- ?:?? – Day of rest. No information available. Read the book.
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Jan
17
- 9:00 am – 12:30 pm – we perform at Ventnor school, with special guest Kala Jojo, an awesome storyteller and musician from Philadelphia.
- 12:30 pm – Roman breaks off to run some errands and otherwise prepare for our departure. He meets the housekeeper, Clemencia, who is from Colombia, and practices speaking Spanish with her.
- 2:30 pm – Roman picks up the lads and helps load up the van. We are fully aware that in leaving we will encounter some snow in North Carolina.
- 3:15 pm – we depart Margate City, bound for Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
- 4:44 pm – we arrive at the Cape May-Lewes ferry, and wait in line. Within minutes we board the ferry and prepare to cross the Delaware bay. On board, we meet Karen, who is instantly interested in our music and picks up a couple of CDs.
- 6:02 pm – Thacher takes over a driving shift which lasts several hours. The others sleep andor unwind the best they can in a cramped tour van. There is evidence of snow.
- 8:32 pm – we cross the Chesapeake Bay tunnelbridge system.
- 11:23 pm – Roman takes over driving, having slept through part of Delaware and all of Maryland. The snow is definitely more intense by this point.
- 11:45 pm – It is snowing a blizzard and Roman gets a call from Sarale.
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Jan
17
- 12:07 am – in spite of the rest Roman’s eyes feel heavy as he drives.
- 12:14 am – Roman takes his shirt off and shreds numerous tea-tree chew-sticks in order to stay awake.
- 1:22 am – Driving 50 mph in a blizzard on a one-lane highway under constuction, Roman drives through a deep puddle completely unawares (the puddle was under a blanket of snow over a clogged drainpipe), splashes the windshield with water and manages to keep the van and trailer under control with zero visibility. The others jump up in fright, collectively startled out of their slumbers. The moment passes slower than it came – our hearts take a few minutes to slow down. Our infinite gratitude and thanks to the unseen powers and winds that allowed our survival of that tenuous incident.
- 2:12 pm – David takes over the driving. Roman passes into dreamland.
- 4:00 am – David pulls the van over and everyone sleeps at a rest stop. Roman is completely unaware of this, and only wakes when…
- 8:22 am – The van pulls into Winston-Salem and makes a beeline for IHOP. After breakfast we drive to the Summit school campus, where we find our hostess Sandra’s house awaiting our presence. We fall asleep within minutes of unloading the stringed instruments and bags.
- 12:30 pm – set up for the Summit school performances.
- 1:45 pm & 2:30 pm – performances. We were introduced by our old friend Cliff Clark, who originally brought us to Keith School in Rockford back in 2k, back when we were younger and more naive. Henry Heidman, the ultimate tech, got our sound up and running and before the weekend was over had introduced us to fine southern rock at the Garage (see below), and consulted us on the ongoing saga of the burned out Behringer amp. Bottom line: Behringer was ballast for the rest of the tour, but self-fixable provided we could order the right parts.
- 4:00 pm – we retreat to Sandra’s house and pass out with great enthusiam.
- 8:30 pm – relatively refreshed we venture out, arriving at the Garage in time to order killer pizza and see the tail end of Peter May and the Rough Band (Henry’s band). Cyril Lance, the headliner, recognizes our Rongovian Embassy t-shirts. Evidently Cyril had passed some salad days in Rongovia, Finger Lakes region. He turns out to be one of the wompin’-est slide guitar players any of us have ever heard. We pick our jaws up off the floor to consume pizza. Good golly, Miss Molly from Bali, behind the bar, takes a fascination to the dijeridoo.
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