Now I am sitting at the gate in Salt Lake City, Utah waiting for our plane back to Sacramento where we will be reunited with our buses. I have personally gotten a little out of sync with the rigid standards of the airport drill. Too much stuff with a bag AND my laptop, so I was hung up at the security screening area getting all the metal stripped from my person and clearing my cell phone. I still think that every time they ask us those silly questions and make us turn on our cell phones and computers that they should haul out Ted Kazinski and let us kick him in his behind for each inconvenience we are subjected to. "Did you pack your own bags?" Kablammo! "Did any unknown person give you any gifts?" Schmaack! "Was your bag out of your control at any time?" Kersplatt! That would be worth all the silliness. None of that nonsense on the Baby Bus.

Last night we performed in Blackfoot, Idaho to a full house and the people came for a rock show. It was one fun night in STYX country. I was able to bring the show to a screeching halt at one point when I mistakenly assumed that many of the fans there were in the horse business, since the area behind our stage was crammed full of horse trailers and wagons and we were surrounded by portable corals. It was a comical vacuum for the brief time it took me to weasel my way back into familiar territory. The other band members had a good laugh at my expense. Fine, their day will come ;-)

By the end of the evening, it was one fired up crowd that we hated to say good-bye to. The people of Idaho really know how to make us feel welcome and we look forward to returning as soon as we can. So now, back to Sacramento, back on the bus and a drive to Fresno for tonight's show.

Can you believe we have already played 35 shows? It seems like yesterday that we were in Murray, KY trying to decide whether or not to dress for the dress rehearsal. July, August and September are becoming pages in our history. The cool thing is, we are becoming less and less of a mystery and are getting on with life as The Brave New STYX.

The fall schedule is materializing now and I don't want to go into details because of the first draft nature of things, but next year is already being discussed and is on the drawing table. I have been asked by so may people why we are not playing where they live. I hope you can be patient, because it is a big country and we are determined to play as many square feet of it as possible, but as you can imagine, 35 shows into it, this is gonna take time, but time is always on our side. What a great plan though, huh? We also intend to play the rest of the globe as soon as possible. Time. Make mine a double!

Time to fly