Sweden 2010, Day 10

Diiiing-doooong the doorbell rings at the house in Strömsund. It is Timo’s grandfather, telling me that breakfast is almost ready if I want some. I have just crawled out of bed after a great night of sleep, but weird dreams. I dreamed that for some reason, I was kidnapped, drugged and put on a plane from Stockholm to Atlanta, and I was desperate to get back! No one would believe my story about someone sabotaging my tour with the band. I was crying and pleading with the SAS counter, and the woman was a real bitch. She would not sell me a coach ticket for that afternoon for less than $8000, and she was being very mean about it. I was so worried my band would think I ditched them, left them in the middle of the night because I hated them, and I could not stand that thought. They’re my boys!!! Finally a policeman stepped up and I told him the story. He made a call on his walkie and the next thing you know, I was on a plane to Stockholm, first class, courtesy of SAS, and the woman at the ticket counter was arrested. Weird.

I dragged myself out for breakfast and after a couple of cups of coffee felt a bit human again. It took awhile to shake off the dream. I blogged, checked emails, and went for my walk. I got all my stuff together and packed, for today we hit the road!! This evening (Friday) we are leaving for a little campground near Hudiksvall, a five hour drive. Our next gig is far in the south of Sweden on Saturday night at a town called Ljungby.

I said a tearful goodbye to my hosts when Mikaela, Joey’s fiancée, picked me up around 16.00. She is a darling little woman, gorgeous, smart, and is training to be a technician for working on wind turbines. She was also featured on the Lapis Lazuli album art as the “ghost girl.”

We drove over to the venue from the night before and got everything packed up to take back to the rehearsal space in Hammerdal. Since the venues on our tour already have a full backline of gear, the boys are only taking guitars, amp heads, stands, cymbals, and keyboards. This means we do not have to haul a trailer, though the tour van is overstuffed to the point of concern. We have a container bolted to the roof which holds a surprising amount of gear, and the rest we shoved behind the third row of seats.

Timo’s mom had us over for dinner before we left… Taco Night! The Swedes do not really do Mexican food as we know it; their way is different, but quite tasty. It consisted of shells, tortillas, ground beef, corn, cucumber, tomato, cheese, crème fraiche, and a tomato salsa. I dragged out my bottle of Tabasco Chipotle that I brought from home, and had a delicious meal in excellent company! Timo’s step-father is an avid scotch collector, and he insisted that I try one of his favorites, though I did not catch the name. It was awesome. He also gave me a cigar for later, since at least one night on the road, the band will BBQ, get plastered, do stupid shit, smoke cigars, and knowing them, perhaps run around naked, howling at passing cars. Maybe Nyman will give himself another home-made tattoo.

We had planned on leaving by 17.00, but ended up hitting the road around 21.00. We listened to music, and the guys sang me a song about a taxi driver in Calcutta that had me laughing so hard I almost spotted. 5 long hours later, we arrived at the tiny camping cabin and went right to sleep. Yeah…. They snore. All of them. Contented and tired, I set Thundering Rainstorm on repeat mode on my Sansa, put in my earbuds, and drifted off.