by Sarah (posted Oct. 27, 2004)

Oct 16th. Jacksonville, Florida - Jack Rabbits

Last Florida show. Before we make our way to the venue, we decide to take the water taxi across the river and see what we can find on the other side. Cute riverfront dining and a mall, where we find Starbucks (always a good thing) and little magnet souvenirs for our fridge.

Tonight we play in a venue that's more our size. We play pool (I suck, by the way, in case anyone was wondering) and talk to some local fans and members of the street team. I love the street teams. Honest music loving people trying to help out their favorite band. What a great concept. It's been really fun meeting all these happy volunteers.

The Yankees-Red Sox baseball game is on and Eric and the guys of Skills of Ortega are glued to the tv as always.

The place is packed and the show is really fun - we try to ignore the annoyingly loud bartender girl. Afterwards, I'm happy to get some quality time with Anouk, a girl from Belgium who flew all the way to Florida to see our shows in between chemo treatments. She's a very special girl and her strength and determination are inspiring for me. It's only fitting that she would be part of this Yellow Umbrella Tour, that has been so positive and focused on making changes and helping others. I'm learning a lot on this little trip.

Oh, and she brought me my favorite Belgian soldier cookies! It doesn't get much better than that.

Oct 17th. Atlanta, Georgia - Park Tavern

Our manager Wil is already at the exceptionally nice hotel (for this tour) waiting for us and tonight we're doing a little show on the side for 99X, Atlanta's alternative radio station. Even though the Skills of Ortega and Jen Foster and band have a well deserved day off, they all show up at our gig, which is very indicative of how this tour has been: friendly and fun and without any egos. Also, they're nuts!

When we arrive at the venue we're slightly disappointed, because it's a tiny stage and it looks more like a restaurant than a club. Somehow, I'm able to lure the audience closer to the stage (I offered $100, which I pretend to forget about later) and I'm proud to say we turned that little place upside down with a nice and tight rock show. Our opening band was really good. They were called Pageant, husband and wife singing beautiful songs with nice melodies. Gert really enjoyed it too.

After the show, we hung out with friends and fans and Christine and Rachel (singer and tour manager for Skills) were nice enough to get us healthy meals from the Flying Biscuit, my new favorite place to get a tofu curry. Good food on the road is always a challenge, so I'm beyond appreciation when someone can help me closer to a decent dinner. Can't have cereal every night, right?

More to follow…

Sarah