I loaded up my car and left at 5:30 PM. Yes, that's my car. It's a 1988 Buick Century, and it made the trip without any problems. :) I always feel like I'm forgetting something whenever I leave my apartment, especially when I'm in a hurry. Sure enough, I was still wearing my work pants instead of my jeans. As I was changing clothes, I saw my CD recorder still sitting there, so I grabbed it, hoping to record my NYC debut. Then it was time to hit the road. I got some heavy snow coming down in Cincinnati, and on the way to Athens, but nothing accumulated, and the rest of the trip was warmer, so there were no incidents there. It's not like the time I came back from my show in Durham, NC, driving through mountains in a blizzard on bald, dry-rotting tires at 4 am. I arrived in Athens a little after 10 pm and checked into my hotel room. Then it was onto the Casa Cantina.

That blue glowing thing is a newspaper dispenser. It says "the Dispatch." You can't read it here; I have the original developed photo, and I can barely read it there. I had performed at the Casa twice before, in March of 2004, and March of 2003. This time I decided on Tuesday to see if there were any open mics in Athens on Wednesdays, and by complete luck the place I've played had one. There was some guy there telling ridiculously bad stories, and doing covers of songs I'd never heard of, and some Tom Petty. While on stage, I could see some guy laughing hysterically at "Chillin' at the Papa." I had a hunch based on the timing of his reactions that he delivered pizzas. Sure enough, I asked him, and he had delivered for Donato's for a year and a half. The acoustics at the Casa are even better than before, and the main room is twice as big. I look forward to going back there again sometime. I made at least 5 new fans while I was there.

Around 1 am, I was feeling the effects of working a 7 hour shift, then driving 4 hours, then performing, so I headed back to the Hotel. I watched some local programming, which consisted of a few OU students talking about auto safety and improvements to the roads. It was the Ohio Government Network or something like that.

Total miles Day 1: 208.

Day 2

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