Grand Rapido rapido….

Good day…
Farm livin' is the life for me!  Seriously, I gotta quit singing that song…. but it is so true.  I'm enjoying living out in the country so far.  The folks around here tell me that winter can get a little tough so we'll see just how much I'm enjoying the country come January!  :)

Me- working…HARD!

My Dad, Phil Himebaugh, came out for a visit this week.  He and I (meaning he) did a little work around the place.  I'm a little handy… he's a LOT handy.  So it's nice to have someone else say 'yep.. put the screw there… it'll hold'!!  Now I have someone to blame if it all comes tumbling down.  We have a claw foot tub here with no shower so we put up one of those shower curtain holders that encircle the tub.  It'll hold.

Today, Fairchild and I are headed north to Michigan.  I've got a show in Grand Rapids tomorrow night- Thursday- at the Intersection.  I'm opening the show for Home Again- a new group formed out of Domestic Problems.  DP is a great Michigan band that Hello Dave has played with tons of times through the years.  Seriously, if you have a chance to see them - GO!
Home Again is releasing a brand new CD at the Intersection Thursday night.  I helped out a little when they were recording in the spring so they've invited me to play a few tunes with them during the show too!  It's gonna be a special night.

Alrighty- gotta hit the road!
Rock On and for crying out loud… take 'er easy!
HIMEBAUGH

A Load-a Dakota fun!

HD@ The Landing

Good day -
I hit the road over the weekend with the band!  HD loaded up in the van and trekked many miles through the tundra and land of 10,000 lakes to the oil rich/job rich land of North Dakota.  When we're faced with many miles we like to take the night drive.  So we started out the journey at about 11pm CST and drove all night.  I was the lucky one - the couch was mine for much longer than I planned!  But really, even on the couch you don't get a whole lot of sleep.  I'm the designated fuel pumper so I always get up when we stop for fuel and it's almost impossible to sleep through any of the other bodily required stops by the driver who is, of course, pounding coffee or Mnt Dew in the Doctors case.   :)
The trees were a little bearer and the air a little crisper as we made our way north.  But the trip was rather un-eventful... almost quick even.... almost.


We arrived in Minot (rhymes with Why Not- in fact, that's the catch phrase- Why Not in Minot).  Of course Magoo rather boldly stated he'd rather it be in someone else's not.  Noted.

Minot faced catastrophic floods this past summer.  We drove through some of the areas that were underwater and you could easily see that the water had reached the roofs on most of the houses.  The downtown area was still pretty deserted-  eerie.  We send our thoughts to all of the people who are still displaced and facing hardship.

We loaded in and sound checked at The Landing- and then our hosts, Keenan and Chuck took us all out to dinner!  We cruised in the 'party bus'... one way...

Keenan!!!

We got a call at dinner from the driver- the 'party bus' had broken down!  Oh well, we weren't too far from the Hotel and the Van!  Dinner was very good but I can't remember what the name of the joint was.  We were joined by several others- including Chris.  Who told us the story of 'training to eat the 4lb burger' at some truck stop in Iowa!!!
He trained for several weeks before hand by eating say 4 or 5 Whoppers at a sitting.  WOW.  He tried to eat the 4lb'er once and didn't quite get it down... and his quest ended there!  By the way, Chris weighs all of 150lbs maybe... not a big dude by all means.


We discovered that The Landing was an old school kind of joint... a Bar!  It was smokey and loud and people were rowdy and ready to go (just ask Longbons...).  We played pretty well considering we hadn't played much over the past month or so.  One of Keenan's favorite songs is Come Right Away- so we gave that one a try and ... well... it wasn't perfect but we got through it.  :)

The next few nights we spent at the 4 Bears Casino in New Town, ND.  It's in a really beautiful area- sitting on a big lake with lots of bluffs around it.  We all stayed away from the casino for the first day we but ALL found our way to the Buffett without a problem!  We played in the brand new casino bar- just off the gaming room Friday and Saturday night.  The room was a little boomy but all in all it was a couple of good nights.  Magoo and Peter hit the 'tables' Friday night- I believe they both left the tables with some casino money in their pockets.  Yeah team.  I didn't really have the gambling bug so I avoided it... and went and watched Dr. Everything and Marty race the Motocross on Dr. E's PS3!  Saturday was college football/tv day.  I don't have a tv at home so it's fun to watch a bit in the hotel rooms!!!  :)

Peter with Linda and Julia (thanks for the photos Julia)

Saturday night we left after the show to do another all night drive towards home.  We left Magoo behind- he went to the airport instead to fly to Miami to catch a cruise!  Lucky dog.  Thanks to all of the folks who came out and took pictures that I swiped for this blog!!! :)








Rock On and Take 'er Easy-

HIMEBAUGH

Back on The Farm

After a couple thousand miles, a couple weeks and a dozen shows... I'm back on the Farm!  The Menagerie (see previous post) and I pulled into our new homestead- The Farm.  If you look real close at the picture (you can click on it for a larger version) you can see the RV Madison resting peacefully.  Our first visitor to the Farm was a dude who does those fly overs and takes pictures and comes to your place and tries to sell 'em to you.  Well... he found a sucker here!!  :)

     Fairchild and I decided to move out of the city.  I've been promising my dogs (through the years... there was- Abby, Kramer, Newt, Maggie and now Daisy) that I would move to a farm.  Finally, Daisy gets to realize that dream.  She's LOVES it here more than any of us.  I don't think JJ really cares one way or another... she's a fish you know... but she does get a pretty cool view of the 'back 40'.  Dusty the cat is pretty sure she's ready to go out huntin' but we're a little leery to let her out there by herself yet.  She's never been outside.  So we take her out on a kitty harness which she tires of after a little while.  The one thing I didn't consider is that I'll be spending a lot of time on a lawn mower... in my standard Farm Wardrobe! 

     The tour was great- I can't thank all the House Concert Hosts enough- they are all so different yet so the same too.  It's like a bunch of old friends hanging around listen to music and drinking a glass of wine or a beer or whatever you're in the mood for.  I'm excited to go out and do a whole bunch more soon!  If you're interested in hosting one- send me an e-mail- HimebaughM@aol.com 

     We got to end the whole tour in Kansas City.  We arrived Sunday because our host, Cliff, invited us to the Chiefs/Vikings football game at Arrowhead Stadium.  It was another amazingly beautiful fall day- great day for football... and a bloody mary- or a Hail Mary as they called it.  Monday was the show- a private event that was held at KC's new soccer stadium- The Livestrong Sporting Complex (I believe).  A great place- reminded me of the Chicago Fire's stadium on the south side- Toyota Park.  I wanted to go take a couple penalty shots after the show but Tiny (the head groundskeeper... who isn't exactly Tiny) thought maybe that wasn't such a good idea.  Whatevs man!

     I'm off for about a week- expecting some relatives any day now- and then it's off to North Dakota for a few Hello Dave shows next week at the 4Bears Casino in New Town and a club in Minot!  Go to HelloDave.com for the details!

     Fairchild is fitting in just fine on the Farm too!!  She's ready to tear into her radio show and start blogging- probably far better than my gibberish!  :)

Alrighty- take 'er easy now!

ROCK ON-

HIMEBAUGH

OoooohhhhHHHOklahoooma

I've always wanted to sing that song... I wish I knew the words. We're in Oklahoma - somewhere near Tulsa- I think- on the way to Tahlequah and a wedding celebration that I'll be a part of today. We stopped at the handy Walmart here. We've camped out several nights at Walmarts along the way. We always shop a little to say thank you, of course. We did some late night shopping last night. It's always dangerous though because you can go in for one thing and come out with $200 worth of things you simply must have. Last week at the Evergreen Walmart I bought a percolator - yep, a coffee percolator. I tried it out and ... well I wasn't terribly happy with the results. I had to go to Statbucks and think it through. :)

This is my first 'phone' blog- I'm writing it with my iPhone whilst laying in bed- not bad this whole technology stuff. So I blame any typos on on that- :)

Daisy and Dusty are both looking at me with hungry eyes- time for breakfast!!!
And then it's off to the wedding bells of Keith and his bride.
Tomorrow we're going to Arrowhead Stadium- Chiefs/Vikings courtesy of our good friend Cliff!!

Rock On and, as always,
Take 'er easy
HIMEBAUGH