Best Field and Facility

After the Georgia Dome, we headed North to our next housing site: York Comprehensive High School in York, SC. This facility is hard to explain without over-using superlatives. The field was so nice, the turf soft and easy to walk on; the buildings clean, new and roomy. The showers were excellent and they even had an industrial sized washer and dryer that was free to use. A real benefit when you find that only certain clothes that you brought on tour do not chafe and feel good in the heat. Getting those clothes clean means you can wear them again and be comfortable.

The Field at York Comprehensive High School

We spent a nice day at this facility and then headed to the show site in Rock Hill, SC. Sadly, the show was cancelled due to thunderstorms, so we packed up and headed on to Buena Vista, VA, our housing site for the Salem, VA show.

Here is a shot of my bed on the RV. I had been able to get a egg-shell pad from wal-mart so it was much more comfortable than it had been. I also got a fan and some additional hooks that made life on my bunk a little easier.

The Georgia Dome

After the Murfeesboro show, we headed down to Atlanta for a show in the Georgia dome. Our housing site was a High School south of Atlanta, later we headed up to the show site, The Georgia Dome. Here are a couple of shots and a movie of The Cadets in the Dome:

BBQ Spice Rubbed Whole Pork Loins

Liam and the other Brass Members lining up.

So many people in the Georgia Dome

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

Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo? No it is The Cadets!

Friday July 29th, 2011
We are at Finley stadium in Chattanooga, TN, which is an interesting place: it is excellent for the corps for practice. The Food Truck is right on the edge of the field so getting water, snack and meals is really easy. Sleeping for the corps is pretty good, with excellent A/C everywhere the kids get to sleep. The issue is that for the staff, admin and volunteers, there is not a lot of space to sleep. I know some of the staff pooled their money and piled into a hotel room, we made a deal that included a case of beer for the grounds manager to secure an office with an a/c unit and some other of us were in the officials locker room. A few Vols opted to stay in the RV, with the A/C running it was not too hot, just a bit of a walk to the bathroom.

Being here so close to practice is really awesome! It is so cool to see the kids at it working so hard and really improving. I watched ensemble last night before we served dinner and I got goose flesh on my skin again! It happens every time I see the show, even when they are just practicing! The kids are just awesome, they are so kind and always say please and thanks; I just love helping them out and doing the best food we can so that they are happy and satisfied.

We had some great food yesterday - Rob made a watermelon salad that was really excellent. It is pretty simple with watermelon, feta cheese, mint and some balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Tangy and sweet at the same time. I think the Corps liked it, we made a ton and very little was left. At dinner we made some home made croutons from some left over bread and they were excellent and added a little something to the mostly routine salad.

A young fellow got a package from home. He got beef jerky, socks, candy and some new shoes:

Uncle Matt

Little Rock, Littler Sleep...

We arrived at Little Rock and were staying at North Little Rock High School, the site of the famous "Little Rock 9" who enrolled in the school in 1957, touching off the Little Rock Crisis. Some interesting history. This is a pretty rough school, however, and its history has not enabled it to avoid the usual ravages of a largely inner-city school. The members were able to find sleeping in the cafeteria where it was air-conditioned. We parked the Food Truck near them, and we had tight spaces, but some shade from trees were there so it was a little less hot for the members when eating.

As some of you know, and I eluded to on last evening's post, I was having a hard time at this point. I had not slept much since arriving on tour, and it started to catch up with me. I was feeling really poorly. I spoke with my very understanding and sweet wife and she gave me some very good advice that I took. She said to get some sleep! Sounds simple right, but it worked.  That day, I had been given some potassium/salt slow release pills and as the day wore on and I drank literally drank liters and liters of water and Gatorade, I started to feel much better; but still was very tired. To give you the closer right now, I was able to sleep very well on the trip to TN, and woke up feeling very much better and ready to go. As always, the kids positive attitude and incredible work ethic is an inspiration.

The practice location had a pretty good field, but getting ice became an issue, and we solved it pretty fast. After a few runs to a store by Jay and others, I decided that we needed to get access to the school ice machines, so I caught up with the security guard and sweet talked him into telling us where the ice machines were. Short story: we cleaned out the cafeteria unit and about 1/2 of the football team unit. The coach would not let us take it all because he said he had football camp the next day. We tried to explain that the unit was a 200 lb/hour and that it could refill itself before the next morning, but to no avail. We ended up having plenty, though.

I do not have many shots from that day, as I was pretty busy. I have a few from the show, which was held at War memorial Stadium in Little Rock, where we won again over The Cavaliers.

We had the nice long drive to Tennesse and the road was mostly smooth so I was able to sleep for almost the entire trip, I even slept through one of the two rest stops! Yeah!

Matt

Oak-laaaaa-home-haaaaaa, where the wind...

Friday, July 29th

I am sitting in the press box of Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, TN at this very moment. We have been going and going since my last full length post last Tuesday which covered up until Monday or so. Much has happened since then, but here is what happened in Okalahoma:

Tuesday July 26th 2011

We arrived in Edmond, Oklahoma at a giant high school that consisted of many buildings. We set up the food truck near the existing cafeteria and began operations. It was hot in Oklahoma, just as how as was in Texas, for the most part. It was a red letter day, however, because we did not reach triple digits, it reached 99. The Cadets had a great field to practice on and they, as is usual, spent much of they on it after they got a couple of hours of time sleeping on the floor of one of the auxiliary gyms. We did the usual on the food truck, and we were happy to see that the fridge was working well and keeping the correct temperature. There was some excitement in the air because we were going to be in a show that featured The Cavaliers. George Hopkins decided that a daily meeting with the Food Vols would be good, and so we have a meeting with him every morning 90 minutes after breakfast. It has been awesome because not only does he let us know what is going on with the daily plan as well as letting us know what is going on with the Show and changes that are coming and things they are working on. It is really great insight into the working of the Corps.

That evening we headed over to the show site in Yukon, OK. I was able to get a few shots of the Brass warm-up. Some shots from the warm-up:

Liam Sargent

Kevin Mitchell

The show was excellent! We ended up winning with The Cavaliers coming in a very close second. Here are some shots from the show:

That evening we fed the kids and headed off for Little Rock, a pretty long drive.

 Uncle Matt

So Busy...

I have not been able to post because it has been so busy! Our stay in Little Rock was interesting and trying for me personally. More on that later. I saw the new demon guard unis and they look great!

I will fill in the blanks tomorrow...

Uncle Matt