Happy Fourth of July all! I do believe that this is the first Independence Day in the last eight years that I have not played a concert. And even though I am deployed, it still doesn’t feel right. We all are kind of just hanging out today which isn’t so bad. I was supposed to go run the ramps here on the ship at 1030 with a couple of the ladies aboard, but I took a nap instead. Shhh…don’t tell anyone!

The past couple days for some of us have been pretty cool. On Thursday as the ship prepared to depart, 8 of us (the rock band) and our Captain left the ship with the US Embassy, San Salvador, El Salvador in our sight. After our relaxing hour and a half boat ride to shore, we met our transportation crew at the BLZ, loaded up and cruised away toward San Salvador. The ride. Was. SCARY! You would have thought we were trying to get away from the cops after being caught drug laundering. Our driver was nuts! It was almost as scary as the Haiti transportation back and forth. So picture this. I am sitting in the back of the van. A very large 15 passenger van. This vehicle is not meant to be driven around the same way a Maserati is meant to be driven around. I wish I had tipped our driver on to this prior to us leaving. And just so you know…this driver wasn’t some hot shot 20 or 25 year old. He was probably in his mid 50s easily…maybe older. I don’t know how many cars and semis we cut off as we weaved from one lane to the other in efforts to see how much time could be shaved off of the normal drive time. Oh and did I mention that we had another van in tow and OH YES a TRUCK?!? He drove with no concern that they could keep up. It was a car chase alright. One that had me bouncing all over the place and biting my nails hoping that we wouldn’t into an oncoming car as we passed or into the bull that darted out into the road to get to the other side where the rest of his ‘crew’ were. This was a ride that had me wondering if we were even going to get to our destination safely. I couldn’t even enjoy the beautiful countryside that was filled in with dark green trees and huge mountains that seemed to scrape the bottoms of the cotton-like clouds. I was wondering if we were going to slam into the crackled mountainside as we came careening down the mountain at lightning speed. Just before it seemed that crashing was our fate, he would SLAM on the brakes and we’d screech around the bend just missing the guard rail and the mountain…thank GOD! I don’t know where he got his license but maybe he scared the life out of them so bad with his driving that they didn’t want him to come back…so they just gave it to him. After awhile, I couldn’t take it anymore so I put on my iPod and went to sleep. About an hour and a half later I feel the van stop and I sort of look out and figure that we were there already so I go to sit up and there we are on the shoulder of the highway. What’s happening you say? The driver gets out to take a leak! Oh my GOSH! Hand sanitizer anyone?!? I’m glad the rest of us didn’t have to go because according to him, that was the only ‘facility’ available until we got to the hotel. Shortly after the ‘potty break’ we finally got to San Salvador and what do I see? McDonalds, Quiznos, Burger King and my FAV…WENDY’s! Huh?!? It was very confusing…but also very nice to see all of the places I have missed, but refuse to go back to eating so often when I get back home. I’ve gone all this time without it right? Hopefully the temptations will be easily resisted. So we finally get to the hotel and check in. We chilled out for a couple hours before heading to the Embassy compound for our performance. When we arrived at the hotel, the weather was beautiful…sunny skies and nearly cloudless with the exception of a few. When we left the hotel, the sun was high in the sky and at the same time…it started pouring! WHAT?!? How does it happen that nearly every time we have an outdoor performance scheduled, we bring the rain along? We get to the Embassy and no joke, it starts pouring! We ended up getting the gear out of the truck and pushing it up to the gazebo area where we were to play. Thankfully there were a few extra hands available to speed up the gear toting. After a while, the rain let up and we started our set-up. We got through it pretty fast and after sound check, we perused around the large tent that housed many food vendors. American food Vendors! I’m talking Bennigans, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns (I don’t even think there is a Papa Johns near my house in Illinois!), Burger King, McDonalds (which you can order as take out---they have delivery boys!!), Chili’s! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Fortunately (for my hips) and unfortunately (for my taste buds) most of the places were still closed while we walked around. However Bennigans started a bit early so we got to eat the most delicious burgers! They were about as big as my head (which is pretty big if you ‘ve never seen me) and the flavor was incredible! Yum-O! After the glorious burgers, we went and chilled out for a few minutes and got changed into our blues. Once it got dark, there was an opening ceremony and a very nice, and very loud fireworks display. Prior to us starting, it rained and stopped. Lightning peeked through several times and the thunder roared a bit too but thankfully we got to play everything. After we finished, we changed and tore down. We hung out with some of the Marine Corps who work with the security detachment based at the Embassy. There were some drinks, some pool playing and some TV watching. I fell asleep on the recliner they had there…I was so beat. After a couple hours, we left and headed back to the hotel. Some of us called it a night and a few others, myself included, went to get some food at a pasta place across from the hotel. I had some pizza and listened to the sounds of an El Salvadorian man Karaoke-ing to the Beatles. PRICELESS! The following morning we headed to the local Air Force Base to catch our US Army Schnook helo ride to meet the ship and crew in Nicaragua. After loading our gear onto the helo and being delayed for about 2 hours, we finally loaded and were airborne headed for Nic. I slept some and gazed out some during the one hour flight. We passed over the most beautiful land…there were craters, mountains, volcanoes…and just pure beauty. Unfortunately my camera battery died so I didn’t get any photos…I’ll have to bum some off of the guys. We arrived at the HLZ in Nicaragua hoping that we would be able to offload our gear, load it into our pre-positioned truck and get out of there ASAP. Well the first two of three happened, but the last one…not so much! We ended up having to wait around for a couple hours before we caught a helo back. Boo! The bugs were driving me nuts and the dust was out of control! I was so itchy and irritated by time the helo came for us! But once we got it, it was so nice to know that shortly after arriving aboard ship, I’d be able to take a long shower…and relax. And that is exactly what I did when I got back. My shower was longer than it probably should have been, and the relaxing was much needed.

All in all the past few days have gone pretty well. It was nice to be able to get off the ship for a bit. As much as I have enjoyed being a part of such a wonderful and life changing experience, I am so ready to get back to my day to day life.

Here's a pic from the performance in El Salvador with the 'Friguey' band. This is one of the vocalists/guitarists. I forgot his name...sorry:(
Happy Independence Day everyone!

Thanks for stopping by….
Keisha