Back at Muddy Mo’s for blogging, Jared and I were pleasantly greeted by several patrons coming in and out of the shop, all complimenting us on our show Thursday night, and promising to come to one of our remaining gigs. That is one of my favorite parts about being booked several gigs in one place. Since we need to be using wi-fi, we typically find the local coffee shop to do so in. This is a cool way to have our presence continually known in a new place without overtly shouting, “Hey!!! We’re new in town!!! Come see us play!” On the contrary, we get to quietly go about our business, yet still be in the community.
I snapped this picture of this old steamboat we sat under.
To give you some perspective, here it is a bit further back.
It’s pretty massive, but I love it.
Anyway, as is the nature of things, Rudy was invited out by Nate and Heather to go to breakfast/lunch, a little shopping, and some fun! Let’s see, sit with Mom and Dad while they work, or go out and have a blast??? I’m amazed we could get him to stay in the trailer at all before they came to pick him up! 😂
He ordered the “small” breakfast burger…
Apparently, he finished over half of that beast!!! Then they took him to the hatchery and aquarium to see some of the local water life!
Feeding the fish!
Nate said, “Nah. They don’t bite.” Rudy said they DID! 😂
Having a face to face with the “Black Crappie”! (Jared here: Tee-hee! “Crappie”! *snicker snicker*.)
Climbed the tallest tree! (Actually, it was only like 5’ tall, but Heather got on the ground to make it look really impressive!😂)
For Saturday night’s gig, we were back at Ben’s Brew Station, one of our most memorable gigs from last Summer. If you remember from last year’s tour blog, the patio had no lights for the last hour of our show, so our friend Jim aimed his truck towards the stage and turned his headlights on to Jared and I. Soon, other trucks followed suit and we had full, stadium-level lighting to finish the show!
Also, tonight we didn’t have heat or storms. We had the smoke from Canada’s wild fires. Yep. Apparently we are facing the end times here in Yankton. If locusts fall from the sky tomorrow, we’re just heading home. The Canadian fires have finally reached Yankton, causing the air quality to be crap, and the sunsets to be gorgeous. I got a picture of what I thought would be an epic, blood red sun, setting behind us. It looked more like a sad gum ball, plucked from a child’s pocket and hung between two blurry trees. So you don’t get to see it. So there.
This year’s gig was just as memorable, but this time it was due to some very special tiny fans! Kids are so fun to sing to because they are so honest. If they don’t like something or aren’t having fun, they don’t sit there politely and say nice things. They will literally stick their tongues out at you and walk away! These four brought joy to us as well as the packed patio of more than seventy-five patrons. They listened intently as I serenaded them with “Music Box” and brought out their “best pirate smiles”.
Rudy has really been taking his role in the band more seriously than ever, selling merch, running the tip jar around, signing posters, and upping his performance game. He refers to CS as “his band” if we’re not around, and he takes pride in being able to help however he can. He hasn’t once complained or dragged his feet (save that first day in the extreme heat, but we ALL were), and he is ALWAYS a joy to have around. Here he is singing “Happy Day” with me. This picture is amazing to me because I went from holding him on my hip in this song, to squatting down to be at his level, to this… damn near looking at my own reflection in his darling, animated face. I suppose the next step is his own wireless mic…
Learning the names of my new groupies. What absolute angels. (Rudy trying to sell them merch!)
Inside at Ben’s, he has carefully crafted a full gaming experience for ANY kind of gamer. Here is a board game wall that he had done for part of the room. How could I even help myself? While I was playing Spin Magazine cover model, Rudy and Dad were chasing dinosaurs in the Jurassic World game pod. I got some pics, but they didn’t turn out great. Just know that no real Dinos were harmed and much father-son bonding was had.
Some of us missed the memo to pose for the “New Champagne Sunday Rap Album”, and just decided to be cute. (I’m looking at you, Veronica and Heather!) While the rest of us really took the task at hand seriously. (I love Rudy’s face)
Clearly, we had exercised our fullest rights to fun this evening. With amazingly happy hearts we all went home and promptly went to dreamland.
