America, America!

Well, we're here!

I'm sitting in my room at the Holiday Inn - on the internet, of course.  I'm sure Andy will write a proper blog on this (documentation of actual events isn't my blogging forté) but I just thought I'd let you know that we made it.

Last night was the last gig of the British leg of the tour.  We went on stage at 9:30pm, did the usual 2+ hour set, then came off at around half 11 and switched into travel mode.  We had to figure out what stuff needed to come to America and what was going to be left in the van.  We've been travelling in a Sprinter van and a Transit van.  The Transit carried all the gear but for this last journey we had to cram it all in the Sprinter.

It was way before the tour started that I found out we'd cleverly managed to schedule a gig in Bourne on the 3rd May and one in Philadelphia on the 4th.  I'm not a big fan of cutting things too close and wasn't sure it was the best plan but once it was all booked we had to do our best to make it happen.  I made the foolish mistake of continually refining my estimates of what time I'd be able to go to bed knowing that we needed to be at the airport around 9am.  My initial estimates were very positing - I figured on a 1 1/2 hour drive from Bourne to Heathrow airport (we were booked into a Premier Inn a mile from Heathrow).  If we managed to escape the venue at midnight then I could be tucked up in bed by 2am.  At 1am the vans had been emptied and boxes and cases were spread around the car park awaiting Daniel's Tetris-like van packing skills.  I think we finally managed to hit the road at 2am but we had to go via Chiswick van hire to drop off the empty Transit before heading to the hotel.  After negotiating our way around the road closure (which was 200m from our destination) we finally managed to drop off the van.  The GPS then took us to the wrong 15 Bath Road (how many 15 Bath roads can their be?).  We finally pulled into the hotel at 4:55am.  I was hopeful that my head might still hit the pillow by 5am (yeah, right!).

I don't think I have ever been as frustrated as I was standing on the other side of the counter from the Indian guy who was trying to check us in.  I watched for 5 minutes as he clicked his mouse button with the concentration of an air traffic controller trying to avoid a catastrophe.  I had no idea what task could possibly require so many clicks but I didn't want to ask for fear of confusing him and drawing out the process further.  Perhaps he was finishing his game of solitaire.

Premier Inns aren't bad hotels (Travel Lodges are).  However, it's a running joke in the band that the check-in at a Premier Inn robs you of your will to live.  I'd been hopeful that at 5am in the morning we could get through this painful process in a shorter time than usual.  Someone must have had it in for me because I think it turned out to be the longest check in I've ever experienced.  I finally made it to my room at 5:58am - a good 4 hours later than my original estimate (it's put me off playing the stock market).  2 1/2 hours later I was up and in the shower!

So, I'm now here and in good spirits.  It's sunny!  I have no idea what time my body thinks it is.  I think we're on stage tonight at 9pm which is 2am UK time.  Ironically we'll probably get to bed earlier tonight than we did last night.

J