Tour Diary April 12, 2007
Thursday was the day of the 2 shows for this week. So we started out at Port St. Joe High School, but the middle school was there too. It was a tough crowd. Yeah, as usual with this program it was early but this crowd was unusually unimpressed. We didn’t bomb, it was just unusual for what we do. After our performance, we tore down and packed up for our next show. There were some kids from the school who were musicians as well helping us out and hanging out and chatting and such. We actually had an extra hour of time, because despite being only about 20 miles from our next school, it was in the next time zone. We made our way there, got setup and waited for our time. This show went over better, but it obviously ran over on time. It got started a little late as well, and as such, we actually didn’t even finish all of the last song before the bells had rang and the bulk of students had taken off. Phil didn’t even get to do his speech. A lot of kids still came up for autographs and such though.
As usual, we broke down, loaded up and moved on. We were to be staying at a campground in Panama City Beach, FL. When we got there we found that it was once again literally across the street from the beach. It was also right across from a few clubs, one known as Club La Vela, which is self touted as the largest nightclub in the US. Anyway, despite being a campground, it was conveniently located so that evened it out quite nicely. I mean, we still had public showers, slept and stayed in the RV, and Phil and Teresa stayed in a dinky cottage. But it was actually not bad. After we got in, we made our Wal-Mart run for the essential groceries and whatnot that we’d be living off of. Later on that night we went out down the street to a go-kart track called the Vortex. Basically a spiral up a few stories and a spiral back down. Awesome track. We ended up doing a combo thing that consisted of the go-karts, bumper boats, and mini golf. We started off on the golf, and it was a neat little course. I started off slow, but evened it out apparently, winning by one point. Then we moseyed on over to the bumper boats. They were off to a slow start, but they were cool too. Kinda like driving a rear wheel drive car with bald tires on ice. Good fun there. Lastly, we hit the karts. As it turns out, we were the last ones before they closed up again. On top of that, the 3 of us got to race alone. Since there wasn’t really a way to get us to all start together as a show down of sorts, we decided on weight order. I weigh roughly 50 pounds more than James, and he weighs roughly 50 pounds more than Mike. So I got the pole position, then James and Mike. Well the track was awesome, but the cars weren’t all that great. However, I managed to get the fast one apparently, Mike’s wasn’t bad, and James got a dud. But it was still fun nonetheless. Then we headed back to the RV to crash out. We were forecasted for rain on Saturday and Sunday, but we wanted to get some beach time here, so Friday would be our only day for that.
As usual, we broke down, loaded up and moved on. We were to be staying at a campground in Panama City Beach, FL. When we got there we found that it was once again literally across the street from the beach. It was also right across from a few clubs, one known as Club La Vela, which is self touted as the largest nightclub in the US. Anyway, despite being a campground, it was conveniently located so that evened it out quite nicely. I mean, we still had public showers, slept and stayed in the RV, and Phil and Teresa stayed in a dinky cottage. But it was actually not bad. After we got in, we made our Wal-Mart run for the essential groceries and whatnot that we’d be living off of. Later on that night we went out down the street to a go-kart track called the Vortex. Basically a spiral up a few stories and a spiral back down. Awesome track. We ended up doing a combo thing that consisted of the go-karts, bumper boats, and mini golf. We started off on the golf, and it was a neat little course. I started off slow, but evened it out apparently, winning by one point. Then we moseyed on over to the bumper boats. They were off to a slow start, but they were cool too. Kinda like driving a rear wheel drive car with bald tires on ice. Good fun there. Lastly, we hit the karts. As it turns out, we were the last ones before they closed up again. On top of that, the 3 of us got to race alone. Since there wasn’t really a way to get us to all start together as a show down of sorts, we decided on weight order. I weigh roughly 50 pounds more than James, and he weighs roughly 50 pounds more than Mike. So I got the pole position, then James and Mike. Well the track was awesome, but the cars weren’t all that great. However, I managed to get the fast one apparently, Mike’s wasn’t bad, and James got a dud. But it was still fun nonetheless. Then we headed back to the RV to crash out. We were forecasted for rain on Saturday and Sunday, but we wanted to get some beach time here, so Friday would be our only day for that.