Saturday June 22. Day 35. Show in Stanford

I'm in Cupertino today! Home of Apple!

We got here before 3am and had some nice floor time to sleep. 

Amazing day today. 

We had a picnic with the Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard. We played for each other in arcs. There were also a LOT of BD and SCV vets at this picnic. 

It was on Standord Universitie's campus. Really great place here. California is the nicest place I've ever been to. 

Picnic pics

We had a show right here in Stanford right after the picnic. The crown gave it up for us. I loved when people gave us a standing ovation before we finished playing the last note. 

Scores don't matter yet. But we won brass tonight by .1. And we lost to BD overall by .7. 

I can't wait to keep working! 

Friday June 21. Day 34. First show against the Blue Devils

I arrived in Fresno, California this morning at 5:30am. They said we'd get here at 3am. Stupid Los Angeles traffic. It's 6am now. And I have to wake up at 8:30. Yay drum corps life! 

Rehearsal today was short. But we accomplished a lot. 

Horns this morning 

This school loved us. They were having band camp today and they kept stopping rehearsal to come and watch us. 

(Crowd of kids behind the circle)

Sock tan is increasing...

Time for the show!

Great show tonight. It wasn't a big show but there were still a couple of thousand people there to see us. The show went well. We beat the Blue Devils by 0.15. But we can't get excited yet. We have to work harder now. Time to keep it up!

We lost brass and won visual. 

Thursday June 20. Day 33

I survived Arizona! Now I'm in California!!!! 

Banning, California. I arrived here at 5:15 am. Time for a little sleep. Here is the days schedule 

California is amazing. The weather was perfect today. I got up this morning to do scaffolding and there were a group of high schoolers watching us unload the equiptment truck. We have some serious fans here already. They must have been really excited for Crown to come to the West Coast for the first time!!!

Mountains in the background

Some people watching us unload. 

Scaffolding this morning. Enjoying the view! 

Pretty awesome place to rehearse!

Random planned picture of me

Fans watching us rehearse during ensemble!! So many!

So tonight we were 20 minutes into ensemble and the sprinklers went on. It was a turf field. They were watering a turf field. WHO WATERS A TURF FIELD!!!! 

On a side note. Today was the day of the scaffolding lunch adventure with the locked gate and the gator that would not start that made us 45 minutes late to brass block. I'd tell the story but my fingers hurt from typing on this phone. Goodnight. California is amazing. Show against the Blue Devils tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Wednesday June 19th. Day 32 FIRST SHOW

12 hour bus ride to Mesa, Arizona (just outside of Phoenix). 

We took a pit stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

We drove through the entire night. And here are some pictures from when I woke up on the bus. 

Today it is supposed to be 104 degrees here in Phoenix. We will have a short block to chunk through the show before our performance this evening. 

Pics from before breakfast. 

This is a tiny campus of the high school we are at. 

Mountains, heat, clear skies. 

To start the block. Adventures during scaffolding crew! The new trailer hitch did not fit on the tractor. So that was our first delay. Then the road to the field was the longest loop of all time. We drove the tractor down the road, turned into a construction site with giant machines gunning and plowing. The dirt/ gravel road was bumpy and full of holes. Riding on the trailer with the scaffolding pieces was so much fun and yet still dangerous. After we followed the road we found the field! But there was a fence, with a tiny door in it. So we then hauled the fire hot metal scaffolding 200 yards to the field. 

Rehearsal was like walking in a hair dryer. The wind pushed the hot dry air at us. It was so dry and hot that my sweat evaporated off of my body before I noticed it. I felt like we were on mars with the dry dirt mountains in the background. 

On the way to the show. Saw these cacti. Around 25-30 ft tall

My first show was pretty cool. There were about or over 1000 people there to see us. It was 9 pm when we went on. And it was still 98 degrees. We won the show. The Blue Devils were not at this show. I'll be in Banning, California when I wake up! Time to rehearse for Friday's show against the Blue Devils. Bring it.

Pics from the show:

Encore tunes

Singing the corps song.