Bought new car tires at Walmart and swam. My fave river spot is getting more popular every year, and this day  there was no one there. More fun for Tracy and I that way. I also painted the new old Toyota with automotive. It is funny how much people love this car now that it has stars painted on it people always smile when they drive by, especially kids love the car now. Curry dinner, YES song stuck in my head, more river swimming drive to ferry, sleep on ferry, 4 hours in a hotel.

Smitty picked us up and off to the airport.  Canjet, no food or juice unless you pay. Change airport terminals and put all gear into shuttle bus in Toronto. Picture a shuttle bus full of commuters, plus all of us with all of our stage gear (in cases).  3 hour layover in airport used up quickly with this gear exchange. There was a private baggage company with airline and Mike had to sort some stuff out, so he kept busy the whole time. I read a book about a girl with an uncle that was a biker (I have since forgotten about this novel.) We then flew onto Halifax, drove into Dartmouth, walked to grocery store across parking lot from hotel.  Scott had pizza and I watched The Trailer Park Boys on TV not knowing that it was shot in the same town where I was watching it. I was later to become a very serious fan of this show.  Slept 4 hours feel great, raining all day.

August 8 2004

Drive to Sidney, Nova Scotia raining outdoor gig right in the heart of the town’s waterfront walkway excellent delta hotel go for a run in the pouring rain. No people on boardwalk,  run past huge concert site with high stage security people in rain outfits.

Hotel pool full of loud people. Really loud room, acoustically. Every scream or old-lady bark goes on forever and ruins your nerves. I don’t understand why people always have to yell and scream in public pools. And I have noticed that the fancier the hotel, the less the pool is used, and the quieter the guests are. Something to that but I need a government grant to study it.

Shower, into van, shuttle the 3 blocks to concert site. Backstage tent full of people: most people I have ever seen backstage. Strangers ate the deli tray right away and drank all of the beer. Tons of security guys everywhere, too. Thousands of people waiting in the rain for our show. Subway Steve arrived with his gang of awesome friends. Awesome crowd (Frankie’s favorite word, AWESOME!) I signed a million things at the T shirt booth, and answered tons of questions, while someone opened my gig bag backstage and stole some stuff from it. I didn’t like that very much.

515 km drive across Nova Scotia to the little town of Bridgewater. Couple hour nap. Smaller club, tighter show with at least 3 tons of deep-fried food back stage. Stopped on side road to take a pee and felt a very strange hot hot wind coming from somewhere in the forest. Strange summer day on the Eastern seaboard.

5:45 am lobby call drive to Halifax airport fly to Toronto 4 our layover transport gear (stage equipment) into shuttle bus to other terminal, sleep on airport bench had crazy, crazy dreams, several dreams deep, couldn’t open my eyes to wake up, same thing happen to Scott. Read a great book about an entertainer in the 1920s with MOB connections, at least 12 hours of travel before hitting the stage for us, land in Deer Lake NFLD,  load into old Buick limo with ED the chatty driver.1.5 hours drive to hotel.  2 hours at hotel, half hour drive with ED the chatty limo driver to the gig. Outdoors, 4000 people, raining, nighttime. My notes here say BRIGHT LIGHT IN BACK WINDOW – LOUD TOILETS, I don’t know what that was all about.

Fred Penner was backstage, having opened the show earlier (he travels by himself with his guitar). Walked across the parking lot with him and I suggested that he join Frankie in the drum solo. He took this very seriously and we prepped him to where the part is in the show, and what it is all about.  He stood on the side of the stage, and when his cue was up, he leaped to the front of the stage with a garbage can and did a fantastic African dance percussion extravaganza, much to my amazement and delight.  I am amazed what a cool and talented guy he is. Friendliest crowd and security scene of the year and nice blueberry cake backstage. Scott dropped his piece on the floor right away there was marching band drums and glockenspiel backstage, and to my amazement also a bowling ally. We had a full-out crazy freak-out bowling session with a some town dignitaries, every funny thing you could think of to do with bowling without doing any damage occurred to a constant chorus of laughing. This is perhaps my most memorable and bizarre Trooper moment.

4 lanes sounded like 30. Ok, loud acoustics in washroom, great harmonica jam with Ra, and a really bright light in the back of the limo on the ride home, Schwarzenegger on TV all the time getting elected in California Letter from Fred Penner at front desk of hotel “To my Trooper Pals.”

Limo ride back to airport Patrick says “Are you ready for time off? I don’t have to sleep in an upright position or go to bed knowing that I have to wake up in an hour and a half” or something like that.

Late 3 pm checkout, luxury, I slept until 1pm, ran in the rain and bought some dead nectarines went to a music store (still in NFLD) asked a guy at a music store about the old store that closed and sold us all the pedals so cheap a few years ago sat up front in the old Buick Limo chatty guy again I read The Joker Is Wild about Joe E Lewis walked across the runway of the airport through the exhaust of a bigger plane sat down and watched the attendants sell meals.  Only one guy bought one reading a church book ate his chicken wing a big concerned lady asked what they do with the unsold meals the answer “We put them in the trash. We can not resell them incase someone gets sick.”

All planes have been late lately long flight to Toronto our next flight cancelled the entire entourage quickly walked across the huge waiting room to catch the flight that was cancelled tons of people and quickly walked back again with our carry on luggage missed a plane waited with a concerned late night airport crowd that included a judo team from China (with an Albino) OH WAIT SMITTY JUST TOSSED AN EMPTY COFFEE CUP BACK HERE AND SPRAYED EVERYTHING INCLUDING HIS COMPUTER….OK ALL CLEANED UP

I chatted with a psych professor from Taiwan who likes to discuss the keys to happiness she was worried about missing the next flight an 11 hour one for her I think I cheered her up. I got my reward when the next plane loaded and I sat next to a big arrogant buffoon for Montreal with the worst BO from hell I got a sore neck trying to lean away from him I had to get away from the BO monster and found a really small place to sit on the floor up forward the flight attendant understood and acknowledged that the guy was rank stinky bastard.  Scott had a seat up forward with extra legroom so I actually got to sleep on the floor of the packed commercial flight.  5 hours of this.  I had finished my book about the singer-showman. By the end of the book, he had ulcers and liver and kidney problems, total pisstank with lame jokes. I couldn’t wait to get home, look him up online and see how he actually died in the end.

Finally back in Vancouver, bagged-out, Frankie drove Scott and I to hotel, slept 4 hours, woke up, started car marveled at the great new paint job with the stars, very little Vancouver traffic, a few clouds…ready to go camping!!!!!!!!!

Ok gang, good news! I am in the band van starting a drive from Calgary to Edmonton. At lunch yesterday, I had mentioned to Smitty how I was having a big problem with finding the opportunity to write out road reports during the time off at home. Every rainy day becomes a music day, not a typing day, so I need to use his new laptop computer on the road. I am still almost 6 months behind in this report, and if I don’t get caught up on this trip, I will go insane, and so will everyone else. He agreed that I should be typing in the van, so here we are.

I even have an idea how to approach this report. Beside me sits about 10 pages of almost-unreadable hand written scribbles from last summer. I have gathered these pages form paper piles that got pulled out of my duffle bag over the last few months, sorted them out and arranged them chronologically, the best that I can. I am not so good with paperwork, never even open junk mail, other than Canadian Airlines, who just upped us all with new prestige cards (except Frankie, who is the new guy!) What I plan to do, to start, is type out the raw scribbles that are the road reports, and then, step by step, form them into sentences, so it is readable. Ok, no problem, here I start with the raw scribbles:

1 note isolate notes bend notes museum backstage golf with briand, scott and Linda, our host excellent drove golf cart got it stuck on a back road trail scott helped me push it out grocery store hot drive to lake house pontoon boat swim waterfall  ski tube screem sole campfire doinky keyboard 2 guitars lots of songs and noise and mosquitoes ber-b-que 1 am leave from campfire party

Oh KAY. This was the Mattawa gig, outdoors HUGE awesome. We were invited to a pontoon boat ride the next day. Boating? I’m in. I got to float around with Smitty, Frankie, our host, our crew, and ride a kayak, swim, and also ride in a really fast ski boat driven by a real ski instructor, a cool guy who looks like a guy from a 1950s ski instruction book. Super serious fun. We went to a cold waterfall; I got to get pulled around behind the fast boat on a special inner tube (the guys back on the pontoon boat laughed at my constant screaming!) I saw GOD, went really fast, finally flew off of the tube at the end as it was starting to get dusky, swam in the warm lake, had a great dinner with our host at his house, playing guitar and sang with guys at the campfire, tons of songs, bad harmonica jams and by about 1am the day was done. Lots of fun, but this report isn’t much better than my italicized notes above!

Fred Penner’s flight ticket backstage volunteers with some odd questions fly

Did an outdoor festival gig in Ontario full of people and volunteers who asked really funny questions on an old bandstand with a backstage room under the stage, It was a concrete structure with a wet floor, a great evening summer party.

Toronto streets full of people hard rock café stones concert salad busy restaurant laughed at huge gigantic trays of fried food Harry Dupe backstage comedian tried to out-joke him, he is too quick club packed fried food platter that I had laughed at showed-up backstage, times 5

We played the Hard Rock café in Toronto. The streets were full of people as the HUGE Sars benefit concert by the Rolling Stones was to be held the next day (well, the bands got paid) and you ask me, we should have played there alongside the other Canadian acts. Who chooses what bands play those things? Dunno.

The Hard Rock café was packed as well. I stood around for a while waiting for a salad, and Frankie walked in and a ton of people recognized him the other shows we had played lately. I saw HUGE trays full of fried food walk by, super fun summer vibe. I walked to a music store, played an old Minimoog on consignment sale, and later played the packed house and ate a bunch of fried food.

Back home, Tracy twisted her ankle while bringing our camping stuff out of storage in a tree house on Protection Island; the same ankle she broke playing rugby when we first started dating. She filled a dinosaur order, quite a big one from an educational supply company, single-handedly. This involves all the casting, painting and shipping, I had sculpted the masters earlier and left our little business in her more-than capable hands. Too bad about her ankle though. Two of our friends, both carpenters, helped carry her up the Pirate’s Park stairs from the Bathtub Race fireworks.

It is sad for me to miss Bathtub weekend at home. Sometimes we can put a bout into the busy harbour, tie up to friends and create big flotilla, for fun. It is all for fun.

I had a bunch of guests camping out at our Protection island place while Trooper flew to Newfoundland.

According to my notes, I was also getting a bit tired by this point. Get it together! Long way to go!

I had a plan that I had told Ra about earlier.

My idea was to actually make a friend or two in NFLD and go out a bit and be social rather than be the regular anti-social loner road experience that I am so fond of.

The streets of Saint Johns were also pretty-much full of people, and it was HOT, being summer and all, but I had never known it to be so HOT in NFLD. I walked around, practicing my 3-note bend on the harmonica until I heard a comment by a guy sitting on his porch. I made an instant friend! Terry, the harmonica master! So I was to encounter 3 days of walking around, talking philosophy, and getting harmonica lessons.

Later, I got to jog the coastline, unbelievable! Wooden stairways and steep cliffs to a huge stone castle-looking thing on a hill. Grueling and world-class amazing scenery. At some points you could so easily fall off of cliffs into the churning sea below, with the thick fog waiting just offshore to engulf your soul. Scott actually jogs this course in one run, without stopping, which I find almost impossible to believe (if it was anyone other than Scott.)

The Vancouver band 5440 played a concert on George Street to a HUGE crowd, the same venue that we had packed on Canada Day a couple years earlier. I played harmonica as I walked the few blocks to that show, palmed it behind my back at one point and a security guy says “It’s OK, you can smoke it here you know!”

Walked home later, followed by a creepy ghost that was following me. It was not an entirely unfriendly ghost, but an unknown and uninvited one, and I do not need any extra weirdness right now, thank you. We stuck around for a few days. I went to a radio interview with Ra, he had a nephew and who was traveling across Canada. I spent more great hours walking around with Terry and jamming with street musicians. I remember the super weathered guy “ I’m a long long way from home…” Also saw the old lady that offers people money, dimes and stuff, rather than asking people. Folks are quite different here. Nobody is trying to cheese you, as I am told.

Ate an extreme pita with pineapple, excellent. Rehearsed Scott’ song Bay Roberts Boy From Newfoundland which we were planning on debuting at the Bay Roberts festival in a day or so. Hotel rehearsals, lots of singing going on these days.

Scott also said that the KFC and Tim Hortons are both better in NFLD.

Bay Roberts gig was thrilling! Thousands of people outdoors. Vancouver group Loverboy was playing when we arrived, they had never played Newfoundland  before. Had a nice hang-out with the guitar player Paul Dean, and the singer Mike Reno helped me find something for Frankie to drum on. They liked our comedy show and Scott sang his song beautifully to a great response.

To be truthful, I was never a big Loverboy fan when they hit the scene (I was in grade 9) because I was always a total music snob and classical student. I have since lightened-up a bit, and I like those guys a lot, as people as well.

At some point here, I walked through airport security with Kenny Shields from Streetheart, talking about life philosophy. He is a super nice, deep caring person and great to chat with. Doug Eliot was also at an airport, (the Odd’s bass player I have known for years,) on the road with Colin James band, we hung out and I got a chuckle out of hearing about their grueling schedule, which was dinky compared to ours, lately.

Three hour drive, no, fly back to Ontario and gig the same day, few thousand people outdoors, girl band opening. Best rock moment in history: a couple hundred people from the crowd joined us onstage and the security people freaked. I thought it was great and got quite a charge out of it. Smitty didn’t like it and Ra and Smitty had some serious words backstage, a skinny blonde girl took her shirt off onstage and a guy threw a beer can and hit a cop on the head. The singer from Nazareth  asked the crowd to stop throwing things when they started their show. Their sound was truly excellent and their road guy, Willy, replaced my broken handle on my keyboard case, just to be nice. Scott was being really funny, I saw MARS in the night sky for the first time, reflecting off of the totally calm lake behind the stage. We had a 6am leave, Scott had a campfire party with the Nazareths. We got smoked-out in the brotherhood situation of their tour bus, saw the sun rise, and I improved my tone on the harmonica, a bit. Busy day.

One gig somewhere had a 2-seat convertible T-bird reserved for Ra and Smitty, which they politely declined to use. One girl fan was so polite that she asked “Is it alright if we jump on your van?” I changed my name to Sir Aurther Peggly G. Winthorpe Saint Staffordshire-Suire Watson the 3^rd LTD.

My new name didn’t last, but Smitty likes it and changed his too.

August 4 2003, back to St. John’s NFLD, starting to feel detached from regular life, ultra road-mode.  Feeling detached from life itself. Very strange. Thinking about Tracy swimming back home at the river with friends.

Scott feels connected to Newfoundland. He has some Irish lineage. Mine is Dutch, English and Austrian, so this stuff is all new to me. If I listened to Mozart while sipping tea in a windmill…………

Hotel on the outskirts of Saint Johns, saw HUGE HUGE American air force plane, painted black, at airport and a bus full of men in total serious uniforms on the highway coming into town. The Iraq war was in full swing. In the hotel elevator, one air force pilot told us that they were making great progress and that finding Saddam’s sons was a really big deal. He said that people don’t realize how big of a deal it really is. The American air force people were totally impressive and very, very together. Big dudes, serious ladies. I wouldn’t want to arm wrestle any of them.

9am flight out to Toronto, 3 hour layover at airport, 1 hour of sleep on airport floor. Frankie took a bus out to explore the other terminals during one layover. He is always up for an adventure. Arrive in Thunder Bay, driver was a big rock and roll guy. He was really tired when we met him. There was a festival in action already, and he well into the no sleep mode of it all.

He drove us 3 hours to Geraldton Lake across from the hotel on side of highway could hear the opening act, TULLI, the all girl band  time for a shower drive through the crowd of campers and camping people to see a green-domed outdoor stage.  James, the rock and roll driver, sat at a picnic table the whole time observing the madness.

Wait a minute! This is the same NAZARETH gig that I just wrote about a few paragraphs  ago!!!!

Did I mention that I was feeling a bit detached? Ok, let’s talk about it again:

6000 people excellent site, not a bad sight-line. Dressing room is a row of trailers suspended by some wooden stage. Ra asked that the barricade in front of the stage be moved forward before the show. Security guys were fussing unnecessarily with the crowd. Just picking on people, really. I don’t like that. Vibe-crusher.

Frankie took a pause before starting Raise a Little Hell and Scott and I were laughing onstage. Tons of people joined up on stage, climbing over the barricade, or something, really fun. No one gets hurt, everyone has fun. Mass T-shirt signing, including lots of skinny kids arms. Smitty went to the hotel for a snooze. Young crowd. All singing.

Nazareth bass player kicked everyone off of their bus, quite rudely, considering everyone was an invited guest. No problem. Later, he knocked on my hotel room door asking where everyone was. I told him that everyone was at the campfire behind the hotel, and he was super polite, total gentleman. I sure like the Nazareth guys.

3 am sleep James, the rock and roll driver, was super tired by this point and we were almost on 2 wheels going around one corner. I tried to co-pilot, keep chatting with him, keep him chatting, keep talking, and “how are you doing, and what kina of music do you play?”

We kept the awake part of the journey alive, got safely to the airport, long flight home, one leg of the flight upgraded with delicious free chicken wraps. Food is now for sale on shorter flights you know sad to see flight attendants pimping snacks, in my opinion, but I am just tired so what do I know

Frankie, his wife Keelie, and his brother Paul, drove Scott and I downtown in their minivan. We caught a city bus to the last ferry from there, just caught it at the last second  and connected to an ultra-glorious late-day ferry trip to see the Pacific hot night sun set, with city lights reflecting on the ocean. Had a long spontaneous jam with a super hippy with an acoustic guitar on the ferry deck, and I played all of my new harmonica rifffs. One cool thing about harmonicas; you can walk up to anyone who is playing an instrument and just start riffing. You don’t even have to say HI or know the person’s name. I have no idea who the super hippy was, nor he of me, ever.

sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep