"Sunday, November 13, 2005- Highway 287 East of Childress (again), 2:00 PM" by mark

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 02:00:00 GMT

We had a little scare yesterday. About an hour out of Amarillo Grant noticed that either the transmission was slipping or that there was a problem getting fuel to the engine. Coming into the town of Memphis the motor shut down completely and we coasted into a little gas station. Now I had a problem with the fuel pump last week before we left for Terlingua so I figured the filter had clogged again. We dumped a little STP gas treatment in the tank and filled it up and she started right up. We kept our fingers crossed and made it to Amarillo without further incident. I’m just glad it was the fuel pump and not the transmission.

David and Charlie didn’t fare so well. They broke down outside of Fort Worth and didn’t make the show, so we were forced to do the three-piece thing again.

We arrived at the Golden Light a little after five and had a beer with Marc, the owner, while waiting for the soundman to show up. One beer led to another and pretty soon we had the urge to play a little music. Normally sound check only takes a few minutes but we had so much fun yesterday that we played for an hour and a half. People started dropping by from the restaurant next door and the next we knew we were playing a show.

It was fairly late when we went to check into the hotel and get cleaned up. Now I haven’t mentioned this yet but we dubbed yesterday “the day of the idiots”. It seemed like no matter where we went we ran into dumb people, in the convenience stores, on the road, everywhere. The Fifth Season Hotel was no exception. Grant went to check in and ended up spending half an hour in line just trying to get the room keys. By the time we finally got into our rooms it was time to leave to back up to the club. A guy named Dean Strickland opened the show for us. He had hitchhiked up from Austin and asked if he could play and we said we didn’t mind at all. He played a mixture of country, folk, and rock and it went over pretty good with the locals.

Russ, Lafon, and I started around eleven and played right up until closing time. We had a blast and Grant even joined us on stage to sing harmonies. I ran into my good friend, Michael Smith, who we also got up to sing a song. Mikey was feeling no pain and thoroughly entertained us with a rendition of “Fade Away”. All in all it was a good night.

This morning, for some unknown reason, I woke up at 8:00. I really should have gone back to sleep but I couldn’t. Grant and I hung around in the hotel room and watched a movie while waiting for the restaurant next door to open. At 11:00 I went down the hall and woke up Russ and Fonz and we all headed over to the China Star for lunch. Afterwards we loaded up and started driving east. We’ve got a benefit to play near Graham this afternoon and then we’re done for the week, well, at least until Wednesday. So far the Suburban is still running normally. Hopefully we’ll make it home tonight without any major breakdowns.

Mark David Manders comments on Sunday, November 13, 2005- Highway 287 East of Childress (again), 2:00 PM

"Sunday, November 13, 2005- Highway 287 East of Childress (again), 2:00 PM" by mark