We got great news yesterday morning. After a reserved but fun crowd in Lincoln, the Frogs headed to the Nebraska-Wesleyan dorms for some rest, leaving all of our equipment in the bar because we had no trailer attached to an RV to put it in. Bertha was in the shop and the band was uncertain about our immediate touring future. We had to be in Omaha the next day, not to mention 15 more cities in the next three weeks.
I woke up on the floor, as often happens on tour, but to great news as Mark announced that our transmission was not shot as we had feared. Simply a fan clutch! Only the fan clutch? What the hell is a fan clutch? Who cares? It's way less expensive to fix than a tranny and so like that, we borrowed a car from one of our wonderful hostesses and moved our still functioning RV over to the good old Lincoln Lube for some lube and fan clutch work costing a fraction of the time and money the tranny would have.
Two hours in daily life can seem like a long time. Some people only get thirty, maybe forty-five minutes for lunch at their day job but on tour, two hours is just enough time to get settled. Most drives are four to six hours and so sitting for two hours at an auto-shop is not nearly as painful as it sounds, especially when you have the knowledge of exactly what's wrong with your vehicle. It's that awful fear of the unknown, the fear we played through and went to sleep with
that really eats you.
In less than a day after we got Bertha back, she became our life support vehicle. We charged her batteries and filled her with nutritious food. You can relieve yourself at 60 m.p.h. and look out the back window to see the Midwestern skyline slowing sliding backwards. We even took on another soul in Omaha, Travis Jones, our all-around road helper. Watch out for some upcoming Vlog's on Mountain Size Record's website because they might include an interview or two with Travis. He's a character to say the least.
Now we're back in business, baby, blogging while flying down the road near the Iowa/Nebraska border, enjoying the comforts of a life largely left in the last century by generations of RV lovers. It's easy to see why they loved it. It's easy to see why they left it, opting for frequent flier miles and a Prius in the garage instead. We were able to enjoy fajitas on the rig before the show last night, we also get 8 miles to the gallon...
At this very moment, I'm sitting behind Travis while he mouths "ooo.. la la la" in the front seat along with some Fugees tunes pumping out of Pandora on our surround-sound speakers (old Technics for that matter, they sound GREAT). This is the life. And this is mos def' tour season. Whether it's a tranny or a toothbrush, every day is filled with logistical problems while trying to promote your shows in the future. Making great music and meeting new people make it all worth it, so we sincerely hope to see you out there! You can keep and get in touch with the Frogs like this:
Frogs Gone Fishin' Official Website
Mountain Size Records
Facebook
Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment