The Oregon Trail - Days 2, 3 and Part of FOUR!

Howdy!

Alrighty – So, maybe getting a solid wireless connection has been a bit of a challenge over the last 48 hours… OR – maybe we’ve all been drinking too much whiskey… I’ll let ya’ll just mull that one over for a while before I give a definitive answer. (Or maybe I won’t… Who knows?...)

We’re hanging out at Carrie’s parents house right now. Got into Corvallis this afternoon and we’ll be playing later tonight at Bombs Away Café in the university area. Okay – seriously – If you’re looking for some quality Mexican food while staying in Corvallis, that’s the place to go. Not only is the food great (Green Chile Stew was AWESOME) but they focus on using produce and meats from organic farms and ranches and promote a sustainable business, lifestyle, etc. Great place! Oh, and the margaritas were also quite tasty… heh heh… ANYway – we’ll be playing there tonight at 9pm for a couple of sets.

On Thursday night, we played at a place called ‘Imbibe’ in SE Portland. We’ve played there before and had a great time, so we thought we’d check it out again. The atmosphere is really nice, the staff is great and we had a really nice time hanging out. However, DAMN – It was freakin’ HOT on stage. WOO!!! We were all dying by the end of the night… We shared the evening with a solo artist by the name of Rollie Tussing. http://www.rollietussing.com/ He was great! I absolutely loved his show. I highly recommend checking him out if you’re in the Portland area. He plays guitar (sometimes slide) and also lays down a mean beat while playing bass drum and a hi-hat/tambourine combo with his feet! (Even played kazoo on a few numbers!) Anyway – check out his site and enjoy some good music.

After the show, we went back to Carrie’s friend, Willie’s home and closed out the evening by drinking copious amounts of whiskey and wine out on the porch. Throw in some incriminating stories from Carrie’s childhood and it was a fine evening, indeed. Carrie and Willie have known each other since high school and definitely had some very funny stories to tell. Willie was very kind to let a bunch of very sweaty, pseudo-rockstars into his home for the night and for that, we are very grateful.

Yesterday, we traveled on to Bend, Oregon where we had a show at The Grove. For the record, I LOVE Bend. It’s an absolutely charming and beautiful town. I could totally live there. (And there are some amazing mountains surrounding the entire area – WOO!) We were again welcomed into the very lovely home of Patty and Mike AND Susan. (Both Susan and Patty went to junior high and high school with Carrie…) Greg and I stayed with Patty and Mike and Carrie stayed with Susan. Wow – Patty and Mike have such a beautiful home and it’s always a treat to stay there. I stayed in the ‘Persimmon’ room and it was LOVELY. :)

Damon and Graham also made it to the Bend show as well. (As well as the Imbibe show…) What a bunch of groupies! Heh heh – AND they helped schlep our gear around! (Suckas) But seriously – it’s always nice to be able to take a few supporters with you on the road. However, we’ve been lucky at every show to see some great friends. People have been very supportive about coming out to see us. And Bend was no exception – a great crowd, indeed! Aside from a few sound issues, the show went well and I hope we can return to Bend for another show soon.

After the show, we headed back to Patty and Mike’s place where we proceeded to enjoy more whiskey! Umm, there seems to be a trend forming here… Heh… Suffice it to say, it was very hard to get up this morning. BUT – It was lovely to spend a bit of time lounging about in the Persimmon Room. Yay! (I wanted to lounge about – It had nothing to do with shots of Jamesons or Makers… NOTHING…) (Keep telling yourself that, Smith…)

ANYway, we got on the road at around Noon and headed back towards Corvallis. It was hard to leave as it was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day. It would’ve been so nice to lounge around on Patty’s deck for a while. But instead of lying about in the sun, we piled back in the CRV and hit the road. We were going fine until we got stuck in the RODEO traffic outside of Sisters, Oregon. Oh well – we got past it after about 20 min. or so and were back on our way. We took a very windy, twisty and scenic way to Corvallis. There was a great display of all of the mountains in the area and it was all very beautiful in the sunshine. Very happy to see it all…

Okay – I gotta go get ready for the show tonight. Have to be over to the gig in about an hour. ACK! Hope ya’ll are doin’ well and I’ll see you back in Seattle SOON!!

Ciao!

p.s. Oh, and to the person who scored FREE tickets to the freakin’ Drive-By Truckers show tonight (you know who you are) – I hope you have a faaaaaabulous damn time! (Insert tears *here* Crap - I’d LOVE to see that show… Curses! I miss them every damn time they’re in town. ARGH!)