Thursday, Oct 1 and Friday, Oct 2:
My babies are 11 months old today! Man time flies.
Heading out today to Grindelwald, Switzerland with Ray Scott and his band. Flying from Nashville to Atlanta to Zurich and then a 2 hour drive to Grindelwald, which is a small ski village IN the Swiss Alps. Everyone arrived at the airport on time and ready to go. Really have a nice bunch of guys on this trip. I was in business class from Atlanta to Zurich and was so excited about getting to “The Hangover” FINALLY!! If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you need to watch it. It is hilarious. Also very excited about getting some sleep.
We arrived on time and all our bags and instruments made it. Yay. Burrito Deluxe is also playing this festival and 3 of them arrived at the same time as us and rode into Grindelwald with us. Now about the ride in…
The first hour no problem, but then we went the “senic” route. We kept going up and up and up on these tiny one lane roads, we came in over the back of one of the mountains and then we went down, down, down. It was so beautiful but a few were getting a little car sick. Not taking this way back to the airport on Sunday.
Had a couple of hours at the hotel before heading to dinner so walked around town for a few minutes and did some window shopping but had to go into the bakery and the confectioners. Got a few truffles and chocolate croissant for lunch 🙂 then came back and showered and took a quick nap. Dinner is at our promoter, Thomas, house. He has turned his basement into a small bar. Actually calls it his Small of Fame. Burrito Deluxe joined us there also. They are some great guys also. Burrito is made up of Carlton Moody (Moody Brothers, Flying Burrito Brothers) Walter Egan (Magnet and Steel), Supe Grande (Ozark Daredevils) and Rick Lonow (Bellamy Brothers, Flying Burrito Brothers) It was great to just sit around and listen to stories and just have a good time. Most of Ray’s band members are just in awe of the scenery. Stayed until 10 and then I caught the first ride back to the hotel. I left Ray and 2 of his guys so hopefully they make it back. Writing this Road report and then headed to bed. Soundcheck and show tomorrow. Need to fit in a little bit of shopping sometime.
Night all
Sat, Oct 3, 2009 – Day 3:
I slept 9 hours straight! It has been so long since I have got to do that , that I forgot how nice it was! Got up and got ready around 9. Walked over to the bakery across the street and got an apple streusel and coffee for breakfast. Did a little bit of souvenir shopping and sightseeing around the town. Bought a tomato and mozzarella sandwich and chocolate croissant and sat on the bench outside my hotel and ate it while looking up at the Alps. It is just so breathtaking and I feel like I am in a storybook. Our hotel is “quaint” and not all rooms that are on the 4th floor are on the 4th floor. Each floor is “split” with a couple of rooms down one hallway, then you may walk up a few stairs and have another couple of rooms or you do a bunch of twist and turns to find a few more rooms. Very confusing for someone with no sense of direction anyways. I also thought I was locked inside my room this morning. I had put the chain on my door when I went to sleep last night but did not realize there was a little plastic latch on the bottom you had to push up on to release it when taking it off. I pushed and pulled for 10 mins before I figured that one out.
We headed over to the venue for sound check at 3:00. The venue is inside a sports arena and when we walked in the hockey team was on the ice practicing so got to catch a little bit of that. Burrito Deluxe was finishing up their sound check and worked out the “tweaks” for us so ours went smoothly. We all headed back to the hotel for about an hour before walking down to another hotel where we were having dinner. Martin and Helen, who I met years ago here, own a 4 star hotel here and hosted our dinner tonight. It was us, Burrito, a local Swedish band and the sound company. Dinner was amazing! It was veal in some sort of gravy sauce and Rosti, which is a type of potato. Ray and the guys got on a roll with one liners from Monty Python movies and had us all laughing so hard. I really am working with a great group of guys. Dinner was done with around 7 and we didn’t need to be at the venue until 10 so some of the guys came back and took a nap, which was probably the smart thing considering we have a 5:30 AM wake up call . I decided to go on down to the venue at 9 and catch some of Burrito’s show. Ray came in a few minutes later and did a short radio interview. Ray had brought a few cd’s to sell and I told him I would go out there closer to the end of his set and help him sell. About halfway through I look over at the merch table and a gentleman named Leo was pulling Ray’s cd’s out of his bag and putting them out on the table. Leo is a nice guy that is a little “off” but a huge country music fan and friends of the promoter. So I had Thomas, our promoter go over and talk to him and figure out what he was doing. Leo said that he asked Ray if he could help sell his stuff and Ray said yes. The thing is, Leo does not speak very good English and come to find out Ray thought he was asking for a cd. Oh well, it worked out ok. Ray did a great show, he has a very deep voice that the women go crazy for. The promoter and the crowd were very happy. It was about 1 AM by the time he got done with autographs and tear down and saying our good byes before heading back to the hotel. So now I have to decide if it is worth even going to sleep for 3 hours or not. Have a 5:00 AM lobby call to head to the airport and fly back home. Ray and his guitarist are staying over for another 2 weeks traveling to Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam. I will have to call them later on this month and make sure they make it back to the states. Guess I should go pack and get ready to head back home. It has been a great trip with a great band and wonderful promoters. Hope I get to come back next year.
Sunday, Oct 4, 2009
So after Zero sleep, headed down to the lobby at 5:15 AM and the driver that was taking us to the airport was pulling in. She had just picked up 3 of Burrito Deluxe members from their airport. Since Jamie was staying in Europe for another week with Ray, I told him I would bring his guitar home. He said he would leave it in the lobby for me to pick up when we were leaving. I looked all around for the guitar and could never find it. Finally Eddie came down, who was rooming with Jamie, and he had the guitar with him. Whew..
I think everybody slept on the 2 hour ride back to the airport, I have to say it was a little bit easier on some of us than the scenic route was going up. At one point as we were driving past lake Luzern, it was a full moon and you could see it reflecting off the lake with the Alps in shadow, my camera just couldn’t capture this beautiful sight.
Only 4 of us flying home today, me, Cliff, Brian and Eddie. Check in was easy but getting to the gate was another story. Went through to passport controls, down a very steep escalator, then I swear we were directed through the boiler room of the airport before being directed onto the this tram that seemed to drive over to runways and then through this tunnel before dumping us in the E terminal. Got to the gate just as they started to board… so much for last minute shopping for us. I stayed awake through lunch and watched 1 movie, then fell asleep for about 5 hours before waking up and watching another movie and another snack. Landed on time in Atlanta and all of made it through passport control and customs with no problems.. yay all the luggage and equipment made it. So sitting in DL lounge waiting on the last leg of the flight to take us home. Miss my babies!
Lindsey
