TO THE NEAREST EXIT, PLEASE...

So we wrapped our show in Canada around 9:30 pm. Decent show, we sold 3100 tickets but the crowd was a little cold and subdued from the weather outside. And it was Valentines night, which I can't imagine provides a good backdrop for a show. Anyway, we busted ass and got out of the casino around 11:15 pm. It had started snowing very lightly around 5 pm, but by the time we rolled it was near blizzard like conditions. And when you pull onto the road and snow is being kicked up in front of you as well as falling on you it makes for pretty fun times if you're behind the wheel. The only other time I've seen it so bad was Feb. 2007 when we trekked through Oregon and Montana with Dierks Bentley. The size of the snowflakes was about the size of a 50 cent piece and all you saw was white in front of you. We had to drive 20 mph for about 4 hours until it would let up. The 260 mile drive to Bozeman took us about 8 hours.

OK, so we hit the border and I'm expecting flogging and cavity searches. I jumped out at the Canada side while my drivers backed in to their loading docks and, low and behold, the Canadian folks took one look at my papers and stamped them. I was back on the bus by the time they had parked successfully. So off we went across Peace Bridge to the U.S. side where they had promised to board and search us on our re-entry. We pulled up to the booth, the young guy jumped out and up onto our bus. Within about 30 seconds he started talking hunting with ML, called two of his customs buddies up on the bus and we all began to have a little pow wow. I reached into a bag and pulled out three longsleeve black "Kerosene" T's and passed them around to my dear friends from the US Customs. Jimmy Buffett wrote in his autobiography that he breached customs in at least a dozen countries by simply carrying a box of T-Shirts and CD's. That trick always works. Those guys jumped off and searched our band bus (and also harassed Alex Weeden, our guitar player/glutton for punishment, about a made up statutory rape charge and intestinal issues) and we cleared Canadian and US Customs and immigration in 16 minutes from the time we pulled in. I don't know if there is a record for time in crossing, but I'm pretty excited with 16 mins. It makes me not even sweat the fact I have to return twice in the next three months. Well, at least for now I'm not sweating.

So we made the 550 mile drive to Lancaster (pronounced LANK-a-ster), PA and were there in time for our 10 am load in. This was a fairly cool theater that seats about 1600. We made it to about 85% capacity but it looked good. Once ML launched into "Gunpowder" the crowd stood up and never sat back down. It was a good gig, the people were happy. At the end of the night, the buses were parked in the public parking lot and the building has no security whatsoever, so we had to do a Sanford and Son job with caution tape to try and keep people away from bus doors and load out. After about an hour, we still had probably 50 people hanging around so ML jumped off and signed a few things and took a couple pics with fans. Maybe it's because I'm on the other side of things, but there is not one person in this word I'd stand in sub freezing weather at the CHANCE I might get a picture or an autograph. Really.

So we ate amazing local pizza (I didn't, I had salad because I'm lo-carbing) and pulled out for Florence, Indiana. We sold out in advance at Belterra Casino. It's not a big room (maybe 1000-1200) but a nice place. Wierd set-up, almost an in the round stage. I had people looking at my ass when tuning in guitar world. I'm sure that wasn't part of the ticket price. When we were done I sent ML and a couple agents from our booking agency up to the high roller room to play blackjack. I think ML broke even, everyone else (including our band guys that followed) all got smeared in the casino. I made it in for one beer, 45 seconds at the bar before having my fill of drunk idiots and then returned to the bus for a relaxing evening. We pulled into Nashville around 5 am and Brittani came and got me. I caught up on sleep until noon that day, God I needed it after not getting any the first two nights on the road. Now back to work in the office world.