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Saturday Oct 24, 2009. Calgary, AB.

This morning we got up and left Brooks to head for the Calgary airport where for the first time, we're all off to different cities. The drive was quick and easy and we had lengthy conversations about geese which we saw hundreds and hundreds of both the snowy variety as well as the traditional Canadian variety and Pearl Jam which we listened to while watching the geese. (there are some geese flying in this photo but you have to look really closely to see them...) Our show last night in Brooks was pretty fun. This is a photo of Adam trying to get Jenny to eat a spoonful of coffeemate for a quarter. She didn't do it.

After the show we all went back to our own hotel rooms (such luxury!!) and got everything ready for today's flights. It's snowy in Calgary today. My flight is first and I'm at my gate right now waiting for it to start boarding. It's a little delayed... Mine takes me to Saskatoon for a little vacation. Adam and Jenny's takes them to Vancouver in a few hours and Terri's goes to Victoria later this evening. It's the first time we haven't gone home on the same flight. Our October travels have come to a different but still great ending. We had a very successful tour overall and are looking forward to November when our friends The Wild Turkeys are coming out to the coast. We'll be playing with them in Vancouver and Victoria as well as on Gabriola Island so be sure to come and check it out!

Thursday Oct 22, 2009. Lethbridge, AB.

We have two days off between our Eureka show and our Brooks show. We decided that we'd stop somewhere along the way to spend our days off and picked Lethbridge for its cheap Howard Johnson and great pizza. The drive was quick and easy and we got here just after check in time. After getting the internet and the heat figured out we hunkered down for an afternoon rest. I picked up some paratroopers in Eureka and we had a good game of throwing them off the balcony before we walked into town to The Slice for pizza.

Whenever we play in Lethbridge we play at The Slice. It was kind of strange to be there and not be playing. It was fun though and we did much of the same things we always do like play pool, eat pizza and drink beer and whiskey. The band that was playing is called The Joys from London Ontario. They're a rock band and were super fun. They started pretty late and we weren't going to stick around except that we were pretty much the only people there and we felt bad leaving especially after they asked us to stay. So we stayed and it was a really great show!

We hung around after and played some video games and more pool before heading home at a crazy late hour to go to sleep. Our new friends were staying in the hotel across the street from us so we all had breakfast together this afternoon at Denny's. The Joys are on their way now to Calgary and we're back at our hotel relaxing away the afternoon.




Tuesday Oct 20, 2009. Later on. Eureka, MT.
Our concert tonight in Eureka was really fun. Since we met Sharon in Glasgow Jenny has become obsessed with crotcheting. She does it at sound check, before the show, in the van, in the motel room, probably even in the bathroom. Here she is making an orange hat back stage tonight.


Tuesday Oct 20, 2009. Eureka, MT.
We made it! It took a looong time, but we made it.

Yesterday was really icy in Regina so the Victoria plane was delayed. Add that to West Jet's new reservation system that just went into effect, and we land two hours late in Calgary. The Vancouver plane wasn't as late so we managed to get the van and leave the airport by about 2:30. We picked up a bass at Long and McQuade and hit the highway. The drive was smooth and there was hardly anyone on the road. We ate dinner at the good old Northern Hotel in Fernie and hit the border at Roosville at about 8:30. We were a little worried since our official approval hadn't arrived yet in hard copy at the border there. Our time at the border was actually quite fun. We were the only ones there save for the occasional trucker and the border guards seemed to be having fun at work. There was some training going on so were there for a while being amused by Border Guard Jim who doesn't deal with people.. just stuff, and spent his time inbetween trucks looking at our tour journal and joking about wearing mustaches. (Hi Jim!) We were there for about an hour, got all visa-ed up and headed into Eureka where we checked into our home and promptly got into bed.

Eureka is really cool little spot. Terri and I got up early this morning and started walking into town for breakfast. Border Guard Jim happened to pass us on his way into town and gave us a lift to the local breakfast spot. We kicked around downtown for a bit joined by Jenny and Adam a little later and then headed over to the highschool for our assembly. It went smoothly and was good fun. Now we're chillin at the motel before we plan to meet the presenter for dinner next door at the Mexican restaurant.

Wednesday Oct 14, 2009. Victoria, BC.

We're home now. It was long, long drive. More on that later.... first of all, let's go back to Culbertson. After we left the Bean Bag we drove up to Culbertson and found the school without much difficulty. Our eye for school buses, student crossing signs and large expanses of fences along fields is getting really good. Originally, we asked to have only one AIP on our last day in the morning so we could get a good start on the drive which would inevitably be a long one. Then our schedule came in two pages with Culbertson being the only thing on the second page... I didn't see it. So I was surprised to arrive in Chinook where we picked up our complete itinerary and see Culbertson on the list. It was no big deal and we planned our return trip accordingly. Well... we weren't the only ones who were surprised.

It turns out someone forgot to put us on the announcements at Culbertson school, another K-12, so no one knew we were coming. The principal who started out quite flustered but was laughing about it before long insisted it was no trouble at all and that he'd make it work. We would start a little later than scheduled and only play a half hour workshop and be on our way. He shut down the gym class so we could set up and all was well. Then someone pulled the fire alarm. The school, including us, marched outside and waited for the alarm to stop. So far, so good, we still had time for a half hour workshop. It went pretty well. They really like the stomping and clapping part and once we taught it to them they did it on every song. They cheered for Metallica and us and we got some more really great questions:
"Are any of you married? Do you have kids?"
"How did you get so awesome?" (verdict on whether this one was a mean joke is still out)
"Are there pine trees where you come from?"
"Do you know the cheddar?" (it took a few moments and a clever teacher to realize "cheddar" was "cello")

Once we were all finished and photographed for the school newspaper we were on our way. We took the number 2 back the way we came stopping in Wolf Point to pick up some hot chocolate and coffee in 24 ounce cups (those were the smallest they had... we didn't fill them all the way up.) in Glasgow to retrieve Terri's lost scarf and in Chinook to return a stolen motel key (which I think we ended up forgetting to do....) and eat some dinner while we still could. We listened to some stand up comedy between Havre and Great Falls and then hit the 200 over through Lincoln to Missoula. We got to Missoula at about 1:15am which is much better than 5:00am like on the way there and promptly got into bed. It was an early day and a long drive yesterday from Missoula to home. The highway traffic and weather cooperated nicely and we made good time. The border was easy and Vancouver traffic wasn't too bad. We dropped Jenny and Adam off in town and booted it out to the ferry hoping to sneak onto the 7:00. We missed it by 14 cars and watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on my computer while we waited for the 9:00 which was half an hour late because of high traffic. I guess there was some kind of generator fire on an earlier sailing so they were down a boat. We rolled off the ferry into the nice damp, drizzly Island weather at just after 11:00 and headed home to bed. Now we're waiting to see if the rest of our October touring will be just Brooks Alberta or if our visa will be re-amended so we can go to Eureka MT. Stay tuned!

Monday Oct 12, 2009. Sidney, MT.

16 shows in 8 days in 9 towns is making us feel a little old.
We got up this morning nice and early (you'd think we'd be getting used to the early mornings... we're not. They seem to be somehow easier and just as hard as the first morning at the same time.) and warmed up the old Goose. She's really not liking the Montana cold, and it takes about ten minutes or so for her to warm up enough that she'll drive more than ten meters without stalling. (How many feet is that?)

We headed over to Lambert school in Lambert which is about half an hour or so away. Maybe a bit more... it's all starting to get mixed up in my head. For the first time we had a lot of trouble with the school show. The kids didn't seem as into it as the other schools apart from the handful that were obviously really into it, we were feeling really groggy, I felt particularly un-eloquent. By the end of it all though, the kids were yelling for Metallica and everyone left with a big smile on their face. Whew. After the show we headed back to Sidney, checked out of our motel and stopped in at Sunny's the local family restaurant and purveyor of fine moustaches for a little breakfast.

We have one more school show in Culbertson which is 37 miles north of Sidney. After that we're all done and are aiming for our favourite Missoula motel on the way home tonight. Right now we've got some time before we have to leave for Culbertson so we're hanging out at the Bean Bag drinking tea and coffee with our new friend Dave who you might remember from the Mondak Historical Center/Sidney bar hopping entry. Dave had us over for Thanksgiving dinner last night along with our lovely hosts Jill (president of NAN) and Doug (hunter of pheasants) after our concert at the Sidney Middleschool. We had a wonderful vegetarian Thai curry meal. Not our traditional Thanksgiving fare but very welcome after over a week of eating at diners and motel restaurants. Dave works with grasshoppers and luckily for us, remembered he has a holiday today and came to the Bean Bag where we showed up to ask him about driving. Turns out it was only recently made not allowed to drink while driving. We were a little confused at first because where we come from actually consuming alcohol while operating a vehicle is so not ok that we don't even talk about it and "drinking and driving" refers to drinking THEN driving. Here in Montana, up until very recently you could even cheers your state trooper from behind the wheel as long as you weren't over the legal limit. Nowadays they give you a little slap on the wrist and a tiny fine for that sort of thing. Nice to see they're cracking down. "Drunk driving" which doesn't need clarification is punishable in the same way as in Canada with fines and the taking away of ones license. They even these locks for repeat offenders that they put on your vehicle. It's a breathalizer lock that you have to blow into and pass before you can start your car. Cool! We also learned that going the speed limit is generally recomended but they didn't even have a speed limit on Montana highways for a really long time and that's new too. If you do speed just a little bit, they'll pull you over and fine you $20 which you can pay cash out the window of your car if you so choose. Bigger speeding fines are more expensive.

Sunday Oct 11, 2009. Sidney, MT.

It's Sunday afternoon and we're all resting in our hotel rooms after quite the day yesterday. Terri got up early and went to spin class (that's stationary bikes...), I got up not quite so early and met the spinners for coffee after class, Adam got up early for him and went bird hunting with one of our lovely hosts, and Jenny slept in and got up in time for the noon breakfast quest that the spinners and I embarked on. Spin class was fun... Terri kept up and now her bum is sore. Breakfast, followed by a stop at Ribbon and Rails which is a textile store upstairs and a model train shop downstairs where Jenny and I went, was tasty and fun. Hunting was successful! Doug and Adam got two pheasants. Well, Doug got them... Adam wasn't allowed to shoot the gun. But he had a lot of fun hanging out with the bird dog. A pointer, not a retriever and pretty cute too.

The afternoon we spent relaxing before heading over to the Mondak Historical Center for our show. It was an Octoberfest celebration complete with a beer tasting and appetizers. The show was sold out at just over 100 and it was really fun. The Historical Center is really cool and has lots of art and museum stuff in it. There's even a bunch of dinosaur bones! We played a couple of sets and had some beer and then headed over to the bar with our Sidney friends.


Here we are with Dave the president of the Historical Center board, Jill the president of the Northeastern Arts Network board and Paul who is also on the NAN board. Jenny headed back to the motel after a couple of beers at the Historical Center and Dave, Jill and Paul along with a bunch of other folks took Adam, Terri and I bar hopping after the show. We started out at the Ranger drinking Bud Light where I felt compelled to bring out the moustache I picked up earlier today and then headed over to the Cheerio, to the Cattle-ac and back to the Cheerio because the Cattle-ac was closing. We finally made it back to the motel and into bed somewhere between two and three. It was the closest we've got to normal Gruff touring so far!


This morning we got up and had brunch at Jill and Doug's house before picking up our instruments at the Historical Center and heading over to the Sidney Extended Care Home where our afternoon show was today. Now we're having a little rest and some pizza before our last concert of the tour at Sidney Middle School tonight. We're missing Thanksgiving which makes us really sad so our new friend Dave from the Historical Center is going to make us a turkeyless Thanksgiving dinner after the show tonight.

Friday Oct 9, 2009. Sidney, MT.

I have to say that after yesterday, everything is really blurring into one big day. We woke up super early yesterday and drove about half an hour back West from Glasgow to Hinsdale. Right now it feels like it was so long ago we never even did it, nevermind the fact that it was just yesterday. We're getting pretty smooth at setting up our sound gear so we managed to get in a little game of basketball before the show. It's funny hanging out in schools because everything makes us feel really big!

The kids at the Hinsdale school, a K-12 school with 91 kids, were really attentive and had a great time. They were great at clapping and singing along with us and a couple of them even broke out into a two step in one song. After that AIP we packed everything up again and headed back to Glasgow where we checked out of our motel and had a bite to eat before heading over to the highschool to set up for our afternoon AIP. The kids at the highschool, there were about 300, were awesome. It was by far our most excited response. They made us feel like teen pop stars! And! We've been tricking the kids into letting us play the Metallica by asking if they have any requests and then offering them choice of Gordon Lightfoot, "the great Canadian folksinger that our parents really like", The Gruff, or..... Metallica. This time the kids got us! They requested Wagon Wheel and of course we played it. We've been getting really good response from all of the kids so far and the teachers too. They keep applauding us for being able to keep the kids' attention all the way through. After the afternoon show we had some time to kill and no motel to kill it in so we went to this place:

Where we played some pool,

tried to win prizes,

sampled some local beer and exposed ourselves to some local bar food like chicken gizzards. They were gross. We didn't eat them. When it was time we headed back to the school to get ready for the concert. Our new friends Sharon and John (who took us out for pizza the night before) brought down a huge tub full of Sharons hand made hats and scarves so we could trade hats for CDs. We're lucky because it's getting REALLY COLD here.

The concert was really fun. A bunch of the kids from the highschool even came back for the concert which was surprising to both us and all the parents and teachers. After the show we loaded everything back in the van and got ready for the drive to Sidney. Some people were telling us it would be three hours and some a little less. The speed limits here drop by 5 mph at night so we couldn't go as fast as in the day time and everyone warned us about the deer. Kind of like Northern New Brunswick's moose warning, Montana comes with a deer warning. We only saw one and that was right at the highschool as we were leaving. We did see one little skunk though who was trapped on an overpass and looked really scared, poor little fella, and a bunch of his comrades who weren't so lucky. We did see a fair bit of snow though:

Remember this audience?

That's our drunken Edmonton Empress crowd from the summer time.
This was our audience this morning:

What a difference! This morning was the earliest yet. We got up and stumbled down to the freezing cold van and headed over to the first elementary school of the tour. It was super fun. The kids were really into it and clapped and sang and everything. We had a drummer from grade five come up and be our tambourine soloist for the morning and he was great. Question and answer period is getting better and better. We've started compiling a list of the funniest questions kids have asked us. Here it is so far:
Do you get new instruments every day?
Are you famous?
Are you going to have lunch with us?
My Grandpa has one of those.

Wednesday Oct 7, 2009. Glasgow, MT.

Today we've got almost a whole day off and are in Glasgow. We had to get up early again and drive half an hour East of Malta to Saco for an AIP at the school there. It's another K-12 school and I'd say we played for about 60 kids. It was our earliest AIP so far and the show went pretty well despite the early hour. The principal of the Saco school has what he calls a 'McDonalds fetish' and wears a different McDonalds tie every day. Today's tie was thick horizontal stripes of a close up of a hamburger. He has over 50 McDonalds ties and over 70 McDonalds shirts. He also plays a mean tambourine.

After the assembly we headed to Glasgow where we had the rest of the day off. After taking a walk into downtown we went back to our motel where we all had a very relaxing afternoon full of lots of napping and CSI. We had dinner with Sharon and John who are on the board here in Glasgow at the pizza place across from our motel. We had a really fun time and learned all sorts of new things. We've been trying to figure out just what Homecoming is and I think it's finally been decided that no one really knows. Just an excuse for a football game, a big party and a parade. We also learned that deer can't see colour, and that guns aren't permitted on school grounds so if you're planning on going hunting after school you have to park across the street. Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day of the week. We have a workshop in the morning in Hinsdale which is a tiny bit of a back track, one here in Glasgow in the afternoon, a concert here in Glasgow in the evening and a three hour drive to Sidney to get ready for our earliest AIP on Friday morning.

Tuesday Oct 6, 2009. Malta, MT.

It's mid afternoon on day two of our school show week. Our very first school show ever which was yesterday afternoon in Chinook went really well! We played at the high school there which is grades 6-12 I think. If I remember correctly middle school is 6, 7, and 8 and high school is 9-12 and they're both in the same building. The kids had a lot of fun and joined us whenever we asked and although they didn't have many questions they did have quite a few requests. One of them was Metallica which we were happy to be able to honor. The concert that night was actually in the motel we stayed at which was very convenient. The evening started with a bratwurst/hot dog bar dinner and micro brew tasting at 5:30. I had a hot dog. The hot dogs here are red! The concert was after dinner and really, really fun. At one point we had both the audience and ourselves laughing so hard we had to stop playing and start a new song. The Gruff's favourite Montana microbrew was by far the Moose Drool brown ale. Mmm.... drooley....

It was an early morning today in Chinook. Today is a big day. Not the biggest of the week, that'll be Thursday, but pretty big. We got up too early for breakfast and made do with toast and peanut butter because that's all we could stomach (except for Adam who ordered the regular eggs and sausage). It was awfully chilly this morning. The windows of the van even needed to have the frost scraped off them. The Goose isn't taking to the colder weather very well. We have to warm her up for a really long time or she'll stall out. While we were warming up The Goose, Terri stopped in at Bikini Coffee to pick up some coffee for the early morning drive to Dodson where we had our first stop of the day. The lady at Bikini Coffee (which is like a day at the beach) was overjoyed that Terri stopped by the drive thru window in what she thought was the dress code...

After Terri put her clothes back on, we headed for Dodson which is about 70 miles East of Chinook. We're learning our miles... slowly... 70 miles is an easy one when the speed limit is 70mph which is pretty average it seems. Dodson is very tiny. Everyone in Chinook told us we'd miss it if we blinked so we kept our heavy eyelids open. We played at the school in the lunch room for the entire student body which was less than 100 kids. They were very attentive through the whole hour they had us play for, and seemed to really enjoy it. Our favourite thing so far is that no one down here seems to know what a toque is. We've been filling them all in and are hoping there will be school kids all over North Eastern Montana telling their friends they have a "nice toque, eh?"

After we finished at Dodson every kid in the school lined up and shook each of our hands as they headed back to class. We loaded everything back up and headed another 17 miles East to Malta. Malta is much bigger than Dodson and Chinook. Our afternoon workshop was at the highschool which is another middle school and highschool combined. The highschool in Malta is much bigger and has a nice fancy auditorium with a stage and soft seats and everything. We got all set up and did a 45 minute workshop with the 300 and some kids at the school from grades 6-12. We even called a volunteer up to help us out with some tambourine. These kids also really enjoyed Metallica (we're sensing a trend) and one of them even knew what a toque was. After the workshop, (which is called an AIP - Artist Informance Program and is where we 'provoke thought in students regarding cultural heritage, similarities and differences' by using interaction between them and us in an 'informal, yet educational atmosphere.') we found our motel, got set up and headed down to the coffee shop in the lobby for pie and coffee/tea. Now we're all in our respective rooms having a well deserved rest before tonight's concert at the school.

Sunday Oct 4, 2009. Chinook, MT.

The Gruff are at it again! This time we're all officially non-immigrant workers in the States! We started off in style. Technically we haven't played quite yet but we're had plenty of adventures already. We left Victoria for Missoula Montana rather late in Gruff standards and took the eleven o'clock ferry. The Midnight Goose was due for an oil change so we thought we'd get a quick lube up at Mr Lube, pick up Jenny and be on our way. Well.... there's no such thing as a quick oil change. We were there for a long time not a good time. When we were finally all ready to go, the van wouldn't start. We jumped her and picked up Jenny, stopped for gas and she wouldn't start again. This time we just jiggled the battery connection and she was good to go. Concerning but not as concerning as a rapid death battery. The border crossing was the shortest part of the trip. It all went very smoothly except for the part that our visas are only good for part of the tour. The original application was only approved for the first nine days of tour and missed one last show in Eureka MT on Oct 20th. It supposedly got amended to include that date but when we arrived to get our visas the border guard said it was only approved til the 12th and perhaps the amendment just didnt' make it all the way to the Peace Arch. All hope is not lost yet... I just have to get a hold of the union tomorrow and hope we can get the amendment amended. After we crossed the border we drove to Bellingham for dinner. It was tasty. Then we encountered all sorts of crazy things like way more traffic than we anticipated in Washington, a huge dusty wind storm in Idaho and a time change in Montana. We made it to Missoula all right. At 0500hrs on the button. After a few hours of sleep in beds at the Mountain Valley Inn in Missoula (only the best motel EVER! and not just cause we'd been travelling for twenty hours and it was five in the morning.) we loaded up and headed for Chinook.

Montana is beautiful. And.. stark. Similar to Alberta, it changes from huge mountains to flat prairie land in a matter of minutes. We stopped for gas just outside of Great Falls and got called 'darlin' by the young man with the very pronounced accent (we love that!) and finally rolled into Chinook at about seven o'clock. This tour is going to be very different from any other tour we've ever done. We're about to start eight days in tiny towns in North Eastern Montana. We'll be playing workshops for school kids by day and concerts by night. And! It's October, so at least two of our concerts are going to be Octoberfest celebrations complete with bratwurst and microbrew tasting. We rehearsed our workshop tonight and get to try it out for the first time tomorrow afternoon at the highschool here. We're not really sure to expect but I'm thinking that the week will be pretty darn fun all around. After that, we return to Canada on the 12th and head home for a few days. If our visa amendment comes through, we'll be back to Montana for one more workshop and concert on Oct 19 and another show in Brooks Alberta on the 23rd. Stay tuned to hear all about it!