Up the next day, Susan goes for a walk but I'm
feeling too warn out to go for a run. We meet most everyone
in the breakfast room. We are greeted by the sound of
one of the patrons retching into a bucket in the lobby.
He either had a bad case of the flu or he took or ate
something that did not agree with him. Finally the desk
calls 911 and they pick him up and take him to a hospital.
I hope the poor guy is alright. I go back to the hotel
room and watch some TV while I play my ukulele. Plans
are made for Laurie, Lisa, Susan, and I to go check out
the Mall of America and to visit Ted at the new Wilebski's
Blues Saloon.
At around 1 pm we drive Big Mama over to the Mall of America.
If you have not been there, it is purported as being the
largest indoor mall in the United States. It is near the
Minneapolis airport. It is huge. Susan and I have been
here before and it took us several days to see the whole
thing. Once inside we immediately get lost. There is an
amusement park inside which includes several roller coasters
and a ferris wheel. We all are hungry, so we search for
a place to eat. We tried the Twin City Grill but it was
very crowded so Susan and Lisa go off to find another
restaurant. Susan calls to say they found the Napa Valley
Bistro which looks pretty good. Laurie and I get lost
for several minutes trying to find it but finally we locate
it and have a nice meal. It is funny that we have to drive
several thousand miles to eat at a place that has a Californian
theme. Perhaps this is a new theory developing.
After lunch we walk around a bit but we all know that
we are too tired to see the whole mall so we get a little
dessert at a Toll House Cookie vendor and head back to
the van. We drive over to Ted's new club that used
to be called Club Cancun. There is a big remodel job going
on and we find Ted inside who greets us warmly. He is
proud to show off his club. The stage is huge with a tall
ceiling. The backdrop of the stage is a mural with the
Wilebski's Blues Saloon logo painted on it. He also
has some painted panels that he is going to put on the
front of his building that will depict the blues genre
and style. He has a lot of work to complete but it will
be nice when it is done. He hopes to be open the following
weekend. I hope he gets it done as Jimmy Thackery is coming
in to play. Ted expresses apologies for the inconvenience
of the sudden venue change and hopes that we will come
back to play in his new club someday. Laurie lets him
know that we are grateful he did not cancel on us even
though it might have been a hardship on him. Ted is a
standup guy who has been involved in promoting the blues
for many years and we are happy to have met him.
We say our goodbyes to Ted and he lets us know he will
be there most of the night tonight at Valentino's.
We head back to the hotel get some dinner and rest before
the evening's show. Susan and I get some Subway
and eat back in the hotel room. I'm still feeling
a little warn out so it is nice to get a bit of rest before
the show.
We head back to the club at about 8:15 pm. Jeff, the soundman,
told us the night before that he was going to improve
the p.a. situation at the club for tonight's show. When
we get there, there is no Jeff. When he finally arrives
it is after 9 and he has brought with him two self powered
monitors, one of which he has dropped outside the club.
To top it off he is wearing a plaid shirt with plaid shorts
that do not match. I tell him, "You know you are
a real soundman when you can wear two kinds of plaid".
When he tests his monitors out only one is working so
we go with just the one monitor. Without the humongous
monitors we were using the night before, the sound is
more tolerable. Quite a few people have gathered and the
room is quickly filling up. Jeff tells us that we do not
need to start until 9:30 pm. Apparently Jeff has the authority
to call the start and stop times. Who knew? So, we kick
back and visit folks before we play, many who we recognize
from the night before. Not a bad sign when you have repeaters.
Cool.
We play our first set and we get dancers right from the
start. The dance area is very small, and is between the
band and the PA speakers. It only takes a few couples
to block the view of the band but everyone still seems
to be enjoying the music. We play our usual two 75 minute
sets with a half hour break in between. Ted comes up to
the mic before our first break and gets the audience to
applaud our show. It looks as though this night's
crowd is a little stronger than the Friday night's
crowd. We play our last set with a lot of intensity and
our audience is glad they came. We finish with a bang.
We get Big Mama packed and then Laurie and Lisa go off
to find Ted to get paid. Ted comes through, and hopes
that we will plan to come back. This just shows what a
class guy Ted is. I know he had to have taken a loss on
the weekend, but he stuck to his word and commitment.
Thanks, Ted.
It starts raining just as we finish loading Big Mama and
by the time we get back to the hotel it is pouring. I'm
glad the rain waited. We get back to the asylum, I mean,
hotel around 2 am and rest for a few short hours before
we need to do a 14 hour drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Cheyenne
is a layover spot and a no play day. We will stop at a
hotel in Cheyenne before we head out to Salt Lake City
to play at Pat's BBQ.
