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  May 8th, 2004 - Corndoggin' and more

Started off the day with a guided tour of old 66 with Tom Teague, President of the Illinois Route 66 Association. He showed us a curbed section of the old road, long forgotten, surrounded by forest, only mosquitos seemed to be traveling this piece, they loved Pammy. Then we sat in with Bill Shea, an old timer who has a gas station that is chock full of memorabilia, now a museum. The closest thing to the 'real' 66 we've seen so far, this guy is the epitome of a crusty, sarcastic, quick-witted, old, slow-moving fart, I wish we were related. His motto: "Shea, a four letter word you can swear by" Made it back to thje cozy dog diner by luinchtime, home of the corn dog. The nicest people and one of the stranger but more fun gigs we've had in a while. People dug us (between bites) and Cow Bop's brand of swing goes down good with this brand of greeze. Had a heapin helpin, but I got to admit, being a Cow-lifornian, I've lost the enzymes to break these puppies down, still sorta working on it. Dan, on the other hand, is a natural and is now known as 'Cozy-Dog' Robbins. At last count he was at 17, and he's shakin, waiting for them to open up in the morning so he can get another fix.

Then, Lew set us up with a gig at the Lime Street Cafe, Springfield's jazz hot spot. We were well recieved, sold a bunch of CDs and got some contributions, I think they want to make sure we can get out of town. Thanks folks. I decreed an early lobby call so we can head off toward St. Louis, the band groaned and called me Bruce-a-lini, I think they meant it in a nice way. Ciao til domani (tomorrow in brutalian)

Quote of the day: "You guys playin a bop-a-billy version of Round Midnight?" Sonny G, on our bulletin board. Answer: "Yeah, but we got our own changes."

Click here to check out pictures from May 8th