Judge and Cabbage in NYC

A few images from our busy trip to New York City for Book Expo America. It was a grand time.

Psst!

Brett Rosenberg and the Joiners mentioned in a Massachusetts rag.

Another Weekend, Another Trip

The Grit
Originally uploaded by jekemp

Judge and I leave today at 1 to go to Athens, Georgia for a show. Joe can't make it, so Andy Willhite is filling in on the bass, and Brett Rosenberg is coming along to play some very rad guitar. I'm excited. We play at the Flicker Theatre and Bar tonight at 10 or so, if anyone is in the area.

This picture is of the Grit. Judge use to work there. It's evidently a hipper-than-thou vegetarian restaurant.

I can't wait to get on the road. This show is going to be fun.

Weekend Update: The Joiners Do Helen

Having E-Rock in North Georgia, we're lucky to be able to visit her and take in the sights of the Southern Appalachia nearby. We took the time to drive about 45 minutes south and spend the evening in Helen, Georgia. It was a lovely weekend, and the busy beginning of Oktoberfest.

All Along the Watertank, Waiting For a Train

"Sundown Express" by Gerald Schwartz.

My lunch break time is running out, but I looked through my email quickly before returning to the hum drum of office life and found this painting staring back at me in my inbox. I receive alerts each day with new art from a couple different sites, this one being Daily Painters. I don't know if you've ever subscribed to one of these, but it is truly wonderful to get art in your email inbox everyday.

But seeing how Judge wrote a letter to Amtrak yesterday about sponsoring our tour, it seemed serendipitious to me to post it. Plus, it's nice. I pulled my post that I wrote yesterday about Amtrak because I'm noticing something in my writing that I'm trying to fix, and it was better for me to just get rid of the previous entry.

I found my old blog with notes from the New Orleans trip, as mentioned in the previous nixed entry, and reread all of it. There was some good stuff in there, but there was also a lot of negativity. I didn't necessarily mean to be negative, but there was an air of it all over the blog. It frustrated me to read over it and feel like I wasn't getting the point across that I knew I felt at the time, and instead it came off as irritated or complaining.

That's why the Judge is my editor. He calls me out on things like that.

Now, I really have to work.

An Open Letter to Amtrak

Dear Amtrak,

The Joiners are the biggest train fans, ever.

Please take our proposal seriously and we'll do everything in our power to be a good reflection on your company.

Viva le tren!

Sincerely,

Cabbage

To Booger Holler or Not to Booger Holler

Booger Holler
Originally uploaded by andy.gill93

Not sure what the weekend holds, but as I continue on my lunch break, I'm pondering the options.

Either we'll hit the road bound for North Georgia, hence the above picture of the "Booger Holler" convenience store (yes, we've bought gas there). Or we'll stay here because the car is still pretty much defunct and we're too broke to get a new one. If we go, a car will have to be rented (we're pretty tight, monentarily), if we stay, well, we'll feel bad for not being able to have reliable transportation to see El and we'll miss our time with her.

It's rainy and pleasant outside. I just need to buy another Powerball ticket to help with this car situation. Bad credit can kill you in times like these, and I am suffering from a bout of credit-card-past flu.

*

Lines

Bravery..
Originally uploaded by GoncaloSilvestre

I like the lines in this photo. I know that's the obvious point of this picture, but I love them. I also like that she seems inappropriately dressed for walking down train tracks.

Nashville doesn't have passenger trains anymore. None come in or leave out of the city. Only freighters. Personally, I think that is so stupid. We have a gorgeous Union Station but they just converted it to a luxury hotel and tore down the train shed. The train shed was an architectural gem and over a hundred years old. Then again, the people of Nashville also wanted to tear down the Ryman Auditorium too, so they're not really good at preservation.

I think Judge and I are going to talk to the folks at Amtrak and see how much it would cost to tour via train. We could leave out of Birmingham, Atlanta, or Memphis, and it would solve our car dilemma.

I love trains.

Hey Judge -

Road
Originally uploaded by Miss MooMoo

I'll meet you right there.

Just let me figure how to get out of this.

Each of those orbs are for the times we made it out alive.

And I think we can do it again.

An Update from the Mountains

We're stuck in Highlands, NC like I mentioned in a previous post. I'm terrified I'm going to lose my job. They first told us, Monday, that the car was fine. We balked and said, NO, it broke down on us on the side of the road and it isn't fine. So Taylor went and picked it up and it broke down on the way back to our hotel. Then he took it back.

Today they got a fuel filter and replaced it - and we were sure it was fine. The car sped away as the mechanic went to test drive it. He came back and said, "It's fine." Taylor jumped in the car to test it himself and it didn't make it out of the parking lot. It began sputtering and wouldn't accelerate. They now say, "Oh right, I it must be the fuel pump. $300 for all that, and we can't get to it till tomorrow because we have to order a part."

Alas, here we are. Sitting in the Pizza Place checking email because we can't afford another night at our hotel ($90 a night, at a 50% discount) and are checking into other options. They guy who owns the car shop, Popcorn, said he'd try to get us a place cheaper tonight, so we're playing the waiting game. I called my boss and left him a message, pretty much begging him not to fire me, but I haven't heard anything. I feel lost here. Stuck in a tourist town that costs a million dollars isn't fun when you aren't a millionaire or ready for that kind of expense.

The locals are lovely - and understanding of our situation. We went to a local clothing shop called Jolie's where people told us they had t-shirts at 70% off and bought a shirt a piece just to have fresh clothing. Since we had only planned on making a day trip up here, we don't have any clothes to wear that aren't gross. While looking for our new threads, we were in the sale racks and a lady that works there named Jill asked what our situation was. We explained that our car had broken down, and she talked to us for a minute. She surprised us by taking $20 out of her pocket and gave it to Taylor, saying that she insisted we take it, and it made both of us cry, embarrassed, but thankful. It was so sweet the gesture she made, and she insisted that people had helped her out in the past and she knew that we would pay the favor forward. "Besides, you're cute." We cried more and she even cried a little, and we were thankful. In the meantime, two ladies who were shopping overheard our conversation and also gave Taylor $20 in his pocket and said, "Life has been good to me, I want to help too." We laughed, cried a little more, and said thank you to the sweet older ladies who were fawning over us and our plight.

We changed our shirts in the dressing room after we had bought them and picked up our suitcases to journey to find some food. We no longer have the luxury of the Main Street Inn, so we're wandering gypsys in Highlands, a place so unlikely for gypsys they even have a Farrari parked on Main Street as a testament of the insane riches around this place. There is no ghetto here - only million dollar lots of land and old couples enjoying shopping in a mountain town.

We have a life to get back to, and I'm stressed that we're not there to live it. It's like having life on hold. I miss Nashville - and Gracie - and wish we were sitting in our living room with Mike's ghost.

Miss you all. See you soon, hopefully, even if we have to sell our car to the scrap yard just to get home. (I hear you can sell it for $10 a pound. That's about $330 on our end and would get us a rental car home, and gas.)

Pictures:

A place where Indians use to give salt to their horses. Behidn the Don Leon Deli Cafe.

Where our car is waiting on us. They are wonderful guys.

The garage

Yours truly waiting at the garage, hoping for good news.

The aforementioned Farrari. That is definitely not our car.

Written Last Night

I wrote this last night, and it is crossposted on our band site.

Right now, we’re stranded in Highlands, NC. Not a bad place to be stranded if you ask me. Our car, the ever-capable “Dottie”, is stuck at the Blue Valley overlook scenic point while we are enjoying the luxury of the Main Street Inn in Highlands, NC. Everyone here is wonderful, the little town is one of retirees and 2nd home vacationers, but I remember it as being a place where my family and I came to escape Birmingham and enjoy the mountain air.

“Dottie” has a flooded engine; our spark plugs are bathed in oil because we have a leak, and although she normally is good with traveling, she now needs new plugs somewhere along Scaly Mountain Road.

Hitching a ride with a young couple, in town for a wedding, we make it to our destination, Highlands, N.C. Finding that the parts store doesn’t open on Sundays, we settle into the town with the knowledge that we’re going nowhere soon. We say our goodbyes also knowing that, had the car not broken down, we’d have probably made friends with these folks anyway. The girl, possibly Ben’s wife, and I believe her name was Jamie, prompted to drive Elsa to name her pony (the plastic toy one she was carrying) Butterscotch, making the ride cheery, in spite of our problems.

Now we’re in the Inn. Ladies at the Don Leon Deli Cafe told us we HAD to come here, and they were right - and now, we’re waiting to fix the car’s brokenness with a great view and a very cozy room.

Tomorrow holds fixing the car and making it home. Right now, we’re enjoying the beauty of a more than 100-year-old inn and the landscape of Highlands.

I hope “Dottie” is alright, but right now, I’m immersed in Appalachia.

In the Mountains of Georgia

I suppose I'm feeling quite "American" today, seeing how my two posts thus far have been baseball, and now, a Memorial Day parade. We went to see El in north Georgia, and I have to admit, there's nothing like a small town parade in the hills of Appalachia to get the heart swelling, no matter what you think about the current affairs of the world and America in it. It always seems the poor areas are the ones hardest hit by the needless wars. Or even a needed war, whatever that means...Anywho, a little parade in Blairsville, Georgia: Ah, bagpipes. Try not crying around these suckers when they kick in:
Part of the parade, an old car:
And the local fire truck:

The Safari

Along with Callaway Gardens, we visited a safari. Judge rented us a van and we drove through the park. It was hilarious.




They were trained, alright. This bison gets a piece of the hand feeding it.

Callaway Gardens Redux

Mas photos - I love this one of the falcon. We went to a Birds of Prey show while at Callaway Gardens. The butterfly conservatory - an amazing place.

Callaway Gardens

Long time no post, here are a couple photos from a recent trip to Callaway Gardens in Georgia. It was a beautiful weekend with E-Rock. She loved it.