Dancing, Shopping, and Man size chess

We got a day off today. After all the exhaustion from 4 hard days of labor we were all ready to have some down time. Our tour manager decided to hop on our bus and force a "dance party" on us before we went to bed last night. It was really dark so you will only see silhuettes. You will hear some music and laughing too.

Today we decided to check out the mall and get some new duds. Joe looks cool in the hat I think. We also played some life size chess. I won. Derek forfeited.

We will be in Cincinnatti tomorrow night and then back home in Nashville for 12 hours or so on Wednesday.

Peace

Sundays are going to be fun

Most Sundays we are playing in churches. This means that we will usually have to wait until 12 or later to load in to the churches. We normally load between 9 and 10 am. We also had an earlier show tonight. We had to shave about 4 hours off of the show setup time today. The bus dirvers still found time to wash the busses today. Snapped this quick pick of Dale and Jim washing Avalon's bus.

This room was fairly large so we had to set up the entire system today. This was another one of the days we had to help load in.

Tonight we had a great crowd and there was a good response. Each group did very well too. It is deffinitely awesome seeing the way people are inspired by the services (concerts) we are putting on.

More to come tomorrow. It is our first day off.

Peace

"You know, it was a typical Friday night"

The show went great today. Every place we go we have volunteers help with unloading equipment in the morning and then loading the equipment after the show. Typically our show calls for 12 volunteers to assist the 5 crew members we have. This morning there were 4 volunteers. This meant that the band was going to have to help pack up tonight. We did. Wow. We have a lot of stuff. I have a new found respect for our crew guys. They have to load that gear 2 times a day 4 and 5 days in a row. I have figured that playing 3 hours a night and the occasional load out will be good for my "girlish" figure.

One thing that is nice is that we had some TGI Fridays waiting for us when we all got back to the bus. We had all 13 of us in the front lounge desparately trying to replenish our calories. So after the carnage I snapped this picture. I had to replenish my calories too so that is why this is an after shot.

We are tired time for 72" of rest. :)

Peace

72" No More, No Less

The bunks on the bus are 72" long. I am 69.5" long. This means if I put my feet flat on the footboard I have just enough room to put my fist on my head. So you really have to plan your sleeping positions. The bus also is constantly moving. This means you have to get over some motion issues. The roof of the bunk is maybe 20-22". That gives me the length of my forearm and then a few inches. So there is no sitting up at all. You also have to keep some of your personal affects in your bunk. We have 12 people on our bus, so all of the bunks are taken. It can get kind of crowded and hectic here. Oh yeah, the mattresses are about 4 inches thick. It is pretty comfortable but not too thick. This is going to take some getting used to.

As a practical joke the bus driver turned the thermostat up to 99 degrees when he got off the bus this morning. So my alarm clock was the sweat that was dripping off my forehead.

On the road again...for the first time

Tonight we set out on a 7 week tour. The Daniel Doss Band is touring with Avalon, Michael English, and Cadia. So these next 33 dates should prove to give some really good insight into a struggling industry, a good source for new 'road' stories, and us meeting a lot of ineresting people. I imagine these things will take up most of my subject matter for the blog here.

Gotta get some sleep. Can't screw up opening night tomorrow.

Peace