Tuesday, October 18, 2011

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