hello stranger

hi minions, 

well the ole internet has been scarce. because of this i have fallen waaay behind so i'm gonna try and post a shit load of stuff to get a lil caught up. we are holed up in a motel in parksville, on vancouver island. it is awesome here.  last night we played the rod & gun pub. very interesting.we spent our day off  checking out the town and hanging on the beach. it is pretty beautiful here. i have some pics and vids i'll post from van island but first we need to catch up...the pics above are form the trip from banff to kelowna including........here's the vid's etc....

BANFF:

driving into banff from calgary the rocky mountains tease you immediately...for a good solid hour you get a lil closer and a lil closer. the excitment of feeling that fresh mountain air go into your lungs is so much that i find myself hanging my head right out the window taking it all in. we arrived in banff and loaded our gear in the rose n crown for two nights. our coach the fearless barry morrison was also with us for two more nights. the shows were not so well attended but we had fun and rock the joint anyway. we spent wednesday hanging around town and went to a place for breaky/lunch that used to be a swingers club in the 70's. there were phones at each table and the placemat was a map with all the tables numbered so you could call which ever table turned you on....our phone didnt work. the food was not so good and grossly over priced. although banff is a great little town as far as scenery goes it just plain sucks for glitzy exspensive tourist trape-ness. i would take canmore first anyday. anyway we had a nice dinner at the band house on wednesday. a tai peanut thingy whipped up by master cheffy K Gans. Thursday morning we hit the road for an all day drive to kelowna........check the vid's!

MB

if you have never driven from banff to kelowna i would suggest that you do so soon. it is absolutely stunning. from giant snowcapped rocky mountains to the most lush green valley's to the bluest lakes you have ever seen. Ghost towns, Goat walks, beaver valley's and more exciting things than you can shake a stick at. this drive was more on the quiet side in the old van. each one of us looking out the windows at the breathtaking scenery trying to wrap our heads around how or why we were even there. when your cell reception abruptly dies just past revelstoke it is clear that you are deep in the heart of western canada. this is probably my favorite part of the canadian highways that i have seen. we stopped at lake louise to tourist it up a bit. what a gorgeous place. i got some great shots from there, and banff,  that are posted at the top of this entry.....while roaming the hotel we encountered a harpist and as we walked into the room she kindly made her way into a beautiful rendition of stairway.....here's a taste....

we also stopped for a pee at this place that had really friendly critters called ground squirrels that shawn decided to play with. here they are

 

the green valley of the shushwap and lake country is just ridiculous. i forgot how much i love and miss the oakanagan. the lake is awesome and we spent all week enjoying its beauty. Karls parents place overlooks. we spent many hours on the deck enjoying coffee, dinner, rehersal, beers, bbq and all round good times. Big thanks to Karls parents for treating us with great food and fun stories. this couple certainly goes into the books for awesome people. the first video is just a glimpse of what you see from the deck. the second is a "hat party" we had the first night at casa gans. enjoy.

we had a time at our gig in enderby. the last time we played here we met a fellow named robert planet AKA the one armed man. we had our fingers crossed that he would be there so we could get a video clip of him. to try and describe how crazy he was would be impossible. i wanted to record it so  people would know what true unbridled whacky-ness was.  alas, it would not be so. he never showed. to add to our confusion, when we asked our host lorne about rober planet, lorne didnt even remember him being there last time...perplexing for sure. we culdnt figure it out as not a day has gone by since then that i dont think of the one armed man.  i'd post some video from this night but its a little lethbridge-y.......as in we were to "funny" to post the evidence....maybe we'll put it in the DVD.....

osoyoos was pretty typical. no one there, we rocked and then went home. sunday we hung out at karls folks place then went in to kelowna to the blue gator jam night. it was a little strange as our style of blues sticks out like a sore thumb here. we got up and did a couple tunes and it was fun but a little weird. afterwards we went over to roses pub in the fancy hotel on the lake. they were having a rock jam night so we got up and pretty much barfed our tunes all over them. the kids seemed to like it and we had a blast and felt good about it all. i guess i should say that this was a strange night for me as i sort of cut my teeth in kelowna at these bars. i used to play bass in a band from the okanagan called dog skin suit and we played the original gator a lot. i used to go to roses every week for their jam and wait to get up and do my thing. i learned a lot by playing these places years ago and it was neat to see some kids doing the same thing now. very nostalgic night all in all.

tuesday we killed the after noon by having a rehearsal for our acoustic show outside on karls parents deck. this was all too surreal. the poplar trees were in bloom and it was quite windy so on the right moment it kinda looked like it was snowing on a super sunny day. its moments like this that make us shake our head and realize how fortunate we are to be able to do what we do. more than once we all looked at each other and just shook our heads thinking how awesome life is. again a LARGE thanks to karls family for being so kind. we love you guys. here's a little video to try and give you an idea how awesome this day off was......

so that catches us up a bit.....tomorrow i'll try and get to work on the vancouver island trip. its only been a day and a half but its wicked! this is a wonderful place on earth people. it you haven't been you need to. till then.

MB