Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Wagamama!

Sitting backstage in Antwerpen, at the... Twix? Or Trix?
Nice place, cool people.
We had dinner catered tonight, which was nice (usually we opt for a "buy out" meaning "no, don't order/make us food, give us money and we will do our own thing") tonight, we couldn't care less. I don't want a Belgium experience. I don't want to be bummed I'm leaving or see stuff I don't have time to enjoy. I'm just enjoying my family, the backstage and my kids hangin' with the Bellrays. The singer is beautiful. She is whistling and walking around, she seems cool. I didn't meet her yet, I am trying to get our crap organized. We have to unload EVERYTHING in the car and pack it all up, because we are getting in the car at 5 a.m. and heading straight for the airport. Our flight isn't until 2 p.m. but we have to ride a ferry for nearly 2 hours and drive for 2, so we will get our travel on once again but this is the first time in 6 weeks we will be heading somewhere we don't have to unpack!! It's the little things people. I am not glad to be leaving so I don't have to drive all damn day or sleep on a European hotel bed. It's not that I don't want to eat at ANOTHER restaurant, it ain't that I don't want truck stop coffee (sounds bad but in Europe- it is SO good). I'm not glad to get out of fighting with Elvis to eat when we are eating, trying to keep the milk cold (HA!) and the candy for Q to a minimum (way too much candy over here). I am not glad that I won't have to pretend to understand another "foreigner" or try not to feel bad for being a stupid foreigner "do you speak english?". It's not that I am too lazy to walk up all the fucking stairs they have, or sweat and cuss trying to squeeze one toddler, one 10 year old, three rolling luggage, a guitar, a stroller, a purse, two backpacks, a diaper bag AND two full growns. Nope. Its not any of that. To put it as simple as I can, what I am looking forward to the absolute MOST.
Not unpacking a thing, not for at least a week.

The last dance.

This morning I am waking up in Paris. Again.
Yesterday we left Barcelona, Spain and drove our asses off. If you have ever seen a map of this area, you will know, it is not close.
I'm guessing nearly 600 miles.
It was a good drive. There were a lot of kid movies going on in the backseat and good music and conversation in the front.
It was a day off so we were in no hurry to get anywhere. In fact, we had no where special planned to get to. We just drove. We stopped, we drove, we ate- we drove. Around 1 a.m. we knew it was time to pull it over. Elvis was still awake (Quattro had been asleep for hours) and I had a feeling she was not going to go down until we had a cozy spot in a bed for her. She's like that. It's a good thing.
We rolled into Paris and found a hotel. It's a no fills chain, the Ibis. I call it "I bis this will do.". It's not exactly what we love or are use to but at this point, we just want to go home with as much $ as possible and we consider our luxury accommodations card punched. We stayed at the NH in Madrid. It is awesome. In the morning we woke up to a futbol teams bus, tons of polizei, it was quite the scene. Madrid played Zaragoza. Parking in Madird that day was insane, there were cars all over sidewalks and in the middle of streets. Insanity yet somehow it all seemed okay, like not ridiculous- just pleasantly odd.
I was sad to leave Madrid. We didn't get to spend enough time there but we walked along the river or whatever and watched the bats fly around and the fish swim. There was an amazing kids playground (seriously, we need to take playground notes from the Europeans, they do it better, plain and simple) so we of course went to that. Elvis ran around and Quattro made friends. He doesn't speak spanish and they didn't speak english but that doesn't ever seem to matter. Kids are wonderful like that.
I will have to tell you about Barcelona later. I am getting hustled out of here and we need to get to Antwerp, Belgium where Eddie is opening for the Bellrays and I am sad to say that we will not be watching them play, we will be peeling out as soon as Eddie is done. Our hotel is in Calais which is in France. Another 2 hour drive. We then wake up (at 5 a.m.) and jump on a ferry to England and drive to the airport. Seriously. It is hard to wrap my brain around this being over. Sad. Yet so fucking happy to be going home.

Saturday, August 27, 2011


Some wacky clowns Elvis and I watched (for too long).


Q waiting in line for the jumpy house. Classic.






My kids in a nutshell.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Bilbao... never wanna go home.

We are in Bilbao Spain today and if you have never been here but have a hankerin' to get out of town- look no further people, I have the town for you.
It is perfection and that is hard to come by.
We showed up today and were greeted by about 20,000 people walking the streets in front of our hotel. There is a massive festival going on and you know, that would normally make me hate a town, but this festival was different. These people are different. They are happy. They are sweet, lovely, kind, generous and the cops even let us go down a closed street, and drive right in front of a stage. Take that Switzerland.
Our hotel is amazing with a jet shower and two balconies facing the center which is where, now, about a million people are walking around. I wish I remembered the name of the event that is taking place because for once it is important.
We were directed by the hotel receptionist to walk down the street and choose any restaurant, she said they are all great. We have heard this before, every day in fact for the last 5 weeks but this time she was right- well either that or I just have a nose for this sort of thing. I saw a place, that looked great and even though all the tables out front (in the adorable alley that was packed with people and people playing instruments, singing and dancing) were dirty, we walked inside and were sat in the back. I like to sit outside but it looked like we had just missed the made rush for dinner. We are always a little later than everyone else, which in this case and many more, was good.
The food was amazing, Basque food is like that. We had marinated artichoke hearts and lobster salad, steak and risotto. I picked out a great bottle of wine, I'm pretty sure there were no bad bottles on the list, that is Spain.
After dinner we walked the streets and made our way back to the hotel, where Eddie hurried me to get out the door. That is a daily (and Daly) occurrence, I need to wash the road off of me, change baby clothes, make sure everyone is packed up- it takes a lot. You may be saying "why doesn't Eddie take care of the kids while you get ready?" well... because he is a man I guess. I'm kidding. Sometimes he is helpful, sometimes I tell him to do this and that but other times it is me getting ready while he is on his phone and telling me to hurry up... then I come out and I'm like "where's the baby's shoes?" "is Quattro's bag packed?". Then there are a lot of "no's" and then 20 minutes later we are out the door. Which to tell you the truth is not that big of deal, I mean, rock n roll is a lot of what we call "hurry up and wait". That is the name of the game. You hurry to make "load in" and then wait around for sound check. You hurry back to the club to hear that the set time is moved back. You just deal with it and over the years Eddie has learned to just deal with me needing some time alone in the bathroom to paint my toenails or take a shower. Even though he relentlessly bugs me to "hurry up!!".
We left the hotel and had to go get the guitar and merch from the car. We were in a pickle with what to do, either drive to the club (more favorite) or walk. Our parking garage closed at 9 p.m. and if you know anything about Spain, you should know that these people stay out LATE! Except, apparently, the parking garages... so either we take the car and then after the show drive around and look for a parking space or we get the shit and hoof it to the club. Luckily it was like a 15 minute walk to the club, by way of the parking garage. Finding parking is usually not a big deal for us, even in the middle of the night with a baby buuuuuut, there are a gazillion people on the street, so I'm guessing parking would not come easy- or ever. And there would most certainly be a ticket, if not a towing on our hands tomorrow. I don't know if you read the Basel post, but homeboy got the shaft in Switzerland, so we are all about following the rules (except for accidently blowing through a red light at 11 p.m. last night pulling into Bordeaux, France.
So we chose to walk. Baby,, stroller, bags, check! Merch, guitar, Oprah, check!- the works. (Oprah is Elvis' baby). We had to walk straight through the madness which drove Eddie crazy, Q and I loved it and Elvis fell asleep. There were freaky street performers, the kind that look like statues and then move. Yuck! Breakdancers, the absolute best I have ever seen! and I have seen a lot.
The club is cool, the staff is nice. That is what I love about Spain, they really care about how you are doing. And throw a 10 year old kid and a baby in the mix, these people really know how to treat people. Why don't I live in Spain? Oh, I will... this is where we will retire. And even though Eddie will never officially retire (ever heard of Willie Nelson?) we will move here when our kids are grown. This is where we will start a new chapter and it might just be in Bilbao. Really, it is that fucking cool.
I"m backstage now. Eddie is playing "Dead Homies". I was walking out to watch the show but I keep getting locked out of the backstage where Elvis is still asleep in her buggy, so I'm staying back here. I am comfortable leaving her back here while I sneak a peek but not if I have to keep getting Q to sneak through the stage door to run around and let me in. I'm a chill Mom, but not ridiculous.
What else? Not much, I mean, I am really just kind of shocked that this trip is almost over
(Eddie is playing "On the Couch"!! I had to run out and risk another lock out but my reentry was a success). I has been nearly 5 weeks and we are home in a week. I am SO excited to get home and yet really sad it is over. We have been planning this trip since the end of last summer.. there's so much work that is involved. It's a bit like Thanksgiving. All the prep, the recipe search, the shopping, the hours of cooking and then BOOM 8 minutes later- it's over. This has been (and felt) like more than 8 minutes but in some ways I wish it could go on forever. I guess it kind of does, so that is why I can go home with a smile on my face and a tear in my pocket. I alway miss the road. Always.
Today Eddie and I made a bet that in 6 months that if he can't do 10 pull ups (and me 5) he has to wear a speedo to the public pool in our neighborhood at family swim time. He hasn't decided what he wants me to do, I'm completely comfortable taking my clothes off (have you seen the cover to his solo records) so he will have to dig deep. He on the other hand is not really a take your clothes off kind of guy, never has been so this should be good. We started talking about it because our friend Jordan got in kick ass shape doing that P90X and he has been talking about it. And I like my body, I would just like to be stronger. I want to know I can kick someones ass in a dark alley, not just feel like I can.
In other boring news, I miss my animals SO damn much. I laid in bed not sleeping (oh, did I forget to say I'm an insomniac? I'm off the sleeping pills on the road for some stupid reason I forgot to pick them up before I left. Which is good and bad. I am happy not to take them every day, I don't like to take anything every day) and thought I felt my cat, Elwood, walking up from the end of the bed like she does every night. She waits about 5 minutes (I'm guessing she is making sure I am really going to bed and I'm not going to get out) and then like clockwork, climbs into bed, sniffs my eyelids and lays down next to me. Awwww, I miss her.
Now I'm going to go since I'm all sad and weepy and to top it off Eddie is playing "Roadworn and Weary".
I was thinking about what to do with this here blog (that I love so much) when I get back home. I tried to keep it going last time but when I got home I just felt like I was way too boring to write about. If anyone has any ideas about an angle I can exploit while I'm not on the road, things that might be interesting to a reader, please tell me because I really do enjoy writing. I am wouldn't care (lying) if 12 people were reading, getting this stuff out there- thinking about in 10-15 years my kids can read about their life as children and my life when I was young and maybe, possibly entertaining a fan or two or a mother or father- I'm cool with that. I'm a writer man, it is what I love to do. I have things pulse through me all day, things I can't wait to get on paper or in this piece of shit computer. I wait and wait until I'm not behind the wheel to get a chance where a tiny girl is not climbing on me, Quattro is tired of playing UNO (our road game from way back) and Eddie doesn't need me to "HURRY UP!", so sit down and empty myself, to rid myself of the words trampling my mind.
Good night people.
Thank you Bilbao.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bordeaux

Tonight we lay our heads in Bordeaux France. We drove most of the way to Bilbao, leaving only 3 hours for tomorrow.
I can't believe how awesome our kids are in the car. We are so damn lucky.
Now as I sit here in our hotel, Elvis is bouncing off the walls... so there is a little payback I guess.
Tomorrow we hit the beach. With only 4 shows left of the tour we are all looking forward to having a little fun in Spain and then go home and roll around in our cozy sheets. There's one thing in common with nearly every hotel in Europe- the sheets are so stiff!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

European porn and kids.

These two things do not go together but apparently no one has told the television folks in most, if not all, of Europe.
Every night we hid the remote. Lets face it, if kids can't find the remote they are not watching TV. Unless they are hardcore, which Quattro is not. He likes TV like anyone like but in an average week at home, he watches it maybe one night during the school week, on the weekends it depends, could be one movie or a Sunday in bed with me for 3 hours.
Anyway, I lost my thought.
So every night we have to hide the remote, otherwise there is no doubt going to be that time he turns on the TV and sees full on porno. There are plenty of people who think it is okay to have on TV- obviously, because it IS ON TV.
I am not one of them.
I hear a lot of Americans say that Europeans do so many things better and that America is struggling with their youth. News flash. Everyone is struggling with our youth. They are losing. They are not being taken care of. They are growing up on someone else's dime. They are being brought up too fast, too fat and too stupid. Sad but true.
I read an article about todays youth not being protected. How big corporations have all the laws protecting them, like children used to have for them. Remember "children are people too"? I feel like even my kid needs more protection, the constant need to be plugged in and now what? turned on?
I don't think so.
I am taking a stand. I am going to make some changes.
I know this conversation started with the porno on TV and I don't like that but when I get home to the glorious USA, I will not have that to worry about. But I will have these mass produced toys that are unhealthy for my kids. I will have constant advertisements trying to lure my children into their web of crap food, cheap games and lame cartoon propaganda.
I'm not saying that I don't want them to enjoy what's fun for them, I just want to be a better ref, I guess, I want to make sure they stay young for as long as possible and that they go without some of the latest greatest whatever, if even just once, so they can keep their feet on the ground. It will be hard but I'm always up for a challenge.
In other news, Eddie got arrested in Switzerland last night. Made for a great new tour joke "hey, remember that time you got arrested in Switzerland?" we are always on the hunt for a new one... fuckin' Eddie...
Tonight we sleep in Zurich, Switzerland where there's horse on the menu and everyone looks pissed off. The horse thing threw us for a loop... we got up and left the restaurant, Quattro looked like he was going to cry. I almost passed out at the thought and just thought about how much I miss the states where that kinda shit is very, very illegal.
We are setting out tomorrow for our second to longest drive. Where we will lay our heads somewhere in the South of France and then make it to our beloved Bilboa, Spain where the wine is good and the people are beautiful.