Berlin

Here we are, first morning after the first show and I gotta say, this is going to rock.

The whole thing, major traffic jam included.

We left Duisburg (sounds like Dweezeburg) yesterday around 1 p.m. 300 miles to go. We hit the Autobahn and everything is looking great. I'm driving (remember we decided I was better at that, E better at the navigating- although we have "Geeps" which is our trusty GPS, to assist).

We go 100 miles in like an hour. We are keeping up with the Germans, well almost. They aren't kidding over here with the driving. Along the way we weren't cut off more than twice, no one flipped us off and not one honk (except for mine, hey I'm American!). And then the brake lights.

It was no regular jam up, this was what one can only describe as an international cluster f#*@k, (sorry, I gotta keep it semi clean, their are kids reading "hi kids"!). With the help of Geeps' calculations, we went about 19 miles in 4 hours... at the end we were glad we didn't see the carnage, we saw the tire marks... that was enough. And we couldn't bitch too much, those on the other end... I was just glad to be where I was, manual transmission and everything.

9 p.m. we roll into club SO36 where we were welcomed at the curb, first class I tell ya, first class. We missed dinner but I want to shout out right now that even at 1 a.m. that food was delish! Totally rad and very much what we needed after the first nights dinner (remember the liverwurst? not always the best idea after a 31 hour travel day). Our friends the Paceshifters opened up the show, these guys aren't only really awesome to watch but they are really good- and adorable! They look like babies (which they will hate me saying) but are old enough to drink, which is weird to see- have you ever seen a baby with a beer? Ha ha... 

They played some great songs, which I will know the name of after a few more shows and a few more hours of sleep. Last night was not only hot, there were only mesh curtains, so I was up with the sun, which seemed to be about a hour after I went to bed.

Eddie went on at like 11 I guess, to a very big crowd of enthusiastic people who knew almost every word. It is amazing still to travel this far, to a country where they speak a different language and still somehow they are connected to him. I love, it's a little bit of magic.

Quattro manned the merch booth the entire night doing a stellar job with the Germans. The ladies loved him and he sold that merch like Chris Neal, who in fact, taught him everything he knows. We miss you Chris, but rest assured the merch is getting taken care of by little man.

And I, well I just took it all in. The 31 hours of travel, I relished the fact that we did it, we made it and we are living the life that we planned from day one. It's nice and rare I think, time has a way of changing things and people. It's nice to reflect on an idea that we had 10 years ago and see it realized, I guess I'm just breathing a sigh of relief here- sorry, that wasn't funny or witty, it was sappy and sentimental... I'll try to reign it in people.

And we're out. Eddie is staring at me, thinking "why on earth isn't she ready yet?" and I think I am. I'm ready, to drive directly back where we came from yesterday, all 300+ miles to Dusseldorf, Germany. That's how it goes on tour, back and forth, back and forth. Enjoy the ride.

JD