Wasn't our fault

Friday, January 2, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: 25 degrees

Our second show started at 10 pm, so I took it easy for most of the day, eating quality food at affordable prices in the chow hall...

...and going to the BX to pick up water because it's extremely dry in Greenland. Very easy to get dehydrated. 

We took the stage at 10 pm for our second show.

Me rocking my epic beard.

Behind the scenes with one of the Bandana's patriotic bandanas, brought specially for the trip.

I heard they were even singing "Purple Rain" with us in the bathrooms during this show. 

All I'll say about the rest of the night was that it wasn't our fault. But it did cause the OCB to be officially put into place. 

So this is the new year

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Location: Greenland

Temperature: 30 degrees

We had Thursday off, and most of the base was taking it easy. I got up in time to watch my Bulldogs beat Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl. Luckily they get ESPN in Greenland. 

Without much going on that day, here are some pictures of where we were:

Outside of the hotel. The entire base was pretty much covered in the yellow glow of street lamps all the time.

The other dorms around us, as they're called.

Inside: 

The rooms. No flat screen, unfortunately.

Community bathroom! Like freshman year in Creswell all over again. But much cleaner.

One of the Mercedes taxies that took us around the base.

We finished the night sitting around playing acoustic guitar. We found out one of the airmen, Banks, played tenor sax. He brought it over for an awesome impromptu jam session. We got it together to have him play on our version of "Last Dance with Mary Jane" the next night at the TOW Club. Unfortunately, I forgot to make pictures of either of these events.

Happy 2009

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Location: Thule Air Base, Greenland

Temperature: -6 degrees

After checking in, we began a whirlwind that pretty much lasted until we stepped onstage. It was pretty strange when the sun never came up that day--24 hour darkness. We had to go to Supply where we were issued winter gear including the warmest parka I've ever worn, iron pants, masks, mittens, etc. We went to the Base Exchange (BX) to pick up food in case we were trapped in our rooms during a storm condition Charlie (when blizzard storm conditions are so dangerous everyone is quarantined to their rooms). By this time it had warmed to about 25 degrees (which I was not expecting), and signs pointed to an oncoming storm.

We dropped our equipment at the Top of the World (TOW) Club where we'd be playing all our shows. 

The sound system was in rough shape, so Brion and Jeremy camped out at the club until show time working on it. The rest of us went back to the hotel for some lunch and I took a couple hour nap. I woke up at 4:30 pm and wasn't quite sure if it was night or day. That darkness'll getcha. In the end, everything was set up and ready to go by the time we took the stage at 10 pm. The onstage sound improved as the week went on, but the clubbed was packed and in good spirits--and so were we--so the show went really well. Some pics from it:

Tired but ready to rock.

Rocking. I'm in hiding.

The Air Force rocking. Probably to "Purple Rain."

After the show, some new friends came back to hang out at the hotel--many became good friends over the next week. I had left some books in my window to prop it open while I was gone (yeah, yeah, it's Greenland and cold outside, but it was hot in the hotel room). My books got snowed on and were frozen when I found them. My apologies to the Nashville Public Library.

A couple hours after we got back, the base was put under Charlie, so everyone but the band and crew had to clear out. It never looked too bad out the window to me. I finally got some much needed sleep and slept until the next afternoon. I think most of the base did, too.

Over the ice and through the tundra

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Location: McGuire AFB, NJ

Temperature: 37 degrees

We woke up to begin what would be about a 30 hour day that would take us to the North Pole. First thing is lunch at one of the better named restaurants on a military base.

Then, eventually, onto one of the better modes of transportation I've ever been on (and probably ever will be). The pictures can't give perspective of how big the C-17 was--it was likely a flying warehouse that traveled at 80 percent of Mach I.

Dinner.

Cargo.

Locked up tight.

Good Luck.

Darryn, Coach, Anderson and Brion got to go up into the cockpit. I'm jealous.

A five hour flight later and very little sleep later we finally arrived in Greenland just to continue on with the day. Our first stop was to check in at the North Star Inn.

How did we end up in Jersey?

Monday, December 29, 2008

Location: Baltimore, MD

We awoke to coffee and a breakfast buffet that was not worth the $11.75 it apparently cost but we didn't have to pay for. Tastes like free. This was mainly to tide us over until we had to be back at the airport at 11 that night. But the Air Force had other plans. Since our plane was still not ready (the newest DC-8 was made in 1973, so the part had to be built), we were bused to McGuire Air Force Base outside of Trenton, NJ. 

It's not the nicest ride, but we finally made it on a bus. (Call 1-877-Let-Me-Sleep for all your travel needs).

A picture synopsis of what happened after we arrived at the terminal at McGuire:

Being told the pilot of our flight didn't have clearances to land in Greenland (ie. on an icy runway between two mountains):

We were this close to leaving before they told us they couldn't find the second pilot they lined up. Apparently he just didn't want to go. I didn't know you could do that.

The guys working felt bad enough for us to take a picture in the terminal. 

More hotels/waiting/keeping up our chops.

Going to Tennessee...

Dear Blog,

We broke the Air Force. It wasn't our fault.

Sincerely, 

On Tracy Lane

ps. We're all back in Nashville, safe and somewhat sound. The above is a synopsis of the trip. In the following posts I'll explain how and why. I'll try to post as I would've had it been real time. It's pretty wild.

The internets haven't made it to Greenland

Current Location: Greenland
Current Temp: -7 degrees (-22 windchill)

Friends,

Well, it appears our promise of "wifi internet in every room" here in Greenland actually means "if you want to use the internet you have to go the community center across base and pay for it." With that in mind, I decided to limit the blog to this post explaining why I'm not bloging, and will post the entirety of the blog when I get back and get my notes sorted out. It's been nice, no cell phone, no email (ok, I checked one five minutes ago, but it was time important).

Greenland is great, I'll write all about it as soon as I get back to a keyboard that's not Danish with all the keys moved around.

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