soggy shoes...

I'm presently sitting in the Hampton Inn in a tropical-storm-riddled Farmington, New Jersey, nursing wet shoes. The last week has been loaded with activity from first-time life experiences to travel galore. There is so much to share but rather than started at the beginning, I suppose I'll start with today.

Today was supposed to be the final show of Plumb's 2006 calendar, on account of pregnancy, and we flew up yesterday by way of New York's JFK. The venue said the event, an outdoor festival with a projected attendance of 15000, would be rain or shine, but probably rain given Ernesto's jaunt up the Atlantic Coast. This morning we got up to head to an impossibly early load-in but our ride was late. After some answer-less calls, the event promoter walks in the door and informs us our show has been cancelled. The weather has just been too overwhelming and their biggest hope is get some of the speakers on stage, such as Steven Baldwin, and the headliners which are Reliant K and the Newsboys.

What happened to the rain or shine you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. At first, we blamed the venue for not having a covered stage but come to find out, the storm actually ripped the top off stage. We got booked on the main stage, for once, but this would come back to bite us as the secondary stage still had roof intact. With this in mind, Justin and Grey, our key and bass player respectively, and I jumped into a van with some guys from MXPX to check out whether or not we could find a way to play. Our driver worked the 15 passenger like an Andretti on his way to Olive Garden. Fallen trees blocked roads all over and we had to work our way around the blockages.

Eventually we get to the venue and it's a total traffic jam. Our driver is trying to get us backstage and security wont even let the bands through. After a bunch of waiting, the guys from MXPX get out of the van in search of catering. We quickly were informed there was no chance of playing and after a bit of hanging out with our hyper-charismatic driver, eventually decide to go drop off MXPX's gear and head back to the hotel. Before long we get stuck in the mud and spend the next 45 minutes trying to find a way to get the van out. The next hour is spent dealing with a variety of weather issues from more fallen trees to more mud to running in the rain; I'll spare further details.

I'm now sitting at home in Nashville as travel arrangements interrupted the blogging process. In short, we get a ride back to JFK and get our flight changed so we can leave the same afternoon and avoid spending the night in rural New Jersey. The airport makes for an interesting afternoon as the ticketing agents keep passing us around to other ticketing lines, perhaps because they don't want to handle six people, an infant, and several hundred pounds of equipment. Our flight gets delayed on account of the storm, but eventually we get onto the plane.

Rain drenches the side of the plane, streaking and splintering down the window like lightning. The wind shakes the plane with every gust and quite frankly, I wasn't terribly excited about taking off. Forty-five minutes later, the plane sits on the runway, still rocking in the wind, and we begin to roll. Warning signs flickered in my mind as the plane failed to gather speed and before long, we had pulled off the runway and were working our way back to the gate. Apparently some aircraft have a maintenance censor that triggers in high winds. After restarting the plane, we take off, the wind tossing us around for the next twenty minutes. It was a stressful flight.

I also got to go to Destin this past week for a few days R&R with Sarah and my family. I have to laugh when I consider that I spent several days in Florida and saw no trace of Tropical Storm Ernesto yet I wind up in New Jersey and get pelted by the storm. It's funny.

In other news, I just bought a new car. It's a 2004 Honda Accord LX. It's got a bunch of room in it and it'll run till Jesus comes back. I'll post some pictures when I get my camera back; I left it in Florida. Cheers!