We'd done three concerts in a row and now, here we were in Philadelphia and it was our first day off, a beautiful day. Would we use this day in the city of brotherly love to sightsee or maybe to catch an afternoon movie followed by an early dinner? Of course not! We were going to do something really different. We were going to spend our first day off driving 539 miles to Dayton, Ohio. It was pretty clear that I was about to leave a firm and possibly permanent imprint of my butt in The Chair.

This was going to be our first long drive and considering what was to come later in the tour, it really wasn't that bad. Besides, we really didn't have much of a choice. We had a concert in Dayton the next evening and we certainly didn't want to drive that kind of distance and then jump off the bus and do a show unless we absolutely had to. At least, not today! Of course, that scenario would come later in the tour. But that's another story.

Once we were all loaded onto the bus, we hit the highway. 'Jeff the Invincible' was behind the wheel with a giganto-grandé size café latté from Starbucks, he had AC/DC blasting on his headphones and he was ready to rock'n'roll. We were heading into the realm of "Roadzilla" where road rules take over and the road begins to blur one day into another. In fact, I already had to check my road bible to see what day of the week it was.

This was when the road mode really started to phase in. We were now living in a microcosmic situation and life necessarily had to change to adapt to our new traveling circus environment. Everything is so focused on the next gig that you soon forget where you were the day before. All you need to know is contained in your road bible -- when you leave, where you're going and where you're going to stay when you get there, along with all sorts of other pertinent information, like how late room service is available, where's the nearest laundry, where's the nearest Starbucks, contact numbers for E-mail, etc., etc.

The next few days were a good example of Roadzilla! After the show in Dayton, we would leave immediately and do a night drive to Indianapolis, Sleep in, grab a late lunch, then go to sound check, have dinner, wait, do the show and start the whole process all over again. Except the next destination was Hilton Head, South Carolina. Now, since Hilton Head was approximately 773 miles away from Indianapolis, that meant we would have to leave immediately after the show and travel all night just to get there by noon the next day. And of course, this required us to travel on, you guessed it, our day off!

All was not lost though. We still had half a day off, enough time for a light lunch and a short nap, followed by a late dinner with the guys and a wonderful night's sleep. As I fell into bed, it was nice to know there was no travel tomorrow and I could sleep in. It was also nice to be in a bed that wasn't moving!

More to follow....Botts

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