Road Trip Blues: A Diary for the Musically Inclined

So where to begin  telling the story of the weekend?

yeah, I'm officially a player

Another road trip, this time two states north to Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun Casino. A weekend of gambling... I think not. As usual, it's about the music. This time to see some old friends play and do an interview with one of the band.  For this adventure, the Drum Mama was riding shotgun... the best partner-in-crime on the planet.

We met up before 10 in the morning, both of us antsy to get the weekend started. Now, being from Jersey, we don't pump gas... ever. I've mentioned before that even with traveling through a hell of a lot of states, I've never been the one to actually fill the tank. Didn't plan on it Saturday either. What I did plan was to pick her up and fill up the tank right before we left Jersey and have plenty of fuel for the round trip.

The only problem is when we get together, we tend to talk a little lot and... well the best laid plans and all that. When I actually looked at the gas gauge and saw I had a quarter tank, I was just about over the Connecticut state line. As traumatizing as that was, I knew I had no choice but to keep driving, knowing full well my lifelong record of never touching a fuel pump was about to end.

Well, that wasn't the only first that day. I had also never been to a Casino before. Never had any interest even though we do have a town called Atlantic City a little south of here. I still don't have any interest, and I actually didn't even touch a slot machine until after midnight on Saturday. Working from home, I don't have a lot of outside influences in my day-to-day life. The noise and visual stimulation of the casino were way more than I needed, especially with the bit of drama occurring with the interview. For a while, I thought it might not happen, but in the end it all worked out and was more than what I could have hoped.

Anyway, if it was up to me, I probably would not have put a buck into the machines, but the Drum Mama would not hear of it. So, we played, I watched the machines quickly suck my cash and I was only too happy to go back upstairs, unwind, digest the whole evening and have a drink.

All in all, the show was terrific, the working end for me was very gratifying and the company as usual, couldn't be beat. It's always fun when your traveling companion has a bartender's license, not to mention manages to think of everything. BTW, we don't travel light, we travel prepared.

As beautiful as the hotel and casino were, I don't think I'll ever be a fixture at the slot machines. I can't tell you how disappointed my mother is in me.

There's a lot more coming about the weekend: a review of the show and the interview will be posted, hopefully in a few days. And look at the Music blog for a post called Almost Showtime for a preview of both.

The Bus, The Bugs and Other Things

Roaches in your hair, roaches everywhere.

No, it isn't an updated version of the 60's song by the Cowsills "The Rain, The Park and Other Things," it's a real life experience for Greyhound Bus riders.

As if the recent problems occurring on Carnival Cruise ships weren't bad enough, now another form of public transportation is producing an extreme cringe factor. Apparently forty-eight passengers boarded a NYC Greyhound bus on Friday, filled with the expectation of an uneventful two+ hour ride to Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal. About fifteen minutes into the trip, the passengers realized there were a few non-paying riders on the bus.

Without warning roaches began appearing on the walls, the ceiling and coming out of every crack and crevice.  The roaches were probably asleep and missed their original destination of Atlantic City. One of them woke up and said "Holy Shit, we missed our stop, everybody get up, we gotta get off the bus." Or something like that.

You now have hundreds of roaches (exact number is uncertain, but seeing one is enough to make you start scratching every part of your body) running all over the inner frame of the bus and falling from the ceiling. Passengers began to scream as they started falling into people's hair. Can you even imagine?

The bus driver quickly pulled the bus over and one can only imagine the orderly way the freaked out passengers got off. Somehow I don't think the "all women and children first" rule was in effect. Another bus was dispatched and the passengers resumed their journey to New York, most likely in a state of constant inspection of themselves and giving the hairy eyeball to the person sitting next to them, for any creepy crawlers intent on completing their relocation process.

For their trouble and the absolute terror inflicted upon them, Greyhound has given the passengers a full refund. WooHoo. Let the lawsuits begin...extreme psychological trauma and all that.

Now I don't know about you, but I feel like taking a shower. I'm having the phantom bug itches.

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Nothing Like Being Board: Monopoly

Wednesday. Hump Day. Getting closer to the weekend. Nice.

Kind of a quiet week compared to last week where live music dominated my time. Sitting down this morning with a cup of tea, thought I'd check my chances for going on that permanent road trip. Sadly, having only one of the numbers in the Mega Millions drawing means that ain't happening any time soon.

So I noticed that on this day in 1933 the game of Monopoly was invented. Growing up, board games were a staple in our house. Scrabble, Parcheesi, checkers,chess..but the king was always Monopoly. Picking your token before each game was always a fight as to who would use the dog and the racing car. My mother usually ended up with the iron...my dad, the old shoe.

And depending if you played with your own family or friends, the rules would change. Really, was there anyone who ever played the game without some stretching of the official rules?  We always put all the money collected from the Chance and Community Chest cards, into the Free Parking space. If you landed there...you got all the money.  One of my friends started the game with a couple of hundred bucks in Free Parking and replenished it every time it was landed on. It just made the game a little more exciting.

Then there was your favorite properties. Now most everyone knows the original game properties were all taken from streets in Atlantic City. That's Jersey, baby. I always like the cheapo properties...Baltic & Mediterranean, along with Oriental, Vermont & Connecticut.  Then I liked St. James, Tennessee & New York.  For some reason I disliked the yellow and green properties, and hardly ever ended up with the high rent district of Park Place & Boardwalk.

A roll of the dice, a little wheeling and dealing, and a family spending a lot of time enjoying each other. Seems so much simpler then...no noise from video games of blowing up everything in sight. Just the sounds of laughter...topped off with a lot of trash talk.

Some of the best times our family ever had. As long as I didn't end up in jail.

Can someone bail me out?

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