Eric Herman - Travelblogue

Catching up on the past month or so...

2009-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

After Thanksgiving, Roseann flew out to Springfield, MO and went to stay at a house we bought in Reeds Spring, just outside of Branson. She spent a couple weeks there fixing up the place to sell, and it worked out well, because she found a buyer while she was there, and the sale should hopefully go through soon...

Here's where Roseann slept in luxury during her stay...

Back at home, the girls and I managed the best we could while Roseann was away, and we did alright, but we did miss her an awful lot! We worked and played as usual... I hosted a game night with some friends and went to preschool with Evee as the parent helper, which is always fun.

When Roseann got back we worked a lot on the "Tale of the Sun and the Moon" video. Here it is again, in case you haven't seen it yet:

We went to the Christmas party at church, which Grandma Jean was in charge of the program for, so she roped me into performing "The Elephant Song" (with Evee leading the kids in the responses) and had Becca as one of a group of dolls singing "Are My Ears on Straight?" It was a nice night, and of course the girls were excited to meet up with Santa.

Performing at the Christmas party...

Becca as one of the dolls, with Gramma Jean directing to the left...

We got dumped on with snow and cold for quite a while here, which is unusual for this particular area. Well, when I say "dumped on", I mean about a foot or so... I must admit that since moving here from Buffalo (where we regularly got several feet of snow... one year we had eight feet of snow in one day!), I've become kind of a weather wimp.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas. Though we missed being away from so much of our family, we're always happy to be together. I particularly appreciated the music of Christmas this year... I only just realized that we had Sirius available the whole time through our Dish Network, so we put on a holiday music channel to listen to a lot, and I always felt joy to hear great songs like "Oh Holy Night", "Silent Night" and "Santa Baby". Evee was happy that Santa remembered to get her Thomas Train set, and he also provided Becca with a variety of nice stuff that she liked a lot.

Reindeer tracks?

The girls in some new costumes...

A paint-your-own clock that the girls made with Roseann...

and paint-your-own plates...

We celebrated Evee's fourth birthday a day early on December 30, and went out to a pizza place. She opened her presents and we played some arcade games together and ate some yummy pizza and cake. Gramma Jean came with us, and of course we wished her "happy birthday", too. Evee's middle name is "Jean", and we had picked the name "Evelyn Jean" for our next daughter back when Becca was born, so it was neat that the two of them share a birthday together on New Year's Eve.

There was a problem with the tire on our minivan, so I went to rent a car for us to drive up for First Night Spokane, but the "midsize" car was smaller than it seemed like it should be, and we couldn't all fit in there with my equipment, so I ended up going alone. I did four sets, the first two in a nice theater at the Convention Center and the second two at Mobius, which is a fun children's museum kind of place. The audiences were very receptive and it was a great event, as it has been the last four years, but it was also quite exhausting (as it has been the last four years), so I was relieved to get back to the hotel and hit the sack... though I was glad that I stayed up just past midnight, otherwise the fireworks would have woken me up.

At one of the Mobius shows...

So we've started 2009 with me working hard on finishing my next album, which we hope to have finished by the end of the month and released this spring. This album has been two years in the making (with a lot of long breaks and interruptions in between), so I'm really excited to finally get it out there and it's coming together very nicely.

Becca and Evee started taking swimming lessons twice a week and are doing well with that. Here's Evee showing off her new goggles...

We're actually scaling back a bit on the traveling and performing this year (we're planning a more significant tour for 2010), but we'll still be hitting a lot of the usual places and also some new places. Regardless, I'll keep up best I can with what we've got going on and where we are...

We wish you all a very happy 2009!

11/25/08 Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

Backtracking a bit... While we were at LeAnn's, we dressed up a little and LeAnn took some pictures (below). On the way home, we stopped at Albany, Oregon, where I had a really fun show with a very enthusiastic group of kids. We were home for a few days, and then took a drive in the minivan with Larry and Jean over to Rexburg, where we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with Roseann's sister, Mary Jo, and her family. 9 of Mary Jo's 10 kids were there, so it was a pretty busy bunch, and we had a lot of fun. We went to see Jordi starring as Kim in her high school's production of Bye Bye Birdie, we played some games and watched Wall-E on DVD, and mostly had a lot of conversation on a wide variety of subjects.

I'm so incredibly thankful for my family, immediate and extended, and am very grateful for the love and the life that we share together. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from me and mine!

At a Playland in California...

Robot dancing in Albany...

All of the girls playing dress up: Becca, Emily, Lindsay, Evee and Ashlyn...

Playing a tight game of Go Fish with Evee, Sam and Josie...

Mmm... Thanksgiving.

11/19/08 Butterfly

2008-11-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

Below is a picture Becca took of our second millipede, Butterfly, after she had been returned to her terrarium after a long adventure. I won't elaborate on that, but to say that we're glad she's back in her home.

Becca and the millipedes...

11/8/08 - Mmmm... prawns...

2008-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday morning I had an assembly program at Slonaker Elementary in San Jose. After that, we did some shopping and had naps and then met up with Steve, April (she was back in town, after all) and Amy for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I had never had a walnut prawn dish before but it is now a favorite of mine. We talked for quite a while over dinner and then went back to their house for a bit so the kids could play together, and then we headed back to the RV park in Patterson.

On Wednesday, we drove down to Moreno Valley where we are staying with Roseann's sister, LeAnn, and her family. LeAnn's 4 year-old daughter, Catarina, was very excited to see the girls, and the feeling was mutual. When we first came in the door, Catarina said to the girls, "So let me look at you!" On Thursday night we met LeAnn and Catarina at Cat's karate class. Catarina is doing really well with that, and our girls tried their best to keep up on the side, but it was a little tricky for them. They are interested in taking karate classes of their own now, which is something we had been thinking about for a while.

Yesterday, I had two assemblies at Lincoln Elementary in San Bernardino. It was a huge group of kids in a small space, so it got a little crazy at times, but went very well in general.

From the assembly in San Jose...

Evee, Amy and Becca...

Becca and Evee playing a game of Tier auf Tier...

At the karate class...

Evee showing her "wilted flower" sign...

The first assembly in San Bernardino...

The second assembly in San Bernardino...

Evee showing off her signature and ghost picture...

Evee, Catarina and Becca...

11/1/08 - Catching up...

2008-11-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

So we're at an RV park in Patterson, California, on a three week trip for some school shows, and I figured I oughta catch up with what we've been doing lately...

Back on the 22nd of October I went out to Tigard, Oregon (suburb of Portland) and did two shows at the Pottery Barn Kids. It was an early Halloween celebration and there were some great costumes in attendance, my favorite being a group of triplets dressed as the three major superheroes (see picture below).

We went to a pumpkin patch place with Evee's preschool and that was a lot of fun... We picked out pumpkins, took a hayride, went through a hay maze and climbed on a hay bale pyramid. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so we didn't get any pictures of that. Some other people took pictures, so I'll add some eventually when we get back.

On the Friday before we left town we went to see our good friends, Becky and Ross, and their family. They had moved back to the Tri-Cities earlier this year and we hadn't seen them since before our spring and summer trip, so we enjoyed catching up with them. Their kids call Roseann and me "Aunt Roseann" and "Uncle Eric", which is cute.

I should mention that we got a second millipede. Roseann had felt bad that the other millipede in the pet store was left there when she got Sticky. This one is a girl, so we went with Evee's original name of Butterfly. We don't know if they're capable of breeding, but just in case, we're keeping them in separate tanks, as we don't really want dozens of millipedes, just two. I'll post some pictures of Butterfly when we're back in town.

We left for California after church last Sunday and it was pretty cold the first two nights that we stayed in Oregon, but we cranked up the heat and bundled up pretty well. It got a lot warmer once we hit California. The first school I visited was on Wednesday in San Ramon, California, and on the suggestion of Tim Noah's son, Jude, I brought along my electric guitar and did some jamming for the kids, which definitely impressed the legions of Guitar Hero fans out in the audience. My assembly yesterday was in Dos Palos at an outdoor courtyard for a group of 500 K-2 kids and thankfully the weather held out just enough for the show to go on.

The girls dressed up as Violet and Dash from The Incredibles and did a great job sticking to their characters. We went to a Halloween dinner and "trunk or treat" at an area church and the girls collected a good bounty of candy.

Today, we're hanging around at the RV park and doing laundry and such, and then this coming week we're looking forward to seeing Steve and Amy (April is out of town) and LeAnn and her family.

The girls sporting their new nightshirts...

Playing a game of Hey! That's My Fish (with their own rules)...

One of the Pottery Barn Kids shows...

Villains, beware!

Becky and Ross' son, William, showing off his awesome Lego spaceship...

Becca and Evee playing with Becky and Ross' girls, Hilani and Suki...

Evee loves to show how well she can dress herself...

K-2 assembly in San Ramon...

3-5 assembly in Sam Ramon...

Violet and Dash... once again, villains beware!

The assembly in Dos Palos... I'm either demonstrating marching techniques or running from some hot sand...

Trunk or treating...

10/11/08 - He's got legs... He knows how to use them...

2008-10-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to our new pet, Sticky, a giant African millipede. Initially, Evee had named him "Butterfly" when we thought he was a girl, and that seemed like a nice name for a millipede, but then we checked and found out that he was a "he", after all, so "Butterfly" didn't seem like the best name. I suggested we call him "Velcro" because he sometimes attaches himself to you like velcro, but Becca invoked her right to name him (as Evee had named Tiggy). Becca preferred "Sticky", so officially, for all court records and bank accounts, he will be known as Stick E. Velcro, but we'll just call him "Sticky" for short.

So how did we end up with a pet millipede? Well, Roseann and the girls went out to a pet store today and when the owner noticed Roseann taking an interest in the millipede she offered him to her for half off (only $5) because nobody had bought him after several months. Roseann felt bad for him and apparently she had always thought it might be interesting to have a millipede for a pet (you know, the whole "a girl and her millipede" thing). She did some research on them and they are very low maintenance and docile, so she talked me into getting him. He is very cool looking and it's amazing to watch all of his legs working together. It's also quite a chore when he decides he wants to back up and has to shift gears to start all of the legs going the other direction. Our best attempt at counting his legs added up to about 260, but he'll still grow some more segments and legs, so it might get up to about 300. At first, Tiggy didn't seem to have any interest when Sticky was in his cage, but then Roseann had him out on her shoulder and Tiggy was suddenly very eager to check him out and pet him. We made sure he kept his paws (and claws) away, though. Sticky will stay over at the clubhouse, where he can curl up safely in his cage.

10/7/08 - Bellevue

2008-10-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

I drove out to Bellevue today for a school show at Somerset Elementary. It was an evening "welcome back to school" event (they had a teacher's strike for a few weeks, so school didn't start until later in September), and boy, were the kids fired up. They were a really wild crowd, and it was a lot of fun except for when someone threw half of a hamburger up on stage. It looked like a perfectly good hamburger, so I was sorry to see it go to waste.

I'd been to Bellevue many times, but never up the hills on the south side, which is where the school was. I had to pull over twice to take in the view, which looks out over all of Seattle and Bellevue. The pictures below don't do it justice at all...

Stage? Who needs a stage? This chair will be just fine...

10/5/08 Some pics...

2008-10-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures from Becca's camera from the past week...

10/4/08 - Spokane Day 6

2008-10-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

We went over to Gwendolyn's house and had a really nice breakfast with her and her husband, Greg. We talked a lot and played a game of Pandemic (losing horribly) while the kids played together. Gwendolyn had to go to work, so our visit wasn't as long as we'd all have liked. We stopped at a Halloween store for a while and looked at all of the spooky stuff, then headed over to my gig at the Spokane Valley Library, which was the last of the stretch here. The show went very well, and then we drove back home and went to bed.

The girls rockin' to some 50's tunes on the A&W jukebox...

10/3/08 - Spokane Day 5

2008-10-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

There's a big game store warehouse in Spokane, so we stopped by there this morning and picked up some new games. Then we went to the Spokane Valley Mall, where they have a fun play area for the girls. We went to McDonald's to meet our friend, Phil, and his kids. We met Phil a couple years ago through his great blog, A Family Runs Through It. He lives in Coeur d' Alene just over the border in Idaho, and we've become good friends and try to meet up when we're in the area to talk about music and family and life in general.

I had only one show today at the Argonne library, and that was a lot of fun. After the show, we headed back to the RV park and had dinner and played a couple of our new games, then went to bed.

With Phil and his kids...

Having a rest after some serious bouncing, flapping and twisting...

10/2/08 - Spokane Day 4

2008-10-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

We went back to Kenn's house this morning. Roseann talked with Kenn's wife, Ann, and the kids did some finger painting and other crafts, while Kenn and I went over to record an interview for Carlos Alden. Carlos has hosted a radio show on KPBX in Spokane for many years which features a combination of Celtic music (which he performs with the local Celtic Nots band) and kids' music. The interview was a lot of fun and Kenn and I got to talk about some of the things we've worked on, which we've never really done together in an interview (there have been some written articles about the two of us, but we were interviewed separately for those). Kenn read a few of his poems and I played a couple of the songs that were adapted from Kenn's poems, including "The Tale of the Sun and the Moon" and "Snow Day". I also did "The Elephant Song" with Kenn providing the impromptu interruptions. It's a good thing he picked up on the idea to do that, because I forgot to ask him ahead of time if he would. After the interview, the three of us sat around and talked for quite a while, and kind of wished we had recorded some of that conversation. It turns out that Carlos and I share a lot of favorites in the kids' music world, including Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang and Trout Fishing in America.

Kenn and I grabbed some deli food, then picked up Roseann and the kids and went to the park for a while. It was beautiful out at first, but then a sudden rain cloud came by, so we had to make a quick dash under a big tree. We said goodbye to Kenn and headed out to my gigs at the Otis Orchards and Airway Heights libraries, both of which went really well.

With Carlos Alden...

The finger paintings...

10/1/08 - Spokane Day 3

2008-10-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

We did some shoe shopping this morning. Evee had wanted some nice church shoes and also picked out a pair of Lightning McQueen crocs. Becca and I got some new sneakers and Roseann picked out a new black hat.

A rock flew up as we were driving to my first gig and made a nasty crack on our windshield, so we had to call for someone to meet up with us to fix that. Fortunately, it was small enough that some resin did the trick.

I had two shows today, at the Medical Lake and Cheney libraries. Both shows went well, but the first one had one of the most rambunctious crowds I've ever seen (with Becca and Evee a part of that mix). I think my brother Zeke may have overdone his crowd-warming shtick... they were already "warmed" and he just put them over the top. It was a little crazy and difficult to manage at times, but also fun to see those kids having such a wildly good time.

Evee enjoying the funny mirror at the shoe store...

9/30/08 - Spokane Day 2

2008-09-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

This morning we went over to Kenn Nesbitt's house. Kenn is a very popular funny poetry author and I have used several of his poems for songs of mine, or collaborated together with him for the words for several songs. We had already worked together on a few things before I moved out to the Tri-Cities, but it was particularly nice when we moved out West to be able to get together in person. We've always had a good time and a lot of laughs together. The thing is, even though we only live two hours apart now, we rarely see each other anymore since we're both traveling a lot... he was out of town the whole week last time we were in Spokane... so it was good to hook up again for the first time in well over a year. Roseann and I talked with Kenn while the girls played with his kids, Max and Madison, and met their pets. Then Kenn and I did some recording... I recorded some guitar for a song he's doing for a CD of recorded poems he's including with his next book, and he recorded some spoken parts for my next album.

I had two more shows this afternoon, at the Fairfield Library and Moran Prairie Library, and both shows went very well with very enthusiastic audiences. The girls were napping during the first show but came in to the second, but there was an incident at the end of the show that upset Evee. She had gone out in the hallway with Roseann right before the last song, and when I announced that I was going to sing "This Little Light of Mine" and Becca was going to come up to help me (realizing that Evee wasn't there), another little girl ran up and sat on my other knee where Evee would normally have sat. There was a big "awww" from the audience, she was probably about 20 months old, and I was at a loss for what to do... it's not like I was going to push her off or something, even though as a general rule, I wouldn't encourage random kids coming across the line to sit up there with me during a show... so I just let her stay there. But then Evee came back into the room upon hearing the music for that song starting and saw the other girl in her place and got very upset. I felt terrible, as I knew it would seem to her like I had betrayed her or replaced her. Sure enough, afterwards she said that it was not okay and that there couldn't be "another Evee". I talked with her for a while and apologized for the mistake and assured her that she is definitely my one and only Evee. The four of us also worked out a plan for what to do if that kind of situation ever comes up again.

Saying "hello" to Kenn's dog, Jesse...

Evee getting ready to play some baseball...

The girls meeting Madison's rabbit, Lola...

Kenn recording some "P-U"s for "Stink Bug"...

9/29/08 - Spokane Day 1

2008-09-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

We're in Spokane for the week and I had a very busy day to start things out. First thing in the morning I had two assembly programs at Mullan Rd. Elementary. There are two main assembly programs that I offer; Say "Yes!!!" to Life, about positive character motivation, and Thinking Outside the Box, about creative thinking and problem solving. By and large, schools choose Say "Yes!!!" to Life, so much so that before today I hadn't done Thinking Outside the Box in over a year and a half. I did go over it, though, on my drive home from Salem the other night, and added a few new talking points and elements to the program. I always liked that program a lot, but felt like it needed some editing, so it seemed like a good time to do that. I'll admit to being a little nervous beforehand, but everything went really well. The second assembly went very well, too... but I'm pretty sure the first one edged it out, in terms of the energy level.

We stopped at a park where the girls played for a while and I was trying to get a nap when a car pulled up next to the bus with full bass hip-hop blaring. So much for the nap! We drove out to Deer Park, where I had the first of my Spokane County library shows of the week. We had come here in late January to perform at all of the Spokane County libraries, but Spokane was hit with a record snowfall that kind of hampered things a bit. I was impressed with the number of people who did come out to the shows, weather notwithstanding, but the attendance was probably lower than it would have been otherwise and they did have to cancel two of the ten shows due to bad road conditions. So I was very grateful when they asked me to come back again in the fall. For this trip, they wanted me to do my "Musical Zoo" show, where I combine a number of different animal songs with a simple message about taking care of our pets and being safe around animals. Deer Park is kind of out of the way, so there were only about twenty people there altogether, but they said that was a big crowd for out there, and it was quite a few more than the 5 or 6 who were there in January.

The next show was at the North Spokane library, and there was a good crowd there which included our friend, Gwendolyn, and her daughters, Becca and Elizabeth, who we had met last time we were in town. Gwendolyn had invited us over to her house and we had a great time talking with her and her husband while the kids played. Elizabeth is a few years older than our Becca, but their Becca is 5 and is right in between our Becca and Evee in every respect, so the three of them really hit it off in a big way. And when they saw each other again tonight, they picked right up where they left off, running around the room and laughing like crazy. Hopefully, we'll all get together again sometime this week.

We drove back to the RV park and I ate a little something, checked the internet quick and then went right to bed. I don't think it's the four shows in a day that tires me out... I could probably do ten shows a day and be just fine... it's the setting up and tearing down and hauling the equipment around and driving from place to place that makes a day like today particularly exhausting. I did use my new "sound system Jr." for the first time today, so that helped!

I probably shouldn't sleep in the middle of a school assembly...

9/26/08 - A bicycle built for dogs...

2008-09-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

Business as usual this past week... I've been working on recording for the new album and booking some shows, the girls have been playing and going to preschool and homeschool, Roseann's been working on various different projects, and Tiggy's been very busy napping and eating and occasionally going outside in our back yard for a few minutes.

Earlier today, the girls had their friend, Ellie, over and played and had a lot of fun. Roseann went to the temple tonight with her father while Jean watched the girls.

I drove today to Gresham, Oregon, on the way to Salem where I have an audition tomorrow. Every two years, librarians (and other children's event coordinators from all over Oregon gather at the Salem Library to see five-minute presentations from all available performers throughout the region. I remember thinking what a strange thing it was last time; driving five hours to get there, doing a five minute set for a bunch of librarians, then driving five hours home. But I got quite a lot of gigs from doing that, so it was definitely worth the trip and hopefully worth doing again.

On my way to the hotel, I stopped to eat somewhere, and as I was leaving I did one of the biggest double-takes of my life when I saw a guy riding by on a bicycle with several cocker spaniels. I had to drive around to catch up with him so I could 1) make sure I wasn't crazy and seeing things 2) take some pictures. He was actually really nice and not the kook I might have expected. He pulled up and said, "Do you want to see the cat, too?" Turns out there was also a cat curled up in the front basket among the cocker spaniels. Then he said, "Do you want to see the rabbit?" and pulled out some rabbit ears to put on one of the dogs. Okay, maybe he's a little bit of a kook...

Anyway, here's a few pictures from throughout the week, including some of the pictures Becca or Evee had previously taken with Becca's new camera. I'm sorry I couldn't keep up with a daily blog this week, but this will probably be how it is from this point on... more sporadic with posts and pictures every so often instead of every day.

Becca riding her new bicycle (with no cocker spaniels or cats)...

9/21/08 - Rooster in Vegas

2008-09-21T23:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 4 am to get to the airport and was surprised to hear a rooster crowing when I stepped outside. A rooster would be perfectly normal to hear if I were staying out in the country, but this was downtown Las Vegas. It kind of surprised me to hear a rooster in downtown Vegas...

Anyway, the flights home were fine, but lugging bags through airports is always a pain. The rule is that the more you feel encumbered by the bags you're carrying, the further away the gate for your flight will be. That definitely held true this morning.

Roseann and the girls went to church this morning and Roseann had her final (for now) day subbing for Evee's class. They picked me up at the airport and we went home and had naps and later had dinner with Jean and Larry.

9/20/08 - More BaloonaPalooza

2008-09-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

I checked out of the hotel and headed over to the BaloonaPalooza festival again. There were more people there today, but it still wasn't really crowded. I had about 30-40 people in the audience at peak, which was better than yesterday and seemed to be the average for everyone's shows. I was able to meet some other great kids' performers, including Wendee (a fun children's singer from L.A.), Debi Derryberry (best known as the voice of Jimmy Neutron, but also a great all-around children's entertainer) and Brady Rymer (whose last album is one of my favorites in the genre). I only caught the last two songs of Wendee's set and wished I'd have seen the rest, but I had a great time watching Debi and Brady's shows and hanging out and talking with them. Debi and her assistant Becky put on a really fun show with a lot of props and interaction, and she was able to get the biggest crowd of the day with about 50-60 people. Brady has, without a doubt, one of the best bands in the kids' music business, and though he only brought two of the band members (Seth on organ and vocals and Liz on mandolin and vocals), they had a very full sound that was really terrific, and Brady's energy and enthusiasm is totally unbridled. I wish there were more people there to enjoy their show and get up dancing... most of their audience was huddled under the shade trees... I know if Becca and Evee were there they'd have been right up in front dancing like crazy and would have gotten more kids to dance along. Maybe I should hire them out for that purpose...

I was also able to meet some notable cartoon celebrities at the event, which was really cool, including Spongebob, Scooby Doo, the Funshine Care Bear and the Cat in the Hat. Becca and Evee are gonna be soooo jealous when they see those pictures...

After Brady's show I headed over to Lanyard's and we ate some pizza and sang some songs and did some script readings, which was a lot of fun. His granddaughter, Ashley, is a big fan and she requested that I play some songs for her, so I was glad to oblige her (especially since she was giving up her room for that night for me to stay over). She's really sweet and gave me four of her stuffed animals to take home for me, Roseann, Becca and Evee.

With Debi Derryberry and Brady Rymer...

9/19/08 - Happy Birthday, Becca!

2008-09-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Real Birthday, Becca the big 6 year-old!!

I met my friend Lanyard for lunch at the Fiesta buffet and we talked for quite a while about a variety of things, as we are known to do. I headed over to the BaloonaPalooza event at the Craig Ranch Golf Course and had just missed the shuttle from the parking area to my stage, so I decided to walk, which wasn't a good choice as it was a much longer walk than I thought and I was carrying my guitar and a nearly 50 lb. box of equipment. After all of the walking and bag hauling yesterday, this was not a very welcome or leisurely stroll. I had requested to do my shows on Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday and that didn't turn out so well in terms of audience, as everything was still being set up and people were just starting to come in to the event during my set. There were about a dozen people in my audience altogether by the end, but nobody at all for the first few songs, which is really tough for a show that is meant to be very interactive. I had a couple of the women who were doing driving demos at the nearby Hyundai booth playing and dancing along, but that was about it. I guess there are expected to be several thousand people there tomorrow, and my show is in the middle of the day, so hopefully I'll have a decent crowd for that.

After the show I went over to the West Las Vegas Library, where Lanyard was doing a final rehearsal for his Reader's Theatre series. I was hoping to catch the actual performance tomorrow, but it'll be during my set. He and another guy, Adam, were doing a reading of Edward Albee's first play "A Zoo Story". It's a very heavy piece, quite sharply written, and Lanyard was really incredible as the main character, Jerry. I knew he'd been an actor for many years doing theater and some television, but I'd never seen him perform and I was totally blown away. Adam did a great job, too, as the straight man of sorts, but it is really Lanyard's character that drives the show.

I went back at the hotel and watched some TV for a while, then went to bed. Back home, the girls and Roseann made some sand castles in the back yard sandbox, went to Taco Bell where Becca had another scary bee experience (Roseann talked that out for a while with her, as that's twice now recently that she's panicked with bees around), and then went out to the annual Sausage Fest in Richland. I'm not sure if they ate any sausage, but Becca and Evee apparently were quite the spectacle dancing to some of the live music they had there. Roseann was going to take some pictures of them with Becca's camera, but Becca had already used up all of the batteries by taking pictures the past two days. Thankfully, it automatically shuts off when it's not being used so the batteries don't drain as fast, but still, considering how often she'll likely be using that camera, we'll have to keep a supply of batteries on hand at all times.

Adam and Lanyard performing A Zoo Story...

9/18/08 - Flying to Vegas

2008-09-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

I flew out to Vegas today, and as I wasn't in a particular hurry to get there, I opted to be bumped from the second flight in order to get a voucher which I'll be able to use for a flight later this year. But by the time I walked through a few airports carrying two bags and a guitar, and shuttled over to the car rental place, and drove half an hour to the hotel, and then had to carry the bags and guitar quite a ways into the hotel registration and then all the way to the far end of a hall to my room (see the picture below... my room is the second to last one on the far right), I was totally exhausted and went right to sleep. Back at home, the girls and Roseann hung out together and did some projects and some shopping. I know Becca took several more pictures with her new camera, but the internet is only working sporadically here at the hotel, so I wasn't able to get them sent over from Roseann. I'll post a "Becca picture gallery" at some point to catch up on some of those photos...

9/17/08 - Happy (early) Birthday, Becca!

2008-09-17T22:25:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Becca's sixth birthday today. Her real birthday isn't until Friday, but I'm leaving tomorrow for a few days so I wanted to be here for that. We got some pizza and went out to the Playground of Dreams, which is a giant playground complex at a park in Kennewick.

We had a little trouble with some bees while we were trying to eat and that was stressing Becca out a bit, so we abandoned that and headed into the playground for a while. Becca opened her presents and was very happy to have received her own camera. The girls also got Care Bears for each other (we always have whichever girl's birthday it is give one present to the other girl). Becca excitedly said that it was her "best birthday EVER!", apparently forgetting about the bees from just a short while before.

Anyway, other than the bees, it was a fun time, and Roseann and I and Gramma Jean enjoyed hanging out and talking together while the girls played. You can see the first pictures Becca took with her camera below (the really small ones... I've since changed the resolution to a higher setting).

9/16/08 - "Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard" video

2008-09-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is, at last... Please comment, rate, favorite and especially... share.

9/15/08 - Lip synching

2008-09-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

The picture below is not depicting ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics... They are lip sync images, and I've been staring at them almost all day while working on the "Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard" video. We knew going in that this was a long song with a lot of narrative spoken directly by the characters in the song, so we tried to include as many cut away shots as possible, but there's still quite a lot of dialogue to animate. I'm sure there's an easier way to do this than how I'm doing it... I'm still a hack on this animation program (Toon Boom)... but regardless, this is a pretty tedious process. It can take a long time just to do one little phrase in order to get the timing right, and even then it's hard to be exact, so we watch it over and over and move things back and forth and try to get it the best we can... For our next animated video, I think we're going to stick with something that doesn't involve any character dialogue!

9/14/08 - Chili

2008-09-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

Roseann and I subbed for Evee's Sunbeams class again, and as there wasn't a specific lesson given to us, I brought in my guitar and talked a little about music and did a few simple sing-a-long songs. After learning about tithing last week, the girls were excited to give their $1 of tithing to the bishop today. Still thinking back to Roseann's "1 out of 10 pieces of popcorn" lesson, Evee said that the bishop didn't need to eat her dollar.

After church, we had a nice chili dinner at Jean and Larry's, then worked a little more on the "Blackbeard..." video. Normally, we try not to work on business stuff on Sundays, but we're feeling a bit of a crunch with the amount of work that still needs to be done and our deadline looming...

9/13/08 - Sandbox

2008-09-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

The girls really enjoyed digging in Grandma Jean's garden recently. Grandma Jean didn't really enjoy that, though, so she suggested we get them a sandbox. Roseann found one on freecycle and picked it up and the girls got to work digging in it this afternoon. The sandbox was free but the pink and purple sand was not. Too bad we don't have a pink and purple beach near here...

I played two more softball games today and our fortunes were reversed from yesterday. We lost both games, though they were both quite close; the first one 8-7, and we almost tied it, and the second one 19-16 where we had rallied back to tie it at 16. If we had won that second game, we'd have played in the championship game, but would have had to beat that team twice. Considering how tired and sore I am right now after the four games we played this weekend, I can't say that I'm too incredibly disappointed that we didn't go on further. My box score for the weekend was 13-5-5-1, which wasn't bad, considering I haven't played softball or gone to batting cages or anything for a few years.

We went to game night tonight for a while and worked more on the "Blackbeard..." video. It's just about done now and we're hoping to post it to YouTube sometime on Monday.

9/12/08 - Softball

2008-09-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

The church softball tournament started today, and I was glad to be able to participate again this year, as we were out of town at this time the past two years. I played third base and catcher and we won both games. In the first game, we were leading 6-3 going into the bottom of the last inning and a guy on the other team hit a two run triple with one out, but we managed to get the last two outs without letting the guy on third score. Whew! The second game wasn't quite so close... we won 20-3. It's a double elimination tournament, so that means we'll be playing at least two games tomorrow, which means that I will collapse from exhaustion sometime tomorrow afternoon.

It was really a great catch that nearly split my shorts, but as you can see, the runner still made it home in plenty of time, so the near pants-splitting was all for naught...

Watching my line drive get caught by the shortstop...

9/11/08 - "The Top of the World"

2008-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Just about every songwriter I know wrote some kind of "9/11" song... Here's the one that Roseann and I wrote a few days after it happened. Seeing as we had just been to the World Trade Center a year before (picture below), we wrote it from the perspective of "what if it happened to us", and exploring the importance (or not) of priorities in life. I'm sure everyone did a lot of priority analysis at that time, but I realize it's worth remembering and revisiting our priorities as often as possible. Sometimes, we're our own worst critics... we shouldn't feel too bad about doing the things we have to day in and day out to take care of our families... But realizing that time with our loved ones is more valuable than money is what this is about. It's a tough balancing act, though.

Anyway, it's a rough demo, but you can hear and download "The Top of the World" for free at this page: http://www.erichermanmusic.com/top.html

"The Top of the World"
from Dancing on a Cloud
(c) 2001 Eric and Roseann Endres

Now I'm on my way
Things are looking up today
Finally where I want to be
A feeling of security

I'm here in the cradle of the sky
And the world below rushing by

Then I feel the earth shaking,
The boughs breaking
Everything I am is taken down
And I never had time to call

From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall

I don't regret the life I had
Grateful for the good and bad
But there was more I could have done
To give my love to everyone

And now, there's nothing I can do
But wish that I'd had more time with you

Instead of all the deadlines,
Overtime
Needless worries on my mind
What did I gain from it all?

From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall
From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall

Gain the world, lose your soul
Give your love, gain it all
Gain the world, lose your soul
Give your love, gain it all

And now, it's clear to me
Where your treasure is, your heart will be

You can live in wealth and stardom,
Build a kingdom
Seek for riches over wisdom
But where will your heart be if you lose it all?

From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall
From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall
From the top of the world,
It's a long way to fall

Give your love. Live for love.

9/10/08 - Fashion Show

2008-09-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

The girls sure like to dress up in strange ways... (Becca is wiggling another loose tooth...)

9/9/08 - BB&R trailer...

2008-09-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

We've been working hard on the "Blackbeard..." video, and we made a little trailer for it today. Click here to see it on YouTube or watch it below... The actual video should be posted next Monday or Tuesday.

9/8/08 - Moped

2008-09-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

Evee had her first full day of preschool today. By "full day", I mean 2.5 hours... the orientation last week was only an hour. Afterward, she excitedly said that she did everything she ever wanted to do there, and the only bad thing was having to leave.

Roseann picked up the moped we had looked at last week. She'll be puttering around town in that, and working on fixing it up over the winter. We might see if we can attach it to the RV somehow to have for when we travel.

9/7/08 - Monkeying Around

2008-09-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

We got up and pretty much went right to church. Every September, the start time for our ward changes between the three wards that share the building, so we went from church being from 1-4 to being from 9-noon. I actually prefer the 9-noon much better than 1-4 or 11-2... I'm up by 6:30 or 7 every morning, anyway.

Roseann and I helped out teaching Evee's Sunbeams class, which we'll be doing for the next three weeks. Evee was very happy to have us there, and Roseann did a great job of conveying the idea of tithing by distributing their snacks in groups of ten, and then having each of the kids give back one of the ten into a cup, which they later gave to the Bishop. They all excitedly asked him to eat it... and we then explained that tithing actually goes from the Bishop to the General Authorities... and it was Fast Sunday anyway, so he couldn't eat it until later... Rosean then advised the Bishop that the popcorn and raisins had been handled by multiple 3 and 4 year olds. He nodded and said goodbye. I'm guessing he never quite got around to eating them...

We came home and I played some games with the girls, and then we had dinner and watched some tube and went to bed.

Playing a rousing game of Monkeying Around with the girls...

9/6/08 - The Finger People and the Giant Duck

2008-09-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Becca's finger person...

My finger person, complete with guitar...

Ernie would be thrilled, or terrified...

Tiggy enjoying some r&r (what he enjoys the most)...

9/5/08 - Sound System Jr.

2008-09-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

So my "Sound System Jr." arrived today. It's even smaller than I thought... I've been using a Fender Passport 250 watt system for the past four years, and while that has been great for all of the shows I've needed it for, the necessity for another sound system became apparent during my trip to Montana in July. The airlines have instituted a new policy whereby you get only one free checked piece of luggage, and any other piece is $25, and any piece of luggage over 50 lbs. is a $75 charge (each way). When I put my Passport 250 on the scale and it came up at 52.5 lbs., I realized that I might need something else to travel with. Thankfully, I had bought those tickets before that policy changed, so I was only charged $25 each way for that. But going forward, the same exact luggage configuration would cost $100 each way. Considering I have at least a few air trips coming up, it made sense to get a system under 50 lbs.

I shopped around and ended up going with the Passport's younger sibling, a 150 watt version that weighs only 28 lbs. It's almost, but probably not quite small enough to be a carry-on. 150 watts might not be enough for some of the larger auditorium and park shows that I do (sound systems are usually provided for those, anyway), but it should be plenty for schools and libraries and most other venues. I'll probably end up using this one for most things now, whether I'm flying or not, just because it's easier to haul around. It looks cooler, too, with the black color, though the round control knobs are still kind of dorky...

We've been working a lot on the "Blackbeard..." video, and that's coming along well. You can see a still of Yellowbird, the parrot, below...

9/4/08 - Life is a great balancing act...

2008-09-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

I was a little anxious when I saw Evee up on there until I realized that part of the Sit & Spin doesn't spin...

9/3/08 - Just Playing

2008-09-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Evee had her first day of preschool today (well, her first day for this school year... she went to preschool for the first time last year). It was also orientation day, so Roseann and I went along to fill out the paperwork and such. Becca stayed with Gramma Jean and did some homeschooling. She learned about homonyms, sundials and the geometry of shadows, and she read a couple of poems. They went through a surprising number of other things considering we were only gone for an hour and a half, but Gramma Jean used to be an elementary school teacher, so she knows how to cram it all in there.

Evee was very happy to meet her new teacher, Mrs. Rosbach, who was also Becca's preschool teacher for two years. Ellie, who is one of Evee's good friends from church, is also in her preschool class. Ellie gave Evee a stuffed animal, Pony, for her birthday last year, and that's been Evee's favorite toy ever since.

On the preschool orientation pages, they had included a poem called "Just Playing" by Anita Wadley about how when children are playing, they're really learning all kinds of things... It's written from the child's perspective, saying, for example... When you see me up to my elbows in paint, Or standing at an easel, or molding and shaping clay, Please don't let me hear you say, "He's just playing" For you see, I'm learning as I play. I'm expressing myself and being creative. I may be an artist or an inventor someday. The last verse goes: When you ask me what I've done at school today, And I say "I played," Please don't misunderstand me. For, you see, I'm learning as I play. I'm learning to be successful in work. I'm preparing for tomorrow. Today, I'm a child and my work is play. I thought it was a very poignant poem and so afterwards when I asked Evee what she did during preschool and she said, "I played", I had to smile and laugh. Evee's not driven as much towards academics as Becca, but she's always been a very playful girl who is very smart and observant of her surroundings. If she gets that from playing a lot, then I'm happy to see her studying that kind of curriculum.

Otherwise, the girls played outside for quite a while and we did some various errands and continued work on our video project. We also went to look at a moped. It doesn't look the greatest, but it runs well and we might pick it up and fix it up for making odd trips around town.

Evee with Mrs. Rosbach...

Don't worry, we'll buy some helmets if we get this moped...

9/2/08 - Evee's library card

2008-09-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

Evee's been able to write her name for a while now, so we thought she should go and get her own library card today. She was very happy about that, but I think Becca was actually more excited for her. She did great writing her first name, but we didn't realize she'd have to do her last name, too, so we had to coach her a bit on that. But it worked out, and Evee is now the proud owner of a library card, and put it to good use by taking out several books and a movie.

9/1/08 - Back to work!

2008-09-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

So it's back to work today... on Labor Day, no less. I spent a few hours inputting all of the receipts from our last two months of traveling. Fun fun fun! Roseann and I are working on a new animated video for YouTube of my "Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard" song, and it's somewhat of an ambitious project considering it's one of my longest songs and we're trying to get it finished in time for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (You can see a little piece below for the "a pirate without treasure is like a monkey without a spatula" part...)

We went out with Gramma Jean this afternoon and did some shopping, though we weren't able to get to some of the places we had planned to, since many places were closed for the holiday. We came back and had dinner with Jean and Larry, and then the girls went to bed and we did some more work.

A few people have asked if I'm going to keep up this journal... I think I will, because I've enjoyed keeping a record of what our family has been up to from day to day and we like to look back every so often at the pictures. But I think that with our summer tour and travels over at this point, I'm not going to promise to write a post about every single day if there's not really anything particularly noteworthy to mention (I mean, every day is a gift and noteworthy for whatever you experience with it... but some days just aren't all that distinctive to write about...). Or I might just post a picture or two on some days and not really write anything... but I'll definitely keep up best I can and still chronicle any shows and travels I have over the fall and winter. And maybe I'll post some notes on the work we're doing for recording my next album and making new videos and stuff like that. We'll see...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 151

2008-08-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

We made some waffles and had Tim and Jude over for breakfast, then we went to church while Tim and Jude headed over to the Festival. At church, Roseann was asked to fill in again for Becca's class, and I joined her after a while, and just in time, as apparently she really had her hands full with a large group of kids in a small room.

After church, we went to the Festival and made it there just in time for Tim and Jude's set. Tim is probably best known as a children's performer, but this set was meant to feature more of his acoustic Americana music, though he did one new children's song, which was really good. He is definitely a talented songwriter and performer, no matter what material he's doing, and we enjoyed his set very much, which also featured Jude playing some impressive fiddle on a few songs. We said goodbye afterwards and headed over to the playground area and the girls had a lot of fun there. They have a zipline swing that is really cool and that's always a favorite attraction when we go to that park. We stopped at the performer hospitality area for some food, which we had skipped out on yesterday, and then headed home and went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 150

2008-08-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at the Tumbleweed Music Festival, which is an annual concert held every year at a park here in Richland. My show was only the second of the day, so a lot of people were still coming into the park during my set, but I had a decent throng of local fans there and it was a fun show and a really beautiful day for the event. We stayed for a while and listened to some music and the girls got face-paintings, and then we went out for lunch and then back home for some final house rearranging.

At about 6, Tim Noah and his son, Jude, came over. Tim is a legendary children's music performer from the Seattle area and we'd been hoping to meet him at some point, so when someone from the Tumbleweed Fest contacted us to ask if we could provide lodging for some of the out-of-town performers, we were happy to offer the clubhouse beds to Tim and Jude. We all went out for dinner and talked for quite a while, then came back and put the girls to bed, then talked some more. Tim and I definitely seem to share some perspectives and experiences with our kids' entertainment, and it's been great to get to know him and learn more about his extensive career.

Becca and Evee with pigtails (Evee picked out her own clothes this morning!)...

Running around like crazy during "Hot Sand"...

The last "This Little Light of Mine" for the summer...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 149

2008-08-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

I got up bright and (too) early at about 4:30 this morning to go into the KVEW (local ABC affiliate) TV station to do a segment on their Good Morning Northwest show. I did a brief interview and then performed "The Elephant Song" with the two anchor ladies and the weather lady acting as my peanut gallery. I had intended to record the show and include a clip of it here on the blog, but by mistake I set our DVR to record "Northwest Today" instead of "Good Morning Northwest". I flipped through the recording later, but apparently I didn't make an appearance on "Northwest Today". Oh, well...

We spent more time today cleaning and rearranging things between our house and the clubhouse (where my studio is). It's all looking a lot better and I hope to be able to get back to some music work starting on Monday. I took a nap in the afternoon and then we had dinner and put the girls to bed. Gramma Jean was supposed to monitor them while we went to our game group, but the girls heard her come in and wanted to get up to hang out with her... Roseann ended up leaving the game night a little early to come home and relieve Gramma (who had put the girls to bed again after a while), and I stayed there a little later.

Setting up for a game of Stone Age with our friend, Nyck...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 148

2008-08-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

We mostly hung around the house today and worked on various things, including a lot of spring cleaning (which can be done in the summer, apparently) and redecorating. We made some pizzas for dinner and watched the movie Nim's Island, which we thought was pretty good, then went to bed.

The girls having a tea party...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 147

2008-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at the Albany Library, and it went very well, but I have to make an addendum onto the rule that I stated after my show at the Crossroads Bellevue that said; "If ever there is a show where I plug in my guitar but don't actually turn up the volume and strum it quick to make sure it's working correctly before the show, that will be the time when the battery for the pickup will have died." I have to add: "-or- that will be the time when the cord will have died." Now, I am always prepared with an extra cord, however, I forgot to replace the extra guitar cord that had gone dead a few months ago, so the only extra cord I had was a very small cord normally used to connect my wireless system to my sound system. Roseann could tell during the "Name Song" that my cord was dead, so she went rummaging through my equipment box and found that tiny cord and had to laugh. I plugged it in and used it, but for my guitar songs I was limited to kneeling on the floor right next to the sound system, which was a little awkward.

Anyway, after that we stopped at Skippers for lunch but I regretted getting the "all-you-can-eat" shrimp and fish, because I was already very full after the first serving... it kind of defeated the purpose of the "all-you-can-eat" aspect. We drove about five hours back home, thus ending the travel for our spring/summer tour this year. I have a show at the Tumbleweed Festival in Richland on Saturday, so that will officially be the last show of the tour, but it's good to finally be done with the traveling for now, as much as we've all enjoyed it.

This is a picture of The Invisible Band that I hadn't seen before...

The little cord...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 146

2008-08-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at the Woodinville Library and there was a really terrific audience there that was laughing and playing along with full exuberance. We left from there and drove for about five hours to Albany, Oregon. We were slow going in traffic for a while near Portland and a car drove around the traffic at an exit point to pull up next to us onthe roadside so the lady in the vehicle could yell, "We love the elephant song!" It definitely put a smile on my face... It's wonderful when someone really goes out of their way to say something nice like that. It was pretty late by the time we got to the RV park, so we pretty much went right to bed.

Becca making it clear that Zeke and I are not the same person...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 145

2008-08-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

It was raining again this morning, so we stayed in the bus for a while, but by the afternoon we really needed to get out, so we went to eat dinner at Izzy's, a favorite pizza buffet place of ours, and then went over to the Everett Mall. We stopped into a hobby store, where Becca and Evee eagerly played with their Thomas the Train display. It's really hard to tear Evee away from those!

We stopped into Petsmart next and looked at the rats and fish and birds. We were thinking that someday we'd like to get a parakeet (I had some when I was young), but that wouldn't work out while Tiggy is around, because although he'd like us to get a parakeet, too, he wouldn't have the best of intentions for what to do with it. Realizing, though, that we'd forgotten to celebrate Tiggy's birthday (which is, best we can guess, around August 1), I ended up buying him a fun toy with a bird that sways around and tweets. He really loves it and spent much of his time this evening playing with it.

We went browsing through a few other stores and then headed back to the RV park and played some games before going to bed.

Tiggy enjoying his new bird toy...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 144

2008-08-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

I wasn't feeling so great today, and I was totally wiped out and needed a nap, so we ended up staying put and taking more of a literal "day of rest". We did some reading, played some games, had some dinner, and talked to some family and friends on the phone. Not much else to report...

No pictures today, so I'll take this opportunity to get caught up with some of the video snippets we took with our digital camera during the trip... (These go from where I last left off through the end of June... I'll catch up with the rest of them soon.)

05/29/08 - At Uncle Brent's in Dallas; Evee playing with Audrey and Becca doing magic tricks for Daniel and Brent...

06/03/08 - The girls singing "Chocolate Rain"...

06/05/08 - A few clips from a show in Galvez, LA...

06/12/08 - "This Little Light of Mine" from a show in Scotlandville, LA...

06/12/08 - Dancing at Boutin's Restaurant in Baton Rouge...

06/13/08 - Horseback riding at Maranda's in Zachary...

06/16/08 - Tiggy amusing himself in the bus...

06/16/08 - A snippet of "How to Move a Monster" at the Greenwell Springs Library in Baton Rouge...

06/17/08 - Becca's first lost tooth...

06/17/08 - Tiggy meeting a smitten kitten...

06/22/08 - The puppet Louis singing "Under the Bridge" back at Brent's, with Audrey and David looking on...

06/26/08 - Dancing along to Monty Harper in Oklahoma City...

06/30/08 - Watching the Duttons in Branson...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 143

2008-08-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of coffeeshop gigs today over on Whidbey Island. Of course, I used to do nothing but coffeeshop gigs before doing kids' music, but it's very rare that I do them anymore. But I saw a listing looking for people to do acoustic gigs at Mike's Place in Langley, and I figured as long as I'd be staying out in Everett at this time anyway, that I might as well go ahead and do that. And it turned out that the owners of Rockhopper's Daily Grind in Clinton (also on Whidbey Island) recognized me from their grandkids watching the YouTube videos and asked if I could stop in and do a show there as well.

Seeing as the fee for transporting a motorhome on the ferry is pretty exorbitant, and these weren't really high-paying gigs, I rented a car for the trip over to the island. But it turned out that the car wasn't quite as "mid-sized" as I hoped, and there just wasn't room for all of my equipment and for my entourage, so Roseann and the girls stayed back and hung out in the bus, playing and watching movies and having a nice girls' day together.

Mike's Place had a sporadic audience coming in and out, as is usually the case for coffeeshops, but I had fun singing a variety of songs for the people who hung around. I used to have a set list of over 300 songs when I was playing these kind of gigs all the time back in Buffalo, but I was shocked at how few of them I could still remember at this point. I couldn't even remember some of my own originals... Nonetheless, I was able to dig into my memory enough to fill out the time and everyone there seemed to enjoy it quite a lot, but next time I do a gig like this again, I'll really need to go over some of those songs again, or bring along some cheat sheets, at least.

The Rockhoppers show was just put together a few days ago, so there only ended up being a few kids there and a smattering of adults, but every one of the kids was already a big fan and knew my music very well and the adults played along very generously and we all had a really great time together. After the kid songs set, I did a few of my coffeehouse songs for the grown-ups there, and then a couple more kids songs for some kids who showed up later.

I went back over the ferry and got back to the RV park in time to put the girls to bed.

A picture from the ferry ride...

Doing "The Bicycle Song" at Rockhoppers...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 142

2008-08-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

We ran some errands and did our laundry this morning, then after lunch we drove into Seattle to meet our friends Farida and Tony at the University Village mall. Becca and Evee played with their daugher, Maddalena, at the play area while we talked, and then we had dinner and headed over to Magnuson Park to see Recess Monkey. They were a lot of fun and we had a really great time. Becca and Evee danced like crazy during the show (with an emphasis on "crazy"... all of their animal/robot/70's dancing at my shows has given them a rather strange repertoire of dance moves) and we stayed after to say "hello" to the guys in the band. The girls were exhausted (no naps today), so they went right to bed when we got back to the bus, and then we drove back to the RV park, stopping for some groceries on the way.

With Farida, Maddalena and Tony...

The girls dancing at the Recess Monkey show...

With the Recess Monkeys...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 141

2008-08-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

It rained a lot again overnight and the sky was looking very ominous this morning, so we had to make a decision about my show in Everett, whether to have it outside in the park, as scheduled, or whether to move it in to a smallish meeting room in the park complex. Now, I'm no meteorologist, but though the sky looked dark and gloomy, it just didn't feel like it was going to actually rain, so I went with that feeling and we set up outside. Thankfully, I was right, and the weather held out, with the sun even coming through now and then. I think we lost some audience because of the iffy weather, but a good number of people ended up coming out, regardless, and they were a really fun group.

After the show, we went back to the RV park and pretty much vegged out for the rest of the day. The girls played with each other and on their computers, and we did some computer work and watched a couple of movies; Hide and Seek, which was kind of creepy, and The Italian Job, which was okay.

Evee was the only kid braving the front of the stage area at first...

...but not for long...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 140

2008-08-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

It was raining pretty hard this morning, and though it stopped by about 9, the ground was still very wet at the park in Kirkland where I had a show, so it was held under the big pavilion there, which worked out well. There was quite a lot of wind, though, underneath the pavilion, and there was some kind of conflict with the wireless frequency that made my microphone a little choppy at times (I should have remembered that the same thing happened at that place last year). It threw me off a little bit, but I tried to make the best of it and the show went fine, regardless.

Thinking about it now, I am happy and somewhat amazed to be able to say that in four years of doing several outdoor shows in the Seattle area during the summer, none of them have been rained out. (knocking on wood) In fact, I think this is the first one that was even moved "indoors" because of the weather. When I tell people around the country that I live in Washington, they often mention how it rains there all the time. Of course, that's definitely not the case in the Tri-Cities where we live, but even in Seattle, I think that's overstated. Yeah, it'll rain fairly regularly here, but usually not for very long, and there are quite a lot of days when it's sunny and beautiful. At least, that's been my experience.

After the show, we stopped for some pizza, then went to an RV park in Everett where we'll be staying for the next several days. We went out shopping for a while, then came back and the girls played on their computers and Roseann and I watched the movie, The Illusionist, which we'd seen before but enjoyed enough to watch again.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 139

2008-08-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

We spent a few hours this morning cleaning up and packing up for a week of shows out in the Seattle area. After being in the bus for over four months and coming home for only two weeks, we were surprisingly unprepared to all go out together again. We left at about 3 pm and drove out to an RV park in Bellevue and stayed for the night. Not much else to report, but it's good to be back on the road as a family.

Babysitting Zeke's kids...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 138

2008-08-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

The temperature finally came down into the 90s today, so we went next door to the clubhouse and I did some work while the girls played. There is a window air conditioner there and a couple of fans, but they just weren't cutting it when it was 105. Today, it was at least bearable over there.

Roseann did some work painting some dressers for the girls room, but she wasn't feeling very good later in the day, so I ended up having family home evening with the girls while she rested. We played together on the Clavinova and did a "name that tune" kind of thing, then we played several rousing rounds of "Hide and Seek". For Becca and Evee, there is probably no greater thrill than playing "Hide and Seek", and the funny thing is, they barely even play it right... they'll hide somewhere and then jump out to expose where they are if you're even remotely near their hiding spot. It kind of defeats the hiding and the seeking... They have also played "Hide and Seek" in the bus, where there are maybe two or three hiding spots, and even in empty library meeting rooms after my shows, where there is really no place at all to hide. But they don't care... There's something magical about the act of counting and seeking and hiding... or at least pretending to hide in the case of the empty library meeting room... and they just go nuts whenever we play that game.

Becca drew the picture below of The Incredibles, and insisted on taping it to our mailbox outside, in case The Incredibles themselves might come by and see it (after all, they could be working incognito for the Post Office). Becca's greatest wish is to make cartoons come to real life, and she keeps asking how that can happen. Of course, there is always that possibility in her imagination, and with things like Disney on Ice... but I also tell her that who knows... someday she might help develop real-life moving and talking cartoons.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 137

2008-08-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

The girls serenaded us with an impromptu jam session this morning, with Becca on toy guitar and vocals and Evee on toy recorder and shaker. It was quite a beautiful noise, I must say, and the picture below captures their exuberant enthusiasm very well, I think.

We went to church and Roseann was asked to sub for teaching Becca's 5-6 year old class. I wasn't called on to sub this week (my church calling is, essentially, Sunday School pinch hitter), so I joined Evee in her class for a while and then helped out Roseann with Becca's class.

It was still 100+ today, so we were eager to change out of our church clothes when we got home. We had dinner and watched The Ant Bully, which was fun, then we went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 136

2008-08-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

Another hot one today... 105 again, I think. We mostly stayed inside and did what work we could during the day and then went out shopping and ran some errands. I met up with my local game group for a couple of games tonight. Normally, Roseann would have joined me, but our babysitters (her folks) are out of town, so she stayed in with the girls and they started work on a new abstract tree painting for one of our walls, which Roseann finished later after they were asleep.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 135

2008-08-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

Roseann and I brought in the pieces for the Clavinova (heavy!) and Roseann attached it all together. The girls enjoyed playing on that and it will be a big improvement from our old piano, which we picked up free from down the street, missing a key and all...

It was about 105 today, and the clubhouse where my main work studio is doesn't have air conditioning, so I didn't get much done in that respect today. I should mention that the Tri-Cities area, being a desert climate, typically gets this hot in the summer, which is why it's nice that we're usually not around much in the summer. In any case, with the heat expected to stay about this high for the next few days, and us leaving again for Seattle next week, I've become resigned to not really doing much actual work until September. On Labor Day, I will labor...

We went out and did some shopping and got some materials for Roseann to do some home makeover stuff that she's been wanting to do for a while. The girls went to bed and we worked a little bit on a video project then went to bed ourselves.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 134

2008-08-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at a park in Renton, and it was even hotter than yesterday. I had about 50 die-hard people camped out in the sun in front of where I was performing, and then about 100 or so waaaay back under the shade of the trees across the field. You can see what I mean from the picture below... So it was kind of a strange show in terms of the audience proximity, but it turned out to be a really fun one. I was drenched with sweat by the end, but I had a blast throughout.

After the show, I made a couple of stops to pick up some things in the area that Roseann had found on craigslist, including some mattresses for the bunk beds (we had borrowed some mattresses from Jean) and a Clavinova. I drove home and got back just in time to put the girls to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 133

2008-08-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

I didn't sleep very well last night... there was a fly in the RV that kept landing on me and tickling me awake. I felt too tired to get up and try to swat it, though in retrospect I probably should have just taken care of that right away.

I had a summer concert series show at the park next to the library in Mill Creek. Last year when I performed at the same place it was so hot that my entire audience was huddled off to the side under the shade of the trees, and there were a few canopies up near the stage where more people were huddled. This year, it was hot out, but not quite that hot, so I had the same basic audience arrangement, though there was a group of kids who braved the sun and hung out right in front for the whole show. Normally, when I'm doing a show outside and it's really sunny and hot, I would cut back on the more active, dancing around kind of songs and do more story songs and other things like "The Elephant Song", where there's participation but you don't need to get up and move around so much. But this group of kids was really eager to dance, the heat notwithstanding, so I actually skewed the show the other way and did more dancing songs, though I kind of felt bad about working them out so much in the sun like that. Then again, they obviously had tons of energy, so it was almost certainly more of a workout for me.

Drew from the fun Seattle kids' band, Recess Monkey, was at the show with his daughter, Mira, and we talked for a little while after the show. I've been trying to hook up to see a show of theirs over the past year or so, but we haven't been able to get the timing right. They came out to the Tri-Cities to do some shows earlier this summer, but of course, we were gone then. I think we'll be able to see their show next Friday in Seattle, so I'm looking forward to that.

I was feeling desperate for a nap, so I had planned on getting one when I got to the RV park, but when I saw the pool there I ended up going swimming and felt a lot better after that. I did some computer work and made some dinner before going to bed.

Back at home, Roseann and the girls went shopping and played together and went to a play group meeting at a park.

With Drew and Mira...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 132

2008-08-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

Mary Jo and her kids left early this morning. We hung around and did some work and laundry and such, and I watched some tube with the girls. I left in the afternoon to drive out to Seattle again for some shows tomorrow and Thursday. I stopped in to meet with a game group in Bothell, then went to an RV park nearby to stay for the night. Roseann and the girls played a rousing game of The Sims on Roseann's laptop. Well, the girls don't "play" it so much, but they like to help Mommy decorate the houses and give names to the families, and they have a lot of fun with that.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 131

2008-08-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day here so the girls played out in back quite a bit and we all had lunch out on the back porch. Roseann and I worked on a graphic project and then I tried to do some recording/editing work, but didn't get much done beyond updating my software program and transferring files from my laptop to my desktop. I don't expect I'll get too much done on that until September when my show schedule slows down, but I'm eager to get working again on my next album, so I'll pick away at what I can in the meantime.

We rearranged the girls' bedroom a little, putting the bunk bed against the far wall, which gives them a lot more room. We put them to bed and then stayed up for a while and chatted.

Evee in an interesting outfit...

Having lunch with (clockwise) Nate, Larry, Jean, Roseann, Mary Jo and Josie...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 130

2008-08-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today was my first full day back home since we left in April, and I didn't do a whole lot, which was just fine with me. We went to church this afternoon and it felt good to be back at my home ward. We had dinner afterwards with Jean and Larry (Roseann's parents) and Mary Jo and her kids, and then the girls played for a while with Emily before going to bed. Roseann and I watched the movie My Name is Bill W. and then went to bed. Tiggy continues to be super snuggly as if to say "thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing me back home!" See below...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 129

2008-08-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at the Bellevue Regional Library. It started out as a small crowd but built throughout the show and by the end everyone was up and dancing, kids and adults alike. I drove back home, stopping for a nap on the way. I was attacked by hugs from the girls when I got home, which is always a great feeling. Grandma Jean made some root beer floats for everyone, so we enjoyed those before going to bed.

Becca and Evee with their cousin, Emily...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 128

2008-08-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

I had a show this afternoon at the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue on behalf of the library. There was a good crowd and the show went well in general, but there were a couple of glitches worth mentioning... First of all, there is a law related to my performing that says; if ever there is a show where I plug in my guitar but don't actually turn up the volume and strum it quick to make sure it's working correctly before the show, that will be the time when the battery for the pickup will have died. There was just enough juice in the battery so the sound was still being picked up, but I had to crank the volume all the way up and it was kind of distorted. Thankfully, there were only three guitar songs in the show, so it wasn't a big deal.

I also have a new law to remember that states; whenvever I give my squirt gun to someone else to fill up, make sure that they've put the cap back on it well enough. When I picked up the squirt gun during "Monster in My House", a big gush of water came out through the top and all over my arm. I tried my best to keep from laughing, but I don't think anybody noticed, anyway.

At the show were my friends Farida and Tony and their daughter Maddalena, and we got some food at the food court there and talked for quite a while. We never lack for conversation, because Farida is a storyteller and singer for children, and we enjoy discussing our mutual interests in children's entertainment and music, and Tony is a game designer, which is another big interest of mine. Maddalena was disappointed that Becca and Evee didn't come, as they all had fun together last time we got together and went for ice cream.

Back at home, Roseann and the girls hung out and played and went to the park with her sister Mary Jo and three of her kids, who are visiting from Rexburg for a few days.

With Maddalena, Tony and Farida... looking at two different cameras...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 127

2008-08-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at a park in Kent. Summer park concerts are always favorites of mine and this one had a good throng of kids and families eager to dance and have fun, even though it was quite hot out in the field there. This was my third time doing this particular series, so I mixed things up a bit and added some songs I haven't done there before and also opened up with "Monster in My House" instead of the usual "Hot Sand". One particular benefit of not opening with "Hot Sand" is that I'm not exhausted after the first song! A woman came up afterwards with her kids who have seen me there the past two years and now refer to that place as "Eric Herman Park" whenever they go there to play. I'm not expecting a statue to go up anytime soon...

Otherwise, I mostly hung out at the RV park and got caught up on some reading and e-mails and stuff. Back at home, the girls and Roseann did some shopping and worked on some craft projects and began designing and constructing a new dollhouse. For bedtime, Becca got her turn on the top of the bunk bed. I think they'll be switching back and forth from night to night for a while.

The girls on their new bunk bed...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 126

2008-08-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

The girls were so funny when they woke up this morning... they kept running around the house finding whatever toys and things hadn't been brought on our trip and saying, "Hey, it's our piggy bank!!" and "Hey, it's Buzz Lightyear!" Becca asked who watched all of their toys when they were gone. She was concerned about how they got along without her and Evee.

We went to Gramma Jean's house and all had breakfast together. The girls played and Roseann and her mother got caught up on things while I took care of some things that needed to get done before I had to leave for Seattle.

I headed out in the afternoon and stayed at an RV park in Bellevue. I do enjoy being able to go out by myself once in a while, and you might think after four months together in a motorhome that we could all use some more alone time, but the truth is that I feel pretty lonely when I'm away. I can fill up the time by working on things (it is nice to be able to concentrate better on that) or by playing games on my computer or watching a movie or something, but there's still a palpable emptiness when all three of my girls aren't buzzing around. We call and talk a few times during the day, but I think I'm going to buy some webcams so we can do some videoconferencing.

Back at home, Roseann went out to get mattresses and bedding for the new bunk bed that we picked up in Boise. The girls were very excited about that and Evee got to have the first night on top. Roseann took some pictures of the girls in the bunk bed with Jean's camera, but unfortunately, that uses a Compact Flash card and Roseann's laptop doesn't take that, and we can't find the USB cord... so anyway, no pictures for that.

Evee wasting no time getting reacquainted with some of her stay-at-home toys...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 125

2008-08-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

We did some shopping in the morning, then met up with our friends, the Thompsons, at a park. Brad Thompson is a terrific singer/songwriter and he performs with our friend, Steve Brown, in a "BNL meets Simon and Garfunkel" duo called Border Crossing. I've known Brad for many years (he was Redbeard on "Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard" and he and Steve sang the backing vocals for "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous"), and we've become good friends with his family since we moved out to the Northwest. We try to stop by and hang out together whenever we pass through Boise. We ate some pizza and got caught up with them all while the girls played at the playground.

I had a show at the Garden City Library at 5 pm. I've been there four times now and it's always a very receptive crowd. Well actually, the first time I did a show there only about 3 people were there, and they didn't even know I was performing... the librarian who had booked me had moved to a different library in the meantime and they hadn't replaced her, so they had forgotten I was coming. Whoops! They've been terrific since then, though, and it was a fun show to end the main part of our tour on.

From there we drove about five hours to a place called Richland, WA, which we haven't been to in over four months and which we otherwise call "home". We brought the sleeping girls into their beds and did a little bit of unpacking before going to bed. Tiggy was ecstatic to be home... he was running all around and jumping up on the bed and acting like he was a crazy kitten again. I don't blame him... he barely left the RV for over four months!

Well, it's really good to be home, but the feeling will be short-lived for me as I need to leave tomorrow for some shows in the Seattle area over the next few days. Roseann and the girls are going to stay at home and take a break from the traveling for a bit, and then they'll probably come out with me to Seattle for some shows again in a couple weeks. I usually go out for the shorter length stints on my own, anyway, so we'll see how the girls are feeling after a week or two at home. Since the Seattle shows are still technically part of the "spring/summer tour", I'll keep blogging daily through the end of the month and then I'll probably just post now and then when I have shows or other things to share.

In any case, as this does mark the end of the trip, we need to say a very grateful thank you to all of you that we visited with. We really had a wonderful time and this trip was a particularly special one because of all of the people we were able to see, which included much of our family, many of our friends and many new friends and musical colleagues. I really hope you all enjoyed your time with us as much as we enjoyed meeting with you. I'm also very grateful for all of the schools and libraries and other venues that had me come out and perform and to the generous audiences everywhere. We look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible.

With the Thompsons...

Becca the boxer...

Is this seat taken?

A nice view on the way home...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 124

2008-08-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

At the RV park this morning, the girls made some crafts, including some Monsters Inc. face masks and some strange musical instruments (see Evee's Mike Wazowski and the girls' fork-straw bagpipes below). We went over to see the new Twin Falls temple, which was having an Open House. The girls were happy to go inside a temple and behaved very well throughout, even though the lines were very long and the movement was very slow going.

We stopped for lunch at Arctic Circle and the girls had some playland time, then we drove two hours to Boise. We checked in at an RV park, then met Roseann's niece Bethany for dinner. Bethany had just moved to the area from Pocatello, where her husband, Chris, is still fixing up their house until they sell it. She and Roseann were always very close growing up, so I took the girls in to bed right after they were done eating so they could have a better chance to catch up. Afterwards, we went back to the RV park and went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 123

2008-08-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

We went over to Aunt June's and we all had baths and then went to church. After church, we went back to Aunt June's and had some dinner and then said goodbyes. We always love to see Aunt June and really appreciate her tremendous spirit. We drove a few hours to an RV Park in Twin Falls, Idaho. It's been a wonderful trip, but we're all getting pretty excited to be back home again in a couple days...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 122

2008-08-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

We went over to Aunt June's new house this morning and the girls played with some toys while we talked. Evee and I both had much needed naps in the afternoon and I felt quite a bit better after that... I hadn't been feeling very well earlier in the day. We went out and did some shopping and got some pizza, then we went to the Celebration Centre, which is a really fun place with bounce houses and a giant climbing maze. The girls absolutely love it there (we'd been there twice before and they flipped out once they realized we were back) and they must have gone up and down the inflatable slide about 50 times in a row. We enjoyed talking together and watching them have so much fun. Afterwards, Aunt June went home and we went to the RV park. The girls played on their computers for a little while and then went to bed, and we watched 10,000 B.C., which was pretty good.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 121

2008-08-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

We checked out of the RV park (by "checked out", I mean that we unplugged and drove away) and went over to Temple Square for a while. We've been to Salt Lake City about 5 or 6 times now over the past few years and haven't had time in our schedule to go there and check out some of our Mormon heritage. Well, Roseann and I have been there before, but not with the girls. We went to the church history museum and walked around the tabernacle and the temple grounds, but we had to get back to the bus and head out before too long as we were meeting our Aunt June for dinner in Logan.

We went out together with Aunt June to Wok on Wheels for some tiny spicy chicken, which has become sort of a standard for us when we visit her in Logan. It's really good, though the "spicy" of the tiny spicy chicken got the best of me later on. We went to an RV park and the girls went to bed and Roseann and I watched the movie August Rush. I liked the idea of "music is everywhere" (as in the great Bill Harley song) and how that was represented in the film, but otherwise we thought it was kind of... what's the right word... melodramatic. (Btw, when we first saw the kid who stars in the movie, Roseann and I both said together... Monty Harper!) We ended up staying up very late talking about stuff, which we like to do every so often when I don't have any shows the next day.

It's a lot easier to travel across the country in a motorhome than with a handcart...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 120

2008-07-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

We returned the jeep to the rental place, then came back to the RV park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here, so we stayed outside a lot. The girls played at the playground and Roseann made some brunch on our griddle out on the picnic table. There was another big delay on naps, though, so once again I went to my show at the Kearns Library alone. I really wish they'd have been there, which is always the case, of course, but especially tonight as there ended up being a very small crowd there for the first half of the show. Thankfully, the kids that were there were all super active and very playful and we had a lot of fun together. Some more people trickled in and there ended up being several more kids dancing along by the end.

While I was doing my show, Roseann pulled out Becca's third tooth, which she had noticed was loose earlier. After my show, we put the girls to bed and did some computer work and then went to bed ourselves.

Becca, the toothless wonder...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 119

2008-07-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

We drove out to Park City, where I had a show at the library. I did a show there last year, and it was in a very large auditorium and there were about 6 kids total, so I was thrilled when there ended up being about 200 people there this time, which filled out the auditorium pretty well. One of girls who saw me last year brought me some flowers, which was really sweet.

The show went well, and then we went out for lunch. Park City, which is known for hosting the Sundance Film Festival, has some kind of town charter whereby every building looks like a ski lodge, even the Walmart and Burger King and Rite Aid, etc. That can make things confusing when you're looking for a particular place... "Where's the Burger King?" "It's the building over there with the wood facade that looks like a ski lodge." "Um... which one?"

We drove back to the RV park and hung out there for a while. A family on vacation from Holland pulled into the space near us and were very excited to see our bus. Turns out their son (who looked to be about 17) has seen all of my videos on YouTube. I went out to Office Max to get some things printed, and the girls were supposed to have naps. But they didn't actually get to sleep until just before I got back, and I needed to leave for my next show, so I ended up going alone. The show was at the park near the East Millcreek Library, and it was a beautiful night and a good crowd and I really enjoyed performing there.

The girls got up from their naps and had showers, then played for a while. One side of Evee's lip, the side that first had the rash, is looking a lot better, so apparently what we've treated her with is working. Roseann watched The Spiderwick Chronicles while I was gone. I came back after doing some shopping, then we all went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 118

2008-07-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

Becca's rash was very much improved this morning... hardly noticeable even... so we were very relieved about that. But now Evee has some kind of rash on the corners of her mouth, which is apparently angular cheilitis, so we've been applying some antifungal cream and will have to get her looked at if it doesn't improve.

We hung out in the bus and at the RV park for most of the day, going out to the playground for a while. We stopped at a Subway for dinner, then went to my show at the Whitmore Library. We were met there by Julie Hanks (aka Julie de Azevedo), who was there to interview me and film some of my show for her Home Team talk show. I was thrilled to meet her, as she is an amazing inspirational singer/songwriter and her Home CD is one of my very favorite albums. She is super nice and we talked for a while, but had to cram the actual interview into just a couple of minutes as the video guy didn't make it there until just before my show.

The show went really well, with a terrific audience and lots of enthusiasm from the kids and adults alike. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream with our good friend, Mark Hansen, and his kids. Mark is a great performer and songwriter and rocks out with incredible passion, and his sons, Brendon and Jacob, are the real-life embodiment of the term "brotherly love". They were featured on a local news segment not long ago, and it was an awesome piece that made me cry. Check it out here if you like, but have a box of tissues on hand. Brendon and Jacob entertained us all with their comedy routines, and we talked with Mark about music and games and life. The girls ate their ice cream and then were looking for something to do, so they played a game of Duck Duck Goose... with just the two of them. Don't ask me how that game can be played with only two people, but they somehow make it work for them. But two other kids joined them before long, so that made it work out better, regardless. We would have liked to stay and chat longer with Mark, but it was getting late, so we headed back to the RV park and went to bed.

Evee and Becca doing a puppet version of "The Tiger and the Zebra"...

With Julie de Azevedo Hanks...

With Mark and Jacob and Brendon...

2 player Duck Duck Goose... and then 4...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 117

2008-07-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

Roseann went out this morning and picked up the correct replacement parts for our septic drain and got that all fixed up, which was quite a relief, as it had been pretty tedious walking to the restroom at the RV park every time we needed to go (especially last night during a pretty heavy windstorm). Becca's rash seemed a little better today, but then seemed to get worse again right before we had to leave for Draper, so tomorrow we'll be taking her somewhere to get it looked at if it's not better.

I had a show this evening at the Draper library, and that went really well. It was a very enthusiastic group and we had a lot of fun together. The "bug song" set is definitely rolling very smoothly now after some early hiccups.

After my show we raced to get over to the American Fork Amphitheatre to see Sam Payne's show there. Sam is a friend of ours that we'd met here a few years ago and he is, I think, one of the greatest singer/songwriters ever. He writes and performs truly amazing songs and stories with incredible depth and beauty. Sam is also a top-notch scat singer and played the part of "the cat" for my "Scat Cat" song on Snail's Pace. Unfortunately, it took longer to get to American Fork from Draper than we realized and we only caught the last three or four songs of his show. Still, it was great to see what we did. We talked for a bit afterward and he invited us over, but it was already very late and we had a long drive back to the RV park, so hopefully we'll be able to get together another time this week. Also, it was nice to see Ryan Tilby playing in Sam's band and meet him in person. Sam had recommended Ryan to me a few months ago to do some slide guitar recording for the song "Carseat Snack" for my next album. Wait'll you hear his playing on that... Wow!

Tiggy pretending he's people...

Evee and Becca hanging out with Uncle Zeke before the show...

Sam Payne at the American Fork Amphitheatre...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 116

2008-07-27T22:19:00.001-07:00

Becca woke up this morning complaining of being itchy. She had a rash on her face and arms and back and legs, and it seemed to get worse as we were in church, so I took her back to the bus and gave her some Benadryl, which definitely helped but didn't take it away entirely. We're going to have her tested for allergies when we get back home (or sooner if this doesn't go away), as she's showed slight allergies to a few random things here and there, and we don't want to chance her being really allergic to something we don't know about.

We had naps after church and then watched most of The Water Horse together. The girls liked the cute little creature but kind of lost interest once it got bigger. At one point, Evee said, "I'm going away from this movie now." So she and Becca got down and played on their computers while Roseann and I watched the rest of it, and it's just as well that they bailed out when they did, because it got scarier after that point.

I put the girls to bed and Becca picked out Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for the bedtime story and then Evee chose a "game song" for the song. Game songs involve some kind of silly subject and a simple ad-libbed verse where we each take turns to add our own "answer". For example, tonight's was one that goes, "I went to the store to buy a lot of things. I bought a..." and then one of us answers "robot doggie". Normally, there would be a different answer each time, but our running gag for this particular version is that everyone always answers "robot doggie" (or throws in something else unexpectedly after a while, such as "robot platypus"). Anyway, they're a fun improvising exercise and since we started doing them this past winter the girls almost always choose to do a new game song (or a rehashed old one) for their bedtime song.

Sorry, no pictures today. I guess I could have taken a picture of Becca's rash, but that wouldn't seem right to post here, you know?

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 115

2008-07-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

We got up and took a drive over to a rental car place and rented a Jeep for the week, and then we went to an RV service place to pick up some of the replacement parts for the septic drain that broke yesterday. We stopped back at the RV park to get showers and so Roseann could fix the power cord that we finally got a replacement head for (it's been in need of changing for a while now), then went to the downtown library, where I had a show at 2 pm in the main auditorium. There was a very appreciative crowd there for the show and I really enjoyed performing there again.

We went out to Home Depot to get more supplies to fix the bus and then stopped at Walmart for some groceries. We went back to the RV park and Roseann set to work on fixing the septic drain while I did the last of my informal shows there. Not much of a crowd there again, but I appreciate the exchange the park was willing to make for our stay, so I gave it my best for those who were there and Becca and Evee helped out to fill in any needed roles.

Unfortunately, as Roseann got to work on the repair project, she realized that the main septic drain piece that we got from the RV service place wasn't quite the right shape for our bus, so we'll have to keep footing it to the restroom here until we can get the right part on Monday.

We relaxed and did some net surfing and played some computer games before going to bed.

By the way, Roseann and I have been talking lately about upgrading to a larger sized RV in the coming year or so. We've finally decided on the model we're getting. Check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3GuCKWorqQ&NR=1 Now we just have to figure out how to become fabulously wealthy in the next year or so...

Evee the acrobat...

Demonstrating the dance for "I Am a Robot"...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 114

2008-07-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

We went out and ran some errands this morning, and then I was dropped off at the University of Utah campus where I officially descended into the realm of "geekdom" by attending the Gathering of Strangers board game convention. I suppose as conventions go, it wasn't really all that geeky... nobody was wearing Darth Vader costumes or anything like that. And it wasn't really much of a "convention"; just a couple hundred people playing a bunch of games, really. Eurogames and the like have become a hobby of mine over the past year, which is why I was interested to check this event out when I saw it advertised recently. I've also been developing a game of my own called Jesters, which I was hoping to pitch to a publisher who was expected to be there, but as it turns out, he's not supposed to be there until tomorrow. Oh well... it was fun to hang out and check out some new games and I met a lot of nice people there.

While I was at the U of U, as they call it, Roseann and the girls did some shopping together and then went back to the RV park for naps. Roseann drove out later to a Jiffy Lube to ask about getting an oil change (it's not always apparent whether their bays will fit our vehicle), and on her way out of the parking lot there she noticed that the edge of the curb had a terrible dip in it. Now, with a 24 foot long vehicle, a dip like that at the bottom of the ramp coming out of the average plaza parking lot can mean some major scraping. She stopped the bus and was about to back up and take a different exit, but a car was behind her with some nasty lady honking and yelling for her to go. In retrospect, she probably should have gotten out and explained that the lady needed to go around her or back up and go elsewhere, but in the moment she was feeling pressured and went ahead down through the dip and it ended up breaking off the end piece of our black/grey tank. Luckily, it was empty, and the valves were not knocked open, so no mess... Roseann was able to reattach it somewhat, but we'll need to replace the piece before using that again (which means more trips to the RV park bathroom... good thing we're parked right near it).

My show tonight at the RV park was definitely my favorite one yet of the ones I've done here... There were only about a dozen kids and adults, but it was a very fun-loving group and we had a lot of laughs. I'm taking the opportunity of these low-key shows to do some new material as well as go over some songs I haven't played in the last year or two that I might want to reintroduce at some point.

After the show, we hung out in the bus and had some dinner and then went to bed.

Playing a game of Pillars of the Earth with some other geeks, er, I mean, folks...

A Chibi picture of Becca and Evee by Mary Lau...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 113

2008-07-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

We hung out in the bus this morning and then realized that it was feeling hotter and hotter, even though our air conditioner was on. For some reason, the fan wasn't blowing out with the right strength. We took a look inside and realized that there was condensation building up and freezing so the air couldn't get out, but we couldn't figure out what was causing that. So we made some calls to try to get it looked at. I wasn't surprised that the AC might be on the fritz after the workout we've put it through this year, but it was 95 today here and is expected to be 100 tomorrow and in the 90's all next week, so it was pretty important we get it working right again. We had trouble finding any service place that was open, as it is Pioneer Day in Utah, which is an official state holiday in comparison with the 4th of July. But we got in touch with a guy who does mobile RV repair and he came out and fixed it right up. Turns out there was a hole in the duct and the intake air was mixing with the other air. He also took care of the inside generator switch wiring, which had been damaged when we had a blowout last year. Since that was behind the stove, and he had to remove that to get to the wiring, we had him go ahead and take the stove out, which we'd been planning to do when we got home to make some more storage space (in four years we had never used the oven for anything but storing dishes). I was very happy and surprised with the price, too... expecting it to be much worse from someone coming out to do a house call on a holiday when no one else is open.

We went for a nice swim together in the afternoon, then went out for some dinner at Arby's, which is usually my first choice as fast food places go. Then I took the girls to the playground while the RV repair guy worked with Roseann on fixing the bus. Once he was done, I set up at the pavilion again and did a mix of kids' songs and some of my old coffeeshop fare for the sporadic crowd that came by. I had fun with that and enjoy the chance to revisit some of those old tunes once in while. Becca was excited to get the job of taking some pictures of me singing, one of which is below.

We put the girls to bed and did some web surfing, then went to bed with nice cool AC blasting away.

Examining the inside of the air conditioner... Exciting, eh?

Tiggy wondering what happened to our oven...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 112

2008-07-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Provo this morning to meet up with Josh Dutton and his family. Josh was the drummer for The Duttons, but is living in Utah now and performing in a band called Freely Bound, with his wife, Evette. We had a really nice time together. We took a long walk to a playground where all of our kids played together, and then we went out for lunch and talked. As befitting a Dutton, Josh plays more instruments than just drums... he's also a great harmonica player... so I recorded him doing some awesome harmonica parts for the song "What a Ride" for my next album.

We came back to the RV park and had dinner, then I set up to do a show in the pavilion. We had made an arrangement for me to do a few brief shows this week while I have some free days so we could stay free for the duration of our time here through next week. We had to do some announcements and start playing some songs to get some people and kids to come out of the woodwork, so to speak, but we ended up with about an audience of 20, which wasn't too bad, considering there aren't too many kids here during the week.

I put the girls to bed and then Roseann and I watched the movie 21, which was pretty interesting.

Walking to the playground...

Recording with Josh...

The girls with Josh's kids (and one of his nephews)...

Evee and Becca enjoying their chance to play the "Bicycle Song" horns...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 111

2008-07-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

I went swimming briefly this morning. It was supposed to be an indoor heated pool, but apparently the "heated" part wasn't an accurate description. It sure woke me up, though!

We drove about 5 hours to Salt Lake City, stopping for gas on the way. It appears that we will be firmly in $4+ per gallon territory from here on out. I'm longing for the days of $3.79. On the way, Roseann made some strings of paper dolls for the girls, and they had fun coloring them and making families out of them. She and I made some notes for an upcoming music video that we're going to make when we get home. It's going to be really funny, especially if we can pull off all of the details we'd like in there.

When we got to the RV park, we went out and picked up some movies at a nearby Redbox to watch over the next few days. The girls watched Alvin and the Chipmunks while I did some laundry, and then they went to bed and Roseann and I watched Vantage Point, which was pretty good as those kind of flicks go.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 110

2008-07-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

This morning we headed up to Fort Collins and stopped at the Swetsville Zoo (thanks for the recommendation, Phil!). It is not remotely a zoo in the typical sense, but a collection of sculptures made with all kinds of scrap metal parts. The sculpture park we went to the other day in Loveland was quite nice, but I have to say that this place was really something incredibly cool. Very creative and so much character in each piece. We all had a great time walking around there and admiring the many works.

After leaving there, we picked up some groceries and then went to the Fort Collins library, where I had a show in the park outside. It was a beautiful day and the area was nicely shaded and it was a great crowd of kids and parents.

We stopped for lunch and then drove a few hours to an RV park in Rawlins, Wyoming. For a drive that included very little scenery, it was actually quite beautiful and Roseann and I enjoyed talking together and soaking it all in.

When we got to the RV park, we played on our computers for a while... the girls got into a hugely infectious laughing fit manipulating some pictures on their Kid Pix program (it's so great to observe their absurd sense of humor)... then we all went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 109

2008-07-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

We went to church this morning, and Roseann wasn't feeling well, so she went out to the bus during Sacrament meeting and I stayed and got the girls to Primary. Roseann's actually been feeling a little dizzy and nauseous on and off for a few days now, and I think we finally figured out why... her ear started bothering her today. We used some of the girls' drops and hopefully she'll be back to normal soon. We went back to the RV park and Roseann stayed inside while Becca had a nap and Evee and I went swimming. We had some dinner and played some games and went to bed.

We didn't take any pictures today, but I have some pictures on my laptop from previous years' travels that I thought I'd post. Actually, most of our older pictures were already transferred off of my laptop and archived elsewhere, but I found a few still lingering in some old folders that are worth sharing...

Becca and Evee with their good friends from Idaho, Samantha, Adam and Kristen (spring of 2005)...

The girls' Halloween costumes while visiting my family in New York (Halloween of 2005)...

At the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (spring of 2007)...

Becca and Evee showing off their Security T-shirts (spring of 2007)...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 108

2008-07-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

We mostly hung around in the bus this morning and got caught up on some R&R. We've had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends and doing a lot of shows lately, but it was nice to have a day where we didn't have anything at all scheduled or anywhere we needed to be at a particular time.

We went out for lunch, then went to Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland. That is a cool place with a lot of creative sculptures and we enjoyed walking around there, taking some pictures, and taking a little train ride. We did some shopping, then came back to the RV park and had dinner, then watched the DVD of the Duttons show that we saw in Branson. After that, we did some computer stuff, then went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 107

2008-07-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

We left the RV park in Colorado Springs and headed up to Broomfield, outside of Denver. On the way, Evee drew with marker on the table. Normally, we would have been upset about that, and of course we told her that she shouldn't write with markers on the table, but we couldn't help but be impressed by how well she wrote her name (see below).

I had a show in the Broomfield library auditorium and it was a full crowd and a really fun group. The adults, in particular, were very animated and uproarious. I mean, I usually have a high percentage of the parents involved in the show, regardless, whether through direct participation or just enjoying watching their kids involvement, and I'm glad that it's very rare for parents to sit in the back and read magazines or talk to each other during my shows... But it's always nice when the parents particularly pay very close attention to what's going on and immerse themselves into the experience along with their kids like they did today. That makes for the best shows, and I think the kids feed off of it, too, and become even more responsive.

We went out for lunch and then drove to an RV park in Loveland, where we'll be staying tonight and tomorrow. We went swimming, then had dinner and the girls played on their laptops for a while before going to bed. Roseann and I watched Life is Beautiful, one of our all-time favorite films, and went to bed.

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 106

2008-07-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

We went over to Karen's again this morning and the girls had a bath, then we all went over to see the Broadmoor Hotel, which is where Andreas works as the chef in one of the restaurants. The Broadmoor is one of the few five-star/five-diamond resorts in the country, and rooms there begin at something like $500 a night. (I don't think we'll be staying there any time soon.) It's a really nice place, and we enjoyed having a tour of the different buildings and grounds, and Andreas took a few minutes out of his busy lunch schedule to meet us and take some pictures.

We wanted to go out to lunch together somewhere, and probably couldn't afford a packet of crackers at the Broadmoor, so we decided to go to Red Robin, which was quite good. Afterwards, we went back to Karen's and had some yummy smoothies and played some foosball (Peter destroyed me 10-4) and then said goodbye, as Karen had to get back to work at the hospital tonight. It was so great to see Karen and her family and my folks again, and I really hope we'll all be able to get together more often in the coming years.

We went back to the RV park and did some computer stuff and had some dinner, then went to bed.

The main entrance building of the Broadmoor...

A baby deer we saw wandering on the grounds...

Now where did we park again??

Their dog, Max...

We keep driving by this sign near the RV park and wondering, what's the deal with the quotation marks around "unauthorized"?? "It's okay... I can dump things here, because I'm... (finger quotes) authorized."

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 105

2008-07-16T20:57:00.001-07:00

I had two shows this morning at the Sand Creek Library, and both had big and fun crowds. Karen and Christina and Peter came out for the second show, as well as Roseann's friend, Mazz, and her 5 year-old daughter, Angel. We went out to lunch with Mazz and Angel and the girls had fun playing together at the Playland. After lunch, Becca and I stopped into Walmart for a few things while Roseann and Evee had a nap, then we went back to Karen's, where Becca and Christina and Peter did some more chalk drawings. The weather started getting nasty, so when Roseann and Evee woke up, we hung out inside and played some games together, including Tier auf Tier, Acrobats, and the spray bottle game that Brent and Cheryl had taught us in Dallas. We had a lot of fun with that and had a nice dinner together and then we went back to the RV park for bed.

Boy, the kids sure do hate the squirt gun part of "Monster in My House"...

With Mazz and Angel...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 104

2008-07-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

I had two shows this morning at the Briargate Library in Colorado Springs. There were several people in the audience who had seen me last time we were in town, and apparently they told some of their friends to come, because the first show had a huge audience... the biggest they've had there all year. The second show wasn't quite as packed, but was still pretty crowded, and both audiences were very enthusiastic. I had a Power Bar before each show and seemed to do pretty well, energy-wise, though I still held back a little from what I might usually have done as far as my activity level.

We went back to the RV park after the shows to get naps, and then we met Karen and her husband, Andreas, and Peter and Christina and my folks at the Flying W Ranch, where they have an Old West kind of town and one of the oldest running Western (not country, just "western") bands in the world. The dinner was great and the band was quite good... the fiddle player in particular was amazing... and the girls had fun dancing along. But Evee had skipped having a nap earlier and was getting pretty tired and edgy, so we said goodbyes to my folks (they're flying back home tomorrow morning) and headed back to the RV park for the night.

My beautiful cowgirls...

Becca enjoying "Hopa Hopa Rider", a Gramma Inge classic...

Evee pretending to be asleep (she soon was for real)...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 103

2008-07-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

We went to Karen's for breakfast, then drove over to the mall. The ladies and girls all went shopping together while my Dad, Peter and I went to see Indiana Jones movie. I've always been a big fan of that series, and my father and I went to see the first three movies together, so we had to go this time while we had the chance. I thought it started out really well, but kind of lost steam after a while and wasn't quite as good as the other three, though still very entertaining.

After the movie, Christina and Peter came with us in the bus to my show at the Ute Pass Library in Cascade. This was the one branch I didn't get to perform for the last time we came through here in the spring of 2007, and it turned out to be a really tiny library, probably among the three or four smallest I've played in. But there ended up being 27 people in the audience, which the librarian said was a huge crowd for that place, and they were a lot of fun and very enthusiastic. I did another "bug songs" show (most of my shows coming up in the next couple of weeks will be that program) and it went much smoother than it had in Tulsa, though I'm still working out a few details with the transitions and patter.

Cascade is actually quite a bit higher up than the main part of Colorado Springs, which is already one of the highest elevations in the U.S., and I definitely felt the difficulty of performing at my usual level of activity in the high altitude. When we came here in 2007 I made the mistake of booking four shows a day over the four days we were here. I had been to Colorado Springs a few other times over the years and knew of the altitude situation, but when we got to town I thought, ah, I feel fine! But halfway through the first song of my first show, I realized that it really effects you most when you exert yourself (it makes sense that the US Olympic training facilities are here). I remember singing "Hot Sand" and doing my usual frenetic running through the audience and thinking, whoa, am I moving in slow motion, or what? It always seemed to be the first show of the day that was the hardest, and then I was okay, so tomorrow I'll have to drink some water and have a Power Bar before the first show. That seemed to help last time.

After the show, we stopped at Walmart and the post office before going back to Karen's, where we had dinner and talked for quite a while as the girls did some chalk drawings on the driveway. They made everyone's names in our family (who is currently here), with corresponding pictures. Afterwards, we broke out the sparklers we had picked up for the girls (on July 5th) and Becca, Evee and Peter enjoyed waving those around.

We said "goodnight" and headed back to the RV park and went to bed pretty quickly.

An appropriate shirt that Karen picked out for Becca...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 102

2008-07-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

I got up at about 5 am to get to the airport for my 7:15 flight back to Denver. I checked in my sound system and headed toward the gate and noticed an enormous line for the security check. I took a picture but it doesn't really even begin to show the extent of the line... it ran up a big flight of stairs, then down a hallway quite a way, then back up the same hallway past the point of the stairs, and finally into the security area. It took about an hour to get through and many of us ended up getting into the plane at about 7:05.

Roseann and the girls picked me up in Denver... this time taking the correct lane. I started to drive out on our way to Colorado Springs, but I suddenly got very tired. I didn't know you could get jet lag while traveling within the same time zone. We stopped and I got a nap, and then we continued on. I missed my GPS while I was gone... the rental car I used had one, but it wasn't as good as ours in several ways... but Roseann said that ours is passive-agressive and tried to kill her the other day by suggesting she drive off a cliff into a small creek while approaching the RV park.

We arrived at my sister Karen's house and had a happy reunion with her and her kids, Peter and Christina, and my folks, who flew in from Buffalo yesterday. We hadn't seen Karen and her family since spring of 2004, which of course means that they've never met Evee before now, and Becca was only a year and a half old. Since that time, Karen's family has had quite the journey... They had lived in Colorado Springs for several years prior to that, but then moved to Austria, then to Vermont, and then back to Colorado Springs earlier this year. It is really nice to see them and my parents again and we look forward to hanging out with them for a few days this week. We're just disappointed that my sister Diane wasn't able to make it here with her kids... we haven't all been together as a family since 2001. But hopefully we can organize some kind of complete family reunion while we're here and get together next year sometime.

The girls played with Christina for quite a while, who graciously played along with them (she's 14 now) with a strange combination of old Polly Pockets that Christina had and dinosaurs of Peters, and the rest of us talked and had dinner. Later, we played a game of Quiddler, which was fun. I started out strong but ended poorly and Christina did well throughout and won the game.

We made some plans for the coming days, and then headed to our RV park for the night.

The airport security line... well, part of it...

Evee, Christina and Becca...

Fashionable dinosaurs...

Mom, Pops, Karen, Roseann and Christina...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 101

2008-07-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

I had a show this morning at the Helena Middle School on behalf of the Mom's Club of Helena and it turned out to be a really terrific audience and one of my favorite overall shows of this trip. There are some shows in venues like that, where there is a big separation between the stage and the audience seating (they actually had a locked gate separating the stage and the audience, which I had someone unlock and open before the show) and a bright spotlight that makes it hard to see anybody, where I might feel a little disconnected from the audience and have a harder time getting every nuance across. But this time it didn't matter... Everything went over particularly well, and the kids and parents and I all shared in a really fun experience.

After the show I went out to lunch with Joe, Jim and Jim, who were the promoters of the show. They are really great guys and we had a lot to talk about. I drove from there to Bozeman to see Roseann's nephew Stephen and his family. We'd seen them a few times when they lived out in Seattle, but haven't had a chance to see them in their new home. We all went over to the home of their friends, Glen and Denice, and had a barbecue dinner and chatted until the mosquitos came out in force, then we went back to their place and I went to bed early (7:30 am flight tomorrow).

Roseann and the girls spent much of the day at Rachel's and ended up staying overnight there. Apparently, Becca got a hold of James and Carl's Fisher Price camera and took a bunch of pictures... we'll have to look into getting one of those cameras for the girls.

At the show, with Radio Joe judging the dance contest...

With Jim, Joe and Jim...

Baby Aaron meeting the "feather duster" dog...

Stephen, Merissa, Lindsey, Ashlyn and Aaron...

Becca and Evee with James and Carl...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 100

2008-07-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

We drove to the Denver airport this morning. When I told the girls that they'd be dropping me off at the airport, Becca said that I would get hurt if they dropped me off. I'm pretty sure she was joking, but she said it straight, so it was hard to tell. Regardless, in case she was serious, I explained that we would stop the bus before dropping me off.

As we pulled into the airport terminal, we had a major snafu when we took the left driving lanes at a fork where it had said only authorized commercial vehicles could go to the right. The problem was that the left lanes led into a parking garage, and the height limit was 9 feet (our bus is about 11.5 feet at its highest point). You couldn't see that sign until after you turned into that area, though, so we had to stop and then back up quite a ways to get to those right turn lanes again. Roseann got out and set up our cones and directed cars to the other lane while I backed up, and she had to work her way backwards, moving the cones several times. Someone must have alerted security, because finally a security vehicle showed up and helped us get the rest of the way back. The security guy said that happens all the time, and they really need to get better signage in place to indicate which way to go.

I flew out to Bozeman for a show I have tomorrow morning in Helena. I had told the girls earlier that I was doing a "Daddy concert" tomorrow morning and needed to fly somewhere, but when Roseann told them again later that I was doing a show in Montana, Evee got excited, thinking that I was going to see a Hannah Montana show. Heheh...

After dropping me off (safely) at the airport, Roseann and the girls went to see her niece Rachel and her family. We had visited with them for a few days when we were in Colorado last year, and I'm disappointed that I won't be able to see them this time. The girls played with Rachel and Jim's twin boys, James and Carl, and after dinner Roseann and the girls drove to an RV park where they stayed for the night. I checked into my hotel and watched some tube for a while before going to bed.

The camera ended up coming along with me, so Rachel will try to take some pictures of the kids tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to exchange them so I can post them here for tomorrow's post. All I've got from today are a couple of pics from the airplane, which put me in mind of a verse from a song on my next album, called "What a Ride"...

Life is like an aeroplane that takes you through the sky
The biggest things seem really small the higher up you fly
So when you see that great horizon stretching out so wide
Take a while to laugh and smile and say, "Hey, what a ride!"

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 99

2008-07-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

Not much to report today... We left the RV park and drove a few hours to another RV park, this one in Seibert, just inside the border of Colorado. We had some dinner, went over to a playground at a nearby park for a while, did some laundry, worked on computers, made some calls, and went to bed.

Becca making a silly/scary face...

Meeting a cute puppy at the park...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 98

2008-07-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

This morning we drove into Overland Park where I had a show for the Beth Shalom Early Childhood Center. It was a lively bunch of kids and we had a fun time. The girls also enjoyed playing out in their nice playground.

In our meetings recently with Monty Harper and Ezra Idlet, both of them had told us that if we were going through Kansas City, we should really get in touch with the popular children's performer, Jim Cosgrove, aka Mr. Stinky Feet. I had hoped to get in touch with him and also with Krista "Funky Mama" Eyler, a cool kids' singer from KC, but we were literally coming into town to do the one show and then driving on towards Colorado, so I didn't think it would be a likely thing to work into our collective schedules, so I kind of spaced it. But then Judy, my contact at the Beth Shalom Center, told me when I got there that both Jim and Krista had been hoping to make it to my show... both of them have performed or worked at that same venue... so I felt bad and tried to get in touch with Jim when Judy gave me his number. He was heading out to a gig, but his wife, Jeni, was able to meet up with us for lunch. She does booking for him, and like Roseann is for me, she is an integral part of what makes it all work for Jim. We had a really great time talking with her and hope we can meet up again with them next time we're out this way.

From there, we drove a few hours and stayed at an RV park in... um, I don't even know exactly where it is... the GPS pointed it out... somewhere about four hours past Kansas City on the way to Denver.

With Jeni, aka Mrs. Stinky Feet (she told us that at their wedding, the priest actually pronounced them as Mr. and Mrs. Stinky Feet)...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 97

2008-07-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

We slept in pretty late and then got up and joined Ezra and Karen for some breakfast. We brought in the girls' laptops, so they played on those for a while. Roseann and Karen talked together while I recorded an interview with Ezra. (I promise that all of these interviews I've done on this trip will be posted on my other blog before too long... but realistically speaking, that probably won't begin happening until I'm back home in August.)

After the interview, Roseann and I had the special treat of hearing a good chunk of the new Trout Fishing album, which will be released in September. It's hard to really get a true sense of your feelings about an album from one listen through, especially with some songs just played in snippets, but I really think this may be their strongest work yet... there were so many great songs that instantly connected with me. Their signature sense of humor and fun is evident throughout and the music is approached in some fresh ways (which is amazing considering how long they've been doing this and how many different albums they've already put out), and they also hit some very touching and poignant notes on some of the tracks. I can't wait to hear the whole thing once it's out. It's great to see someone like Ezra, who has been making music about as long as I've been alive, still getting so excited about what he does and about the creative process, and how his work connects with others. What an inspiration!

We had lunch and hung out some more and got to talking at length again... Ezra and Karen were very generous the whole time we were there in sharing of their experience and their encouragement for what we're doing, and we feel very grateful for having been able to spend some personal time together with them. But then we suddenly realized, oh gosh, we've got to drive four hours to Kansas City, and they had things to get done that they'd put aside for our visit, so we headed out and drove most of the way to Kansas City, stopping at an RV park just off the 71 about an hour before KC.

Becca working on some chalk art...

Evee modeling a trout hat...

Ezra and Karen...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 96

2008-07-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

We dropped off Petie and left Branson, heading to Arkansas for a special sidetrip. The other day I received an e-mail from Ezra Idlet of Trout Fishing in America. He wanted to get a CD of mine to feature a song on a guest DJ spot he's doing for Sirius next week, so I called him up and when we realized how close we were to each other he invited us to come out for their 4th of July party. We couldn't make it out there then but made arrangements to stop by today. This was a big deal for me because Trout Fishing in America was one of the most influential acts for when I started getting into doing kids/family music, and I've been a really big fan of theirs ever since. They've been nominated for a Grammy three times now and have played all over the place for many thousands of people and they are really legends in this genre (and in music, in general). When I say "they", it is Ezra on guitar and vocals and Keith Grimwood on bass and vocals and the two of them have been making music together for over 32 years now and show no signs of stopping. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Keith by the time we made it out there... he had been over there earlier in the day but had some things to take care of at home and couldn't stick around... but we had a really wonderful time visiting with Ezra and his wife, Karen (who, among other things, is in charge of their record label).

Earlier this morning, Becca had asked us where "the middle of nowhere" was, and we explained that it was really just an expression, but when we arrived out at Ezra and Karen's place, I thought that might have been it, after all. They have a really beautiful piece of property way off the beaten path in Arkansas, and we especially enjoyed taking a drive out in the back of their pickup truck through the woods nearby to see Ezra's treehouse. He built that (and is still working on it) over the past eight years. You can hear the great Trout Fishing song "Dreaming", which describes the inspiration of the treehouse, and find out more about how it was built at this link: http://www.troutmusic.com/treehouse.asp

We came back and had some dinner, then put the girls down for bed and did some song swapping and jamming together, which was really fun. We all probably could have talked and shared music all night, but we eventually dragged ourselves off to bed.

Karen introducing the girls to their puppy, Pearl...

Evee pointing out the treehouse picture...

Inside the treehouse...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 95

2008-07-06T23:32:00.000-07:00

Roseann and the girls went with Jason to look at some properties around the area while I stayed back and got some rest. The girls had baths over at Jason and Mara's house and then we went to church. After church, we went back to their house for dinner and had a fun time talking together, playing some games (once again, they asked for us to bring Pandemic to play) and eating some amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I did a dramatic reading of The Cat in the Hat for all of the kids, and then we went back to the bus. It was another very late night for everyone.

We had a really great time here and are so grateful for the friendship of the Hughes family and the time we had to spend with all of them. We wish we could have also spent more time with the Duttons but it didn't work out with their vacation schedule. And there were some shows and attractions we'd have liked to see (for example, they have a Segway track here and I've always wanted to try one of those), but as always, there's only so much time. As we knew going in, Branson isn't really an ideal place for a kids' entertainer... I was grateful to be able to do what I did here, but this was really more of a vacation side-trip for us that happened to have a few smaller shows... so I'm not sure what kind of things I'd be able to do here in the future, work-wise, but we'll definitely stop by anytime we're out this way to see our friends and have some fun.

Evee playing Cranium Hullabaloo with Emeline and Hannah...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 94

2008-07-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

I had a show at the KOA at 10:30 this morning, but it was pouring rain up until about 10:40, so most of the people that came didn't come in until after that point. It was a fun group, though. After that, we went over to the church where I did another fireside assembly program for the primary group which went very well. We came back to the bus to regroup for a bit, then went back to the Hughes Theatre where I opened for their show again. This time, it went more like it did the first time, which was good. We stayed and watched their show again, and they added in an impromptu a capella version of "The Star Spangled Banner" that was really awesome. I guess they're performing that for a St. Louis Cardinals game next week. We were all pretty exhausted, so we headed back to the bus and went right to bed.

The kids all watching a TV show backstage while waiting for their cue to go on...

A few cars from the Hughes Brothers' fleet. They look nice, but just think how cool it would be to have a fleet of cartoon motorhomes...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 93

2008-07-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

I had another show at the KOA this morning and that went very well. Not a big crowd, but not bad, either, considering we weren't expecting too many as it was. Afterwards, I did the laundry while Roseann went to the Hughes' Theatre to meet up with them after their show. They invited us to their 4th of July picnic over at Gary and Lena's (the parents) house, so the girls had naps and then we all went over there.

We had a great time hanging out and talking with them. I got the full story from Lena and Jason about how their act got started and became successful, and Roseann mostly hung out and talked with Mara and Marty's wife, Cindy and Andy's wife, Becky. Marty and Andy couldn't make it, being at their sons' scout camp, but most of their kids were there, so Becca and Evee had a lot of fun playing with all of the many Hughes kids. After dinner, the kids watched a movie and we played Pandemic with Jason and Mara, winning on the easy level and barely losing on the normal level. Nobody had planned ahead to get any fireworks, but we were able to see some going off over the town on the way back to the RV park. We'll have to pick up some sparklers sometime soon for the girls.

Two of the Hughes girls putting on a show for the other kids...

Enjoying giant popsicles...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 92

2008-07-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

I did the first of three shows here at the KOA this morning. We weren't expecting a big crowd... there are actually quite a few kids staying here, but in Branson, everyone typically has already made plans for things ahead of time or has tickets for a show or something. And sure enough, there were only a few kids and families from the park that came. But Mara and Ryan Hughes each came with their kids so it ended up being a decent sized crowd and a really fun show. Ryan had told me the other day what big fans of mine his kids are, but I was amazed to find out that not only do they know the songs inside and out, they also know the liner notes. When I introduced Roseann during the show, one of his sons said, "Hey, she does the voice at the end of "I Am a Robot"!

After the show, Roseann went out to the store while the girls and I worked on our computers, then I took the girls swimming, which was fun. After naps and dinner, we went to the Hughes Brothers Theatre and I opened up for their show again. It was kind of a rough crowd this time... it's been pouring rain much of the evening here so perhaps the mood wasn't as high, or maybe this group wasn't as willing to play along with the "kids' songs for seniors" premise... There were also some technical troubles that didn't help... it was an "anything that could go wrong, did go wrong" show. I also did a scary skid down the stairs at the front of the stage that could have been painful (but considering it wasn't, it ended up being amusing). The crowd seemed to come around for the last few songs, but all told, it definitely wasn't as good of a show as yesterday's. But I guess that, considering it was a 20 minute opening act set of children's songs performed for a group comprised mostly of senior citizens, I can't really complain, you know?

While we were watching some of the Hughes Brothers' show again, Evee kept saying how Jason is her favorite, referring to him as "the one with gold boy hair".

We came back to the KOA and weathered further thunderstorms for a while before getting to sleep. Tiggy doesn't like the thunder... he gets particularly snuggly. He probably won't do very well tomorrow with the fireworks.

We asked Evee if she was full, and she said that no, she had one little space left in her tummy, and then she pointed to where that space was...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 91

2008-07-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

(First of all, I apologize to those of you who have left comments to posts here... I thought I had it set to notify me when there are comments, but I guess I didn't, because I didn't realize there were any until I went into the post editor. Sorry about that... I would have responded if I knew you had posted a comment, and I'll keep a closer eye on that going forward.)

We went over to the Hughes Brothers Theatre this morning where I opened for their show. It was an interesting audience, considering there were only about 5 or 6 kids in my usual audience age range there, and about 200 senior citizens. Zeke made a little joke when he came out about my being a children's entertainer and wondering if we made a wrong turn somewhere... I mostly avoided doing any dancing/movement songs and just did some comedy/story songs, and it went over really well. Jason Hughes said to the audience afterwards that of all the many opening acts they've had over the years, my performance was his favorite. Granted, he's a good friend of ours, but I think he still meant that. They're having me open their show again tomorrow night and Saturday night, so that's cool.

We went out to lunch with a few of them and their kids and I ended up talking shop with Marty, who is the main producer and audio guy of the brothers. He promised that next time we're out here, we'll work out a time for me to get in to see his recording studio, with dozens of keyboards and guitars and such.

We came back to the bus and the girls and I had naps while Roseann went to visit with the Duttons again... they're leaving town tomorrow and she had wanted more time to catch up with them. When Roseann came back I went to get some groceries, and then we had some dinner. After dinner I took the girls and Tiggy out to the playground for a while, and Roseann went to see some of the Jackson Cash show, which is a Johnny Cash tribute. She had met him in the restaurant at the Hughes Brothers Theatre this morning and he wanted us to drop off some of my CDs to give to a business partner of his. She was surprised by how much she liked the music... I liked Johnny Cash a lot growing up and would have liked to see the show, but I was totally wiped out and it was fun to just relax and hang out with the girls tonight.

I'm not sure that my name will actually be put in there... we'll see... but in the meantime, there's always Photoshop, eh?

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 90

2008-07-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

We hung out in the bus this morning, having slept in pretty late, then we went out to see Wall-E, which is yet another Pixar classic. We poked around the mall there for a while then came back to the bus and the girls and I had a nap while Roseann went out to do some shopping.

After dinner we went to see the Hughes Brothers' show, which was terrific. They are five brothers with tremendous vocal chops and a lot of comedy throughout the show. With all of their wives and kids joining in at some point, they are apparently the largest performing family in the world. Their regular drummer had a death in the family and is out all week, so Marty's 10 year-old son, Jacob, filled in and did an amazing job. We all really enjoyed the show and stuck around afterwards to talk with them and so the girls could run around and play with the kids, which they kept asking about during the show.

It was another late night, so we pretty much went right to bed after getting back to the RV park.

The girls riding some neat self-propelled cars at the mall...

A cool-looking bug... Any idea what it is?

Becca's drawing of Wall-E, Eve and Wall-E's cockroach friend...

The Hughes Brothers...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 89

2008-06-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Roseann and the girls went swimming while I did the laundry. Becca went underwater (intentionally) with her goggles and snorkel three times. Roseann had asked her to do it five times and Becca said two, so they haggled it out to three times.

The hills are really crazy around Branson and I had enough stress driving the bus around here the first day that I knew it would be worthwhile to give the bus a rest and rent a car for the week, so I went out to do that while the girls stayed and played in the bus. I ended up getting a pale yellow PT Cruiser and Becca and I named it "Petie" (Roseann wants to rename it "TP", because the color reminds her of tapioca pudding.)

The girls had late naps and then we had dinner and went to see The Duttons perform. They blow me away and inspire me every time I see them. They are so creative with how they entertain, using many different aspects of their talents and incorporating video and set pieces and costumes and all kinds of different music and comedy approaches. They are all incredible musicians (each of them is a top notch fiddle/violin player, and most play several other instruments as well) and could easily hold an audience's attention with nothing more than their instrumental and vocal abilities, but they give so much more and really know the meaning of putting on a "show" and providing a one-of-a-kind entertainment experience. They've had a lot of kids since we last saw them and were able to work many of them into the act, which we all appreciated, especially Becca and Evee. They made the Top 10 of the TV show America's Got Talent last year and it was funny for Sheila Dutton (the mother) to describe the accolades they got during that run from people like Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Cowell and Jerry Springer. Afterwards we hung out and talked with them for a while about the whole experience and what we've all been up to. Roseann used to work with them and it's been about seven years since we've last seen them, so we had a lot of catching up to do, but it was very late by that point so we had to head back to the bus before too long and get to bed.

Petie, the PT Cruiser...

Roseann saving a tortoise that was in the middle of the road...

2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 88

2008-06-29T21:11:00.001-07:00

We checked in at the KOA where we'll be staying for the next week, then went to church. Roseann used to work here in Branson doing lighting and other work for several of the acts, so we had a lot of people to say "hi" to, including the Duttons and the Hughes Brothers and their families.

I could tell we were in Branson because the first congregation hymn sounded incredibly polished, with everyone belting and doing harmonies. I guess it's hard to stop "singing for the back row" on Sunday when you're used to doing that all week long. During Sacrament Meeting, the Hughes Brothers and Knudsen Brothers (a new group in town that goes by the name "Six" for the number of brothers in their act... that's probably more memorable and pronounceable than "Knudsen") sang an a cappela version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" that was unbelievably powerful and dynamic. All I could say after that was "wow".

Jason and Mara Hughes, who Roseann lived with for a while back in the day, invited us over for dinner, and we had a really good time catching up with them and eating some Hawaiian haystacks while the girls played with their kids. I should also mention that Jason, his daughter Jesse, and several of the other Hughes Brothers provided the spoken character parts for my song "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous". I've always loved their great contribution on that, which really helped to bring that song to life. We're looking forward to seeing their show and hanging out some more with them this week.

Roseann with Jason, Mara, George, Jesse and Aaron...

The girls playing dress-up with some pretty butterfly outfits...

I was trying to take a picture of Evee but she wouldn't smile long enough for me to get the picture. So I told her to "hold your smile", and she did...