Joust!

We've been flinging a LOT lately :) 'Tis the season!

Today's Spring Fling Concert was at Indiana University Southeastern.

Alas, it was raining... again. But as always, everyone makes the best of the situation! The inflatables, the stage, the food, the cotton candy and popcorn and the students all moved inside for a little more indoor kind of fun. :)

The best part was that behind the audience was where the jousting inflatable was set up. So the entire time we were performing... people were jousting and knocking each other down. Entertainment for the entertainers! :)

I have to pause, though and say a big GET WELL SOON to beautiful Zyriah. The sweetest little girl - that was WAY into our sound check (and especially my amp since it has a Z on it). She was playing in one of the bouncy inflatables and broke her wrist :( Her mother texted one of the organizers from the hospital because Zyriah wanted a signed poster from the band. Isn't that just the sweetest thing??? HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER ZYRIAH!

The guys raided the inflatables after the show. I didn't quite get to the jousting in time for pics... (but James and Miguel duked it out and it was quite funny) BUT I caught the guys at some of the other places. :)

David... in the boxing ring... alone... with oversized gloves... after he tackled Zach and ran off Miguel... he wouldn't stop bouncing, so the pic is blurry :) Only adds to the awesomeness.


James and David played basketball... I played skee ball... I LOVE that inflatable skee ball exists.


We drove 6 hours up to Bowling Green, Ohio tonight. It feels so good to be in the hotel early!!!! It's only 12:30. So amazing. PLUS it's the best hotel ever. There's a Starbucks, Chipotle, Waffle House, and Jimmy John's all within walking distance. Upon discovering this, Miguel let out a giant AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO? WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO EAT EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

University of Texas San Antonio

I am sitting in the front seat of the Suburban, it's nearly 2am, we're watching "Lord of the Rings" (well... James and I are listening and Hootie and Miguel are both sleeping through it) and my belly is full of Jimmy John's. God Bless JJ's for staying open until 3am. It was sure a life saver tonight! And it wasn't the first time!

Let me start at the beginning of the day to catch you up :)

We left Randy and Stacie's place this morning to head to San Antonio. I hated to say goodbye to their 3 dogs and 3 cats. They have some of the best pets ever - so sweet and friendly. We ate at a Schlotzsky's Deli. The guys had never eaten there - but I think we definitely discovered a new restaurant to add into the frequent rotation! MMMMmmmm.

We hit quite a bit of traffic in Austin.... which we expected.... but then we hit more.... and more.... We were pulling into campus RIGHT on time, but who knew that UTSA has TWO capuses in San Antonio? Ummm.... not us! So once we thought we had arrived, we figured out we had gone to the wrong place - crazy confusion with the street names and GPS. It was all good though. We still had PLENTY of time to get to our soundcheck. PLUS the soundcrew was incredible! They were there to unload the entire trailer, and they already had the entire stage set up. They put a LOT of work into this show. First to arrive and last to leave - these guys always have the longest night in the biz!

They got a great recording of the show and let me listen to a bit of it. They're gonna send it to us later :) Can't wait!

The stage was awesome. UTSA has a beautiful campus, and the festival they had going on was so much fun! Candy apples, and popcorn RIGHT in front of the stage (the aroma was amazing the whole night)

WHOA interjection: we JUST passed the Schlotzsky's in which we ate this afternoon :) Crazy.

Back to the gig. The entire quad had games, balloon animals, food, goodies, and then our big ole honkin stage. The whole area was packed the whole night. It looked more like a street festival than a college event. It was REALLY cool.

Here's the AWESOME group that put on the show!


These 2 sisters were 'cuttin a rug' the WHOLE show. They even recruited other kids in the crowd to dance, too. :)


Speaking of dancing.... I LOVE being in Texas. There are ALWAYS dancers here. People were two-stepping, line-dancing, swing-dancing, ummm... freestyle of course, too. And one kid was even doing some crazy gumby-like, almost break dancing during part of the show. The photographers went CRAZY on him :)

I had my first "Street sign" signing! It says "Mercer St." on the back... which is coincidentally her last name... probably why she bought it... you know, if I were to GUESS a reason. :)


These guys sat in front the WHOLE show. And they even busted out a lighter during "Angel".


A REAL LIFE college student :) I just love that this guy had his backpack on the whole time, and had his book in hand for the pic!


So UTSA was gorgeous, the breeze was constant so it wasn't too hot, and the people were wonderful.

On to TYLER! Only 3 hours to go!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie

7 shows in 5 days

Today?

We have been driving to Texas! We found a Jimmy Johns in Jackson, Tn which made us all very happy. That makes 3 days in a row for me + Jimmy Johns. Yesterday, I had Jimmy Johns DELIVERED! That's the best :) The +avocado is KEY to any sandwich at JJ's.

This week we have 7 shows in 5 days. Whoa. That's craziness. But the GOOD kind of craziness. I am excited. We have this week jam-packed. Tomorrow we have an afternoon show at Texas A&M in Commerce, TX. And then afterwards we are heading over to Frozen Fire Films in Dallas to do a photo shoot!!! FINALLY! I am getting new photos done :) Plus on Friday, we open for the LOS LONELY BOYS. YAY! That is one of our two-fer days :) We play two shows on Wed & Fri.

Whoa. Hootie just laid down on the floor... and I was REALLY confused. Turns out, he's doing stretches for his back. But I thought he was just opting NOT to sleep in the bed! The other day when we arrived in Providence at 7am, we had 1 room with 1 King size bed.... We had to leave at 9 so we weren't gonna get to sleep for all that long.... but we all wanted to nap a bit. Hootie and Miguel immediately took the floor :( Made me feel bad. And James just left! The man who had been driving the ENTIRE night.... just disappeared... we all thought he would come back and get in bed, so the guys just stayed on the floor. But nope. James went and got caffeinated and walked around downtown Providence. He figured sleeping for an hour and a half was much worse than not sleeping at all. I completely understand, but.... I just wanted to sleep. So I ended up sleeping in that big ole bed by myself. I would have slept just as well on the floor though, too. We were all pretty out of it!

Thankfully, by the time we got back from our show, we were all able to check into our separate rooms. And whew. That was one of the best night's of sleep I had in a looong while.

I saw this: in the bin at the gas station today!!!
(For anyone who may not know... "If I Run To You Now" is played in this movie.)

It made m so happy! I think it is the first time I have seen it without looking for it!


We've been watching the Sopranos in the Suburban... and we only have 1 1/2 episodes left in the whole series. I can't wait to see what happens!!! I've heard mixed reviews about the ending.... either you HATE it or you LOVE it... apparently there's very few "in betweens". I'm sure I'll have more to say on that later. But I just love how well written that show is. I NEVER thought I would like it. I figured it was all about killing and beatin people up. But there's SO much character development that I can tolerate the violence. I mean, it IS the mafia... so there violence has to be there... but it's not ABOUT the violence. I have to look away.... A LOT... but the rest of it... well, it's so good.

See you tomorrow from Texas!

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie