GREAT TIMES... GREAT FRIENDS

Just spent two great days with some very good friends. So I Was away from the corps fora few days. I really enjoyed that. It was time for some change in the daily routine.
The corps travelled to Reading after all last night, so I am happy I found my way out here before them.
I put my bags back on our bus again once the corps parked at the stadium. They were the last ones to arrive at the showsite and as usual we were the last ones out tonight.



Today we all had a very nice breakfast at Lisa's house. I woke up on the couch with the TV still on. See,.. that happens to me every single time. It's almost like being home... Remote control still in one hand...
Today we went by Lisa's work to pick up a Windows set-up cd rom to help reboot my laptop again. Then we went to Philadelphia and had lunch at Dave & Buster's. That's a great place, almost casino-like, but then more kids-oriented. You can play all sorts of games there. On the menu they had a special combo "eat & play", so with your meal you'd get a $10 playing card . Mike used up three of those I think. On our way out of the city we drove by some historical sites in Philly and then hit the highway towards Allentowm. We had spome really BAD weather on our way over there. I was afraid the show was going to be cancelled. That would have been a shame. Especially for Paola, since this was her first DCI show ever!



Fortunately it cleared up when we got to Allentown. With a delay of hone hour we had plenty of time to check out the souvenir trailers and chat with people we ran into.
Best part of the evening: I finally found my friend Andi back after so many years! We marched Reading Buccaneers together in 1987. I had seen her a couple of years after that, when she marched Cadets and when she was drum major for Bushwackers and Buccaneers, but then lost her out of sight.

Every year when I was in Allentown and I ran into some old Bucs friends I kept asking for her. We finally got in touch earlier this year (Hooray for Facebook!) so we had set a "date" for tonight. And guess what... while walking through the park behind the stadium to check out some of the warm-ups she tapped me on the shoulder. Met her family too. Felt like I had known her husband for some years too. Strange how some things seem familiar. Two kids. Everyone dressed in Cadets colours! Nice! I hope we can keep in touch now on Facebook. Have been missing that!

The show was great too! I didn't sit through all performances though. Have seen most corps before a couple of times this summer. With Paola I checked out the Blue Devils wrm-up for a little bit and then hurried back into the stadium because Glassmen were on right after the intermission. Well, guess what. Intermission got cancelled, so we only caught the last few chords of Glassmen's show.
On our way up the hill to get to the stands we ran into Dan Acheson, CEO for Drum Corps International. I introduced my Italian friend to him. She was reall surprised when I explained later who Dan was. I don't think she got it right away when they met.



We found great seats right at Press Box level to see Cavaliers, Cadets and Blue Devils. What fantastic performances!! I love Cadets' music! Definitely my favourite musical book by far this season! Devils topped the show again with another strong lead. I said gooodbye to Luigi & family and Lisa and Paola. They were all going back to Delaware. I was to get back on our vehicle.
I am typing this as we are on one eof thelongest stretches of this tour. It's well over 10 hours of driving. I feel sorry for our driver Warner! Buffalo here we come!

Enjoy,

HK