The moment we’ve been waiting for. Since I left the NIA in August of 2017, I vowed to take the family on the road me whenever possible, and now that Maggie is a full time teacher, it’s possible all summer long. It’s was a long week leading up this moment as I was trying my best to clear my docket of woodworking jobs that were backed up during quarantine. I was able able to deliver on three jobs thus relieving a lot of stress before taking off for six weeks.
The drive out was not without it’s own stress, though. As we were driving along, excited to get on the road, we received confirmation that an employees of the venue I was supposed to play on night 2 in Dallas had tested positive for Covid 19. Not knowing who else at the venue he had been in contact with, we made a decision to postpone that show to a later date TBA. While postponing that show ultimately took some front end money out of our pockets, it was the most responsible decision to steer clear of any known covid cases before traveling across the country.
Not long after that, we stopped into a gas station/bbq restaurant combo (sounds great, I know, but it was the only food for miles on this back highway between Beaumont and Humble) only to find one of our brand new trailer tires going flat! Now, if you know us and the stories behind the first month of owning our pop up camper, you’d already know that we have shredded two tires on the interstate already. I’m not sure where my luck lies in the future with trailer tires, but for now, it’s not good. We were only about an hour and a half away from our destination, so I aired up and moved on, checking the tire periodically.
We arrived at our destination, a beautiful home in Humble, TX whose owners were gracious and respectful from the start. I got things set up and got my strings changed in a private upstairs guitar room with rows of beautiful guitars hanging from the walls as I heard guests arriving downstairs.
It’s always a little nerve wracking at the beginning of these house concerts because I never know how the crowd will behave. As I settled into the first song, I could overhear talking and laughing from the kitchen and was thinking about which method I would use to get the crowd to quiet down for the next 85 minutes. When I finished the first song (“Mama Said”) the audience erupted Into applause and I quickly told a story about my post Katrina connection to the area and how the next song (“I believe “) was written just a few miles away. They were dead silent for the rest of the show with exception to their applause and the night ended up being absolutely amazing. The crowd was generous with their tips and their compliments and they made for a great first night on the road.
Now, with Dallas being cancelled for this evening, we have made the decision to push through a little further to Wichita Falls for the evening making our drive to Palo Duro Canyon on Sunday a bit shorter.
I’m typing this as I’m getting the trailer tire repaired at Smokey’s Tires & Brakes in Cleveland, TX and hoping our tire troubles are over, though I am getting pretty fast at changing tires now. I’ll keep y’all posted as the journey continues.
In the words of the ever inspiring Spencer Bohren, “Be good to yourselves and be good to each other.”
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Mike Doussan
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