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I am back in Massachusetts after a 6-hour red eye flight I almost missed.It is never good when the lady at the bag check counter tells you to run as fast as you can…. Anyway, been gone for about a year now… damn the time does fly.Looking forward to seeing old friends and some family.Looking forward to more travel as well.I'll be back in Boston for about 3 weeks and then hit the road July 19thfor the first official extended national music tour of my life.I am really excited, seeing as this has been a dream of mine since I started playing music over a decade ago.Hopefully the EP I am recording with my band will be done by then… (Another dream of mine that I am really excited about!)Got about 90% recorded and I hope to get the rest done really soon!The tour will take me from Boston, Missouri, Boulder, around the South West and then back to SF…. and then from SF to Oregon, Washington State, across the Midwest, NY, Boston, PA, back across the Midwest, then to the biggest little gambling city in the world… Reno, NV (Lots of stops at farmers markets in between… this will be hopefully a fast food free tour if I have anything to say about it! Screw McDonalds and the mistreated cows and chickens they rode in on!)… The band I am traveling with will then drop me off at Burning Man August 30th. I am signed up to help with the breakdown of this years Temple.
Overall, I feel really good about it and hope more good fortune smiles at me.I feel blessed to have experienced what I have over the past year.I learned so much about so much.It's hard to put it into words really.I find I am a bit overwhelmed when people have asked me to describe what I have been doing for the past year.I want to say thanks to all the folks in CA that took some random wanderer into their amazing community and feel really welcome almost immediately.Also thanks to you folks on the east coast for being supportive of me in my absence.I missed you guys a lot.
By the way… I have decided that the rest of last years Burning Man tale will be held up till after the summer traveling.I may just write it down for myself at some point and not blog it.Sorry if you wanted to hear the rest of it and you're welcome if you were tired of reading it.I am going to bring this blog to the present, seeing as more travel is in store.Thanks again for reading and look out for more stories...like the one below about my plane trip out to Boston....
The long train ride led me to SFO airport.I checked my watch.Making good time I thought.2 hours till my flight.The aisles soon filled up with more people like me, carrying luggage and a destination on the mind as we continued down the rumbly rail of the SF Bart.
SFO international airport a crackly voice commented through the tiny speaker, over the Bart chatter.The brakes frictioned us to a halt and the doors swung open.I hoisted my guitar and my bags as I made my way out.I took a quick right and headed for the escalator to the shuttle train.To the right were round metallic circles connected to strings hanging against the wall.They shimmered the reflected light off the chrome of the escalator.I noticed that many links were missing I imagine due to someone's last act of vandalism before a long flight to some distant destination.
"b******s." I thought.
I checked my watch again.Still got an hour."Plenty of time." I thought reassuringly.I kept a steady pace through the busy terminal.People hustled and bustled their way in and out of lines filled with over priced everything.
The sign for Jet Blue glowed and attracted through the empty lines to the very front.I mentally patted myself on the back once again for the smooth entrance.
"Flight to Boston." I said as I handed the woman a crumpled E ticket.
"Umnm. The flight to Boston just left about 10 minutes ago sir." The woman behind the counter said.
"There has to be a mistake." I said.
"This says Oakland sir." She said with a sheen of indifference.
My heart sank.I was at the wrong airport.
"If you leave right now you might just make it. The taxis are out front."
"You idiot." I said to myself (about myself) as I began a race against time.You can get everything ready and still miss some major details I find.This trip had weighed heavy on my mind on top of being overly stretched the past few days as it was… I was rushing to get the last tracks recorded on the EP, I had just moved out of my old apartment the day prior, and I was under the weather. I just let this very important detail slip.
I then took a deep breath and bolted for the front door trying not to run into any airport pedestrians.It slipped into my mind that an Arab running through an airport might be deemed suspicious behavior, but I had no time to care how airport security and nervous travelers perceived me.I had a plane to catch at another airport in a completely different city.
I got to the front of the airport and crossed the street to the taxi stand.An Indian man greeted me.I noticed sweat trickling down my face as he took my luggage.
"Got a flight in Oakland in about 1 hour.Can you get me there in time?" I asked.
"I think I can do that. But it will be really close." He answered in with an Indian accent. "I'll have to step on it."
The driver pulled out of the airport parking lot and jumped on the freeway.I checked my watch again and observed the minutes disappearing like seconds from the time I had left.The red numbers in the meter kept accumulating as I scolded my self for spacing out again.
He began swerving and zipping in and out of lanes pushing the speeds of the vehicle beyond the speed limits of the road.
"Out of the way a******." He yelled at a spray painted VW bus driving the speed limit. I had almost forgotten what it was like to drive in Boston since I had been away.This race to the Oakland Airport was bringing it all back.
We arrived and I jumped out of the vehicle. I noticed my wallet being much lighter than only moments before.It was now completely devoid of its collection of dead presidents. I made my way to the front of the short line stinging from our parting of ways.
"Where to?" the bag checker asked me. "Your heading to Boston?That flight is already boarding.You'd better run if you are going to make it."
"Alright mam."I said as my heart rate pumped faster.
"Good luck." she said giving me a look of pity as she handed me my license.
With my guitar and carry on bag I sprinted, again not giving any thought to how I was perceived by TSA officials.
I passed the security check and the woman started engaging me in small talk about my guitar as I ripped the contents out of my pocket and put them in the plastic tray as fast as I could.
"Nice guitar.Do you like the Beatles?You know I was the first Beatles fan in America. I was studying in Liverpool in the 5os.Do you know some Beatles songs?"She yammered as she scanned my luggage.
I couldn't do anything but laugh a bit as she opened up in the final minutes I had before my plane left without me....
Relief took me about 10 minutes later as I finally looked down from my plane window "safely" buckled into my seat.Sweat trickled down my face as I learned about oxygen masks and life preservers.Thousands of tiny lights flickered outside from my new home in the East Bay as my ears drums beat against the pressure change in the cabin.
"What a crazy year." I thought to myself."I wonder how much is different back home? Who is this person who is coming back?"
I felt like I was in a completely different world from the guy to my left crunching down peanuts, slurping a coke, while watching get rich quick infomercials with his headphones covering his ears. "Crazy times!" I thought to myself. I flipped on the tiny screen in front of me and closed my eyes to the twang of Bluegrass junction radio as we careened across North America.
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