There's a funny and interesting thing that happens when you hit a certain spot in the middle of the US (at least to me), and that's the strange blend of North, South, and West. Obviously, Henry, that's why it's called "Middle America", but to actually witness it before your eyes is awesome. Illinois, for example, is home to Chicago, one of our biggest, one of our biggest metropolitan centers. But travel a little west, and you'll see farmland as far as the eye can see. For two hours, we were witness to some breathtaking views of farms, silos, and corn. It sounds boring-- and if I lived here, I might go insane after a few weeks-- but it was gorgeous to look at.

It's also easier to see how commonplace things to us, like Starbucks and large buildings, can be labled as "elitist" (or what have you) out here. There are long stretches out here, hours and hours, without anything except corn, car wash lots, and a McDonald's here and there. I'm not writing that to shit on anyone, it just puts things in perspective. I'd actually like to spend a little time out here if I ever get a chance.

Dubuque is just across the Mississippi (which, as it happens, is also the Illinois/Iowa border). "The Masterpiece on the Mississippi", it's called; it's a nice looking town, and a lot more developed than I'd anticipated. We were greeted at the club, the Silver Dollar Cantina, by Brandon of the band Black Bloom. The Silver Dollar is a neat little Tex-Mex restaurant with a pretty good stage in the back of the room. We unloaded our crap and shortly thereafter made our way to Black Bloom HQ just a few blocks away for some grub (awesome BBQ, cooked wonderfully by Micheala). We all talked a bit about politics, appropo because Iowa was where Obama won his first primary, and the presidential debates would be happening later on.

Back at the club, everyone there was very accomodating and friendly to us. Michelle, the woman who booked us and is the general manager there also teaches at a college part-time. She reminded me a lot of Kerri Kenney (in appearance only, I mean... not in that crazy "I'm in love with Office Dangle" way). To coincide with the debates they were having a voter registration drive at the venue-- which was very cool.

Since we've been operating on Central Time, the debates started at 8pm for us, which gave us a chance to try and watch some of it. We gave up pretty quickly, though, the closed captioning was painfully slow-- there was no sound-- and it was getting creepy when some of Obama's text was superimposed briefly over John McCain's face. We'll probably catch the rest on C-Span later on or something. I'm sure McCain was full of shit.

The show didn't go off as planned for us. We had a few sound issues that were difficult to deal with, but we made it through okay.

Afterward, we hung out with the Black Bloom kids at their place, made a few pizzas, and played with their pug Carter (that dog loves chasing things... and humping them). I can say we had a really good time hanging out with them, and I suspect this won't be the last time we cross paths.

Next: Highland, Indiana.

Cheers,
Henry

Labels: tourdiary