Apologies for the dead silence this past week…its been crazy. Living in a 30 year old trailer has its challenges, as we’ve been discovering. I was envisioning a relaxed, care-free lifestyle – lazily meandering down the highways and byways (what are those anyway?) of this crazy, beautiful country. Needless to say, it’s been a kind of rude awakening. It’s neither relaxing nor care-free…and we have a closer relationship with our sewage than I ever cared to imagine.
There’s a patch of rotten wood, a few pipe leaks and no power inverter (which means boondocking would be tough). Oh yes, and Elie’s allergic to the trailer. I’ve suddenly become aware of just how many things can go terribly wrong when you’re carrying your house on your back at 65 miles an hour. Who knew this would all be so complicated?
So after our show today in Norfolk, VA we’re driving to Winston-Salem, NC to bring our trailer to an Airstream repair place. We’ve got four shows in North Carolina and then on October 10th we head to Knoxville…so hopefully the trailer will be fixed by that time (at minimal cost!) Until then, we’ll be homeless in North Carolina.
All in all, I can’t say yet whether I like this new lifestyle or not. I don’t regret it, which is a good sign. But I’m trying to withhold judgement for another few weeks. We’re still adjusting.
On the upside, we got to spend some time in Richmond, VA, which is a place I would actually consider moving to. It’s a really nice city; small enough and green enough to not feel overwhelming, but with tons of culture and arts. Of course my main criteria for loving a place mostly depends on how vegan-friendly they are and how good the coffee is…and Richmond went above and beyond. We played a show at a coffee shop called Globehopper- BEST COFFEE EVER! I mean subtle, perfectly roasted, perfectly brewed, PERFECTION! The only down side is that I had managed to lower my coffee expectations to the point that any old Starbucks could be, not good, but at least semi-palatable…well Globehopper has ruined all that. The owner, Kimmy, is super nice and gave us these massive vegan chocolate cookie-concoctions stuffed full of peanut butter. Oh Richmond, how I love you. If you’re ever in the area, do yourself a favor and get a cappuccino at Globehopper and thank me later.
After shows in Charlottesville and Williamsburg, we’re now chilling at a Starbucks (damn you, Globehopper!) in Norfolk, awaiting our show tonight.
Then we’ve got to high tail it back to our campsite, dump (really not fun), and start driving to North Carolina. We’ll probably spend our first night in a Walmart parking lot tonight – is it weird that I’m kind of excited about that?
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Next stop: Norfolk, VA
Gigs so far: 5
Miles so far: 1319