Since yesterday was a rest day for me in terms of the fitness regime I've so painstakingly undertaken, this morning my first thought was to hit that gym once more. Laurie and Leon had been up for ages packing their bags, well Leon did his backpack! They were off to the airport for a flight down to Los Angeles while the band flew there on the Embrair via Temecula. The gym was almost empty at 10:30am and I did a short run and concentrated on a 2000 meter row. I've owned a Concept 2 indoor rowing machine for a while now and it's great, tough but great. I got back, hot and sweaty in time to say goodbye to the family for the day and I set to writing yesterday's diary. I find if I don't allocate a specific time in the day to do this it would never get done. The thought of falling behind is a little daunting. (it's 10am in Santa Monica whilst I write)

We checked out of the wonderful Four Seasons San Francisco, probably one of the top 3 hotels of the tour, if only the room service charges were a little more reasonable. I mean $65 for a coffee, Orange Juice, glass of milk (for tea) and two slices of toast..IS absolutely ridiculous. That's why most of the time we go out and source our breakfasts elsewhere. There's always somewhere nearby that can offer something as good and sometimes better than the hotel fare. We trundle off in the cars to the GA terminal at the international airport and the main topic of conversation is the Icelandic volcano eruption. Mark and I have our families visiting and the journey home for Mark's family was cut short as I'm sure the world is now aware of the cancellation of all flights between Europe and the USA. My lot are planning to fly back on Monday and we just hope there isn't too much residual chaos otherwise it may be an extended school break for Leon!
Just reading the latest on the travel news in the Guardian and this caught my eye..'As yet there are no reports of panic buying of kumquats.' read more
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/volcano.html I just hope the eruptions don't continue as the situation could potentially worsen. Let's hope and pray.

As we wait for the other cars to arrive, Mark, Danny and I enjoy a 5 minute bask in the California spring sunshine. Feeling the warmth on my face, my feeling is that this is officially the start of Summer.



We approach the jet on a little shuttle bus and Mark comments that she looks as neat as a new pin. Another magic carpet ride down to Temecula and we drive to the venue.



Mark keeps asking me how you pronounce the name of this town, I correct him and our driver confirms this. We pull in and are met as usual by Kevin Hopgood (production manager) and Dave Hall (stage manager) who usher us into the venue.



I had neglected to get a message to Colin (my keyboard) tech that I lost one of the fundamental notes on the B3 last night. The F# above middle C was nonexistent which really only manifested itself when using a single drawbar tone, such as in Get Lucky. Colin immediately removed the back cover and set to work on this amazing instrument.



Sound check was upon us so Colin had to cease operations while we ran a few things and discussed set-list changes etc.

Tim O'Brien and his mandolin



Then once we had finished, Colin was back in there. Quite a crowd gathered, reminiscent of a highway road accident. It took him an hour but Colin was not going to be beaten and he found the problem and cured it.



Happy Days.... Pete Mackay, Dave Hall, Glenn Saggers and Kevin Hopgood



The choices for tonight's dinner were many. Steve had menus from the various restaurants within the complex and most of us decided on steak. I had a delicious rib-eye, as did DC

I had arranged to meet up with two of the guys (Tom and Devin) from the band The Riders. I mixed their recent album for them but have never met them until today. I got them a couple of backstage passes and showed them the stage, my rig, Mark's myriad of guitars etc. etc. We chatted for a while and they went to their seats to watch the show. Really nice guys.



It seemed like quite a rowdy crowd here for some reason, a few mild heckled which Mark duly dealt with. It turned out to be a really enjoyable gig for the band. Everything is clicking into place nicely now, our monitor mixes are fabulous thanks to Kerry and the boys in the crew seem happy. The venue kindly gave everyone in the touring party a $100 dollar voucher to be used in the resort, not for alcohol and gambling though for obvious reasons. Most of the band donated theirs to the crew who grabbed a moment between dinner and show to wander round and do a bit of speed shopping.

After the show we were whisked off to the new pin for a very short hop over the hills to Van Nuys airport. Then a VERY swift drive down the relatively empty freeways to our hotel in Santa Monica to the hotel on the beach.

A Phantom jet, spotted in Temecula