Land travel is expensive; it costs twice as much to drive to Seattle as fly there, including the allowance for their airport being in the wrong county. My guess is that accommodation prices won’t fall much as the hoards of new retirees start their caravans next year. That is one area they are not likely to skimp, although it is hard to understand why they do it. I mean, you go to Vegas when you are 25, not 65. As I’ve said, the major obstacle to not driving is the lack of local transportation when you arrive.I’m getting plenty of practice cooking “in the dark” (actually I have excellent lamps) and I’m finding the variety of preserved food is twice as large as it used to be. In some ways my diet has more range than when buying refrigerated food. But beware that there is no cost savings due to the price of fuel. For example, potatoes and rice are cheap, but it takes twenty minutes to boil them. Chicken is also out. I’ve become a so-so expert on finding the items that just need heating up.
It only took one glance at a motor home to tell me those are no bargain. In many cases, they cost as much as a decent motel. They lumber along except on paved roads and a tank-up can set you back $150. Worst, many communities are requiring they overnight only in designated recreational areas, which charge by the person. Besides, who likes driving a bus on holidays? Have you ever tried to park those things?
I had a truck camper in my twenties. A hospital laundry truck driver said I could have his old one. I made two trips with it, finding I would get to a destination, park it, and walk around. The concept of traveling through great scenic passes was all on the advertising brochures. The most use I got from it was one summer I worked on a bridge crew.
The Dept. of Highways provided bunkhouses, but if you want to live with forty hacking, swearing, burping, smelly, and who knows what else old men, join the army. Instead, I parked the camper forty feet away near a state campground, thus having the equivalent of a private penthouse when the women from town showed up to party on the weekends. It was on one of those boring mid-week stretches that this journal was born.
Even though he is not a coffee drinker, Dave-O wants to see the show tonight. Plus, we have to ensure that his trailer hitch fits my trailer just in case we have to suddenly move a bunch of things, know what I mean? He used to be a roadie and is one of a five people volunteering to help me move my things. But I don’t have that much, what you see is a lot of accumulated items that would certainly be thrown out if I decide to put my things in storage and move to Colorado. I don’t want to move, but neither is there a piano tied to my ass.
Cowboy Mike drove us out to Stork’s, a coffee house on University. We stayed up until midnight in what amounted to a heavily guitar-based show. Jag and I played eight tunes from 9:00 PM onwards for a small crowd that definitely appreciated our offerings. My music choices tend to be unique to this area, for instance I believe we are the only band that plays Nancy Sinatra.
We are not a coffee house band but meshed well enough to garner a spate of compliments on both our choice and our presentation. While there were other duo tunes, they tended to play standard parts and pieces in unison rather than the customized patterns Jag and I have worked on since day one. That day was six weeks ago, so please come and hear us in another six.
This is also the first time I’ve sung in front of an unknown crowd. All previous instances have had some component of familiarity, such as Karaoke. I’d say it went well, and in the case of the drum machine, it may be the first time some people have heard one used properly (based on questions asked afterwards).
One question was how on earth I got pre-recorded tracks to cover odd measures, which is impossible. Um, because they are not pre-recorded, they are real drum progressions that I programmed beat for beat and control with a foot switch. I found the mic was too sensitive and had to hold back on some of the vocals.
All this experience is accumulating, take note. We are going get Jag to play and sing a few of his tunes by bands like Blink-182. I doubt he understands this requires another layer of co-ordination they don’t teach you in school, so the sooner he finds out the sooner we move along. There were a few too many guitarists doing repetitious ballads tonight and the sexy women didn’t walk in until after our show was over. In all, I’d rate it a success. Success that’s a forty mile round trip away.
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