We left off part one with me finally making it back to the hotel at about 12:55 AM. I was soaked in sweat even though the temperature was hanging below the freezing mark.

During the hour and three quarters walk when I wasn’t using my entire focus to dodge traffic I was able to come to terms with this latest turn of bad luck. For the last year it seemed that every idea I had was thwarted, every plan I made would unravel before it was raveled and the simplest of tasks couldn’t be completed.

There was a flood in my basement on Nov. 11. During one of my frantic salvage attempts, I was injured and spent a week in the hospital. The really big deal opening night of Massey Hall was marred for me by a computer malfunction in my keyboard set-up. It occurred again in Buffalo a week later.

What I’ve listed so far are just a sample of what I was calling MONDO-NERA

Nine Shows In Twelve Days

Our first trip of 2022 began with two nights in Detroit. The two shows were performed the same as most of our shows other than having an opening act. Next was a show in Champaign Il. We started hearing about a massive winter storm bearing down on us.

The next two days were down days. We didn’t have to be in Pittsburgh until Friday and it was a good thing too because the storm, or blizzard, or Snowmageden lasted for two days, completely grounding us.

Conditions were so bad that not only couldn’t we fly, we couldn’t walk!

Okay, another sob story of outrageous misfortune: On the first day of the storm and five hours after the decision was made to wait it out in Champaign, I was already getting hotel room fever. I decided to go to the Walgreens that was just 300 yards to the south on the same side of the road but you had to cross one intersection. As soon as I went out the door of the hotel an extreme gust of wind had me sliding and stumbling. I had to stay inside the wheel ruts in the parking lot and into the street because the sidewalks were buried. At one point I fell into a snowbank. It was right at the intersection I needed to cross. The three adventurous motorists waiting for the light got a good laugh. Once I crossed I had to scale a slippery embankment up to the Walgreens’ parking lot where for a good one hundred feet was row after row of foot deep snow and ice in between. I made it up to the front and there was a note posted on the door.

Due to inclement weather

The store is closed at 3PM

I glanced at my watch 3:05 GOD DAMN IT

Two Pickets For Titsburgh

Okay, other than the fact that we went to Pittsburgh next, this heading has no relevance at all.

It’s just fun to see it in large print.

Roanoke Virginia

It’s February 8 and it’s time for Covid tests. To re-enter Canada you must take a test within 72 hours. Not a quickie from Rite-Aid. A lady must come to the concert hall and administer an official one for each of us. Results could come as early as tomorrow, we were told.

Tomorrow

York Pennsylvania. Warren announces before the show that all the results were coming except for mine. They misplaced the information form or some damned thing. They would send my results the next day. After the show Warren had a grim look on his face. There are some positives, he said and he named them off. My name, obviously, wasn’t one of them but I had a creepy feeling. I’d had a sore throat and I’d been talking like Froggy from “Our Gang” for a day and a half.

There were several of those tests that give the results in 15 minutes on the crew bus and I asked to take one. POSITIVE

You know what happened next that night if you read part 1. The next day I got the official test results and they agreed with the quickie.

They Made A Plan

I thought I was the first to suggest we get up to Buffalo and take a shot at crossing the border in a car. The rules for a land crossing were different than arriving by air. If it failed at least we could do our isolation closer to home….. As if that could possibly lend any comfort!

Apparently, that idea had already been tabled and approved in a meeting that didn’t include me.

The Next Day (Friday)

So the healthy guys either took our airplane or commercial airlines home. The show in Frederick MD was canceled and we shuffled off to Buffalo. We had a big SUV Limo and a driver that hauled ass. We checked into the Downtown Hyatt and agreed to meet the next morning at 11:30.

Two cars were arranged for that could be left in Toronto if our mission was successful.

We Stormed The Bastille

We did not. I just wrote that heading to drum up some excitement because the end of this story is so anti-climactic after all the build-up.

We drove up to the Lewiston-Queenston bridge crossed it and stopped at a Canada Customs and Immigration booth. We handed our passports and some forms that clearly indicated our positive Covid test results. He asked us a couple of routine questions, handed back our passports and said “Have a nice day”

GO FIGURE

It’s Monday morning and I’m 23 hours late with this post. I got home Saturday and my symptoms have mostly gone away…….. and my luck has phenomenally changed for the better.