Honorable Mansion

We woke up in good spirits, feeling fine with our decision to walk out of last night's gig, have dinner with friends, and return to our hotel for Xbox and moonshine (I abstained).  Today was a brand new day.  We considered Cracker Barrel or Waffle House before leaving Murfreesboro today, but both were too busy with what we assumed was the Sunday after-church crowd, so we grabbed Subway sandwiches "to go" and hit the road for Golconda, Illinois.

We played a few rounds of Twenty Questions to pass the time during the three-hour drive.  Brett spoke with our friend and fiddle extraordinaire, Aaron Till, and it sounds like he's on board to sit in with us at our gig in Nashville next week and also record some tracks for our new album when we return next month.  We stopped by a roadside farm selling peaches and bought ourselves a peck.  They were delectable, and I ate a profusion of them throughout the day.

Golconda, IL is a tiny town on the banks of the Ohio River.  We were booked at the Riverview Mansion Hotel as a part of their month-long "Mansion Festival," celebrating their 120th year.  The agreement was for us to play this evening and receive a free room tonight and tomorrow night, a sweet deal, indeed.  The hotel is historic, beautiful, a tad quirky, and comfortable.  The attached Levee Lounge offers an impressive selection of craft and import beers.  If I were drinking, this would be the kind of place at which I would love to get good and drunk, especially knowing we had the next day off.  Sigh.

Brett and Mikey took a nap and I went out for a jog.  Golconda is probably the smallest town I've stayed in.  I jogged around for maybe forty-five minutes and covered the entire community.  I couldn't have gotten lost if I had tried (which was nice for a change!).  The Ohio River seemed wide, steady and slow compared to all the twisting, rushing rivers and creeks I'd seen lately.

We were scheduled to play outside on the small deck behind the mansion.  At first it looked like we might have to play for no one, but that quickly changed.  In fact, the gig went great.  The weather was beautiful, the deck filled up with folks, and the audience was the polar opposite of the apathetic crowd we had walked out on last night.  What a difference a day makes!  I drank sparkling water to give myself something bubbly and non-alcoholic to imbibe while everyone around me enjoyed beer and wine.

We received nothing but compliments and positive feedback from the audience and hotel staff.  Tonight was much-needed after yesterday's fiasco.  We were relaxed and played well.  As the "super moon" rose over the Ohio River, there was no place else we would have rather been.  We have tomorrow off and the hotel is putting us up another night.  It sure feels better hanging around since everyone is so pleased with how the evening went!  The money wasn't the best, but Golconda turned out to be a great stop along the tour and may prove to be just what we needed to press on these last two weeks.  Tomorrow, we're planning on checking out the Garden of the Gods and perhaps other parts of the nearby Shawnee National Forest.  It should be fun!

Today was Day 75.  I'm hanging in there.

Cheers!

- Jon