Skinny in USAThe Lorna Diaries

Chicago – St. Louis (Milage 22997.4)

By March 30, 2012No Comments

Woke up in a club car park at the crack of dawn by a waste management truck, hangovers all round. Ooof. The glamour. Dan Gray wakes on his birthday morning and reminisces about the Taco Bell drive through orders he fell asleep to. We all give a hearty birthday song and present him with a cup of tea and cereal. What a treat!

Dan Gray Birthday Boy

Anyway…kettle in the cupboard, all doors shut and surfaces clear we set off with a full tank of waste water on a 300 mile journey. Dan Gray takes to the wheel and navigates the beast on to the highway.

Route 66

As we get closer to St Louis (pronounced Lewis), we start to worry slightly that we have no clean water so take off down a slip road into the unknown. Eventually we find a state park but it’s shut. Hmm. We really need to dump our waste and refill. Dan Hep and I walk around the park, there’s a couple of permanent RVs kicking about but not a sound other that a couple of birds. Quite eery and I feel like we’re on set for a horror movie. No dumping station found, we hop back into the RV and find another driveway with a house and there’s a smoldering fire outside. Half the group want to drive around the ‘closed’ barriers whilst the other half feel we should go ask at the house. Max volunteers and makes his way to the house. He knocks. No answer. Consensus is to ignore the barriers. The job is down and we feel great for it! Showers before the gig – hurrah! We are officially RV pirates but at least we’re going to be clean.

Pipe expert

We pull up into St Louis (pronounced St Louis) to a great venue ‘The Old Rock House’ and park our RV in the empty car park next to the highway fly over. Another glamorous night’s sleep for us! It also quickly becomes apparent that under the bridge there is a community of people living there. A guy lets himself into the RV and asks for a cigarette, he’s nice enough but we tell him there’s no tobacco in the van…when I come out from the venue I see a guy lying down just behind a post and a woman helping him take his top off…hmmm rude business…maybe not? Dan Gray and Chris go out for a walk to see a massive aluminum arc built in the 60’s and add to our suspicions about the local clientele…the lady had been seen being dropped off by a suspected punter….there’s some more guys about now and we decide there and then to leave that night straight after the gig.

Big Arch

And what a gig it was – great sound, no technical hitches and great fun! The folk in St Louis are great, they love the rum and all that comes with it. Satisfied, we stock up on carry out beers and head to the RV for a party whilst Dan Hep takes to the wheel and drives. We settle in an RV park with full hook up. Luxury.

Flagon action

Mileage: 22997.4 Distance traveled on Day 2: 354.6 miles across Illinois

Only 1000 miles to the next gig…

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