Road Journal

28 August 2010

Farms. (Ames, Iowa)

We made it off of I-80, now northbound on I-35. This road goes up to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, but we’ll be getting off at Rt 20 to head East to Dubuque. We should be there in a few hours. Lots of grain silos and farms. Same scenery that we’ve had since we left Colorado, but with more trees and hills. Haven’t hit any traffic at all, which is nice but expected out here. The van is running really smooth, which is great – we had it tuned up before we left, and it makes a huge difference. Waiting to see if we get pulled over in Iowa, because we’ve pretty much never made it through Iowa without getting pulled over (see road journal below, with Anton sitting in the back of an Iowa state cruiser).

Just passed a Barilla pasta factory, but the air doesn’t smell like pasta. Just passed Iowa State University, too. And now more silos and cows and corn. Sign says “Mason City – 82 miles.” I don’t think we’re going that far North before turning East, though. Can’t wait to get out, stretch the legs, unload the gear, and start setting up the stage. We’re headlining a “Welcome Fest” event on the quad in the middle of the University of Dubuque campus. Should be fun, and we’ve been told that it’s going to be almost all freshmen, which means that we can mold their minds to join the SoundRabbit fan army. It’s massive. Just passed a sign that says, “St. Paul – 209 miles.” Funny that we were just here in February, and will be here again in 6 months, driving this same road to play St. Thomas University. To that point, this tour has a different feeling – and not just because Fred now has an official “2010 Goodbye Summer Tour – SoundRabbit Crew” t-shirt. We’re all feeling really settled in the van and on these roads, missing some of the nervous/jittery excitement that we used to have, exchanging it for a “we’re doing exactly what we should be doing” feeling – which I have to say feels very, very good. Far from being rockstars or anything of the sort (wondering if there will be 10 people at our show in Madison tomorrow night), but feeling completely at home in the role of touring musicians. Pretty awesome.

Okay, enough stream of consciousness – if you’ve made it this far, you win “fan of the century” and we owe you a drink at the next show that you attend.

More pics and updates from Dubuque in a few hours, unless something exciting happens in the interim – like seeing a cow fall in a hole.

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