orange is in went to Ft. Worth on Friday to play the Mayfest and it was quite a beginning to the weekend. From police hassles to freezing weather to sick drummers to Stripes quotes, it was a trip to remember.
We left for Ft. Worth around noon Friday and immediately were separated. Leesa, her husband Alex and Chris were together and got pulled over outside of Huntsville. The trooper searched their car and each of them for drugs and apparently was a complete ass to them. He kept them on the side of the road for a half hour.
We all did manage to get to Dallas around 5:30pm and make it over to the fest grouds on time. It was getting colder and colder and Leesa was getting sicker and sicker.
I managed to take some pictures (I’ll post them tomorrow), but it was starting to get weird. We got into our set and as it went on, people were vacating the grounds. It dipped to around 50 degrees with a stiff north breeze blowing right in our faces. Leesa, trooper that she was, made it until we had about 20 minutes left then she had to go.
She was so sick and was about to pass out behind the drums so George and I finished up with a few acoustic songs.
Overall, quite a nightmare of a gig.
After the show, I met a friend (Laura) who I had gotten to know through emails but had never met in person. She is very sweet and interesting to chat with. Leesa, Chris and her husband headed back to Houston Friday night while George, Laura and I went into downtown Ft. Worth.
The downtown area has really grown and had lots of clubs and restaurants as well as some neat shops that were closed already. We had some NY-style pizza and walked around for a while before coming back and hanging out at the hotel.
We saw Laura off and George and I tried to get a few hours of sleep. First thing we woke up (6:30) to head back and spent most of the morning waking up by quoting lines from the movie Stripes.
Back in Houston around noon and I headed out to the International Festival where I met up with Angie to take some pictures and seem some entertainment. My friend Leland’s girlfriend was performing in a Taiko drum troupe. They were great.
Now, back home and looking to go out this evening before sleeping like 20 hours tomorrow. I’m not even going to talk about the Rockets game. Yuck.