The House on Wheels!

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. I haven't had three seconds to think about it since we drove to Cream Ridge the first day. Here goes: brief summary of the past few days. Cream Ridge was great! It was long, but the people really enjoyed it. Only problem was the major traffic the first day . . . we ended up starting an hour late! Anyone familiar with New Jersey knows about a little thing called shore traffic - which there was a lot of. Anyway, we performed until five, then stayed overnight in a hotel in Cream Ridge, then performed again the second day. Then, after about a half hour of intense car packing, we left for Streetsboro, Ohio. We got in really late (or really early) at about 1:00 AM, but got a well deserved rest. Then we got up and drove to South Bend, Ohio, for a college visit to Notre Dame. Everyone really liked it, despite the fact that it was really hot and humid. After that, we drove to my house in Chicago. We unpacked the car, spent the night, then repacked the car for our first gig of the official road trip, this morning. It was at the Jesse Brown VA Hospital in Chicago, IL. We started off the morning performing in their mental ward, which is always a favorite of ours. Funny story: the first time we played there, we didn't know it was a mental ward. But after 2 sets of locked doors and a reception desk behind glass, we began to figure it out. However, you wouldn't be able to tell it from the patients that were there - they were lively and active, and extremely appreciative of our music. It turned out to be one of our best gigs! So we went back there today and performed for them again, and some of the nurses even remembered us. After that, we went down to the cafeteria and performed again for a different set of people. That also went really well. After that, we packed up the van and started on our route. However, in between the packing of our car and leaving for the trip, we got our Sprinter Van. We rented this van for the tour so we wouldn't have to worry about running out of space for suitcases and band equipment. It's seriously like a house on wheels! It's huge! We made David (who is 6' 4'') stand next to it and it was at least 3 feet taller than him! It's as close as we're going to get to a tour bus, but it's pretty close! It's really really really really really awesome! I'm hoping to be able to put up some of the pictures I took of it, but I haven't been able to get them up yet. We'll see if it works out. Anyway, we packed up the Sprinter (complete with stickers with our band name on them), left Jesse Brown VA, and started the tour. We planned on going to a restaurant on Route 66 in Chicago for lunch, but it was closed. So we drove for a while, and stopped an a different restaurant called the Launching Pad along Route 66. It had really, really big milkshakes and sodas. Good though! We drove for a while longer and stopped at the Dixie Truck Stop for gas. Now we're back on the road headed for a Hampton Inn in St. Louis. 

There you have it: the past few days in a nutshell. That's why I haven't been able to post in such a long time! :)

Enjoying the trip, 

Nicole