Colorado and more!

Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska

We spent a couple days in Illinois a day in Chicago and then today in Nebraska. What I’ve come to realize about this tour is that more then anything it is about the relationships I’m building with the people here. Sometimes in my life with some of you I cut you out. Here I don’t have that option I have to deal with these people, in fact I get to live with them. Day in and out, happy and sad we are with eachother, there is no where to run or hide. Sure, it is possible to not be around certain people but really it is just easier to hash things out.

I loved the time we spent in Illinois, it was quite fun. We were able to get the bloody door off the truck, which was so nice and it is totally going to help with our organization. (In theory) already the truck is a mess again. I could kick the asses of the people I work with in making it messy. I spent the day in Chicago with my best friend on tour and some other people who tagged a long. It was nice being in the real life world. I say that because the world we live in is not real. It is the tour relm and it is intense and fun but when it all boils down to something, its just “band”.

After Chicago we went on to Iowa. I liked Iowa, I wish I could have seen our relatives but that is ok, it was fun none the less. I liked the corn, it reminded me of my college town. The people were so friendly in the town and on our first day off in a while we spent it in a room doing inventory for the whole trailor and truck. This was well worth it. (I think) So we can get things again more organized. I did laundry for a bunch of the admin staff. It wasn’t a big deal, they paid for my laundry and gave me detergent. Plus doing the laundry isn’t such a big deal when they do so much for everyone else on tour.

tonight we are driving in the semi again, going to Colorado! I like being in the semi, i get to hangout with my friend, and the best part is that there is a bed we get to sleep in so good nights sleeps are easier lately. today we are in Colorado. its so nice outside. It is a rehearsal day so thats cool as well. Yay for getting a little time to myself.

i'm out.

email me people.
Pidget

Ravena Diner

The Souvie truck broke down last night. We spent the night on the side of the road sleeping uncomfortably in a truck. No joke, it was quite possibly the worst night sleep of my life. However, with the horrible timing of the truck breaking down its given me this wonderful opportunity to use internet at this shady truck stop in Ravena, New York.

These last few stops have been a blur. My days are consumed with folding selling, sleeping on cement floors and many laughs that with people I'm sharing this experience with.
I've finally had the opportunity to spend some time with Christen on the 4th of July. The corps had parades they marched in so we didn't have to sell on the fourth. We then left our tour for another tour, and I will never complain or make fun of our tour again for its thoroughness. The TM does an amazing job and so does our administration staff. It can't possibly be that easy to orchestrate 200 people to get hundreds of miles everynight.

I forget how much I love the north east of this country. Rhode Island is beautiful. so is Mass. its perfect actually. We drove through Boston. I really wish we could have had some time off there. Someday I will see you Boston!

The Cadets marched in two parades the other day. The second one was in Wakefield, Ma. One of my traveling companions has really wanted to see Superman so we tried to find a theatre. We ended up at the most glorious place I've ever been in. When I walked in I was told don't come back without ice cream. So I walk in, and there were trees made of candy. A trapeze school and a fountain that had a light show. it was glorious! You might think i'm joking, however it was pretty amazing.

As for my birthday, it sucked. We were up early and stayed up late. But thats ok, because today when I checked my email I had plenty of well wishes from people.

Somethings that have annoyed me:
Someone left my bag in the rain without telling me so all my shit smells like mold.
not doing laundry.
feeling lucky when I get to take a shower every other day.
people who don't understand I don't know about drum corps.
people who lie about having a girlfriend.

Somethings that I love.
traveling.
this is my job.


anyways I should go do a load of laundry.
mad love.
call me.
Pidget

Tenn, Evansville Indiana, and West Virginia

Tour life. I never expected to actually understand the saying, I forget what state I'm in. It really is easy to forget what state we are in, and what state we were in the day before.

We were supposed to have a day off today however, the director of the corps decided we need to work today. As if we don't work enough. Or don't need a day off. Tomorrow we work all day, from 7:15am-late that night. Sounds like a fun b-day if I do say so myself.

Tenn isn't so bad to be in, we have finally gotten out of the rain. The storms are ridiculous in these parts of the country. one minute its 100 degrees the next second its stormy and we are getting rained on. lame.

I liked being in Indiana for some reason. I could have done without West Virginia, when we were driving to the Venue, I made some comment about wanting to see people from the back woods without teeth and in overalls. I never really expected to get my wish.

The housing site we stayed at was at a school that morning had other kids staying there. the "world changers" while taking a shower I overheard some conversations by these kids.

"you know that band camp that is here, the girls shower naked isn't that disgusting?"

girl to me:" are you with the band camp?"
me to girl: "its not a band camp they are the reigning world champion drum corp, and they are on tour"
girl: " do they really sleep in the same room with boys and girls?"
me to girl: "yeah?"
girl: blank stare full of judgment

so I ask the girl "what is world changers?"
girl: "we help fix houses and talk about jesus"

rat.

welcome to west Virginia.

I drove last night to Maryland, ok well 300 of the 400 miles we traveled last night. I own driving with a trailer. I've been accepted into the drivers club even though I'm a girl. This morning as we pulled up to the site, I found out that after we switched drivers, the drum bus broke down, and that the Food truck got stopped at a weigh station. Lame! So we were missing almost half of our convey. Crazy!

I'm gonna get up and get going.

oh psi. If you've tried to call my phone is being ridiculous. It won't charge so I need to find a Verizon wireless.

One love,
Pidget

Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina

Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina

Sorry for the delay in the writing, and for the posting. We don’t have internet access at a lot of the places we are staying. So I’m latterly writing these entries in a word document and posting them as soon as I get some sort of service. We arrived in North Carolina this morning around 4am. The drive wasn’t so bad since I slept half of it.

I’m starting to get the swing of this tour life. I love it. Well most of it. there are many ways during the summer people can help the Cadets by volunteering from working on the food truck to driving. These volunteers come in for a week or two and hangout. Erving a a driver who I’ve become quite fond of. Left this morning. Which is such a sad state of affairs. This is a Promo picture of Jay and Erving when we got to the parking lot of the housing site.

Alabama was nice. I really liked it a lot. Which I think surprised people. i have no opinions on Georgia but South Carolina was fun to drive through. The bugs in South Carolina I could have done without. But hey we can’t win them all can we?

Johnsonville TN

Johnsonville TN, -A babtist college. In the middle of no where.

Today we sold a lot of merch which is good. However I still am annoyed with one of our staff members. I think he finds every reason to be a dick to me for no reason. Its like putting me down makes him feel better about himself. Maybe he is looking for a reaction. He isn’t getting one by the way. I just finish my job and walk away.

I’m sitting in a dorm room right now. It smells funny. I’m going to go shower soon the 2nd one for the day. I’ve found myself helping the prop truck as much as my time allows. Which is stupid of me to help with the props when I’m already exhausted from Souvie stuff!

Our drive tonight is about 7-8 hours. Going to Alabama!

I heart you.
Pidget.

Salem VA

Salem VA
Last night we drove from Gettysburg. It was about an 6 hour drive. It normally wouldn’t take so long but the Convoy is about 15 cars. It is something to see when you area driving in the middle of it and its just one long line of cars. All these people are here for the kids for them to be the best they can be and to make sure that these kids make it safely to there destination.

I didn’t ride with my coworkers I rode in our box truck with the person who is in charge of props. It was a hilarious ride. I’ve adopted him as my new best friend on tour. We have a lot of the same schedule so its nice having someone around who really doesn’t care that much I don’t know about drum corp.

He even let me celebrate every time we hit a new state. (Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia)

The music is cool day started off well. There was about 200 kids who came to this clinic. I was surprised since the one we did in Hanover it felt like there was only 50 kids. I was told early in the morning they needed me to drive tonight so I was able to get to sleep for a little bit during the day.
We watched a run through of the show. It is almost finished. I think they are learning the rest today which is so exciting. It looks really good, and I honestly would tell you if I thought it sucked. It is a pretty cool thing to see 135 kids on the field. Not just marching but going so quickly you and I would fall on our buts.

Lets see what else. We were able to get out for a little bit we went to Wendys for dinner. No convoy no people asking us to do things we weren’t brought here to do.

I like tour life so far. Its getting easier and I seriously doubt I’ll be as tired as I was the first day. Its getting easier.

As for driving to Tenn. last night? Well of course I was the only female in the convoy. Which was a little intimidating at first. Plus my passenger turned off the music so we drove in silence until we hit Tenn. I had no one to celebrate with but my friend from the previous night celebrated over the radio. As per the agreement for me driving. I was allowed to sleep in today. I need to find the stadium cause I should go earn my keep!

Mad love from Tennessee!

Pidget

Gettysburg PA

Gettysburg PA, Day 1

Today was a million times better. Setting up the stand only took an hour as opposed to yesterdays 2.5 hour mess. Even taking down went semi-smoother. I feel better today. I got a good nights sleep in my scary hotel room. And even got to sleep into 10am. Tomorrow we have to be at the trailor at 6:30. YUCK!

As for seeing my first show? It was pretty impressive. I mean it was a show. I’m going to compare how tired I am to the tired I used to get after the SEB events. Really its that exhausting. But I figure after a few weeks of this, it won’t be tiring at all.

I think I started to form co-existing relationships with people here. What I mean by that is, this will be ok. I can fit in. People who intimidated me yesterday I talked to today and found out yesterday was there first day on the tour as well. Which alleviates a lot of the stress of yesterday.

Anyways, I need to shower, and who knows maybe a movie with my new friend. So what if he drives a bus. At least he doesn’t throw things at me and make me feel stupid.

Oh wait, before I go. I was walking back to the hotel and on the way there was a pizza place, and because we didn’t get food all day. I stopped in. I asked them about Gettysburg and the battlefield. And apparently I’m sitting in it. So sleeping with the bathroom light on was a great idea. The battlefield isn’t just one place its all over this town. Yes there are places where you can ‘go’ to see it. but its on this campus. Its all over.

That’s it my friends.
Tomorrow is an early day.

Mad love to you all.
Pidget
Ps. Email me. I want to know how you are all doing.

crazy experience!

because of lack of internet. I'm going to post a few blogs at the same time.
Right now we are in Indiana. The only thing that gets me through the day is the time i get to hangout with my friend Jay. This is one of the weirdest/hated/loved experiences of my life.

Allentown PA

We've been trying to get ready for the tour the last three days. All day Sunday and half of yesterday was spent working on the trailer itself. It consisted of painting and putting racks in and figuring out how we were going to configure the the merchandise in it.

Then we went to the YEA office and we started organizing the merch itself. I swear its not as glamorous as it seems. Not that folding/counting/folding/labeling and then packing them into boxes.

The original plan was to leave for Pittsburgh tonight however, with the amount of stuff we still need to get ready for tour, we aren't leaving until Friday. We are going to Andover (handover) on Friday to meet up with the rest of the convoy. Saturday we leave for Gettysburg and next week we are going to be in Alabama...I think? Actually I don't know.

Anyways, to everyone whose reading this. I miss you and love you all.

love,
Pidget

I leave tomorrow.

I'm leaving for tour tomorrow. I figure creating a blog for this summer and all my travels is going to be the best way for my friends/family to keep up with where I am this summer. I'll be able to upload photos and write about my adventures here. Or maybe I'll just be posting photos. Who really knows? I love and miss you all. I'll see you soon.

Love,
Pidget