Day #1

Ok, I've got 15 minutes to boarding here at PDX to start this blog. We are laden with stuff! Wearing several layers of clothes each. Security took 8 bins plus Frank's bass! There's a piano here in the airport lobby. I remember playing that as a vollunteer at Xmas while people walked by a couple years ago.
It will be a lot more fun to play in the packed auditoriums we're going to, even if we freeze our butts off! They tell me that buildings are heated in northern Wisconson in the winter.
It was tough leaving, I have to admit. Saying goodbye to our family, friends and students for two months, not to mention our dogs.Parting in such sweet melancholy. That just means we have so much to come home to!
OK, so we’re now at the gate and Frank already had the triumph of running into another musician and casually told him we’re leaving for this 36 city concert tour.
Guy musicians get a kick out of being competitive with one another. A “rich” guy musician is only determined by one thing: how many gigs he gets. That’s because they have so much darn fun. They could be driving old beater cars, and working for “gas” money, it doesn’t matter. Many musicians I know are guys who have “real” jobs, (i.e. day jobs that pay well, comforts, house, mortgage, family, etc.), but accept every possible gig they can get. The full-time musicians are often envied, even though many work like crazy, carting their equipment everywhere, sometimes with two or three gigs in a day. It’s a culture.
For example, we had to be at the airport at 6.30 A.M. this morning ready and eager to launch our two month adventure, and Frank accepted a gig last night that went until 1:00 this morning! I asked him if that was such a good idea, and he said, “and miss a gig?”
So we all went last night to hear Frank play with Joseph Konty (a fabulous R&B and rock musician and band) and we had a blast dancing. I write to you this DAY ONE of our tour now at 30,000 ft. after just three hours of sleep.
The pilot just came on to tell us that it’s –2 degrees with 15mph winds in Chicago. The fun soon begins!

DAY TWO: Jan.21,2008