Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ

Adjusting focus at the world-famous CBT. Notice the tiny, shaky rope ladder used for access to the left. Damn.

Almost Paradise

Ok, I have to say the view outside my window at The Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami is lovely. Hardly anything to complain about, even though Evan's and my lunch, a taco salad, a hambuger & 2 sodas, cost $45.00, before the tip, and we're near the Airport, and the Hotel is directly under the landing path of the planes...THEY'RE NOT TOO LOUD!!! Certainly not as loud as the
"FREIGHT TRAINS" that kept rolling by, blowing their horns late last nightas I tried to fall asleep, and extremely early this morning, 6:00am, 6:20am & 6:40am, at The Terrace Hotel in Lakeland FL!!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Still....all in all.... it is a nice view.
Happy Halloween, Weenies!
Mooseboy

Comfort Inn, Middleton, NJ

If you look out back, you can see the back of an Outback. I'm gettin' off my back and headin' out!

Rusty's Personal Collection

As we passed through the Cleveland Airport, 10-27-08, the TSA had proudly framed and displayed the confiscated contents of Rusty's suitcases fromprevious trips.
Mooseboy

A View from The Terrace

The Terrace Hotel that is, in Lakeland FL. (10-30-08) The view is truly mesmerizing...unfortunately, the windows are nailed shut, therefore making it impossible to throw myself to the parking facility below. Drat! Foiled again!
Mooseboy

Lincoln, NE

View from the Holiday Inn downtown. Kinda takes your breath away. Actually, it did take my breath away after the terminally depressing "Holo-Dome" of hopelessness that was last night's accommodations. I was so demoralized, I couldn't even take footage of that wretched abomination of a hotel.

Noon, Airport, Philadelphia, PA

The City of Brotherly Love plans ahead for the heart attack you're bound to have once you realize where you are. The 'defib' line was longer than security.

Bonus photo: I did not make this name up.

- S.F.

Leaving Madison, WI

6 am...Milwaukee bound
Flyin' off, another round
Everybody feelin' down
Endin' up in...wtf?...Kutztown?

- S.F.

LSD Steps

I found this painting to be highly representative of the sleep deprived
Twilight Zone state which I float through while on stage.
Posted by Mooseboy

Hays, Kansas- the Holo-Dome at the Holiday Inn

This is the view from my room. If squint, you can see the indoor "waterpark". All the rooms face in- no natural light and consequently, no hope-only despair. The "holo" I'm guessing, refers to the hollow spiritual core that lies rotting at the so-called moral center that is the benighted purview of the midwest. G.B

Here's a view of Madison you won't see on any postcard...!

...unless there's a local Chamber of Anti-Commerce.

-S.F.

5:00am Reagan Nat'l

Another day, another four hours of sleep deprivation. Off to Wisconsin...

- S.F.

Queer for Ashland!

There are no words. 

Cincykid

Cleveland

-CK

Backstage, Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC

The glamour up close.

- S.F.

3:30pm McLean Gov't Center, VA

My half day off. Errands, dentist and...ta da !...the 90-minute absentee voter line. Better safe than sorry.

- S.F.

Night falls on RIC, 12:30am

It's odd to have the airport looming outside my hotel window.  I feel its sinister gaze following me around my room.  When I close my eyes and listen carefully, I can hear a soft voice calling to me: "Caution, the moving walkway is ending..."

Dawn over Dulles

After getting the red-eye, they took us off again and after an hour put us on another one. And now I'm aback at freaking Dulles.

UAL Flight 44: Departing LAX 10:30pm (pt)

The grim faces of the red-eyed.

- S.F.

Secret Zionist Compound, Simi Valley, CA

And what is this menacing enclave cemented high in the winding foothills above Simi Valley? Ernst Blofeld's California getaway? Nope. it's the Brandeis-Bardin Institute: an ill-defined organization somehow affiliated with what used to be the University of Judaism and is now...something that used to be the University of Judaism.

It's the Fortress of Saul-itude.

- S.F.

6:00pm (pt) Escondido, CA

Goboes on the fly space of the theatre we're appearing at tonight. Whether this is in honor of Halloween or the crowd we usually attract is uncertain.

- S.F.

2:00pm (pt) Comfort Inn, Escondido, CA

A cliche vision of Southern California: Looking through a Spanish arch at a palm tree, a highway, and a mall on a perfect sunny day.

Spotted by Mr. Click

Saviour of the Universe? -GB

5:50am Early morning welding in Bridgeport,CT

Because welds...er...take better in the early morning hours. Or something...

- S.F.

11:00am, Bridgeport, CT

Home of PT Barnum, with whom we have much in common. One of our fans is born every minute.

Despite such historical surroundings, all I can think about is how the Mickey D's across the street combined with the RBS building looming in the background makes me want a McRib. Mmmmm. Plastic meat...

- S.F.

Dawn: Another Moving Experience

A People-Moving Experience, that is! -S.F.

Omaha, Nebraska

Roses are red and violets are blue

 ...sod it. I can't go on. Omaha. 'nuff said. -GB

2:00 pm McLean, VA

And now I'm back at home again,
A shelter from life's shocks.
And do I sing?
And do I play?
No, no: I wash my socks.

On the road again in the am...

- S.F.

8:00am Dallas/Ft. Worth airport

Even on planes we have trouble escaping Texas. It's 8:00am, and we're about to board our second flight of the day. How did they ever get away from here on horses?

-S.F.

5:45am Lubbock Airport, TX

Our accompanist and acknowledged spiritual leader, Dr. Twohandstein, with his new best friend, Jesus. -S.F.

Radisson, Lubbock, TX

Actually it turned out not to be quite nice once we got inside.

Although, yes, that is a check-cashing facility directly across the street. Hey, it's economy, stupid. - S.F.

11:00am Lubbock, TX

You can tell this is the nicest hotel we've been to in weeks. You can also tell, by all of us standing around, that -consequently- they've never heard of us and don't have our names or reservations for us. Thanks, B. -S.F.

7:00am Bush Airport, Houston, TX

There's something magical about the Houston airport in the early hours. Is it the glint of morning sun off of the shiny, dewy fuselages? Is it the cheery down-home banter the local TSA use to hassle you? Is it the friendly roar of Houston's over-employed a/c units, making sure any indoor space is the legally mandated 8° below zero? Is it the fact that you know you're leaving Houston? Wait...I think I put my finger on it. -S.F.

The Lights at Night...are Big and Bright...

...Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Can you spot the parking lot lights in the first picture? How about the second?

From College Station to Conroe, TX

Now... We're...
Back to signs and power lines;
One more long Texas drive,
Just lines and signs and failing minds
'til we're barely alive.
Just flyin' past the roadkill
That dots the Lone Star lanes.
'Til we're checked in
At some grim inn
And can turn off our brains.

- SF

College Station, TX

Houston and the surrounding environs are located in that part of Texas that is indistinguishable from Herndon, VA. There are no cacti; tumbleweeds do not tumble. Branding irons do not sizzle peacefully over campfires. The only chaps to be found are in the kinky section of Saks and go for $1500 a pop.

And yet, people still dress like cowboys. It's like driving through Herndon and discovering everyone is dressed like a streetcar conductor. Even though there have never been streetcars in Herndon. -SF

Kansas City Airport

One of the crappiest airports in America surely, but I don't care- I'm comin' home. (And hey you kids, you're really gonna get it this time- your Mom told me some eyebrow raising stories that will have me getting medieval on your  asses.) -GB

The inevitable...

It was bound to happen- 11 harrowing days through the mind-numbing midwest. Same people, same songs, same bitter resentments festering like a Kenny G solo on an ABBA tune. Apparently, the cast suffered through one rushed tempo too many and well, you see the unfortunate result. It's not so bad though- fortunately, through the timely intervention of one of the Grandmaster's Haitian friends, a quick ceremony involving some sacrificed livestock and a trip to the hardware store and the Grandmaster lives again.... need......brains........brains....

2pm, Pomona, NJ

Although not through a window, this photo has historic import: it was in this theatre, at this piano -indeed at this very spot in the wings- that my glorious compatriot, Grandmaster Blowhole, was stricken with a bout of duodenal rebellion as the proletariat foodstuffs of his stomach liberated themselves from the bourgeois oppression of his stomach.

Our sturdy resident yeoman, Feta McCropolis, was forced to fill in, producing the legend known as 'The Show in the Key of C.'

Manhattan, Kansas- Holiday Inn

Honestly, I'm too dispirited to come up with anything snarky. The picture speaks for itself. I just want to go home. -GB

Overland Park, KS 10-18

For those of you who swig both ways, Bi-Rite can meet all of your Alcoholic Identity Crisis needs.

-blogreg

Rooftop Rorschach

Kansas...Day 17,532 of Infinity

While some of us pass the time eating free cookies, others must resort to more creative forms of entertainment.  To me, this rooftop blot looks like the Ninth Circle of Hell, but perhaps you think it's a butterfly?

-blogreg, Suicidal Version

Overland Park Kansas

"Oh crap, Toto! It looks like we're still in Kansas after all!"

Downside? Kansas. Upside? Free Doubletree cookies for two days. -GB

Sunrise over scenic Salina, Kansas

OK, it's freakin' Kansas again. What can one say. I mean really!?

Why? WHY?????

A trerrible tagedy!

Cincykid

PS  Can I have Jamie's dvd player?

En route to LAX...again...

In a van...6 am,
Everybody lookin' grim,
"To LAX, ASAP!"
We'd be SOL
If we weren't HOV. -SF

La Mort de La Moose

Sad news to report. It seems that our traveling moose, despondent after a lackluster performance engaged in the most sincere form of self-criticism possible. We will try to pick up the pieces and carrion.

 -GB

Dana Point, CA

Sometimes it's even hard for me to complain...and I'm an expert! - SF

Dallas- Gaylord Hotel

Well, I thought that the MGM Grand was the pinnacle of wretched excess but I forgot we were going to the Gaylord Texas-a testament to the notion that America thinks spending untold millions of dollars on a pretentious, kitschy, indoor artifical recreation of the canyonlands is really what America needs. And sure enough, rubes and suits alike flock here in droves to experience this crudely gauche, ersatz natural wonderland (under a dome!) spawned from the boardrooms of cynical corporations hell-bent on separating Americans from their cash no matter how low the barrel of bad taste must be scraped. Loathsome. 

 -GB (footage courtesy of JZ.)

Over the Sierra Nevadas

Wondering why our propellers are not attached to our plane. -SF

Gaylord Texan, Dallas 10-15

This place certainly is gay.  And, like everything in Texas, it's big and stinks of manure.  I half expected to see a giant banner hanging over the hotel entrance that said "DON'T MESS WITH THE GAYLORD!"  A brief stroll 'round the hotel innards provided all the Texas-themed kitsch one could hope for.

After a late-night rendezvous with our brethren in Saginaw, MI, a Texas-sized nap is in order.

-blogreg

The Sordid Streets of Reno

With its legal prostitution, Reno is a haven for those who crave a wildlife style. But careful with the locals, or you could get into a rut. SF (with support from AC and TW.)

11:00am (mt) Circus-Circus, Reno, NV

The 'special' wing for us 'types of guys'. The word 'special' is undergoing an interesting transmogrification in our culture. Soon it will be a deadly insult. -SF

Detroit- again

Once again, Michigan and Detroit have exerted their magnetic pull and once more, we find ourselves lured back to the Motor City, symbol of America's business and engineering failure. This is a city primarily characterized by unimaginably vast regions of burnt-out urban wasteland. At least we are somewhat insulated from direct contact with said wasteland, esconced, as we are, in the cheesy faux-opulence of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. The sun is also shining which is more than one can say about dreary old Wichita.  But hey!, at least we managed to escape ICT without incident- a first in Steps history. Maybe this won't suck too badly. Hah! Who am I kidding? -GB