Home

It has to sound ridiculous, but the last couple days of this tour were, for us, a lovely dream of a time. We fell into a hotel in Eau Claire on the night of the 23rd, and tried to sleep in as late as we could before driving up to Duluth. (We were going to need that sleep!) We left the hotel at 3pm for our show at the Univ. of MN-Duluth, a campus that has always been so supportive and welcoming to us. It was another lovely evening with the fabulous Dave Mehling opening, and a kind and attentive audience in the very cool Rafters venue. (Special thanks to Paul and Christina for setting us up!)

We took off from Duluth a bit after midnight (EST) to head back for our hotel in Eau Claire... We greeted the front desk manager at 3am and said goodbye to him again at 6am... He was kind enough to grab Justin a couple bagels and send us on our way with a few tired-but-kind words. :)

And so we were headed home. Driving down 53 and then I-94, heading south and vaguely toward Rockford IL, watching the sun rise to our left in a grand orchestra of a morning which, as it always always does (dangit), lulled me right to sleep. Justin was left on his own, as he knew he would be, with Terry Gross to keep him company. We headed into IL and stopped at the first Oasis for the inevitably regular and necessary break, and for the inevitable and necessary Starbucks. (But we'll have you know it's always decaf... It's the ritual of coffee; not the caffeine -- And it's such a beautiful thing.) :) It'd been a while since we'd had coffee -- (Tom, that Peet's Coffee was so awesome!) -- So this made our morning, and enlivened the drive through Chicago.

Which, as on our way Tuesday, went mostly-smoothly, no complaints. (And praises for the nearly-done construction!! How many years has it been?!) :)

Heading down I-65 was surreal as it almost always is... The re-entering of home-like territory, the well-worn paths that Indiana's highways are for us. It's a 10+ hour drive from Eau Claire to Covington KY (where our show was last night), and we were ecstatic to have somehow arrived 15 minutes ahead of our goal-time. Oh the glories.

And at The Carnegie no less, for the close of our tour... This venue/theater that we've grown to love so much, the place where we filmed An Evening with Ellery last year, and with which we feel so much personal connection for several other surprisingly emotional reasons.
And we were opening for the stunningly kind and talented Dar Williams, such a gift... So we got to stretch our legs for a while as we listened in on her soundcheck before our own setup, etc.

We expected Dar to be the beautiful performer that she is, but we couldn't have predicted her kindness, or that of her tourmates... It was such a lovely encounter -- So many thanks to all of you for allowing us to share the evening. And to John Magus, Jon Sheperd, Bleu Penwell, and the many others who made our homecoming such a memorable, gentle evening.

I'm so happy to say that our hometown just never disappoints. SUCH a beautiful audience; so open and supportive -- It's always such an amazing thing to play in our city. Thank you thank you for listening, and for your graciousness; we feel so honored to call Cincinnati home.