Back from Ra-cha-cha!

"Ra-cha-cha..." That's what cool people call Rochester, NY. I just got back from DCA finals a few days ago and finally have to strength to post an update of how my weekend went! The trip was great! The bus ride up to NY from Atlanta was long, but uneventful. We kept ourselves entertained by watching movies and sleeping...and eating junk food. In total, the drive is about 22 hours, but the nice buses made it go by pretty quickly. We left on Wednesday night and arrived at the hotel at dinner time on Thursday. We then immediately grabbed some dinner and lined up in the parking lot for a standstill brass and ensemble rehearsal. On Friday we had a full day's rehearsal. The weather up there was unbelievable: Sunny,  breezy, 75 degrees: perfect weather for Drum Corps! I wish I could show you pictures from Niagara Falls, but since one of our buses wouldn't start, we didn't go. That sucked. Oh well, Saturday was prelims so we had a morning rehearsal and went to the show. We definitely had the best performance of the season that night, which placed us into Finals the next night. It's really incredible that this was the corps' first year in DCA open class! We had another short rehearsal on Sunday morning, and then packed our things for the show and for the trip back late that night. Well, the finals performance went even better than the night before and we moved up another position, into 8th place. That's something to be very proud of! Late that night, we drove back home and I climbed into my own bed about 1AM Tuesday morning. I took all of Tuesday to get rested up and get ready to get back into the real world. There's a lot of momentum within the corps now, so I will definitely want to go back next season. The staff wants to add 15-20 more brass players to give us a full line, so that's going to be incredible!

Click here to see a clip from our Finals perfrmance!

Did you see us on CNN??

Here are some shots of the show, courtesy of Drum Corps Planet.

Got my corps jacket ready for some pride displayin'.

 

Left ATL around 11:00 on Wednesday night..at this point I really didn't know everyone very well.

I woke up in the mountains of West Virginia. It is so pretty up there!

We stopped for breakfast and our first of many bus repairs.

As I was walking out of the McDonald's, I noticed something peculiar. Yum!

Here's our practice field, on a crisp morning.

Our bari and euph stack:

Our killer battery warming up:

Here I am, walking about before the warmup. Talk about a man with a mission!

Hanging out at the hotel, talking with Dave.

 

I didn't have much opportunity to snap pictures at the stadium, but the Rhinos' stadium is actually for soccer.

Here's a quick pic of the corps that was performing at the time, with the next corps waiting to go onfield.

My friends and I went to dinner at Friday's, and got the cool room in the back! 

 

I ordered a meatball sandwich. Verdict? Not next time.  

I was so excited that the gas station next to our hotel had Godfather's! That's something I miss from Peoria that we don't have much in my part of the country.  

My mom loves pink, so I thought I'd find a hat for her in West Virginia.  Merry Christmas!

 

My bus hit a big bird on the way home...made a loud "crack!" sound.

Of course, the cracking got much worse on down the road, so the driver had to keep adding tape to keep it intact.

Well, that was the trip! I made a lot of close friends along the way and am excited to get back to the corps this winter. The greatest thing is that since DCA is all age, I could potentially do this as long as my body holds up...we'll see, I'm approaching that magic 30 number and I'm aleady one of the oldest in the corps!

Before I left for the trip, I met Erin at a local restaurant in Simpsonville: Pasta House.

Kind of reminded me of La Gondola from the inside.

I started out with some Lentil soup.

Moved on to a Italian Hero with pasta salad. 

And topped it off with Brownie Pie.

The verdict? The prices were great, service was good, and the food was good. The problem was that I was hoping to find a new "Avanti's" but failed again. Not a lot of the food was up my alley, but I'd be happy to go back and try something new.

Time for Josh Updates!

My parents are coming down next week, so that's going to be a lot of fun! Erin and I have been talking about remodeling her bathroom, so that's a pretty big project that we'll  be kicking off sometime soon. I've been enjoying my new job at CAT. Oddly, It's been very "soothing"...because my family knows I need to recover after my last job. Our weather is finally starting to cool down, 80 degrees is feeling nice, but a little chilly at times :P The biggest advantage of the cooldown is that riding my motorcycle is going to be a lot more comfortable! And I can start wearing my corps jacket all the time! Speaking of, I gotta go kiss my wife because I haven't seen her much in the last month... talk to y'all later.

Blogger gets it right....it's about frackin' time!

First of all, let me just say that someone at Blogger has been listening to me complaining about the stupid editor that they make us use on here. It had to have been created by someone who doesn't even create blog posts. While perusing my preferences tonight, I discover an option to use the new editor. I am here to tell you that it is light years beyond what I used before. Inserting pictures is soooooooo much more intuitive now. I don't have to calculate in my head which order to put each batch of photos to get them to show up correctly on the blog. I can upload all of them and pick and choose...even repeatedly. So for all y'all bloggers, don't forget to start using the new editor. Nuff said. Moving right along.....

I know you haven't heard from me and I'm sure you started to panic. Now that I'm back, you may relax and prepare for a journey....a journey into all that I have been doing since the first of the month. Well, at least everything that I've been able to photograph. Since the beginning of the month, I have been in emergency mode, preparing myself to slide into the season of DCA drum & bugle corps for ALLIANCE in Atlanta. I've been spending every evening practicing my baritone, taking long runs, lifting weights, practicing drill, you name it. I've gone down there for two weekends so far and I have to tell you that I've never been happier. Everything feels so comfortable (and yet so uncomfortable at the same time, but that is the essence of drum corps. That's why it's so fun.). I've lost some weight, gained some muscle back, have a great tan, and my chops are in fantastic shape. I have to be careful when I practice though, because I'm almost positive my neighbors can hear me play, and I'm not even playing at the ffff level like I need to be. The camps are great, basically we spend Saturday and Sunday outside (we have no access into the school) working on drill and sectional rehearsals before doing a daily run through to solidify our work. I snapped a picture of our first set in the company front.

We have a trailer for equipment, no Alliance logo yet, but strangely enough, you can still make out the word ALLIED under the paint, from the original owner.

Here's our primary "field" and the tenor/mello feature they've been working on lately.

No bathrooms, but we are allowed to use the porta-potties. The local kids enjoy regularly tipping these over, but these particular ones have been chained to the fence posts.

This past Saturday, the corps competed in the DCA South show in Rockmart, GA. Phillip and I picked up the equipment truck early in the morning (the corps trailer needs repaired).

While we were there Phillip, the awesome contra player who has given me a place to stay, shows off the business card of the gentlemen who has pledged to sponsor the corps.

Late that night, after the show, you see I'm ready to head back to Braselton and get some sleep. Here, I've got my horn already on the truck.

We had to stop for some food, so a few of us stopped at Krystal at about 12:00AM. The dining room was closed, so we stayed out in the parking lot and ate.

I'd never had Krystal before....it was pretty good. Not the best burger I've had, but okay.

Guess what they have in Braselton?! Kroger! It may not be a big deal to the GA folks, but we don't have them in the Upstate. I always liked Kroger.

Why did it take so long for someone to come up with this? They are frackin' awesome.

For lunch one Saturday, the crew headed to a nicer restaurant since we had a long break from rehearsal.

As you can see (or maybe can), the interior is fab-u-lous...has a "ranchy" feel to it. It's like someplace Martin Crane would take Frasier for dinner if he could.

I had a chicken sandwich. It was very good.

Do you know what else I found down there? These are great, too.

In one Subway, I spotted the smallest sink that I have ever seen before. Clue: The faucet is really tiny to make it look more proportional.

A few weeks back, the Palmetto Statesmen sang in the opening ceremony of the championship game in the Big League World Series (On ESPN2). I wish I would have recorded it....

Here we are, coming onto the field for the National Anthem and Carolina in the Morning.

I haven't been riding my poor motorcycle much this month, but I did give her a full wash and wax recently.

I finally broke down and bought some new dress shoes, which have to be safety shoes again. My last pair lasted 2.5 years, so it was time. Since my company gives me an allowance for them, I was able to choose a very comfy pair of Redwings. They're like pillows strapped to my feet. Ahhhhhhh.

Did I tell you we got another dishwasher? It doesn't require any water or soap...and no electricity. Just kibble and kisses.

We've had a warm summer, pretty much been exactly 90 degrees every day since June 1st. Some days creep a little higher than that, though, as you can see below. I know it's not as bad as Tucson...but we had humidity to deal with, too! I know, I can't complain, I did move here for a change of climate. Well, mission accomplished.

I'm going back to Hotlanta this weekend for our last Alliance camp and then next Wednesday, we leave for Rochester, NY where we hope to place in the top ten of DCA Open Class. We are so hyped! Life will return to normalcy after that...