Round and round we go…

Hello from the van, somewhere outside Peoria, Illinois, on our way to Yellow Springs, Ohio. Beautiful blue sky day with big white puffy clouds and cool temps (50’s)… great driving day!

We played Doane College last night in Crete, and it was a lot of fun. Beers recorded some of the set on his phone, so we got to review the show earlier on our drive today and we were all pleased with the playing and sound mix, etc. It was a tough room to mix for (thanks, Fred!): a big basketball gym with high-rise seating and very high (50’+) ceilings, brick walls, and big windows. We were there to volunteer our time as entertainment for the Relay For Life, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) events of the year at the school… so they had us set up in the middle of the room while the students and local residents walked laps around it. We played from 11pm to 12:30am or so, but they were all walking from 6pm to 6am – wowsers. Students were taking occasional breaks from the walking, by shooting hoops (right in front of us – Anton almost got beaned by basketballs a few times), jumping in big inflatable jumpy houses, eating stuff, etc. When we first arrived to load in and set up, they were having a silent vigil and luminary lighting, with students speaking to the crowd about parents, siblings, etc. who had lost a battle with cancer or who were still fighting it. VERY moving. There was enough transition time between that and our set that we were able to have a fun, upbeat setlist and everyone was cool. All in all it was a really fun event, and in what has become a Doane tradition for us, one of the advisors (thanks, Amy!) baked us a fresh, homemade apple pie. We took it back to the hotel and scarfed it in the lobby before retiring for the night. Not bad living.

Here’s how the setlist panned out:

Hazel
Marula Binge
Story Of…
Sister, Brother
View From Way Up Here
Mud Jam
September
Life During Wartime
Nightlite Jesus
Turn My Egg

The visual version:

I should comment quickly about eating on the road, and the value of a gift like Amy’s. We arrived at Doane around 9:30pm thinking that we’d grab something to eat on campus or at the event itself. We had no luck finding anything, so we had to scramble to find dinner before playing at 11pm. It took us an hour to set up (10:40pm), so we had about 15 minutes… we piled into the van and drove to the nearest 24 hour WalMart (next to campus) and raided the fruit and veggies section, along with grabbing some Hawaiian sweet bread and a jar of peanut butter. By 11pm we were back at the gym with some relatively healthy food in our stomachs and ready to rock. By contrast, today for lunch we ate at The World’s Largest Truckstop’s food court, with 5 fast food options. We all opted for Wendy’s. The people watching and random-trinket-and-t-shirt browsing were most excellent as always.

We crossed the Mississippi River shortly after the Truckstop, cruised through Peoria, Illnois, and we’re now on I-74 about 2.5 hours from Indianapolis, en route to Peach’s in Yellow Springs. We’re all going on about 3.5 hours of sleep, so it’s pretty quiet in the van (other than some snoring from the back bench row “bed”)… but we’re feeling good and ready to rock a long set tonight.

More later!