike somewhere on the continent, but at my 12k mile service a month and a half earlier they said I had a rattle in the engine that needed to be looked at the next time I had 2 weeks where I didn't need the bike. So, I decided to shop the bike for a few weeks (the result of which has turned into a fiasco that has left me wanting to have nothing to do with a Ducati or their dealerships for the rest of my life, but that's for another blog entry) So I then got my world map out (I'm not the only one who has a world map handy for moments notice planning, right?) and set to finding a destination that would be affordable and would have something of personal interest. Well, being the espresso afficianado that I am, Italy of course was the first to pop in my mind. Ah, Italy with all its gelato, wine, museums, espresso, and Ducati motorcycles who wouldn't dream of visiting such a place. But, upon checking the airline prices, well the whole idea didn't seem so dolce (that's sweet for you non- italaians out there). And well, knowing the euro-dollar trade these days, 2 weeks in Italy would most assuredly leave me broke in less than 1. So, the next best place came to mind (no, no, not North Dakota) but Hawaii. The circus was supposed to tenetively play in Hawaii this summer, but that all fell through. So, now I had the chance to visit Kona, the beaches, taste the food, experience the culture, and add another state towards my goal of 50. Thus, finding that Hawaiian airline tickets were about half the price of Italy, I was sold. And the more I planned, the more this seemed like the right thing. As I started my search for coffee I came across the coffee association of Hawaii AND more importantly that they were hosting a cupping workshop by Willem Boot in the middle of Kona country. So, of course I signed up the next day. Not only would I get to see and taste Kona country first hand, but my first cupping experience would be in Kona under the tutelage of one of the top coffee palates in the world! Needless to say, I was excited.

So, we finished up the split week in Lubbock, TX and headed down to Beaumont, TX which was to be our home of the break. I scheduled it pretty tight: I left the circus lot on the motorcycle around 7:30AM to make it to the dealership in Houston at 9am where I checked in the bike and hopped in the waiting taxi that I had scheduled the night before. One I got in the taxi, I took a deep breath; so far, so good. Now I just had to make it through the security line at the airport to make my 10:55AM flight to Atlanta. Sure enough, the taxi made good time to the airport, I had checked in online the night before, so I walked straight to security (no checked baggage you see, I could only bring what would fit easily on the motorcycle, so it was only a backpack and my trumpet) and the only thing they confiscated was my hair gel...it was over the ridiculous 3 oz cutoff. Who sells travel sizes of hair gel?!?! no one. (I really think the hair gel corporations are in cahoots with the TSA, yeah there has to be a hair product mafia, I'm sure of it) Anyhow, I made it in plenty of time for the flight, enough time get a bite to eat and buy a mocha latte from the Coffee Beanery (one of the worst mochas I ever put my lips to, but that's for another blog) You know, the whole coffee/airport experience really made me feel for those pilots that fly the planes. I mean, most of us have at least a few decent options in any given direction on the compass rose. But those poor pilots have to drink whatever low quality branded caffeinated slop is served in that particular airport in the country.......hmmm, maybe the airports in Europe are better....that warrants a trip in the name of research....anyhow, in the back of my mind I set into motion a future plan to better all pilot's coffee experience; if you spent a majority of your workday in a pressurized cubicle hurtling through the air at 500+mph with 100s of lives in your hands, doesn't that deserve at least a decent cup of coffee? OK, back on topic, I boarded the plane to Atlanta, made good time, enjoyed my salty pretzels, and looked forward to turning on my portable electronic devices once we were back on the ground. The Atlanta airport was fine, crowded with mediocre to sub-par coffee at every turn. So, I got a quick bite to eat, checked my email, recorded a bit for the podcast, and bought some snacks for the 10 hour plane ride ahead. Once I boarded and got my book and iPod situated, we taxied, went through the preflight check and then.....nose up, engines roaring, ears popping we left the earth towards the blue yonder.

next stop......paradise.

Coming attractions....

2007-06-08T19:12:00.000-04:00

Ok ok, yes I know I haven't posted ANYTHING from my Hawaii trip yet, BUT, that shall change shortly. Over the next weeks I plan on posting the fun and sights of those wonderful 2 weeks on the islands as installments (i.e. part 1, 2, etc.) So, now you have something semi-interesting...ok, well, maybe something slightly amusing...no, no..um, something to make your eyes tired so you can sleep at night. So, now you can take that Nightquil out of your budget for the next week or 2 and your eyes can pry and get sleepy here (what a money-saver, eh?) So, to not tempt you I leave you with this picture....

Hawaii or bust

2007-05-16T01:09:00.001-04:00

Yes, so it's true, in 7 hours the saga of the next 2 weeks will begin. I have a feeling that getting there is going to be a bit frenetic. I leave here (i.e. Beaumont) at 7AM to ride the motorcycle to the dealership in Houston by 9AM, at which time I will call a cab, get my bike signed in at the service center, and then hightail it to the airport to make the 10:55AM flight to Honolulu. It's going to be A LOT of flying....well, not quite as bad as it was to China, but then again, Hawaii is half way to China. Anyways, I'm REALLY looking forward to this trip. Looking forward to relaxing, getting out of my 60 sq ft house and the circus lot, and getting to spend some time in Kona coffee country. Ah, the potential....at this moment, even though I'm tired from all the prep, I have the feeling of a kid that's just plopped his sled in the snow, ready to hop on and hurtle down the hill with excitement and abandon. Hmmmm, excitement and abandon....those will do quite nicely over the next 2 weeks. I shall keep you all updated. Till then......

What's in a face....

2007-05-11T23:23:00.000-04:00

What's in a face? A hope, a fear, a tale of a thousand days and restless nights. No two are alike; an endearing physiognomy to some, a painful reminder to others. It is the world's window to our soul, perhaps that is why it's the part of the body we give the most attention to. The most recognizable and yet the hardest thing for the artist to replicate. Thousands of muscles, a symmetry of nature that we alter and try to enhance for others, and yet it can truly only be a representative, a liaison of sorts for our deepest emotions. For what is a faceless body except a shadow, a geometry with out intention. Sure, there's body language, but isn't a majority of that laid out on our billboard to the world; our face? We talk about people being two faced, but isn't it just one face with clandestine intentions? Stoic, proud, indignant, sheer delight, content, incredulous, curious, ired, furious...could these concepts truly exist with out a face? Have you ever known someone solely through online conversations; upon meeting "face to face" don't we usually say, "now I can put a face with the name"? Sit sometime and watch two people talking with each other. After a few minutes you can usually tell if they're friends, bother and sister, old acquaintances, lovers, business parters, or perhaps a crush. Simply put, the face is amazing and an important part of our life; so much so that we even look for it or build it into an inanimate object. We see an "old man" in the mountain or we say, "that car looks fierce". Even in the beginnings of the Christian church iconology, i.e. giving Jesus a face, was a derisive issue in religious art. So, be glad for the face you've been given, delight in its uniqueness and never take for granted the power of the connection in the visage of others.

Mr. Rodgers IS my neighbor

2007-04-17T11:58:00.000-04:00

Mr. Rodgers not only was, but is still the man. This week I got my Netflix shipment and I was delighted to find that I had put a Mr. Rodgers episode in my cue a while back, and it just so happened that it was a CIRCUS episode! Yes, Mr. Rodgers and the circus, what a combination. It wasn't a Ringling circus but it was still circus in all it's 80's splendor (I was 7 when it was recorded). Not only that, but that was an era when circuses pretty much across the board still sprung for live music; not the case today. I feel I'm one in the last generation of a long tradition of circus musicians. In any case, watching the episode reminded me of what great music Mr. Rodgers had as his soundtrack (jazz, and not light crappy muzak jazz, but a jazz combo featuring some pretty heady stuff) I could go on about this, but I will say in short that the music on each episode was far and beyond anything that came before or has been on since in children's television. I lift my espresso to you Mr. Rodgers for exposing our childhood ears to more than that happy-go-lucky pop fluff. Who ever says music (or even stories) have to be dumbed down for children to grasp and absorb it is 100% wrong (as well-intentioned as they may be). So, Mr. Rodgers, I salute you for your vision and your love of the circus life.

hmmmmm....

2007-04-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to realize I have an adventure streak a mile wide.....hmmmmm, well make that 24,900 miles wide

(I'll give you a hint, that's the circumference of some object spinning in the universe ;-) )

A brief update involving a cake

2007-03-17T18:51:00.000-04:00

Ahem, I hear you saying as you begin to read this...well, yes, I'm not good about keeping stuff up here since most of my online personal spillage is put into my podcast now. But, I had a few minutes here between shows on St. Pattie's day to bring you up to date. At the moment, it's between the first and second shows (on a 2 show Sat.!!!) and I'm working on my Italian Cream cake....WHAT?! (I hear you saying) yes, an Italian Cream cake on St. Pattie's day; it's er, um, traditional...Riiiiiiiiiight (I again hear you saying ~ you know you're an awfully vocal reader) Yeah, so here's the story and I have to make it quick because I have to be back into work in about 25 minutes....so while the cake is baking (and boy does it smell GOOD) and I'm sitting here with the widows open, the sun setting, and sipping some fresh brewed coffee....I will tell you the story. This time last year we were playing some town that started with an A (I can't remember the full name at the moment) in Georgia about 2 hours southwest of Atlanta. As it so happened, there was a little impromptu gathering of various circus folk at my boss's rig on the lot. Well, as any self-respecting person knows, one should bring something to a party when you've been invited. In this case the invite was last minute, which left me perusing the local Walmart food section literally hours before said shamrock-leprechaun-Irish food themed party. Thus, I choose something that was filling, inexpensive, and (I thought) worthy of such an occasion...I chose a value priced Italian cream cake. That's right, the one that was going to expire tomorrow and was thus 30ish percent on sale. I thought it was a good deal, and the comforting thought that it wouldn't be thrown out the next day because little ol' frugal-minded me snatched it up. Well....think again. I got to the party and a good time was had by all. Everything was fun, tasty, and....Irish themed. So, again, I still didn't think much of it all, and set to enjoying the Chieftains DVD while sipping my green beer. Well, as the party progressed, it became more apparent that everything was Irish themed. Even our keyboard player who hadn't planned on coming brought some pickles, olives, and lettuce. I looked at his piddly ghetto food offerings and figured I was safe with a cake. Well, he perused over the table and when his eyes set upon the cake he exclaimed, "Who brought this cake? It's an Italian Cream cake, from Wlamart, AND it's not even green!" So, of course I owned up to it...but as things of this odd nature go, the disdain for my cake caught on like a bad nickname. And well, since that night exactly one year ago the whole band hasn't let me live it down. We joke a bit up on the bandstand (you have to in order to stay sane sometimes), and that cake has never been from my colleagues' minds'. Thus, this year I'm determined to set it straight....FOR GOOD. So, in typical Nathan style, I have set out to bake an entire Italian Cream cake from scratch AND give it green icing. This year they're getting their cake, it's going to be green, and it's going to be home-made....they're going to eat their words..... time to go back to work...Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all........and eat some cake

And so....a new year begins

2007-01-09T20:52:00.000-05:00

Ok ok, so I know it's been a while since I posted. But, I've really been putting time and effort in to a few other projects. For starters, the podcast has been going pretty well and I've gotten to meet and interview super cool people that like coffee that I otherwise might not have met. In fact, my excitement has extended, or shall I say, drawn me to coffee roasting. So, being the DIY person that I am, (with the aid of many websites) I plan on building my own coffee roaster and start roasting at home (i.e. RV - it may be the first ever RV based roaster- wahoo). In fact, I already have a name for my first blend, but I'll keep that under wraps until the trandmark certification comes in. ;-) In any case, there's been all of the coffee stuff (which includes a fair amount of research of the coffee shops and then actually developing a schedule to visit them all), and then there's been projects with the RV. I don't remember what exactly I was working on when I posted the last blog, but recently I have installed an air-ride suspension system on the rear duellies, made the indoor picture mounts more permanant, put up christmas lights (I almost bured my place down), parmanently installed the microwave, and installed tile flooring (real porcelain tile!) in the entire place. So, it's been a big learning process. As for the bike, well, ther only major thing there has been installing permenant heated grips, which made the winter riding in upstate NY bearable (thanks for the helping hand dad). I'll probably leave the bike as is for a while now, although I am looking forward to getting the pipes on it. Ok, ok, enough about projects...you're probably wondering where I am now and where I'm typing and what I'm wearing...(if you're wondering what I'm wearing, then you either have an over-active imagination or are obsessed with circus fasion) So, I'm sitting here on my couch in the flying Dutchman on a chilly tues. evening in Lakeland, Fl. And yes, there are lakes in Lakeland as the name suggests; plenty of them. So, since this is a my first blog of the new year, I'm going to try to succintly recap the past year and contemplate the new one. Ok, well let's see, the past year was my first calendar year on the road. In the past year....hmm, I had a motorcycle accident, learned how the insurance system works, bought a new motorcycle, I visited pretty much every state east of the mississippi river (maybe except minnesota and wisconsin....but do they really count? they're pretty much in canada anyways :-) just kidding megan J) Ok, and I had my wisdom teeth + tumor taken out of my head, I took my longest bike trip to date (1,900 miles), played in a family wedding, went through 3 more tires on the RV, FINALLY got the shower leak permanantly fixed, got to visit williamsburg 4 or 5 times, became a Florida resident (and voter, hanging chads anyone?), visited both of the other Ringling Bros. shows, visited daytona bike week, almost had a trumpet mute smashed by an elephant, performed for Dave Matthews, visited and reviewed around 200 coffee shops, had an 88 year old barber named Herbert cut my hair in cajun country (and he came to see the show too!), drove the RV around 25k miles, went on 2 dates, bought a new trumpet, finally invested in a Ipod, made friends in New Orleans, had REAL gumbo and etouffe, created 16 podcasts, rode the tail of the dragon, visited the highest point east of the mississippi, attended numermous Bulgarian parties where I learned to drink Rakea and learned the song Mesacina (I'll sing it for you sometime), visited the International Tarpon Festival, discovered some new favorite movies + directors, got to visit extended family in IA, OH, KY, and PA, backed the RV into a giant rock, learned my lesson about combining karioke and sake, worked with 8 different elepahnts, got to revisit my favorite people and places in Philly, bought my first real espresso machine and REAL grinder, I learned what a portafilter is (and learned how to use a tamper WITH a portafilter), ran out of gas on both the bike AND the RVx2 (but not at the same time), got a parking ticket in the middle of Iowa, played my first-ever round of golf, received a VIP tour of Savannah (thanks Colonel), played my first repeat town, had dinner with one of the original "Our Gang" (aka- the original Little Rascals), made countless new friends, got lost in Fayettevile, did a Philly cheesesteak tour with the circus band in a white limo, and finally invested in a wireless broadband card (hence this blog entry). So, all in all, it's been a year of adventure, learning, and growing. The job? well, I still think it's cool to be earning money by playing my horn and traversing the country in my house like a turtle. Yes, it has its ups and downs like any form of employment, but God has been gracious to me and blessed me with a way to improve, grow, and experience so many new and unusual things. (who would have thought that you could get good cajun food at 3AM in the middle of southern Louisiana with on-duty police officers and an stuffed alligator watching everyone eat). What ever this next year holds, well, I plan to do my best to turn my face into the wind and embrace it head-on. amen

5 states in one day......

2006-08-27T19:32:00.000-04:00

Whew, what a week. So, since the last post about the unveiling of the new podcast I've done a full run of shows here in Savannah and visited/review about 15 coffee places. After the split week last week we had a jump from Jonesboro, AR to Savannah, GA. Well, had I been smart I would have driven a bit after the shows sunday, but since I was feeling pretty pooped from the shows I tried to get a good night's sleep and drive it all monday. Well, I forgot how it feels to drive 700+ miles in one day. So, I awoke monday morning to find that my pillow seemed all too comfy, but I managed to drag myself up out of bed and apprectiated the fact that I had house power all night due to the fact that I finally dropped the cash to get the generator fixed.

The new podcast is out!

2006-08-14T14:06:00.000-04:00

So yesterday marks the world premiere of the Search for the Best Mocha Latte in the World podcast. It's been in the works for a while and is now finally a reality. So, tell all you friends, foodies, neighbors, cats, dogs, and ferrets to tune into the weekly podcast. You can subscribe through Itunes, or any site that updates through RSS feeds (i.e. google, yahoo, newsgator) So, check it out by clicking the link right below my profile pic on this page, leave some feedback, and drink some more coffee!

Going with the flow

2006-08-06T22:34:00.000-04:00

Well, Hello, My name is Nathan and I work for the circus
Ok, I felt I had to introduce myself since it's been a virtual epoc since I've last posted. Yes, I'm still ok, it's just been a pretty intense past 4 or 5 months. Basically, so often it feels like I'm living life at a million miles an hour and eventually the rest of me will catch up. I've been trying to experience every oportunity that is possible or comes my way. Now, I know this sounds like I'm burning the candle at both ends, but the way i see it, you only live once on this earth and very few are blessed with the chance I've been given to see and experience so many things. Often I feel so overly stimulated that it pretty much overloads my ability to process and fully comprehend what I'm part of. I feel that some day when things slow down in my life (perhaps less adventurous? nah, I doubt I'll ever lose my zest for adventure) I'll fully be able to process and make sense of everything I've done and seen. So where, what, and when over the past months?
create your own visited states map
Well, I'm sure I could fill a sizable tome with that info, but in short; since my blog entry in April I've completly circled the entire US east of the mississippi river, flown in a plane to play a weekend wedding in Wasington DC, I've eaten some of the best cajun and creole food on earth, I've seen so many places on the bike (put a good 7000 miles on since that April posting), I've visited old friends, made so many new ones, visited family, and even expanded my coffee repertoire (almost at 160 reviews now, the podcast is coming soon.....as soon as I can figure how to post with RSS), I've crossed all the major rivers in the eastern US (sometimes more than once), I've learned a lot more about myself (as scary as that sounds) and what my body can and can't handle, I've seen marriages, celebrated anniverseries and birthdays, partied with the Bulgarians, finally had a real Geno's cheesesteak again, gravity always wins, replaced ANOTHER rear tire on the house, installed a new shower door and water faucet assembly, finally invested in a new convection microwave, driven through 19 states, partied with the bulgarians, bought a new trumpet, got new glasses (finally), fought an ant war (so far I'm still winning), ate lunch at the highest point east of the Mississippi river (i.e.Mt. Mitchell), been frightened by a clown posing as the easter bunny, had 3 haircuts (one barber who was 88 years old even came to see the show!), slept at a youth hostel in New Orleans, finally nailed a high F#, gave 6 people their first mototcycle ride (one of which bought a bike of his own soon afterwards :-) ), visited an aquarium in the middle of the smoky mountains with a girl from Ireland, did the historic triangle in a day, visited my great great great great grandfather's cabin in Indiana, learned the CORRECT way to pronounce Mobile, AL (i.e. phonetically moh-BEEL.....thanks anna), visited the Kosciusko house in Philly and the town of Kosciusko, MS, visited glow-in-the-dark gnomes, attended the international tarpon rodeo, finally got a pump-driven espresso machine to start experimenting, realized that most people don't do what they say they'll do or say what they mean, learned not to drive motorcycles through flooded roads, seen first hand how poor a lot of this country is, saw a tree fall on a car, and had lunch on an army base..........yeah, I guess I keep myself busy. So, today finds me typing to you all from a little place called Columbia Cafe here in Shereveport, LA. It's a little place on the corner of Creswell and Kings Hwy that has an upscale cafe feel. I'm sitting here in the more "cafe" part of the place where in front of me there is a giant mosaic of coffee beans growing in Columbia (I presume).....interesting, a few pieces of mirrors in the mosaic and it would be Philly style. Anyhow, we're here this week and it's toasty, but at least we're not in a farm field in a middle of a swamp like last week. Yup, that's right, last week there wasn't enough room by the venue for all of our rigs so we were all parked a few miles away at a "horse park" campground. Well, after turning into the main course for the local bug population the night I got in and unpacked, I knew it was going to be an icky week. Long week short.....I didn't like Baton Rouge, among many other reasons, the coffee scene was lame, it rained more than Seattle (and flooded each time it rained as well, hence my chain coming off the rear sprocket when I tried riding through 2 feet of water). So, like I always say, every city has a vibe, and Baton Rouge was less than stellar. I think the highlight of the week for me was getting to spend some quality time in New Orleans. I went down for a day and a half and stayed in the India House youth hostel. Hostelling in the states always has a unique feel for because 1)natives of this country don't usually stay there and 2)from past experience I inately associate hostelling with travelling in Europe somewhere. But this was a really great place; it was clean, laid back, cool people, and best of all it was budget priced (which always tickles my thrifty gene) All in all in was a good time in the "big easy", I got to try some seafood, saw most of the historic landmarks, had some decent coffee (I tried about 4 places), got to hear the Rebirth Brass Band, and met some new friends (we'll call them stacy and lucy to protect their identity). Anyhow, it was a good time all around. Turns out Lucy works for the city real estate records office and was telling me a lot of first hand accounts from Katrina. You see and hear a lot of stuff on the TV, but in chatting with her it reminded me how much of a spin is put on everything we're fed. Whenever you have the chance to talk with someone one was actually there, do it. Same thing with a good friend of mine who served in Iraq. You get a certain doctored picture of actual events in the media, but to hear the inside scoop, the unedited version from a first hand account, well, you start to get the picture. Anyhow, visiting the city was a definate highlight of the week and I look forward to getting back there soon to check out a whole lot more of the coffee that's happening there. When I was doing some of the research for the cafes down there I began to realize that New Orleans is really the Seattle of the South and South East US. Anyhow, I'll save my coffee musings for my other blog. This week we're in Shreverport, LA. So far it doesn't seem like too much is happening in this city, but at least the lot is level and not full of ants. So, till next blog, keep your stick on the ice.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (yet)

2006-05-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, so as everyone has been reminding me, I haven't posted in quite a little while. Well, as with everything in my life, I have good reasons for my actions. Let's see.....the last time I typed to everyone in blogger land it was just after our jump from montgomery, al to carbondale, il. Now, I finally have a little bit of time to catch my breath here in chattanooga, TN. I'm sitting here in greyfriars, a little coffee shop in the middle of the downtown. (pretty decent coffee too, but that's for my other site) So, let's see, I'll try to give you all a whirlwind update on my past month of life. After the last blog entry we played carbondale, il and then did a split week between cape girardeau, mo and champaign, il. Made for a busy week and a half, but I did get to check some of the coffee places out and even got to take a beautiful ride out along the mississippi. Fortunately the jump over to cape girardeau was a short one, but on the down side the lot was on a hill. Basically it was next to impossible to get my house level. While this may seem a novelty for you non RVers, translated it basically means that unless you are level, the refrigerator doesn't work right, the doors don't open correctly, and the water doesn't drain from the shower properly. So, being level (and of course level-headed) is always an advisable thing. That split week also happened to be the week of easter. Unfortunately I ended up sleeping in on easter since we drove from carbondal and got set up in cape girardeau the night before. After I was as level as was possible and the generator hadn't even arrived by 2AM, I decided to finish settling in and eventually hit the hay. When I awoke the next day, I walked outside my RV and saw one of our clowns in shorts, a work-on-my-rv stained t-shirt, and a giant bunny mask, he was hopping around the lot knocking on people's RV doors and and shouting "happy easter"......I didn't know whether to laugh or be scared. hmmmmm, no 2 days are ever the same in the circus, that much is for sure. The more I travel, the more abnormal things I see and do, the more normal everything becomes....perhaps I shall call this "nathan's theory of relativity" Ok, so we played cape girargeau, champaign, and then bloomington. In champaign we played a cavernous place on the univ. og illinois campus that looked a giant alien spaceship

Life..........and living intensely

2006-04-13T02:31:00.000-04:00

Early wednes. morn (or late tues. depending how you look at it) finds me sitting here in Carbondale, IL eating assorted vegetables with an experimental combination of spices and typing to you all on whatever screen you may be reading this from. Sometimes in life, from time to time there are people, events, weather patterns, or places that cause us to step back and examine our views on life and the world as we know it. We should always be open to these moments to heed the potential for learning they hold. None of us are perfect, nor will we be in this lifetime, thus we're always learning.....until the moment we close our eyes a final time, we are all impressionable sponges. I was traveling yesterday from florida to Illinois. (as rick steves says, "traveling is living, intensified") It was a long drive, so there was time to think, contemplate, and stop for a gas. Well, after driving 6 hours straight my bladder and stomach were telling me that it was time for dinner and a pee stop (but not in that corresponding order ;-) ) So, I got dinner at wendy's (I've been on this Frescata sandwich kick lately, AND by ordering it in a value meal along with a salad as your side, well, dang that's a healthy meal) and then purchased a king sized kit-kat for desert and decided to making my stop a culinary triumvirate by ordering a mocha latte (what? I hear you asking. yes. there was an old savannah coffee and tea company in this gas/rest stop, but my expectations weren't high) so, the girl seemed a little confused on the order (but I think it was me not talking straight because I was really really hungry and hadn't started in on the wendy's yet) she got a little testy, but hey, when you're working a coffee counter in a gas station I probably would be to. So, she finished the drink (thank goodness they didn't use powdered chocolate like the book&bean in Bruton, AL argh); rang up my order and asked me to try it to see if it was ok before I paid for it....well, anyone who asks my opinion of a mocha latte is setting themselves up. Anyhow, trumpet playing leaves me with sensitive lips, so I usually can't drink coffee or espresso right out of the can. I just said the drink was "OK" to avoid a long debate on the finer points of espresso and lattes of the mocha variety. Well, when I said something to the affect of being a mocha connoisseur she said that her favorite one was from a little hole-in-the-wall italian place in Detroit, MI. I siad , "Ahhh, MI, that's where I was born and raised." I mentioned Sandusky, but even most MI people don't know where Sandusky is. (all this has a point by the way, so keep readng) Anyhow, I asked how she ended up behind a coffee counter in po-dunk TN. Well, she went on to explain that she moved down there with her mom since her mom has family down in TN. Not unusual, but if she didn't like it there so much, then why didn't she leave? Well, turns out that her mom has a brain tumor and she is there working a job and taking care of her mother. We went from coffee to brain tumors in 30 sec. where do you go from there? I expressed my admiration towards her as a human being and what she's doing for her mom and then went on my way. I think someone once said said, "every man is an iceberg." I'll cliffnote it for you..........the people we see every day, those with frowns, those with the bags under their eyes, those with unkempt hair, even the ones with smiles.....all of them have a story, and we only see the %20 that peeks above the surface. Have you ever sat in a train car next to someone and wondered, "what did they have for breakfast? who was the last person they called? Did they have trouble picking out what they were going to wear? maybe they're worried about being fired today; what do they go home to at the end of a day...a week" There's always more than meets the eye to any person, no matter how transparent one claims to be. And it is our task to look at, and through this exterior to try to at least meet people where they're at. We may not understand them, but that's ok, and it doesn't mean that you can't have a positive affect on that day, or on their life. Keep on smiling. You may be that person's moment that causes them to step back, look; and it may even change their view of their life, forever.

At least it's warmer here........

2006-04-06T15:09:00.000-04:00

I'm here at a coffee plac ein Montgomery, AL. This week we actually had a few days off in one place rather than driving on our days off. Sonce the last time I type, we were in Macon,GA on a split week, headed up to Albany for the weekend; then played a full week in Knoxville, TN; last week was a split between Murray, KY and Bowling Green, KY; and now this week we're in Montgomery, AL for the week before we head up north for a couple of months. So, 2 blogs ago I never finished my trip from savannah to tallahassee.--- It was a smooth drive with the added bonus of discount spices at my dinner stop.....whaaaaaat? I hear you asking for an explanation......ok, so, get this- I stopped at a subway for dinner, "sorry sir, we only accept cash" hmmmmmmm, so being the silly/resourceful person I am, I went next door to the grocery to get cash back on a purchase. So, I walk in, it's looks abnormally bare for a stand grocery store in this so called land of plenty. After walking around a but, it became clear to me that this store was changing chain owners and they were liquidating most of of their stock. Since I have the thrifty gene from my dad, I grabbed a basket and went to town. Most of the stuff 50-60% off, but you can't imagine my delight when happening upon the spice section. Most spices don't go bad when they're kept sealed in a cool and dark place. So, needless to say, I pretty much cleared them out of their whole spices and most importantly their saffron. Saffron is one of the most expensive spices per once, in the world. So, to find it at 50% discount, well, I bought 4 bottles (which totalled about 8 ounces) and left with a smile on my face. So, from about a $111 bill, with the clearance discount it ended up being around $52. So, I continued the drive to Tallahassee, only to run out of gas a mile out from where the meeting point, so one of the clowns was nice enough to take his car off his trailer and bring some gas to me. It was interesting, when your house runs out of gas on a major highway and a clown has to save your but. Anyhow, we made it into town and we set up and hooked to poewr and water by about 2am. Not a bad day off, not too relaxing though either. Ok, off to do sound check then opening night show here in Mongomery.

In Macon making some bacon

2006-03-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

So this week is what we on tour called a split week. Basically, it is when you play two town in one week. Fortunately this week the trip takes us from Mobile, AL -> Macon, GA -> Albany, GA. (not as bad as the 1000mi slpit we did last fall in Canada) Anyhow, not too much time here, but I'm at Joshua Cup coffee house here in Macon, GA. It was a brief stay here; 1 show yesterday and 3 today. Tonight we drive the 100mi down to albany and set the house up again, hook up to power, level the house, yada yada.....so I'm anticipating getting to sleep around 3 or 4 this morning. Then we have tomorrow off and a show fri, 3 sat, and 1 sun and then off to knoxville TN. Not too bad, yes, I know you're asking me to finish the last blog.....and I will, but not tonight.....I have to use this precious internet time to locate the wlamarts, laundromats, and coffee places in the next town.....which reminds me, I have discovered Google Earth Basically it ties the google search engine and global mapping together seamlessly, and it's pretty cool, download it and type in "forbidden city" and it flys you around the globe to get a perfect bird's eye satellite view, and you can pan, zoom in and out, even get terrain mapping on some cities, pretty cool stuff....I had always dreamed of something like this when I was little and would spin the globe around in dad's office. Anyhow, hope everyone in computer land is well, and just so you know....if you ever visit macon, there's not really any good coffee in this town, so try mobile, AL instead (more on that soon) tootles.....

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

2006-03-03T22:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, so yeah, I've been kinda of MIA, but hey it's been a busy month and a half. Let's see, I was in a motorcycle accident, got my RV registered, went through winter quarters (almost worse than HS band camp, I'm going to start quoting, "this one time at winter quarters......." ), went through the whole insurance process w/ the bike, got a new bike, broke it in in a week, bribed an elephant, tried to figure out the roads of Fayetteville (for anyone who has been there, you'd understand), bought Jason and the Argonauts, braved wintry Salisburg MD, made shark kebobs w/ old friends, flying dutchman met circus train, new coffee finds all along the east coast, walked in the ocean at sunset, williamsburg revisted, finally cooked my bratwurst from Spokane......just a brief summary. So this week finds circus boy circusy as ever in Tallahassee, FL (I found out the hard way, 2 ss's and 2 ee's) We're at the civic center on the edge of the FSU campus right downtown. It wasn't too bad of a drive from Fayetteville down to here. I took a detour to get the bike its first service and decided to camp out and spend the night on Tybee island outside Savannah, GA. I had always heard from a good friend that Savannah is quite the quaint quintessential southern town; and she was unanimously right. I had planned on going out that evening and checking out the night life, but due to the fact that I had risen at an insane hour to get the bike to charleston for its service, I ended up falling asleep. But, secretly I think I needed it, for I arose the next morning to the chirping of the birds and the sound of the wind (both big advantages of having your house parked on an island :-) ) A side note of a moment of inspiration.....it ocurred to me while I was lying there listening to the birds.....why do they sing, who teaches them, the brighter the sun became, the more of them joined in as if to encourage the rest to celebrate the beginning of a brand new day...no sour notes, only praise. Ok, so back to Savannah, got up that morning, got the bike out and headed into town for the coffee that awaited. I arrived in town around 10AM. Now, this was a wednesday, hump day for most people, but my equivalent of the weekend. (Now, for anyone who has even been in entertainment, you'll understand this) One thing about this job, this lifestyle, is that it gives you a unique perspective on the "normal" world where everyone works a 9-5, watches 30 hours of TV a week, drinks starbucks, and drives an SUV. (for example tonight, I'm at a coffee house. I walked in at 10PM; the place is packed and there's a line at the counter. I think "this is unusual" because for me, it feels like a wednesday, and then it hits me, "it's a friday night in a college town, so of course people are going to be out and aboot, guys trying to coax pretty girls laugh with their less-than-dim remarks") ok, back to Savannah, I rode around for a while exploring the copious little town parks and picture-perfect old southern estates. After some near misses on the one-way/yield streets I arrived at the highly recommended Gallery Espresso. Well, I won't go into full review mode here (that's for my other site) But, lets just say that if passing within the confines known as the borders of Georgia, eat a peach and make a visit. So, I continued on my quest of coffee and happened about the local cathedral, and the organ/church enthusiast that I am, I had to walk in and explore....it was beautiful inside, slightly more ornate than I'm used to, but very beautiful all the same. When I found out the it was about to get very crowded (due to the fact that it was ash wednesday) I ventured across the street to cafe vas (latin for "seize the cup" ) , it was an interesting little place (again, you can read the full review on my other site) once I got my mocha latte, I sat outside to enjoy the weather and watch people....I see a lot of different people in the course of my job, usually they're families, small children, the ocassional group of friends or guy on a date with his dream girl. But, as you travel the country, or just travel the world in general, you quickly start to get the vibe of a place, of a town, a region by spending some time quietly, thoughtfully, respectfully, w/out talking....observing. For anyone who is mildly intrigued by the dynamics of the human psyche, the more you watch the more you are in awe of the diversity on this spec in the cosmos. So, as I sat watching the comings and goings of the ash wednesday church goers, it once again made me re-examine the state of organized religion in this country of ours. Finished the espresso-based drink and had just enough time before the campgroud check out to eat at this irish place on the waterfront that was recommended by a fellow circus friend (the fish and chips came highly recommended) so, of course that's what I ordered (with a guiness of course; what is a good irish meal w/ out a guiness??ss??ss??) it was good, the fish was fresh, but the deep fried coating of the chips and fish could have used a little more seasoning, but then again....I get picky when I pay attention. Made my way back to the campground, packed up the bike and made the 6 hour drive to tallahassee. It was a smooth drive with the added bonus of discount spices at my dinner stop.....whaaaaaat? I hear you asking for an explanation......ok, so, get this- I stopped at a subway for dinner, "sorry sir, we only accept cash" hmmmmmmm, so being t..........opps, closing time = end of free internet, more next time, ciao

MIA

2006-02-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know I've been out of contact for a bit and haven't posted for awhile. Trust me, it's been for good reason. In the past few weeks we've put together a brand new show, so hopefully this week we start to get back to a normal routine (as normal as life on the road can be) So, I hope to put up new pics and updates on here (and my new coffee blog) within the week till then........keep your stick on the ice

Winter Quarters 101

2006-01-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

So the first week of Winter Quarters is almost over and I'm not sure I'm going to make it through the 2nd one. Ok, for those of your asking "What is Winter Quarters?" Well, every 2 years Ringling takes 3 weeks off to develop a brand new show and put it out on the road for another 2 years. But, for whatever reason (perhaps money, space, or world domination) they decided to do ours this year in 11 days. So, to take entire company of people, 90% of whom have never been together, and put a brand new show together........well if not insane at least gutsy. So, this week finds circus boy very tired, we've been putting in 12 and 14 hours days since monday. So, for any of you out there in the music world, you'll know how long a day of rehearsals like that is. So, needless to say I was excited to finish at 10PM tonight, which finds me here at the arena typing to you all at your computers. It may sound like I'm copmlainging, but I'm not...I'm very grateful to have a paycheck and insurance, and as someone with a lot of bumps in their life right now has recently told me, "it could be worse" and that's rings very true.
So, last update was Lakeland..........I think the highlight of that town for me was the fact that I had family come to see the show. The last time that happened was in Spokane when my aunt and uncle came out to see the show from Seattle. So, in Lakeland it was 2 of my great aunts and uncles that made the drive over from their own "winter quarters" in Sarasota. I wasn't able to spend much time with them unfortunately (due to the fact that it was a sunday i.e. move out day) but I was glad that they were able to be there and see the show. Here's a pic that my great aunt anne sent through email So, I we left that night and made my way up to Anderson, SC. Now Anderson is an inteteresting little town, didn't really get to see much of it,but I did do my laundry there and on top of that I even discovered a great little home-roasted coffee joint there in the downtown area. (review soon to follow on my new coffee review site ) I was surprised that we actually even played their aren since the ceiling clearance was so low that we had to swap out 2 of our acts that we do in normal arenas. But, the general public seemed to enjoy the shows, and out our ringmaster, Ted, even got the key to the city (not that it really opened anything, but it would have been nice, eh? ) Finished up there week there, and already you could feel that "senioritis" one gets when coming to the end of something big. Oh, one thing I forgot to add, I met some of the coolest people I've ever met in my life that week. As it turns out, one of the original "Our Gang" (for those of you who don't what that was, like me, they were the little Rascals) He was part of the little Rascals when they still doing silent films! He is now 92 and has been with his wife over 60 years! For someone at my point in my life to meet people like that, actually for anyone, there's so much that one can learn just by simply being around them. You know, I've found that you learn a lot more by watching rather than talking. They still sweet to each other, and even though his wife has alzheimers, he still takes her driving, one of her favorite things to do together. To top my week off, I was lucky enough to be invited over for dinner with the 2 clowns on our show and the show juggler. It was an experience that I'll never forget, to hang out with someone who's been in showbizness all their lives. He also had other cordial company including this little spitfire of an Irish lady who used to be Harry Truman's personal songbird. She still has more get-up and go than my middle school students last year. She was born and rasied an Irish Jersy Girl (yes Sara, another person from Jersey :-) ) and now resides in Anderson where she bragged that she even had her own stool at the local Irish pub downtown. I think real people are better than any fiction we could dream of writing. It was such a warm feeling to be there, and they were elated to have fellow showbiz folk from the cricus to visit. It was definately a highlight of my time on this tour.
Upon finishing the week there we headed to our last stop of the Hometown Edition tour, Daytona Beach. The weather was a pleasant surpsrise, and even better, the arena was right across from the beach! So, of course the first day there I had to walk over and get a rocket double and milk shake from Johnny Rockets and take along walk on the beach (yes, I DO like long walks on the beachh ;-) ) anyhow, it was a great week, my chops were doing well (finally) and we had a lot of visitors from other cicuses and companies. It was a good week, amongst the shows, I got to visit Kennedy Space Center and caught some shark deep sea fishing (we're going to grill it Jess when we visit next) Anyhow, I will the exciting details for a future entry, until then, (for you RG fans) keep your stick on the ice, and if your wife doesn't find you handsome, at least she'll find you handy.......

Daytona Beach

2006-01-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

Greetings to everyone in cyberland from Daytona Beach. It's a Friday afternoon and I'm typing to you all here from Starbucks (yes, you heard right, unfortunately Daytona doesn't have many other coffee choices to offer) looking out over a rainy Atlantic Ave. where the traffic is rather meduim on this afternoon. We're at the Ocean Center this week which happens to be right on Atlantic Ave. which is right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean.
So, continuing on the PR update, that week first week went by much more quickly than I had anticipated. I felt somewhat sad that I hadn't seen and done more, but after the second week I'm glad that I had spent it resting. As I said before, we did 13 shows in that 2nd week, which included a 9 pack (circus talk for 3 shows on a fri., sat., and sun.) After that long week we had one day off (tues.) before we started in on the 3rd week of shows. Since I had arrived that first night and found out that the Arecibo radio telescope was only an hour away, I had a strong desire to visit this unique place. (you ask why it's so special, well it's only the largest radio telescope in the world in AND the main hub for the SETI project ) So, on that tues. I decided to brave the PR drivers and rent a car to make the trip to Arecibo. Well, believe it or not, it's about the same price or cheaper to rent a car rather than a scooter. AND, since I had just joined the quarter centarian's club, I no longer had to pay the extra fee for being young. All, in all, it was a good day. There's nothing quite like driving around in a different country, just exploring, and only knowing enough of the language to not get too lost. So, I set out to find the observatory.....it was an odd feeling ; driving that is. You see, when I travel with the show it is usually in my RV or on my motorcycle. So, it's very rare when I actually drive a car. So, the car they gave me was a little chevy Aveo. Sporty little car with a tropical flair, and truth be told, I didn't even know they existed until I rented this one. Anyhow, made it to Arecibo ok, got lost in the town, got directions from a pretty girl, and then arrived at the gate to the telescope complex. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, they are closed mon. and tues., so, the guard wouldn't let me in and I then decided to drive around the roads in the local area to see if I could find a good vantage point of the telescope. Well, I found a semi-good view, but more importantly I got a good dose of the local culture. Basically all of the roads around there are single lane and very steep. Most of the houses looked very poor and maybe had a car. It was definately interesting to so the contrast between the cities and smaller villages. On the way back to the expressway I decided to stop at a little bakery that I had spotted on the way in. I was very delightfully surprised by the place. It was definately family owned, and since it was the wimter time and the telescope was closed that day, the customer traffic was pretty slow. The mom behind the counter spoke good english and her little girl peeking from behind the counter had the cutest toothless smile you've ever seen. I decided to order a pastrami sandwhich and try on of the many deserts they had there. Not only was it a pizza/sandwhich place, but also a bakery. So, you know me, I tried one of everything and hgot a "to go" box. The pastrami sandwhich was very good and there's also one thing I noticed amongst the smaller mom&pop places in PR,you don't worry about paying for your food until you've finished eating. It's a form of hopstiality not often found in small eateries stateside. But, I digrss, I drove around a bit more, then headed back to the hotel in San Juan. I did have the car for 24 hours and was going to make a trip out to the Wal Mart to pick some things up, but turns out that there are no 24hr WalMarts in PR! It was the same thing in Canada.....hmmmm, so the 24hr must be an american thing, makes sense since we tend to burn the candle at both ends. Anyhow, just spent the rest of the evening relaxing and hanging out at the pool to rest up for the next week of shows. So, the last week of shows went by rather quickly. The highlight of the week was the little shin-dig that the venue threw for us that thurs., they had a real PR pig roast! I seen and trasted many things, but never in all my life a real pig roast. So, yes, circus boy was excited and definately not disappointed. As you can see on my PR pics gallery it was tasty, and there was sop much food. To top it off, that had some live PR music show up, it just all seemed to fit and was a good ending of sorts for our time there, everything that the trip had meant, everything that we'd been through (there were a few life-threatening circumstances during our weeks there) we all celebrated together as an entire cast, around PR food, with our PR hosts. So, on mon. afternoon we flew back to Ft. Lauderdale and took the shuttle back toour houses in West Palm. It was weird at first being back home, that whole process of readjusting begins anew, but deep down there is a sense of comfort being back in your own space.....we all have to have a little bit of space that's our own. Spent the night in my house, catching up on mail etc., and the next morning woke up early to catch a flight up to Harrisburg to see the folks for Christmas week. Well, after arriving to the airport soaked from the rian and having trouble activating the parking gate sensor with my motorcycle, I think it might have been against my better jusdgement to ride and leave the bike there. But, I made it up to Harrisburg with out and troubles and was mostly dried out by the time I deplaned. It was a nice week of seeing family and friends and even getting to talk to some of you about this blog :-) But alas, I had to work on the 27th through new years, so I caught my flight on Christmas afternoon and arrived back in West Palm early early mon. morning. I was relieved to see that no one had messed with my bike during the week and rode back in a humid my dry night to my my home parked on the West Palm fairgrounds. On tues. we began our run of shows that would carry through new year day. The week as a whole went by pretty quickly, and to our surprise A LOT of people decided to make the circus their entertainment for the holiday season, almost every show was packed (even the 9:30AM new year's eve show was almost sold out!) The amount of people doesn't affect my pay, but I know that week made the concessions people very happy. So, new years was brought in (as you can tell from my earlier entry) with my circus family. The company threw us a few bones for a small feast and refreshments and it was, for sure, a good time had by all. It was intersting to think of where I'd been over the past several new year advents, and I never would've dreamed I'd be celebrating 2006 in a West Palm Beach fairgrounds parking lot with 130+ fellow circus people; but live has a way of teaching us that the only thing we can expect is the unexpected. So, we finished that week and headed NW to Lakeland, FL. It was a quite drive, and I spent most of that mon. (new year's day observed) trying to find a place to fix the valve stem for one my duelie tires. After a frustrating half a day of trying to find a place to fix it, turns out that one tire place, upon a quick inspection, finds that it's just the extension on not the stem itself........well, now I know (I really think it was just a lesson in patience) Anyhow, reached Lakeland, had a few days off, not too much to do or see there, but there are a few good eating places downtown and they do have one homegrown coffee shop, but the hours did not match their website, so I tried to visit and they were closed. Ok, my coffee is finished.....time to go......till next time

Yes, there are lakes in Lakeland......

2006-01-05T19:11:00.000-05:00

So, it's a thurs. eveniing in a brisk chilly lakeland, Fl. and I'm sitting in a local florida chain called Crispers. The sun just went over the horizon and I'm watching a big train loaf by outside the giant picture window. So, updates, the last time I typed I had just experienced the bioluminescent bay kyak trip with Ted; quite the expereience. So, that was early in the first week in PR. The next day I went for a brief foray to old san juan with my Romanian teeterboard friends. We all decided to take the public transportation since taxis in PR don't have meters on them! Thus, a taxi ride from our hotel near the airport to old san juan cost around $20 each way, not exactly affordable. We arrived a the the bus depot near the boat docks, and immediately your feel the tourist bureau reaching for your wallet. But, we ignored the money magnet (for a brief time anyways) and made out way up the san juan hill towards El Morro fortress. On the journey we were surrounded by youths of the middle school variety who were all wearing red shirts. They weren't militant, and as I later came to find out, they were all making their way from the campus or field in front of El Morro from some PRday celebration. It seems that this area is often used for large events and concerts. Further on our way, Aaron (one of the elephants huys) and myself were hungry, so we decided to look for something local, and after wander by bugalos and a haphazard movie set we stubled upon a corner eatery (I don't know the name in spanish). So we walked in, to our delight there was nothing tourist about it. But, on the other hand, in this small cafe of a counter and two tables, we stuck out like two yankee thumbs. But, a smile is a greeting in any language, and before long, the guy next to us piped up in broken english and helped us order. I had a special (roasted pork w/ red beans and yellow rice) and Aaron had a pastrami sandwhich. All in all, is was local, good, and cheap; which in my travel book is a good find. we countinued on our way and made it to El Morro and paid the admission and continued to venture around this old abandoned fort. It was most certainly a beautiful day, which made it perfect for pictures (as you can see on my Pbase site) and just enjoying the caribbean climate. Sometime in that first week it hit me, this was the farthest south that I'd ever been in my life. It was a pretty cool feeling to be sitting by the pool while friends in Buffalo NY were watching snow accumulate, than again I did kind of miss the snow. I suppose you can never totally take the childhood out of the kid. That evening as we went back to the hotel rested and checked out the music at the in-house bar/cafe/restaurant. To my surprise there was a band every night and on weekends there were sometimes 2 or 3 bands until 2 or 3 in the morning. All these bands were more or less traditional PR music, which as I came to find out was anywhere and everywhere. In PR pretty much anyone who grows up there can dance and feel the rhythm, it's ingrained into the culture......the music, the movement, the feeling......it's all something that is part of a culture, part of a people. In the states, we have a culture, but it seems to me that everything has become so diversified that there is no specific US anything anymore, nothing uniting us as one group of people. In PR there is such a strong sense of music, art, movent, food that when there's a holiday or celebration everyone can participate (not everone does, but they can) And all the traditional music in just happy, full of feeling. Even the tunes in minor (which in the US is taught to young ones as "sad" sounding music") is just as rich and full of intesity as the upbeat major keyed tunes. (and yes, and my friend meghan J so aptly pointed out in her blog, dancing for dummies is all about the hips :-) ) So, the rest of the week in a nut shell, I had one more foray to old san juan, practice (of course), swimming in the free form pool, pina-colatas, food at Metropol, salsa dancing in the lobby, Piu Bello gelato, waking up to the ocean breeze, and Pueblo made me bankrupt. muze isc.........must go, more soon

Happy New Year from circusland.......

2006-01-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to take a minute out of today to say Happy New Year!!! To all of you no matter where in the world you maybe reading this from. I actually worked all day yesterday on most of the day today of New Year’s, but I’d rather have a job and work on a “holiday” than be poor with out one. So, here’s to you all from west palm beach to your computer screen, happy new year and may this one be more blessed than all that have come before…….szczenliwe nowego roku!

And the beat goes on....

2005-12-30T18:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm back in West Palm Beach. It's 5:28 friday evening, we played a 1:30 show today and have a 7PM to go tonight. I'm sitting in little place called Greenberry's Coffee & Tea company sipping a mocha latte, watching the sun go down and typing to you all. Ok, enough for the scenery here. Last time I typed, I had just arrived in West Palm Beach (here after reffered to as WPB) Got situated, they didn't have power so I had to run the generator for the night, which was really alright since it was warm enough where I didn't have to run the space heater. The next day I spent routing through all the things in sight in order to figure out what needed to be mailed, thrown away, or packed for the 3 weeks ahead. I was packed in just the nick of time (and NO mom, the bus did not have to wait for me) In 3 separate waves, we took our scheduled bus down to Ft. Lauderdale where we spent the night at the Best western there, it wasn't the nices one I'd ever seen, maybe not even as good as the one I worked in Hershey way back when.....but that's another story. It was a bed to sleep in, and there was a Denny's next door (which usually turns out to be the unofficial food sponser for the the hometown edition tour......."a moons-over-my-hammy for the please" ) The next day we checked into the airport with out incident, no bombes were found on any children, and I was quickly reminded of how pricy airport food/water/smiles/anything really is. The flight left after dark and was about 2 1/2 hours. It went by fairly quick, I watched my Bolshoi ballet DVD until my battery died, but we all lamented the fact that we couldn't see the islands or the triangle of the bermuda triangle outside the window. We arrived in a steamy 76 degree san juan and we checked in and settled by midnight. What an unexpected joy it was to discover this place that would be my home for the next 3 weeks. Never before had I experienced "living" in a hotel and having it be paid for by someone else. It was also quite exciting to realize I was once again out of my element. Where in a place where US money is used, and the USPS sends the mail, but everything else was a new expereience entirely. Our schedule for that three weeks was basically this....... week 1: relax, enjoy, don't spend too much money or get thrown in jail week 2: Ringling owns you, work your little but off and top it all with a 9 pack weekend week 3: You thought last week was bad, well we thought we'd give you a 2nd week of 9 packs. So, in the face of the most intense playing I'd ever done looming ahead, I decided week 1 was relaxation time in order save my strength for the 2 heavy weeks ahead. I've realzed while trapsing around the globe that travelling an site-seeing is exhasting and I was determined not to start week 2 already tired. So basically that week, I slept a lot, took long walks on the beach ;-) and survived on bread, cheese, sausage, and wine. Actually, I did find some time to get around the island. After a few days of loafing, Ted (ringmaster) and I decided to get off our dairy-airs and see something, so we elected to do the bioluminescent bay kyak tour. So, we cought an evening shuttle and drove the 6 of us about an hour away. After some crazy PR traffic (is there any other kind in PR?) and some angry bumpy roads, we arrived in this little village that had a small boat port. We got out, it smelled like fish, but looked promising. We signed our life away, they gave us life jackets and then set sail in our 2 person kyaks alongside our fearless guide nestor. We paddles across the lagoon and were immediately entered a narrow canel lined with mangrove trees. And then, with out announcement or alarm, it hits you........there's no sound except for your kyak part the water, the coqui frogs, and your breathing. You it's toally dark, and you look up to see a heaven bursting with sequined-velvet. It's one of those moments in time that Thoreau alluded to at walden pond. Everything makes sense and you want to melt into the fabric of the creation that's around you. ok.......coffee time over, time to go do a show, na razia

Merry Christmas!!!!! (from detroit?)

2005-12-25T20:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, so you’re reading this and saying to yourself, “why has it been so long since he’s updated” Well, it’s because I’ve been a very busy boy in the past few weeks, as you’ll see if you keep reading. Continuing where I left off, I spent thanksgiving in Sarasota with my great aunt pearl and great uncle doyle. It was a nice thanksgiving with Amish food and beautiful weather (70’s every day) While I was there, once I found out that the Ringling circus museum was near by I made sure that I left time in my schedule to see it. So, on sat. Morning my friend Justin (the drummer on the show) rode his k1200 up from his folk’s place and we went to the John Ringling estate. We had just enough time to tour his house and the circus museum. Now, John Ringling was quite a character and his house reflected everything that he was and had built. Within the first 10 seconds of when I walked in the house as part of the tour, it all made sense, the plush, flashy, fantastical sensationalism that embodies the word and event that is the circus. The first room was a receiving room with art on the walls, a silver tea set on a fancy table, all hardwood floors, dark red velvet enrobing the large vertical panes of multicolored glass; the whole room decked out in gold trim. As we continued through the house it was opulent, even by today’s standards, but when you put yourself in the mindset of the 30’s American, this place was utterly grotesque in its lavishness. But then, the over the top sentiment in the décor and style fit perfectly the man who developed the most circus in the world. Of all the rooms, I believe my favorite was his wife’s bedroom. It was decorated entirely by her, so obviously it not only stood out from the rest of the house but also created this quaint oasis of solitude. When you walk in from the powder room the color motif, a mellow pea green immediately surrounds you. Then there’s a wood border where the wall meets the ceiling and all along this border there are various forms of exclamation marks lining all 4 sides. Curiously no one, including the tour guide could figure out what they meant. Everything was simply elegant. After that we got a bite to eat and enjoyed the view on the outside veranda. Apparently back in the day John would often have the circus band play as his yacht was arriving up to the veranda. Afterwards we headed to the circus museum. It truly was a treat learning about the heritage and legacy that I’m now a small part of. They had everything from the Lou Jacobs’s clown props to old circus wagons used in the old circus parades which were once such a memorable part of the circus coming to town. A personal favorite for me was a vintage bandwagon that was part of their museum. I thought about having my picture taken while sitting on it, but I didn’t want to be accused of jumping on the bandwagon. We also learned a few interesting tid bits of circus lore, for example back in the days of tents, they needed a lot of help for setup and take down, so they would offer free tickets for anyone who world come and work a few hours, of course this was a good way for kids to get free tickets and for John Ringling to get the rest of their family there. After the day was over I had a much better understanding of how smart a business man he really was. So, on my last evening there, I got to sample some of the local seafood fare when my aunt and uncle treated to a meal at the Anne Marie Oyster bar. It was excellent, all except for the lobster bisque. You see, I’ve been noticing that the more I cook the more critical I’ve about food; the food I cook as well as others. Perhaps my palate is just becoming more educated, I don’t know, but in any case this lobster bisque missed the mark. It had good potential but missed the mark in that it was WAY too salty. (I let the cook know; hopefully he’ll fix it for future customers) In any case, it was a nice evening before I headed back to circus life. Later that evening is when I headed over to west palm beach where I was to park my RV for the up and coming weeks in Puerto Rico (hereafter referred to as PR ;-) ) ok, layover over (echo, echo, echo) time to fly back to my home on wheels…….till next time

And so the shows begin............

2005-12-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

So the marathon of shows has begun, about 26 shows in 1 1/2 weeks. Granted the week of rest down here helps, and the 80+ degree weather makes the long days a little more paletable. So far we've done a couple days of rehearsal, then had 6 shows so far (not counting the 3 today) So, last time I typed I left you all with my musings on pikeville, KY. The little town that it is. Turns out that it's the region where the Hatfields and McCoys had their famous feud. Anyhow, I left the muddy lot Sunday night after the show, hoping to drive as far as Virginia, so that I could visit the DMV on Monday morning. So, after going across the border into Tennesee, I found a walmart to stay the night at (and of course I couldn't pass up a late night shopping trip to pick up a few things) I mean really, how many can pull their house up to Walmart and walk right in! (I know my mom would just live in the parking and shop there if she could) Anyhow, I got up the next morning, drove back across the border into VA and get my new motorcycle tags. You see, I had them stolen in Topeka, and ended filling out a police report and everything. Definately not a highlight of that city for me. But fortunately in VA all that you have to do to replace stolen tags is present your registration and pay the $10 for a new one. Most of the rest of the day I spent driving to Augusta to visit my old roomate and his family. I have to say, (and I know I keep saying it) it was good to see familiar faces. AND, I even got to cook a little too! You see, I've been carrying around my set of srpingform pans in my RV, but truth be told I don't have an oven or anywhere to use them. So mark's wife tiera was kind enough to let me use her kitchen to make one of my fav recipies, Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake And here was the result (Caution, viewing picture may result in drooling on computer) After visiting for a few days I headed down to florida to spend Thanksgiving with my great aunt and uncle whi live in Sarasota. Well, things can never be as simple as you plan. The schedule was to arrive on wednes evening, but just after I crossed the FL border I had a blowout on my front left tire. Fortunately I didn't lose control of the vehicle but it ripped off the mudflap and did a number on the paintjob. So, it spent a couple late night hours figuring out a way to rig the jack to get it high enough off the ground to put on the spare. So, I got the spare on and continured on my way, but at 3AM I started falling asleep on the road, so since FL rest stops are RV friendly, I pulled into one and spent the night and drove the rest of the way early Thanksgiving morning. One plus was that I avoided most of the holiday traffic, although FL drivers are crazy enough to make up for any bonuses gained. So, with aunt pearl's help, I made it to their winter residence in the TriPar mobile home park in Sarasaota. I had a mild case of dejavoux. You see, this mobile park was the same one my family stayed at for our FL trip when I was on 4th grade. If someone had told me I'd be working with the circus and staying there with my RV 17 years later, I probably would've never believed them in a million, but life has a funny way of working out that way. So, I arrived on thanksgiving, visited, and since pearl had to work that evening, we went went for lunch at an Amish buffet restaurant, and I have to say, the Amish know how to do food; perhaps that's where I get my inspiration (my Schlabach ancestors that emmigrated here were from germany were all amish) Anyhow, it was a wonderful and filling meal. Turns out the that owners are from Holmes county ohio, which is where my grandparents live. As I got talking to aunt pearl she was telling me that there are a lot of amish that come to Sarasota for the winter. They run vans back and forth between ohio and FL at least once a week during peek season. And, curiously enough, a lot of the amish houses in FL have ammenities such electricity and phones (which they would never have in ohio) Upon hearing I raised my eyebrows in surprise, and aunt pearl said there's a saying they have, "what happens in florida stays in florida" Anhow, it was a nice treat to me in good company have good food for the holiday. That night I got to bed fairly early so that I could be ready fo early morning sales on black friday :-) oh, have to go play the last show for the day..........more soon

Life is but a dream……….

2005-11-29T18:46:00.000-05:00

So here I sit, on my balcony in my room in San Juan Puerto Rico on an 84 degree Fahrenheit day over looking a dozen shades of blue ocean stretching out to the seemingly endless horizon. Could this be real? This is what I asked myself as I awoke this morning to find this vista outside my window. It’s a busy couple of weeks. Last time I typed I believe it was for thanksgiving and turkey day. So that week we played Rapid City, SD, then Spencer, IA and lastly Topeka, KS. While in Rapid City, a bunch of us with bikes on tour took a day trip through Sturgis (the town of the annual Harley festival) and Deadwood, the site of the infamous wild Bill Hicock’s shooting death. Anyhow, we stopped at a place that supposedly had good steaks, the waitress was friendly, and even convinced the chef to bring out the steaks even though it was only lunch time. But, I have to say Big Al’s prime rib did leave something to be desired, but then again I don’t know if anything will even compare to the Prime Rib I tasted at Philly’s Restaurant named the Prime Rib. It’s a standard which I don’t think will soon be surpassed. Anyhow, it was a good set of shows despite my lips being injured. Then, in Spencer, it wasn’t much but flat land, but flat land is ideal for speed in a wheeled vehicle, and I found out that my bike can indeed live up to its speedometer. The other exciting thing I found in Spencer was a niche little bakery/café named Carrolls. I had my standard mocha which turned out to be mediocre (they needed to use better beans with a bolder flavor) and some baked goods that knocked my stomach off its small intestine. Between my repeat visits I had a good sampling of their offerings and highly recommend it. It was neat to sit in their establishment for an hour or so and watch their interactions with the customers; it was a tableau of small town America. They knew their patrons my name and profession and within that short hour I learned all of the news of the town (the unedited version). One down side of Spencer was that it got down to 18F one night and forced water through the flush valve in my toilet, so basically my entire RV flooded, so between shows I had to go out and rent a shopvac to get most of it up, but it still smelled, so in Topeka I went out and bought a carpet shampoo scrub thing and spent the better part of an evening shampooing the carpet of my entire RV. I think most of the smell is out of it. Then we finished the week up in Topeka, KS. It was an OK town, had lot of potential, and was trying pretty hard, and I don’t think I got its best impression. They did have some cool coffee places, name the Classic Bean and the World Cup Café, but between the weather and my motorcycle plate being stolen, I decided that Topeka wasn’t a place for me. I’ll include some descriptions of the aforementioned cafes when I start my new coffee/café review section. Anyhow, the next day I drove up to Omaha to hang out with my friend Holly who had just flown out to start rehearsals for a musical tour she was playing with. That also happened to overlap with my B-day, so it was nice to celebrate it with a familiar face around. On Wednesday I drove to St. Louis to check out the Blue Show of Ringling Circus. I parked the RV at a place called the Casino Queen, which was quite a nice RV park, but I got lost in the ghetto trying to find it, always an interesting trip when I’m driving I suppose. Anyhow, got to the show, and in the words of my friend Tom, it was like a parallel universe but on a much larger scale. I was back stage, and everything that we do, it was just, more. But it was neat to see some of these performers since a fair number of them are retiring or moving to other shows, so in a very real way it was witnessing a closing to the end of an era. That evening also got to check out the circus train, which is a part of the traditional circus experience (if such a thing exists) that I’ve missed out on. But after seeing how small the things are and the different lifestyle, I feel very blessed to be with the unit I’m on. Basically if I were living on the train my room would be an 8x8ft space. The next morning I awoke to a beautiful sunny St. Louis day with the mission of touring the world headquarters of Annheuser Busch, stopping in Evansville, and arriving in Pikeville, Kentucky that night. Well, all of this went as planned. The tour was great, after working 3 summers at Busch Gardens; I had to make a stop at the headquarters there. In Evansville I wanted to stop because 1) the national headquarters for my music fraternity is there and 2) on of my former teacher colleagues and friend now lives there. Once again, it was quite a delight to see a familiar face and she even was kind enough to make a meal! And for anyone who’s even been on the road for any amount of time knows what an unparalleled treat that is. Late that night I finally arrived in Pikeville, KY. Now, this place is quite off of the beaten path. In fact, their biggest claim to fame is their “Hickville Days” festival, yes, that’s right, you read it right. That and the big cut through project which rerouted the river around the town. But, the people were nice and were very thrilled about having the circus in their little town. They had just put in a brand new arena (which was pretty nice I might add) so I think this was the first time the circus had ever been there. Anyways, the weekend shows went by rather quickly, but I daily lamented the fact that there was no espresso machine in the whole town! There was one place that advertised soup, sandwiches, AND espresso. But I just had to shake my head with a frown of compassion for the espresso advertised was that of the gas station variety (i.e. that nasty powdered stuff that they mix with hot water and resembles the taste of a powdered chocolate pop) So, the town has room to grow in its culinary side now that they have the arena built. Ok, enough typing for now, I need to enjoy this weather while I have the free time. Send you all 86 degrees, sun, and ocean breeze wherever you’re reading this from……………

Turkey day...........

2005-11-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Turkey day everyone!!!! (even to those of you in Europe who don't celebrate it) I spent it here with my great aunt Pearl and Uncle Doyle in Sarasota FL, a very WARM and sunny florida. We went to an amish buffet place down here, and I have to say it made me miss that old PA dutch cooking. It was good, simple, hearty food. Appearently they keep some old amish lady in the kitchen that cranks out amazing food all day :-) Anyhow, tomorrow morning I excercise my american capitalism muscle by observing my annual ritual of waking up before the chickens to buy extremely discounted electrical mechandise, sounds like a good time, eh? AND more importantly I'm going to visit the Ringling museum here in Sarasota! till then.........

Circus boy is Birthday boy for a day....................

2005-11-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

So, it's that one day a year, the day of your birth which, as far as I know, is celebrated on most if not all cultures around the world. Now, some cultures bring special attention to certain landmarks, we silly humans seem to prefer signifigance when things are in threes, fives, or tens, or even "stages" of life. In any case, this year adds another click on to my life odometer, I've reached 25. Lord willing I will have three more sets of 25 in the years to come, but I'm thankful for each day my heart keeps beating. So this 25th occasion for cake finds in a snowy Omaha. As you all know, this week was loooong circus week. We call it a split week, it's we play an extra town midweek. Now, we did a split up in Canada (between calgary and grande prairie) but that was only 2 shows midweek. This week we did a full run of shows in Rapid City Sd, and then drove the 8 hours on monday to Spencer, IA. We did 5 shows there then had one day to drive another 8 hours to Topeka, KS. Got there Fri. night and did 5 shows between sat. and sun. This would have been a heavy week with good chops, but due to the fact that I injured myself in Nampa by pushing myself to hard (and possibly playing incorrectly) at the end of a 3rd show on a Sat. So, it's been a challenging couple of weeks. But's it's been a humble learning experience and I'll definately take better care of the chops in the future, and pay more attention to what my body is telling me. Ok, I'm here in Omaha and heading out to Outback to celebrate the B-day with my old PA dutch friend Holly. Having a steak with someone named Holly in the midwest, that's so 50's america...........

Coffee is catching on.......

2005-11-04T16:06:00.000-05:00

Ok, had a minute to put something up today. I'm at the Cafe Latte agian, and I just got around to reading this blog of coffee places in Spokane check it out good stuff.........I have to say, I may be inspired to start a totally new section just for my coffee forays. Also, my family has been extremely cutrious with questions and all about the circus life, and so I figured a lot of people have the same curiosities. So, feel free to leave quesitons in the comments area and I'll do my best to answer in a circus manner. Have a good TGIF

Blow thou winter wind

2005-11-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

Today I type to you from Cafe Latte in Rapid City South Dakota. Rapid City is better know for its proximity to Mt. Rushmore, and Deadwood, Wall Drug, and Sturgis. But, just as well, this is where we are this week, getting ready to jump off into a heavy week of shows......the rundown: Rapid City- 1 fri, 3 sat, 2 sun, drive to Spencer IA wednes 2, thurs 3, drive to Topeka KS Sat 3, Sun 2. So, I'm going to have some tires lips, but at least it will get me ready for our marathon of shows in Puerto Rico. In any case, I was last typing about last week in Nampa ID, a suburb of Boise. It was a productive week, as I mentioned before I got a lot of work done on the house. I had mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that my friend the ringmaster was in a motorcycle accident in Kennewick, so, he is well on the mend. But, since it was the other person's fault, the owner of the bike, one of the sound guys Elliot, ended up getting insurance money for the total value of the bike. So, in looking for a new one he decided to upgrade to the 1200 sport BMW bike, quite a nice bike it is, I've never really fancied the BMWs, but if I'd get one, that'd be the one. So we all took a ride to the loacl BMW/Ducati dealer and drooled over the bikes, and elliot got set up for the new bike. I also discovered this great little coffee shop in old town Nampa. Now, if you ever get in that part of the country, Boise has really done a lot to fix up and revtialize their downtown area. With ina 2 to 3 block radius there is a plethora of coffee shops, micro breweries, and clubs. Quite a hopping little place on the weekends, or so I hear. I was actually just down there to pick up the new mirrors for my bike and maybe do some shoe shopping (I desperately needed a new pair of work shoes) So, I checked out little coffee shop, it was ok, had very much the independent philly vibe (anti-bush stickers, pridefest posters and the such) It was decorated festively for Halloween. I got my standard mocha and also some oatmeal rasberry square. The coffee was average, but the square was intrigueing to say the least. In any case, I didn't get to try all the coffee joints downtown, but I definately sensed good coffee potential. But, in Nampa I found this little mom and pop coffee shop called the "old town coffee shop", or something to that affect. I went in not expecting much, but they had 2 soups, 15 bean and chili, both homemade and they looked delicious. So, once again I ordered my standard mocha and then got that with the 15 bean soup which came with fresh corn bread. mmmmmm....mmmmmm.mmmmmmmmmmm. It was everything that I expected a small town mom and pop coffee place to be. It wasn't exactly a coffee house since it was attached to an antiques shop, but everytijng was fresh and quality. I got to know the owner Bob, who had bought the business in his retirement, and was commenting how happy he was with his current employess, since it's so hard to find quality among today's workforce. He also filled me in on some history of the town, appearently the town is haunted. As the story goes, like so many towns in the west Nampa was a railroad town in the 1800's. The place where the cafe is now used to be a motel witha brothel in the upstairs, and at times, they say you can still hear the occupants walking around and even knocking on the doors. And, to top it off, there is a network of tunnels that run under the whole town. Appearently there were a lot of chinese that worked in the area and there was a law stating that they were not allowed to been seen at night, so they dug a tunnel network and that's how they got around. The network still remains todyay and is largely unexplored. Pretty crazy stuff, anyways, so I like their soup so much, that I went back on sat. morning to try their chili, and afterwards I took a stroll through the little farmer's market and ended up buying some fresh honey and some palate stopping cinnamon pecan buns. (I think I need to get back into my long distance running with all of this food!) The shows went pretty well, for the most part they were well attended and the audience seemed to enjoy it. It had only been 3 years since Ringling Bros. was last there, compared to 40 or 50 in some other towns. But, the people were still excited. Another highlight of the week was our Halloween extravaganza. We did trick ot treat for the kids on sat. between the 2nd and third shows. And no, I was not stingy, I did get candy for the kiddies (but I didn sneak a few pieces for myself) Basically the kids were dressed up for most of the day, and they between the 2nd and third shows they came around to the dressing rooms for trick or treat. And I have to say, there were some awefully cute costumes. After they came to the dressing rooms, we all went out to the main ring and Tom, one of the clowns, announced them one by one for the company. It was a good time, and it really reminded me that we really are our own little community unto ourselves. So, that night was the party for everyone, I didn't have time or monetary means to rig up a costume, but I did contribute to the food by making some peanut butter popcorn. Our last show was on Sunday, that night I went out to eat mexican with some of the other bike guys, and then started packing up that night for the mon. trip. On mon. I go ton the road by about 10AM to start my 1000 mile trip to Rapid City SD. My goal was to reach Jackson, WY that evening. So, after a short stop at the Gas station and Walmart in Twin Falls ID I made it into Jackson st about 6PM, So, after finding out that all and any RV places were closed for the season, I found a coffee shop and typed the last blog entry. Afterwards, I drove around town looking for a place to park and ended finding an RV park place abour 15 miles south of town. A little out of the way, but at least I had electricity. The next morning, got up, paid my bill, and then headed up to the town of Jackson. Now, I faintly remember being through there with my family when I was younger, but it's funny how tihngs change as you get older and visit the same places with different experiences under your belt. Anhow, took a gander at the antler arch, and got some coffee mocha and a croissant at a health foods shop (that mocha was average, at best, there was hardly any espresso taste at all) and then headed to the tourism building where I planned my escape from the Tetons. Thus I began my day of journeying across wyoming. My goal was to pick up a trumpet I was buying in Casper and be in Rapid City before it got too late. So, I headed across the mountain pass (with a top elevation of 9624ft) where I encountered some snow and some fluffy guy ina red suit training raindeer. I didn't ask questions, and just kept driving. After about an hour or so of climbing and then going down hill I reached the other side in what appeared to be an almost desert landscape. It was amazing how quickly the scenery changed. After a couple of hours, it occured to me, I was running out of gas. And here I was, driving across the middle of the oil fields of wyoming and no gas stations in site. FINALLY, with about 2, maybe 3 gallons the pricy petrol left in my tank, I came Hiland....population 10. But they did have an ancient (working) gas station. I didn't a price posted, so I put enough in to get me to Casper. The inside shop was everything a quintessential tourist shop in a town of 10 people could ever be. There were dried, posed snakes for sale, and of of course the ice cream fridge, along with some cowboy hats that had been patiently collecting the dust of the past 40 years. The lady behind the counter was an older frial women, thin, white curly hair, perhaps lower 70's. We had a common understanding due to the fact that we both had a nasty cold. While my credit card was running, out of burning curiosity, I asked her "are there really only 10 people in this town?" She said it was usually more like 6, with sometimes 10 on the weekends. After chatting a bit, I learned that she had been there for 30 years, and the little shops exits mainly for the tourism/gas in the summer. And I imagine it serves a watering hole for all of the oilfield truckers too. It's a different way of life, yet we all live in the same country and pay taxes to the same uncle sam. After another 45 min, I arrived in Casper, picked up the trumpet for the brass professor a the community college and grabbed a bite to eat at the famous Wonder Bar, down town, and proceeded to travel the reamining 4 hours to Rapid City. Well, it was quite the trip, I found out that a strong crosswind and sleepy Nate didn't make for very pleasant driving, but, I had the radio and CDs going....pretty loudly, and that got me there (thank goodness I had looked up the directions to the arena BEFORE I left this time) I arrived around 11:30PM and was hooked of to the power and unpacked by 12:30AM. After which I practiced and then slept....more like hibernated for the winter. That was tues night, today is thurs, more on this week later in the weekend....till then, stay warm and don't play chicken with the wind chill (it will always win).........na razie

Seattle....the continuing story (and more)

2005-10-31T21:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here I am typing once again.....especially since I had a specuial request for an update from a recently engaged relative :-) So, last time I was typing, I was just arriving back in Seattle on a thursday night after a wonderful day of ridinging and island hopping around seattle. That evenng my counsin's boyfriend and his roomate were kind enough to put me up for the night. I was good times.......the next morning I awoke early and headed back home....or to where my home was parked for the week. So I got on the roas around 8AM and of course had to stop at one more coffee shop (which came highly recommended) on the way out of town. It was called Vivace cafe, and yes, it was yet ANOTHER amazing coffee house in Seattle, thus further convinving me that I will sometime in my life live in the coffee city. This particular cafe had the italian vibe, my bike wold have been right at home there amidst the the tables and and espresso machines.....I probably would've tried, but the ducati dealer finally convinced me that ducatis don't run on espresso...but they sure ride like it ;-) Anhow, the drive back was so beautiful, I know I say that about so many places, but when you're cruising down the highway, past the beautiful seattle skyline, with tress all around, the birght morning sun, the sound of the wind rushing past my helmet, and a perfectly clear Mt. Rainier setting the backdrop......it's just one of those things. So, I got back safe and sound, didn't get pulled over for speeding (becasue I wasn't of course) Upon arriving back in Kennewick, the first thing I find out is that our ring master was in a motorcycle accident over that past week. A very harrowing reality, basically a woman wasn't payoing attention and ran a red light, and ted plowed right into her. Totalled the boke, he would've been too except that he had a helmet on, wihch is essence saved his life. But, he was still badly injured, but with the aide of pain killers he hasn't missed a show yet. (although the pain killers have made for some interesting ringside narratives) In any case, he's recovering quite well and we're blessed to have him around. We did 5 shows over the weekend in Kennewick. There's really not much to do there besides shop and go to the local wineries. According to my coffee shop scale....kennewick was barren except for a starbucks, and it was a drive-thru one at that. So, after our last show on Sun. (which was finally a strong one for my chops) We did the normal routine of packing everything up and moving on to the next town, which brings me to Nampa Idaho. Nampa is a little city right outside of Boise, the capital. I have to say this week, if I had to sum up I would call it a housekeeping week. Pretty much all of the stuff that I didn't get to lsat week, and even some long pending projects were finally completed. For example, I've been wanting to make my place a little "home-ier" so I finally got around to buying and installing a wireless doorbell. Also, my bead curtain from philly, finally got that put up; fixed the shower curtain; I even put out my awning for the first time! It downright flattered the motorhome, made it appear to be a serious place of residence :-) So we were parked at a place named the "horse park" where, as the name suggests, they park horses, or more accurately, park the trailers and put the horses in stalls. But, even though it smelled like growing up in MI, we still had a good time, I even made one of my fav dises (pitachips and canellini bean dip) for a b-day party early in the week. Ok, enough for tonight, thehy're closing the place up. Maybe more tomorrow, pending a non-encrypted wireless signal... do widzenia.................. also, got this from my friend meghan, I guess I'm a little of everything...........

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Seattle 2

2005-10-24T21:52:00.000-04:00

So, last time you tuned in, I had just arrived at Kennewick and had FINALLY found the arena, which apparently in Kennewick is called the convention center. So, that noght, I got everything set up and working by about 3AM. So, since I didin't have to report to work until 4:30PM Fri., I had planned to take the week riding up in Seattle. That afternoon I left and made the 220+ mile ride up to my aunt and uncles place in Seattle. I have to say, that I thoroughly enjoyed my week up there. It was nice to be out and about and travel a bit. The ride wasn't too cold with the new coat purchased only 2 days before the trip, but the most grueling part of the trip was actually the seat on my bike. You se, there to types of riding positions on bikes, the sport or the touring. Well, since mine is of the sporting variety, lets just say that my gluteus minimus was not too happy by the end of the ride, but I got there safe and sound and there were no close calls, even with the moderate rain in the snoqualmie pass. So, got there monday night, had a great baked chicken dinner (prepared by aunt Lynn of course) and also had the pleasure of seeing my long lost west coast cousin Janine and her significant other known as Dan. Now, Dan is an IT guy at a company, but not just any company....a COFFEE company. So, needless to say, I always something to talk about with anyone in the coffee industry. (and he had lots of insider info!) All this I file away for my future coffee house business aspirations........you see, I've been taking notes at all these coffee houses I've been visiting around the country. The way I see it, most people experience coffee in its various forms and creations in their native town, plus one, maybe two towns in any given year. Well, I've averaging about 1 new chain/mom&pop coffee joint a week, that combined with my international coffee travels and amateur baking status makes me a potential triple threat coffee entrepenuer........although I should learn how to roast the beans first I suppose. Ok, back to Seattle; Tues. was the day Janine showed me a native's perspective of this northwest city. We spent most of the day in the expeience music project, wihch was quite the experience. We only paid half price with a coupon to get in, and I'm not sure I would have paid the full $25 admission, but it was something to experience. With the digital audio guide we got to see hand written being described by the artists themselves, the history of hip-hop, the history of guitars, and even learned to play a guitar. A lot of hands on stuff and info, but once agiain, not sure if it wold have been worth the full admission. The rest of our day consisted of checking out the Pike Place market (even though it was closed) Buying a pumpkin spice latte at the first starbucks in the world, saying hello to the freemont troll, checking out a nightime city vista, perusing used CDs at a place called the Warehouse, and dinner at the local Red Robin. It was a good day. Wednes, I spent catching up on sleep and practicing, (since it was rainy anyways) and also visiting the local Ducati dealership, which is where I finally.....finally found some saddle bags for the bike. You see this purchase became necessary when I shoved everything for my road trip into my backpack, and on the ride up the weight of it on my shoulders gave me nice numb tingely feeling in my wrists. Plus, I never have enough storage for laundry and groceries. Then that evening I arrived at the Seattle youth hostel and checked-in followed by a delightful cafe mocha and apple pie at Cafe Ladro near by. It was a disorienting experience staying in a hostel in the US, all my previous hostel experiences have been in Europe......so it was interesting to see how the US does it. In any case, the bed was clean and there no smelly people in my room (you're laughing, but that happened to me one night in Berlin, and it's not a pleasant experience.....trust me) The next morning, woke up, checked my mail and such on their in-house wireless, and then left to check out the pike place market followed by a day-trip around the local islands. So, here I am walking in the market, when this girl offers me an apple sample after which she asked if I was with my bike (I had my riding jacket on) and we got to talking, well it turns out her boyfriend was working at a coffee shop down the street and was an avid rider. So, after a bit walked down there, got a great cafe mocha and the down low on where to ride around the islands. In the few years he's had his bike he's put 40,000 miles on it, and it's a sport bike! There are definately 2 kinds of riders, I consider myself in the 2nd. Anyhow, finally got on the road and top the 1st of 3 ferries for the day. It was such a beautiful ride over. In some ways it was very similar to the Surrey ferry in VA, but these ferries are much bigger and have larger and more luxurious passenger compartments. Anyhow, it was a short 30min hope over to Whidby island where I basically just set out in a direction and rode. Just beautiful scenery, everything coastal you picture when you think of the northwest. Although, I had to be very careful because there was actually a fair amount of moss and wet leaves on the road, which on a motorcycle is baaaaad news. So, after some exploring my gastric acids were sending me messeges I couldn't ignore and I stopped in a little hamlet named Langley. It was a quaint little town with a summer tourist spin on it, but was able to find a hearty no-frills local lunch at the Doghouse tavern. After ordering lunch I put a good dent on their in-house puzzle until the food arrived. I have to say, the locals in the bank I knocked over were right, (ok, so I didn't knock over the bank, just took some cash off of the plastic leech, since I'm STILL living off of it) they do make one heckuva burger and fries. Following this gastronomic adventure, I wandered the town, snapped a few pics, and mounted the bike to ride up the island toward the Greenbank farm where, island rumor has it, is the best pie on the island. Well, upon arroving, the first thing I noticed was that it looked like the pictures AND it had nice landscaping (something that anyone who has worked in this field can duely appreciate) After doing a mini wine tasting of the local varietals, I tried some the pie, and yes ladies and gentleman, there is good reason why it is famous..........it's not Pennsylvania Dutch, but it was good. So, by this time is was getting cloudy and cold and I needed to reach Seattle befire it got too late, so I headed up to catch the Pt Townsend ferry, after which was a beautiful ride down the peninsula to catch the Bainbridge ferry. I stopped in Paulsbo, a little Swedish town which good coffee. Ok, dead battery= more next time.....

Seattle

2005-10-20T01:35:00.000-04:00

Ok, so for those of you read the blog (and consistently remember the address ;-) ) you will realize that I haven't written for awhile, that is due to the sheer fact that I've been busy.........busy travelling, busy celebrating various events, bust performing, busy practicing. So, now I will try to catch up. last time you tuned in to my musings I was leaving bozeman MT and was heading to Spokane. So we got to Spokane which took the better part of a monday. It was a beautiful drive, but there were lots of hills, which translates to slowing going and more strain on the engine parts, BUT, the stop midway at a Cracker Barrell for lunch made the second leg a breeze. How can you not enjoy your drive after a meal with southern gravy over everyhting...mmmmmmmm So we got to Spokane, they weren't ready for us, so we held up traffic until they devised putting us in a holding parking lot until they were ready. So, like any avid emailer person in the 21st century, I climbed atop my RV to sit and surf the web, and I have to say, it was a pretty fast connection. After a bit, we were finally parked and able to set up electric water and such, which I've finally started to get the rountine under my hands. It's amazing how a thing as simple as efficiency makes me ecstatic these days. I guess it's the little things that mold your lifestyle that you learn to appreciate. In any case, the week at Spokane flew by. Went out to eat a couple of times at the season ticket, once for a birthday and another time for Josh, our sound guy's going away party. Not the grestest food or drinks in the world, but their "pitcher's mound" nachos is one of the biggest plates of nachos I've seen on the planet. Anyway, the shows flew by, but the highlight of the week was my aunt and uncle driving all the way from Seattle to see the Fri. night show. Plus, I got to trapse around the city with them all day fri. We quickly dicovered that Spokane is a nice little town with no shortage of coffee shops or gourmet food joints. So, aftrer some exploring and some eating, we happened upon the groundskeeper for the hotel they were staying at. The conversation started out with our desire to find Gonzaga university but, we ended up with friendly and expert advice...turns out that he not only was the groundskeeper but moonlights as an organist at the local cathedral, and he recommended that we check it out as well as the Manatoe park. So went up the hill to this enormous building which turned out to be an episcopal cathedral that was the largest west of the missippi when it was constructed. As you can see from my Pbase pics, it was just beautiful inside, and the thing that set it apart from all of the cathedrals I've experienced in Europe was that it had a wood ceiling instead of the usual stone vaulting that one sees in typical gothic and post-gothic cathedral architecture (I only know this because I did a report on it once, although I got an F on it because the teacher thought I had plagiarized it, when in fact I had just never written down the page numbers of my sources, and was too lazy to go back and find them; yet, with out any proof she still F'd the paper and forever damaged my view of her character) Ok, so after meeting the janitor and discussing what I do, he invited me to come and play in cathedral the next morning.......well, what trumpet player in their right mind would turn down the chance to have such an acoustic and beautiful space all to themselves. So, the sat. morning (even though I had 3 shows to do that day) I rode my motorbike up the south hill, and had an awesome mocha and Italian crepe at the Bittersweet Bistro (I'll elaborate on this fine establishment at another time, also special thanks to Jennifer Olsen for the pic) and then went and played in the church for about an hour. What an experience, the only music I had there was the hymnal, although it was episcopal, I played the ones that I knew, and it all just seemed to fit, one of those moments where, if possible, everything is in harmony, everything working together, making sense, not knowing why, but it just does and appreciating that fact. In case you didn't know, cathedrals are generally in the shape of a cross, so I just stood in the middle and played......what a way to start a sat. morning. So, the rest of the day went by quickly, it was a little painful for my lips, you see I had bit my lip on thurs. night after the show when I grilling and smokingsome meat outside my RV after the show. But, on mon. it started feeling better and healing up. But one big positive thing that happened on sat. is that I finally, finally invested in a winter leather riding jacket, it it had to be providencial, you see I was leaving for seattle on mon, so the bike shops would be closed sun. and mon. and I had a very small time frame and limited funds. So, I found a jacket that fit, was the right style, AND it was on sale. ding ding ding, I had a winner. Anyhow, that night we celebrated Josh's leaving us, and then sun. morning was my normal rountine of waking and listening to the previous week's WCC 10:45AM service. We had our two shows, the lips were a little swollen, but much much better than last weekend. The shows flew by, and I wrapped my cables and hoses, put my bike on the back, and make the shoert 2 1/2 trip to Kennewick. Well, it was supposed to be short, but when you're stupid like me and didn't follow anyone or get directions to the venue, well then you have to stop and ask for directions. Well, after 2 gas stations attendants (and different gas stations mind you) and a la quinta front desk clerk (we ended up talking for about 45min) Ok, it's late and my battery is almost dead......more tomorrow

I think I like Bozeman

2005-10-09T22:07:00.000-04:00

No, Bozeman is not a person, on the contrary, it is a quaint yet modern little college town nestled against the rolling mountains in western montana. It's quiet sunday evening, and I'm sitting in a mission style sofa seat with my order of a medium pot of hoikjichaasledisfa (I couldn't pronounce it, so it's my closest recollection) tea in the Homepage cafe. This is one of the nicer cafes I've been to in my miles traveled thus far. The cafe resides on the main street here in Bozeman, a street where the memories of small town america survive in the form of renovated brick facades sport a modern retro flair. Just last night I was at the Baxter hotel where there was some great live music. The story goes, one of the guys the blues band came to our 3:30PM show and loved the band, thus he invited the band to bring their axes (translation for non-music....our instruments) and sit in that night. So, at approximately 10:38PM mountain time I piled into a van with 10 of my friends and we went to the Baxter. There were two bands playing the joint, a hippie/ska band upstairs and the blues band around the bar downstairs. Well, upon arriving, we didn't who was where, and proceeded to pay money to go experience the band upstairs. Well, what do you get when you listen to a ska band for more than 10 minutes....everything starts sounding the same, and all the pretense around you comes into to clarity and seems trivial. So, we went downstairs to the blues band, and immediately you just know, know that there's life in the music, you can feel it. It was, in the end, a good time had my all. The band announced us, feel the celebrity status coming on; some of the guys sat in with the band, made me proud to be who we are, circus. It's funny, I was just talking to one of my friends the other night how circus people refer to everyone else as civilians, in the same vein as the military do. Whether it be conscious or not, there's something about traveling to a different town every week and entertaining people for a living that separates you from the average....civilian. In any case, we left at 2AM, visited the Pita Pit, devoured a souvlaki pita, and called it a night. It was a good end to a good week here in Bozeman. To briefly recap the week for everyone; we arrived late wednes., had sound check, meeting, and opening night on thurs. The show that night was followed a corporate party throw in honor of ? (I don't really know, but the food was good) Then fri. morning took a tour that drummer friend Justin hooked up for us. We toured the Gibson plant and witnessed firsthand how their guitars are made. Ate lunch at a hip place called the Garage, and ithad amazing food. Then, I took the afternoon to drive around the town a bit and check out the local music store and motorcycle shop (I've been searching for a new mouthpiece and trumpet that's more suited to this gig as well as a leather motorcycle jacket so that I don't turn into a frozen (yet lickable) human icecycle on my future bike trip to Seattle. Neither destination was 100% successful, but I did learn some new things. Sat. basically rolled out of bed, warmed up my chops, ate some golden puffs (in milk of course, what? you think I'd eat them plain? bleh) and played 2 shows and then celebrated at the Baxter w/ the blues. Today woke up, listened to last week's service at WCC, and then got ready for work (ran out of water in the middle of my shower), played a show, then went out for a late lunch the drummer and one of the clowns at our favorite little place, the Garage. Tomorrow we all head out to Spokane, from the looks of the yahoo maps, they have a lot of coffee shops, although the quality of them remains to be seen. You know, I've been finding out that can pretty much tell the vibe of the town by the amount and quality of its coffee shops. It's an interesting phenomenon, perhaps I shall start cataloging them.....hmmmmm, maybe, well I leave with a picture of this week's view from my door step......until next time

Snow in October?

2005-10-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

So, I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on my roof; nothing unusual about that. Then the temp started dropping, and kept going, until it was snowing, but not laying, then it got colder and started laying on the ground, and now it has tirned out to be quite a snowy day. There's a snow warning for up to 4 to 8 in by tomorrow morning. Snow in early October? The trees here haven't even finished turning yet. The earliest snow I remember growing up in MI was early November. So, now this is totoally throwing off my seasonal kilter, don't get me wrong, winter is my favorite season, but am singing Christmas songs before halloween. Craziness I say, craziness. Right now I'm sitting here at a coffee house in Billings again since they have high speed wireless and decent coffee. Tomorrow, if all the roads around here aren't closed, we're headin to Bozeman for our next weekend of shows. Should be an interesting time, since I hear there's more to do in Bozeman, we're having some semi-dressy PR party, and the arena is in the middle of a college campus. Anyhow, hope all is well out there in cyber world, enjoy your warm weather if you have it

monday monday

2005-10-03T20:33:00.000-04:00

well, it was a busy weekend of shows and such, and now it's monday.....and a rainy monday at that, but I got to sleep in, which I only got to do on holidays as a teacher. So, I'm a very happy boy. Although, this past weekend I wish I would've had a new pair of lips. I don't know if it's the american water or just the fatigue of the show setting in, but it was a challenging past couple of days for the chops. I am looking into getting different equipment, a mouthpiece where the edge isn't as sharp = more endurance and less swelling, but I think a more commercial style horn will also aid in getting the brighter sound I'm going for in this gig. Ok, so enough about equipment stuff, what have I done since thurs? Well, I finally got my freezer and refrig stocked. One night after a show, I finally got tired of seeing my cold food storage bare, so I made a much needed run to Walmart and bought as much food as I could stuff in my backpack (you have to understand, when you have a motorcycle w/out saddle or tank bags, you have to prioritize your trips to the grocery and laundry) So, now, I have lots of frozen veggies and meat. I've been finding out that you definately have to think differntly when living out of an RV. You're much more conscious of what store, use, and waste. For example, it's going to be weird from now on where I leave the water running the whole time, and it'll feel strange when my sewage just goes where it's supposed to and I don't have to empty it myself, or more importantly I won't have to worry about those dreaded leaks from the bottom of my vehicle. It is definately possible to keep oneself busy fixing things all the time if one so chose, but then when would I have time to ride the bike? Speaking of which, 6 of us won't out on our motorcycles to a movie last night, I enjoyed the ride back almost more than the movie. All of us were on bikes, to it was 4 BMWs and 2 Ducatis, quite fun, it's a taste of what it'll be like tomorrow (everyone with a bike on tour is going for a ride, so there will be about 10 of us rolling w/ varying bikes, should be fun) But the kicker is, it's been a while since I've been able to get mail from VA, so I've been riding around with a temp plate that ran out 9/22. Oh well, no one has seemed to notice yet :-) We had a party Fri. night. It was a going away party for one of the acts leaving the tour as well as a "yeah, we're back in the US" party. Good times, and i found out that our group has a 14ft gas grill that travels w/ us wherever we go. So, than that, not too much new, we open in Bozeman thrusday night, but are allowed to park till wednesday afternoon, so everyone is hanging here in billings until then, hence the 2nd party of the week tonight (basically it's just an excuse to fire up the grill and use up the leftover meat from fri. ;-) ) It's also tuned quite cold here, when we arrived, everyday was in the upper 60's and 70's and now they're calling for possibility of snow on wednes.! I'm doing my best not to do the ice cycle dance on my bike, but it gets mighty cold when the ambient temp is 45F. Oh, and as for the Tim Hortons/Panera debate, I'd have to say yes, Panera does have a loafs up on Tims, but the fact that Panera hasn't caught on everywhere yet, and Tims is everywhere in Canadia, makes me miss Tims. Although as rachel astutely pointed out, even though Panera doesn't have the pastries, they oh so much more.....including soup in a bread bowl and free high speed wireless internet! Anyhow, enough of my rambling for today (although it didn't take me a week to post this time ;-) ) trzymaj sie i na raza

O Canada........

2005-09-29T17:39:00.000-04:00

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

2005-09-18T20:45:00.000-04:00

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

2005-09-17T02:07:00.000-04:00

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

2005-09-14T14:06:00.000-04:00

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

2005-09-12T20:50:00.000-04:00

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......

2005-09-07T00:30:00.000-04:00

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........

the next step.......

2005-08-31T02:02:00.000-04:00

So, after dropping some things off in PA on Sun, I left for the great west. On sun. I travelled to my grandparents place near Massilon Ohio, wasn't a bad drive, and I didn't get lost, it was my first real "outting" with my whole rig set up. Wasn't too bad except that I finally realized how much gas this thing really takes. So, mon. I got an early start and decided that I could make my aunt and uncle's place before it got too late, well......I set a persinal driving record for myself, I travelled for 13 hours, and 12 of those were driving. I went from dalton OH to Ames IA, not bad for one day, but I did end up a little dehydrated and exhausted, especially from all of the stupid construction traffic around chicago, it was stop and go for almost an hour....ugh So, this morning I figured I'd sleep a bit and then practice some, and then go for a spin on my bike (from here on out, when I refer to bike, I'm not not talking abojut the bicycle variety folks, but my motorcycle of course :-) ) I also notice an enormous Barilla factory on my way in the previous evening, and for those of you non cookers out there, Barilla is only the #1 selling pasta maker in the world, AND it's my dream someday to attend their culinary institute at their home factory in Italy. Anyhow, after play the harn a bit, I sadly found out thwt they don't give tours of this facility, even though it is the only one of theirs in America. So, I went for a spin around town on my bike, and believew it or not, Ames IA has 25000 population and 25000 college students, makes for an interesting mix in traffic. So, I went to visit my uncle where he is pricipal at a christian school aftrtwhich he and my cousin Cj went out for lunch at the Hickory Park Co restaurant http://www.hickorypark-bbq.com/contact.html , I had the smoked pork sandwhich and HIGHLY recommend it. That and some mashed tators w/ gravy will set you right. Them went back, packed up the bike, and went on my way. The bike thing is getting easier, packing and unpacking that is. I've the dismantling part down to 10 mins now, but the put it on the stand, tieing it down, and securing the cover still take s a bit. Anyhow I went from Ames IA to Mitchell SD today, only a mere 7 hours, but tomorrow I think I going to have to know out begtween 7 -10 so that I'll be assured to hit great falls sometime early afternoon thurs, even with all of the mountains on the way, The drive was pretty easy, once I got on the other side of Chicago, things are pretty much straight, some hills, and 75mph speed limits. Gas is starting to add up, it's been around $135 a tank of 50 gals, and at about 8 miles per gal and 1500 miles..........well you can do the math, someone in the middle east is getting rich off of me. It's was a beautiful day to drive, I've been blessed with agreeable weather and beautiful sunsets, soon I will get all these picks on my website. Coule things I noticed about the midwest, it is all pretty much cornfields and cattle, the people aren't in a hurry to get wher they're going, they'll help you at the drop of a hat(and if you drop your hat). and they don't think anything of driving 2 1/2 hours to see their child play in a hogh school football game. So, tonight I;m camped out at the Super WalMart in Mitchell, SD, which as it just so happens is the home of the only corn palace in the world. So, I think that will be on the agenda tomorrow, and I'll be passing rushmore and the badlands as well, I think I may have to take a minor detour through there too, and of course, Wall Drug....you can't drive through SD with out at least stopping there. But, I have to say, as much as everyone busts on WalMart the supercorporation, it is a welcome sight, especially after driving all day and knowing that you can park there and that they're open 24 hours, so when you get that hankerin' for a 3AM twinkie, you're golden. Ok, I need to play the horn some more then sleeeeeeeeeep. This definantly feels like the beginning of a journey, with it's ups and downs, I think now I may have a small insight into how Aeneas or Odysseus felt.....do jutro, dobra noc

Ringling Bros. here I come

2005-08-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

A year ago I had no idea what I'd be doing this time of year this year, and I'm delighted to find myself going on the road with the greatest show on earth. I was thinking just the other day how I felt I was being taught to be mobile, if you can call living 6 different placesin 5 years mobile. And now, I'm totally mobile. The thought of seeing this wonderful country of ours, and getting to play my horn while doing it, is just plain exciting. Over the past weeks I've been preparing the music, listening to the show, and I'm ready to, as they say, "get the show on the road" This is a big step, but a big one in the right direction, more importantly I'm doing what I'm called to do, and where ever that is is where I'll be happiest. till next time.....

Busch Gardens here I come.........

2005-05-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

So, I am officially owned by Busch Gardens for about 2 1/2 months this summer, not bad, considering that I'm going to get to play my horn this summer, and get paid for it. So, after signing a copious amount of informational papers, basically signing my life away, I got to take everyone's favorite part of the Busch experience...the drug test. lol, there's nothing like when you're sitting there for your test while the girl next to you is finishing her's up by initialing her urine samples. It's a slightly awkward situation when two normal people are sitting there looking at their urine...I know I said shared experiences form a common bond, but? definately making it memorable :-) So, I have rehire orientation the 24th and the first rehearsal on the 3rd of june. It'll be nice to be happy again, to be able to be creative again, to be able to have free time and time to enjoy where I live and the important people and things around me. This all seems such a blessing right now, I suppose the past 10 months has made me appreciate this all the more.

filling in the lines (part 2)

2005-05-06T22:44:00.000-04:00

What a busy week, I FINALLY get to finish this........ok, so the I was travelling back to Zgierz, we got back pretty late, about 10:30PM. The next morning I caught a train very very early in the morning. It was a beautiful ride out from the station. My cabin was facing east, so I got to think, reflect, and watch the sunrise over the horizon as I began my journey back to Berlin. It was amazing to think that so many crazy memorable experiences could be packed into 3 1/2 days, but I would take the trip again if I had the choice in the same situation. One thing that sticks in my mind is the ride from Zgierz to Kutno, besides the beautiful sunrise, the only other person to get on at Zgierz shared the cabin with me, we greeted eachother and said nothing until we politely bid eachother farewell. She was a middle age woman, not too wealthy, but reserved, contemplative, and at times officious, and yet, there was an unspoken shared experience of travelling, heading away from the familiar to the new, both having our silent ideas about the people and lanscape flying by our window to the world. There is a special bond in a shared experience.....So that afternoon I arrived back at home base in Zoologischer garten station, threw my stuff in a locker, checked my email, ate my special lunch, checked out the old bombed out church, watched a street break dancing performance and then went to meet jen at the hakeschermarkt starbucks. Turns out that starbucks is MORE expensive in europe and the sizes are smaller. I guess that's America's only way to get back at the high euro. So, jenn gave me a whirlwind tour of berlin, we got apfel streudel at the Einstein Cafe (best streudel I've ever had by the way)then went to the Gedamnmarkt square where most of the main concert halls are, the shopped Laffeyette and got some awesome chocolate (the most expensive I've ever bought), saw check point charlie, caught up on old times, and finally had an awesome moraccan dinner (and it was cheap too!) It was nice to end the trip with one more familiar face. That night I got my stuff from the train station locker and then found a hostel there by the station. I had seen avertisements, and well, it lived up to what I had feared, it was clean enough I suppose, but when you have to share the room with 5 other guys whose personal hygienne isn't high on their priority list...well you get the scent. Then, to top it all off, the next morning, affter a pleasant taxi ride, I realized that I had read the wrong time to catch my flight out of berlin, and ended up missing it. Well, this worried me a bit since I had already taken 2 personal days and didn't want to have to take another one because I missed my flight! So, they put me one the next flight to london, and then once I got to london, they got it straightend out for me. Thank goodness for airline helper desk ladies who smile and blush at a cute teacher in need of help. lol So, I ended up being rerouted london to chicago, then chicago to norfolk. It all worked out, but what a loooooooooong day of travelling. Although it did give plenty of time to reflect on the trip. And as I think back even now, it was all worth, and it fact I needed it in many ways, some of which I'm still realizing. At that's how my trips usually are, experience and memory-filled, most of which I never in my wildest dreams could have anticipated. Perhaps that is part of the romance of travel. Ans as I look back on this whole trip, I can't help but look forward to the next one.

filling in between the lines

2005-05-01T12:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, so now I finally have the time to sit down and fill in my time in Poland and last days in Germany. I will fill in the details as much as my feeble mind can recall, I might not have all of the specifics, but I still think I remember the impressions. So, the trip to Kutno was about 5 hours, and then it was another hour to Lodz-Kaliska station. The train ride there wasn't too bad, on the to Kutno from berlin, the train compartment was a little crowded, but it was interesting how much you can learn from other people just by observing. There was a little girl (about 3 or 4) with her mom in the car. It was so cute because this little girl would color some pictures, then say the objects in polish, then she would eat some candy, and run up and down the rail call, returning to the cabin every 45 seconds to tell her mom what novel things she just saw out the window...the wonder of a child never ceases to amaze me, I took it as a good omen for my trip. So, I arrived in Kutno, and as mentioned earlier, it was a very stark contrast to all the german train stations so far. It was rather old, unrenovated, but served its purpose quite well. Thinking back, I suppose this was my first impression of poland. So after some confusion, I made my best guess as to what track to meet my next train at. At the track I politely asked, with as much coherent polish as I could muster, whether this was the right track for Lodz. So could tell I obviously was polish and asked if I was german or french...I told her english and she proceded to try to speak in german. But after a few minutes, I think we had communicated and confirmed that I was headed in the right direction. She then pointed to my luggage (thinking that she was saying something important about it, or that it was illegal) but she was trying to point out that it was red and that there were poeple acorss the platform that were wearing red coats and that there weren't polish. So, I thanked her and walked hopefully across the platform, and asked them in polish if they speak english, well they did and it just so happened that they were from finland and were attending the university in Lodz, so we had a good chat about where they're from and where I'm from. Then we arrived at Lodz, and my friend marta was kind enough to meet me and pick me up from the station. How nice it was to see a familiar face, it was the first I met someone on this trip that I knew beforehand. So, that night I met her family and had some polish food and beer.(her mom's jablka I won't soon forget) It was a good time, and as I came to find out more and more is poland, that the best thing about poland isn't really the buildings, the land, or the weather but it's the people. Then, friday turned out to be a shopping day, shopping for shoes (buti)that is. Marta showed me around Lodz a bit, then we went shopping and I made it my mission to buy a cool pair of european shoes....well, let's just say I'm a little picky on my footwear, you see, I only buy 1 or 2 pair of shoes per year, so it's a big deal to me :-) I have to say Marta was very patient throughout the day, and ultimately made it possible to find the pair I had decided on getting (appearantly not all polish shoe stores carry full stock of size 43 shoes) It was a successful day with a tasty and filling lunch courtesy of her mom (we had roast beef, pickled cabbage, red beets, and mashed potatoes)That evening we hung out with some of her friends to celebrate one of her colleagues moving to a new job. I didn't understand much of the conversation, but they were good people and I recognized the music since it was in english. On saturday morning I met up with two friends from Busch Gardens last summer. What a day that was, we walked pretty much the entire length of Piotrkowska(which made me regret my decision to wear my new shoes that day) This street is a large(and long) pedestrian street, one of the longest in europe from what I understand. And there are shops of everykind, banks, hotels, restaurants, schools, bakeries, offices...you name. We decided to catch lunch at a Karczma, which is basically a place where there is music during the night and you can always get good polish food at a good price. So kasia and asia picked out a good represtative of food for me to try..and let me tell you...it was goooood. I had (and kasia or asia correct me if I have the names wrong) barzszc czerwone ousta a red beet soup with little meat pirogies that look like ears, and then some pickles and bread, and then some kind of breaded beef(reminded me a little of wienersnitzel) with some cabbage and I think potatoes. So, I was full, but we were only starting to eat our way through Lodz. After walking a bit, window shopping we stopped at a bakery and got a polish kind of doughnut, very good filled with a rassberry jelly, and not quite as sweet and the american version. Then we stopped a music store, I have to say the trumpet selection was quite scare, and then tried another bakery, I have no idea what it was called but it was like a shortbread with creme cheese in the middle and and honey glazed friut on top, mmmm, mmmm. The rest of the afternoon we checked out a club called Kaliska, caught up on our lives since Busch, checked out the Lodz cathedral, and checked out this cool climbing wall in the middle of an old factory complex. Then the evening was hangout out with marta's brother and his family. Since I love pictures so much, it was great get to see their family pictures too. Ah, and yes, the waffle with cream, and the coffee....is there a reccuring theme if food here? :-) That evenign, my trip to poland changed, it was officially announced that the pope had died. Since the pope was polish, the entire country of poland just melted. This had been their hero, their world ambassador and spiritual leader; never before have I been in the midst of something so sad and universal. I came to poland for friends, culture, and food...these were there, beyond this I saw how a nation mourns. From the most important businessman to the man walking dog, it was there. Most houses and business had polish flags with black streamers on the end of it. These, along with the vatican flag could be seen all around poland. That night, I was up watching the news, trying to understant what I could in polish and what was happening around the countryt and around the world. All 4 television stations in poland had their insignias black in memory of the pope. The next day I attended the memorial church service with marta and her whole family. It was amazing how it seemed like the whole little town of Zgierz was there at the church, for it was most certainly a standing room only service, then that evening we took a mini road trip 2 hours south to Czestechowa to go to the church and shrine there. I didn't understand everything I saw, but I understood why it was there. We made the trek in marta's car with her sister and niece. I have to say one my enduring memories of the trip was that car ride back with Julia. She's about 5 and I had been teaching her english all weekend, well and the trip back she started teaching me more polish, it's somewhat humbling to be taught by young child, but we had the best time. It turns out that we're birthday twins and she has a good ear for "the eentsy weentsy spider" :-) Ok, more tomorrow :-)

a new and most interesting post......

2005-04-04T16:41:00.000-04:00

ok, so I tried post this afternoon, and after feverishly typing for over 40 mins, my time on the computer runs out and I end up losing the copious amount of inspired typing....and so....I type again. So the past couple of days have been exciting, interesting, exhausting, enlightening, and self retrospective. Ok, now I can write even less, the german dunkin donuts guy(that's where this cafe is located) just said 10 mins till he closes and we leave. So, on thurs. after noon I took a train from Berlin to Lodz-Kaliska station in Poland and then returned today. It was only about 3 days but it feels like a weeks worth of experiences. So, I took the train about 4 hours to the station in Kutno, it was amazing at how the landscape changed when we crossed the border, speaking of which, they seemed to be a little surprised at seeing an american passport..actually they seemed surprised going both ways......but at least I wasn't strip searched When we got to Kutno, I was surprised at how much grafitti there was on the train station, it was like the stereotypical picture out of eastern europe.....but as I came to find out, it's not really the places or the things to see in Poland, it's the people. Ok, musze isc, they're closing the joint up, more tomorrow, auf wiedersein.

Day 4....in the beginning

2005-03-31T04:04:00.000-05:00

ok, so it's the beginning of official day four of my trip (this is not counting the first flying day) and I'm going to be travelling most of the day, in fact I'm going to Poland this afternoon. It'll be nice to just take a day or so to travel because it's been such a whirlwind the past couple of days of sight seeing. Right now, I'm sitting here at 11:16AM (that's 5:16AM in the US) in a sunny internet cafe in a Dunkin Donuts looking out the expansive picture window out onto Zoologischer Garten, with the old bombed out church standing in the square on a few hundred yards away, quite a dramatic view to type on the internet...but they have rooms with a view...so why not internet, eh? So, to catch up, well I decided to make tues. musem day and went out to try to see as many museums as I could in one day, well, you know how that goes. So, I got to the Pergamon museum at about 11AM, which is an hour after it opens. and let me tell you what a treat that was. Basically it is an entire museum of things from antiquity, and it is one of the best collections in the world, I can't wait to post my pictures, just so many amazing things, many of them original from the bible times. They had an original pergamon alter, they had the Ishtar gate from the kingdom of babylon, and another gate of a muslim city in the middle. They also had a good bit of greek and roman statues as well as 4 thousand year old cuneiform tablets, the beginnings of our recorded history from the cradle of civilization. So, all said and done I spent about 4 hours there and then comleted the use of my day pass by visiting the Altes Nationale Galerie, basically it a 17th century galerie of all German painters, and all of the captions and info was in German, which made it a little frustrating, but there were a few Monets, Ceszannes, Van Gough's, and Renoirs. Then I met up with my friend that I met from Hong Kong, we hung out, went to eat a few places, but our feet were tired. But, it was a good day and I felt I saw a lot, although I still want to see many things here, Perhaps I will be able to finish everything monday....I hope. More about yesterday. i.e. wednes. soon...till then auf widersein

and it#s onöy day 2....

2005-03-29T16:01:00.000-05:00

tomorrow I will give a summary, tonight I'm too tired and out of time

I'm here safe and sound

2005-03-28T17:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally here same and sound, although today it is costing me an arm and a leg to be on the internet, about 1€ per 20 mins, that's a little pricy, but the things we do to be connected eh? S0 after about 24 hours of travelling, including a 6 hour layover in London which was more like pergutory, I am here and try to do as much as I can through this persistent jet lag headache I've had. Yesterday I just basially got to my hostel, got situated, did some reading and then went to sleep. Got up, had the traditional german youth hostel breakfast (I had forgotten how much I missed quark..aka european vanilla yougurt, only better) and then gathered my things to head into Zoolischer Garten in zentrum Berlin. By the time I got situated and got to my new hostel (which was a bit of an ordeal in and of itself) I took a nap, a 2 hour nap. Then went out and about the city, I have a lot of great pictures, but ungfortunately no way to get them on here...yet. But I did see the Brandenburg gate, went up the big TV tower, perused a street book sale at the humbolt university, had currywurst(berlin's traditional sausage) and walked around east berlin, and ended with the best Apfel Streudel (apple streudal) I've ever had in my life, now I'll have to try to make it when I get back to the states. So, even though I got to a late start, I did and saw a lot for my first full day here. Tomorrow will be museum day, then wednes wll be Sans Soucci palace day trip, then thurs. - sun. either Poland or Prague, I haven't decided yet.....choices choices choices I hope everyone is doing well!

Germany.....finally

2005-03-18T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm finally officially going to Germany. It's been a little over 2 years, which being the person addicted to traveling that I am, is too long. Although I don't this trip will be as spontaneous as the one 2 years ago, but then again...it's me. I'm glad that my ticket situation finally got resolved earlier this week. So, I now have voucher with usher and a ticket (cheaper than the original) from ORB to BEREA. Although I will have to take an extra personal day, but then again I'd say a personal day in Europe is worth 3 in the states. A little over a week from now I will be in Deutschland...................yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah

First time for everything

2005-01-22T11:08:00.000-05:00

Here it is, my first blog entry. Now there is a way for everyone to keep up with me, even if I can't email them every day. My hopes in creating this are that when I am abroad and traveling or living where phones aren't necessarily conveinient (or affordable) friends and family can look at that this and stay up to date. Among everything this will also be a living record as my life changes, progresses, and grows. Enjoy it, and leave comments and/or sentiments etc. if you like. :-)