Drivin’ & Dreaming through the South

Here’s a little map that shows our current gig schedule in the US for the Drivin’ & Dreaming tour. We’re booking as we go along and our plan is to hit most states in the US. Hawaii and Alaska my be a challenge for the RV though. See my full gig schedule here! I will keep adding to it every week! (And if you feel like booking me to your venue, please click here!)

Speaking of the RV we just had some major rain falls in Atlanta, GA and discovered that the overhang still wasn’t properly sealed. So now we’ll have to tape it together some more. I bought a dryer duct at Walmart that we taped to the heater in the driver’s compartment and put up there to dry it out while we were driving to Auburn today like the white trash McGyvers we are. Hopefully it won’t rain more but you never know.

Home made water leak dryer duct
Home made water leak dryer duct

At least Auburn, AL is warmer than NC. We even had the windows open today wohoo!

I’m psyched to be going to New Orleans for a couple of gigs. I’ve been watching the Treme TV show, and it seems like a cool town, that is unless you get robbed, shot and raped. Let’s hope none of those things happen to us. So far everyone have been really nice and taken care of us. Would be totally awesome to find a private spot to park in NOLA.

Well, that’s all for now! I’ll see you on the road!

What if we fall over?

Sofia Talvik on her bike

We’ve been touring for little over a month now and gone from sunny Florida to cold North Carolina. I’ve overcome my fear of driving the RV and since Jonas fixed the cruise control I don’t mind driving at all. But there’s still one thing that scares me. What if the RV falls over. Every time we’re on a sharp curve on a highway exit I dread this. Even though Jonas says there’s no chance of that happening I still feel like it could happen.

Sofia Talvik on tour
Me and Jonas in our hoodies in the RV

After spending a few days in Savannah, GA (what a wonderful city!) I decided we had to buy bikes so we could bike whenever we came to a city like that. So we got one off Craig’s list and one from Walmart. For a few days the bikes were parked inside the RV and were taking up all the space we had. Because even if a bike is only $50 at Walmart, a bike rack for the RV is way more expensive. It doesn’t make sense at all, but we had to get one so we did. Only if we were to mount the bike rack we had to dismount the spare tire. So now instead of bikes we’ve had a hundred year old spare tire in the RV. No it didn’t fit into any of the storage compartments. Someone said we should put it under the bed but it’s old and smelly and had dead frogs and moss on it. So I don’t really think it’s going to be useful if we ever come to need a spare tire in the future.

The day after we got the bike rack and put the bikes on it we stayed in the parking lot behind the bar where I played in Charleston, SC and in the middle of the night I woke up of sounds and the RV rocking (you’d think it’s steady but it’s like a boat really). I looked out through the bedroom window and there was a guy trying to do something to the bikes, probably steal them. That’s not really something you want to wake up to. As soon as he saw my face in the window though he took off, but I couldn’t go back to sleep for hours and then I had nightmares the rest of the night.

Sofia Talvik on her bike
Me on my bike in Winston-Salem

Everything got better once we came to Wilmington, NC and stayed a night with our friend Majsan. Wilmington is such a beautiful town. Actually all the towns we’ve been to since Savannah has been pretty great. We’re in in Winston-Salem, NC now and it’s beautiful. We’ve biked around the city which doesn’t have much of a city center but lots of beautiful houses. The gigs have all been great too. Sometimes one would wish for a larger audience, but at least the people who’ve shown up have been there to listen to me and that’s what’s important after all. I was pretty disappointed that SxSW didn’t come through with an official invite this year. I’ve been incited the last three years of which I’ve played two. And every time I’ve had to pay for expensive plane tickets and hotels for me and the band. So when I’m finally here, doing a great tour, having a new CD out January 31st, they don’t invite me. But I still have a few unofficial SxSW shows so if you’re going to be there you can still see me play.

Me, Majsan and Spades in Wilmington, NC

Ok that’s all for now folks!

See you on the road