An Adventure

Our show at the Chez Marche last night in Waupaca turned into a bit of an adventure; and led to the debut of the M4 duo.
It was snowing lightly when we left Stevens Point, as it had been much of the afternoon, but when we stopped for gas when we were heading out of town it seemed to have stopped. We figured it would be ok as the weatherheads had predicted only light snow which was supposed to end in the evening. The trip from Stevens Point to Amherst wasn't too bad except for the traffic, but once we got just past Amherst the snow really seemed to pick up. This is where the highway turns into a four-lane and it's usually the most pleasant part of the trip; but not last night. For much of the way between Amherst and Waupaca we were only going 40-45 mph-- and only two vehicles passed us.
At one point I asked Mark if it was slippery and he said "uh-huh. " At that point we were following a vehicle that was going at a sedate pace and no one was trying to pass us. A couple of miles down the road the car in front of us turned on it's flashing lights and we realized it was a police car that had been heading to the scene where someone had gone off the road. Mark realized later that he probably had been going too fast even at 40 if the police car was going that slow too -- and we figured the police car was much newer and had better tires than our car! Once we had arrived safely, Mark also admitted that there were a few points during the trip where we had no traction.
We arrived at the Chez Marche shortly before 7 p.m. (we had left Point around 5:45), and called Bear, our bass player, to tell him not to come. We figured we had made the right call when some friends from Amherst showed up around 8:30 and said it was still pretty bad out. Another couple, Jerry & Julie, said they had driven only 3 miles and it was bad.
Anyway, we went with the M4 show with our original lineup -- Mark & me. We played our acoustic guitars with our electric pedal effects and I think it went over pretty well. We had fun and it was nice that anyone had shown up in the nasty weather. We were able to throw in some different things -- a few of the Irish songs we've been working on for St. Patrick's Day, and a few of the covers we do as Keg Salad.
When we finished up shortly before 11 p.m. it was still lightly snowing and blowy, and we had decided we would spend the night at a hotel instead of driving back. When John the friendly Book Cellar bookseller heard us say that he offered to let us stay at his house -- which he was not staying at, and which was only three blocks away. We packed up our equipment, grabbed our rabbit dinner (delicious, "better than chicken" was Mark's comment) and headed to High Street. We had had the foresight to put our overnight backpack in the car, and we always travel with our sleeping bags. We camped out in the front living room and had a cozy night.
We woke up early 6:30 -- and enjoyed the sunshine in the front room. We got our selves cleaned up and headed back to the Chez for breakfast around 9. Enjoyed another yummy meal there, got to chat with one of our audience members from the night before, Steve. He's a relatively recent transplant to the area from Chicago and seems like a really nice guy. We paid our "hotel bill" at the Book Cellar (which is right next door to the Chez) and picked up some classical CDs and some books -- it's always nice to have an excuse to buy more books.
We had a pleasant drive back on Hwy 54; stopped at St. Vinnie's in Plover (bought more used books), and trotted home. About 3 blocks from home Boswell, our intrepid Ford Escort, started making a rather horrible grinding, scraping noise. We limped home, unpacked the car and Mark trotted over to Jerry's, the auto repair shop a block from home. Jerry was just driving away... Mark then called Kent's Auto (where we had some work done on Bos a few months ago) and found out that no one could look at it 'til Monday. Sooooo...we'll have to cancel our show tonight at CD Pub in Wisconsin Rapids. We're still hopeful that we'll find a way to do the Tiki Bar show tomorrow. We don't have to haul all our equipment for that show, so basically we just need a ride.
Stay tuned...
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I bought a Mickey Mouse painting on velvet at St. Vinnie's. Mark's comment was "looks like it should be the cover for a horror novel." I am now convinced it is evil.