A Week to Remember...

Top Three Pics - Beaumont, Texas

1. Lee Pelly & Me at the Star Bar, Uptown Beaumont
2. Bobbi Toy & Me
3. Me playing at the Star Bar

Pic 4 - New Orleans

5 & 6 - Birmingham










It started on the road one week ago where I drove from West Palm Beach to Tallahassee, Florida. When I arrived in Tallahassee I happened to come across a nice park with lighted tennis courts where I practiced on my ball machine for a couple of hours. Then I found a sports bar and ate wings & watched the Super Bowl. Next I found a parking lot to crash in, as the National Forest I tried to go to had already closed. So anyway, I locked my key in the ignition right before I was gonna go to bed, as I thought the other doors were unlocked, so I locked the drivers side. Whoops - I ended up borrowing a pair of locking plyers from a fellow who worked at the nearby Waffle House and was able to use them to crank my corner driver's side window's lock open. So, I was in with a grin and ready to relax and watch Tommy Boy on my van's fancy DVD player. I ended up stopping the movie to go to sleep, but didn't turn off the ignition because I was tired and didn't feel like it. I woke up, brushed my teeth in the nearby woods, turned the ignition to start the van but it wouldn't start. Well, that's okay I thought, I'll just plug my handy solar panels up to the battery and let it charge while I do my morning Bible reading. That's what I
did. Fifteen minutes later I was done reading and turned the key to start the van. It started right up and I was rolling. Thanks solar panels. Next destination, Birmingham, Alabama to stay with Julie Johnson, a friend from college who is now a nurse and has a roommate who is a nurse as well.
I arrived there in the early afternoon, practiced tennis and trained on her apartment complex courts. Julie soon got back from a work meeting and we all hung out and made a steak, potato, bread & veggie dinner. The next day after tennis & training we went out for a tour of Birmingham and ate at the famous Dreamland Bar-B-Q. They took me out to see the Statue of Vulcan who overlooks the city (see pic.) We watched Tommy Boy (again) that night and went to bed. The next day after getting some stuff done on my computer and Julie was done with doing my laundry (Thanks Julie!), I had fixed their wireless Internet, and done my workout I was on the road again. Mind you today is Wednesday. Next destination, New Orleans.

I arrived in New Orleans at dusk and parked the Big Blue Van on Royal Street in what I found out was the French Quarter and one street away from Bourbon Street. I took my own little tour down Bourbon Street and ate at some place there. I then drank a nasty mixture of vodka (from my van) and orange juice and headed out to play my pipes at Jackson Square, a place that I found out was legal for playing my pipes. I made $51 bucks in a little less than an hour before a cop told me it was too late to play as people were sleeping nearby. I spent the rest of the night hanging out on Bourbon Street checking out the various pubs (drinking water the whole time), then drove the van to a place where I could crash. I ended up in some apartment complex parking lot somewhere outside the city. When I woke up it was time to begin traveling to my next
destination - Lumberton, Texas, just north of Beaumont.

I made it by about 6pm to the workplace of the couchsurfer I set up to stay with named Bobbi. We then went and got some food with a couple of her friends at Crazy Jose's Mexican Restaurant in Beaumont. Then we went back to her home where she showed me my very own room where I would be sleeping, where I shortly afterward crashed.

Next day (Friday) Bobbi went to work while I went to the local Wellness Center in Beaumont that she had set me up with the day before. I practiced on my ball machine then worked out at the most incredible gym I've been in since the awesome Fitness Factory I had worked out in when I lived in Charlotte. Later we went out to the Star Bar where Bobbi was setting me up with a gig.

Let me pause a minute to tell you about Bobbi. She deals with insurance claims at
Progressive Insurance for a living. Beyond that, she knows just about everybody of power in Beaumont. In other words, she has the hook-up. She knows the news people, the restaurant people, the bar people, the wealthy people, and everyone else. She has helped me get gigs, news articles, website ideas, gain contacts, collected money at my gigs, and done just about everything to help me succeed on the Journey America Tour. God couldn't have set me up with someone better and I'm quite thankful.

Okay, so fast-forward to Saturday night, where I played at the Star Bar on Crockett Street in downtown Beaumont. I never thought Texas people would be so receptive to the pipes, but they were. I never thought I'd play Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave so many times in a night, but I did... over and over again by request. I ended up playing at two bars and a Wedding Reception (yes, and I accidentally knocked the glass out of the groom's hand while on the dance floor - big whoops... time to go now! Thanks for having me everybody!) Let me tell you I couldn't do anything wrong last night, it was almost humorous. Everybody just loved seeing a fully kilted bagpiper and hear the pipes played. By the end of the night I had made $120 in tips and Bobbi handed out several advertisements for the 'Feed the Van' campaign.

It is Sunday now and we went to church at an old country Baptist Church this morning, which was absolutely awesome and something out of a movie. There wasn't anything but a chapel full of the kindest older people you ever met, a great minister, and the music...

So here I am now, I will be doing a TV interview for the local news here in the morning telling about what I'm up to. I'll keep you all posted...

Signing off...

~ Nate