So let's see, that catches us up to about Sunday night, August 14th. We are almost there!
We had to get from Iowa on Monday morning to Michigan by Wednesday. We did a large portion of the driving on Monday and stopped in Indiana for the night to be with our puppy dog. Leaving early Tuesday morning, we arrived in Ohio to my grandmother's place in time for her famous spaghetti. This isn't a canned sauce, prep time equals 24 hours! Trust me, it's worth the effort.
My mom and sister met us over at my grandma's and surprised me with a belated birthday party since I was far from home for my birthday on July 29th. Evan was a good sport when the home videos came out! We bribed him with cake before we popped in footage of my 3rd and 5th birthday parties. My grandparents bought a camcorder when I was 2 years old and have videos from that year up to my graduation from college. It was nice to be back home even if it was just for one night.
The next morning we hit the road for Detroit, MI where we picked up a friend from our college days, Andy. From there, we traveled another 30 minutes northwest to Clarkstown, MI to the DTE Energy Music Theater. Evan was feeling good when we arrived, ready to get out on the stage. He started at 7:25 PM giving himself an extra 5 minutes to extend his set. That night he played "Indiana", followed by "Woodpecker", brought out Vivian for "Use Me" by Bill Withers and finished up the set with "The Giving Tree". The emotion in Evan's performance told me he was satisfied with a job well done even before we met up again backstage.
We had Thursday off so we spent an extra day in Detroit with Andy. We started off our free day with a trip to a local BBQ joint, "Slows". The pulled pork was tender, the chicken wings were smokey, the baked beans were spicy and mac and cheese was thick! From there we went to Hittsville to visit the Mowtown Museum. We walked the halls of the house where Mowtown records started, changing the music world forever! As we stood in studio A, we reflected on the voices that echoed in those walls before our time. The tour guide had us join together to sing "My Girl" by the Temptations while reenacting the famous Temptation walk. Instant time warp!
After such a moment we needed to go to a local brewery called "Dragon Mead". That makes sense, right? Evan is proud of his viking heritage and takes any opportunity to live the lifestyle by drinking mead and eating large hunks of meat (see Iowa State Fair). Dragon Mead sounded irresistible. We sat for a couple of hours at the bar and waited for the rain and rush hour traffic to diffuse before heading back to Andy's apartment.
Now here we are! Friday night in Louisville, playing the Kentucky State Fair. The venue was an indoor arena which meant the spot light treatment. I wrote about this before, the attitude changes when the house lights dim and that one single spot light hits the stage. It is empowering and the artists grow under that light. Evan repeated the set from Detroit with one minor change, he covered "Come in my Kitchen" with Vivian instead of the Bill Withers tune. He was beaming with pride and received a thundering applause.
We are about to take off with the hope of getting halfway to PA tonight. The show tomorrow is outside of Pittsburgh and any mileage we can shave off tonight makes for an easier drive on Saturday. Vroooommmmm!!!
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