too-dense forest to camp in... Where we were startled by a large bird
(owl?) of some sort flapping around right over us, probably startled
by us, as well!
The next morning, in the middle of nowheresville, it took us awhile to
find our morning coffee... Which just meant a gas station, though I
sometimes had wanted to hold out for a proper cafe... The little place
we found on this particular morning was not at all up to snuff for my
taste, and I decided to finally just hold out for something better
down the road (also, I had finally revieved my new debit card in the
mail, which i has been without for the majority of this trip, but
hadn't activated it, so it didn't work yet, which also influenced my
decision!).
I thought that some music might make the lack of coffee bearable, so
made a little playlist on my iPod (which I usually only use for email
and maps, to preserve the battery) which played for 2 songs before
promptly breaking! It broke in a frustrating way, where it's touch
screen wouldn't respond to touch...! I lagged terribly that day for
hours until we finally got to a little town about 23 miles from
Richmond that had a cafe with a computer and espresso, excellent! I
found the apple store in Richmond so as to pay then a visit and get my
iPod fixed while kurt went to a thrift store to get a pair of pants to
replace ones he believed to have left at monkeyclaus (we each only
have one set of clothes, and bike shorts)... He came back with pink
genie pants he had bought for a dollar, which I've yet to see him wear
after the initial modelling for us!
Upon broaching the city limits, we split up, kurt headed towards the
venue (the camel) and Dianne and myself headed to the apple store (out
in some strip malls), where my iPod started working again as I tried
demonstrating what was supposed to be wrong with it! Ridiculous!
We headed down 8 miles of burger kings, staples, mattress stores, and
so on to get to the city proper, where we found the camel and kurt
sitting in front... He had already been inside, and suggested that the
vibe was decidedly strange, describing an encounter with a general
manager who had asked a bunch of questions about how the show was
promoted, if a local band was playing, and so forth... Also, when kurt
inquired as to where he should set up/stash his stuff and was directed
to the stage, the same strange manager popped in again to ask if the
bike was a prop, for if it was, it was ok on stage, if not, then it
would have to go! "Yes, it's a prop" replied kurt!
A quick aside now, before getting on with it - shortly after I first
acquired the show at the camel, a fellow from Richmond with whom I had
Been in contact with in looking for shows said that it was a lot of
peoples least favorite place to go, and that I should try for another
spot.. Since I had already secured the show, I thought it would be
rude to back out.. Though was further rattled when laslo, the booker
for the camel at the time (worked
there no longer though) had asked for me to be sure to send
promotional materiels to my contacts there... Which I didn't really
have! So for awhile, Richmond was a dark cloud in my future, but a
week and a half before, while we were in new York, I was contacted by
an online faction of a Richmond paper called "InRich" who wanted to do
a story on us... So I did a phone interview, and the woman (whose name
I forget right now) said she'd be there, and would surely bring some
friends, so with (online) newspaper exposure, and her friends coming,
I started to feel like it may in fact be well attended! So! Aside
aside, getting on with it, back to the narrative!
The show was scheduled for 7... Nobody. Not unusual though - most of
our earlier shows wouldn't get off the ground till after dark - we
waited, and had supper... Just the bartenderss, a doorman, the cook
and us...
Around 7:45, a young man came in, and we told him that we were going
to give it some time, hang out or come back in half an hour.. Which,
when he did, he was still the only attendee! His name was andy, and he
disn't mind being the only audience, which could be a little
uncomfortable for some people, so I set up my stuff and just before
playing, another guy came in to see us too! Yaaay! Both kurt and I
played to an audience of andy, Dianne, and that guy, whose friend
showed up towards the end - they were bike touring enthusiasts -
and they gave us lots of maps of Virginia, and one of north
Carolina... they also pointed out that to get to Norfolk, we'd have to
take a longer than expected roundabout route due to it's being on the
south side of an inlet, and car only bridges crossing that inlet
directly!! Another New London situation perhaps! As for what happened
with that online paper thing.. When I tried to look it up
subsequentially, it was nowhere to be found.. Huh.
We headed out to camp a bit south of the city, where we found a nice
big field next to an old burnt out husk of a house.. Something of a
classic moment for us, as, unbeknownst to Dianne or kurt, who were up
ahead (as usual - I'm an extremely lethargic rider) I was getting too
sleepy to ride, and was struggling to keep my eyes open.. So as I came
upon the field, which looked perfect (no fence, deep enough to keep
cars from seeing us) and saw that they were going past it, I got a
little confused, and caught up to them at the 7-11 they were
apparently passing up the field for, and announced that I would be
spending the night in that field, and they could too, or not, that's
just how tired I was! (in retelling this to Dianne just now, as I was
typing, I found out that they had stopped at the field, but since I
was so far behind, decided to pick up some late night snacks... Heh..)
anyway, that ended our day in Richmond.
Sent from my iPod
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