George Hopkins and the Time Machine

I started this post on July 29th, so I thought I would use it to begin my wrap-up.

This world that I have stepped into, the world of drum corps, travelling, performing and and rehearsing has been quite an experience for me. I have only been with this organization for a short period of time; but in that time it has been wonderful, stressful, hard, hot and sad and joyous. It is a world of million dollar travel budgets and fleets of motor coaches and gangs of young adults striving, practicing and performing almost every night to crowds of people who know not only what it takes to do this thing, but what it takes to create and perform a great show. I have witnessed all this firsthand because I have been so very fortunate to be travelling with one of the best shows in the Drum Corps International Tour, The Cadets.

I and my fellow volunteers are constantly amazed at the young people who make up the members of this organization. As my fellow volunteers and I say "We do it for the Kids". I will expand on that, however, because these kids are an inspiration to me. I am sure that they sometimes complain and are down, but I have never heard one complain. They come through the food line, with a cheerful "Thanks!", even though I am sure that sometimes they may not be so happy about the food selection. We do our best to prepare food that will keep them healthy and performing at their peak. We truly care that we make them food that they enjoy and is healthful. Here is a picture of the dry-rubbed pork loins that we prepared in Atlanta before their performance in the Georgia Dome. We sliced them and served them with a gravy made from drippings. They were quite good and everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Spice Rubbed Whole Pork Loins

I am also impressed with the Admin Team, they have hundreds of things going on each day, people to pick up and drop off, shopping, and many other things. Time is always on their minds, when to start ensemble, when to eat-pack-load, when to leave for the show and how long it will take to get there.

A interesting example of this is when the corps was practicing in Chattanooga, TN. The show, on the second day there, was in Murfeesboro, TN about 2 hours away. The interesting thing is that the show site is in Central time, while Chattanooga, where we were, was in Eastern time. Since we were travelling from Eastern to Central, we gained an extra hour because we would be to setting our clocks back an hour on the trip to the show. That extra hour was used to give The Cadets more time on the field before the competition. After the show we would travel back into Eastern and lose that hour, but it would happen while were were travelling that night. The Cadets used time zones to give themselves a little edge and to do that takes serious planning and execution.

Matt