Ellery Stimulus

It’s our first tour since the Stimulus began, and we’re racking up our share of adventures –

The Early-April Tour So Far:

• Day Minus-One: Tasha loses her voice.  (Come on!)  New bag of cough drops saves the day.  (Leaves me smelling like medicine @ our shows, but — singing.)
• Off to Akron.
• Day One: Stranded north of Columbus because ignition won’t turn.  AAA guy saves the day, which gets us to Akron, where Justin’s cousin-the-awesome-mechanic REALLY saves the day.
  

  Singing for our van repair. No, really.

• Off to the University.
• Day Two: Flat tire for no identifiable reason.  Fix-a-Flat and nearby tire&lube place (and new tire) saves the day.
• Off to Pittsburgh.
• Day Three: Leave early from Pittsburgh for Penn Tech in Williamsport.  Spend 80 minutes getting out of the city; now running VERY late.  Construction on every state hwy and interstate, ALL the way to Williamsport.  (No really: every highway & interstate.  And we hear this is typical of Pennsylvania; anyone want to verify this rumor?)  So: Oh the angst!  Arrival time: 15 minutes after showtime.  In this case, the incredible patience of the college staff (and our kind listeners) saves the day.
• Off to Newburgh NY for the night.
• Day Three (later): Check into name-brand hotel that is inexplicably skanky.  We are disturbed upon entry… Then the toxic cleaner-fumes give us crazy headaches & sore throats.  Disturbing—>Scary!  Check out (with grace from a kind front-desk clerk), and drive down the road.
• Day Three (evening): Explore Algonquin Park in Newburgh.


Algonquin Park

• Breathe fresh air, take pictures, watch the sunset.  Are totally wrong about what we think all those old stone buildings are.


Algonquin Park

• Go to the PetsMart across the street & de-stress by staring at adoptable cats.  Go back to cower in our room for a while.  In short: Slowly perk up.  (Chocolate and those “veggie chips” from Whole Foods certainly help.)  (And Colbert.)
• Currently: Justin’s playing guitar along to some music on his laptop, but he’s wearing headphones & I can’t hear anything but the (not-plugged-in) electric.  Sounds cool.  And hilarious.
• I’m turning my phone off with a delight reserved for the most hermit-ish of hotel dwellers.  “Ha,” I say.  “If you call, I can’t hear it.”  (I mean this with love.)

Speaking of love, oh, has it been good to connect with kind audiences.  With these eventful days we’ve been arriving at shows in a rather ragged and desperate state…  Only to find the loveliest of people waiting for us.  So, our many thanks to U of A, Howler’s, and PennTech for welcoming us–

• Tomorrow: The drive to Massachusetts: always beautiful.  And we’ll collide with Lucy Kaplansky’s tour again at the lovely Center for Arts Natick–