We Made It!

Just in case you ever need to know:
There aren't a lot of tire stores open on Sundays in Conyers, GA - especially ones that carry trailer tires. Thank goodness for Walmart! They were the ONLY people who had anything close to what we needed.

Turns out that the spare tire the trailer store had given us was the wrong size! Way too big for the trailer... But we got one new tire to get us home and we'll get another tomorrow. Poor Tim had a session at 7pm tonight, and we pulled in RIGHT at 7. He was just a bit late, but I am hoping it wasn't too big of a deal for him.

We dropped the trailer at the gas station, Tim and I headed with the busted tire to Walmart, and James and Miguel stayed with the trailer. They got us all fixed up at Wally World, so all is good! Turns out our original tires were overinflated about 20psi... that'll make em wear strange, for sure!

Any time something changes personel-wise it's like the stars line up differently. :)

Hootie had the women's panties in his bed on the first road trip.

When Peter subbed, the first Suburban COMPLETELY died in Carlisle, PA.

And on Justin's first trip... Amy was also subbing for us (so it was DOUBLE the luck) and that was when we got hit by a semi.
Hmmm...

And Tim got the ever-so-uneventful flat tire.

I don't actually think it means anything. But maybe next time a new element is added, I'll ask for a few extra prayers. :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Texas A&M Commerce and The Red Chair in the Street

We played an afternoon show at "The Club" on Texas A&M Commerce's campus today. It is a BRAND new facility for students and is a really cool place. They have a stage built in complete with lights and sound... cafes and little stations for food. And today there was a huge high school bilingual competition going on. So there were hundreds of kids just hanging out! It was really fun. They had ALL kinds of competitions... music... plays.... poetry.... pretty cool stuff!
The show was great, and Rick, our wonderful contact who took GREAT care of us, introduced me to some new green tea with Goji berry that I LOVED! MMmmmm.

Kathrin is an exchange student from Germany and was one of the judges for the (take a guess!) German competitions.


Fellow musicians :) They were competing in the music categories... in spanish! And they totally rushed the stage and did the "We're not worthy" bows during "Devil". I <3 them.


My first wallet signing. :) It was a fancy one too! I may need to reevaluate my big ole ugly wallet... hers was adorable. And now it says "Peace, Love, Fiddle" YAY!


Another one of the awesome guys taking care of us all day. He was running sound, loading and unloading equipment, making sure we had everything we needed. He was all-around awesome!


Some actual college students!!! :) There were a lot of students at the show, too. But the high schoolers made up most of the crowd.


And AFTER the show.... we headed on to Frozen Fire Films in Dallas to do a photo shoot. It was SO much fun!!! We did this one shot in this awesome red chair...
Travis, the photographer, said "What if we did some shots in the red chair in the middle of the street with the skyline in the background?" We were all game... but it was a TEAM effort! There was traffic... it was a little crazy. We were having to do it when the traffic was stopped at a light. Stacy was on the corner making sure nothing unexpected was coming, Randy had the reflector, Travis had the camera, Miguel had the chair, and James was helping me with the fiddle and the video camera!!!
We'd run out - Miguel would put the chair in the street, we'd get a few shots and then have to strike it all to let the cars pass.... and then we'd do it all over again until we got everything we needed. It was like an action movie :) Well... not really.... only in my head.... but it was really funny.... AND exciting. I loved it.

I can't wait to see all the pics - especially the ones in the street! We bought a hard drive tonight at Walmart to download them all tomorrow. The files are huge so it will take a TON of space. These guys do such great work though. It will be REALLY nice to have some new pics!

I have to get up on 3 hours for TWO shows! :) Life on the road!

Peace, Love, Fiddle, and GOODNIGHT!
~natalie

USAO - Chickasha, OK

We're back!!! We are in Chickasha Oklahoma tonight. USAO is the first college to bring us back for a second show! We played at Droverstock last year - which was a blast. So we were really looking forward to coming back tonight! The hotel they put us up in - it's a Best Western but think Opryland Hotel meets a Best Western. :) We were so excited to come back to our "jungle Best Western" There are so many plants in the courtyard in the middle of the hotel. There's a great indoor pool and a ping pong table! (James LOVES the ping pong!) I want to go swimming but I don't think I'll have time :( NOT complaining though!!!
We actually spent 3 days here the last time we came into town because a show had canceled on us - so we just hung out, played ping pong and walked to Walmart next door a bunch!

Lori Underwood is the lady who brought us back to play tonight! She is one of the sweetest and most wonderful people to work with. It was so good to see her again! Oh, and she got us Pizza Hut Pasta for dinner.... those commercials aren't lying! It is REALLY good. Thank you for everything Lori!!!


We actually had quite a few people who came out to the show that were at Droverstock last year. Droverstock is this giant academic testing day for all the high schools in area. In addition to the testing - there is a HUGE festival that goes on - including live bands all day (you know - why we were there). And they have this HUGE sidewalk chalk art contest - I have NEVER seen such unbelievable sidewalk art!!! They were so creative - it was like going to one of those ridiculous sand castle competitions where people build dragons in amazing detail - yeah. The creativity in these drawings was inspiring! And then all the clubs and organizations at USAO have booths and sell all kinds of fun things. It's really awesome!

She totally brought her shirt from Droverstock for me to sign because she forgot it last year!!! How cute is that?!


And some more repeat customers from Droverstock :)




Now, Terry is a repeat customer, but not because he was a high school student last year. :) He actually came to see us in 2007 at the Jack Daniel's Saloon. He signed up on the email list and has kept up with us ever since. He came out tonight and even brought a friend! How awesome is that!? That right there is what touring is all about y'all!


We were excited because we almost matched perfectly - looks like we planned it... cause, ya know... I tell everyone to wear fuchsia when I am planning on wearing it :)


Amelia!!! One of our youngest audience members. :) This was her first concert! She even managed to get a little nap in during a couple of the slower songs, but woke right back up for the energetic ones. She didn't make a peep, and was SO attentive the entire show!


After we got back to hotel - I finally ate my pasta.... WOW. SOOO good. And I definitely had another package of Keebler Fudge Shop Cookies from last night (Thanks Robin!). And James bought a deck of cards - the guys have been playing cards while I was uploading photos to facebook. And y'all - they are being so funny right now. I think they each picked a laugh or something - Miguel will laugh really funny and choppy, Hootie will laugh all high pitched and sqeaky, and then James laughs all low and Barry White-like. And then all of that makes us ALL laugh for REAL. They are so funny. I love my band.

And can we just talk about how it is so warm here that we had to turn on the AC in the Suburban today? Ummm.... a little different from last week's shoveling of the snow... It was 70 here today. Wow.
Tomorrow, back to the cold! We drive to Wisconsin :) Kenosha, here we come!

peace, love, fiddle, and laughter

~nat