I just finished 7/8ths of my mozzarella sticks and 8/8ths of my apple crisp ala mode at the 24 hr Denny’s around the corner from our hotel. Among the muzac gems were Stevie Wonder and Norah Jones. Fat and happy is me, just the way I like to be… I’ve been wondering: Do you guys prefer the more formal, brilliantly crafted (but less frequent) road notes, or would you prefer more timely installments, knowing full well that this approach could easily muddle the road notes with drab, common-place happenings, thereby dragging said road notes far below par, possibly even into the bowels of mediocrity? I’m on the fence. It’s a sturdy fence, and it’s making my arse fall asleep, so I must hop off to one side or the other SOON…  
 
But in the meantime… We’re in St. Louis on a night off. We played Denver last night (thanks to all who came out!), and we play Lexington, KY tomorrow night (thanks in advance to all who will come out). I haven’t checked a map, but something tells me St. Louis is roughly half way between those 2 points. Clif, being a native of this town, took Buford and headed downtown to kick it crew-style. The guys are asleep on the bus, and I’m in the hotel room sucking up as much free internet as I can.  
 
We have a nice bus this tour, and an equally nice driver named Dan. Dan likes to stay busy, even when he should be sleeping. Sleep is what keeps Dan from nodding off at the wheel and crashing. Crashing is BAD. We encourage Dan to sleep often, so he can drive us to our destination safely. Arriving at our destination safely is GOOD. But, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse (or bus driver) to water (or a bed) but you can’t make him drink (or sleep). Whether it’s keeping the bus tidy (which he does VERY well; 7 guys dirty the place up very quickly) or ripping out the front dash to rewire or repairing a broken tail light or replacing the bulb in my bunk light or doing his daily drive logs, Dan’s ALWAYS doing something. If Dan were a mandolin player, we would call this busy behavior ‘noodling.’ And while his sometimes erratic driving startles us from our slumber, Dan’s been great. Plus he’s Canadian.  
 
The bus door has a keycode, as opposed to a keyHOLE with an accompanying key. I wrote the code on my hand for the first 2 weeks of tour so I wouldn’t forget it. The code is a combination of these numbers: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Anyone who correctly guesses the code gets to… open the door to our bus. As for the inside, it’s set up mostly the same as the last 2 buses, except for:  
 
1. There are only 9 bunks (vs. 12). In place of the 3 missing bunks is a shower. No one has used the shower, but legend has it that it works. It also doubles as a guitar closet.  
2. The back lounge is a little bigger, and has a desk. Barry has been camped out at this desk for most of the tour. Exceptions include having to sleep or rock. It is at this desk that he will write the greatest and best Carbon Leaf song EVER.  
3. The bathroom on this bus is on the opposite side from where it was on our previous busses. The bathroom is where the kitchenette USED to be, and vice versa. This confused me for many days; I’ve almost pee’d on the refrigerator more than once.  
 
Bus-pick-up-day is a crazy day. It’s very hectic, filled with lots of last minute ‘to-dos.’ Among mine were: do laundry, pack, clean out fridge, take trash out, cut the power, run errands, back up iPod, buy groceries for bus, wake Buford, run by music store, etc. The bus departed at 5 am the next morning, bound for the great state of Ohio.  
 
I’ll commence with some of the more day-to-day, blow-by-blow action of the tour in the next installment. For now, here are a couple cool messages I received on our myspace page… CL 
 
 
From: Kris  
Date: Nov 8, 2005 12:48 AM  
 
Just had a funny story. My brother left your CD in my dad's car when he borrowed it, and my dad is now OBSESSED! He wants as many CD's as he can get for Christmas...that's all he's asking for. Thought it was funny....  
 
 
From: Linda  
Date: Nov 4, 2005 11:13 PM  
 
So, I organized a coffeehouse and informal jam session this past Thursday (last night) at the graduate school. We had a total of 5 musicians (4 guitarists and a violinist) show up, including me (teehee), and it was a great time. (I also pulled a "Barry" and played some random shakers too, plus percussion on my guitar for a few songs).  
 
So we were playing whatever songs we knew and were teaching each other new songs...and I decided to teach them "Let Your Troubles Roll By." They got the two chords down (teehee...yes I was playing Terry's part) and the strumming pattern pretty quickly. Anyway, once we had a good rhythm section going there, I started to sing the verses...got through the song to the point where Carter usually has his mandolin solo (on the album version, at least) and the violinist stepped over to me and did an AWESOME improv solo while I jammed with him. Guys, it was cool.  
 
So I sang the last verse without playing, the violinist and other guitarists still going, and then joined them for the chorus. I then threw in the chorus again and everyone played more quietly and we wrapped it up. It was sooo cool. By that time, the crowd dwindled down to two audience members (who were great) - it was getting late in the session, and we all looked at each other and smiled.  
 
And then I pimped you guys for a couple of minutes. Hahaha. I brought one of my lamps from my apartment to help decorate the "venue" (our campus cafe) and it has one of the Carbon Leaf stickers on the shade. I pointed it out and recommended your music to those present.  
 
The cool thing is that one of the professors on my committee was playing that night (he is uber-cool) and I have already burnt him a mix of CL songs and he enjoys your music a LOT. :)  
 
Anyway, thanks for the great song! hehe This was my first "gig", so to speak, and it was soooo much fun! I think I have a group of guys to jam with now!