I may have spoken too soon.

We’ve spent the past month formulating a Plan B.  When I say formulating, I mean swinging wildly back and forth between different options, then becoming dizzy and disheartened with all the swinging and deciding not to make any decision at all – hence the dead silence on the blog lately.

The short story is that despite our best efforts we just don’t really like living in a trailer.  If there weren’t several set backs in rapid succession we probably would have kept at it a little longer, but with the endless repairs and Elie being allergic to the trailer, the idea of continuing with this plan seems a little masochistic.  It was actually really comical the way in which everything went so terribly wrong – from the near truck collision on our first day and the broken lap top, to driving back to NY during a fluke October snow storm without a furnace, and our electrical plug (only source of heat) falling out while we were driving and being dragged along the road behind us until the prongs we’re all scraped up and bent.  We spent most of our time scrambling around trying to find our way out of one mess when another one would hit.

On top of all the mishaps, it also turns out that touring in a trailer is actually not cheaper than living in an apartment.  It would be cheap if we got a seasonal spot somewhere and didn’t move around too much, but then what’s the point?  We can’t even comfortably fit the keyboard in there – and even if we could, spending the winter at a trailer park, cramped inside a trailer  with our instruments at odd angles and Elie’s nose running uncontrollably doesn’t sound too inspiring to me right now.

On the bright side, we know what we don’t want – and we figured it out REALLY quickly 🙂  We also know what we DO want – but we’re just indecisive about the particulars (where, when, how).

Being the people we are,  we whole-heartedly committed to the No Plan B-ness of this whole situation and therefore have no furniture and no place to live at the moment.  Lucky for us we have generous friends and family to stay with for the time being.  I am REALLY looking forward to having a home again, at  the moment we’re leaning towards renting a place in the Hudson Valley…but I’m open to suggestions 🙂

It’s been just over a month since we took to the road.  Still on the fence about the whole thing, but that’s really just because of all the unexpected repairs.  We’re coming up on the last leg of the first leg of our tour (meaning the point at which I got really bored with booking and stopped doing it).  Next week we’re heading back in the eastern direction with a radio show outside of Pittsburgh and a nice little run in upstate New York culminating in our showcase at The Northeast Regional Folk Alliance and a gig at Bar 4 in Brooklyn on 11/18…which brings me to our latest trailer drama:

Looks like we’ve got to replace the furnace.  We haven’t used it since the alarm went off, but luckily our brand new air conditioner has a “heat strip” in it which can keep you somewhat warm down to 38 degrees.  This wouldn’t be an issue if we weren ‘t going to be gigging in upstate New York and NYC through Thanksgiving – but if the temperatures drop too low our pipes might burst…and if that happens I might just turn on our furnace and fall asleep forever.

So the only option is to winterize the trailer until we can afford a new furnace and/or head back down south.  This entails flushing all the water systems out and filling them up with anti-freeze (or something like that)- which means that we won’t have any running water 🙁  BUT it would probably be too cold to shower anyway 🙂

Still, I’d rather be living in a broke down trailer than stuck in an apartment in NYC – not sure if that’s a reflection of how awesome trailer life is, or how terrible it is to live in the city… probably the latter.  There really is no better way to lower your expectations than spending a few years in New York City 😉

So, Northeastern friends and family, we’ll be boondocking in your neighborhood soon!  See ya then!

To the three people who read this blog: I’m sorry to leave you hanging!

North Carolina was great.  I have another crazy story but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share this publicly.  It involves a young man joining the armed forces straight out of high school after being assured that he was non-deployable, then realizing that there is no such thing as “non-deployable,” and the resulting ordeal involved in trying to get out of the army before being sent off to war.  Suffice it to say, it wasn’t easy but did make a very entertaining story.

After North Carolina we headed to Knoxville, TN…side note, did you know you could rent a two bedroom house in Knoxville for $500 a month? With a garden and a porch?  And Knoxville is a pretty awesome place – really small, but a TON of musicians there and music happening all over the place…and yes, vegan treats.

We played two great shows on WDVX, East-Tennessee’s public radio station based out of the visitor’s center in downtown Knoxville.  First, how cool is that?  Free, live music every day broadcast live from the visitor’s center!  I don’t know why more cities don’t adopt something like this; it’s great for tourism, great for local artists and great for attracting touring acts.  WDVX is so supportive of independent music AND they started out years ago in a travel trailer! You can check ’em out here.

After four days in Knoxville we headed up to Ohio to visit our best friend, Ryan…and play a few shows.  Friday we were in Cincinnati and next Friday we’ll be heading to Athens for a show at one of our all time favorite venues, Donkey Coffee.

In trailer news, we got some new tires and our trailer started smelling like urine…probably unrelated.  I could really get used to this – not the urine part – but the living in a trailer.  Being on the road has a timeless quality to it, and I’ve lost all concept of time, which I actually really enjoy.

The other night our carbon monoxide alarm went off – we didn’t buy it, the previous owner just left it in there (pretty handy it turns out).  I wasn’t sure if it worked at all..usually there’s just a little green light that flashes sometimes – but the other night an alarm went off and the friendly green light switched to a red light.  This morning I realized that below the red light it says “move to fresh air.”  We didn’t move to fresh air, but we did open the roof vent and turn on the extractor fan and the air conditioner – to be honest, I was too tired to really care much about dying.  My only concern was that I would wake up next to Elie’s lifeless corpse, which I’m not sure I could deal with – but the thought didn’t keep me awake for too long…maybe it was the carbon monoxide.  So just in case we both die of carbon monoxide poisoning (because Elie will NOT be dying without me) take comfort in the fact that we died free and happy, and we do really enjoy our rest!

This year, we got selected again to play at the Emerging Artists Showcase at the FRFF (main stage!) The previous and first time we did was 4 years ago, just before we were preparing for a 6 months trip to China. I remember this well, it was a hectic period for us! Packing for 6 months is no small task. We had to organize a small curb sale for all our stuff (so many things – our recurrent life theme!), pack, put things in storage AND at the same time, organize our band for the gig. I’m mentioning this because we had to practically beg our drummer at the time and find an replacement guitar player at the last minute!

This year however, we knew better! And with only the two of us and a guitar to worry about, things were quite a bit smoother.

So we had an idea of how things would be once at the festival, having played there once before. The one thing we didn’t know though, was that the second experience was going to be so much richer than the first one! Back in 2007, we went and played, and pretty much spent all our time going to swim at a nearby lake, chilling in a field with our friends, and occasionally listening to some of the acts playing on the main stage.

This year, we decided to mingle a little more with the crowd and I am glad we did! On the first night, after all the shows were over (except the dance stage, where they never seem to stop!), we participated in the nite owl song swap. Imagine a circle of people, all sitting around a fire, everyone is welcome to join in and play or listen… So you sit, and listen to the other people playing, some of them originals, some of them covers, all from the heart – no pretense here. Then comes your turn – the mood is set, the moon is slowly rising -, and as has happened with the other performers, people listen, respectfully, letting you express the music you decided to offer the circle. What a treat!

And then, it’s late, we don’t want to camp as we know the next day is gonna be scorching, and we’re not quite ready for it. So we drive home… (which by the way is another story; almost ran out of gas, met a van driver signalling to us on the side of the road who had run out of gas, so we gave them a ride, and filled up our tank as well!)

But the next day, still pumped up about the previous day, we decide to drive back! (it’s a 2 hr drive from our home to Dodd’s farm).

And so unfolds the second day, we sit in front of main stage, enjoying the evening with the Saturday night’s headliners (it’ll be us one day!) Then show’s over, we decide to go check out another circle; there seem to be many! We stop at the Front Porch where there’s already a bit of a crowd and sit. Then people start playing, and unlike the night before, the atmosphere here is a little different. People play and everybody else picks up their instrument and accompany them, picking up the chords and lyrics as they go along, a bass player joins in, a strum stick player starts strumming, people improvise harmonies, guitar players take solos at the command of the performer whose turn it is. Such a collaborative approach! And don’t be mistaken, these people may not be on main stage but they can play! This truly was an awesome experience, a true testimony to folk and I’d say even more, to Music.

This year, I feel like we lived the festival as it’s supposed to be, full of interesting encounters, of music and of collaborations. The kind of weekend that reminds us (in case we need it!) why we play music. I am now eager to go back to Falcon Ridge, and hopefully have such a great time again (and maybe see you there if you’re going too and want to say hi!)