Day : Chicago! (Or, "Do you know the muffin man?")
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Today's installment of "As the Monkey Turns" is dedicated in part to the crazy things you see from a car window when you are driving way too far in waaay too little time.
Article #1 is this picture of the outskirts of Chicago as we raced to our first Land of Nod show. It reminds me of the pictures that you try to take on an airplane of Mount Ranier or a sunset that really end up being more about the window frame that is holding you prisoner from these things rather than the subject itself... still, Chicago is pretty cool.
We asked ourselves this morning if, after these four days, we thought we'd do a tour like this again and the concensus was we REALLY need to stop and smell the roses! Luckily our shows in Chicago added a lot of positive energy to what have otherwise been some pretty loooong days on the road.
Aimee Mann has a tour bus driver and we want one too! |
So we arrived at the Land of Nod stores and were overwhelmed with their hospitality. The folks at the Oakbrooke store actually presented us with a basket of cookies AND PERRIER!!! We felt so European during that set.
As we were starting to play, someone suddenly realized that we hadn't seen MayMo or Melvin for quite awhile and, wouldn't you know it, they had found a set of bunkbeds. You can't tell from the picture, but Mayor Monkey is right in the middle of doing his Leonardo DiCaprio impression from Titanic. "I'M KING OF THE WORRRRRLD!" Melvin, on the other hand, was re-enacting his favorite scene from Jaws, which we can't believe he's actually old enough to have seen. |  |
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We were soundchecking for the second show and Daron was sitting on a reasonably priced daybed, listening to vocal levels, when suddenly "some guy" sits right next to him and starts hamming it up. "Chicago," Drew and Jack thought. "Weird."
Daron got up to walk back to the band, totally unaware that this strange scene was transpiring until he saw our faces, looked back at the man and we realized that this wasn't "some guy" at all- IT WAS DARON'S DAD! A total surprise to Daron, his dad and step mom drove from Indiana to see us play! Soon after came Daron's sister, brother in law and nephews.
It was a good old fashioned Henry family reunion. We ate cheesecake and ice cream sundaes with the crew after the show and listened to Daron's nephews Luke and Jonathan crack seriously funny jokes. Jonathan, the younger of the two, was VERY excited that he had just gotten a new golf club, bringin his total to four. Luke soon became the slef-proclaimed "KING OF PEANUT BUTTER!" Tons of positive energy floating around that table. A through-the-night drive just a day before completely undone. |
In other news, there actually IS a Drury Lane! CHECK IT OUT!!
"DREW!!! PULL OUT YOUR CAMERA!"
Our jaws were hitting the floor.
The Muffin Man, however, was nowhere to be seen. | 
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We left Chicago and drove across most of Indiana, Jack and Daron's home state. Sorry mom, no Michigan cottage cheese to be found.
Fun fact: Along these tollways, they call each roadside food and fuel pull off and "Oasis."
Another fun fact: Burger King now serves veggie burgers, another milestone on our bold culinary adventure.
Third fun fact: we are now consistenly winning the "farthest from home" license plate game. No prize for this- it's an internal thing. | And now, the John Vanderslice-style ending:
The golden hour came and went and long shadows gave way to fireflies dancing along the roadside. They're what we remember most from being kids in the midwest. If you have the means, we highly recommend that you take your kids somewhere to see them. They're a better idea than any of us has ever had.
This is Recess Monkey, room 102 at the Best Western Inn, Elkhart Indiana, saying goodnight.PREVIOUS || NEXT |
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