Man oh, man - this weekend was fun! Moossa traveled down to North Caccalakkie on Wednesday night for a three-show tour around the Beaufort/Atlantic Beach area.

Day One:
Driving down with Little Buddy, Big Buddy and T-Bone was mostly uneventful, although LB liked turning off the headlights while he was driving to see how dark it was on the back roads. You know how dark it was? DARK. The road disappeared and it was like the lights in the whole world went out, not just the headlights. After squealing in fright a few times, he stopped. I made the mistake of telling the guys I'm a nervous passenger in a car (I have a deep fear of dying in a car crash) and they like to freak me out when they can. Great. We made it into Moorehead City at about 3 AM and got our hotel rooms. Luxury of luxuries, we each got our own bed. We crashed out and thus ends day 1 of the tour.

Day Two:
Today, Homes and Fab were to meet up with us at the Carteret Community College in Moorehead City for setup at 11 AM. BB and I walked over to the Hardee's for breakfast. I have learned a lesson here. Don't feed BB Hardee's ever. EVER. The man has flatulence that can kill at 30 paces, and Hardee's only aggravates it. While onstage at the college gig, he looks over to me with this big grin on his face and then I smell it. Dear god, what crawled up in his ass and died? Hardee's. That's what. Other than the smell of rotten eggs on stage, the gig went well. We had thought we were supposed to play for two hours, but were told that we only had to play for one. Score! We each got cash money after the gig from BB and then had a full 24 hours of free time before our next gig in Gloucester. Right after the gig, we all went out to lunch at a local sushi place and feasted, thanks to the college. It wasn't great sushi (I had the tuna, and instead of a vibrant red, it was kind of tired, dark pink) but the cucumber salad with the squid was excellent and the spider roll wasn't bad. Homes had the seaweed salad and that tasted great, too! BB managed to piss off our server by asking for stuff. Surprisingly, he did nothing to earn the girl's ire, she was just tired, I expect. Afterward, we retired to the hotel while Homes and Fab went off to OfficeMax to pick up some part or program for Fab's laptop. When we returned to the hotel, BB started up about blogging. "Nance! When are you gonna blog about our tour, man!" "I'm writing stuff down, don't worry," I say. "When are you gonna blog?!" he hollered back. "Shut up, Moose!" I replied. Repeat this same conversation ad nauseum over the whole weekend. BB found it very amusing. Me, not so much. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring what amusements we had near the hotel. There was a shopping center right behind the Buccaneer Inn where we were staying and we availed ourselves of the Roses for warmer clothes and the grocery store for snacks and beer. There was also an Eckerd next door and a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins and the aforementioned Hardee's all within walking distance. I had doubted that we could get beer at Eckerds, and BB had wanted to bet some of my gig money for it. $50. Fuck that. I said I didn't think there was beer there but declined the bet. Good thing, too. Eckerd, unlike Walgreen's, carried beer and wine. Go figure. We worked on writing some new tunes and got a good handle on one and the boys made up a silly song while I took a shower before dinner. They amused themselves with making up dirty or offensive lyrics. Sorry I missed that. Clean and re-grouped, BB, T-Bone, Fab, Homes and myself went to find an Outback for a good steak dinner. LB was tired. He stayed behind and slept. Dinner was fun, and so good. Even though it was a chunk of money to spend, we all agreed that a good steak dinner was worth it. Returning to the hotel with full bellies and a good buzz on, we found LB awake and eating his dinner of a half-gallon of Baskin-Robbins Ice cream. We all crashed out relatively early and got a good night's sleep. Tomorrow would be another free day and then the private party gig in Gloucester.

Day Three:
After breakfast and some lolling around, I went out to the jetty near the military base with Fab and BB. Fab wanted to get some fishing in, BB wanted to walk off some of the dinner from last night and I wanted to get an eyeful of one of my favorite sites: the ocean. It was a beautiful day. Clear skies, a lovely strand of beach with lots of seashells for picking up and the rolling ocean. Fab even managed to catch a nice sized speckled trout on the jetty. I drew a picture of some of the fishermen on the rocks. It was a gorgeous day. We wandered back to the van and headed back to the hotel and got ready for our gig in the boonies. It wasn't too far from where we were staying, but it was along back roads in the dark. We managed to not get lost, which was a miracle. The Glocester Community Center was tiny, but filled with realy nice people who were gathering to feast and have fun. We were fed like kings from the potluck buffet and then played a really fun couple of sets. The beer flowed the music rocked and we all had a great time. Everyone except for Gloves, who got food poisoning from a bad sandwich on the way down to NC and M and K who got horribly lost trying to find the community center. After the gig, Homes and Fab, followed by M and K, tore out to get back to the hotel. The rest of us followed in the van and soon learned, through LB, that their caravan had been pulled over for speeding. There was some tension there, since M had agreed to the breathalizer but Homes had not. We passed where they were pulled over and it was a speed trap area, for sure. The speed limit dropped from 45 to 35 to 25 in quick succession and Homes hadn't had time to slow down before getting caught. M was right behind him, and was almost free, but got flagged over as well. We passed by where they and three cop cars were pulled over. We worried and talked about what kind of funds we had on hand in case we would have to bail the band members out of jail before the next gig in Beaufort. We decided to stop at the Backstreet Pub to wait and hear what we would need to do. Luckily, they met up with us there, no worse for wear and each bearing a speeding ticket only. We decided to return to the hotel and call it a night. We continued our party at the hotel until 4 in the morning and only got yelled at once by an upstairs neighbor. Whoops. Sorry dude, whoever you are. Another night on tour done and a good time was had by most. Poor gloves was still feeling sick. Hopefully a night of rest would clear up the last of the queasies.

Day Four:
This was the lazy day for most of us. For me, I was recovering from getting my drink on the night before. BB and Fab went off to Beaufort for the day to hang out and fish, respectively. I spent most of the day inside the room watching TV and drinking tea. The previous night I had done a lot of impressions of BB, mainly in the form of yelling. Not good for the vocal chords. Well, that and my other bad habits of drinking and smoking. Gloves was still feeling poorly and spent the day in her room as well. We spoke over the phone a few times and I got to watch "Some Kind of Wonderful" (Eric Stoltz was HOT in the 80's) and a full day of Cesar Millan as the Dog Whisperer. We all got together just before the Backstreet gig and headed out for the load-in. Playing at the Backstreet Pub in Beaufort is always fun. The people really like us and the feeling is mutual. Carl behind the bar upstairs and Jess downstairs were always ready with a smile and a beer. We played the new silly tune and rocked out a new cover that I sang ("Oh Darlin'" by the Beatles). We got a $20 tip for playing some Grateful Dead and I got a pretty, hand-made necklace from a nice hippy couple. We sold a few CDs and were even asked to autograph them. I wish all of our gigs could be as warm as the ones at the Backstreet Pub. We closed with "Land Down Under" and the people danced and cheered. Load-out was done and we returned to the hotel again to chat. Homes checked in on Gloves, while T-Bone, BB, Fab and I discussed the pros and cons of recording the live shows.

Wow! What a tour! I had a blast, but I am glad to be home now. I am happy to be in a place where the only flatulence I need to deal with is my own and reunited with my best guy, Bogart. We'll be back in Beaufort for New Year's Eve and will rock it out again, I'm sure. Hopefully, this time, we won't get pulled over.